Jan

30

Taking cue from Zach Klein, whom posts frequently about the music finds he discovers on the interweb, I am following his lead with my current listen of the Swedish band Bedroom Eyes, who have released their debut EP on their site.

Jan

24

City Smoking Ban

January 24, 2007 | 4 Comments

The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana passed a very strict smoking ban last night. The ban goes into effect on June 1. I, for one, applaud the decision. I am tolerable of people’s rights to smoke, I’d be a hypocrite not to be, but because so much evidence points to second hand smoke being very very detrimental to other’s health, I feel society has a right to put bans in place.

Fort Wayne doesn’t have a plethora of culinary establishments, but one surely stands out–Club Soda. We were just there last weekend, and the one thing we walk away from the restaurant with, is the smell of smoke. In this particular case, I think the building could benefit from a better ventilation system. The smell is pretty overbearing, even upstairs in the dining room where not a lot of people light up. When we left, we actually said we wouldn’t go there for dinner anymore because the smell is so overbearing. With the ban in place, we can now enjoy the fine dining that they offer.

I would imagine fine dining establishments should be applauding this ban, without it, people are going to stop showing up. When the smell of smoke is so bad, it ruins the full taste of the food and wine. Not to sound like a snob, but I would rather enjoy the taste of the filet and cab I am paying for, rather than support a person’s right to smoke and have my filet taste half good and half like a Marlboro.

For more in-depth coverage, check out this previous post on Fort Wayne Observed.

Jan

23

I am going to start doing regular posts titled ‘Mobile Web Development Notes.’ The small details (aka nuisances) of developing for mobile device Web browsers isn’t something that exists out there in large quantity. When doing a search on something like “Series60 Version 2 Web Browser” doesn’t turn up any returns on actually developing for the browser. So when developing for and thus troubleshooting for, you can quickly become frustrated when your trusted Google resource is suddenly of no value.

So as I work my way through developing for the paradigm and come across little things, I am simply going to jot down a list and post it periodically. So here is the first run:

As always, this is meant to be a conversation, so if you know of a workaround to one of the above, or if I am simply just missing something, please leave a comment.

Jan

18

I am using the SlideShowPro component in a Flash piece I am working on and so far it has been a great experience. This is a pretty solid as Sears component.

However, I have the need to extend the XML schema and include additional attributes on my image nodes. It can be done no problem, as discussed here on the SlideShowPro forums. BUT, I noticed that the component converts all attribute names to lowercase.

So, say you want to add an attribute containing the path to download the image, call it “downloadPath.” Notice the uppercase P. When retrieving that attribute via the data Object created by SlideShowPro (eventObject.data) the name has to be all lowercase (i.e. eventObject.data.downloadpath). I’m going to stick to just using all lowercase attribute names in the XML to thwart off confusion.

I was going to add this as a reply in the forums, however, they seem to be closed to new registrations?

Jan

17

I am listening to the latest CalacanisCast9 and they are discussing the iPhone. The major point of contention on the interweb the last few days, which is also reiterated by the cast, is that the iPhone is closed. Meaning no third-party apps can be installed. I’ve also read no multimedia runtimes like Java and Flash.

BUT I keep thinking, “embrace the network and Web browser distributed apps.” We know it has Webkit (aka Safari). That was demo’d. My guess is that Safari includes Ajax support. There you go, as a developer I will just develop my application around the abilities of Safari. Obviously, not the best case scenario. Having an SDK for the platform (OS X) would be ideal, but we aren’t going to get that, so time to start thinking about what is possible.

My thinking is, let Safari handle the user input conversion from Mutli-touch and translate it into standard browser input mechanisms. Perhaps the reason for no third-party apps right now is the having to support and provide a SDK for Multi-Touch. Let Safari do that part of the job.

Again, say it with me “embrace the network and Web browser distributed apps.” Is it really closed when it provides a network connection?

Jan

10

I was just passed a link to the CES 2007 Micro Blog. Very cool idea. Palm has created an open Typepad account allowing people roaming CES with Treos (and other devices) to make posts for those of us not at CES to read the goings-on.

The idea behind it is to enable people at the show to share their experiences with fellow CES attendees and those who are unable to attend the show by moblogging updates from their Treo smartphones and other mobile devices.

This is very cool of Palm. They’re showing the potential of their device. And to make it more enticing, for mobloggers and readers, they are giving away two Treos. One to the best moblogger, voted on by readers. And one to a lucky reader that participates and votes. I’m there now reading through the posts. Good on ya’ Palm.

For anyone at the show, here are the details on how to post to the blog.

Jan

10

Yesterday, I had way too many questions about the iPhone to put together a rational post around it. But after a good night’s sleep, here goes nothing.

Looks great. The large screen makes it a fantastic camera phone. Marketing the internet as a major feature is outstanding. Been waiting for Nokia to do this ever since they made their WebCore announcement. This alone will push the mobile industry to new places. I’m glad we are finally seeing a converged device that looks worthy of using. The Walkman phone from SE just doesn’t quite feel right to me. It’s a phone with MP3 bolted on. The large screen might be the single most important factor in this device. I loved the large screen of my Pocket PC Phone.

Small details like the proximity sensor means someone was thinking. I agree about the stylus point. They don’t make sense for phones because they require two handed use. But after seeing all the good points about the iPhone, I started thinking of just as many bad points.

Now the questions. Can third party widgets be installed? I’m assuming yes, but it wasn’t stated. I have so many questions regarding the build of Safari that runs on the phone I can’t list them all. Here’s a few: how does Multi-Touch get translated into traditional desktop mouse input that Webkit is based on? Things like the hover state of links? How do multimedia object such as Flash and even Quicktime receive these Multi-Touch events? Are plug-ins even supported? Is XMLHTTPRequest supported? I am assuming yes again. CSS2? I am assuming yes on.

Now the harder questions. Can a keyboard be paired via Bluetooth? How about voice recognition for dialing? I did the touchscreen thing back in 2002 with my Pocket PC Phone. Didn’t like it. Not having tactile feedback when doing things like dialing a number is frustrating. You have to devote all of your attention to the screen, and even then you can still accidentally “touch” the wrong key. I can’t imagine virtual keys in a touchscreen will win over many existing smartphone users like Blackberries, etc… when they are used to thumbing out messages on tactile keys.

Now even harder questions. Why is this not being sold unlocked? I can see where the visual voicemail requires carrier support, but if the carrier didn’t support it then it just wouldn’t be available. That doesn’t seem like it should prevent the device from being sold unlocked. And now the biggie, for the listed price I don’t want to have to commit to a 2 year agreement. Hell, by the time my 2 years is up the device will be obsolete. Apple will for sure release a new version sometime in the next two years that supports 3G, maybe GPS so Google Maps can use live data. Consumers in the US are used to reduced prices on phones when they sign a new contract, why should this be any different. I already have an iPod, as does almost all the people that would be interested in this device, so don’t try and tell me the price is based on it being an iPod, because we already have one, we’re buying it for the phone and internet.

Sure, I love Apple. I grew up on Apple computers. My mother is an elementary school teacher and we’ve always had Macs in the house. I switched to XP when it came out and gave up in three years and had to switch back to the Mac. I would love to have one of these devices, just because of the syncing features. However, that price is hard to stomach. Actually not the price, I pay close to that for most of my phones, however they are all unlocked and don’t require me committing to a two year agreement. Drop the agreement to 1 year and maybe. But 2 years is just way too much. Like I said before, the device will be updated by then and does that mean I have to spend another $500 and sign another 2 year agreement. Sorry, I just don’t think I am willing to be locked in like that. And I don’t see a lot of consumers wanting to re-up their contract and drop another $500 every 16 months when a updated device is released.

I really wish they would have went the route of an unlocked device. They are surely trying to reinvent what a phone/communicator/daily data device is, but signing up with a telco is not the way I would have liked to see this done. I’m not alone here.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it was a strong showing. I think it will result in an evolution of the mobile handset space and how we think about using our phones as data devices. The screen and software seem to really take it in a different direction compared to other smartphones. But there is nothing different about the way this is being sold, and I guess that is what consumers were really hoping for. At least this one was!

Jan

8

I am building a service aimed at mobile users and needed to know general area code information for users here in the States. I figured this was no big deal since ZIP code tables are out there in numerous database formats. Unfortunately that was not the case. I really couldn’t believe that there were no freely available tables out there. I simply wanted to know the state, and the cities for a given area code. After looking for a while and finding some options that were not free, I decided to just build a table myself and put it out there for others to use.

To create my list of area codes, I pulled some data from various places, mostly from Wikipedia. There is 337 rows in the table once it’s in place. The table simply uses the area code as a unique identifier primary key, and the next column is the state the area code belongs to. Next are the cities/counties in a comma delimited list that are covered by the area code. And finally, is an overlay column that will list any area codes that overlap. Nothing too fancy, all public domain data, but I needed it in a database table, and I’m sure others will as well. If you have a similar need and don’t want to pay at least $195, then give this DDL/SQL script a try and see if the data fits yours needs.

Jan

8

From the press release: “Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) and Cingular Wireless today announced the first Palm® Treoâ„¢ smart device running on Cingular’s 3G/UMTS network, providing mobile professionals with an exceptional phone experience and blazing-fast download speeds in U.S. markets and in dozens of countries around the world. The highly anticipated Treo 750 five-band world phone running Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push Technology offers Palm’s exclusive usability improvements with powerful business features, including email, security, and web access on the go.”

Hardware
As a disclaimer, I don’t have a test unit to play with so I have no real world experience, but judging from the spec sheet I was sent and the hi-res images, this looks like a nice device. I like the overall hardware form factor changes over the Treo 650. The layout of the phone keys, OK key, Start key are much better placed. The internal antenna is a big plus as well. It was quite unsightly on the 650.

As I said I don’t have a test unit and thus can’t comment on things like the Bluetooth quality, volume quality, radio strength, etc… But the Treo 650 had good reputations on those areas so I would assume the 750 gets good ratings there as well.

The 1.3 MP camera is average, but good enough for mobile shots. I didn’t see any mention of whether the camera supports capturing of video or not. And the addition of the MiniSD slot is a big improvement for the business user. The 650 just didn’t have enough storage space.

I’ve always like the Treo QWERTY keyboard. Probably even better than my Nokia E61’s.

Software
I haven’t used Windows Mobile since 2003, but judging from the improvements I’ve read about and now see in these hi-res images (like the X to close and app) and Dial By Pic for the Today screen, I think I would like it more. I actually liked Windows Mobile quite a bit when I ran Windows as my Desktop.

Once this device comes out on T-Mobile I’ll have to pick one up for a project I am doing just to test it out and will report my results back then, especially compared to the E61.

Jan

5

My friend, Calvin, is looking for two additional Python/Open Source gurus to join his startup shop based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They do some challenging jobs. It’s fast paced, and the whole team gets involved with the community. If I lived in Indy, I would want to work there. Great learning environment. Working here will boost your skill set for sure.

Check out the descriptions here:
http://www.sixfeetup.com/about-us/jobs

Good Luck!

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