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The Nokia N900 in use, a perspective.

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I’ve had my Nokia N900 for almost 48 hours, and while I’ve have a few frustrations, I’m equally satisfied with the product. And so to keep it geeky and simple:

  • I’ve logged into the device (not really a phone) with SSH from my desktop. And it just looks like a standard Linux system.
  • I’ve logged in to my Opensolaris from the device shell (X Terminal) with SSH and that works like normal.
  • I’ve connect to the VLC server on my server, with VLC, from the device, and while the navigation of the screen size differences will be ‘fun’, it works as expected
  • I’ve Blogged from the device using MaStory.
  • I’ve sent SMS and received SMS’s, I received Phone calls. (gee)
  • I’ve been fetching emails, full html support (must turn off images)
  • I’ve found my location with GPS.
  • I’ve loaded up some songs, and they sound great with the stereo speakers
  • I’ve listened to internet radio, that works great.
  • I’ve used the keyboard, and I’m getting faster the more I use it.
  • I’ve browsed the internet, and it’s amazing, although my blog identifies it as a PDA (must fix that)
  • I’ve used the device to diagnose a neighbors laptop WiFi connection
  • I’ve taken a photo, not so great on the first try, no image stabilization, but relatively sharp
  • I’ve managed to post a photo to my Flickr account.
  • I’ve synced up my calendar and contacts with my Nokia 6300 backup using the Nokia PC suite (as OVI suite does not work)
  • I’ve connected to AOL and Yahoo IM with the Pidgin application.

However there is another list, of frustrations;

  • Battery life really sucks, mostly because I’ve had everything turned on (default) and have not found all the places to ‘tune’ them to better setting.
  • I can NOT get the Twitter application Mauku to connect to Twitter
  • I can NOT get the weather with OMWeather it won’t connect
  • I couldn’t get the MaxRoam SIM to dial anyone, though I could SMS
  • Some Apps from the App Manager WILL NOT DOWNLOAD no matter what I do, and there no indication about why they won’t download
  • I can’t get the FaceBook application which came pre-installed, to actually install, or function. It’s the same with several of the ‘pre-installed’ apps, they just don’t work without being ‘installed’ and they won’t install.

I am currently using a Vodafone Pay-as-you-Go SIM and it does indicate that I am connected with 3G. I have NOT tested it for dataroaming, or performance. The MaxRoam SIM did indicate that I was connected to a 3.5G O2 network But like I mentioned, I couldn’t call anyone, only SMS. I assume that it was my ignorance of setting for the MaxRoam SIM.

As for the phone itself, I like it, it’s a bit heaver than I thought, but a great deal smaller, it is not really any wider or taller than a Samsung Tocco Lite, but it’s almost twice as thick.

The keyboard is very small and not really thumb friendly, I started out using my fingernails to type. Now I can feel the contours of the keys, it sped up my typing a bit. I have a clear snap on case I bought from Amazon a month ago, but the screen section obscures the upper row on the keyboard, so I don’t have it on, so just the back is attached.

The resistive touchscreen is very sensitive. I have a Palm T/X and I know! It is nothing like the resistive screens of the past. There is virtual NO give to the surface, and while you can tell that it is ‘softer’ than a capacitive touchscreen, it has a great deal more precision. Just try and draw something in the ‘sketch’ app or better yet, the XJournal application.

Overall I could say that it’s a keeper, a Geeky keeper, and looks like it will be a learned love. It does do what I need it to do, be a computed device, with a phone in it.

I’m sure there will be other revelations, but I may be too busy playing with my new toy.

UPDATE : I’ve managed to get the missing FaceBook App to install and Mauku and OMWeather are working after I changed some of the connection setting on device to fixed ip addresses on my WiFi router.

Weather or worries

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I’ve been in afoul mood, depressed, cranky and touchy. Just the thing for a Cranky Blogger. Between the recession, NAMA, Lousy Politicians, crummy weather I’m just about dun in. And to top it all off, no one seems to want to Twitter @querynet, contribute Ideas to ideaforcasting.com, or store thoughts at @fleetthoughts. When I have an Idea, why do the seem Poor. Hope the Cork Open Beer manages to improve my mood!

Microsoft on the ropes

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This article Microsoft unveils $40bn buy-back it becomes evident how poorly Microsoft is doing in the market place as the process of a Buy Back which I quote:


Companies will buyback shares either to increase the value of shares still available (reducing supply), or to eliminate any threats by shareholders who may be looking for a controlling stake.

I believe that this attempt to get the stock price up points not to one of the above reasons, but to both the reasons. Microsoft stock is low, and falling, and many mainline fortune 500 companies like Insurance companys, mutual funds and retirement systems have large investments in Microsoft. There may be an uprising, or worse a sellout by these companies if the stock price does not rise. Microsoft is on the ropes, mostly Steve Ballmer is on the ropes. If he can’t get the stock to rise, he will be gone before the year is out.

Web 2 Bloat and Mobile Internet bandwidth

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This article about the Average Web Page Size Triples Since 2003, is a further illustration of problems on the Mobile Internet when dealing with Bandwidth issues. With the nature of the mobile web communication methods (GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, etc.) being more often costed on the bandwidth, and usage, rather than on a flat rate found in ADSL and Cable connections, this becomes a costly proposition.

Web 2.0 makes for easy universal ‘Application’ programming, but is inherently expensive to use as a consumer while on mobile web systems like Wap enabled phones and PDA’s. Even utilizing a mobile phone as a bluetooth modem and a laptop, Web 2.0 makes for expensive internet.

So the question remains, Who benefits most from Web 2? It surely isn’t the consumer.

I started out developing web pages, often testing against dialup speeds. Who does that now? Who tests their Web 2 apps against a slow GPRS connection or with the dialup connection many Irish folk still have to put up with? There is a vast marketplace out in the real world where broadband, or rather cheap broadband, handicaps Web 2.0 deployment.

This whole Web 2 experience convinces me further of the need to maintain, and further expand, traditional fat client Client Server application development into the mobile internet. As the internet continues to expand into convergent devices like the iPhone, Symbian and Palm OS based smart phones, Portable Media Players and connected PDP’, Web 2.0 will fail to fulfill the promise and the hype currently being displayed.

PDA’s VS Smartphones

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Someone ask me why I’m looking for a PDA instead of the Smart Phone, and while I’ve considered a iPhone, or Palm Centro, the issue is still this.

* Both are using obsolete wireless technology.
* neither can perform PDA duties while the phone is active.

With a PDA, and bluetooth, when the mobile phone technology advances, substituting the phone, upgrades the PDA. And the PDA can operate independent while the phone is in use. Anyone familiar with the evolution of modem technology will understand this, updating the modem to improve communication speed was a common infrastructure issue. As now the speed at which a device can display a block of data, most PDA’s are readily able to perform faster, as they are generally waiting on data.

BTW: Here in Ireland we still depend on dialup Modems.

Gay Pedophile Republicans are anti-Gambing

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As for the “must have legislation” in the Republican congress GOP Gay Pedophile Tom Foley is less important than an Internet gambling ban bill in the eyes of the Republican Leadership.

Which do you rate higher, Child molesters, or poker players?

How do you like the Moral GOP pushing their morality on the american people?

UPDATE: Looks like the Republican morals are intack, they really only needed to be bribed with enought money or; How horse racing avoided new US internet betting law

UPDATE: If you need more reading look here THE LAW IS DOOMED – ONLY QUESTION IS HOW LONG IT TAKES!

Oil and the Island of Ireland

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In resent years the Irish government in agreement with EU directives has handicapped it’s agricultural and fishing indrustry in order to secure funding of various infrastructure projects. And while in the short term this has benefited the Irish people, this is very much a shortsighted view, a typical Irish view of, ‘It’ll be alright’. However the issue is the assumption that the future will be, more or less like the present. And that is where it all falls down, the future of oil is not just one of increasing cost, it’s the eventual loss of oil altogether. This coupled with global warming issues poses different issues to Ireland, and to a lesser degree England.

They are Islands, truly geographiclly and economically. Issues of food production and importation are less of a concern to the continent EU than to the Islands of EU. Irish politicans are desperate to avoid thinking about what would happen without cheap oil, and the shipping of imported food and other commodities into Ireland. If food importation were to end tomorrow, vast numbers of people would starve in Ireland, perhaps worse than the famine years.

This is the future of Ireland, increasing food costs for imported food and goods, as there is less natively produced agricultural products and fishing. This will lead to economic ruin for most other industrial development as cost of living expences will drive industries to move to cheaper locations. Eventually with the complete loss of oil, Ireland will be isolated and destitute. And the Irish politicians who’s shortsightedness has destroyed Ireland, will be living elsewhere.

The Irish government should be focused on making Ireland self sufficient, less dependent on importation of food, and energy. All effort should conclude with infrastructure to support Irish food production, windfarms, and green issues.

The current government apparently does not have this perspective, and in the future, the Irish must seek to replace the narrowminded, shortsighted Fianna Fáil politicans. The future of the Island of Ireland is at stake.

8 new Galways in the next 10 years

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I was listening to a program on RTE last night, talking about communities and community spirit. And then the announcer dropped the above phrase, “…construction of 8 new Galway’s in the next 10 years” to support the population growth. And while the speaker was commiserating the loss of community spirit and belonging. He was standing in a Suburb of Dublin, he then turn and indicated the the huge estates that represented the current growth pattern would have to grow up, and increase in density to be able to cope with the population growth.

And I thought that was just foolish, and wished that the decentralization didn’t happen years ago. A bigger Dublin? What would you call the Big Smoke then, The Humongous Smoke Can you imagine?

And what about the community spirit, building a bigger Dublin or for that matter a higher density Dublin is just insane. Dublin already is on the fringe of Irish culture. Making it bigger would be unbelievable. And there would be no community at all.

History repeats

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If you do this simple exercise with history in mind.

If you refer to George W. Bush as King George II (King George I, being his father)

Then Iraqi insurgencies could be rename as American patriots rebelling against their King.

The Iraqi ‘problem’ is sounding more and more like the The American Revolution

Or if Iraq is headed for Civil War, you could translate the causes from the American Civil War as this.

Change the conflict origins from

States Law VS Federal Law
to
Religious Law VS Secular Law

And guess what, you gain more perspective here

London Trip

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I just got back from a trip to London and I have to say what a mad city that is. But it got me thinking about London as mixing pot of people and cultures. It used to be said that America, the U.S., was the mixing pot of the world, but in the republican paranoid nightmare that they have created there, immigrants are no longer welcomed, hence no more mixing. And this might reduce the cultural friction, but I think that a little friction is not a bad thing, it’s a form of adapting if everything was smooth and no friction it would be the same bland. Friction moves the world along.

The other thing I noticed, No one looks at each other, the only time I had eye contact we had a little dance to avoid each other, when no one looks every one seems to just naturally avoid collisions. See each other causes collisions. Go figure.

All in all London is a Big and impersonal place where no one seems to stick out, and no one gets any respect either. This could be the single reason there is tension and stress all the time here, even the pigeons looked like they were working for a living.

But is was fun, I suppose, you just have to take it in small doses. I much prefer Cork.

Pain of Illness

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I’ve been down the last two days with a stomach flu. It’s been along time since I had anything this painful. And while it’s not going to kill me, it has almost made we wish to be dead. I can only imagine what the victims of the Bird Flu are suffering. If it feels as bad as I do, then I sympathize all the more.

Here’s hoping that it does not spread, and hope that the stricken survive.

Here’s hoping that Pat Robertson doesn’ declare Bird Flu the wrath of God.