Dispatches from Andyland

Yesterday, I was talking with my sister about the mobile phone market, and how it seems to be hitting some sort of new phase. (Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android platform, Blackberry etc. are sparking interest in mobile phone applications. Treo and Nokia who have been doing this stuff forever now seem to be aftertthoughts, etc.Windows CE plays its part) Its in sort of its gold rush phase. Fortunes will be made and lost, but you can’t entirely be sure where. For developers, right now the cost of developing a small mobile phone app to sell at a small price seems like a reasonable investment.

Then this morning, I suddenly remembered. The original iPhone had very little ability to create programs for it. (people were wondering if it could be called a smartphone if the only development environment available for it were bundles of HTML,CSS,and Javacript built into widgets.) Steve Jobs said that they didn’t want custom apps because they didn’t want a bad app taking down Cingular’s network. So then you have the hackers figure out how to modify the phone with their “jailbreaks”, people start developing apps for it and eventually Apple comes up with a software development kit, and their app store. It seems like the market seemed to know where it wanted to go,and Apple just had to figure out where to position themselves to take advantage of it.

Just because you are in the front, it doesn’t make you a leader. Especially if everyone behind you has torches and pitchforks.

In the vernacular of blogging, a “haircut entry” is a blog entry of so little importance to anyone but the writer, one has to wonder why they thought that anyone would want to read it. (”I got a haircut today..”, who would actually care?)

Well, lets see what I can do for the genre.

Last Friday, I tried to run out during lunch to get my haircut. I came back with something far different than what I intended.

I first went to the place I normally go to. They said that had a 30+ minute wait, so I decided to go someplace else. When I got there, the barber immediately said “You’ve never been in this shop before, have you?” I sort of wondered how he could be sure of that. We chatted. He cut hair. By the end, I figured out how he could tell I’ve never been there.

He probably never gets repeat customers. Not with the kind of job he did for me. Or maybe some set of customers who don’t notice or care, and then everyone knows enough not to go back.  The fact that the shop never seems busy should have been a clue (I can’t remember when I’ve ever seen it with customers, let alone anyone waiting. Now that I think about it, it only has a chair or two for anyone to wait anyway.)

You live and learn. Or live at least.

Craig Fergusen’s rant on youth culture. “If you’re wearing a sequined sweatshirt that says ‘punk is not dead’ that costs $200, not only is punk dead, but you killed it.”

For some reason “Please Advice” is supposed to sound more polite than “I demand that you answer me!” in an email message or similar memo. I tend to read them essentially as synonyms.

“The computing scientist’s main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making” - Dijkstra (1988)

The phone I lost turned up. So my decision for a new phone can be delayed a bit. I’ll still probably look at the T-Mobile’s Android based phone when it is released, but now the need isn’t as great. If I don’t like the Android phone (for any reason, including price) then I might still get another phone, for playing around developing mobile apps if nothing else. (so probably not another Nokia) I’ll probably keep using the E61 for day to day use for a while.

When I was still looking for the phone, my wife asked the kids to help look, and offered them a dollar if they found one. Then she added that she’ll add a dollar for each day until it is found. My older daughter then said “Does that mean that if I find it and then hide it for a few days, then I’ll get more money?”

Ugh, this is frustrating.

Saturday morning, I went out with my kids to buy my older daughter a mobile phone. Yes, she seems a little young to have one, but she is away from us a bit more and payphones are slightly harder to be found for “I missed my ride” and “they let us out early” sort of calls. So after instilling in her the responsibility that we are placing on her to have this gadget (and her needing to show us that she won’t lose it, she won’t use it unecessarily, she won’t rack up a huge bill,  etc.) I go and do the stupidest thing possible. I lose my Nokia E61 phone.

I remember a point in the evening that I had it. (I was reading Google Reader over the phone’s WiFi mode) and I know a point when I’m sure I didn’t have it. (after putting my younger daughter to bed.) and I know I didn’t leave the house any time between the two. But two days later and it still hasn’t shown up.(and I did try calling it and listening for the ringing, but it seems likely that I left the web browser open with a WiFi connection, which drains the battery quickly.) I feel foolish doing this, but I’m at the point where I might just have to spring for a new phone, and this one will show up when it shows up.If I do spring for another phone, what to get?

I probably text message more than I talk, so data entry is a discriminating feature. I want what would be called a smartphone. One I can install applications onto. (and to explain the range of applications that I want,  I probably used “putty” on my E61 more often than I used its built in word processing app. The copy of Acrobat has been indispensable a few times. (like downloading the PDF of a user manual and reading it while trying to work on something.)  I’ve done lots of playing around with Bluetooth applications, and would like something with more than just HSP and HFP Bluetooth Profiles (HSP and HFP will give you enough support to connect to  a wireless headset, but I would want something to support OPP, FTP, DUN, PAN, etc.)

• The iPhone looks like an interesting choice, but is at the high end of what I want to spend, its Bluetooth support is weak, and the only reasonable way of getting one would be to switch carriers. (which would then make me have my daughter give back her lovely bright pink phone that she is so proud of.) Application support seems to be great (it feels like selection is bigger than Nokia/Symbian apps, and they’ve been at this for years.), but no J2ME support. (which is the closest to crossplatorm that we’ve got.  Typing is probably a bit worse than I had with the E61, but better than T9 based text input. (I can’t imagine trying to run ssh over a 12 key keypad.)

• A Treo has good application support. (I even know a bit about the Palm  API for writing apps.) and I might be able to find a used one cheap on Craigslist.

• A Blackberry might work. Some have good text input support. Some have good bluetooth support. Has good application support. Its a new development environment to try.

• A WinCE based system with a QWERTY keyboard might do. Good app support. Depending on the model it might have good bluetooth support. Its also a new development environment to try. Depending on the model it might not continuously crash on me.

• A Sidekick? Some application support.  Poor bluetooth support. Great text entry support.

• Wait for an HTC Dream (Google Phone) to be released? (I could  probably do with an old phone for a while if it would be worth the wait.)

• Open Moko seems too pricey and unfinished (only a day worth of battery life and a great deal of buggy apps. About twice the price of the smaller iPhone)

My older daughter and her friends used to make some little figurines called Wagabos (pronounced wa-JUH-boos). This morning, my younger daughter wanted to make some, but the older daughter started yelling that she couldn’t. She said it would be illegal to make them without permission of her and her friends. Its part of Copyright law. I tried to go through my mind what I could use of the four factors of fair use defense that the younger one could use. (Its not transformative, its not factual, it is not just a portion of the work, etc.) The only excuse that I could come up with was “copyright was created to encourage writers and artists to create works. It wasn’t created to make your little sister cry!”

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I just saw this article about a man arrested for leaking songs from Guns n’ Roses supposedly upcoming album, Chinese Democracy. It makes me wish we could go a step further and stop all distribution of Guns n’ Roses music.

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Andy Oram from O’Reilly had an interesting article a few weeks back describing how copyright got into its current state. I found it interesting. I tend to rail against some of the more recent changes in copyright law (excessive extension of terms, erosion of fair use, etc.) but Andy points to changes as far back as 1909, and how those changes started to set in motion copyright as it is today.

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and meet my younger self and give him a swift kick in the shins.

One of the stories that my parents that my parents tell about our childhood was one Christmas, it might have been Christmas of ‘74 or ‘75. I had an interest in science and that Christmas my parents bought me a ton of science equipment and supplies. They really pulled out all of the stops. Not just a microscope, but a binocular microscope. The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. A starting set of small glass jars and metal tins of chemicals. Litmus strips, test tubes, beaker, and flasks, etc. They went all out to get everything they could for my budding interest. They expected me to be overjoyed, but some time after the ripping open all of these gift wrapped items, they found me moping around. Asking me what was wrong, I replied “Every gift I got was about the same thing.” Yes, I wanted this chemistry equipment, but it wasn’t a singular obsession. They wanted to give me the biggest head start possible in an interest in science, and wasn’t going to spend every afternoon in my brand new chemistry lab. I probably would have been spent some afternoon playing with Hot Wheels cars, playing with Big Jim action figures, playing outside, etc.

Looking back at that event, I’m embarrassed at how ungrateful I was. Not only did my parents spend a fair amount of money on all of this stuff, but they also took the time to find out what some of my real interests were and try to fulfill them.

What is funny about this is I don’t remember that Christmas that way. I don’t remember that conversation with my parents, I just remember getting a lot of neat stuff. I spent many an afternoon and weekend at the spot in the basement set aside for my lab (later to become a combined photographic darkroom and chemistry lab.) I hope besides that disappointed little child at Christmas, my parents also remember the dozen or so trips to Youldens in Westwood to spend my allowance money on additional supplies. They may not have seen the smile at Christmas that they wanted, but that time in my little chemistry lab may have been a major component of the steps that lead me from there to where I am today.

I wish I realized how lucky I was. I may have been the last generation of American kids who were allowed to have home science labs.

I don’t know if Youldens is still on 109 in Westwood, but I doubt the chemical supply section is still there. Chemcraft chemistry sets have long since gone. (On the other hand, my kids have access to things like Scratch and Microworlds, Mindstorms, USB powered microscopes, and other things I probably couldn’t have imagined at the time. So they won’t get away with telling me they were being deprived.)

Not only are kits for children (or even parent supervised children) nearly gone now. But it seems a home chemistry lab itself is now close to being illegal. In Chemist allowed to go home, sans his lab the Worcester Telegram and Gazette reports about a man from Marlboro, a retired chemist, who was barred from his house for three days while they removed and dismantled a chemistry lab. (coverage on Slashdot, Make, etc.) The paper describes the contents as Some of the compounds are potentially explosive, but no more dangerous than typical household cleaning products. This seems even worse than the Kevin McCormick episode. It seems that frostbyte lived a fairly wild life, and unfortunately his death gave the state an opportunity to examine the artifacts of that life pretty closely. (Closing off Congress St for three days crowing that they found some sort of major meth lab, then finally admitting there wasn’t anything more than a small package of pseudofed in the medicine cabinet.)

The events in Marlboro scare me a more than a bit. It implies that without being charged for any crime, the government can forcibly evict me from my house and seize any property they find undesirable (yet aren’t willing to legislate as being illegal.) Marlboro’s code enforcement officer was quoted in the Worcester T&G article as saying This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation. What do they consider a customary home occupation? A flat screen TV with American Idol on?

My older daughter was trying to talk me into buying a waterproof ipod speaker dock for the bathroom, so she could listen to music in the shower:

Three out of four of the people in the house have iPods. I have a bunch of cool music on my ipod, my sister has a bunch of cool music on her iPod. You (pause) um, you have a bunch of music that you think is cool on your iPod.

And then kept rubbing it in with bringing up music a couple of other times and putting the words “cool music” in sarcasm quotes ( sometimes called air quotes)

I paid her back for that remark by listening to Girl Talk all the way home. We got home in the middle of “Give Me a Beat“and when I turned off the car and the music my younger daughter asked “I wonder: just give me a what?” I was a bit surprised she was paying attention, but awfully pleased.