Yahoo! Go for TV
April 28, 2006
I’m a big TiVo fan, aside from its cost and single tuner (TiVo just released a dual-tuner version). I’ve been saying for two years now that I would get our home completely run via a tablet PC, which would control all audio, video, lighting, and security. I’ve since become a bit more realistic and have decided to put off that project for the next home.
I’m still sold on a Media Center PC (I like the HP Pavilion MC with warm swappable drives) as a hub with perhaps four TV tuners, and I’ve been working on getting all of my CD’s, DVD’s, and VHS tapes stored on a few external drives to make the transition much faster.
Part of the reason I’ve been putting this off is because it’s a relatively complex endeavor to integrate all of these disparate functions into one tablet. For those who want to focus just on the home automation, or just the audio, or just the DVR functionality, services like the recently launched Yahoo! Go for TV are a boon. As is common, the comments about the Go service via TechCrunch are almost as informative as the review.
Neighborhood vs. City-wide Wireless Networks in Pittsburgh
April 28, 2006
Living near Pittsburgh for a large chunk of my life, and in Pittsburgh for several years after college, the Steel City still has a place in my heart. We’re even considering moving back to Pittsburgh in 2007 (or perhaps to Portland, Oregon).
Pittsburgh hadn’t gotten a lot of props until about 5 years back, and people still think of it as a burned out steel town, but sentiment is swaying, and people are beginning to realize what a great place Pittsburgh is — great education, considerable history for an American city, great arts and entertainment opportunities, kick-ass sports franchises, plenty of parks, friendly people, and possibly city-wide wireless access.
These city-wide projects are becoming more and more common, and I like it. Of course, it would mean leaving one of the few EVDO markets in the States. . .
GUI SDK for J2ME
April 27, 2006
It seems that everyone is a-flutter with the limited news available about Project Omega, a GUI SDK for J2ME development. Project Omega is being developed by Tricastmedia, the same folks who released Pegasus earlier this month.
I’ll remain on the skeptical, but hopeful, side of fence for now. GUI development in MIDP applications isn’t fun. Either get stuck with the standard widgets, or spend 75% of your budget rolling your own canvases. I’d love to see a toolkit that adds a few additional widgets to my quiver, and from the folks I’ve chatted with today, I’m not in the minority!
Project Omega posts via the Tricastmedia blog
Chuck D launching Mobile Co.
April 27, 2006
Announcements like these scare me. They always remind me of the chatter that occurs near stock market tops.
Link: Chuck D launching Mobile Co., Speaks on Wireless Potential.
Feed Updated
April 27, 2006
Just got back from holiday, and had a note waiting for me regarding feed status. Appears that one of the feeds has not been updating recently. I made a few changes, but I’m not sure if they’ll resolve the problem.
If you saw sporadic posts prior to my holiday, rather than daily updates, you might want to try unsubscribing and resubscribing to the feed.
On Holiday
April 18, 2006
Out on holiday until 27-April.
moo.fx: Super lightweight JavaScript library
April 12, 2006
I toyed around with moo.fx over the weekend, and I’m pretty impressed with what it can do, or more accurately, what it can help you do. It’s billed as an “easy to use, fast, cross-browser, standards compliant” library, and that it is. You can get up-to-speed on all things moo in about an hour, and it weighs in at a minuscule 3KB, though you really need to use it along with prototype.lite.js.
Moo.fx makes it easy to control the height, width, and opacity of elements (in any combination) with its base controls. Another common use for moo.fx is the groovy accordion effect popularized by the Rico library, or the smooth scrolling effect if you’re using the 6KB moo.fx.pack.
Moo.fx will not replace other effects libraries, but it’s a small and reliable, and makes it a snap to add some basic effects to your pages with little effort. You’ll soon find yourself becoming close friends with the methods toggle and hide. And it even works for those who still insist on using Safari.
I’ll be continuing to use moo.fx over the next few weeks, so look for some sample code / helper functions then.
Tags: JavaScript, moo.fx, web applications, web 2.0
China Mobile cancels 19,000 subscribers for abusing SMS service
April 11, 2006
Link: China Mobile cancels 19,000 subscribers for abusing SMS service - Yahoo! News.
Cellphone operator China Mobile has canceled services for 19,000 subscribers in a southern city for using text messages for fraudulent or criminal purposes.
bpwidgets.com Site Completed
April 9, 2006
The enthusiast site for bluepulse widgets has finally launched. This is a personal project that I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.
The intent of the site is to give developers a forum for showcasing their widgets, help foster the development community the folks at Bluepulse have created, and help bluepulse users find and use the best widgets the bluepulse platform has to offer.
Not sure what bluepulse is? Check out some previous posts (1 | 2), or head to bluepulse.com for details. And of course, head to www.bpwidgets.com to check out the web site.
Tags: mobile application, mobile development, web 2.0, web 2.0 sucks, bluepulse, widgets, Java, web application
My Life = The Dilbert Zone
April 7, 2006
It’s been a hectic few weeks. I’ve decided to leave full-time employment with my long-time employer (5 years is very long for me). Instead, I’ll be doing part-time consulting work for them, and will be working full-time on a mobile start-up. These past two weeks, I’ve been getting my ducks in a row, transitioning duties, lining up projects to work on when I’m part-time.
I’m a Dilbert reader. There are frequently interesting parallels between Dilbert and my experiences in the corporate world. But Dilbert is generally filled with hyperbole. That’s what makes it funny. The comic strips are based in common experience, but they are kneaded and exaggerated for effect. Most of the time.
My job covers a wide spectrum of responsibility. I’m a project manager, but I have a development and analysis background, so I’m generally brought in early to projects. I had the most bizarre, illogical, unrealistic conversation the other day with a senior project manager in my firm.
His organization needs a custom application built. Fine, I suggest a teleconference with a few of his people so that we can discuss their requirements. For those unfamiliar with the development process, requirements and design generally require quite a bit of effort. A decade ago, they would require as much, if not more, time than development. Agile and iterative development have been somewhat embraced in the corporate world, so they don’t take nearly as long, but they still require a lot of effort.
We begin discussing their requirements, and it very quickly becomes clear that no one in the room has even considered what problems they are trying to solve with this proposed application. Without a purpose, goal, or objective of any kind, it’s impossible to propose a solution. So I dig a bit further. Many times, even if clients don’t know what they’re trying to solve, they still have an idea of what they want. Maybe they’ve been looking at an off-the-shelf product they want to integrate, or they’ve seen a piece of functionality that they want to emulate. Maybe they have something firm in mind for a deployment approach — they want software that installs on a PC, they want a web-based solution, they have server X they’d like to leverage, etc. Still nothing.
Okay, we’re getting nowhere, so I politely say something to this effect of “why are meeting, what did you hope to accomplish today?” And the response I get back is along the lines of they want an application built (here we go again).
We continue this exchange for another minute, and then they drop the bomb. I kid you not, this is verbatim. This statement is burned into my brain, and likely will remain there until the day I die. The senior project manager says “We don’t know yet what we want, but we want you to build it for us, and then we’ll tell you if it’s right.” Stunned silence on my part. He must be joking, I’m thinking. But he’s not, and he continues talking about how he wants us to build something that does something magical for him, but he’ll only know what he really wants until after he sees what we’ve already done.
Needless to say, this is not one of the projects that I’ll be taking on as a consultant. A day or so later, the Dilbert of the Day arrives in my inbox, and it’s a near perfect parallel for my experience.
Tags: Dilbert, corporate, software development, requirements, design
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