January 2008 Archives

Certain video games were totally unable to make me play them.  Specifically, the Resident Evil series. Before you contemplate finding a way to sic a Licker on me, lemme explain myself - then you'll sic a Tyrant on me instead, I'm sure. The fucking controls bugged the crap out of me.  I like fluid controls.  I enjoy it when pressing right on the stick turns me to the right and causes me to then walk or run in that direction.  I hate (with that thousand Suns passion) when "up" always moves your character forward and you have to stop, turn, and then proceed.  Now I know that this allows you to walk backwards, thus lessening the pussy-factor of your retreat by letting you fire potshots at your foe.  I still am not a fan.  There's always unused buttons.  One of those can't be "back-step" or whatever?  Huh? Silent Hill (I believe 3...where you're the girl and there's a mall involved) would let you change the control type from 2D (my back-stepping nemesis) and 3D (my fav, pinoneered by Mario64).  Very cool; you can do the manly-retreat with one style and the fast-turning 3D action when you need some finesse (like when you need to avoid a subway). Now you may be saying "Alex, you love Silent Hill!"  That would be a true statement. While the mechanics of Silent Hill and Res Evil always kept me from taking the controller I was a huge fan of backseat-  or co-playing the game. Keeping an eye out for ambush action and supplies, offering puzzle solutions and, especially with the S.H. games, confirming with the actual "pilot" that yes, that shit did just happen. It was a really cool experience, especially when there would be 3 or 4 of us doing this; we took a very solo game and turned it into a crazily enjoyable group activity.

People in the office are being let go left as well as right.  People in the middle are probably just a susceptible to shit-canning too. The reasons people are being let go are understandable; rude to a customer, constant sick calls, etc. It still sucks.  I mean, I'm not particularly worried about my job.  I'm rarely not here, keep my off-color comments to myself (or at least mute the headset when I can't) and I know more about our product than most. Still, it just puts this very palpable feeling of unease in the air when this shit starts happening.  "Will I be next?" "What am I gonna do if I'm next?" "Are the laying off the entire department?" It's a shitty-ass feeling to walk into every morning.  Coming in and wondering if your shit's going to be in a tidy little pile waiting to be taken home.  Wondering what the fuck you're gonna do when it's time to pay rent or put gas in your car.  I have never (Ok, maybe not "never") been less excited to come into work in the morning. Hopefully my fears are unfounded and everything will be ok. Anyone having similar workplace angst going on?  Why don't you leave a comment and tell me about it?

Finally finishing up the rather massive project I've been working on for the past two weeks, it should be interesting to see the result, at which point I can talk about it. Starting my next project is turning out to be easier than I thought.

First they approve them. Then they say it'll cause problems. Now they're in phase II testing...

In the fall of 2006, the FCC approved the use of TV white space for fixed broadband deployments. At that time, however, the FCC declined to approve the use of TV white space for low-power fixed and mobile personal devices pending an investigation of the potential for “harmful interference” from WSDs. Following initial evaluations last fall, Phase II WSD testing by the FCC began on Jan. 18, 2008. The purpose of this test program is to “[assess] the interference potential of such devices and establishing appropriate requirements,” the Commission says. In the current round of tests, prototype WSDs submitted by Adaptrum, Microsoft, Motorola, and Philips, will be field-tested to evaluate their performance under real world conditions. This phase of the tests is expected to last between two and three months. After WSD prototype tests have been completed to the FCC’s satisfaction, the Commission will set about defining a set of WSD operating rules. Once that happens, consumer electronics companies will begin moving forward in developing WSDs and bringing them to market.

A few years too late, but par for the course for the FCC if it ever gets approved and rolled out.

This is a topic that came up in the Beyond411 Application Review.

When you load an application on a BlackBerry it generally requires certain things from said BlackBerry - access to the Internet, access to phone information (address book, etc.) and sometimes access to your GPS location (if you're using a turn-by-turn navigation application, fr'instance).

The majority of application will ask you questions when you first run them (The Application has requested access to you GPS Location) followed by the option to allow or deny that access.

In the event that something still doesn't work or you accidentally answered "No" to something you can manually set those permissions. This is in the event that your BlackBerry is not under the control of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server ( BES) . The BES issue is something that I'm going to leave alone because the focus of these reviews is to make the BlackBerry approachable to non-business users. These people wouldn't (usually) be on a BES administered device to begin with.

Anyway, getting back to the point, these permissions can be set manually so that you can tell your BB "Hey, if <insert app name here> wants the Internet, let <insert same app name here> have the Internet, ok?"

This will, in theory, give the app whatever it needs to function properly.

How do I change these settings? Glad ya asked!

On a BlackBerry with a Pearl (the little ball)

ex: 8800/20/30, Curve 8300/10/20, Pearl 8100/20/30

Go to Options (this is the little wrench). On some GSM BB's (at&t, T-Mobile) you need to enter Settings (little gears) to find options.

Select Advanced Options

Then Applications

Then highlight whichever app we need to monkey around with and press the Menu key (left of the Pearl, has a bunch of dots on it).

Select Edit Permissions

Press the Menu key (yes, again)

Select Reset Firewall Prompts

Now you're going to be looking at Connection, Interactions and User Data.

All three of these need to be set to "Allow."

Once they are, press the Menu key one last time and select "Save."

Once you're done "Please Wait"ing (try it and you'll understand) turn off the BB, wait about 30 seconds and power it back on.

You're set!!

If your BB still has the wheel

ex 7100i, 7130e, 8703e, 8700c/r

Go to Options

Advanced Options

Click on the app

Select Edit Permissions

Set Connection, Interactions and User Data to "Allow," click the wheel and "Save" and then power cycle (turn the BB off and then back on) once the waiting is done.

I hope this helps, and it will be added to the App Review page as well.

Just like "Lost Souls" (JC Sackett knows what I'm talking about), this application suffers from great concept, poor execution.

Beyond 411 is a BlackBerry application that starts off as a free way to search for phone numbers, but goes Beyond 411 to offer a slough of other options.

Sounds great ("concept"). Have you used Beyond411? Once you leave the familiar realm of looking up a business (and this is after you get past a semi-unfriendly interface) you get slapped in the face by how well it does(n't) get the job done.

When you first run the application it seems promising; you're prompted to enter a "home," "work" and an "other" address. These addresses are used when you look up a business - basically, it will look for matches near to the selected address.

You can also select what Internet connection the application will use to search for these results, but there's really no good reason to take it off of "default."

Click "Save" and you're ready to (try to) use Beyond411.

The home screen is a little daunting and lacking in direction.

In the upper-right corner it will say "home." By clicking on this you can select one of the default addresses that you've already entered or select GPS to try and use your current location as the area around which to look for businesses (this is only an option on certain BB models and will not work on, for example, the Pearl 8100).

After selecting your location you start typing (presumably the name of a business you want to find) and Beyond411 will start guessing the business that you're looking for - very cool.

When you've finished typing a click of the Pearl will display a menu, with "Yellow Pages (selected location)" highlighted. Click again and you begin your search for the nearest Sushi restaurant, or whatever painfully addicting product you need to find.

When your results are displayed you can click on the name of the business and you are treated to a new menu:

Directions to (1st listing)- Click here to get directions from your location (whatever location was selected when you started your search) to the selected listing. This will give you a MapQuest-esque list o' turns from point A to point B.

Call- If your listing has a phone number attached to it, clicking here will call it for you (tres self-explanatory).

Map- Gives you a map based on the address for the listing.

Add to address book- Add the listing's address to your BlackBerry address book.

Set Current Location - This will change your "other" address to the address for this listing.

Email Business Info- The info for the listing in emailed to whatever address you enter. This one is pretty darned cool.

Tell a friend about Beyond411 - Select a contact from your address book and send them an OTA (Over the Air) download link for Beyond411.

And this, for me, is where the coolness ends.

After you enter your search criteria and click the Pearl, another option given to you is White Pages - if you've entered a person's name as opposed to a business the application will launch Google and run a search for residential listings based on that name and your selected location. It's a little more time-consuming (you need to wait for it to launch your browser and load Google) but it's certainly easier than trying to enter effective search criteria for your own Google search.

Web Search- In theory, this would launch a regular old Google search for whatever. This consistently times out and gave http errors. I checked my coverage (fantastical) as well as my Application Permissions* and try as I might, it wouldn't work.

Loading up my Internet browser, navigating to Google and entering in the same search terms worked like a champ.

Edit Settings- This is where you can edit your default addresses or change the Internet connection that Beyond411 uses to connect to the Internet.

The next set of options are based upon your location, as opposed to any specific business or person you may be searching for.

Weather- In theory? Gives a forecast based on the selected location.

Shopping - In theory? Places to shop.

Movies- Find showtimes and theatres.

Sports - In theory? Sports scores and game times? Maybe? If it had worked I would totally be telling you.

If you do not have anything in the search field you will be given one more selection:

Local Info - This pulls up a new screen with all of the above options along with an option for driving directions (here you can get directions or a static map). These directions did work...on about the 5th try. More weirdness to the directions is that they pull up via Yahoo! as opposed to Google. I only mention that as "weirdness" because everything else seems to be based on Google search results - it seems weird (to me, at least) that it would switch to a different database to pull driving directions.

Also, "Sports" is divided into categories for each sport (NHL, MLB, etc.).

There is also a Reverse Phone Lookup. Cool! Except that it doesn't work. I was thinking that my test phone numbers were all unlisted, so I tested it: I ran a white pages search for a name (I was feeling generic and used "Smith").

I then took the phone number from one of those listings and input that as my search criteria for the "Reverse Phone Lookup." Where's the beef? Here it is; there was no indication that it was even trying to find any info based on the number I entered. Granted, the little arrows in the upper-right of the screen started flashing, but that isn't much help. Those arrows indicate network activity, so it implies that it's trying, but on a BB those arrows go off all the time. So it could be trying the reverse lookup...or I could just be getting an email. Then, after it (presumably) failed it just sat there on the same screen. There was never any kind of notification that the search failed. I hate that. A lot.

Lastly, there is Mobilize Web Page. Pretty cool idea - enter a website and the application will try and optimize it for a mobile device. Who cares? The BlackBerry can already do that for you. Point of fact, almost all cell phones automatically (try) to convert web pages to a mobile-friendly version. The only phones that don't are generally Windows Mobile devices. If you have one of those you probably are not going to be downloading an application for a BlackBerry. Just an assumption.

As before we are leaving (relative) objectivity and jumping into my opinion of Beyond411.

I'm impressed by the 1st part of the application - the ability to find, call, and even navigate to businesses.

The White Pages search is very Ok. A little clunky but generally easier and faster than trying it on your own.

Everything else (beyond the business listings) seemed to be a cluster-f***. I'm just not impressed by the execution. At all. I would much rather have 3 options that work flawlessly than have 30 that kinda-sorta work. That's just me. I'm a stickler for quality and presentation.

There's also the issue of errors: the errors were plentiful and varied, but there was no offer of any kind to view details or potential troubleshooting steps to take. It frustrated the heck out of me. I even went so far as to delete and re-install the application (twice) to no avail. My BB's firmware (this is the phone's operating system, like Windows is for your PC) is totally up-to-date. And we aren't talking about having the latest firmware for a phone that was discontinued 3 years ago. My BB is the 2nd-newest model available from Sprint.

My overall view on Beyond411 is that it is about halfway done. If it had a big fat "Beta" after the name I would be much more forgiving. Which is to say, I would Bbe forgiving. When I download an application onto my phone I want it to work. Not just work, but work properly. A cell phone, especially a BlackBerry, represents a significant chunk of change to me. Anything that I do to it is not something I take on lightly. The BlackBerry is not a toy to me.

Like I said from the start; The underlying idea is amazing. It really is. The execution is what's not floating my boat. This essentially Beta (test/pre-release) software doesn't meet my admittedly high standards for a final version and doesn't leave me feeling especially confident in subsequent releases of the app. If a new version is released I will try to test it out with as little bias as possible. I will not, however, be going into a new release with the same excitement and optimism as I did with this initial installation.

Guys, please turn me around. I would like nothing more than to be entirely blown away by the next release.

For information on the guys behind Beyond411:

http://thebogles.com/blog/ - Not much info about the company or the guys behind it (kind of disappointing).

To download Beyond411 navigate your BlackBerry's internet browser to:

http://thebogles.com/b411.jad

Please, The Bogles, make me eat my words with the next release.

*Application Permissions -

BlackBerry Apps often make requests for information from or access to the BlackBerry. For an application like Beyond411 it needs access to your GPS (if you want to use your GPS location as the center for your searches) phone information (to make calls, add to addressbook, etc) and access to the Internet (do I need to explain why?). Most applications will ask you questions upon initial setup that will take care of this, but I went so far as to manually tell my BB to let Beyond411 do whatever the heck it wanted. And it still wasn't enough to get the rock-solid results I demand.

So, the House just passed a massive, incredible economic "stimulus package" that amounts to handing out free money to people in return for them continuing to breathe. Sounds fair, right? Oh, I forgot. Congress hasn't actually passed a real budget in three years, we're already running a deficit because most Iraq war funding comes in "Emergency" supplemental Appropriations bills debated under special rules, and to top it off borrowing most of the money to fund the from China. Anyone remember the Family Guy where Peter is told by a loanshark:

The difference between us and other banks, Mr. Griffin, is that we're not a real bank!

Now, imagine Yao Ming holding Henry Paulson upside down by his ankles and shaking the change out of his pockets. Seriously. The Chinese hold so much American debt they have to be happier than a bookmaker on Super Bowl Sunday, or something like that. Does anyone else wonder when we're gonna get our collective legs broke? We might be getting nice fresh $600 checks from our senile Uncle Sam this spring, which I assume is a seperate process from this, but remember where it really comes from. Maybe I should learn to speak Mandarin.

The True Cost of SMS Messages Ah, the beauty of cyclical history. Once upon a time, there was Ma Bell, AT&T. The Phone Company. They owned the wires, they even owned your equipment. That's right, they owned and serviced the telephones in your home. Then, little by little, the Courts began telling AT&T "No." Then, AT&T was suddenly broken up, which gave birth to the Baby Bells, Cellular Phones, modems, the Internet as we know it, etc. Meanwhile, the Baby Bells have been buying each other. The Wireless telcos have been buying each other. Notice when AT&T became AT&T again, the price of an SMS message went up? They're the largest carrier. Sprint has bought Nextel, and their service is worse than it was before. The FCC recently started a new spectrum auction. Let's see who wins.

Ok, so the big news yesterday (bigger than Bush's last SOTU?) was that Ted "Mayor Quimby" Kennedy would endorse Barack Obama in this year's Democratic primary. Coming on the heels of his neice, Caroline, writing a glowing op-ed in the NYT comparing Senator Obama to her late father (President John F. Kennedy, for those of you who are complete non-DC-insiders), this was no surprise. What surpised, annoyed, and kind of frightened me, though, was the reaction from the head of New York's NOW (National Organization for Women) chapter. In an interview with the Huffington Post, NY-NOW head Marcia Pappas

said that Kennedy's decision to back Sen. Barack Obama reflected a long-standing tradition of the "old guard" turning its back on gender equality. "What goes on has been going on from the beginning of time," said Pappas. "Woman have been very supportive of male politicians who have not been so easy to convince of woman's rights. You sometime have to twist their arm to go along on something. We think that Ted Kennedy, who claims to be a supporter of women's rights, who now has come out and joined the [Obama] bandwagon, is basically saying that a qualified woman, Hillary Clinton, is not qualified enough for him."

Now, I'm pretty nonchalant on the stance of Women's rights. That is to say, I don't care what's between your legs, unless of course I'm trying to sleep with you (no surprises, please). I believe that women are equally qualified as men to hold offices and perform most any job. I'm a lukewarm supporter of some women's professional sports because I believe that someday the level of play will be equal and the best women will be able to play professionally with the men (yes, John McEnroe, you heard me). For instance, in my favorite obscure sport, rowing, Ekaterina Karsten, who has won many, many Olympic and World Championship medals in the Women's single scull, would have placed 6th among men's scullers last year. Personally, I would like to see the women and men's singles mixed together and medals awarded based on overall finish, but I'm probably insane. I have voted for both women (Barbara Mikulski, Connie Morella, Tammy Baldwin) and men (Russ Feingold, Herb Kohl, Ben Cardin, Paul Sarbanes, Chris Van Hollen, Al Gore, John Kerry, etc). I really don't care what you are, I care about who you are and what you believe. Maybe it would be good for Ms. Pappas to actually read what Senator Kennedy said yesterday, about getting past the "old guard" style politics of personal destruction and moving beyond racial and gender identity politics to elect leaders who can represent everyone. Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan farmer and a white woman from Kansas who was raised in Indonesia and attended school in Hawaii. He is Ivy League educated, and spent years as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago. He is a post-racial, post-gender political figure that has managed to get Americans of all colors, genders, and faiths excited about politics for the first time in a long time. To say that Senator Kennedy's endorsement is

just another example of "good old boys," who have "decided that they will support anybody but a woman... He knows in his heart that Clinton is the best person for the job, and for whatever reasons he seems he's not willing to support her."

is to defy logic and plain english. To quote President Bill Clinton, how dare you? How dare you encourage us to step back into the idea that supporting a man means not supporting women? How dare you cast aspersions on the pro-choice leanings of a man who has long defied the Catholic faith with which his family has been identified and cast vote after vote in the Senate to support the Right to Choose? How dare you call an Irish Catholic machine politician endorsing a biracial candidate who has united so many diverse groups of Americans an example of the "good old boy network?" When Senator Clinton was heckled with a stupid, childish taunt before the New Hampshire primary, I had to shake off a wave of disgust for the idiots who thought it would be funny to say stupid, misogynistic things to the first serious Female candidate for a major party nomination. Now, I can't help but feel like you, Ms. Pappas need to be put in your place. Not in your place as a woman, but in your place in history, as a relic of an era of politics that my generation is trying to put behind us. We are sick of refighting our parents' social battles of the 60's and 70's. The Vietnam protests and the sit-ins and the riots and Stop ERA are over. For the most part, the good guys won. It's time to build on those victories by erasing the lines of race, gender, and faith that the "old guard" used to divide us, and you, Ms. Pappas, are simply trying to recast a mold that has long been broken. Please, please, please. Go away. Iron. My. Shirt.

I've been neck deep in an issue that I can't really discuss these days since it's still ongoing, but it deals heavily with a problem of people devoting years to a goal, only to have their future decided by bureaucracy and politics rather than results.  I know how Washington works. I've lived my entire life here, save for four years as an undergrad and a brief stint training out of a boat club in Philadelphia. I've seen Congress up close and personal, and I've seen how capricious regulatory agencies can be. People's hard work and effort can be destroyed by a single person's choice instead of being rewarded in a fair an open process. It doesn't matter if it's a liquor license, an election, a promotion, etc. Politics drives everything, especially when the people making the choices aren't affected by the result.  And people wonder why I'm so cynical.

I find that I see more and more in myself in Gregory House, Hugh Laurie's character on that TV show on Fox. I don't see this as a good thing. Trust me. Meanwhile I am procrastinating on a time-sensitive project and will write about something tech/hill related once I am done. I promise. 

So, this past summer construction started in the building I work at. Of course, this requires the installation of drywall. Now, I am sure the building owners chose the best contractor for the job. I don't care who puts up the wall, so long as it isn't a cube and doesn't crush me in a horrific building collapse like that episode of House where they spent the entire hour treating the wrong patient and at the end you realized that the woman they thought they were treating was dead and her husband had been holding the hand of a coworker the entire time.

Andrew...you're rambling...

Ok, ok. Back to the drywall. So, in the DC Metro Area there is a union, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters. They're none too pleased that we may or may not have hired a non-union contractor to put up drywall. These guys are so Tom Cruise Batshit Crazy(tm) that they want to unionize the entire drywall industry in DC. They actually broke off from the AFL-CIO because they didn't think the AFL-CIO was aggressive enough. Yes, you read that right. This union is a splinter group from the AFL-CIO, which they believe is not liberal enough for their interests. Plus, they're pissed that their union members are losing work to non-union contractors, so I have a picket line of unemployed drywall workers outside banging on drums, chanting incoherently, and walking in a circle...

...or do I?

I knew something was off. These aren't union members, they're homeless people hired by the union to work the picket line.

They've OUTSOURCED THEIR PICKET LINES!!!

So, where are all the union members?

They're working.

On the other hand, the homeless protester rythym section gets better every day. They even have a bucket drum kit now. I guess that's how you get to protest at Carnegie Hall. Practice, practice, practice.

I can't really start a new post with a "remember that time when..." or "when I wrote about XXX" because despite having played around with Blogger since Al3x and I took Web Design together back in high school, I haven't been writing consistantly and therefore I have no archive that I really wish to show anyone. That isn't to say, however, that I didn't ever write about stuff. * did anyone notice that I differentiated Al3x and Alex? I did that without even thinking. I mean, totally autopilot. Weird. Something however that I thought I had gotten over during my four years in the arctic frozen tundra Brett Favre land is time zone differences. My first semester I wrote some kind of screed for a class I can barely remember on daylight savings time, why it is stupid, and time zones, or more accurately why I can't stand them. They vex me so. Oh, how they vex me. 

 See, one of my recent side projects has been working on a collaborative written product with someone who exists in Mountain Time, two hours back. Meanwhile, there is the extremely strange saga of me doing an incalculable amount of unnervingly timely and easy catching up with Alex, a subject which I really should write about at some point since it's really starting to enlighten me on the true nature of people and life in general, but I will save that for another time when I can actually process rational thoughts and put them into words * wait a second, isn't that what I'm doing here? I guess not. that require a bit more contemplation than me just bitching about how tired I am. Oh, back to Time Zones. So, I live in Eastern Time. I went to school in Central (-1) and many of my friends still live there. Not too bad. Now, add in trying to coordinate calls and drafts on a rather important piece of writing with someone in Mountain (-2). Stir in having to do massive amounts of laundry and cleaning, and an uncanny ability to get caught up in conversations with someone in Pacific (-3) that revolve around the obscurest of movie references and a still-slightly-disconcerting firehose of life that bears a strange resemblance to another person who you know in Eastern quite well, only far less depressing since the person in (-3) has managed to not be a total fuckup under considerably more trying circumstances, at least to the best of my knowledge. Ok anyway, TZ's are an entirely fictional creation based on the sun. Ships at sea keep their own time, either Greenwich time (GMT) or whatever is mandated by their function. Some large countries don't even have time zones (Soviet Russia and China come to mind). Maybe this isn't a bad idea. Dealing with such large swaths of time difference in an information-based society when our concepts of time zones go back to an industrial past (think DST) can be a problem. I'll tell you this much. Working on the MT project is going to take me through tonight into tomorrow, and if I actually write about what I want to write about once Congress gets back into the usual swing of things, I'll be writing for a Pacific TZ audience, living and working on an Eastern TZ schedule. I'm fucking exhausted. I'd better get used to it. Oh, yeah. And I still haven't done Registered Traveler yet. I might not. More on that later, maybe. * Stay tuned for why I hate Brett Favre.

Just another quickie - Orangatame Software, the guys behind TwitterBerry, only have on product. That would be the aforementioned TwitterBerry. If that's their Freshman effort I am genuinely excited to see what they do next. They have, however, set the bar pretty damned high. Be sure that I will review the hell out of whatever they give my BlackBerry next. Great job, Orangatame!

As promised, the premier BlackBerry App Review is indeed a Twitter application, sent to me by Andrew Feinberg. We (Ok, I) are reviewing Orangatame's TwitterBerry.

For those of you who don't know, Twitter very simply asks the question: "What are you doing?" You send up a post (140 characters or less) which is instantly viewable to any Twitter member (unless you're weird and have made your updates private). It's a quick and easy way to communicate with friends, get the cathartic value of a full-fledged blog, and even reach out for help and advice from your friends and "followers."

Now, on to TwitterBerry.

Andrew sent it to me and the download was quick as a bunny.

Sadly, as quickly as it was installed it hit me with a bit of a stumbling block: after logging in there is no confirmation. No where on the screen did it tell me that I was logged in, nor did it display my user picture or anything else. The only way that I could tell that I was not logged in successfully was that it didn't work. Even then, I couldn't tell that right from the home screen.

The TwitterBerry home screen is very Spartan. It simply asks "What are you doing?" and provides a cursor. Once you start typing a counter appears to let you know how many characters you have remaining (just like the website does). When you're done, a simple click of the Pearl gives you the option to "update" and away you go. In theory. Because TwitterBerry does not display log-in info or tell you if your log-in was not recognized you won't know that your post didn't work until you log-in to the website and see that it isn't there.

If we press the menu key we have some more options, first (after update) being "Configure". This lets you view or change the name you're signed in under. No, this isn't as helpful as you'd think because you could put in totally wrong info and not be told. However, if you're like me and assume that it was some sort of password typo you can go in and try try again.

Next down we have Friends Timeline.

The "Friends Timeline" is similar to what you see if you're logged in at Twitter.com. You have all the posts left by you and the people you follow, displayed with their user picture, most recent on top. The only downside is that, unlike the site, there is no "older" function; you see the 20 most-recent posts and that's it.

The posts are truncated, but clicking on one will expand it. Once expanded you can read the whole post and even navigate to any embedded URL's. A simple click of the back button returns you to your list-o-posts.

Once you're on the "Friends Timeline" you need to go back to the home screen if you want to go access any other functions. The menu key will only give you "open" (as in "open this post") or "close" (which takes you back home).

Next feature: Get Replies

"Get Replies" pulls up a screen like the "Friends Timeline", but displays the last 20 replies to your posts. Replies start with @<your name here>. "Get Replies" offers a quick and easy way to see if anyone has anything to say about your posts.

My Timeline

Just shows the last 20 posts that you've written.

Public Timeline

This one shows you the last 20 posts left by anyone who does not protect their updates. "Public Timeline" allows you to exercise your voyeuristic tendencies and see what strangers are up to.

Lastly, there's an "About" which will let you know how to get in touch with Orangatame and learn more about who they are and what they do.

There are also BlackBerry options on the menu, and those are "Check Spelling" (duh) and "Show Symbols", so that you can pull up some additional symbols that aren't displayed on the keypad.

Now we will leave the realm of the objective and get into my reaction to and opinion of TwitterBerry.

My only real concern is the lack of confirmation after logging in. I would love to be notified that my log-in failed and maybe even have my name screen name displayed somewhere on the home screen. There's enough space at the top of the screen (where the only thing displayed is "TwitterBerry") to throw in a "Welcome, Lobsticles" or some such greeting.

The lack of a "view older" function from the "Timeline" screens is very minor. Chances are, if you're installing TwitterBerry it's because you keep a decently close eye on your Twitter already. You don't need older posts because you've already seen them.

The only other thing that I'm not a fan of is the inability to go from one timeline to another without making a pit stop back at the home screen. Why the heck can't I jump from the Public Timeline to go and see My Replies? I couldn't tell you. Luckily, the home screen loads almost instantly, so we're saved from waiting around just to load a page that we don't even want to be on. Not a big deal at all, and certainly nothing to lose sleep over from a free app.

I'm really impressed with TwitterBerry. The open and simple nature of Twitter seems to have carried over nicely. There's nothing very intricate, which is grand. It is far simpler than opening up the BlackBerry browser, navigating to Twitter and then proceeding to write a post. The fact that the home screen is devoid of anyone elses posts or pictures lets it load up super fast so you cna open TwitterBerry, post and run. Even while I sit here, right in front of the computer, I prefer posting via TwitterBerry because it is so fast.

Overall, I think that anyone who uses Twitter already would certainly be served by checking out TwitterBerry. It'll give you the best of the site, beautifully optimised for the BlackBerry and its on-the-go nature.

Orangatame Software is located at www.orangatame.com

Click on Products and the TwitterBerry to see if your BlackBerry is supported.

To get TwitterBerry, navigate your BlackBerry browser to http://www.orangatame.com/ota/twitterberry

I'll do it tomorrow and report. Or maybe just wait until I have $100 to spend next week. Meanwhile, Alex is reviewing BlackBerry software. Good for him.

From just a few hours of fiddling at work I'm starting to see some potential in the BB.  There's surely some awkwardness to overcome and the Pearl instead of the familiar, solid, mechanical-feeling wheel is a bit weird for me, but I'm still pleased.  Part of my concern is that while not huge, I don't have petite digits.  Even so, the keyboard is much more comfortable than the Treo 650 that I used to have. The internet speeds are pretty good. Wil Wheaton's blog, for instance, loads up with very decent speed.  I tried loading his blog on my Samsung M500 (connects to the same network as the BB) and the processing power of the BlackBerry really comes out.  Just wonderful.  What was an unexpected blow-away-er is the screen.  Looking at the sample video on there or just friends' Twitter icons I am amazed at how improved the BlackBerry screen is.  This is just one generation removed from a screen that was very Ok; not "bad" but certainly nothing to brag about.  Even for business folks who couldn't care less about pictures on their device I think that the clarity translates pretty well to text .  But "for reals", you would not expect this level of clarity from the LCD. I've only had it active for about 5 hours and am already really happy with the purchase. That worked out really well.  Eventually.

I forgot to bring my passport to work today, so I didn't get to register for my Registered Traveler card. Will report on the experience tomorrow. I promise. So on Sunday, as I was driving to a friends' house in Poolesville, I realized I had to stop for gas. So, I go to the gas station and I try and swipe my (VISA) debit card from my bank. Apparently out fear of gas theft, after hours (this is 8pm on a Sunday) I have to give my card to an attendant. So, I walk up to the little window and push the card into the sliding "don't rob me" drawer. Instead of swiping the card, he asks me for an ID and starts writing the number down. Um? No. I ask him why and he says "management policy, prevent stolen cards." This would make sense, if he was simply satisfied with me holding my license to the window, or perhaps my Federally-issued ID badge as a frequent visitor to the Federal Communications Commission, to verify that the picture, name on the credit card, and name next to the picture match. Instead, he wanted to write my information down. Why? Who knows, but I'll be a penguin in Saudi Arabia before I let someone write down all the information they'd need to charge my credit card. I gave him $25 cash and filled the tank halfway. This morning I called the same gas station and asked to speak to the manager. Turns out there is no such policy and the clerk turned off the pay-at-the-pump on his own, and he certainly didn't need to see my license. Poor guy is out of a job. That's what you get for being a stupid wannabe identity thief in a town where everyone has to show ID everywhere.

So on a lark I decided to sign up for the Registered Traveler program. Pay $128 (minus my discount code) and I get to waltz through an express security line. Why did I do this?

1. I'm sick of taking off my shoes and turning off my laptop
2. I wanted to see what all the "sky is falling" privacy activists were talking about

Now, I'm as big a privacy advocate as any, but as Bill Joy said, "you have no privacy anymore." Once I tried to Western Union a friend some cash, and WU knew my past 3 addresses and phone numbers. Why should I be paranoid about sharing information that credit bureaus already know? Hell, they remember more about me than I do, which can be useful when I forget my old college addresses and want to reminisce about my old roommates. The questionnaire was like when I got my new car insurance (ditching GEICO for State Farm saved be $100/month, btw). Where did I live, what is my drivers' license number, etc etc. How is this intrusive? I give that information out all the time to banks, phone companies, etc. If anything this gives me more privacy since now TSA weasels don't have me stripping in public or turning on my laptop to examine my raunchy start-up background.  The next step is I have to go to a American Express Travel Center (thankfully near my office) and show them my license and passport, and *boom* I can get my SmartCard and waltz through security like a human being. The system may not be perfect, in fact if you're a regular reader of Patrick Smith's Ask the Pilot you should be aware of all sorts of problems with Airport Security Theater, but $100/year is a small price to pay for getting some of my dignity back. Part 2 on Tuesday: Getting "vetted."

So, part of this whole thing is me wanting to write about the eccentricities of Washington and how many of these "Web 2.0" companies aren't doing enough to head off what will be an onslaught of regulation, from either Congress or the FCC. Let's face it. The Congressional Committees are chaired on the Senate side buy a one-armed WWII hero and a guy who invented the phrase Series of Tubes. The guys on the House side have some better brains over there [Rick Boucher, D-VA  and Ed Markey, D-MA come to mind] but you still have a bunch of people beholden to big media (did someone say Diane Feinstein or Orrin Hatch), and let's not forget the Mickey Mouse Protection act rammed through by the late Sonny Bono (R-CA) before he ran into a tree. The point is, Web 2.0 companies are letting the Microsofts and Googles of the world fight their battles for them, when these small startups should be banding together and fighting for their own interests. I plan on covering issues relating to Web 2.0, Privacy, Data Protection, etc in the coming weeks. Watch this space.

I can't sleep,so I figured I'd link to Alex's thoughtful start of a series of posts on the "prosumer" BlackBerry experience. Here you go. Hopefully he links back to my crap.

Bob Mould has become one of my favorite artists over the years. Needless to say, when his live DVD came out last year, I snapped it up. Giving into my pirate temptation after preordering a copy of his upcoming release District Line I downloaded a bittorrent. Bob now considers himself a DC artist, so the album art and title are evocative of our ever loving Metro system. That being forgiven, down to the music, which if you want you can go and find yourself. If not, preorder the damn thing and give the man his due. Sorry purists, there are some elements of technology in there, which he uses judiciously to enhance his guitar-driven (and it is a guitar-driven cd) and emphasize the Mouldian hooks which he's known for and delivers in droves. The lead single The Silence Between Us, available on iTunes, is Classic Mould. The rest simply expands on his multi-faceted sound which is loud as it is evocative of strong emotions that Bob is known for. I'd call this one Workbook on steroids. I won't link to any downloads because I don't want to make it easy for you to steal his music. I've already preordered my copy, and I won't be sharing. If you want it that badly, go and find it. It's worth enough that even if you do, you should pay him his $12 and get a hard copy. He also plays the 9:30 Club (with Morel, Canty, and Narducy, the lineup from his '05 tour) on March 15th. Pay him $25 for that too. He's earned it. In the mean time, here's a clip from his Circle of Friends: Live at the 9:30 Club DVD (recorded October '05)

From a business perspective BlackBerrys rule. It's their bread and butter. Of late, however, those wily Canadians are making a push to get in on the consumer market. It started back on the BB7130e and 8703e; despite a lack of camera they could receive and display pictures sent to them via email for use as a background or to view gallery-style. Modest, but a great place to start. (The lack of camera is a plus to some people who cannot have a camera-phone at work, but I digress).

Then they got fancy - the Pearl and Curve series have cameras. The Pearl2 (8130) has a 2+ Mega-pixel camera. Crap by foreign standards, but pretty nice for a cell phone in the states. They've even got media players on them as well as expandable memory now for holding said media and additional apps. Very cool, RiM (Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry).

Ok, so why do you care?

Even though I know more about cell phones than most people (at least those not part of the industry) I do not have in-depth super-user knowledge. I cannot program your BlackBerry to operate on another network. I cannot get you free text messages or make your cell phone turn on your microwave or start your car for you.

What I do know is that there are a ton of consumer-focused (as opposed to business-focused) applications coming out all the time. My modest goal (for the beginning, at least) is to review 1 BlackBerry Application every 2 weeks. I figure that 1 per 2 weeks gives me enough time to really use it as well as give me time for the day job.

The Rules:

The apps will be OTA (Over the Air) download-able - this is because a lot of people do not use the desktop manager. Also, I'm trying to get at the BlackBerry as a personal device, so I want to find things that are quick, fun, and easy. Not just in use, but in download/set-up too.

I'm really excited to find some fun little apps for the BlackBerry and offer some insights and reviews on them from a consumer POV. I think it'll be a a lot of fun and if I get more ambitious, maybe we'll increase the schedule.

If you have any ideas for an app you already use and love or maybe one that you've heard of let me know.

I can tell you right now that the first one is sure to be a Twitter app.

Stay tuned!!

For those of you who bitched to me during the last Interpol show about how half of them were smoking during the show, none other than the amazing David Bowie can pull it off....look at his hands during this sound check for a duet of Queen's "Under Pressure" with Annie Lennox from like, 1992?...

 A preface: I use Sprint for my cell service. Like Verizon (also AllTel, Helio, Qwest, etc) Sprint is a CDMA carrier. This is important because unlike my GSM pals (at&t and T-Mobile) the handsets are locked to the network. Unlike a GSM phone, which you can unlock on the cheap and then use with your SIM Card, CDMA devices are locked, by their serial number, to one network. Also, (at least for Sprint) the serial number (ESN) can be locked to a specific account or can be flagged as lost/stolen. This is important when buying a used device, like I attempted to do last night. Because of the potential for buying a useless device I only buy used CDMA units locally, through Craigslist, if I'm buying from an individual. Why? The fact that you have met the person, have their phone number and know where they live greatly lessens that fuck-you-over factor. The Story: I found a used BlackBerry that I really wanted. It was the model I love at a decent price. Also, exceedingly close to work. After realizing that the hardware was perfect and all of the accessories were there I bought it and swung back to the office to sit down and get it activated. The Bit About Customer Service: I sit down and call Sprint to activate the BlackBerry in place of my regular handset and switch over to a BlackBerry plan. After I get through the automated prompts so that I can wait for a real live person I am informed that my wait will be 5 minutes. 10 minutes later, I get a rep on the phone. He got the PTN (phone number) wrong a couple of times but we got into my account. I told him that "I need to do an ESN swap and to change the plan on 301-xxx-xxxx." Note the order in which I placed the ESN swap (getting the BlackBerry onto my account in place of my other handset) and the changing of the plan.  This will totally be on the test.  Then, "I'm switching to a BlackBerry, so I think we'll need to do the ESN swap first."  Notice how I said "I think" Instead of just jumping into "...we'll need"?  I did that specifically so it would not sound like I'm telling dude how to do his job. He put me on hold for a few to take care of things (this was after a forever of explaining what plan I waned) and when he came back he informed me that he could not activate the plan I wanted because a BlackBerry plan can only be put onto a BlackBerry. "Yeah, I know that. That's why I said that we'll probably need to do the ESN swap first." He got the ESN from me and put me back on hold.  When he came back another 5 minutes later he told me he could not activate it because it is still active on the original owners' account. See? If he had done things in the order that I suggested he would have seen that the ESN was not available and not wasted both of our time trying to find and change the plan. Back to the Part About Craigslist: So I call the seller of the BlackBerry and tell him what's up. I let him know that he needs to either clear it with Sprint or give back my money. He called me back in a few to tell me something about how it was his sister's and how tomorrow we can do a 3-way call with Sprint to clear it up....  I decided that it was becoming far too involved and I went back to his place and got my money back. That is why I buy from Craigslist when I'm buying a used CDMA phone.  The guy knows that I know where he lives.  He does not know that if he fucks me over that I won't show up to throw rocks through his windows, shit on his car or be otherwise evil towards him. Conclusion: The Sprint part of things was kind of a run-of-the-mill experience:  The rep was inexperienced/poorly trained, it took too long and I didn't get done what I needed. The bit about returning the phone was the best bad experience possible:  Shit didn't work out, I got my money back, no harm/no foul. Epilogue: Dude calls me back today (twice!) saying how we can go to any Sprint shop (his words) and take care of it.  Really?  If I was annoyed by the prospect of calling am I really going to drive somewhere and stand in line to take care of it?  Fuck no. After I left a message with the nice version of that last sentence I have not heard back and the hunt is on...again. Update: Got a reply from someone selling a newer, fancier BB for the same price.  Not my first choice but it is smaller.  We shall see, but we shall not be placing all of our eggs in this basket. Update - the Sequel:  The BlackBerry should be mine on Monday, which is perfect from an activation and plan swapping standpoint.  Despite my prior update regarding egg baskets, I am a wee bit giddy about it. 2nd-to-last Update (I hope): Got a different BB and it looked good - turns out that dude suspended the PTN while waiting for a new phone - this does me no good as the ESN is still tied up.  So he got a call from me 1st thing this morning telling him that he needs to fix it. At lunch (12pm Pacific) I will check with him and Sprint again.  If it is still un-usable by the time I am off of work (5pm Pacific) there will be stern words until my money is returned, in full.  After my money is back in my pocket, the profanity will explode from me with the power of 10,000 Suns. Final Update: So I spent 50 minutes this afternoon trying to activate this BlackBerry 8830 and get a BlackBerry plan.  The rep spoke little English, would not do what I asked and was combative the entire time.  When he said it was done I got the hell off of the phone before I exploded (see comment about Suns). Come to find out 3 hours later that the plan was not provisioned.  I called Sprint again and got a non-outsourced rep.  Not only did she get the BlackBerry Plan on there, but got me one that is $10/month cheaper and includes unlimited SMS messages.  I am wary of that (sounds too good to be tru) and will call Sprint later to get the exact details of what plan is now on there. Sadly, it will be foreever before I can check the plan features online. Currently, I have Twitterberry installed and will review that soon.  It is pretty damned straightforward (this is good) and I will confer with a longer-term user of it to make sure there's nothing I've missed.  If it looks like I've gotten a handle on it, expect the review this weekend.

What am I doing here? Besides any crap I feel like talking about, I intend to have, starting very soon, timely coverage of events in Congress which affect the Technology community (net neutrality, data protection, patents, trademark, etc). This hopefully will include, subject to reader feedback:

1. Liveblogging of Commitee hearings, markups, the House and Senate floors, and any other event when interesting things happen. In other words, the dirty stuff that makes crappy laws exist.
2. Commentary on introduced legislation, including analysis of what the hell it really means.
3. Occasional reports on the technology lobbying community, including who is asking who for what, and what legislation is the result of it.
4. Coverage of the ever-dysfunctional FCC.

Any other ideas?

So my DVD copy of Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York came today...I've had the CD since it came out but I never have seen the actual show itself on video. All I can really say is, wow.  The only DVDs I really buy these days are concerts, since Netflix and Dish Network provide most of my entertainment needs, and this one I'm going to have to watch a few times to really get the emotional weight out of it. I can actually remember where I was when I found out Kurt Cobain died (watching MTV News, in the basement of my parents' old house on Lenox Road in Bethesda, sitting in a green and white chair drinking a cherry coke out of a 20oz glass bottle). I was sort of into Nirvana, I had one or two of their CDs, but I didn't real grasp the significance of what I was watching until much, much later.  Now, whenever I ask people if they remember Nirvana, and they don't, I immediately feel, well, old. 

When I was applying to colleges in 2001, Syracuse went out of their way to try and get me to go there. I was offered a scholarship (small) and they even sent me a book by one of their professors, some collection of native american poetry or something. So, fast forward seven years to my law school application process. Again, I get in, and they send me a t-shirt with their acceptance letter. This is a tier 3 law school. You would think they have more pressing things to do with their money than send prospective students clothing. Accepted so far: Catholic Syracuse Baltimore