What is Preventing the Adoption of Open Source Development Philosophies

Depending on where you fall on the spectrum of open source support you are either fuming, just curious, or are in agreement with me before even seeing the reasoning. This article is the product of my many attempts to voice my concerns with those in the open source and FOSS movements. What I’ve found is that if you wish to have a real discussion about the fairness or merit of those ideologies you will most likely deal with zealots who condemn you for even thinking contrary to the ideology. Zealots who by the way are not software engineers. However, I think this snap response is detrimental to FOSS gaining more momentum.

To be clear I am a fan of FOSS and open source software. What I’m not a fan of is the disparaging attitude for any software that does not fit into that narrow definition of what is acceptable. No one can argue against the virtue of open source software helping others to learn programming, or to modify existing code bases to fit their needs. It is also hard to argue against the privacy and security aspects of it, but an argument does exist (which I discuss below). To summarize: FOSS is a good thing, and if we lived in a world in which EVERYONE shared their talents and the products of their labor for free, I would be one of the loudest proponents for it. Since that is not the world we live in I have two specific problems with FOSS and open source ideologies:

1 — Software is a complicated product that deserves the engineering title ascribed to many of the people who work on its development. Software today is built on the giants of the past, and there are many pieces of software today which continue this legacy. Creating good software is VERY complicated. It is akin to rocket science in terms of complexity. Regardless of your competences as a programmer, time is your most important asset. Time costs money.

What FOSS implies is not that you are not paid for your software, but rather that your software’s internal guts and all that makes it work, can be freely viewed by all. To understand why this is significant we need an example of this same expectation in another field.

So let’s use a lawnmower. For a lawnmower to follow the FOSS ideology, it would need to have the blueprints, parts list, raw materials list, method of assembly, and detailed build instructions. The raw materials will need to be freely available to you. You will need to own the machinery necessary to build parts, but fortunately almost everyone has this machinery and they are becoming more affordable every day. Now only IF you can freely build your lawnmower from scratch is it considered FOSS. You could be a mensch and go buy one though. I think we can all see the absurd nature of this thinking. Some might criticize this example by saying it isn’t directly analogous to software, but that would be my point precisely! In the situation where you can build your own lawnmower and everything is given to you to make that easy, how does the engineer who created the thing get compensated? How is that person’s labor protected? How many people do you think are actually going to buy a lawnmower? Think about any other profession and whether or not they would do something similar to this? Would a plumber come to your house, and show you exactly how they are doing what they are doing, and then point you to tutorials that explain why they are doing what they are doing? Do they do this for free?

Of course not!

Does this mean that no one does this? Of course not! It is however a personal decision made by the individual and is done out of the goodness of their own heart. It isn’t the product of an ideology that insists they do that. Now think about this: Software is complicated and it takes a lot of time for GOOD software to be developed. Why should something that a programmer who spent years, months, days, or even hours working on it be yours for nothing?

FOSS does not mean free of charge, but it does mean that once someone has bought the software they are free to modify it, redistribute it, and share it. There are exceptions to this spelled out in various licenses, but ultimately, if the source code is available, nothing prevents people from exploiting it.

However by sharing efforts we can increase the speed of development in many cases, and this is a HUGE good thing. However this sharing must be made voluntary, as it is in every other profession.

2 — The claims that FOSS software is more secure and private. If you are a competent software engineer with a good amount of time on your hands, you absolutely can make good on these claims. You may have to learn about a few APIs, systems, etc. but you’ll be able to prove it for yourself. This doesn’t mean every programmer. This means those proficient in the type of programming the software was based on. Being a programmer doesn’t mean you understand everything at first glance. Time, once again, is your greatest asset. Encryption in particular is a complex subject that people specialize in. Being a programmer doesn’t mean you will be able understand and validate claims made by experts in these fields.

Furthermore, for 99% of the world’s population you have no way to validate those claims. You have to have faith that the people who are the programmers know what they are doing, haven’t overlooked anything, and that they have good and positive intentions. You may have more people to have faith in than a proprietary based piece of software, but you have to trust them just the same.

So with proprietary software you have to trust the company who made it. With open source you have to trust the independent individuals claiming it is secure, private, and good (who can also be part of a company).

The average user does not really benefit here. It is arbitrarily the same to trust a company, who is legally held liable, or a group of individuals, you have never met, and known nothing about, and who are not legally bound to the software. (However, many software companies are legally bound who create open source software. These companies tend to make money on enterprise services and support.)

— — —

I don’t claim to fully understand every facet of FOSS or open source initiatives, but as a software engineer myself these have been my two biggest complaints. I can see the virtues of FOSS, but I just don’t agree with how it’s implemented. My intention in writing this is to drive a discussion that either dispels these concerns, or creates a way to work beyond them.

The Battery Crisis the Industry Rejoices Over

There are several factors driving the smartphone industry. Cell providers are the benefactor of these, and are thus driving much of that for their own self-interest. Cell phone manufacturers themselves have reasons very similar to the providers, and while the reasons behind these decisions are usually covered or justified by new features, the result is largely the same.

The Samsung Note 8 and Apple iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X are all phones just recently announced. Each of these phones are nearly a thousand dollar or are more. Considering that a full fledged quite powerful laptop can also be bought with the same amount of money we are no longer talking about smartphones as toys or pure trendy items. These are extremely expensive devices with a built in expiration date.

Sealed batteries (non-user replaceable batteries) are the standard today. The only phones offering user-replaceable batteries are no longer part of the flagship device lineup. Old stalwarts of this feature have also given up on it. (LG V30 and G6 for example, Samsung phones after the series 6 lineup)

Why is this a problem? Considering the prohibitive cost of these new flagship phones a built in failure is just unacceptable for so many standpoints. When a battery starts to wear out people will notice. As it gets more pronounced a new phone in that series will be getting announced, and instead of just being able to replace the battery and continue to use your perfectly fine and capable phone, it is unnecessarily chucked, at great expense to the customer, and a new phone is bought with the same built in failure.

There are solutions. You can DIY it, and open your phone with a heat gun and some tender care, ensuring not to damage your phone or overheat the components. You can take it somewhere and have some else do the very same thing for you (usually with no real guarantee that they wont also damage your phone.) You can also send it sometimes to the manufacturer and have them replace the battery. All things most people don't want to do. The risk of breaking something is usually just too high. The thought of sending off what is filled with most people's personal things (pictures, conversations, files, and information), off to some random repair place is equally just as unappealing.

And so the ridiculous update cycle brought on by the manufacturers is perpetuated and money is continually thrown away. Payment plans and contracts help to conceal this fact within the states, and sadly this method ends up costing the customer more than if they just bought the phone outright.

The bottom line is that no one buys a laptop for a grand and plans to buy a new one in just a year because the battery sucks. No one accepts that. Our phones now cost more than a laptop, and we shouldn't be accepting it either.

For the record the following phones have user-replaceable batteries:
LG G5, LG V20, Moto G5, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. There are a few others but these are the ones that are actually worth still buying today.

-Matt-Fu

Buffalo AirStation AC 1750 DHPD - DD-WRT Router

After a little over 3 years the Asus RT-N16 has died on me spurred on by some power outages at the house. Unfortunately despite ASUS's best efforts to build a killer router they decided to cheap out on certain key capacitors. So I'm left now with only a white brick and a memory of what awesomeness it use to contain. Of course this led to me acquiring the Buffalo 1750. Ever since I heard that Buffalo had partnered with the makers of DD-WRT for it's firmware I knew I one day wanted one. 

This router was released last February along with 2 other models, so this is a relatively new model as far as things go in the router arena. It's not bleeding edge but the fact that it has 512 megs of built in RAM for normal operations should help one to understand the tone under which this router was engineered. 

When I first received the router it came in a neatly buffalo branded cardboard box. The box contained the router, the power brick and corresponding power plug. (I found it excellent that it used a power brick similar to a laptop instead of a standard wall wort.) It came with a nice flat line LAN cable, as well as quick start guide. The device itself is pretty non-descript (Which I like). The front only details 4 total lights, and the back of the router has 4 LAN ports, 1 WAN, 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 port. There is a power switch and associated power plug as well.

There is also a switch to set the router into AP or bridge mode. (Nice little touch) The characteristics aside, I have to say that the router just feels like it's smartly designed. I would prefer if it had some external antennas, but since i don't use the wireless network on this router to begin with, it really doesn't matter.

What impressed me the most with this router is the DD-WRT firmware implementation. It's flawless. As a long time user of dd-wrt I've become accustomed to slight hiccups associated with the firmware supporting so many different hardware implementations. However it's clear that the dd-wrt's partnership with Buffalo has paid dividends in terms of refinement. It is the dd-wrt we love, with a few niceties added. A wireless and router quick setup card on the basic setup page is one example of this.

There is a certain piece of mind that comes with knowing that in this particular case the firmware and hardware were made specifically for each other. Having had my last Asus RT-N16 die on me, and in a way slowly, (I had to disable the wireless radio as the cap for it would overheat and cause the router to power down and not power back on until it had cooled down. This led to the main power line caps failing and the router going to router heaven.) it was difficult to accept that I had to move on, and couldn't use the config files I had already worked on for so long on the new router, that I essentially had to start from scratch again. The upside being I had to refresh all of that knowledge to get the scripts and everything backup and running.

While I was working on it and getting it all back to where I needed it to be, the device never faltered. Never hiccuped or had any problems. It just worked, and the firmware web interface refreshed faster than on any other hardware I'd used dd-wrt on. It was refreshing.

So if you've been on the fence wondering about Buffalo and DD-WRTs partnership and if it was worth the effort. My answer would be, yes it totally is. The router may be a little more expensive given the radio capabilities, but the functionality that the DD-WRT firmware implements make up for this in spades.

I look forward to a long and happy working relationship with this router.

-Matt-fu

Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 and the S View Note case

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 inside the Samsung S View Note Case

I fought the growth of cell phone dimensions for a long time. I really appreciate a small ergonomically minded phone. The Moto X is practically, in my opinion, perfection in motion. I will always appreciate phones that attempt and actually are fully usable in one hand. However, my needs and wants have changed as the platforms as a whole have developed and matured. Before it made sense to have a small smartphone. A smartphone that could do everything I needed in a pinch, but would not really be that practical in the true sense of productivity for most complex things. It also made sense to have a tablet. This tablet could have been the surface pro or even a Nexus 7 device. It was really just a larger computing platform. The advantages of the surface pro are obvious. A real computer. You didn't need an internet connection to be productive (my use case) as the virtual machines could be run native-ly on the device. The downsides were battery life, size, and number of items that you had to lug around.

S View Note case closed. This demonstrates the view screen functionality this case permits. Here you are able to take a picture, check your heart rate, see how many steps you've taken (Pedometer), check the weather, and so on.

Mobile platforms are traditionally terrible at multitasking, especially if you want to do two things side by side. The Note line from Samsung started improving on this very thing when it initially came out, but it was really clunky and didn't support a whole lot of apps. While it is still clunky it works with almost all of the stock apps and makes doing some multitasking on the fly possible and very useful.

So at the expense of having a larger phone I'm able to integrate my two pieces of hardware into one. The larger screen makes working in the virtual machine much more manageable and makes it possible to leave my laptop at home if carrying it around is not that feasible. The phone's internals allow everything being done it to be responsive and useful. There isn't any app crashing here due to the extensive amount of RAM available to Android. The Note 4 is able to run Diablo 2 using DosBox Turbo emulating Windows 98. This is just an example of the power the phone possess.

Its larger size permits a larger battery and means run times are usually within the 2 day range under moderate usage.

Samsung is known for putting a lot of bloatware software/functionality on their devices. This iteration of the Note seems to have finally made the software added genuinely useful instead of annoying and clunky. (of course this usefulness could have been made manifest on earlier iterations of Samsung's flagships. The last Samsung phone I had was a Galaxy SII which I despised.)You can customize every aspect of the interface (this is the result of Android and not Samsung's efforts) which is something no other mobile OS permits. For a device intended to be used for productivity this is a boon that most users will take full advantage of.

To better illustrate this point I'll explain some of the ways I've customized mine. For starters I've never been a big fan of TouchWiz. TouchWiz is Samsung's skin of Android. While not all aspects of TouchWiz can be done away with easily (removing it completely would require rooting, unlocking, and flashing a custom rom on it this however would remove the useful features baked in the skin.) it's a simple matter to install another launcher from the Google Play store. My preferred launcher is the Nova Launcher. I disable the backlight on the hardware back and multi-tasking button. I add power toggles as well to be able to turn the screen off without using a hardware button or waiting for a time out. I also have the phone set to only be unlocked by a finger print. My desktop uses only 3 screens. I have google keep and a calendar on the one screen. On the next I have arcus weather and a maildroid widget. The remaining is a plume widget and the media player widget. These are just a few of the things you can do.

To speak about the S View Note Case from Samsung, I'll be brief. It fits perfectly, and adds useful functionality in that of the 's view' you see when the case is closed while the screen is on, or if the power button is pushed while the case is closed. From this screen you can check the time and weather, see any pending notifications, turn on the flashlight, activate the camera, check your pulse, and a few other things. It allows you to use a different wallpaper than your standard desktop as well.

The case attaches to the phone is a unique way which helps to cut down on the volume it adds. Becuase the case has a chip that communicates with the phone, you actually attach it by removing the plastic cover, and attaching the case in place of it. Brilliant placement, and it fits the Note 4 so well it just feels like there really is no other way to use a case with the Note 4.

I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a case for the Note 4.

All in all I'm very pleased with the phone and case. I feel that Android has really matured as an eco-system and as an operating system. As a mobile desktop the Note 4 really can't be beat.

-Matt-Fu

Motorola Moto X - The "greatest and bestest" SmartPhone in the World

The debate is ongoing, and the war rages.... People either love, hate, or meh... their phones. I've finally found a happy medium between what I really want in a phone with the Moto X.

Size is important to me. The industry as a whole is racing ahead to continue to improve performance and specs on their newest models, (even Apple has finally succumbed to the demand for larger phones) and this has resulted in the top of the line phones no longer even being called phones but 'phablets'. This is the crux: Making something that is powerful also small is VERY difficult. The return on the amount of time and effort needed to miniaturize hardware is often not rewarded proportionately. For this reason and because of the need to turn a profit, companies are improving performance at the cost of size.

In my version of the perfect world I'd have a phone much in the same vein as the Sony Ericsson Mini Pro but with an additional 1" on the screen size. Maybe a little bigger overall frame and the front physical buttons removed so that the screen is the entire front. The biggest difference though would be the components. We can skimp on internal memory with the addition of a Micro SD slot, but RAM cannot be skimped on.

This brings us to the Moto X. It is not the flagship phone that the HTC One M8, or the Samsung Galaxy S5 are. It is however extremely capable, and performs just as well as either of the aforementioned phones especially if we are just talking about routine daily tasks.

This however is not what sets this phone apart to me. It's the software and integration of hardware. This phone demonstrates that you don't need the highest pixel count screen and fastest chipset. This phone runs Android 4.4 (KitKat) with no problems. I've never seen any slowdowns, and have enjoyed fast and fluid use of all my apps.

Motorola's Active Display is my favorite feature on this phone. Using a combination of the internal sensors the phone tries to detect when you might be looking at the screen while powered off. It only turns on the pixels needed to display the time and a notification icon provided you have any notifications. If nothing is touched on the screen then the display fades out again in a matter of seconds. Because the only pixels receiving power are the ones used it is an extremely cost efficient method to display notifications.

Should you wish to check your notification, you can briefly see the most current by touching the notification icon. A quick preview of it will appear above the icon. If you slide up you will be able to unlock your phone and go directly to the notification in question. Sliding down will unlock your phone normally (as if you pushed the power button). In conjunction with Power Toggles (Google Play - Power Toggles) you are able to turn off the display, lock the phone, power it on, and unlock without ever having to use a physical button. From a wear and tear point of view this is great, but because this feature is useful I don't even really care about that.

The phone also has hardware specifically designed to leverage voice recognition. I've found that this works relatively well, but in noisy environments it's efficiency is limited.

On the new Moto X (2nd generation) just announced you're able to replace the phrase used to activate the feature on the phone. This is a nice improvement and one I've wanted from the beginning with the 1st generation model. (This feature however is exclusive to the 2nd generation model.)

The ergonomics on this phone are amazing as well. It's nice to hold and feels like it was designed to be used. I know of no other phone that can brag about being so comfortable to hold. Some hands might find it difficult but I can reach anywhere on the screen with my thumb while holding it one handed. I wasn't able to do this on the LG Optimus G before.

A neat feature is how you can activate the camera at a moments notice. If you simply pull it out of your pocket and flick your wrist twice it will automatically open the camera app.

The last great feature of this phone is that it uses a practically vanilla android build. You are running a nearly native implementation of KitKat. The only difference is that their features are integrated at the system level. (Active display, Voice recognition, etc.)

All of this combined and it is a phone that is just simply usable, powerful, and the perfect size.

All that said I'm now thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. More on that later...

-Matt-Fu

Lenovo Thinkpad x230 and why I have it over the Surface Pro

To begin with I am one of the biggest fans of the Surface, and especially the Surface Pro. This post is in no way trying to say that the x230 is better than the surface pro. As a matter of fact, and in retrospect, I tend to feel that my decision may have been a little premature, and perhaps not for the best.

To buffer I'll share my experience with the Surface Pro with you. I loved it. From the moment I picked up my reserved 128gb model up from best buy I was in love. Microsoft as a hardware company is doing everything right. They have an excellent example in that regard with Apple as an example. (See look I've complimented Apple!) The Surface Pro was fantastic, and my ONLY real complaints are what they addressed in the Surface Pro 2. That is: 1. Battery life, and 2. the ability to use it in your lap much better. Because of this I started looking at the x230.

I currently own a thinkpad x220t, which is last years tablet PC version of the x series. (A fantastic machine I've already talked about on this blog.) From my experience with the x series I knew that typing on it was second to none. Even though Lenovo swapped out the amazing keyboard that the thinkpad line has been known for since it's inception, I was drawn heavily to the x230.

My needs revolve around data entry mainly, and gaming. I either need to program something or I'm playing (surfing the web, or actually playing a game). What I had found on the surface pro with the type cover was that on a table or other flat surface it was top notch. One exception was the trackpad on the type cover. The trackstick found on the thinkpad line puts it to shame. Of course the pen and excellent touch calibration on the surface more than made up for that short coming. It was the times I didn't have a table that got me. I commute to work, and it can take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes one way. During that time working on projects and other thing via tethering, etc. was a huge benefit. It was however difficult to do using the Surface Pro, to the point of killing my ambition from the start. The x230 does suffer from this, as it's a traditional laptop.

In every way that matters to me, the x230 is competent. It currently has 16gb of RAM, has a 240gb intel SSD as the boot drive, and the factory 500gb hdd as the extra drive on the system. I got it with the fingerprint scanner as well. The ONLY complaint with the system is that it doesn't have the IPS lcd, which is a nit pick because the lack of it doesn't prevent me in the slightest for using it for what it was intended.

The problems then and the reason I have regrets? Well the surface pro even with the type cover attached (and it always was) was just far more portable. FAR MORE. The x230 is considered an ultraportable, but for someone who embraced the ultraportable PC far before the industry inflated the term using things like the OQO model 1 and 2 as well the Fujitsu P1510 series, it is large. There is no way you can take it with you in a stack of text books. And that is my main regret. For the one drawback the Pro had I should have kept it and just made it work.

However, the Surface Pro 2, as I mentioned, has addressed all of these short comings. So the question now is should I sell the x230 and move onto what I really wanted in the surface pro 2? The question is made complex with the annoucement of several competent low power pcs and incredible price points. The dell venue 8 pro starts at $299 and is the same size as a nexus 7.

The Surface Pro 2 with 8gb of RAM and a 256 SSD is $1300+ not including the type cover. One is nearly expendable and the other a well thought out one time calculated expense.

For now I've decided to keep the x230 and just compensate with the V8P. However in the a perfect world and one not so constrained by the needs of family (which are and always will be more important) I'd sell the x230 and get the surface pro 2.

The more I think about it... the more I know I'm probably going to make it happen.

Gravity

I have never written about a movie before. I never really found a movie worth the effort or time. Today, however, I watched Gravity. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, and Ed Harris among others it chronicles the struggle Bullock and Clooney go through when an accident occurs marooning them to the endless expanse of space; the ever present image of Earth shadowing them. Before we go any further let me be frank about one thing:

Warning: This may contain spoilers. You've been warned. 

Putting into words how I felt as I watched this movie and after I left the theater is more difficult than I imagined. The easiest word to use, which may at first sight appear too much,but I assure you is closer to the mark than even I would have initially thought, is awe. Mr. Cuarón who is responsible among other films (He did a Harry Potter movie) for the brilliant Children of Men movie has out done himself here. His cinematography is nothing short of a masterpiece. This movie is both a work of art as it is a gripping realistic look into the great unknown that is space. Every element has been masterfully put into place. From the building roar of noise in the opening of the film, to the choir of completion at the end. The overwhelming realism used throughout the entire movie is as refreshing as it is terrifying.Without going off the deep end, and without droning on, I highly encourage anyone with even a passing interest in space and the majesty it contains to check this movie out. You will not be disappointed.

-Matt-Fu

Jaybird and Sennheiser Bluetooth Audio

Jaybird may not be a name you recognize or have ever heard of. I got wind of them through an Engadget post some years ago. I was intrigued. I am of the opinion that bluetooth in general is pretty under utilized in our overly tech based existences. I suppose the fact that hardware which supports bluetooth tends to be a bit pricey has something to do with as well as initial performance constraints in using bluetooth for audio.

Above is the Sportsband model. This is the version I have. I got it for use with my desktop. A lot of times while using the computer I disturb my family (video games, movies, etc.). I started using some wired over the ear cans (Bose and some skull candy ones) but found that while the audio produced was accurate and nice, it felt like I was tethering myself to my desk. If I needed to get up quickly I would trip on the cord  putting stress on the jack on the computer and the headphones.

Jaybird products are really designed for exercise. They come with a lifetime sweat warranty, and are generally built to withstand a bit more punishment than the average pair of headphones, which is nice, because you are certainly paying for it.

So with the headphones taken care of the last issue was getting a strong bluetooth connection and a decent codex for sound quality. My computer case is a tall lumbering aluminum case, and as such the built in bluetooth radio just did not have the power to get past it. This meant stuttering and just in general poor sound quality.

Enter the Sennheiser BTD 500 Bluetooth USB Dongle. You can generally get BT dongles for under $20. This one is slightly more but supports the apt-X profile, which offers a much improved audio quality. All of this adds up to a very nice listening experience, with freedom to move.

In a nutshell BT audio has come a long way. Gone are the days of staticky mono sound. These are some pretty pricey quality solutions but are by no means the only solutions. Just ensure your products support AD2P and if possible apt-X and you're good. Enjoy wireless listening.

-Matt-Fu

LG Optimus G and why it's for me

My justification on getting the LG Optimus G on At&t (it being on At&t is an important distinction):

1.) The phone is the basis for the Google Nexus 4, save it's design is nicer. I perfer the blocky lock. This also means it is currently hardware wise the strongest SoC in a phone on the market. This will change within the hour (j/k) but for what it's worth you have that.

2.) 2gb RAM. This is important particularly in the Android domain, as the more RAM you have the less application crashing and home screen crashing you will have. This crashing behavior is apparent on my current mini pro (only has 512 meg RAM) and the iPad 1 (only has 256 meg RAM) which both crash almost constantly.

3.) Expandable memory. It has a microSD slot. The Nexus 4 does not, and the Optimus G international and Sprint versions do not.

4.) LTE. This is nice but not really that serious to me I've been happy with what the mini has been able to provide (3g+). Still i should be able to get faster speeds on my phone the my home connection.

5.) the phone has already been rooted.

6.) unlocking of the bootloader is being worked on, and there are clear signs it can be accomplished. If this were to happen you could put whatever ROM you want on the phone. The obvious choice, being the Nexus 4 ROM. Since the hardware is almost identical, minus wireless charging in the G, this would almost a be plug and play option. The robust XDA crowd will have it sorted in now time. Which means you'd have a Nexus 4 on a better more expandable platform, with LTE.

7.) Price. Subsidized it's $100-150 cheaper. Since you'll be paying for the wireless plan anyway why not lock yourself in? That said, I FULLY support Google's initiative by making the phone affordable, unlocked, and off contract. I believe anything that gives the consumer more choice should be applauded. The wireless carrier systems in the US are just out dated and stupid.

Now let's assume it's discovered that the bootloader cannot be unlocked, at least for now. Well then at least LG has promised Jelly Bean, and the current ICS build is basically vanilla, with some aesthetic tweaks being the only real exception. With root you can restore hot spot functionality. Hot spot or wireless APs are another real sore issue I have with US carriers. I'm paying for data. How I use that data is my business. If I want to allow my laptop to use some of that data why does AT&T care? Because their greedy. The work around in all of my phones has been to circumvent their ridicules need to charge me for it as soon as possible.

This phone over an iPhone 5? I'm not really able to make that distinction. For me? Heck yes, 100%, all the way. This phone would be your phone, where as the iPhone is apple's phone and they just let you put your stuff on it. (provided you don't jail break it. Jail broken, the iPhone becomes a VERY compelling device.) For most people. Any smartphone on the market is probably too much. So I would just say go with whatever is cheapest. Get a 4S or a Galaxy S2 for $.01 and call it a day.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? (Please excuse any typos)

Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro - Love at First Sight

It's all about the keyboard.

    I have been a long time user of the Nokia N900. The openness the phone provided was almost a dream come true. In it's glory day the phone was a masterpiece. Certainly a reason to believe of Nokia as a champion amongst men. At least to us nerds anyways. Sadly the openness of the phone was also it's weakness in that the software eco structure, while robust, was also not nearly as exhaustive as iOS and Android counterparts. That said after nearly 2 years with the N900, I decided it was time to get a new phone. I knew I wasn't going to be getting an iOS based phone for two reasons:
1.) No real file system
2.) No physical keyboard
    I treat my phone like a computer. It is for all intents and purpose a computer. (Running an inferior OS sure, but a computer none the less) I wanted to support WP7 but it's OS was still too much in it's infancy for me to bite at that apple. So Android it was.

The screen really is beautiful. It uses Sony's proprietary Bravia engine to achieve this

     The current trends in the smart phone arena seems to be who can make the largest but thinnest phone. Granted these phones have serious guts, but their size is just too much of a turn off. When your phone is approaching the size of genuine x86 based tablets, it seizes to be a phone, and there fore a waste of money.
    I saw the Mini Pro at an Expert here in Germany and was instantly intrigued. Small, well built, and had a physical keyboard. The specs while inferior to other flag ships, did not limit its abilities in anyway. It works on 512 megs of operating ram, and around 400 meg of built in storage. Additional storage is provided in the way of micro SD. I'm using a 32gb stick in mine. It runs on a 1ghz snapdragon processor. The thing is speedy, and I have never experienced any slow down in using it. The keyboard is great with the only exception being the space bar. It takes some getting use, to ensure a key press, due to it's position relative to fingers. The screen is glorious, and the build quality is typical of SE's standard. In short the phone is everything I wanted. The only problem I have, is I would have appreciated at least a gig of operating memory. Outside of this the phone works great, and completely replaces the n900 in a smaller more powerful format.

VNC Viewer connected to Mac Mini (via Real VNC server), running Windows 7 via Parallels Desktop 7

   I use the phone to ssh home to vnc servers, and vnc viewer to control those computers. This allows me to work code, or start downloads, etc. anywhere regardless of whether I have a computer on me. I love the phone, and truly hope that this series is continued and improved on.

Blackberry Playbook

The Blackberry Playbook has been out since April of this year. Even before it was released I had been interested in it. It wasn't until it had been out for several months and received lots of bad press for the lack of some basic functionality however, that I really became interested in it. Ironic really. Hopefully this doesn't persuade you, the reader, into thinking that I'm interested in the Playbook solely because it was bad mouthed. In all actuality the negative press is what prevented me from getting it even sooner.

You see I've used iOS, and while I can see it's appeal to those less tech inclined, I absolutely loathe it. It's facsimile of multi-tasking is atrocious. While Apple currently holds the crown of the longest lasting tablet battery life wise, it is in my opinion a hollow victory. What good is winning the trophy of building a car with the world's highest rated miles per gallon, when the car can only drive in a straight line? How does Apple achieve these fantastic battery life rates? Two things: large batteries (nearly 50% of the iPad's construction is battery), and an OS that cannot truly multi-task. One program runs at a time, and when you sleep the iPad nothing runs, except for the basics (clock function, wifi connectivity, and the basic preinstalled app programs, like mail if configured). To the common user this is a non issue.

For me this was a total deal breaker. Yes to a developer iOS is a great thing, and a really good source of potential income. To a user who would like to replace his laptop for business related IT work, it's a no go. This is particularly true if you need to establish any kind of secure connection on the iPad and then maintain this connection from within another app. Basically any non apple apps have a 10 minute window before they have to be reactivated to maintain there connections. This causes what you're doing to be dropped in the other app. While you simply need to connect again after making the app active again, it is a 20 second ordeal, and a break in concentration repeatedly.

Enter QNX (pronounced Que-NIX, like UNIX). QNX allows for true multi-tasking. When you switch an app, the app is not paused. It runs. (This can be configured in the settings if you don't need this or wish to conserve battery juice) On top of this the OS is incredibly snappy. I cannot talk highly enough about QNX and what RIM has done to it for the Playbook. Some of the things I really appreciate are the gestures, which require absolutely 0 hardware buttons to be pushed. I appreciated the ability to pair a bluetooth keyboard and mouse (which enables a cursor on the screen!!!). I love the playbook's size, and build quality. It's simply a VERY well made tablet. RIM put a lot of thought into it.

Some of the negatives the device has received besides the lack of basic functionality (read: native email and calendar clients) concern the hardware buttons. The complaint that the power button in particular is too small and recessed to be useful is a prime one. I would argue that this is not a bad thing, and it makes it hard when handling the playbook to accidentally push, AND QNX does not require hardware buttons to run at all. Every function is accessible via the OS. Sleep, restart, power off, are all accessible quickly and in any situation. A button is not needed to wake the device. A gesture is.

Why is this such a plus to me? Less wear and tear on the hardware buttons, and it just feels more natural interacting with the device this way.

Another negative I have in particular is the inability of the Playbook to connect to adhoc connections. This is presumably a security concern. The work around is tethering and hoping your cell service provider does not charge extra for it's use (mine doesn't fortunately). This over site will probably be included in an OS update or future app. Another is the lack of a SSH client. SSH functionality is built into QNX, as it is possible to SSH into your Playbook. The lack of a client for the Playbook itself stems most likely from the absence of the native SDK. Currently RIM has started beta dev closed testing on the SDK as of a few days ago. Once the NDK (Native SDK) is released it will allow you to write apps for the Playbook in C/C++ and other programming languages. When this comes out the flood gates will be opened and almost every complaint of a missing app will be plugged within a few weeks. I'm very much looking forward to this.

This NDK will likely have in tow behind it the native Email and Calendar apps that RIM has promised for some time. And will also likely include the delivery of the Android App Player. This "player" is basically RIMs android virtual machine which will allow Android apps that have been recompiled for their machine version (an arbitrary thing for Android devs to do) to run on the playbook natively. This is fantastic. It provides a quick way for tons of existing apps to come straight to the Playbook. Some that I hope will arrive are the Real VNC Player iOS and Android both currently enjoy. It's the best VNC Viewer implemented on a tablet out there.

Once all these things are out and available the Playbook will seriously be a laptop replacement. It's size makes it perfect for the task. RIM's serious enterprise chops and experience make it more than aesthetically up to it, but OS capable as well. This tablet's potential is untapped at the moment. RIM knows this. When they deliver on their promises and provided it's not too late for them to do so, the other tablet manufacturers are going to have a tough time selling theirs to businesses. As it stands right now... no other company can compete with QNX. It is hands down the best tablet OS i've used and I don't see any of the current champs beating that. (too bad Meego is essentially gone the way of the wind, I had high hopes for it...)

If you're sitting on the fence still concerning the playbook... give it another month. Watch for all the positive reviews rolling out by then when these updates hopefully have rolled out. RIM would have be stupid to screw this potential up.

-Matt-Fu

Lenovo X220 Tablet

I don’t know where to begin. I guess I should preface a few things. For one thing, I’m a little more forgiving of faults specific to software implementation. This probably stems from the fact that I supported and still support the UMPC market. (OQO to be specific) As a result I just had to deal with the technical limitations. The X220t does not have any of these problems, but with it’s size should be a no brainer.

                Because I championed some many UMPCs, I find it hard to believe the industry really wants to call a 12.5” laptop ultra portable. This is by far the largest laptop I’ve ever owned. It completely dwarfs my old Fujitsu P1510d. That said it’s not too large. It feels good in the hands, especially in tablet mode. 

                With those little things out of the way, I’ll start with build quality. This was probably the main reason I was so interested in Lenovo. At work I had been using a couple R500 models (European models only). They were 14” business laptops. They were excellent to work on. For all the same reasons that the X220t is a dream to work on. Let me just be clear. Lenovo’s build quality is as close to perfect as I’ve come. The plastics are solid. Really solid. There isn’t any flex in the keyboard, and the keyboard is bar none the best keyboard in the laptop world. (Bare in mind that I spent an inordinate amount of money on a desktop keyboard (HHKB Pro 2) and so much idea of a nice keyboard probably isn’t in line with normal consumer) All that said, there is no way anyone can say this keyboard isn’t nice. The keyboard is so nice, I WANT to work on this laptop. Continuing on with the quality however, I’ve found that the matte finish on the lip and screen really provides nice grip. The screen itself is a nice glass that does not bend when pressed. This allows you to simply work and not worry about whether you are damaging the screen or not. The IPS display is gorgeous and the viewing angles are great. Really all you could ask for in a tablet PC. Let me re-iterate one more time: The build quality is impeccable. The only way you’re going to get better is to drop 4k+ on a Panasonic Toughbook C19/30. I esteem Fujitsu’s laptop build quality to be really high as well, but in general Lenovo is just a cut above. 

                My X220t is rocking the i7 processor with 8 gigs of RAM. I have the fingerprint scanner, webcam, wimax, and Bluetooth. A word on the fingerprint scanner. The Fujitsu P1510d has a fingerprint scanner as well, and while it always worked it was slow and buggy. I attribute this to the software needing a lot of overhead and the amount of system memory and overall processor speed on the lifebook to really not be up to the max. On the X220t processing power is not an excuse as the i7 blows it out of the water. Here on the X220t the fingerprint scanner works well and quickly. Lenovo even allows you to swipe (with fingerprint recognition) to power on the laptop. This is useful if you left it in tablet mode. By swiping you not only power on the laptop but also authenticate at the login prompt. A really good idea that works well.

                The webcam works well also in tandem with the dual microphones, which provide excellent noise cancellation, and great reception. The camera is bundled with some auto locking software as well. The camera detects when you face isn’t present and after a set period locks the computer automatically. This works really well. I’ve turned it off because security isn’t a real high concern at home. Also I don’t want it wasting battery. All the radios work as expected. I get better signal reception than in my other smaller laptops. This is to be expect as I have a much larger surface area for antennas. Battery life has average around 5 and a half hours. There is a slice option which will double that figure. I might get it. We’ll see.

                All in all I’m just blown away with the usability of this laptop. I really feel like it was designed for an individual to use. To really use. To really get some work accomplished on. It’s great.

                I really can’t recommend this laptop enough. Yes it’s expensive, but in this case, as with a lot of technical related things, you truly get what you pay for.

-Matt-Fu

Samsung MD230X6

So if you have read my past posts here, you have probably surmised that I have a thing for monitors. The goal has always been to have a large display canvas. Recently I bumped into the Samsung MD230X6.

 It is first and foremost very expensive. To build a 6 screen setup of yourself would cost about half of what this costs. The advantages to this setup are that the screens and stand are towards the one goal of a 6 screen setup. Cable management is a little easier because of this design goal. Also all the screens are powered through one wall plug.

 There is also a remote which allows you to control the screens remotely and access their OSC this way as well.

 Because of the extremely small amount of bezel on each of the 23" screens there a very large seamless image provided.
This would lend itself very well to programming and graphics.

Now the I just need to figure out how to incorporate this with my current rig. I'm thinking of dropping the 285 and putting in a Radeon 6990 in tandium with the 580. Of course it might be better to just sell the 580 and get 2 6990s.

Either way it's a lot of money and as such it will require a lot of research. In the meantime my 3 screens will have to do. ;)

-Matt-Fu

Acer 1825PTZ

I was getting ready to be sent away on business and decided my Libretto w105 would not cut it, as I had a class I needed to work on while on the road. As the Lenovo X220t had not been released yet and because even if it had I wouldn't be able to get it on time I decided to get the Acer 1825PTZ. This model is not directly available in the states. Instead it sold under Gateway. The specs are:

Intel U4100 (dual core @ 1.3Ghz)
4 Gigs of RAM
250 GB Hdd
built in web cam
Bluetooth 2.1
capacitive touch screen
8+ hour battery life
11.4" screen (putting it in the ultra portable category*)

That covers most of the big features. Based solely on the specs this is a fine laptop. Capable of handling most normally computing task, and even have a little bit of brawn for a bit more. If this was my sole criteria for a laptop I would end here and just say it's a great laptop.

However this laptop cost about $850. My first complaint is build quality. Now don't take this wrong, it's not falling apart, but there is not much solid about it. Aesthetically it looks nice, but the keyboard, as trendy looking as it does leave much to want. The shift key in particular requires a pretty precise depression to work at all times. The enxt complaint is the screen hinge. There is VERY little resistance on it. When you convert it to tablet mode, it does not sit still. Gravity moves it to and fro by a quarter inch. This is too horrible, but is not a good thing for a screen that should be stationary regardless of it's orientation. The next complaint is the screen. It is made out of plastic and flexes very easily. Initially I thought the screen was resistive because of this. For a capacitive screen which is not reliant on pressure, anything less than glass is unacceptable.

So in a nutshell, for those who are not that concerned about built quality and wont a decent tablet pc, I would suggest this. It runs windows 7 premium x64, and is pretty spec packed. I just can't get over the my few complaints. To each there own.

Soon I'll have a review of the X220T. After a nightmare getting it ordered it should be here within the next 4 weeks.