I just saw that Jaiku has added IM functionality, with a nice mix of stuff in there. Posting to your stream, adding and removing contacts, commenting on other people’s posts, and even discussion channels. Very nice.
Many people still seem to be pretty doubtful about the success of the mobile web and current usage trends. But I really like the symmetry in us serving a billion ads in less than a month at AdMob and then seeing that Opera Mini is serving a billion mobile page through their server cluster at right around the same time. With so many naysayers still, it’s great to see someone in a related but not completely overlapping position with the same kind of numbers. Sometimes I start to doubt myself and that post from the Opera crew made me feel a lot better. Congrats to the Opera Mini team. The browser rocks and they keep cranking out updates at an astounding pace. The success is certainly well deserved!
The DEA just stormed the medical marijuana place across the hall from our office at AdMob:
I’m pretty sure that this is one of those days that will live on in AdMob Lore for many years to come.
The world is all atwitter with news of the new Nokia hansets, including an 8 gig N95 model that actually works on US 3G. I’m looking to upgrade from my European model E61, so of course I’m considering it. I really really don’t want to lose my keyboard however. I’ve even been considering nasty hacks like carrying a handheld bluetooth thumb board with me to use with the phone. It’s obvious that things have gotten out of hand somewhere in my detached musings. Lets take a step back.
One of the things I actually miss about the E61 is the camera. Not so much for taking images that I want to save, but because the optical sensor in a phone is a good way to tie physical objects to online representations. So one of the options instead of going with the N95 is to get an E61i, an update to my current phone that includes a camera. Not a bad option, but also boring. The N95 also has GPS. If it’s anything like trying to use a bluetooth GPS unit with any existing phone software, I expect that besides testing out whatever nav software is built into the phone I will never use it. Just too frustrating and unreliable. Last time I brought my bluetooth GPS and my phone in the car with me to help out in case I got lost I found that the free Nokia software I had downloaded to fool around with would pop up a screen trying to get me to pay pretty much no matter what I asked it to do. And MGMaps was taking so long to pull GPS data from my bluetooth module that I was able to start up standard GMaps and enter in the intersection I was at to find my location before it worked. Location based services are the future though, seriously. This year it’s going to happen. I’m just betting that it has nothing at all do with with GPS or the E911 system, the models around those systems are just too screwed up.
The other major reason to consider this is that I do really want something that’s 3G. Not so much because I use tons of data from my handset itself for which I would feel a real difference between EDGE and 3G, but because I end up with other devices tethered to my phone rather than paying for hotspot access when I’m on the go. Hmm, that’s actually pretty interesting. I do use IM and SSH from my handset very frequently. But how often do I do that when I don’t also have my N800 around? Looking back I would say about 20% of the time. Mostly because I’m almost always at work or home, and there’s some computer with a keyboard within reach. About 15% of that 20% is when I’m in a meeting and I happen to have only my phone with me. So maybe I would be able to give up the full keyboard without too much pain.
Considering it. I probably shouldn’t be, but I’m considering it. It must be like gravity. Put enough tech into a small handheld device and it creates a dimple in the fabric of reality, which manifests as an attractive force for geeks.
I tend to do a decent amount of technical work just to see if I can do it. Compile my own Linux kernel now and again just to make sure I know how things work, write an IM bot in each programming language as I learn it (current version is in Ruby, previous version was in Scheme), install the Maemo SDK and compile and install one of the examples, setup one of the machines on your home network to do load balancing across some of the others, etc. There’s usually no good reason to do it, especially when you lose a few hours to some esoteric problem you might never run into again. But then again, there are the times when that esoteric issue you happened across while screwing around saves you a few days of debugging when you run into it in production.
I know a whole ton of people who err too much on the side of never doing new things. They just kinda stagnate and do the same thing year after year, and they probably will until they retire. But I also know a few people who seem to always just be playing around with stuff for the hell of it and NEVER have an end goal in sight. I might even be one of them, I’m sure it’s hard to tell from the inside which is which. Oddly enough though, the more random stuff I do the more that stuff seems to pop up in practical usage. And the less random stuff I do the less I seem to need to do it. I wonder if this is one of those things that’s perfectly elastic. You can choose where you want to be on the curve, and no matter what, it’s the right spot.
Despite the fact that reviews of the E90 have been mixed at best, I’ve been thinking about getting one. The E90 might not be as great of a multipurpose device for the business warrior as previous communicators were, but I’ve come to accept that I’m just not a normal user. If it has good Putty support (and the most recent Putty releases mention fixing issues with E90 screen swapping, so it sounds like someone is paying attention to it at least), can run Python (even if Nokia has decided to cripple it’s own implementation of the scripting language, I just can NOT grok what they’re up to with this security thing), and has usable IRC and IM clients, I can done what I want to. The GPS is just gravy. It’s the keyboard and the big screen that I’m after.
But while reading that register article I see that there are production issues. And sure enough, the Dell page for the E90 says 6+ weeks for when it usually ships. As if the never-confirmed/never-denied possibility of an E90 that actually would work with US 3G weren’t enough to stay my hand on this nearly thousand dollar purchase. Even if I decided to do it, I might get one in a few months. And it may or may not have production issues still.
So what device can I get? I like the iPhone, I respect the iPhone, it’s just not the device for me. The Palm devices have keyboards at least, but actually using a Palm device these days is pretty frustrating now that I’ve become accustomed to multiprocessing. I’m definitely off in an odd and small niche, but it’s one that’s really willing to self-service when possible. I want an N800, but with a cellular interface, and hopefully with a hardware keyboard. Please. I’m asking nice, not even going to put in the backhanded commentary. Just please can I have viable open mobile platform. I’ll be your best friend forever.
Rudy tagged me for 8 random things, and now that I’m at home all busted up I have some time to respond! First, the rules of engagement:
So eight things about me, I’m going to try to make them as random as I can:
1. Everyone remember that horrible Punch the Monkey Java based banner ad back in the day? It’s an icon of just how horrible the internet can be. I was working at the company that ran Treeloot at the time and had a hand in that little piece of interweb history. I do not however have any of the monkey dolls, so don’t bother asking.
2. When I first got a cell phone that supported Bluetooth I found that the tools used with it generally blew quite hard. I’ve been a Linux user forever, and at the time there were two competing Bluetooth stacks for Linux. One called BlueZ which eventually became the accepted standard. And one called Affix that didn’t quite make it. At the time however there were some user facing tools for Affix and not much yet working for BlueZ. So I hacked up an OBEX client for BlueZ based on some code from Affix to send pictures to my phone and suck them back down. I assumed it was just a hack and that the tools for Bluetooth would mature pretty quickly. To this day I still see that tool pop up for use in embedded Bluetooth devices. It’s probably one of the most widely used bits of code I’ve written, and I paid so little attention to it that I don’t even have the original source any more. It’s one of the reasons I’m always so critical of Bluetooth, the whole system seems to just be broken.
3. I’m one of the founders of the Mobile Monday Silicon Valley chapter, which a lot of folks who read this probably know. However how that happened is that we had a meeting of a bunch of people, brought on by Russ, to talk about what we wanted to do. When things were a bit sluggish getting going I just scraped up a meeting place and got together I think 8 or 9 people for the first meeting, and kept the fires burning. Martin Little was there for our first meeting, and captured this image of about half of the crowd. I became the MoMo SV organizer by accident. And I’m still doing it because I’m stubborn and I love the people and projects I run into while doing it.
4. I’m something of an internet and telecommunications security buff, called hackers or phreaks in some circles. I end up at all sorts of computer security conferences just to check out what’s going on, and used to hobnob with a few folks who really made names for themselves in those circles. Back then folks online and at conferences used to call me Reverend. I’m always amazed when I think back to what life in my apartment in Rochester used to be like compared to what it’s become now that I’ve made it out to Silicon Valley. And how many other people are out there looking for an outlet for their talents but might never find something suitable.
5. I can not dance. Not like I don’t know how to, or I’m just embarrassed. I can not dance, and that’s all there is to it.
6. I’m a big artificial intelligence/ intelligence amplification/ singularity/ posthuman fan as well. If someone serious sounding enough walked up to me and offered me risky elective surgery to allow me to see in the dark, or interface directly to my computer, or communicate wirelessly with others using a neural implant, or be able to shut off my nerves, etc. I would almost definitely take them up on it. My belief in technology goes a lot deeper than I think most people’s does.
7. When I’m busy I can sleep just a few hours a night for months at a time. Normally 3 or 4 hours for 8 or 9 days and then I’ll crash and sleep 12 hours for a night. It always made it difficult for me to live with roommates because it would get on their nerves. I would always be up doing something almost all the time, but never doing the necessary little things like taking out the garbage, doing laundry, cleaning up, bathing, or eating. I like to think I’m a driven and dedicated person capable of focusing intensely on certain tasks. However I also might just be an insensitive and selfish prick. I think the deciding factor will be if I manage to get rich in the process. If I do I’m a dedicated visionary. If not I’m a maladjusted crackpot.
8. I grind my teeth in my sleep when I’m stressed. I used to be stressed a lot. Enough that I’ve broken a bunch of my teeth and had to have them replaced before I discovered what was happening. My dentists used to ask me if I fought a lot, cause apparently the damage that causes looks very similar to what happens after repeated facial blows. Once we figured it out they made me this big plastic biteplate I need to wear while I sleep whenever I’m stressed. I’ve had to start wearing it again lately.
So who will I tag?
Last weekend I crashed my motorcycle and broke my shoulderblade (scapula for those with a medical bent) and a couple of ribs. Fortunately I was with Jordy and Noah at the time, who were kind enough to direct the paramedics to get me and my bike to convenient places. Otherwise both me and the bike could have ended up in Monterey instead of San Jose. Thanks guys!
So of course things have been kinda slow going for the last week. Fortunately I found out that I can use both hands to type and that the sling they gave me is just to keep my arm from swinging around when it shouldn’t. As long as I can sit at the computer and get stuff done, I’m a happy camper. One of the things I did find ultraconvenient however was the Nokia N800. Using the thumboard on that instead of the stylus it makes for a great way to be able to lounge out and be comfortable while still keeping on top of IM, web stuff, and email. I just wish the terminal for it worked a bit better with the thumboard. You have to enter commands and pop out of thumboard mode to hit return. Still, quite convenient, I’ve ended up using it more in the last week than I have any other week with the 770 or 800.
Stuff has been rolling along at AdMob too. Not only have they continued the demolition and expansion of the AdMob office to include more wall removals, but additional hackery has been ongoing. Yesterday Wayne put up an updated version of the live ad request info now called the AdMonitor. We were all pretty sad to see the live request ticker disappear from the main page when we did the website refresh, and Wayne took it upon himself to replace it with something ever slicker. Fantastic!
I’m still hacking away at some Hadoop stuff. The recent distros have come with a tool you can use to call out to external programs to run the map or reduce phases. Cool, cause I would personally write stuff in Ruby than in Java. I was having a hard time finding an example of scripts to call from the streaming tool, but then I happened upon some C examples for the two phases and was able to get some Ruby scripts executing across my homemade cluster. Best of both worlds. Hopefully it’s a project that I’ll get to spend enough time hacking around with that I can contribute something back.
Apparently once you get locked into a serious computational network buildout, the tendency is to push it as far as you can:
6 nodes, 8 hard drives, 10 cores. Not too bad for a collection of processing I was able to assemble from what I had lying around the house. I haven’t even dug out the old Vaios or tried to get the Nokia N800 running Java either…. the night isn’t over yet. (the photo set)
AdMob is going to be showing off some iPhone specific stuff at the Silicon Valley MoMo tonight. I’ve made plenty of comments about the whole idea of the mobile browser as a thin client for rich applications. Generally, I think the whole discussion has headed off the deep end already, but there are brief flashes of sanity every now and again. The work that’s gone into some of the iPhone applications and open source javascript libs is pretty encouraging, it feels like a pretty cohesive community is forming about the device. We’re hoping we’ve created a way for those developers to make some money with their labor of love and keep the effort going.
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