tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-233063772023-11-16T10:00:35.034-08:00phaseburn.net: blogspace<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_LCAmAhYP3Tw/TL4e8tTAbfI/AAAAAAAAAKI/RzhtNCRQ320/s800/phasedlogov6-final.png">Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-47558461253941635172013-11-29T21:29:00.000-08:002013-11-29T21:29:38.832-08:00The holidays are here again...<p>I've had some good holidays over the years, and, some bad ones, just like everybody else I'm sure. I'm almost always <i>the outsider</i> though, the guest who isn't related to anybody else. While I'm not by any means saying that there's something wrong with that - in fact, I quite appreciate that I usually end up spending moments with friends, it's a different perspective than what most people experience. So, to that effect, the holidays have always meant something different to me, than they typically do to most people. Most people, from what I've gathered, enjoy the holidays for the sense of family they bring, when you go visit your relatives who live far away, or they come visit you, and the whole group gathers together in one place for possibly the only time of the year.</p>
<p>Looking in from that perspective, and having zero hope of ever being with my whole family around the holidays, it's a little bit funny at how people react to this time of year. Thanksgiving was just yesterday, and, I was invited by a friend, to attend with him and his wife, a dinner prepared by their friends. Neither had family in the area, so they've become like family to each other, even though they're not related. Because of that aspect, I actually really enjoyed the evening with everybody. Despite not knowing the friends before hand, nor them me of course, we clicked and everything just was awesome.</p>
<p>By the end of the night, aside from being <s>shitfaced</s> <i>"mildly intoxicated"</i>, I had a warm feeling in my heart (as well as my stomach) that the individuals I'd just met, not to mention the individuals I went there with in the first place, were very upstanding people, who made me feel welcome on the same level they were welcomed in, and there wasn't really a separation of family and friends like so many places I've been before. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better holiday this year, and in fact, it was far better than many previous years. It was small enough that everybody got to actually hang out and talk with everybody else, not some 20+ people around the same table, vying for the attention of everybody else. I even got a potential job offer.</p>
<p>Now that Thanksgiving is over, though, the real torture begins. Black Friday came and went, and aside from a ton of fights at Walmart (No surprise there), it's been mostly business as usual. I avoided any kind of shopping today in person and caught up on some coding, some NetFlix (on the last season of Breaking Bad right now), and some projects I've been helping out with. But because of it being Black Friday, the thought of the coming holiday kept popping up in my mind. Buying presents is never something I'm anywhere near "good" at, and am at most, mediocre, if not down right horrible. I'm also fairly difficult to shop <i>for</i>, or so I've been told, because there's only 3 things I really ever want, and none of those are ever easy to come by, or purchasable at a shop in any quantity other than zero. So usually I avoid the whole shebang, mail out my Solstice cards, and that's usually it. I've been invited to a few places over the years, too, as well as had a small thing with my roommates at the time, which was all nice, but it wasn't anything overly special. I was either outside looking in, or, it was just very low key and not much emotion to begin with, similar in stature to a gift exchange at an office party perhaps. Over all, my expectations have always been fairly low.</p>
<p>This year, however, I'm trying something different. I'm picking up a little something for every one of the people in my life I'm thankful for. Something small, maybe a gift card, or a shirt; something meaningful, yet modest. The challenge is going to be in picking up something that will match everybody well enough. This year's list is actually pretty small, all things considered. The past couple years have resulted in a bit of refactoring who I consider important, and who I consider a friend. I've been a fair bit more social this year, meeting a number of new people who are pretty awesome and epic in my book. Of course, I've met my fair share of pompous assholes, too (I'm looking at <i>you</i>, Mr. Downey), but over all, the good has outweighed the bad, if only marginally. I think this year's holiday fiasco will actually be much better than I expect, though my expectations are so low that isn't difficult. I'm actually thinking that this year has the potential to be the highlight of all holidays going back 20+ years for me, but of course no expectations of such so that in the event it doesn't live up to that, I'm not disappointed. It's given me hope, though, for the first time in a long time, and I'm not even hiding behind Solstice this time. Yea, I might actually do <i>Christmas</i> for really the first time in forever. Here's looking forward to a chance to change, and move on in a positive direction for once. Cautious Optimism has been engaged.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-33313965265537391762013-10-08T09:33:00.001-07:002013-10-08T09:36:20.995-07:00The winds of change, radiating from a cell tower in the distance...<p>It's no secret that I've been an Android enthusiast for years, going all the way back to 1.0 on the first developer phone, the ADP1. I found myself involved, early on, with the <a href="http://www.cyanogenmod.org">CyanogenMod</a> project, way back when custom ROMs were just WinZip surgery, and nobody compiled from source. JF and Haykuro lead the way in the early days, eventually giving way to custom kernels. I remember delving into kernel code for the first time trying to get a custom build of Android working on my HTC Dream (no, not the G1), but because it used slightly different hardware, needed an EBI1 kernel instead of the EBI0 that everybody else was using. Patches were acquired from HTC (eventually, through much prodding), and the revolution began.</p>
<p>Android 1.5 came out, and with it, CM. I grew to support the team, who are all a great group of guys, and <a href="http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org">did what I could</a> here and there. It's been a wild ride over the years, and now that they've <a href="http://www.cyngn.com">incorporated</a>, I wish them all the best of luck. I know a number of people there, and have met most of them in person myself. Again, great group of guys, and I really hope they go far. It's clear they're doing what they love, and loving what they do.</p>
<p>That being said, the nature of Open Source has always been a fairly emotional scene. People do a lot in their spare time, with out compensation, so they feel a certain sense of attachment to their contributions. It's certainly understandable that they'd have a higher degree of passion about something they choose to do in their spare time, than something they were paid to do by their employer. I'm not talking about Focal or anything related to the incorporation of CM, btw, just talking in general. It's just the nature of OS.</p>
<p>As such, it's with a sad sigh that as of this morning, I'm no longer running CM personally on my phone. After nearly 5 years, I think it's time for a change, and, after considering a lot of things, I've decided to go in a different direction than the one CM has chosen to take. I'm not mad or upset, I just found that CM was no longer aligning with my needs and wants, personally. I still feel they're an AMAZING project, and one I fully endorse, support, and recommend to the vast majority of my friends. I'm still a forum moderator there, and hope to continue that role, as well as being active in their community and XDA about CM.</p>
<p>What, exactly, lead to this decision? Well, recently, the CM team decided to switch from AOSP sources on the Nexus kernels to the CAF tree from Qualcomm. This is <i>probably</i> to improve performance in some ways, but, I feel it's a legally questionable move, because of the restrictive licenses and proprietary binaries required. The Nexus 7 uses these sources, so it's required there, but switching the Nexus 4 to them? The only thing it's accomplished on Mako currently is to break compatibility with AOSP sources. So no more franco kernel, or anything besides CM's kernel, unless it's developed or rebased against CAF. In essence, CM has split the Nexus community into Camp CAF and Camp AOSP, forcing everybody into one or the other. I'm honestly not sure where they're going with this, but I think it's a horrible decision (and a number of kernel devs and AOSP coders agree with me). I'm not trying to publicly shame CM, as I fully believe they feel this is in the best interest of their users. And, it probably is. Performance matters, right? But is it in the best interest of the Mako community, or the AOSP community? I'm don't think so. But, that's for history to decide, I guess.</p>
<p>What I do know is that, as of this change, CM no longer meets my needs. The CM team does a great job with a lot of things, from development of awesome features, to performance tuning in the frameworks and kernels, to QAing their products, to triage of bugs, to release engineering and infrastructure management. I have nothing but respect for them and the products that they put out every day, and for free, too. But I need compatibility with AOSP sources. I need USB fast charging. I need performance tweaking, undervolting, and more advanced features that CM isn't looking into, for one reason or another. And there's nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, this is, after all, their project, for them to manage and run as they see fit.</p>
<p>It seems that CM is in the midst of a shift in strategy. When Steve first developed CM, it was to produce the version of Android he wanted to use, that had the features that stock Android didn't (or couldn't) implement. I think that's largely been achieved. Now, they're focused on polishing that, and bringing it to the masses. Shipping on a phone through a hardware partner? That's awesome, and I'm so happy for them. An official installer to make the process painless for people who have never modded their phones before? Even better! But this shift has demonstrated that CM is no longer for power users, it's for everyone. And the power users like me are slowly but inevitably starting to suffer. So yesterday, I switched to Carbon ROM. It's based on CM, with some AOKP and PA built in, and I'm discovering a whole new world of things that are available outside the garden I've been enjoying for the past several years and devices. I've known about things like HALO, and I've never cared. Now, my device has HALO, and I'm still not using it. Yet. The AOKP NavBar settings are a nightmare, and it doesn't even support taking a screen shot from the shortcut ring like CM does. But it does other things, such as widgets, customized buttons, colours, and all sorts of other mods that are quite nice. QuickSettings are a pain, since they also use AOKP's code, but a dev recently told me they're switching that out for CM's implementation soon, too. I'm looking forward to the future with Carbon, for the simple fact that they took CM as a base, and turned it back into the power user garden that I craved to be in once again. Will I stay with Carbon? I honestly don't know. My tablet still runs CM, and will continue to do so until I get the bugs out of Carbon and switch, or until the Manta tree switches to CAF sources too (which I don't know if it will or not).</p>
<p>I don't regret my time with CM on my phone, and I look back over the years with many, many fond memories. I'm also not saying "Goodbye" by any means, more a simple, fond, "See you later!". Because I will see them later, and I will continue to keep in touch. But with the sun setting in the distance, I feel it's time to pack my bag, hop the train, and see where I end up, knowing I can come home if I need to...</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-31615578809439627492013-07-02T17:00:00.001-07:002013-07-02T17:08:50.464-07:00Privacy? What privacy...<p>By now, I'm sure you've all seen the leaked NSA order to Verizon, to provide them with 3 months of phone records, on ALL of their subscribers. I know I've seen it at least a dozen times, and, I'm tired of it. Why? Do I not care about privacy? Hardly, I value my privacy very very much. But in this case, there's really nothing I can do, and honestly, there's no expectation of privacy - that is what this world is coming to, and, here's why.</p>
<p>First off, this court order is issued to Verizon. It doesn't mean that other carriers didn't get court orders themselves, each one would be different and require its own approval. So who is to say that T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, et al, didn't get their own versions of this? Just because they haven't been leaked doesn't mean they don't exist, nor that they do for that matter, but I prefer to err on the side of caution, and am assuming that Verizon was not the only lucky recipient.</p>
<p>Verizon can not refuse a court order from the US Government, signed by a judge. It's unlawful to do so. So this isn't their fault. A mass exodus from Verizon makes little sense for this reason (especially when you can't guarantee the company you're running to doesn't have the same court order in place). I liken this to you boycotting Ford because your wife was run over by a drunk driver who happened to be in a Focus. Go after the driver - in this specific issue, it's the US Government.</p>
<p>Lastly, why I'm not overly upset about this, is because I don't have any <b>EXPECTATION</b> of privacy, and I honestly think anybody who does, needs a lesson in personal responsibility. When I place a phone call, data is being logged. What data, exactly, varies by provider but is mostly the same - my phone number, my account number, the cell tower I'm using, the routing information, the number I'm dialing, the trunking on how my call connects to their number, etc. If I don't like that data being logged, I have two choices:<br />
<ol>
<li>Don't generate it in the first place, by using alternative means of communications, or,</li>
<li>Set up and run my own phone network. </li>
</ol></p>
<p>Most people can't do number 2, and number 1 is inconvenient (at least until you get used to it). So what does this mean, really? It means that I have the expectation that the carrier I use (whoever that may be) is recording this information, and can and will do whatever they wish with it. But, what about the expectation of privacy?</p>
<p>There is none. When I have a secret, I don't tell it to people. Or, I tell it only to people whom I trust. The more people I trust, the higher the risk that somebody will betray that trust. How many of you can honestly, truly say that you <i><b>trust</b></i> your carrier? Not I, not once, and I've been with all 4 major carriers over the past 15 years. I don't trust my bank. I don't trust my internet service provider. I don't trust any of these large corporations, because they would gladly stab me in the back for profit every single time. I'm a single customer to them, they care more about lining their pockets, because the truth is, my $60 a month is peanut <i>crumbs</i> to these multi-billion dollar corporations. Additionally, they're involved in racketeering - every single one of them behaves the same way, even though they supposedly "compete" with each other. When all parties are similarly untrustworthy, and there are no alternatives (even the smaller MVNOs are still piggybacking on the national carriers, and so they're untrustworthy by proxy), you have zero expectation of not being stabbed in the back. So don't give them any secrets you care about in the first place. To me, that's just common sense.</p>
<p>We, as Americans, are far too tolerant of the domestic spying the government is instituting. Sadly, until we take on the root cause, nothing will be done. Today, Verizon. People will likely switch services because of it, but what then? It'll happen again, next time to AT&T perhaps. Will there be a mass exodus from AT&T then? Or will we finally wrap our heads around the fact that it isn't AT&T's fault then, any more than it's Verizon's now. We need to send a unified message that the government has no right to spy on its citizens who are not suspected or accused of wrongdoing. Simple as that. And until that happens, Verizongate will happen over, and over, and over...</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-581064380202578012013-03-12T16:41:00.002-07:002013-03-12T16:41:52.438-07:00Some of my quirks...<p>
I get asked a lot why I am a certain way, or why I prefer things the way I do. Typically, this is in reference to computers, though food is another common area. I was born in 1981 (as a reference), but a lot of my attitude is more like somebody who was born in the 90s or even 00s. I'm highly computer literate, at a technical level, but that doesn't mean I know how to use everything out there today. Far from it, in fact, which is why I am the certain blend of "quirky" that I seem to be.</p>
<p>Growing up in the 80s, I was one of the privileged few with a computer. Comparing it to today's standards would be pointless, so I'll refrain, but the OS that powered it was MS-DOS 2.0. Note, I said "powered it" rather than "was installed on it" because my first computer lacked a hard drive. It booted up off a 5 1/4 inch floppy, loaded DOS into it's 256 KB memory, and then you swapped disks to run your application. There was no mouse, the monitor's only pixel shade was Matrix green, and if you didn't know the command line, you couldn't use the device.</p>
<p>
Being DOS 2, this was long before DOS 5 which introduced the ASCII/ANSI based "DOS Shell" file manager. You had files, and directories, all limited to an 8 character file name, and a 3 character extension. The two were separated with a period, and there were no exceptions. This is how I grew up.</p>
<p>
Later on, DOS 5 came out. I had since upgraded to a different system, that was slightly better - 512 KB of RAM, and a hard drive (20 megs). This system had a mouse, and was capable of running Tandy's Deskmate 2 software package. It introduced a number of new features, mainly, copy and paste, and was the first GUI I ever worked with. It should be noted, though, that Tandy followed IBM's common user access standards, and as such, copy and paste was done with the CTRL+INS and SHIFT+INS, rather than CTRL+C and CTRL+V, which was in use by only Apple at the time.</p>
<p>
Eventually I upgraded yet again, this time to a computer running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. Aside from running windows programs, I preferred being in DOS as it was more familiar. It should also be noted that Microsoft copied Apple in the use of CTRL+C/CTRL+V for copy/paste, as well as including IBM's CTRL+INS and SHIFT+INS. As such, I kept using the CTRL/SHIFT + INS key strokes.</p>
<p>
A little later, Windows 95 came out, and I upgraded the OS. The UI was so new, I remember changing the default shell from explorer.exe to progman.exe to replicate Windows 3.11's look and feel for months. I usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming into new UIs. It should be noted I still preferred DOS and SHIFT/CTRL+INS.</p>
<p>
When Windows 95 OSR2 came around, I was thrown into the new UI finally. I had no choice, as progman.exe wasn't included any more. It took getting used to. A lot of getting used to. I did manage to adapt, though, and found Windows mostly usable. I tweaked it the likes of Tweak UI and SysInternals tools, and life went on. Despite Windows now trying to call "directories" "folders", it never stuck. I still call them "directories" to this day.</p>
<p>
In the course of my explorations, I started getting into UNIX via telnet (SSH wasn't around just yet). I got access to my first shell account probably in 1997 (it was a FreeBSD box, running ksh, if memory served), and I fell in love with it. It was multi-user DOS, only about a hundred times more functional. I immediately dropped my mail client for pine, and started getting back into the CLI that I was born and raised on. And UNIX still referred to them as "directories" too. Vindication was never so sweet.</p>
<p>
Windows 98 came and went. Internet Explorer and Netscape were battling it out, and to be honest, I sided with Internet Explorer (this was back in the days of IE 4). I never liked Netscape (thought it looked funny for a Windows application), proving I was young and nieve at some point. Though I didn't use a web browser for much - mostly reading Slashdot and gaming news sites, as well as managing the gaming sites I ran myself. Still, days went by where I didn't open my browser. We didn't have those fancy "tabs" back then, and I didn't ever consider them because of how infrequently I hit the web. I lived in IRC, in telnet, and in instant message applications like ICQ. I switched to Outlook 98 for email, due to the sheer number of messages I received (5,000 a month was typical volume if memory serves).</p>
<p>
In high school, we were an all-Apple environment. OS Classic (7.6, 8.0, 8.5 were common - 9 wasn't out yet), and that scarred me for life. I was constantly fighting the UI to do things the way I wanted to do them. I hated the design of their system in so many ways, because it wasn't what I was used to. Going home to a Windows system didn't help, either, because it gave me an "out" rather than forcing me to adapt. I look back at those 4 years as "hell".</p>
<p>
Windows 2000 came and yes, I upgraded. 2000 would be the logical successor to 98, would it not? Made sense to me, but no, Windows 2000 was the upgrade to Windows NT, which was the enterprise version of Windows. As a result, a number of games and printer drivers didn't work on Windows 2000 that did on 98. That irritated me, and was what lead to my first linux desktop system (I installed it on a 2nd computer, right around the time it came out).</p>
<p>
When Windows ME came out, I ignored it. Then a month later, I laughed at the poor saps who were running it. It was buggy, it crashed frequently, it was slow, and my rock solid Windows 2k system just worked. No, I couldn't run all the software I wanted to run on it, but stability trumped compatibility. All the core things I wanted ran on it fine, anyway. I still had little use for a web browser, and I still used CTRL/SHIFT + INS. I switched to SSH right around this time, too.</p>
<p>
When the Mozilla project released their Phoenix browser, I gave it a shot, and found I liked it more than Internet Explorer (which was getting progressively worse). 0.5 was the first version I actively remember using. I never gave IE another thought after this point.</p>
<p>
Windows XP came out, and I ignored it similarly to ME. The Luna interface looked like somebody at Microsoft had asked Lego to design their interface for them. The color scheme was abysmal, and the "new" style start menu didn't sit well either. I rarely used the start menu, and when I did, I didn't want to have to drill down into the "All Programs" menu to access the groups. Putting shortcuts to commonly used applications on the main menu only makes sense if you HAVE a set of commonly used applications. All my applications that were commonly used were always running: ICQ, IRC, Outlook, SecureCRT (SSH client), and so when I wanted to use the start menu, it was usually for the one-off game of Starcraft or Quake that wasn't logical to pin as a favorite. Thus, I turned off the new start menu design pretty fast after I finally relented and upgraded.</p>
<p>
Then, in 2001, Windows just pissed me off. The lack of flexibility in some of the applications, down to the OS itself, made me do an end run around Microsoft and I jumped ship to Red Hat Linux. Evolution (mail client) was a good enough Outlook clone, Mozilla Phoenix (now called Firebird) was a great browser, X-Chat (which I was already running on Windows, having abhorred mIRC versions after 3.x) already worked on linux, I had full command line capabilities and all the tools I was already using via SSH anyway, so the only thing I was really missing was games. And for those, I had a second computer for. My initial desktop was Gnome 1.4, with modifications from HelixCode (later, known as Ximian).</p>
<p>
After XP came Vista, and I'm sure everybody's aware of the pile of smoo that was. Having been on linux for so many years, by the time Windows 7 came along, I couldn't have cared less. Linux had shaped my philosophies and usage patterns to the point that I was no longer capable of running Windows. Linux was all about "open" and then Google showed up, reinforcing those ideas in my head. Data should be "free". Standards should be "open". So now that you know my history, lets examine what I want in a modern system.</p>
<p>
I want a consistant interface on my OS. This means, an interface that I can use with out difficulty, with out wanting to curse at regularly, that allows me to be productive. Sorry, Apple, this isn't you. From your global application menu bar to the lack of click-through events on backgrounded UI elements, I hate you with a passion. You may be awarded medals for your design capabilities, but it's function > form for me, and you fail that at the most basic levels. For an OS built on UNIX, I'd expect more to be honest. Most of the tools I require on the command line are missing, thanks to your hatred of GPL, so unless I want to install MacPorts and compile a ton of things, in a very Gentoo-esque fashion, you're pretty useless (and that's assuming I can stomach the interface that isn't very customizable to begin with).</p>
<p>
I want open standards. I don't like Facebook. I don't use them, as a result. I don't trust them with my data. So I *sure* don't want them integrated into my OS. Same goes for Amazon. Here's looking at you, Canonical. I want open APIs to allow me to add the services I make use of. If you want to ship it by default, that's fine, but give me the ability to remove it. Don't shove iCloud or Sky drive down my throat - I'm even less likely to use it when I can't remove it.</p>
<p>
I don't use proprietary document formats. I believe that data should be free. This means, I can import and export between formats at any time, for any reason. Google Docs allows me this, as well as LibreOffice, so I use the two of them for that purpose. I don't support Microsoft Office or Apple's iWorks, as they haven't completely documented their XML format.</p>
<p>
I don't want to financially support companies that resort to patent trolling, and trying to get competitor products banned over things that have 20+ years of prior art, such as detecting phone numbers and making them dialable (Borland Sidekick, 1986) or arranging application icons in a grid (Palm Pilot, 1996). I most certainly don't want to financially support a company that engages in petty censorship of software based on something as trivial as license, or content.</p>
<p>
As a result of the above, I found that Microsoft and Apple both can't meet my needs as software companies any more. The companies have decided to stop producing products I actually want. My needs really haven't changed much in over 20 years, but Apple and Microsoft seem to no longer wish to meet them. Microsoft keeps re-inventing the wheel, rolling out new interface after new interface, and Apple's never appealed to me in the first place. So, a linux user I shall remain, for the foreseeable future, muttering words like "directories" and using SHIFT+INS for paste. (At some point, I did migrate to CTRL+C for copy. I've never used the "cut" function. Another quirk of mine.)</p>
<br><br><p>P.S. I haven't covered some other important events in this history, such as my moving to Google Chrome from Firefox, or from Evolution to Gmail, but those things happened. As content became more and more web-based, so have my tools, to the point where it used to be days between opening a single browser window, to now where I always have one open with usually 6 to 10 tabs inside it.</p>
</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-73535768096076555522012-12-13T02:59:00.000-08:002012-12-13T03:01:04.622-08:00The holidays are upon us again...<p>My my, where did the year go? The holidays are upon us once again. Usually, I send out Solstice cards but this year I'm just not feeling it. I'm not sure why, especially with the planetary alignment happening this year on the 21st. Normally, I'd be all over that, but I think I'm a little depressed, instead. Oh well, it will pass. I missed TSO this year, sadly, but the plan is to make it up next year by catching their Beethoven tour, in addition to their holiday one. Here's hoping. And of course, happy holidays to everybody, from Christmas to Hanukkah to Solstice to Festivus (for the rest of us). Take care, my friends.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-44856338584460794862011-11-21T15:00:00.001-08:002011-11-21T15:01:45.066-08:00Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert: Winter 2011<p>So last night I got the chance to catch the Trans-Siberian Orchestra live in concert again. And by again, I mean for the 5th year in a row. It's become somewhat of a yearly tradition that I go attend the local TSO show in <wherever I happen to be> and this year the show was in San Jose. Last year I caught it in the same venue, and the same for the year before, having caught it in Boise and Sacramento in years prior. Either way, regardless of the location, the show is always fantastic. I had a good time, as did my friend I went with. Here's a couple pics of the event.</p>
<center>
<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0Vi_KPT1a10/TsnVYwBeZLI/AAAAAAAAAlc/_sdrFmp1wmA/h301/IMG_20111120_174016.jpg"><br>
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMCULPqMH5ux2vfzXnw5ZtcfGl-A8r4Li7qtbYhs7ZfyQgnlkDr3xEnfSzcUkRmQNLiTZVQk4MLb3KUpk38TDA8alo2ooIZ5YDRpwZ_mJBbQFOe68NyZa75RuwzE9Lx3oJOTagxA/w402/TSO+Fire.jpg"><br>
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjNS_y0nTp4fIw6XeMU8I-v3NyQBFn78fyA3MOet50EXt5QDPS_Ppkhiv4kiOvgI0AAHR-TZKP15mUo8i9J0rYSN7aUcee3xxWYQxrRtGZFiB9sLlRE6iZ9w1rfWWsvL726pDmw/h301/11+-+1"><br>
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<p>Sadly, the video I took has awful sound due to my cell phone's mic distorting at such loud volumes. It's also what ruined the video of the Jane's Addiction concert back in May. Alas, I'll get a new one soon. Galaxy Nexus is coming out December 8th.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-22305674213754658122011-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:002011-09-15T16:08:36.154-07:00Genbuntoo?<p>So I've been doing a fair bit of rebuilding on my computer infrastructure in the past few months. I built a new desktop system at home (Went with a quadcore beastly Core i7 2600K - 3.40GHz), and promptly spent the better part of the night installing <a href="http://www.gentoo.org">Gentoo</a>. This in and of itself was great - typically, installing a desktop from scratch under Gentoo would take me nearly a week, but on my new behemoth of a system, I got it up and running to satisfaction with Gnome that evening. Fast forward a few weeks, and to be blunt, shit broke, and I mean <i>really</i> broke. Udev, hald, upower, udisk, and then X11, all went up in virtual flames to the point I thought about just re-installing from the latest nightly stage 3. My roommate, snickering the whole time, suggested I try Ubuntu and have a system that "just works". It'd been years since I tried it, and last time was an utter catastrophe, but I figured I'd give it another go. I promised myself I'd install it and try it for 30 days before passing judgement, and now that my 30 days are up, I'm faced with a dilemma: do I keep it, or go back to Gentoo?</p><p>Well, I made up my mind, I'm going to stick with Ubuntu. Official Google Chrome builds are nice, Google Plus's hangout voice chat and video plugin is also available out of the box, no more hunting for ebuilds. I hated Ubuntu the first time because I couldn't install Firefox 3.5 with out causing all kinds of dependency hell when it tried to remove Firefox 3.0 (simply named "firefox" in the package manager, so every dep on "firefox" got uninstalled and "firefox-3.5" couldn't satisfy it), among other trivial minutia. Well, it's that trivial minutia I decided to fix, starting with uninstalling the crapware. Yes, Unity, this means you. The stupid scroller widget that funkifies scroll bars? Yep, you're next. Finally, a rewrite of /etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/skel/.bashrc, and redistributing it to every user on the system, so I can have my color prompts, my directory listings in color, and have my Gentoo style terminal back complete with shortcuts. Gone is the annoying "suggest package" upon commands not being found. Gone is the annoying stoic white prompt. And no, for the record, using using the <b>force color</b> setting was not to my preference - the prompt still wasn't very Gentoointive. Configuring Gnome the way I want it has taken a little bit longer, including installing some basics like <i>Compiz Configuration Manager</i>. While I certainly installed 3rd party software such as <i>Gimp</i> and <i>TrueCrypt</i> in my initial 30 days, I felt that if Ubuntu ships with compiz but not the manager, it's for a reason, and I should tolerate that as part of the true "Ubuntu Experience". But after 30 days, all gloves are off. I have my 3D effects back, my wobbly windows, rotating cube, and similar once again. I'm also enjoying media cards and USB hard drives that automount (a feature of Gnome that has frazzled me for months) when inserted.</p><p>All in all, I don't regret switching my desktop over to Ubuntu. If anything, I've found it to be a <i>slightly</i> better system than Gentoo, in places where you'd expect a system to be rock stable. Mainly, X11 for a workstation. I still have a lot to learn (manipulation of <b>apt-cache</b> comes to mind) and I have a few books on the subject I'm reading on my Galaxy Tab, but I think for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking with Ubuntu now for a desktop machine. I liked it so much, in fact, that when I got a new work laptop, I dual booted it the day I got it with Ubuntu, and I'm glad I did. As it turns out, it has one of those hybrid nVidia Optimus technology video configurations, and the only way to get that to work with 2D and 3D both is by running <a href="http://linux-hybrid-graphics.blogspot.com/">ironhide</a> which is actually only a small pain in the ass to install under Ubuntu but a royal one under Gentoo from the looks of it. As a result, I think I'd be stuck on Ubuntu on my work laptop regardless, so I guess it's better that I actually like it I figure. Now, if only I could get the video ports on the damn docking station to work, but that's a battle for another day.</p><p>I feel obligated to say that while I have a new found respect and appreciation for Ubuntu on the desktop, my server platforms are still Gentoo, as I feel that Gentoo is a more solid base system with explicit feature control over packages and options that Ubuntu simply lacks - the only points Ubuntu has over Gentoo is X11, which shouldn't be installed on a server anyway. As such, I don't see my switching to Ubuntu any time soon on the server side of things. In fact, one of these days, I may re-install BB1 and convert it from Ubuntu Server to Gentoo, just because it's sticking in my craw a little. Watch out, <a href="http://twitter.com/ChrisSoyars">@ChrisSoyars</a>, muahahaha.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-74670566881184206472011-07-29T13:33:00.000-07:002011-07-29T13:34:00.670-07:00Happy SysAdmin Appreciation Day<p>I'd like to take this moment to wish all the System Administrators a very happy <a href="www.sysadminday.com">SysAdmin Appreciation Day</a>. Being a sys admin myself, I know how hard the professional men and women who undertake this position work to keep things up and running. So allow me this brief post to show my appreciation for the sys admins who help me through my day, and route my services at home and the office, upstream ISPs, cloud providers, content delivery networks, all the websites I visit, etc.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-45309469436647181432011-03-09T09:29:00.000-08:002011-03-09T09:29:58.073-08:00Verifone calls out Square over mobile credit card processing<p>I noticed this morning on <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/09/verifone-calls-out-square-for-gaping-security-hole-publishes/">Engadget</a> (Thanks <a href="http://twitter.com/PaulOBrien">@PaulOBrien</a>) that Square is coming under fire from Verifone for their mobile payment solution and card reader. For those who don't know about Square, they're a startup that offers mobile payment processing over cell phones using a card reader that plugs into a smart phone's headphone jack and talks to a payment processing application being run. What Verifone appears to be upset about is that the data is not encrypted between the card reader, and, the payment processing application itself, meaning two things:</p><ol><li>It's possible for a background application to copy data in transit between Square's card reader and Square's official app</li>
<li>It's possible to use the card reader with a non-official Square application</li></ol><p>Lets take a look at the official claim and see what Verifone has to say about it...</p><center><object width="400" height="255"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/ObGQxSuORy0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/ObGQxSuORy0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="255"></embed></object></center><br />
<p>In the either case, an application can tap into the credit card data stream between the dongle and Square's application, and a copy of all your card's data can be stored when you swipe your card to make a purchase. That data can be used maliciously and fraudulently after the fact. Your charge goes through for your purchase (or not) at the time, and you are none the wiser. How is this any different from an employee at Target side-loading an application on the register, or <a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/10/thieves-turn-to-card-skimmers-to-get-atm-users/">your bank ATM being hijacked</a>? Square's lack of encryption does make it possible that a rogue malicious application could be written that emails or SMSes your credit card data to somewhere, whenever a credit card is processed. Imagine if that worm was installed on a popular vendor's smartphone with out the vendor even knowing? The bottom line is this: Is Square doing anything wrong? No. But are they doing anything right? The answer again, at least in my opinion, is also no.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-13505371407304598012011-03-08T17:05:00.000-08:002011-03-08T17:08:04.897-08:00Review: Motorola Web Hosting ^H^H^H^H^H Xoom<p>As a child growing up in the '90s, I vaguely remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoCities">GeoCities</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelfire">Angelfire</a>, and of course, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xoom_(web_hosting)">Xoom</a>, so when I heard Motorola decided to name their tablet after a failed dot com free webhosting provider from my youth, I was a little reserved. Well in all fairness, I think I fell on the floor laughing so hard. But seriously, <a href="http://blog.phaseburn.net/2010/10/whats-in-g.html">what's in a name</a> anyway? Having attended the <a href="http://blog.phaseburn.net/2011/02/of-mountains-and-molehills-honeycomb.html">Google Honeycomb Event</a> in Mountain View not too long ago, I knew exactly what to expect, so naturally when Motorola came forth and gave to the world it's new shiny, I was there early with cash in hand, ready to partake of the honey. Two weeks later, this is what I've learned.</p><b><font color="white">Hardware</font></b><br /><p>From a hardware point of view, the Xoom is amazing. The dual core technology in it combined with a sensible GPU means the interface is buttery smooth thanks to its copious amount of hardware acceleration. The transitions between home screens, the animations, even the scrolling and rotating effects all go off with out a hitch. The device has the power to perform, and perform it does. While I haven't tried overclocking my Xoom yet, some geeks over at <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=972414">XDA</a> have done so, and managed to squeeze their tablets for even more power. The fact that the hardware shipped unlocked is such a blessing, and I really have to thank <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a> for their hand in making that happen. It played a serious part in deciding between tablets, and I'd likely have gone with a cheaper model and hacked Honeycomb + Android Market onto it instead, had the hardware not been as open. (Hint hint nudge nudge, Motorola!)</p><p>The Xoom features mostly everything you'd need on a tablet: Micro HDMI, MicroSD, MicroUSB, a dock port, and a charging cable port. Not everything is enabled right now, however, especially the MicroSD card, or the host mode on the MicroUSB port, but that is easily addressed with a software update that is scheduled sometime down the road I'm sure. I'd rather have them available "sometime" than never, even if I can't have them right now. An official roadmap and statement would certainly be nice, however. </p><b><font color="white">Software</font></b><br /><p>What I've been the most disappointed about with my Xoom is the software. How much of that is Google's fault, how much of that is Motorola's, how much of that is HTC's, though? HTC, wait, what? Yes, HTC. My problems don't come from the core Android OS itself entirely, but from applications that aren't entirely compatible from the marketplace. Some applications look funny, and that's to be expected, but others refuse to run, draw themselves half way in the corner and half way full screen for a very funky experience, or just are *missing* entirely from the market. What if HTC had released different resolution displays sooner for use with Android? What if people had to worry about MDPI, HDPI, etc, sooner. Would they have? Motorola is partly to blame for rushing the Xoom out the door - it really does feel rushed in many ways, and Google themselves as the proprietor of the operating system of course have to have their hand in the guilty cookie jar too. From lack of folder support in the home screen to lack of Flash available at release, the whole Android 3.0 has left me a little underwhelmed overall. The things it does, it does amazingly well, but the plethora of polish it's lacking leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth, especially when it has hardware that is disabled at a software level giving it a very <i>unfinished</i> appearance.</p><p>My biggest disappointment in the software actually stems from one of Android's core strengths - it's market openness. The Android market is full of some really amazing applications, written by some very talented developers. The creativity and function of some of them blow my mind, even, but then there's others that were obviously written by lazy coders whose applications don't work at all on the tablet, or people out to make a quick buck and in some cases are pulling some Shady Shit™. I only noticed this for the first time after purchasing my Xoom because I don't generally install the same application on different devices all the time. So I was very surprised when I go to install Worms on my Xoom, and it's asking me to pay for it. But, I paid for it on my Nexus S, and play it on my EVO. So, why is EA wanting me to buy it again? As it turns out, EA has <a href="https://market.android.com/developer?pub=EA+Mobile">separate copies</a> of their games for Verizon as they do for the rest of North America, and cross-installing them isn't possible through normal channels. Doesn't this go against the spirit of the Android Marketplace's openness and concept of buying a game on your account, and being able to use it anywhere? It's great to know that if I ever switch to Verizon from T-Mobile, I'll be forced to re-buy at least 2 apps now, and quite possibly others. How many other developers are doing this for fun and profit? What is Google's stance on this?</p><b><font color="white">Experience</font></b><br /><p>Overall, the experience I've had with my Xoom has been great. While I get a few force closes once in a while, even of the launcher process itself, over all I've been very satisfied with most of the experience. I will state, however, that the experience has not been flawless. The location of the power button takes a high amount of getting used to, and I still think it's a stupid place for it. When I'm using my tablet, one hand is always near it, that's a plus. However sometimes I put up a video or a document I'm reading, and lay the tablet down or lean it against something and use it "hands free" for a bit, and then when the screen turns off I have to pick it up to turn it back on rather than hitting a button on the side or front. This is a minus. The volume up and down buttons are a little stiff, making them hard to press one handed if the tablet is laying down in front of me and I'm watching content on it. I also dislike the lack of USB charging, but I understand that the device needs more power than the USB spec allots for and thus I'm not holding this specific one against it.</p><p>The feature I miss the most on the Xoom is Flash support. Something I wish it had that none of my devices have right now is NetFlix streaming support, but I don't know if/when it'll get that. Google Music is another thing missing entirely, but that should be coming soon enough, likely at IO. Flash support is supposedly coming <a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/02/21/read-the-fine-print-no-motorola-xoom-flash-support-until-spring-2011/">in Spring</a> but given Adobe's track record, I'm not going to hold my breath. All the same, once the Xoom delivers on the features we're promised, and NetFlix shows up some love, I'd easily rate it at nearly a perfect score. Not to compare Android to Windows, but Honeycomb seems to just need a service pack or two to be decent.</p><b><font color="white">Conclusion</font></b><br /><p>Over all, I am glad I got my Xoom. Do I wish I would have waited for the missing features to appear? I can't say so - I just don't see anything better coming down the pipe any time soon. This is the Nexus of tablets, with it's <tt>OEM UNLOCK</tt> functionality, and I'm willing to bet that Google will be giving away a few of these devices at it's IO 2011 convention too. Sure Samsung or HTC or even Acer may put out better hardware soon, but by then, the Xoom will have all its features in tact, and I'd likely make the same decision I already did make - to Xoom or not to Xoom - and I'd Xoom all over again.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-20119610843825899422011-02-01T15:01:00.000-08:002011-02-01T15:01:48.396-08:00Of Mountains and Molehills: The Honeycomb Event<p>Sometimes, opportunity knocks silently on your door. Other times, you have to cunningly trap it, pursue it, corner and trap it, and then exploit it almost like a hunter chasing wounded prey. But once in a rare while, it drives its karma over your dogma and you end up being repaid for the loss a thousand fold, against your wildest hopes. This last situation is very much how I found myself invited to the Android Honeycomb event held at Google tomorrow, February 2nd, 2011.</p><p>Now, people all over ask me for predictions and comments about a lot of things I really don't know. In all fairness, being as close as I am to Google has its advantages, in that I hear and see things that other people don't have access to under normal circumstances, but this in and of itself doesn't mean that I am a bounty hunter on an unrelenting quest for Google's most prized and safeguarded secrets. No, the truth is, I'm just an Android enthusiast who happens to have a few friends who work down at the Googleplex (and they tell me nothing), but the simple fact that I know people is enough to make everybody jealous and/or suspicious of things.</p><p>The truth is far different than everybody seems to want to perceive it, however. I shall list a number of examples, common perceptions, and then the reality, and follow it up with my guess about tomorrow's Honeycomb event that I'll be attending, and upon my return, I'm going to see how accurate I was in my guessing. Through this process, I hope to establish that no, I am not some corporate espionage specialist, nor do I have an empirical fuckton of inside information (maybe just a metric one), and it's all the result of me being in the right place at the right time.</p><p>A while ago, I made a few twitter posts, and forum posts about the look of Gingerbread, dating back to October. There was even a photo posted, that was blurry as Hades. I hereby take full credit for both. So where did they come from? Very easy.</p><b><font color="white">* Matias Duarte</font></b><br />
<p>I don't personally know Matias, but we all know his work: WebOS. I don't personally claim to have ever used a WebOS device, but I've seen screen shots of what it looks like. It's dark, it's warm black tones, and it's accented. Then, there was <a href="http://phandroid.com/2010/11/03/gingerbread-style-tweaks-uncovered-in-google-maps-update/">the article</a> about Gingerbread's style showing up in Google Maps if you changed your build.prop file. Of course that isn't all, though. Google <a href="http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=matias+duarte+art&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=5e8018494988cd9d">matias duarte art</a> and you'll come across a LOT of the work Matias has done. All of it is different, of course, but there are a number of tones and styles that are consistent, all leading me to the same conclusion: Gingerbread would share many of those tones and styles. And, my logic was right.</p><b><font color="white">* Public Transportation</font></b><br />
<p>I live in San Mateo. I work in Redwood City. Google is located in Mountain View. All in all, I spend 95% of my time with in 25 miles of their corporate headquarters, and the thousands of employees that work there, too. How many of them do I see when off of work? How many do I see at the grocery store, or at the movies, or driving (or riding, in one those cars that drives itself) down the street? The answer: quite often. Many movie theaters I've seen Google employees playing with their phones in, and due to Google's wonderful policy on openness, not all of those phones are running released software. As for the picture of Gingerbread I released, that was taken on the <a href="http://www.caltrain.com">CalTrain</a>. I ride 4 different trains a day to get to/from work (with all the transfers) and once in a while, I find myself sitting behind somebody with a Holiday Nexus One, or some other Google device that I recognize from all the rumors and other leaks, courtesy of websites like <a href="http://www.androidandme.com">Android & Me</a> and <a http://www.phandroid.com">Phandroid</a>. So when I see these as I walk through the train, naturally I'm going to sit down behind the person in question and peak over their shoulder. And of course, like any other nosey snoop, I am never with out at least one camera, and usually am packing 3 or 4 (including cell phones). So when the opportunity presents itself, of course I'm going to take it. This gives me inside access to products that Google hasn't announced, and was one of the big reasons I knew how crashy the early builds of Gingerbread were. A little resourcefulness, a little common sense, and a lot of putting myself in the right place at the right time has landed me details like this.</p><b><font color="white">* Knowing Who to Listen To</font></b><br />
<p>Lastly, and most importantly, you need to know who to listen to, and you need to pay attention to what they say. Following the public figureheads of Android (JBQ, San Mehat, Dan Morril, Andy Reubin, etc) are all very well and fine and good, but I also look at the less public people, also. Those whose roles are more public on forums or, through code commits, can see what projects they're working on. So when one of them is posting patches to SDK tools for a week, and then twitters that "It's almost over!", you can really put 2 and 2 together and come out with 4: another part (or the whole) of the SDK is done. Thus, a release might be imminent. By piecing little shreds together, you can start to see the bigger puzzle picture. By reading between the lines of everybody involved in the project, Google really paints a forest of information that, well, only somebody with the resources of Google at their disposal could catalog. But, oh yea, Google offers all their services to everybody, doesn't it. Maybe there really is such a thing as being "too open" after all.</p><p>So now, some predictions about what tomorrow is all about, how I came to those conclusions, and why I stand behind them. Tomorrow of course, we'll see if I'm right, or if I'm wrong.</p><b><font color="white">* Google Music</font></b><br />
<p>Why do I think Google Music is going to be shown tomorrow? Well, there's many reasons. I'll try to cover them all, but the evidence really is overwhelming.</p><p>First, Google Music is supported in the leaked Music app from Honeycomb that has been floating around <a href="http://www.xda-developers.com">XDA</a> for a while. It adds "Google Music" to your syncable items under your Google account. So this means that Google Music is part of Honeycomb at least, in functionality. Legal issues aside, we know the product is coming, and it would be perfect if it could be introduced in Android 3.0. More importantly, however, this is necessary to be announced soon. I'll explain why, later.</p><p>Second, Google Music is not limited to mobile devices. It will be another Google service, usable from your computer, your phone, probably even Google TV and Chrome OS at some level, at some point. Look at Android and its offerings, closely. Are there any Google *services* that are exclusive to the platform? The apps, in a way, yes, but that's about it, and that's not really true when you consider the only reason they're exclusive to Android is because nobody's cared enough to port Dalvik to a desktop system - it's technically 100% possible, after all. So what unique services of Google's does Android provide? None. Google Reader, Google Books, Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Voice, etc, all take advantage of the certain properties of the phone <i>platform</i>, but none of them are <b>exclusive</b> to it. So why would Google Music be any different? Because it's going to be another Google service, and not just an Android application, it really has no place at MWC. That would be like going to the Westminster Dog shows, and trying to sell trees. Dogs like to pee on trees and fetch sticks that trees drop, they're connected, right? Nice try, but no. So since MWC isn't the place to announce such things, why do it there?</p><p>Third, Google isn't big on holding press events with out releasing something new. We all saw a fairly in-depth announcement of Honeycomb on the Xoom at CES. So why would they bring out all the press to just do a hands on? No, this is going to be big. And a hands-on of an unreleased but announced product really isn't big. Google Music announcement, however, would be.</p><p>Fourth, there are a lot of rumors going around about MWC too. Lets cut through the normal tripe and look at one company in particular, however: Samsung. Now, Samsung is going to be doing something big at MWC. They're going into it with an aura of confidence and are exuding panache like Apple fanboys exude body odor. Why is this? Rumors are abounding about the Galaxy 2 phones, the Galaxy 2 Tab, and the Galaxy Player. Oh, what's that, the Galaxy <i>Player</i>? It's Samsung's <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/samsung-galaxy-player-hands-on/">rival to the iPod</a>. And, what better product to take advantage of a Google Music service than, of course, an Android based iPod-like device? And since Samsung might be announcing something around it at MWC, wouldn't Google Music need to be announced first? Yea...</p><b><font color="white">* Web Market</font></b><br />
<p>Also, there's the web market, which could have support for buying music and video through it also. All this is something we've known was coming since Google IO last year, but it hasn't been released yet. Is it really so strange that Google would integrate the two? After all, it's almost time for IO registration again this year. Products can and usually do change significantly in the amount of time that has passed since we saw Vic's presentation on the two subjects. Since Andy Rubin took over the Google Music project also, it would make perfect sense to marry the web app store with the music store, and make a central, unified directory for everything that Google sells, music, movies (if they ever do that), and apps. After all, I doubt highly that they're going to give the press a <i>look, you can play with this for 15 minutes each</i> demo of something already announced with out revealing anything new. It would be wasting their time, and when they usually do things like that, they at least tell you in advance it's just a hands on demo of <produce name>.</p><p>There's my thoughts on why we'll see Google Music and the web app store/market show up tomorrow. Then, we'll see if I'm wrong, or if I'm right. But either way, there's my logic.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-47291807414893124292010-12-25T01:37:00.000-08:002010-12-25T10:40:17.184-08:00Happy Christmas, ladies and gentlecats...<p><br /><br />'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house<br />Not a computer was stirring, neither keyboard nor mouse;<br />The packages were updated, each one with care,<br />In hopes that St. Linus soon would be there;<br /><br />The daemons were idle using no CPU,<br />The firewall working left them nothing to do;<br />And I with emerge, and Akira with apt-get,<br />Had just settled down for a long winter's fetch,<br /><br />When out on the net there arose such a clatter,<br />I sprang to kernel.org to see what was the matter.<br />Away to my browser I flew like a flash,<br />Opened a new tab and clicked the link mighty fast.<br /><br />The words on my screen with release notes just so<br />Gave the lustre of mid-day to source code below,<br />When, what would make my wondering eyes smile,<br />But a official release in a gzipped tar file,<br /><br />"Now, Red Hat! now, S.u.S.E.! now, Ubuntu and Knoppix!<br />On, Slackware! on Debian! on Gentoo and Gnoppix!<br />To the nearest mirror! to the next major release!<br />Now build away! build away! build away all!"<br /><br />As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,<br />When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,<br />So up to the mirrors the hackers they flew,<br />To see their new toys, and thank St. Linus too.<br /><br />He sprang to his keyboard, to his team sent a note,<br />And away they all flew to 2.7, new features they wrote,<br />But I heard him exclaim, ere make config was gone,<br />"HAPPY HACKING TO ALL, AND YOUR uptime RESTARTS AT DAWN!"</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-69899181754487469672010-12-10T16:00:00.000-08:002010-12-10T16:00:24.974-08:00Privacy Policy Updated<p>Upon a lot of contemplative reflection, I've come to the realization that privacy on-line isn't what it used to be. I saw <a href="http://www.itworld.com/print/129778">this post</a> about the "The first truly honest privacy policy" and it really made a lot of sense to me. So much, so, that I have decided to adopt it here, as well. Behold, the new privacy policy for <a href="http://phaseburn.net">PhaseBurn.net</a> and any other sites in my little network.</p>
<div class="quote"><p>At phaseburn.net we value your privacy a great deal. Almost as much as we value the ability to take the data you give us and slice, dice, julienne, mash, puree and serve it to our business partners, which may include third-party advertising networks, data brokers, networks of affiliate sites, parent companies, subsidiaries, and other entities, none of which we’ll bother to list here because they can change from week to week and, besides, we know you’re not really paying attention.</p><p>We’ll also share all of this information with the government. We’re just suckers for guys with crew cuts carrying subpoenas.</p><p>Remember, when you visit our Web site, our Web site is also visiting you. And we’ve brought a dozen or more friends with us, depending on how many ad networks and third-party data services we use. We’re not going to tell which ones, though you could probably figure this out by carefully watching the different URLs that flash across the bottom of your browser as each page loads or when you mouse over various bits. It’s not like you’ve got better things to do.</p><p>Each of these sites may leave behind a little gift known as a cookie -- a text file filled with inscrutable gibberish that allows various computers around the globe to identify you, including your preferences, browser settings, which parts of the site you visited, which ads you clicked on, and whether you actually purchased something. Those same cookies may let our advertising and data broker partners track you across every other site you visit, then dump all of your information into a huge database attached to a unique ID number, which they may sell ad infinitum without ever notifying you or asking for permission.</p><p>Also: We collect your IP address, which might change every time you log on but probably doesn’t. At the very least, your IP address tells us the name of your ISP and the city where you live; with a legal court order, it can also give us your name and billing address (see guys with crew cuts and subpoenas, above).</p><p>Besides your IP, we record some specifics about your operating system and browser. Amazingly, this information (known as your <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent">user agent string</a>) can be enough to narrow you down to one of a few hundred people on the Webbernets, all by its lonesome. Isn’t technology wonderful?</p><p>The data we collect is strictly anonymous, unless you’ve been kind enough to give us your name, email address, or other identifying information. And even if you have been that kind, we promise we won’t sell that information to anyone else, unless of course our impossibly obtuse privacy policy says otherwise and/or we change our minds tomorrow.</p><p>We store this information an indefinite amount of time for reasons even we don’t fully understand. And when we do eventually get around to deleting it, you can bet it’s still kicking around on some network backup drives in somebody’s closet. So once we have it, there’s really no getting it back. Hell, we can’t even find our keys half the time -- how do you expect us to keep track of this stuff?</p><p>Not to worry, though, because we use the very bestest security measures to protect your data against hackers and identity thieves, though no one has actually ever bothered to verify this. You’ll pretty much just have to take our word for it.</p><p>So just to recap: Your information is extremely valuable to us. Our business model would totally collapse without it. No IPO, no stock options; all those 80-hour weeks and bupkis to show for it. So we’ll do our very best to use it in as many potentially profitable ways as we can conjure, over and over, while attempting to convince you there’s nothing to worry about.</p><p>(Hey, Did somebody hold a gun to your head and force you to visit this site? No, they did not. Did you run into a pay wall on the home page demanding your Visa number? No, you did not. You think we just give all this stuff away because we’re nice guys? Bet you also think every roomful of manure has a pony buried inside.)</p><p>This privacy policy may change at any time. In fact, it’s changed three times since we first started typing this. Good luck figuring out how, because we’re sure as hell not going to tell you. But then, you probably stopped reading after paragraph three.</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-31691179477169219392010-10-19T15:24:00.000-07:002010-10-21T13:14:52.134-07:00What's in a G?<p>What's in a G? In today's modern world, many people's lifestyles depend on 3 of them, but few understand what makes one up. Around 2001, the first true 3G standard surfaced: UMTS, by the 3GPP. This was followed quickly by CDMA2000, in 2002, by the 3GPP2, and both are considered part of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) standards for mobile phones and data services, under the International Telecommunication Union chartered by the United Nations. 3G is a world-wide standard, similar to how a kilogram is the same in England as it is in Japan. Standards are important, and guarantee specific services from products claiming to be compatible with them.</p><p>Taylor over at androidandme.com recently blew the whistle on T-Mobile's <a href="http://androidandme.com/2010/10/carriers/t-mobile-news/t-mobile-to-launch-americas-largest-4g-network-next-month/">Project Emerald</a>, which will bring up the marketing hype behind their nation-wide HSPA+ rollout behind the 4G moniker. Why are they making this obviously false claim? HSPA+ is still a 3G technology, after all. Sometimes, the only way to fight misinformation is with misinformation.</p><p>T-Mobile is obviously responding in kind to Sprint and Verizon, who are touting their new 4G networks. Sprint has turned up its WiMAX solution to cover over 40 million users already, while Verizon has not been shy about announcing their plans to blanket the nation with their LTE solution starting at the end of 2010. T-Mobile's planned HSPA+ network is capable of matching or exceeding the speeds of both Sprint's planned WiMAX network and Verizon's planned LTE network. How can 3G and 4G be equal, though? Somebody's obviously playing dirty pool. T-Mobile's network isn't 4G as defined by ITU-R's IMT-Advanced specification, which requires 1 Gbps of throughput between stationary objects, and 100 Mbps to objects in motion, with tower to tower handoffs. Technically, HSPA+ isn't capable of even half those speeds, and certainly doesn't meet the rest of the IMT Advanced specification, which is why HSPA+ isn't a 4G technology. Sprint's WiMAX deployment, however, isn't a 4G technology either, nor is Verizon's LTE. They're 3G Transitional, or, 3.9G. HSPA+ is a 3.75G - both are above the straight 3G specification, but all of them fall way short of the 4G standard.</p><p>Looking even deeper into the IMT-2000 specification, it's worth noting that while CDMA2000 is a 3G technology, for a <i>network</i> to be classified as 3G-capable, it must support simultaneous voice and data service usage, something that neither Sprint nor Verizon can claim across their CDMA deployment. Even though they're touting a 4G network, they don't even have a 3G one that spans 100 feet, let alone coast to coast. Sprint's WiMAX solution meets all the criteria for a 3G network, allowing simultaneous voice and data, and Verizon is in the testing stages of a new CDMA standard called SVDO, which will allow for simultaneous voice + data over their existing network (which is currently EVDO Rev A), but until that goes live in 2011, they may be the largest national carrier but they're a G short of everybody else, anywhere.</p><p>With every provider lying about standards, network types, and coverage offered, the entire American mobile industry seems to be misrepresenting something or other, and the consumers are left out in the cold. Marketing has confused many, and any semblance of standards has been pushed aside. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, here, but it feels like I'm paying for a kilogram, being told I'm getting a kilogram, and when I get home, I'm a pound short.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-17069782293299179082010-09-21T15:11:00.000-07:002010-10-19T16:17:16.820-07:00Halo, halo, halo, is there anybody in there?<center><img src="http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ClassicDorkTower401.gif" width="375" height="603" /></center>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-43834920238238331112010-06-23T19:29:00.000-07:002010-07-22T12:33:11.101-07:00Android device saturation: Is competition really such a good thing?<p>I've been reading a lot about Android recently. Well, by recently, I guess I mean the past year and a half. Having attended Google's IO 2010 conference in person, and being a big Android fan since the original G1, I have become a bit involved in the community, especially the Cyanogenmod AOSP project. I have to admit that my software experience with Android comes more from that of a User's perspective, rather than a Developer's - I've never compiled AOSP from scratch before, and though I do have one application on the marketplace (<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=digital rain live wallpaper">Digital Rain - Live Wallpaper</a>) it's honestly a lot more <a href="http://twitter.com/akirayasha">my roommate's</a> work than my own. I'm certainly technically sufficient when it comes to a lot of things, including Android, but I'm not a code poet. So that's where my experience as a developer stands.</p><p>As a user, I've been employing the use of Cyanogenmod since it debuted for the Nexus One. For the two months or so prior to that, I was using stock 2.1 that came on my Nexus (I think the first version of 5.0 came out the first week of February, so that was almost exactly 2 months after I got my Nexus in mid-December). Prior to my Nexus, however, I had an HTC Dream, and a Google ION from IO 2009, both running Cyanogenmod 4.x. Long story short, I've been a user of Cyanogen's stuff since Android 1.5. In my experience (and opinion, of course), there's really only two reasons a person has to not run Cyanogenmod (or similarly compiled AOSP code), and that is isolated into three categories:</p><ol><li>Warranty</li><li>Technical Incompetence</li><li>Custom Interfaces</li></ol><p>Lets examine them in order - not everybody wants to root, as it voids their warranty. Obviously, phones that are released in a locked state are voided by this procedure, but even the only phone ever sold to consumers, the Nexus One, has a nice "warranty void" screen when you attempt to unlock it, and it officially supports replacing the firmware on the unit. While HTC has honored every request so far (We haven't heard otherwise) for replacing defective units due to hardware issues, even if the device is rooted, how far are they willing to go? Those are waters that some aren't willing to test with their $500+ device.</p><p>There's also the geek factor, as I like to call it. First off, the process of rooting a phone has gone from <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Full_Update_Guide_-_G1/Dream_Firmware_to_CyanogenMod">fairly easy and straight forward</a> to <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=699088">exploiting race conditions that are inconsistent across the device</a> causing the same procedure to work on some, but fail on other devices, making me think of attempting to kill a fly with a shotgun. My roommate's mother has an Android device - a myTouch 3G 1.2 (with the headphone jack), and I can't honestly see her rooting the device at all, even if she wanted to. She's computer savvy, and knows enough basics to put her in the top echelon of her generation (who don't have jobs programming or similar), but rooting her phone isn't something that appeals to her. Could she figure it out? Yes, most likely, but it would be a lot of effort, and a lot of risk in case she doesn't do something properly, or, can't figure out the full process by herself. Her phone works well enough for her as-is, so that's the bottom line.</p><p>Lastly, running AOSP code produces a stock version of Android. It is, after all, Google's open source project. Sense UI, MotoBlur, Sony's MediaScape, and all the other ones out there, aren't part of the official Android project, so, if you're partial to one of them over the stock vanilla Android, rooting won't get you anything good (unless you download a ROM with the custom interface "baked in" which is legally questionable, even if your phone came with that interface originally).</p><p>So given those three reasons for not wanting to root, anybody who doesn't fall into those has most likely rooted their device. I certainly fall into that category. So since I have no reason not to run the latest and greatest Cyanogenmod, I do. But enough about the software for now. What about the hardware?</p><p>We have some fairly nice devices from which to choose from. The HTC EVO is a very large screen, very nice fully-touch screen device, front facing camera, but, no physical keyboard, and it runs Sense UI. I suppose Sense can be replaced by AOSP though. And it only runs on Sprint. That's a bummer. There's the Motorola Droid, and it has a keyboard and runs vanilla Android. But, that D-pad is useless, I much much much prefer a trackball. The processor is also underpowered. And Verizon is a deal-breaker, too. I much prefer my devices be able to navigate using Google Maps and talk to the party I'm navigating to via bluetooth at the same time. So that rules out CDMA. Motorola Milestone? Same as the Droid only a lot harder to root (have these things even been rooted yet?), and too hard to get a hold of in the US. Samsung Galaxy S is supposed to be on all 4 Tier-1 carriers, but, no physical keyboard, and it isn't running stock Android either. In short, of all 60+ Android devices that are on the market, there isn't a single one that I think is "perfect" as it is, even from a hardware point of view. With so many options available, on so many carriers, it's also becoming a pain in the rear end to stay up to date with this, that, and the other thing. A small part of me wants one of everything, which of course isn't feasible, but the other part of me would settle on a single device that fit nicely in the palm of my hand (The EVO is too wide, the Nexus One is a tad too short), had a physical slide out keyboard with staggered rows of keys (Like the HTC Dream), had a scroll wheel that lit up (like the Nexus One), had physical buttons (like the Droid X) rather than soft ones, and didn't run a non-stock Android build, based on FroYo, with 8 or 16 gigs of internal storage in addition to the SDCard. I don't care much about battery life, as I'm never with out my charger, and I'm quite used to charging my Nexus One twice a day as it is. I'll take what I can get, happily. I'm sure my desire for a device that is not available, but combines elements from the 60+ in-production devices is not unique. While others may not agree this is the EXACT device they want, I'm sure others have their own ideas on what they'd like in a device that doesn't currently exist.</p><p>With all the different devices running different versions of Android, it's just really difficult for the consumer to find what they want. Do I want one Android device, akin to the Apple iPhone, where all hardware is created equal? Oh hell no, it'd be like everybody driving the same model car. Some people truly do need a truck. Others, a van. But when there's 60+ devices, and none of them are what I consider to be "perfect", it's more than a little frustrating. Still, I live in hope. Here's hoping the Nexus Two can deliver.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-17777422143206785862010-06-11T13:03:00.000-07:002010-06-11T19:38:44.023-07:00On Censorship and the Internet: China's I-Root<p>I found a blog entry today that made me stop and think. It made me question all the freedoms I have, and wonder about all the hard work that goes into maintaining them. In a blog post I am stealing from <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/">Earl Zmijewski</a>, he provides a <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2010/06/two-strikes-i-root.shtml">very interesting perspective</a> on Chinese internet censorship, and, how it affects me. Apparently, it does. I encourage you to comment on his blog, rather than mine. I just wanted the content on mine (with full credit going to Mr. Zmijewski, I didn't write any of this), as I don't particularly like it when my linked to content gets relocated and then I can't find it years later. I should also point out that this issue below is one of the reasons I hate politics...</p><br />Earl Zmijewski wrote:<p>Here we go again. In March we wrote a blog entitled <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2010/03/fouling-the-global-nest.shtml">Accidentally Importing Censorship</a> which described how incorrect DNS answers were returned in response to certain queries to the I-root. The problem was tracked down to a single instance of the I-root located in China. Queries to this server for domains blocked in China, such as Facebook, would return seemingly arbitrary answers. As we noted, countries, and even companies, can impose their own standards on the Internet and block anything they want. This story was only noteworthy because those blocks (via bad DNS answers) became visible <em>outside of China</em>. Well, guess what? We are once again seeing the Beijing I-root from outside of China.</p><br /><b>Background</b><br /><p>Let's start with a few disclaimers and some background. First and foremost, the sky is not falling. Getting the wrong DNS answer, even when querying the Chinese I-root instance is an <em>extremely</em> rare event. Go back and read our earlier <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2010/03/fouling-the-global-nest.shtml">blog</a> to see the exact alignment of the stars that would be necessary. The fact that it is so rare is what kept the problem from being detected for weeks. However, as we noted in that earlier blog, given the broad swath of the Internet potentially querying the Chinese I-root instance, someone was bound to stumble on a bad DNS answer and, as a result, not be able to <em>friend</em> their pals. This is exactly what happened and is what brought the problem to light.</p><p>Second, the fine folks at <a href="http://www.netnod.se/">Netnod</a>, who provide the exceptional and free I-root service, vigorously defended their <a href="https://lists.dns-oarc.net/pipermail/dns-operations/2010-March/005343.html">services in China</a>, asserting they provide the same DNS answers regardless of location. We have no reason to think otherwise.</p><p>Third, it's quite easy to see incorrect answers from DNS servers in China yourself, whether or not you happen to live there. This has nothing to do with any of the root name servers. Just pick your favorite DNS server based in China and ask it about Facebook. Here is an example of repeated queries from the Linux command line from a US-based machine to a China Telecom DNS server.</p><br /><br /><small><pre>dig @dns1.chinatelecom.com.cn. www.facebook.com.<br />...<br />www.facebook.com. 11556 IN A 37.61.54.158 <br />www.facebook.com. 24055 IN A 78.16.49.15 <br />www.facebook.com. 38730 IN A 203.98.7.65</pre></small><br /><br /><br /><p>None of these IP addresses has anything to do with Facebook. In fact, addresses starting with <b>37</b> haven't even been <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.xml">allocated by IANA</a> as of this writing.</p><p>Of course, if you don't live in China, you probably don't use a Chinese DNS server <em>directly</em>. The problem is that we all use the root name servers and they are spread throughout the world. Thanks to the vagaries of Internet routing, you may end up querying any of them, regardless of where you live and where they are hosted. Thus, if you live outside of China and just happen to query a root name server hosted in China, your queries will pass through what is known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China">The Great Firewall</a>, and hence will be subject to any restrictions it imposes.</p><br /><b>Details, Details</b><br /><p>While doing some research for next week's <a href="http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog49/">NANOG</a> meeting in San Francisco, we revisited the time line for the March I-root announcements from China and couldn't help but notice the problem resurfacing on June 3<sup>rd</sup>. The I-root resolves to 192.36.148.17, which is announced by AS 29216 (which is dedicated to the I-root) as both 192.36.148.0/23 and 192.36.148.0/24. From there, these prefixes travel via Netnod's AS 8674 and then onto the general Internet. Since Netnod <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycast">anycasts</a> these prefixes from dozens of locations around the world, we expect to see them via any number of BGP adjacencies to AS 8674 and, in fact, we do. Around 80 different ASes adjacent to Netnod's AS 8674 see the two I-root prefixes and, in turn, propagate them onward.</p><p>What we do not expect to see are mainland Chinese ASes adjacent to AS 8674 propagating these prefixes outside of China. This is what we did see in March 2010 and it implies Internet users <em>outside</em> of China could be directed to the I-root instance <em>inside</em> of China. Unfortunately, this problem has returned. We see AS 8674 passing just 192.36.148.0/24 off to AS 24151 and then AS 7497, both of which are associated with the China Internet Network Information Center. From there, the prefix travels via Pacnet (AS 10026), formerly Asia Netcom, and PCCW (AS 3491) out to the general Internet. This started just before 10:20 UTC on June 3<sup>rd</sup> and is still ongoing as of the date of this blog.</p><p>As we noted last time, to get a bogus DNS response outside of China, you not only have to query the I-root, you have to query the Chinese instance of it. To measure <em>potential</em> impact, we looked at the originating country of all prefixes downstream of any provider selecting the Chinese I-root. We then computed the percentage of these relative to the total number of prefixes in the country. A graph of the top dozen from the March incident is shown below, followed by those from this current (and ongoing) incident.</p><br /><span style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2010/03/China-Iroot-86.shtml" onclick="window.open('http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2010/03/China-Iroot-86.shtml','popup','width=800,height=600,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img src="http://www.renesys.com/blog/China-Iroot.png" alt="China-Iroot.png" class="mt-image-center" style="margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;" height="300" width="400"></a></span><br /><br /><span style="display: inline;"><a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2010/06/China-Iroot-105.shtml" onclick="window.open('http://www.renesys.com/blog/assets_c/2010/06/China-Iroot-105.shtml','popup','width=800,height=600,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img src="http://www.renesys.com/blog/China-Iroot-new.png" alt="China-Iroot-new.png" class="mt-image-center" style="margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;" height="300" width="400"></a></span><br /><br /><p>Not surprisingly, most of the affected countries are in Asia, as before, but there are important differences from the last event. Russia, India and Taiwan all entered the top twelve, while Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh have dropped out. The impact on the countries in both lists is roughly similar, except that US impact went up by a factor of 10. Potentially impacted US states include Florida and California, making up approximately half of the US total. In addition, Singapore increased from 73% to 96%.</p><br /><b>Conclusions</b><br /><p>Censorship is a fact of life on the Internet today. But unfortunately, given the open, trust-based nature of the network, such censorship can easily spread beyond its intended boundaries. While individuals can do little to avoid such issues, there are actions network and system administrators can take. Filtering root name server announcements with Chinese ASes on the path is one approach. Never querying the I-root is another. Such actions would guard against this particular problem, but probably not the next one — whatever it might be. Ultimately, <a href="http://www.ruexruex.com/4%20week%20bskt%20of%20puppies.jpg">we are all in this together</a>. We depend on each country or organization not to inadvertently or intentionally interfere with any other. All other paths lead down a very slippery slope.</p>Rhynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03975585740614657365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23306377.post-247959867019288742010-06-08T23:02:00.000-07:002010-06-08T23:02:19.252-07:00Friendship...<p>What is a friend? I think a lot of people forget, or maybe never even know just what a friend is. To me, a friend is someone that you don't need to lie to, in order to develop a bond with. After all, a relationship built on lies is like a house built on sand. It may appear sturdy in the short term, but the first rain, wind storm, or earthquake, and the foundation shifts right out from under it, leaving the entire structure in danger of collapse. I don't believe that you need to change who you are just to please your friends, either. It shouldn't matter how much, or how little each person has physically, only what they bring to the table emotionally.</p><p>I think a true friend is someone who cares about how you feel, and who wants you to share that with them. They're someone who will listen to your plans in life, and help you achieve them. They won't selfishly ask you to listen to their issues only, but give and take, in an ebb and flow. A real friend is someone you share everything with and not hold back because you feel they are hurt because of something you have while they don't. Friendship is earned, and not taken. A friend is someone you can trust to be there for you, and in return, you're there for them as much as you can be. Even if it is just to listen to them talk because things are bothering them, or they are excited and just want to tell someone something thats important to them. An acquaintance will hear what you say. A friend will listen to what you say. A best friend will listen to what you <i>don't</i> say.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com