I’ve got a few links here I want to share and go back to after this mess is over.

First of is Miguel (yeah, just Miguel, we’re totally friends and stuff) and his Initial Thoughts. Basically everything I wrote above is me just thinking what Miguel thinks because I just read his piece.

Miguel’s piece got me thinking about Jonathan Schwartz and I remember reading something about software patents so I looked up his blog and he’s been berry quiet waitwy. The article about copy/steal confirms what Miguel said.

I just skimmed this one but there is something about Dalvik being the “end run”.

Here is another lengthy post I really should read but since, you know, I’m writing this post it’s kinda cutting in to my reading time.

Sheldon

While I wish Google could fight forever for consumer rights their motto isn’t “Expert Independent Non-Profit”. We should be happy they fought for as long as they did. Did anyone else bid up the spectrum? What success have other manufactures had selling unlocked phones? At least Google tried to do the right thing.

Cell companies are powerful entities. So powerful that even Google couldn’t win. And if you remember, neither could Apple. The key here is that even if you bring your own phone to the table you have to pay the same monthly fees as someone who gets a subsidized phone. No manufacturer can compete with that. Google was trying to get companies to commit to a discount (they did get T-Mobile to agree) but I’m not sure what Google had to offer customers who bought directly from them instead of a carrier and so the carrier had no incentive to offer discounted plans.

The only solution here is government intervention and it’s a simple rule: If a carrier offers a phone for $199 with a 2 year contract but $599 without then $400 is the assumed value of the phone and if someone brings their own phone the monthly price has to be discounted by $400/24 or about $17/month. It’s as simple as that.

Vic Gundotra does talk about the openness and freedom of Android over the competition and Android isn’t 100% open but it’s certainly more open than iPhone or Blackberry. And while phones loaded with crapware and other carrier constraints are not ideal the blame goes with cell companies for breaking Google’s awesome operations system. Google’s openness allows cell companies freedom too. And it means *WE* have the freedom to choose another carrier. (And, maybe a new cell company that treats users with respect will emerge from all of this.)

Sheldon

I talked to Jim (who calls me a Google Apologist which is true but still) and here is my addendum.

Up until the Verizon deal many felt that Google’s interests were in line with the public interests so the “Don’t be evil” catchphrase sounded right. And now Google is being evil somehow?

Again, I don’t see it. Sure, at some point Google is going to want to do something against the public interest and we can all finally agree Google is just another company that want’s to suck us all dry but this isn’t it. I mean, net neutrality for wired and wireless will always be in Google’s best interest (as well as ours). Sure, they have Android and maybe this was a way to get Verizon to get behind the Android brand but it’s never that simple and Google knows Verizon would drop them like a bad habit if Apple came calling.

http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/02/the_iphone_obse.html

Sure, there are a ton of Blackberry users and Symbian users but when was the last time they went to a web site? Maybe out of desperation but it’s not something they do on a regular basis. I say you make it easy for a user to contact you and if you get a few Blackberry users that are interested enough to let you know your site sucks on their device then you can work with them to get it fixed. Beyond that you’re just solving problems you don’t have.

That’s not to say a web developer should IGNORE every other browser and be ignorant of what they could do to make their site work on as may mobile browsers as possible but there has to be a limit. One thing we know is that iPhone and Android users a) have a data plan and b) have a decent mobile browser. Can’t say that for these other supposedly popular platforms.

Mentioned in the article is that in the future the browsers for Blackberry and Symbian will get better and when they do and people start looking at sites with those browsers. It’s been 3 years since iPhone and 18 months since Android and nothing so far from Blackberry. I think I’ll worry about it when one of those companies actually deliver something.

Sheldon

So I start to painfully sift through Firebug, copying and pasting the form key/value pairs and constructing my own querystring by hand, right?  It occurred to me that someone must have created a converter that automates this, and sure enough I found this:

https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/forms.html#frmget

But then it dawned on me. I own the web app, why don’t I just temporarily make it GET form and grab the querystring after submitting the form?

I’m always creating 1-hour solutions to 5-minute problems. But it’s not just me! Scott Hanselman did a webcast at MIX where he said he’ll write 20 lines of code that takes 3 hours to write only to look at it and think to himself  “that should have only taken 20 minutes, next time it’ll take 20 minutes”.  Then he talks to Jon Galloway in the audience who says “Three hours! That took a week to write!”.

Sheldon

Everyone wants a website . . . from the CEO of a big advertising company to the soccer mom who wants to share a story and some pictures.  Some want a site as a forum to express something they NEED to say.  That kind of site has no goal of attracting readers or revenue from adwords.  Other sites are set up with a specific goal: marketing tool.

Inevitably the “marketing tool” sites are going to ask about Google, specifically, “How do I get on the google?”.  Here is my advice (in terms everyone can understand).

Google (and by “Google” I mean every search engine) looks at every site it can and and tries to figure out the ones that users will find interesting.  How it does and the order sites show up is magic and no one knows the how and why.  Google is always changing the rules to thwart those who think they figured it out.  If you want your site to show up when people search for something you need to have valuable content.  If you are a bike repair shop, create articles about DIY repair. Sure, some users are going to see your site and do their own repair but the vast majority are going to bring their bike in to you because they found you with Google.

So here it is . . . Sheldon’s Rule: To show up on Google add content to your site that reveals how you do what you do.  Tell all your secrets. Over time all those articles will add up to valuable content people want.  The more you reveal about how you do what you do the higher in Google’s ranking you’ll be.

Sheldon

I’ve been complaining about how there are no girl Legos for a long time (on twitter @tooshel). I know about Bellville and have purchased every set but it’s not enough. I want a pink car.

Side note: Why don’t you team up with Barbie? Barbie minifigs would be awesome!

Okay, so I decide that Lego’s answer to “why haven’t you made this” is the DesignByMe Lego Designer app. I’ve seen it and finally decided to make my Pink Car dream come true. I also decide that it’s time to really design something instead of just building the models (I love the 3in1 because it’t 3x the fun for me!) I open up “LEGO Digital Designer” and start trying to make my pink car. After about 10 minutes I discover the “filter by color” and find there are on only 2 pink bricks!!! What the? I know there are way more pink bricks because I’ve seen them in the pink box set 5585.

Pink bricks in Lego Designer

Please add pink bricks to the designByMe program. I know it’ll cost more but it’s the right thing to do. Even better would be to have Astrid design one and get it to market soon!

Sheldon

I went to the MS store in Scottsdale and bought a retail upgrade copy of Family Pack Home Premium. The install failed in 4 ways on computer #1 because there were no drivers for the SATA controller. On computer #2 the 64-bit version installed flawlessly. I did a fresh install to the same hard drive that had and existing install of 32-bit Windows XP. It was really cool that in the “Windows.OLD” folder had the original Windows folder as well as Documents and Settings and Program Files. It was nice that those were out of the way but not gone.

After trying a few things out #2 for a few days I decided to go ahead and install on my main computer. On this one I decide I’ll install to a separate hard drive. I figured during the setup I could point to the other hard drive to tell it where Windows was installed or maybe the installer would ask for the disk (which I have).

I struggled for an hour when the installer asked for the Product Key and told me simply “The product key is not valid”. After typing and retyping and waiting for my wife to check it to make sure I wasn’t going crazy I finally realized it was because it wasn’t an upgrade. I read online that you can skip the Product Key and finish the install so I blank out the key and finish the install.

Of course, I couldn’t activate and this time the error message tells me it’s because I got the upgrade version and it’s not supported for new installs. So, I could just reinstall and override my copy of XP but that made me nervous since someday I could see myself having to go though this in the future. So I decided to give Microsoft a call . . . .

Took a while to find a number online and then that was the wrong number (Activation) so I got a new number for technical support (1-800-936-5700 in case you are wondering). I had to convince the support guy that what I was doing was reasonable (I mean, what if my hard drive died . . . would I need to install XP on the old drive and then upgrade again? … what if I had an OEM machine and I didn’t have the disk and couldn’t get it from the manufacturer anymore?). After talking to that guy for about 30 minutes it seemed like I was going to have to install XP and upgrade from there. I held steady and kept talking and wouldn’t let him off the phone. Finally he created a technical support case and transferred me. I explained the situation to the new guy and he understood and said that install to a fresh hard drive is not allowed with an upgrade copy but the good news is there is a workaround! Awesome!

So here is the workaround and the reason I wrote this in the first place. Luckily no one reads this blog so I’m not worried about getting in trouble.

Steps:

1. Go to the registry to this key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
2. Change: MediaBootInstall value to 0
3. Run this command from the command prompt (as administrator): cscript.exe slmgr.vbs -rearm

If you need more help that that you should probably just call Microsoft yourself!

Other notes:

• The technician on the phone was very careful about wanting to control my machine and asked over and over if it was okay.  He was careful to explain what was going to happen before he did anything.  I had to install “Microsoft Easy Assist” so he could control the computer and after the session ended Easy Assist asked if I wanted to uninstall . . . very thoughtful!  A nice touch indeed.
• I tired it on some older hardware (computer #1) and there were no drivers for the SATA controller and according to the Intel website, Intel has no plans to release drivers.  There WAS Vista drivers and those would probably work. Why not just let me try those out? I downloaded but it was an installer and it was just to replace drivers that came with Windows. So annoying! Nothing worked! I blame Intel for this problem, not Microsoft.
• If there was a family pack for Professional I would have gladly paid a little more. On one of the computers I plan on doing the “Anytime Upgrade” to the Pro version (so I can do XP mode) and I’ll write about that later.
• I later when to install iTunes and wanted to copy over the iTunes Library.XML file and it wasn’t anywhere in the Windows.OLD folder.  Had to go to my backup. Strange.

Sheldon

Seems like nothing bit it’s a big deal because, well, I finally understand the point of twitter . . . it’s a pretty cool way to communicate with people you don’t know.  Replying and even reading your tweets is not mandatory and it’s even less of an interruption than email and you get a better feeling about the chances that what you write is being read by the intended reader.  Much better than say, commenting on a person’s blog or posting to a forum somewhere.  And the 140 limit really makes you think about what you are trying to say and forces conciseness . . . a skill I find I’m lacking and twitter is forcing me to get better.

Anyway, I’m late to the party and I kinda get the feeling that now that I get twitter all the cool people will be moving onto something else.   If it’s Google Wave, well, I’m already all over that and have been since it was announced so my guess is, Wave isn’t the next big thing!

Sheldon

Joel Spolsky writes articles about software development and often times ends up saying that unit tests aren’t important because they don’t ship and take programmers away from writing more features or a new produce (well, that’s my less than 140 version of his stance on spending time doing unit tests).  Rob Conery, a former Microsoft employee that also write articles about software development wrote an article about how Joel is hurting the industry and needs to shut up.  Below is my response that I left in Rob’s blog.  Rob even responded!

I’m an apologist . . . I admire both of them.  As a debater I can take either side!

But Jim said something that stuck with me and that is we need people on the far left and the far right of issues so that we can pull the reasonable people toward the middle and reach a consensus.  If there are no crazy people on the left then you end up with solutions that lean right!

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I read “duct tape programmers” and came away thinking Joel was putting down programmers who used the duct tape method of getting things done even though that’s exactly the opposite of what was there.  Maybe that’s because I’ve read all these articles from him about how important the craft is and how writing maintainable code is so important and blah blah blah.  And now Zawinski is a hero for not caring about any of that?!?

I think the point of the article is that a) anyone who cares about what they do wants to do things the “right” way and b) doing it the right way gets in the way of shipping.  Strive for the golden mean!

Oh yeah, lets not forget about the secret that the “right” way isn’t defined and never will be because things change so much and once we figure out the right way someone is going to come along with something cooler, faster, easier.  Damn you Ruby!  Damn you Python!  And of course, damn you C# . . . you are so much safer than C but C is the right way . . . it’s the only way . . . and Joel said if I don’t know C I am useless!

Sheldon

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