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President Bush - All About Offshoring
President Bush is pushing Americans to allow offshore oil drilling to resolve our apparent current energy crisis. This is absolute rubbish! America’s best interests are certainly not being represented by yet another haphazardly conceived and executed executive branch plan. If we’re not getting more and cheaper oil out of Iraq, then why really are we even there?? America does not need more oil, nor does she need more offshore drilling! What America needs are alternative energy solutions and better public transportation infrastructure. Of course all of this requires long-term planning and commitment to our energy independence objectives, all of which have been sorely lacking for decades. What the President is really ‘asking’ (nay, demanding) of Americans is actually more product for Big Oil to peddle to Americans for $4 and $5+ dollars a gallon, all at the expense of our oceans and beach environments!
I urge you to contact your representative and recommend that they remain steadfast against lifting the offshore drilling ban. If you can ride your bike to work every now and then, please do so. Don’t give the President an excuse to kowtow to Big Oil interests!
Park Your Car, Grab Your Bike
I don’t know about you, but me and my family are really starting to feel the pinch at the pump. Over $4 a gallon now; over $75 to fill up my truck on an empty tank. These are insane prices for gas and we’re crazy if we are going to pay it. I’d wager that most Americans really have no choice at the moment other than to drive to work thanks to urban sprawl and poor mass transit options. I, however, am fortunate enough to live close enough to my job that I can now ride my bike. It hurts, but I’ve started riding into rowing practice at 0430. Practice starts at 0530 and ends at 0700. Then it’s on to work and the bike home in the evening. My butt hurts, it’s hot and my knees get sore. But I’m saving some money, and in my own way, I like to think I’m giving OPEC the finger and doing a small part to help the environment.
I’d like to take this opportunity to give a shout-out to the Parks and Recreation Service of Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. The bike trails around here are truly good, and will become more and more needed as time goes by (and the price of oil continues to skyrocket). Keep it up!!
More signs of the times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04
What’s old is new again. Shoot, if the automobile (and automobile industry) isn’t going to evolve anytime soon, we might as well resort back to a truly elegant technology - the bicycle.
BlackJack II USB Networking
My device de jure is a BlackJack II running Windows Mobile 6.0. Since I do not have an AT&T data nor voice plan at the moment, and because I want to be able to test my custom applications on it, I set out to use the desktop network pass-through that ActiveSync provides. My hope was that I could install the Device Management Center software on my work Windows Vista machine, connect the device to my machine using a USB cable, and it would just work. Unfortunately, this was not the case. ActiveSync successfully synchronized email, contacts, etc., but I was unable to access the internet from my mobile Internet Explorer. A co-worker showed me that Internet Explorer had a setting that needed to be changed in order for this to work. In your device Internet Explorer, go to Menu->Tools->Options->Connections. Check ‘Automatically detect settings’ and set the ‘Select network’ option to ‘The Internet’. Also make sure that your device network USB settings are set to ‘ActiveSync’. I had to take the battery out, re-start the device and reconnect it to my machine in order for everything to work.
The next hurdle was figuring out how to get the same result on my home Windows XP machine. As near as I can tell, Mobile Device Center is only available for Windows Vista, so I downloaded Active Sync 4.5 and installed it on my XP machine. Sure enough, when I ran ActiveSync, I could synchronize data with my device, browse the file system, etc., but internet access using Internet Explorer was resulting in a strange 0×80072f78 error code. After searching the internet for clues, I found one post suggesting that a Registry Key had to be added in order for this to work. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. Somewhat desperate for a positive result, I tried adding the following to my Registry using regedit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services]
“AllowLSP”=dword:0
I rebooted my machine, reconnected my device, and sure enough, I could browse the internet using Internet Explorer using the desktop internet pass-through functionality of ActiveSync. I have to wonder why this just does not work out of the box?
TechEd 2008 Developer’s Conference Post-Mortem
Let me say that I am now bullish on Microsoft. I just got back from my first TechEd Developer’s Conference. The only reason I went is because they merged the MEDC (usually held in Las Vegas) with this one. All in all, I have to say I was very impressed. The scale of the conference was really awe inspiring, especially when I thought about all that had to go into planning it and managing it. Breakfast was served every morning, as was lunch and an afternoon snack (the hot peanut butter cookies were to die for). The best was the red carpet treatment, free food, drinks and rides at Universal Studios Thursday night; this was second only to the evening of the Birds of Feather (BoF) sessions where the free food and drink lubricated animated technology discussions outside the realm of Microsoft facilitators and session leaders.
And yet it was not just the good food and Universal Studios that has made me bullish on Microsoft. Rather, it is the inherent sense that Microsoft really does care about their developer community. Microsoft developer’s tools are second to none (in my opinion). I’ve used Eclipse, MyEclipse, vi, Emacs, Notepad, TextPad, RIM’s JDE, etc., and Visual Studio 2008 is head and shoulders above the other IDE’s and language editing environments I’ve used. Yes, C# is very much like Java, but it’s also one reason I kind of like it so much. Furthermore, more specific to my burgeoning domain of expertise, Windows Mobile is widely used and growing, it’s not bad (and it’s getting better - but they really need a map API!), and it works with MS Exchange! There is a large developer community out there with a growing knowledge base online. I can develop whatever mobile application I want and deploy it to a huge number of Windows Mobile devices today, and at very little personal cost (Android cannot make that claim at the moment, nor can Apple’s iPhone). When I compare Microsoft’s developer support to RIM’s, I really see no comparison. RIM’s developer tools are aging and getting older every day (RIM’s JDE is not very good; I have read that their Eclipse plugin leaves something to be desired as well), and their developer forum and knowledge base is not that great either (good luck on getting any technical support from RIM in these forums). From my perspective, the technology product company with the best developer community is the one that stands to be the most competitive. This is the big reason I am bullish on Microsoft today. ‘Developers! Developers! Developers!’
TechEd 2008
I’m currently in Orlando, Florida, for TechEd 2008. Today was the first day of the event. I’m attending mostly Windows Mobile-focused meetings as that’s currently one of my main focuses at work (other than BlackBerry and Ruby on Rails). The keynote was really interesting primarily because it was given by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, and because this is supposed to be his last public speaking engagement as a Microsoft employee. It’s hard to believe that he is moving on to bigger and better challenges. Seems like the end of an era. In a movie parody of his leaving, Brian Williams pretended to deliver the nightly news about Mr. Gates leaving Microsoft and how it did not even have a negative impact on the Stock Market. We can only hope that is the case. It’s amazing how much power and influence a single man can garner in a single career. To highlight the folks Mr. Gates must rub elbows with, folks such as Warren Buffet, Bono of U2, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Tom McCain all participated in the movie parody of his last day at Microsoft.
Another interesting, albeit rather awkward at times, piece of the keynote was the ‘BalmerBot’ robot demonstrating Microsoft’s commitment to emerging technologies such as robotics. I was impressed by the balance exhibited by the robot, which seemed to stand erect, balanced only on two wheels (you have to see it to understand what I mean) using some internal gyroscopic motion to maintain balance.
One last part of the keynote that was particularly interesting to me was the SQL Server 2008 demo, which was actually a location-based news blog (whose relevance to SQL Server was totally lost on me). Here is the video of the demo.
Mobile Boom
I predict a good quarter for the US stock market this year will be the 3rd and possibly 4th quarters. This will be due largely to tech stocks, and more specifically, companies making mobile consumer-oriented products, like Apple, RIM, Google, and possibly Microsoft too (if they can get beyond their Yahoo lust). This summer, we should see the release of RIM’s BlackBerry Bold model, Apple’s 3G iPhone, and possibly some phones running Google’s Android mobile stack. The stocks of these companies should get a good lift from rising consumer interest in their products. Hopefully, this rising tide will lift other ships in the bay as well. Then the Republicans can exclaim: ‘Behold! Look how well our trickle-down economics works!’. So be sure to spend those tax rebates on a new mobile device.
Real Estate Sales Inch Up
Reliable sources tell me that real estate sales have been improving over the last three months in Northern Virginia. In fact, I am noticing much quicker home sales in my neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. Prices are drastically reduced from one or two years ago - back to an almost normal level again - and sales seem to be picking up. I think that for people who have owned their home for five or more years and want to sell this year, that they should not have much problem doing so (and should still stand to make a reasonable profit) in this area as long as they set a realistic price. To put things in perspective, a home similar to mine just sold for a price we were seeing in my neighborhood around 2003 - 2004.
My Bushes Have Gone To The Birds
On April 26th, I was trimming the bushes in the front yard. I pulled down one high branch and nearly let it go when I saw a tiny Robin chick poke it’s neck out of a nest I saw amongst the branches. Turns out there were quite a few little birds in this nest.
Here is a picture of the tiny Robins in their nest on April 26th, 2008:
One week later I decided to check on my new friends. This is a picture of what I found:
I was amazed at how quickly these little guys grew. Another strange thing was that they were snapping their beaks, like they were trying to chirp, but no sound was coming out except for the snapping. They sounded like crabs snapping their claws, if you were not able to see what they were.
P.S. I was also going to throw up some pics. of the poison ivy I somehow got while working in the yard, but decided against that.
Go Green This Spring!
Like any good Scotch-Irish American, I try to watch my pennies and how I spend them. So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, 2008, I am planning my moratorium on gas spending. Gas is now around $3.20 a gallon in my neighborhood. I am fixin’ to pay off my 2006 Ford F-150 4WD (which I bought used at carmax.com two years ago) in April, but I just don’t see a future for this gas guzzler in my family much longer - especially if gas prices continue rising $.30 every two weeks! Frankly, I am tired of hunting for the cheapest gas I can find. I also feel guilty about sucking so hard on the OPEC oil teet. I think it’s time we all evaluate our daily lifestyles and consider ways to re-factor them in order that we may more effectively ‘go green!’.
I was thinking about buying an old karmann ghia - one like I had in high school - and hack it so that it could run on an electrical motor, like this guy. But then I came to my senses and realized I have no ‘motor skills’, in either sense of the term. Then I discovered through this great blog, that there are several all electric vehicle manufacturers trying to bring their electric cars to market, like the Xebra, the NmG, and the Zenn. There’s also the high-end, $100k Tesla Roadster (too rich for my Scotch-Irish blood). I was, quite frankly, very surprised to learn that these types of cars are about to come on to the US market. I have no doubt, now, that 95% of the cars we see on the road during our daily commute today will be replaced by electric (or some other alternative type) cars in the very near future (3-5 years). I think many people must be feeling similar to how I feel about gas prices right now - simply burned out on $60 weekly pump fees and from carrying around the associated emotional baggage of what it really means to be using this oil. How many American soldiers have died in the last ten years so I could drive my Ford F-150, carrying me and no other passengers, to work? The days of the gas-powered automobile are limited. I say good riddance!! Shame on US auto manufacturers for failing to innovate 20 years ago, and shame on the US Government for not spending R&D dollars to provide better and cheaper alternatives to it’s citizens. If DARPA can develop a commercially successful network to withstand nuclear attack, surely a similar organization could come up with some spin-off technology for alternative transportation fuels and vehicles. Furthermore, the US Government is asleep at the wheel, pun intended, when it comes to public transportation planning and infrastructure. One of the reasons America shot out of the industrial era so successfully was because of our train networks. But it ended then and there. Europe is light (rail) years ahead of us. And I am willing to bet not a single soul in the US Government has public transportation as a even a blip on their ‘threat to national security’ radar. But I digress…Hopefully, laissez faire will prevail and US consumers will get the green technologies we deserve.
My Go-Green Business Proposal
So how do I get one of these electric cars? The one I want, the NmG, is about $35k. Perhaps there is a company that wants to pay for some mobile advertising in the Washington DC area by buying me this car in exchange for the car serving as a mobile billboard of sorts? I am willing to drive the single-seater NmG to work (~20 miles round trip, from Falls Church, VA to Old Town, Alexandria, VA) during my daily commute, if there is a corporate sponsor out there willing to buy one of these vehicles for me. In return, I will gladly display, and/or otherwise paint, my vehicle with whatever logos or other company marketing you require on my car. I will drive this vehicle as my daily commute driver for at least one year provided there is a company that wants to buy me one in return for mobile advertising. Think about it!! It’s a great opportunity for both your company and me, not to mention America and the environment! Send me an email if interested (capable2 at gmail dot com).
Scots Wa hae!
Simple Object Serialization in Mobile Land
Ahhh….what a breathe of fresh air!! I just realized that Android supports Java object serialization. Man, this sure beats the heck out of saving objects to a persistent data store (like BlackBerry) or having to use embedded SQLServer or having to write XML files like in MS Windows Mobile land. That’s right - I couldn’t believe it either. The .Net Compact Framework does not support object serialization. And I have never even bothered to try and decipher J2ME. But Android supports this, and for this I am truly thankful! I had forgotten how easy it is to persist object state using object serialization, having gotten so accustomed to marshaling and un-marshaling data to and from XML with SAX. What a pain! Especially in mobile land. XML is good for some things, but it’s welcome wears thin rather quickly here. In Android, I can do this sweetness:
FileOutputStream fos = null;
ObjectOutputStream oos = null;
try {
fos = activity.openFileOutput(tagFileName, activity.MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE);
oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
oos.writeObject(tags);
oos.flush();
} catch (Exception ex) {
Log.e(TAG, ex.getMessage());
} finally {
// tidy up
}
…and to read my object from my application’s file system area:
FileInputStream fis = null;
ObjectInputStream ois = null;
String[] sarr = null;
File f = activity.getFileStreamPath(tagFileName);
if (!f.exists()) {
Log.d(TAG, “==> Unable to find file: ” + f.toString());
return sarr;
}
try {
fis = activity.openFileInput(tagFileName);
ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis);
sarr = (String[])ois.readObject();
} catch (Exception ex) {
Log.e(TAG, ex.getMessage());
} finally {
// tidy up
}
…life is good for Android geeks.