Accidental Technologist

Musings about Entrepreneurship, Technology and Software Development

No Love for App.net

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There has been a huge buzz around the Kickstarter project, App.net, on the web these days. ?I have no intention of supporting them, ever.

It’s a valiant effort but that’s all it really is. ?I think of this project is just designed to make a statement, one against Twitter. ?Sure, they raised some money but who from, folks angry with Twitter. ?It raised over $500K on Kickstarter, but as we all know money does not ensure success.

I like Twitter, I don’t agree with everything they do and I certainly don’t think they care about me or what I have to say but nonetheless, they are were its happening these days in the social world I care about, way more important to me than Facebook. ?It’s interesting to watch those people who backed App.net, come over to Twitter to claim their support for?App.net?on Twitter. ?It’s comical, they pay $50 to someone who is anti-Twitter, yet they come to Twitter to waive their hands in support of the “other” platform.

This should say it all. ?If you want to be heard, you come to the place all the people who matter are hanging out.

MG Sieger, who is a respected journalist in our industry put in his 2 cents and it sums up what I have been thinking since the beginning of App.net.?

App.net is not going to succeed because we don?t really want it to succeed. Deep down, we all know that it?s much better as an idea, rather than a reality. Because the reality of the situation is that if App.net ever was successful, it would face many of the same hard choices that Twitter now does. Or it would fade away.

As pointed out on TechCrunch, another project to create a clone of Facebook, never quite took off:

App.net, of course, isn?t the first company trying to disrupt Twitter and/or Facebook. The most prominent recent entrant in this market is probably Diaspora, which ran a Kickstarter campaign to get started. While it?s still under active development, the project never quite took off.

App.net wants to be the next Twitter but faces all the challenges and so much more. ?They also want $50/year for the privilege. ? Why? ?Not me, I’m happy right where I am. ?Maybe Twitter is angering some developers because it effects their tool or maybe angering users because their tool of choice may face some struggles but all-in-all, Twitter is good for what it does.

Impressions of the Google Nexus 7

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Nexus7

I watched the Google I/O keynote, suspecting the leaks were right about the Nexus 7 tablet and they turned out to be true.

I got in the queue for one of these and have been using mine since the middle of July. ?The short version is; this is a fantastic device that I love to use.

Background

I am an owner and user of all the Apple iPads. ?Since the first version these have been my primary means of content consumption beyond my Mac Pro and MacBook Air. ?The iPad is a great size for sitting on the coach and catching up on reading, surfing the web or responding to emails. ?In general, I use the iPad more than I do my MacBook Air when sitting around at night. ?The real exception, when I need to write something lengthy and I want more of a touch typing experience.

I do own a Kindle 4 and we have a Kindle Fire in the house. ?These are also great devices but they tend to be Amazon content consumers and not a general device. ?Honestly, not used much since the iPad has the Kindle application.

The Hardware

I would call this device the same size as the Kindle Fire. ?It’s nice when you have the latest cutting-edge device, one that ships with a Quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1 G of RAM and an amazing 12-core GPU?and runs the latest Android Jelly Bean v4.1. ?It’s just plain fast.

I don’t play many games but I do use some graphic intensive applications, mainly related to astronomy and rendering star charts. ?Using these apps on this device, the rendering is extremely smooth.

One thing I like about my Kindle 4 is the battery life, it lasts forever. ?The battery life reported on the Nexus 7 is 10 hours for most tasks but I think it is longer. ?I use the device a lot, I mean a lot and I am only charging once or twice a week. ?Not exactly scientific but it lasts a long time.

Positives

There is a lot to be pleased with in the hardware and overall presentation.

  • Did I mention it’s fast? ?Oh yes, it is fast.
  • There lots of software that run on it already and done very well. ?Flipboard, Kindle and Instapaper are great examples.
  • Nice controls, consistent and non-hardware except for volume controls.
  • Great integration with Google Play. ?It’s easy to get applications, videos and music.
  • Video play is really smooth.
  • Audio quality is great.
  • Text rendering is really sharp and smooth. ?This one bothers me on pre-retina iPads. ?The text in the Kindle app is not as nice as it could be. ?
  • Size – it almost fits into a shirt pocket. ?It’s a lot less bulky than the iPad

Negatives

There is always a few issues with anything new and the Nexus has a few, some are probably my lack of understanding and are not even Nexus 7 specific.

  • Not all of the applications I use on the iPad are available on the device, but it will get better.
  • Not all of the applications I found for Android run on this device, will also get better. ?
  • When using the browser, the fonts are often so small that their hard to read and I have to zoom in.
  • WiFi-only – I own 3G iPads and I never have to worry about having an Internet connection but with this device I do. ?Not huge, but a factor.
  • Orientation is locked by default. ?I lived with this until I figured out that it could easily be turned off.?
  • Headphone jack on the bottom, wish it was on the top.

Finally

I love the Nexus 7, it fits nicely into my collection of devices. ?Devices I actually use.

I have been critical of the other Android tablets I played around with, too many have iPad envy. ?The Nexus 7 is trying to be its own device in its own form factor, one that is a nice size.

I’m looking forward to the next version of this, maybe one with 3G so I can keep the Nexus 7 with me and use it for navigation. ?I use my iPad this way today, and it’s just a bit too big.

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Tweet Less, Blog More and Keep Your Content

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Update your blog

Scott Hanselman had a great piece of the weekend about controlling your content destiny by blogging more and “tweeting” less. ? I use “tweeting” as the generic term for putting content on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

In the past year or so I admit to blogging less and “tweeting” more. ?I spend a fair amount of time on Twitter and an increasing amount on Google+, but the truth is, Scott is right and those places don’t care about me at all.?

You are not blogging enough.?You are pouring your words into increasingly closed and often walled gardens. You are giving control – and sometimes ownership – of your content to social media companies that will SURELY fail. These companies are?profoundly overvalued,?don’t care about permalinks,?don’t make your content portable, and have?terms of service that are so complex and obtuse that there are entire websites dedicate to explaining them.

I think the reason blogging is in decline is because sharing a thought is so much easier on Twitter. ?In 140 characters you can get a thought out and be done. ?Blogging is a craft which takes some to evolve the thought into something someone else might want to read.?

Twitter cares only about Twitter which is shown by their recent announcement of upcoming API changes which mainly stick it to developers. ?Pay-for social networks like App.net are popping up which claim to allow users to keep their content. ?I’m sorry, but no way I am forking out $50 for a Twitter clone. ?

Also remember, blog for yourself, not for the audience. ?Say what you want to say because it’s your soapbox to do so. ?Blog on.

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Best Earphones Ever: Bose MIE2i Mobile Headset

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I have been using an iPod or some such device for many years now. ?Today I use an iPhone 4 to listen to podcasts during a daily hike and have had a hate-hate relationship with every set of earbud or earphones, whichever you prefer to call them.

It seems people use the earbuds that are shipped with every iPod and iPhone, but my personal experience with them is less than acceptable. ?They often fall out of my ears at one point or another, I feel I need to be careful how I move or I risk one coming out. ?Apple has some great designs, these are not one of them.

I decided to go with an in-ear earphone with the hopes seating in the ear canal would stay better, give better sound and get me away from Apple’s ear buds for good.

My requirements seemed really simple, let me listen to podcasts, stay in my ear and let me take/make calls on my iPhone. ?

The first set of new earphones I tried were the Logitech Ultimate Ears. ?These came as a recommendation so I figured I would give them a try. ?Upon receiving them I immediately thought how great the design was and trying them for fit, they felt great. ?Listening to a podcast with these was amazing, great noise-cancelling sound that was above and beyond what I expected.

The real test was using them on a hike. ?At first these felt really good and I thought my problem was solved but as I started to sweat the very soft silicone earphones started to get slippery and nothing I could do would make them stay in my ears. ?As I dried them off and reseated them, as I walked I could feel them slowly moving and eventually they fell out.

I did give these a fair shake over the next couple weeks, trying different things which included trying different size of the silicone adapters themselves but nothing worked, sweating eventually caused the earphones to dislodge.

I decided to ask around on Twitter again and got a single suggestion for Bose earphones. ?Describing my dilemma the person said their wife used them and were very happy with them. ?Unfortunately, they are pretty expensive at $130 but my frustrations seemed larger. ?I ordered a pair and at first site they look pretty strange.

The model I ordered were the Bose MIE2i Mobile Headset. ?You can see from the image that they are different looking. ?They have a very unique way of partially going into the ear canal as well as hooking to the ear itself. ?Very easy to put in and the Bose sound is incredible. ?

Mie2i headset bw lg

I have had these earphones for about 2 months now and use them every day. Not once has one side come out or even remotely felt loose. ? The sound is the best I have ever experienced and the controls work fantastic. ?I have had several phone calls with them, both receiving calls and making them and they just work.

So, for anyone looking for a truly great set of earphones..look no further than these. ?

Joining MarsEdit and Dropbox

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I use MarsEdit from Red Sweater Software as my exclusive blogging tool on the Mac and have over the last couple years. ?I tend to write lots of draft posts on my desktop Mac Pro that never get published or I work on them when I can before pushing out to my WordPress blog.

I also use MarsEdit on my MacBook Air when I travel or even if I am working on the couch in the evenings. ?All of the drafts in MarsEdit are saved locally on the computer I am going the writing and once I want to be able to edit from the other computer I end up pushing as a draft to the blog and pulling it down via MarsEdit. ?This is a tedious task and has problems. ?I don’t know how many times I pushed up a draft and forgot I did a few days later only to work on an old draft locally.

I then had the idea of possibly setting up MarsEdit to save local drafts to Dropbox but there didn’t appear to be an option in MarsEdit to change the location of local storage.

But?there is usually a way to do anything.

The steps below worked great for me, you mileage may vary. ?If Dropbox is installed in its default configuration then these instructions should work for you. ?I configured my systems with my Mac Pro being the “main” system and my MacBook Air as the secondary. ?I had local drafts on my Mac Pro but NOT on my MacBook Air. ?If you follow these steps exactly and have local drafts on each system them you will lose data.

Without further ado, follow these steps. ?I assume you know how to open a terminal sessions and feel comfortable typing command.

1. Make sure you quit MarsEdit from each system you are going to change the location of local drafts.

2. Find local MarsEdit drafts on your main system – A bit of spelunking reveals where they live in:

~/Library/Application Support/MarsEdit/LocalDrafts

3. Create folder for drafts in Dropbox.

mkdir ~/Dropbox/Library
mkdir ~/Dropbox/Library/MarsEdit

4. Move the local drafts from the main computer to Dropbox, enter these two commands:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/MarsEdit
mv LocalDrafts ~/Dropbox/Library/MarsEdit/LocalDrafts

5. Now let’s fool MarsEdit into thinking nothing has changed. ?Symlink the old name to the new location.

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Library/MarsEdit/LocalDrafts ./LocalDrafts

Now, on each of the other machines start with step 6.

6. Remove the local draft folder (if it’s not empty and delete you will lose data).

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/MarsEdit/LocalDrafts

7. Time to fool MarsEdit here too.?Symlink the old name to the new location.

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Library/MarsEdit/LocalDrafts ./LocalDrafts

Repeats steps 6 and 7 for each computer you need to share local drafts.

Once you start up MarsEdit on each of these machines, you should see the same local drafts. ?If not, then double-check the steps above.

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Downgrading MySQL from 5.5 to 5.1 on OS X

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I recently had a need to setup a new instance of MySQL on my Mac. ?I decided to use MySQL 5.5.x since it was, you know, the latest and greatest. ?Only to later find out I needed to use MySQL 5.1 instead. ?Time to downgrade.

Since I had used the 64-bit DMG from the MySQL Community Server site, the files were installed to default locations, the Oracle documents indicate simply installing right over the current install will work fine:

If you are downgrading within the same release series (for example, from 5.1.13 to 5.1.12) the general rule is that you just have to install the new binaries on top of the old ones. There is no need to do anything with the databases. As always, however, it is always a good idea to make a backup.

Notice this states a downgrade to a minor version.

When I proceeded to install 5.1, I was greeted with an error that would not allow me to install 5.1 over the top of 5.5, a clearly newer version.

MySQL 5.1.56-community for Mac OS X can?t be installed on this disk. A newer version of this software already exists on this disk.

My first instinct was to try to determine which files were MySQL-related and start to remove them one-by-one. ?After a bit of searching around the web I found out the process of uninstalling MySQL can leave behind one particular file or set of files which prevent installing an older major version. ?I figured I would start with the least common denominator first, running the command:

~ $ sudo rm /var/db/receipts/com.mysql.mysql.*

After rerunning the installation from the DMG, everything went fine. ?I did have to rerun the package to create the startup-up item and create the System Preference item. ?Do note though, the Oracle document referenced above says there is no need to do anything with the databases, be warned, this was not true in downgrading to a major version..I lost my databases. ? Since it was a new install I didn’t care anyway but I thought you should be warned.

I am sure the purest out there will suggest to install from source, but I’m lazy and have better things to do with my time. ?I bet you do too and hopefully this will help you.

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Blog Move to WPEngine

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Wpe 125x125

I have been having a lot of problems lately with my self-hosted WordPress instance on one of my Linode ?slices?.? It seems around 2:00 AM, starting a few weeks ago, CPU utilization would spike to astronomical numbers and only get worse.? The solution was to reboot the node and things would return to normal.? This is not exactly a great way to spend my time as I am not a Linux admin guru nor do I want to be.

The strange thing about this sudden CPU problem is that nothing had changed on the node, no configuration changes, no upgrades?nothing.? Peering at the processes causing the issue revealed the culprit to be Apache.? A few hours of trying to fix this myself made me come to the realization that I was really wasting my time and I needed to move my WordPress site to someone who knew what they were doing.

After a bit of investigating and feature/price comparison, I settled on WPEngine.??? They offer just about every feature that made me self-host in the first place, including being able to manage my installation; WP versions, plugins, themes, skins, etc.? They do offer things better than my self-hosting provided:

  • Managed Linux, PHP, MySQL, etc.
  • DDos Protection
  • Managed Backups
  • Memcached
  • Managed Firewall

These are all the things I don?t want to have to worry about and don?t have the skills to manage correctly.

So as of January 12th, this blog now runs on WPEngine.? Oh, they also offer expert support and I can vouch for it.? I took full advantage of it after totally hosing up importing my current blog into the new site.? They helped me quickly and I was up and running in a matter of a couple hours, it actually took the longest for the DNS changes to take effect.

The company consists of industry veterans who are WordPress experts indeed.

The site seems much snappier now and I don?t have to worry about CPU utilization on it any longer.

Why Open Source is Better for Your Business than Microsoft

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I think everyone in the technology field knows Microsoft, you either love them or you hate them.? It seems there are more haters these days than those that love them and it is often times their own fault.

Commerce Server

My problems with Microsoft have been rooted around a project I had done for a client many years ago based on Commerce Server.? For those of you that don?t know, Commerce Server is a product which allows users to setup a complete commerce system based on the Microsoft platform.? It also allows developers to heavily customize it to meet the client?s needs.? Oh, and it is expensive.

This version of Commerce Server relied heavily on XML and XSLT for rendering pages.? Microsoft was high on XML at the time as it was the technology to solve all of our problems.

Along came .NET and the next version of Commerce Server was all based on .NET and XML was not the hotness any longer so they re-wrote from scratch with all the bells and whistles of .NET.? What did this mean for the client wanting to upgrade to the new version of Commerece Server?? It meant, there was no upgrade.? It meant their entire code base was garbage and had to be rewritten from scratch.

This was certainly a dilemma.? Do they reinvest in Commerce Server and build their site from scratch, hoping a future version of Commerce Server would not require the same rewrite?? My recommendation to them was to toss out what they had and rewrite their system in plain old ASP.NET and C# at the time.

I think this worked out well for them as they don?t have to rely on something that Microsoft could drastically change down the road and leave them in a bind.? Sure, Microsoft could change ASP.NET but at this point it is a safer bet it won?t change that drastically.? It is at this point I really became suspect of Microsoft and buying into what they tell developers is the next great invention that we should use.

Enter Silverlight

Microsoft has been all about Silverlight for the last couple years as their solution for cross-browser, cross-platform rich Internet application development platform.? The idea is we write it once, we run it everywhere.? I think we?ve heard this one before (Java, I am looking at you).

The Microsoft Professional Developer?s Conference is happening now (or just ended) and news coming out of Redmond is they are pulling back on Silverlight and HTML5 is the way to go.? An interview by MaryJo Foley with Bob Muglia from Microsoft tells the tale:

?Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone,? he said. Silverlight also has some ?sweet spots? in media and line-of-business applications, he said.

But when it comes to touting Silverlight as Microsoft?s vehicle for delivering a cross-platform runtime, ?our strategy has shifted,? Muglia told me.

So what happens to all of those Line of Business applications these companies have been working on?? I don?t think I would bet my business on any continued development of this platform in the way it was originally sold to developers.

It leaves some folks wondering:

silverlighttweet

This appears to be another dead-end for developers.? Even if it?s not, the waffling about its future would be enough for me not to use it.

Open Source to the Rescue

I was a Microsoft developer for more years than I care to admit and I have been bitten by their change in direction more times than I can count.

The real solution is to control your own destiny and build solutions with open source components.? Speaking as a developer who leverages Ruby and Ruby on Rails, I feel much better about supporting a client and knowing the technology decisions I make for them are safe.?? Since it is all open source, I am free to make changes to the framework as I need now or down the road.? The open source community is vibrant and even the smallest projects are active, but even if they die out..you still have the source to do with as you see fit.

Microsoft rolled off projects involving IronRuby and IronPython to the Mono folks and now these projects will live to see another day.

I really don?t care if Microsoft dumps products (or changes strategic direction, same thing) but don?t leave users in a bind.? These projects should be given to the community to move forward and to support.? Silverlight could easily be moved down this path, given to a community to evolve and keep those developers who put so much time and effort into.? Developers would have a way to leverage their codebase and not be left to explain to product owners how they have invested in a dead-end product.

This might start to build trust again in Microsoft by those that lost confidence. ?But, open source puts the power and the future of the frameworks and tools we use in our own hands.

How-To Tether with Android and PDAnet

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One of the annoying things with a non-jailbroken iPhone is the lack of tethering.  Tethering is the ability to use your 3G-enabled phone and its Internet connection with a computer.  When I am on the road I find times it would be helpful to be able to tether my Droid X to my laptop but not for the $20/month Verizon changes.

I was put onto the application known as PdaNet.  The application consists of a piece of software that runs on the Android phone and a client which runs on the computer you want to make use of tethering, both Mac and Windows clients.

The directions from the June Fabrics web site are pretty good but were missing a few details I stumbled over the first time I tried to set this up.  Maybe if I was a long-time Android user I might have not had any issues.

Setup

So, the steps I used to setup tethering of my Motorola Droid X to my MacBook Pro.

1. Install the Desktop Client – visit the June Fabrics web site and download the Mac client.   I am on a Mac, as I said, but a client is available for Windows as well.  The installation was fairy straight forward, requiring a reboot to complete the installation.

2. Install the Android Client ? install on the phone, grab the app from the Android Marketplace.

 PdaNet-QR

3. Enable Tethering ? run the PdaNet application on the phone and select ?Enable USB Tether?.

pdanet_setup

Turning it off later is pretty simple, just run the software on the phone again and you get only one option.

pdanet_enabled 

4. Enable USB Debugging ? on the phone, go to Settings->Applications->Development and check "USB Debugging".

5. Configure USB Connection ? this is the step that had me scratching my head.  As you should be able to see, the selection here says ?USB Mass Storage?.  This is key since the default ?PC Mode? does not work to tether the phone.

usb_config

6. Connect the Phone ? armed with your phone to USB cable, plug into the USB port of the Mac.  Now, if all goes well, visiting the PdaNet menu on the Mac now finds the phone.

PDANET_Connect

Per the June Fabrics web site:

Now when you connect your phone to the computer, you should see the menu icon changes state, click on it to connect. When the icon stops blinking and turns blue, your computer should be online.

Network traffics on the Mac will go through PdaNet only if your system does not have other connectivities.

So, if you are testing this out and are connected via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, it will still go through these connections.  Disable them to test.

Results

The bottom line is, it works.  It isn?t exactly fast but gets the job done and does it well.  You can see the results of the speed test from Speakeasy.net of my tethered Droid X.

3GSpeed

I would like to know what folks are getting for speed from their Verizon Mi-Fi.  This will certainly work and for most things like email, Twitter, blogging and less bandwidth-intensive jobs, it will work well.

Android Fragmentation is Disturbing

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A recent blog post over on the TweetDeck blog shows just how fragmented the Android phone market is already, and we have just begun.

As we bring our initial Android TweetDeck beta period to a close, we wanted to quickly reflect on the Android ecosystem and what might be considered extreme fragmentation. To date we’ve had 36,427 active beta testers and below you can see the massive variety of phones and Android OS versions everyone is running. We were really shocked to see the number of custom roms, crazy phones and general level of customization/hackalicious nature of Android. From our perspective it’s pretty cool to have our app work on such a wide variety of devices and Android OS variations.

Taken from their post, you can see how many different devices they saw in their beta.  This is different devices with many potentially versions of Android.  By my precise calculations, that?s 244 different phones and 108 different versions of the operation system and ROMs.  This is pretty staggering and quite a task to try to support.

Google says this is not an issue, but I wonder.  As a software developer and have heard Android developers explaining their issues with supporting different versions of the Android operating system, I think there is more than meets the eye and more issues to come.  An article from ZDNet this summer supports my thoughts:

But is this a problem? Well, I think that six major releases in the space of 19 months has been a problem. That pace of change speaks of Android?s geeky origins. For Joe Average, this created an ultra-confusing marketplace where operating system versions changed every few months. It also meant that compatibility issues were inevitable.

I will personally not pursue developing for Android because of fragmentation alone.  Stepping into a market which has so many different devices and operating system versions wreaks of support nightmares for developers.  The sad part is, I don?t have a solution to the problem.  Apple get chastised for its closeness, but controller the hardware and the operating system seems to work well.

There is even a web site dedicated to the problem, AndroidFragmentation.com.