About: Mobile, Greyhounds, Oregon, Exotic Pets

SizzleTEXT : Using SMS short codes to access internet information

2011-02-13T21:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have to admit that I created the iPhone app called 'SizzleTEXT'. Use it to access internet based information using SMS short codes instead of using your browser or an app. Update Twitter, check your bank account balance, get a weather forecast, look up a stock quote, using only SMS Text messages. For example text "pizza 97208" to 466452 to find a pizza place in your zip code.

Sometimes I'm in a low connectivity environment and want a simple and fast way to do some common things. That is why I created this app, to give me "options" when I'm traveling. SMS messages will often work even when you can't get a data connection to work on your mobile device.

One of my friends pointed out that for newer iPhone users, they have capped data plans, so being able to use SMS instead of your data allotment might get you out of a jam every now and then.

There is a very large pool of short codes you can draw from to request common information that you access on a regular basis. From Google alone, their SMS short code search service gives you a ton of options that you can set up in SizzleTEXT.

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/search/

Use the pre-canned short codes as a starting point, but add to the list with your own codes, delete the ones you don't need.

There is also an undocumented feature where you can just add a regular phone number as the short code number. So you could add the number of someone you regularly text, and SizzleTEXT becomes a 'short cut' for finding that number as a starting point for sending a SMS message.

Motorola Atrix “is” the future of laptop-netbook-smartphone computing.

2011-01-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Out of all the gadgets at CES the one that really stood out for me was the Motorola Atrix. It is basically a full featured smartphone that can be docked into a laptop-netbook shell. When docked into the shell, the smartphone helps power a full size netbook screen and traditional netbook keyboard.

In the near future, why would you need a powerful smartphone, and a separate laptop which has its own CPU, memory, and disk? Why can’t it be just the same device where the laptop shell acts like a UI extension to the phone? All of your data would just be on one device, no data sync needed. When docked into the laptop shell, the device would still be able to leverage wireless networks with all the same connectivity benefits of a traditional laptop. The docked smartphone would simply become the main CPU, memory, and disk for the laptop shell.That is what I see when I look at the Motorola Atrix.

The same concept would also work for a tablet user experience. You would take your smartphone and attach it to the back of a tablet shell. The full tablet LCD would light up with the expanded user experience from your smartphone. The tablet would not have CPU, memory, or storage, all of that would be provided by your smartphone.

This has got to be the near future, no other model really makes sense. Of course for certain professions there will always be a need for a high end desktop computer or full powered laptop. But for the majority of us business users that only need email, browser, and local utility apps, why do we really need our laptop to be another standalone computer? In most cases an “expanded” smartphone experience would be perfect when we wanted a larger screen and keyboard.

And what if the docking connection from your smartphone to the laptop shell was a “standardized” connection so that your smartphone could be docked to “any” laptop shell? You would just take your smartphone with you and could plug it into any shell that you had available at home or work. The docking shell would just be a commodity, and not proprietary to a specific device manufacturer. You would buy the shell as a completely separate purchase from the smartphone and could pick the size, color, style, etc.

All of the operators have been pushing laptop data plans using usb modules in order to expand mobile network usage, but the Atrix concept is a shift in the opposite direction. It is basically promoting the “one device” model where the larger LCD and keyboard are just peripherals off of your smartphone.

The “Atrix” represents “The One” just like in the “Matrix”.

G2 stumbles coming out of the gate.

2010-10-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

On the heels of the recent iPhone 4 debacle, "Don't hold it like that!" (antenna-gate) we have another PR problem in the works for T-Mobile with the release of the much anticipated G2. It appears there is much confusion between customers and T-Mobile support regarding the specs of the handset that was sent to pre-order customers.

The official launch date was supposed to be this week, but existing customers were allowed to pre-order the handset, and those actually were delivered on Friday 10/1/10. Even this seems to be a point of confusion since new owners have been calling into T-Mobile customer support, and some are reporting that the support folks were not expecting any handsets to be delivered until the official launch day, which hasn't happened yet.

Owners who have received the handsets (including myself) are reporting two problems. First the slide out keyboard seems to have weak springs. If you horizontally hold the top part of the handset containing the LCD, but not touch the lower half containing the keypad, the whole lower half of the device "droops" down and separates from the upper portion of the device. This has already been well documented on the internet with pictures showing the problem.

No big deal, "Don't hold it like that!".........This issue is more of an anomaly instead of a serious problem since it doesn't really impact the use of the device. If you hold it exactly a certain way, gravity pulls the keyboard out.

The second problem seems to be more serious. The specs of the G2 state that the internal storage of the device is 4 gigs, yet all of the early receivers of the device are reporting a much smaller number showing on the settings screen that details available storage. Here is the screen from my own device:

Instead of seeing something close to 4 gigs, instead there is a number of 1.23. Now the OS and pre-loaded apps all take up space but the difference between the two numbers is enormous and this launched an avalanche of speculation on what is going on.

Did they only ship a 2 gig version? Is the extra space hidden in some way reserved for special use? Is there a problem with Android 2.2 in that it can't report memory sizes larger than 2 gig? And on and on and on.

To date, T-Mobile has made a few errors in the handling of the situation:

1) People received devices on Friday. That meant that no one is around to handle any type of problem that might have came up over the week-end. Social Media has allowed the speculation to mushroom into gigantic proportions between Friday and now (Sunday).

2) There has been no "official" statement on the internet from T-Mobile regarding this issue. On Facebook they have what appears to be an unofficial statement made by the moderators saying what users are seeing is correct, yet there is no explanation on why. In effect they are saying "Don't hold it like that" similar to the way Apple was in denial about publicly admitting or providing information regarding the antenna problem of the iPhone 4.

3) There appears to me at least, to be some type of information suppression going on regarding the issue as it is being documented on the T-Mobile support forums. If you Google search for "t-mobile 1.23 memory", the first link in the search results is a pointer to the T-Mobile support forums and the post title seems to be "How much internal memory space is showing out of the box? Yet when you click on that link, you are taken to a screen inside of the T-Mobile forums that reads "The topic you are trying to access is not available". Guess what, it was 'available' on Friday.

And so it looks like the G2 has its own "Memory-gate" unfolding on the days right before the official launch of the device.

All of the escalating comments, speculation, and criticism could have been totally put at bay with a simple "official" statement from T-Mobile like the following:

"We have heard from a number of you asking about the memory configuration of the G2 that you just received in the last few days. We are investigating the questions and will provide a detailed response early next week."

That would have been all that was needed, and everyone would have remained calm until the official explanation was given. Somewhere along the line it looks like T-Mobile and Apple both underestimated the the immense power of communication provided by current day social media technology.

No response or a delayed response is a disaster. Now it could be that everything is fine with the G2 and the memory is just being used in some way not clearly described in the settings on the device. Or it could be there is a problem and in the worst case the devices need to be swapped out. The outcome is not really important at this point, the G2 already has a damaged reputation on the eve of its launch, and it all could have been avoided with a few lines of text.

It is a great example of how the balance of power has shifted from the manufacturer of products to the consumer. The new rules of the "Social Media Economy" state that is is better for creators of products to "come clean" or "respond quickly" rather than deny or provide a delayed response. What has happened to the G2 is a prime example of this phenomenon.

"Sizzle" the Greyhound

2010-08-03T01:39:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0011.MOV (5150 KB)

First video of Sizzle, our first Grey "Stormy" died last August.

R.I.P. "Stormy the Greyhound" 2002-2009

2009-08-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Stormy passed away Tuesday morning. Over the last month he was slowly deteriorating, and we finally learned he had a form of cancer that couldn't be treated. He was still "functioning", but he was no longer eating, and he didn't have much strength left. So we decided it was best to do the right thing before he experienced a lot of pain, or could no longer stand or walk.

This is one of the recent pictures I took of him with my mobile phone a few weeks ago. He was sick, but his natural easy-going self still did shine through. This is how I want to remember him.

I could write a book about him and Greyhound behavior, but for now, I just want to recount two days in the time he was with us.

The first day we brought Stormy home, the realization of what it meant to have a Greyhound became apparent. Stormy went from the race track, to the Greyhound shelter kennel, to our home. He had never been in a house before! He didn't even understand what it meant to walk up a small set of stairs. It was like he was a dog from another planet. A lot of Greyhounds are like this and need extra help learning the basics when they first come to live with you.

Anyway, we finally got him to come into the front door onto the shoe mat inside our house, but then the next problem. We wouldn't step off the mat onto our hardwood floors. He had never walked inside a house before and didn't understand the texture of a smooth floor and how to place his feet on it. He would try to walk on his "nails", but would just slip. So that first night he stayed on the little carpet by our front door. We put some other blankets down so he had a larger spot to move around on, but he wouldn't venture out into the rest of the house. That night he finally lay down and relaxed near the door mat. And so he wouldn't be alone on the first night in our house, I slept on the floor next him. Hopefully that was the first time he understood I was his friend.

Monday night, August 17th, 2009, Stormy's last night on Earth.

We usually take a quick walk every night around 10-11pm. Since he has been sick, he had to go out even more often so we were out again closer to midnight. He did a quick (number one) and we turned back toward the house. He has been pretty low on energy, so his walking pace is very slow and labored.

When we got back near the front of the house on our lawn, he stopped walking and just stood still. I tried to prompt him to continue but he didn't budge. I gave him a pet on the head to make sure he was OK, and he seemed fine. It was really warm outside, a perfect day/night in Oregon. I got the idea of grabbing an old blanket we keep near the steps of the house and throwing that out on the grass in front of where we was standing to see if he wanted to lay down and rest. As soon as I laid it out he moved forward, did a few "dog spins" and laid down. So I just sat down by him. It was the middle of the night, dark, quiet, warm, we were alone.

At first he just sat there, looking around out into the darkness that surrounds our little neighborhood. There was a slight breeze and I could see he was sniffing the air. I pet him on his head and back. After a few minutes he laid over on his side, took a few deep breaths, and started his process of going to sleep for the night.

I quickly went back into our house, grabbed a few other blankets and my sleeping bag. When I came back out, I put a thicker blanket around him, unrolled my sleeping bag and crawled in. That is where we stayed for the rest of the night, in the grass, under the stars, just me and him. I didn't really sleep, but I just laid there watching him, and looking up at the stars.

Maybe in the way that animals do, he had a sense that his life-energy was draining away and he just wanted to spend some time outside closer to nature, take in the smells, feel the breeze, and be under the stars. I knew it was a special moment, since this is something he never seemed to want to do before. Greyhounds are "inside" dogs, and Stormy definitely liked the big soft sleeping spots he had in our house.

And so the night passed. He slept really well. I could tell because I had my arm laid underneath his blanket and resting on his side. When he dreams, his legs start to "twitch" like he is running in his sleep, and he lets out a low growl in between his breaths. He hadn't been sleeping well the last few nights, so I was glad to see he was relaxed out here in the yard. A couple of times he woke up, looked around and over at me, but then after a few minutes, put his head back down and continued to sleep. When he put his head back down, I lightly scratched behind his ears until I could tell he was asleep again.

The next morning we woke up, my wife and daughter found us outside, and they came out and sat with Stormy while I got everything ready to make the final trip to the Vet's office. When the time came, the girls said a tear filled "good-bye" to him, we loaded up in the car and drove off.

The "process" at the Vet's office went fine. I don't really want to remember those details, but I'll just say it was fast and humane. Within a few minutes he was gone. I wrapped him up in a blanket, had the Vet assistants help me load him up into our car, and I drove back home.

The day before, I dug a nice spot for him in our back yard. It is slightly elevated, and it looks out over the area of our yard where he liked to walk and sniff around.

I can't really explain why he didn't want to go back inside on that last night. Somehow "he knew" his time was short and maybe he just wanted to spend it in a way that allowed him to be closer to his wild ancestry. I'm happy I was able to be with him during this time, I'll never forget that night for the rest of my life. Stormy was my friend.

Perfect :: Oregon Coast

2009-04-26T20:27:00.001-07:00

This picture about sums it all up. Taken from the top of Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City, Oregon. Nothing more needs to be said.

Silver Hair in a Black Coat

2009-04-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

"Stormy" (retired Greyhound) is middle aged in dog years, but I can see that he is slowing down at little. As a retired Greyhound, he still likes to run and play, but the little things are what I notice. Our main vehicle for carrying the whole family is a SUV, so he has to "jump up" to get in. That part is no problem, but jumping down to get out is several feet. He is a big Greyhound at 85+ pounds, not fat, just tall, but a couple of times recently he seems gimpy after making the jump down from our truck. I think it is too much stress on his front legs and back.

Recently, I've been carrying him out of the truck instead of making him jump. He doesn't seem to mind if I put my arms around his chest and lift him out, but I'm a big guy.

What I really need is like a short "ramp" that can go from the floor of the truck down to the ground. Then he would just have to hop from the top of the seat to the top of the ramp to get out. I've never seen anything like this on the market. I was thinking about making my own by adapting something from a 4-wheeler loading ramp. It can't be heavy and it has to be easy to put away in the bed of the truck. If anyone knows of such a product please let me know.

Living with a Greyhound

2008-11-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

We have a retired racing Greyhound. His dog name is "Stormy", his racing name was "Village Luigi".

Even though many Greyhounds are now being adopted, many people still haven't seen them up close. When I have Stormy with me, I get a lot of questions about what it is like to have a Greyhound living in your house. I will attempt to answer some of those questions. Of course there will always be exceptions depending on the individual animal, but these are my experiences.

First Contact:

Almost all Greyhounds that people have in their private homes came from a racing program. Racing is an industry, and the dogs literally drove it. You don't see ads in the local newspaper saying "Greyhound puppies for sale". Greyhounds are pure breed animals and the breeding process is tightly controlled. The ones that people adopt are animals that have left the active racing program. You might get a dog that raced dozens of times, or you might get a dog that only raced a few times, or maybe not at all.

What your new Greyhound will be like will depend upon how recently he came from the racing program. If you get one that was very recently a "racer", then it will be like they were just dropped off onto the planet from a UFO. They are full grown dogs that don't know "anything" about what it is like to be a pet or be part of someone’s family.

When we first got Stormy, he didn't have any experience being inside of a private home. He couldn't even walk up 3 steps. When we finally got him into our house he didn't understand how to walk on hard floors. He would try to walk by putting his nails down, but just ended up slipping and getting even more scared. The first night he would only stand on the floor mat inside our front door but he wouldn't walk on our hard wood floors. He slept on a sleeping bag I laid next to the floor mat. I slept next to him in another sleeping bag on that first night. It took him a coupe of weeks to finally make it around our entire house. The first few days we laid out a bunch of towels and blankets on the floor so he could walk around.

Greyhounds don't sit.

I've been around a lot of Greys that have been trained to sit, but by nature they don't sit in order to rest. They either stand, or they squat down on all four legs. If you go to a Greyhound meeting, there will be a bunch of dogs just "standing" looking around. They don't figit. They will stand still in one place until they have to move.

Greyhounds don't bark.

Though there might be someone who will say theirs does bark, the very "large" majority do not bark. If you go to a local Greyhound meet-up in your area, there will be 20 Greys all "standing" in tight group. The dogs will be totally silent. They will mostly just stand looking around at each other. The only time Stormy barks is when he is sleeping and you happen to startle him while he is asleep. Even then he will emit only one single "bark". Greys are also not naturally aggressive so they won’t instigate fights with other dogs.

You don't need a racetrack in order to exercise one.

My dog Stormy likes to "stretch his legs" every other day. If you have any type of fenced area that they can trot around in, they seem to be happy with that. They do love to run, if you have an area where you can safely let them go, it is an awesome experience to see one running near full speed. We take Stormy to a beach by our house and let him off his leash. He will run 30+ MPH going right next your leg. When you measure the length of his footprints in the sand, the distance between them is over 12+ feet. We worked our way up to letting him off the leash only after making sure he understood his dog name and he understood we were in charge. Some people that I've met report that their dog will take off and just keep running if they get off the leash. This is an important consideration. A dog running at 30+ MPH will be over 100 yards away from you in just a few seconds. A recent racer does not understand cars, streets or other dangers of the real world.

I also have a 50 foot dog rope that I use when I take Stormy into a large open field. He has figured out that he can run in circles with me standing in the middle. I usually use this in a grass field where there isn't anything for the rope to get hooked on.

Greyhounds are also “sprinters” and not endurance runners. If you go on a long hike he might be an energy ball when you start off, but coming back he will be content to just walk along with you.

If you get a younger dog, they might have a lot of energy and so you will have to find a way to let them work it off. If you can find some way to let them safely run, then it is really an awesome experience to watch. We have a fenced area behind our house. It isn't huge, but it is large enough that Stormy can run "laps" around it. He will run about 6 laps at about 3/4 speed, then he is happy to just relax the rest of the day.

A retired Greyhound might not have ever seen any other "type" of dog before.

They have grown up only around other Greys, so an ex-racer will have zero experience being with other types dogs. The first time we took Stormy to a dog park, he didn't know what to do. He just stood there frozen while other dogs came up to sniff him. It took several trips before he got the hang of it. Now when we take him, he runs around and enjoys meeting new friends.

Greyhounds need to be tested for cat compatibility.

Stormy doesn't even acknowledge our cat. He will walk right by it and not even pause. Other dogs might have a different reaction, so you should test them before you bring them into a house with a cat. A big dog running at 20 MPH down your hallway will not create a good outcome.

Greyhounds are pacifists.

By that I mean that almost every one of them that I have seen and spent time with pretty much all have the same personality. They are not aggressive, they are not nervous. They are very calm, low key, and trusting. They won't lash out at you or others standing around you. They don't have a mean bone in their bodies. Being aggressive is not part of their nature.

Greyhounds are not slobbery, licking machines.

They love affection like most house animals, but they can also be a little reserved. They typically won't jump up in your lap and start licking you. An interesting thing they do is "lean" on you. If you are standing next to one, they will often lean their weight against your leg with noticeable pressure. I haven't researched why they do this, but it is a unique Greyhound "thing" that they do.

Greyhounds love to sleep.

Though they have the bodies of athletes, their favorite past-time is sleeping or snoozing. They will sleep a lot if you let them. Because they typically have very little fat on their bodies, they need a really soft bed. We have 3 separate sleeping spots set up for Stormy. He typically doesn't like it when a lot of unknown people are in our house, so he will seek out some quiet place to go when there is a lot of activity going on. He has a bed in our living room and will lay there when we are there. He has a bed in our bedroom, and will sleep there when we go to bed, and he has a bed in our lower house level that he can go to when he doesn't want to be around anyone. Dogs do dream and Stormy will often "run" in his sleep. He will be lying on his side, but all four legs are moving in a running motion. The old saying "leave a sleeping dog alone" applies to Greys, don't bother them while they are sleeping.

Many Greys probably spent most of their early lives in a dog kennel, which is the size of a box not much bigger than their bodies. Stormy is a big Greyhound, near 90 pounds, but when he sleeps he will initially try to curl up into a small ball. When we first got him, we placed a large sized portable dog kennel in the corner of our living room. It has a front door made of a mesh grid, but the sides are closed off except for a little vent/window on each side. He would want to go into that kennel and not want to come out. The kennel was something he understood and was his safety zone. The first few weeks in our house he would curl up his big body into the back of the kennel to sleep. That is probably how he lived and slept for the first few years of his life. Even today when he sleeps he tries to go into a corner and roll up into a ball.

Greyhounds are used to being in their single-dog kennels. When you first get a Grey, if you have to leave them alone in the house, consider putting them in their kennel and locking the door. They will be totally happy in there. We left the big portable kennel in our house for over a year when we first got Stormy. He would want to go into it to sleep almost every night. Eventually we removed it and he would start to sleep on a padded mat in our bedroom. We placed his permanent sleeping spot in a corner where there was a dresser. The corner and the side of the dresser made up a 3 sided box about the size of the kennel. He crawls into that corner and tucks himself in just as if he was in the kennel. Now that he has been in our house for several years, he will flop down just about anywhere that at least has a rug on the floor, but he still favors his “corner-kennel” for sleeping at night.

Potty Training.

If you get a recent racer, he will be a full grown dog, but he probably won't be house broken. Stormy picked it up right away with no problems. Greyhounds have lean bodies and it seems like he needs to go out for a quickie every 3 or 4 hours. When we first got him we would take away his water round 10PM so he wouldn't need to go out in the middle of the night.

Teeth and diet.

Greyhounds that have been in the racing program a long time will often have very bad teeth. I believe this is due to the fact that they are given a high protein, soft meat diet, so they didn't have a lot of crunchy stuff to chew on. On top of that, they probably didn't get many chew bones or other treats to keep their teeth clean. Our Stormy like all dogs loves different types of human food, but he seems to get the runs if we give him anything more than a "taste" of something. It is best to stick to a high quality dog food and resist giving them table scraps. If you look at a active racer, their ribs are clearly visible on their sides. A healthy retired Grey should still have a little hint of ribs showing.

Ear Tattoos.

All Greyhounds that have raced will have tattoos in both of their ears. One has their "litter" number which can be researched at: http://www.greyhound-data.com/. Stormy's is 16364. That number is unique to his brothers and sisters born in the same liter. At this site you can see your dogs entire family tree and previous race performance. You can search by their "race" name. So for Stormy if you enter "Village Luigi" you can see that he only ran 2 races before he was pulled. The tattoo in the other ear has their birth date and delivery order. Like:

110C - 11=Nov, 0=2000, C= 3rd pup tattooed
42A - 4=April, 2=2002, A=1st pup tattooed

Dog Collar.

A special dog collar is recommended for Greyhounds. Their windpipe sticks out right in front of their neck so a traditional thin dog collar can cause damage if they pull against it. Most adopted Greys you see have an extra-wide padded collar that protects their neck area. Most retails pet stores won't have these. Hopefully your new friend will already have one.

Learning to be a “dog”.

It took Stormy months before he really understood things like toys, and how to play. When we first got Stormy, we gave him a dog toy and he would just look at it. Even a chew stick seems to be confusing. During the first week, he didn’t understand how to take something out of my hand. For example, I tried to give him a small piece of cheese. I held it up to his mouth, but he would just stand with his mouth salivating because he didn’t understand how to be hand fed. These are all great experiences that you can share with a retired Greyhound. Many things that dogs learn in puppy life have to be taught to these full grown animals. You can help give him back his puppy years.

Stairs.

Greyhounds have long legs and going down stairs can be problematic. The back of their legs can easily hit the edge of the stairs going down. Also for a recent racer, the whole concept of what stairs are for will be totally foreign to them. In all likelihood they have probably never gone up or down a flight of stairs. Even after several years of exposure, Stormy will still hesitate going down stairs that he is not used to. “Up” is easier, but down can be a problem.

Stretching and leg protection.

Greyhounds are all muscle. If you let one go to run, they might first need to warm up. A couple of times when we first got Stormy he would pull a muscle because we would let him off his rope in a dog park and he would take off at near full speed, but he was not stretched out. We would come limping back and would be sore for a couple of days. Now we trot him around on his rope until he is warmed up before we let him go. Stormy also seems to have a built in mechanism to protect his legs from getting caught up in anything. He won’t jump over even the lowest of obstacles if he thinks his legs will get caught. He will almost always walk around something rather than step over it.

Why get a Greyhound?

There are many sad stories on the internet that detail what happens to many Greyhounds once their racing life if over. Several states now have laws requiring Greys to be given to adoption agencies rather than meet their historical hate. In many ways they where historically treated like livestock with the same outcome.

Greys are graceful, good natured animals, and in many way are like a retired athlete. Many of them make an easy transition into retired life and they just want some love, and a safe place to sleep.

Disclaimer:

These are just my experiences with a Greyhound being an “owner”. We attend Greyhound meet-ups in our area so we have spoken to other owners and have seen many other dogs. It could be that someone who reads this might have had a different experience with their Grey, but in general, the things I’ve written about seem to be consistent with what we have learned from others who have adopted a retired dog.

Contact me at: oregon_tony@yahoo.com or on twitter under “oregon_tony”

Comic Moments

2008-11-24T22:54:00.001-08:00

A Holistic Approach To Mobile Testing

2008-11-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

Most of us probably have the same "mental image" of what it means to do mobile testing. We envision a person sitting at their workstation holding a mobile phone in their hands and pecking out the sequence of steps needed to exercise some function of a mobile application or service. On their desk we see a whole bunch of different handsets laid out in a row. When you finish all the test cases on one handset, you set it down, pick up the next handset and repeat.

A more advanced variation of this approach is where you "rent time" to access a particular handset in a hosted service model. It is still testing using a real handset, you are just accessing it remotely. Testing with real handsets allows you to verify that what is shown on the LCD of the device "looks cosmetically correct" for each step of the test case. The downside of this approach is that you have limited access to any type of diagnostic information other than what is shown on the LCD of the real handset. If your question is "Why is the page slow to load?", testing with a real handset does not provide detailed root cause analysis information needed to solve this problem.

For testing mobile internet content, a second approach is based on a "virtual device" or emulator. In this approach, the handset under test is mostly based in software. Why would you want to test using this approach? One of the biggest reasons is that a virtual device approach lets you see what is happening "behind" the LCD. Since the virtual device is in control of its own software stack, you can collect important testing information on "each component" of a content page. For example, how long does it take for each image on the page to load? Does the page contain URL redirects that slow down the loading process? Are all the images returned in a size that is compatible with the target device? What is the full URL of a broken link on the page? These questions can all be easily answered using a virtual device testing approach.

Each approach offers answers to certain types of testing questions. Using both techniques offers a holistic approach to mobile internet testing.

For example if the testing goal is to validate that the LCD "looks cosmetically correct", then the right approach is to test with the real device. Any type of virtual device could never mimic the exact behavior of the real handset.

On the other hand, what if you are testing with a real device and you receive the dreaded "Page Cannot Be Displayed" error? If you are testing with a real device, you can not quickly determine the root cause, but with a virtual device you could access the markup code of the returned page, as well as the headers of the content request. For these types of errors the virtual device is superior in finding the root cause of the problem.

There is also the issue of economics. To test with a real device you need physical access to that device. If you have multiple testers, and-or multiple groups doing testing in different geographies, then providing access to physical devices becomes problematic. You could "rent time" on remote devices, but the costs of this activity used for every single test case could quickly add up to huge amounts.

For certain types of test cases where "cosmetic accuracy" is not the goal of the test, a much cheaper testing model based on a virtual device can be used. Many types of content compatibility tests such as verifying image sizes, or identifying broken links can be accurately and quickly performed using the virtual device model. In most cases virtual device testing tools are downloaded and installed on your local PC. There is no hourly rental fee.

Lastly, the virtual device approach solves the "device scarcity" problem. What if you need to test on a device that has not been released? What if you need to test on a device that is brand new in the market place and because of demand, few real devices are available for purchase? These types of problems are also solved using the virtual device approach. The virtual device approach allows you to quickly define and configure new device "profiles". The speed of deployment is much faster than waiting for a scarce physical real device. Multiple testers can also share virtual device definitions so that scalability is achieved within the testing group.

Both approaches should be used in concert to create a testing methodology that is thorough, practical, and economical. In the same way that a mechanic or carpenter uses different tools for different purposes, so should the mobile testing group use a collection of tools in order to produce the highest quality result.

iPhone Screen Capture

2008-07-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

1) Hold down "Home" key
2) Press/Release Power button

You will see a the LCD flash white for a moment

3) Look in "Photos" on your iPhone

My Blog Bannner Will Soon Be Incorrect

2008-07-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

The banner at the top of this blog shows "Fast" crossed out next to the original 2G iPhone. Now that the 3G version is just a few days away, I'll guess I'll have to update my banner image. Through the company that I work for, I have a way to actually track the performance of the AT&T 3G network in various cities in the US. It will be interesting to see how the AT&T network holds up on Friday and throughout the next week as all the new iPhone users come on line. Of course "browsing" will be one of the most popular features that everyone will be playing with.

I really hope my blog banner "will" be outdated come next week after the launch. I'll be one of those in line on Friday morning.

99.9999% How many nines are enough in mobile?

2008-06-08T00:50:00.000-07:00

All of us have probably heard of the saying "Five Nines" which means 99.999% system availability and is the mythical reliability target often quoted as a goal to achieve when running a computer system or service. There is a larger debate on what the number means, if it is only the "network" or if it should include applications, servers, etc.

I'm not going down that debate path today other than to state the obvious that the "more nines" the better. Instead I would like to use the standard availability table to describe one of the hidden realities that currently exists with mobile services. So first let's start with the table:

99.999% is 5 minutes of downtime per year, and 90% is 36.5 days of downtime per year.

So now the question is:

Would it be acceptable for a production mobile service to only be available 90% of the time?

My company has seen examples of this low level of service from even the most well known of companies. One of the most problematic areas seems to be SMS services and especially short code programs.

A short code is where you text message a special keyword or phrase like "Pizza 98065" to a number similar to a cell phone number. This number routes your keywords to an application which then returns some form of answer back to your handset. There are many examples of short code text messaging programs for looking up stock quotes, checking the weather, looking up an account balance, checking your airline flight, etc.

I think most people would have a "reasonable expectation" that when they send out a text message to a short code, some form of answer will be returned to them in a time-frame that is useful. If you are trying to look up your checking account balance so you know if it is possible to use your debit card in order to make a purchase, most people would expect the answer to come back in a few minutes or less, not hours from when the request was sent.

My company is able to monitor the performance and availability of any type of short code program. We were very surprised to see examples of short code services from major/giant/well-know companies where the success rate of the short code request is at the 90% level or lower. This means that over the course of the year, that service isn't working for over 1 full month of time.

To be fair, the types of common problems we are seeing aren't always coming from the actual application behind the short code, but instead problems are coming from the SMS aggregators processing the messages. The SMS aggregator is the intermediate party (company) sitting between the network operator (AT&T/Sprint/Verizon/T-Mobile) and the actual application that processes the keywords recognized by the short code.

When you vote via text message on a TV show, your text message flows from the network operator to a SMS aggregator, which then routes your text message to the owner of the application processing your vote. The message you get back saying "Thanks for your vote...." follows the reverse path, from the application owner, to the aggregator, and then back on to the operator network and then finally to your mobile device. There are many other examples of short code promotions that follow this same model.

One of the most common problems we have seen is that the message reply "never comes back", which means you sent your text to a short code but you never receive any type of reply in a reasonable amount of time. Your message has gone into "limbo".

Here is an example graph from a short code service that allows you to submit general information queries via a short code. The graph lines "dipping down" toward the bottom indicates that the success rate of the service is dropping. In this case the last 1 weeks worth of data shows that this service is only successful 58% of the time on average. And it is from a service that just about all of us would recognize.

We are currently advising our customers not to assume that their SMS services are running at 99% or higher. In reality, very few of the ones we have seen are running at this level. Many are running down in the 90% range and a few like the one I have shown here has major problems that need to be fixed.

If you are concerned about the availability of your mobile services, it is important to develop some type of strategy that will give you visibility into what is happening in the real world. I'm sure services like the one above went through extensive QA testing, but once a service is released out into the hands of real users, you might get a different result than what you established during pre-production testing.

Short Code with "HELP", but no one answers...

2008-03-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

When you send "HELP" to a sms short code, you are supposed to get back a message telling you what keyword options are available to use. The "HELP" keyword should work on all short codes.

The other night while watching "Dancing With The Stars", I tried to send "HELP" to the short code for one of the couples and was expecting to get some generic message back. Instead I got back this:

"Thank you for your vote.....normal text charges will apply...."

Wait, "HELP" was not a vote, it was a request for information.

Zillions of dollars are generated by the promotions, yet it doesn't look like any of that is invested in testing the quality and features of the service.

One thing interesting about the current crop of top SMS aggregators is that there isn't any information that a subscriber of their service can use to compare one aggregator to another. Which one is the fastest? Which is the most reliable? There is no benchmark to compare the performance of these processors of sms messages. Looks like there is an opportunity for someone to provide this.

Seesmic Review: "Turn Based Conversations"

2008-01-18T23:11:00.000-08:00

Mid December I was fortunate enough to get a Seesmic invitation. After logging in, at first I didn't understand what was happening, but after watching what was going on for a while it finally clicked.

Seesmic in simplest terms is a way to post video clips like a video blog. Everyone posts their clips one at a time, and they are all listed in a sequential time line. It is "Alpha" so there aren't advanced features like threaded conversations, but that will come.

Right now it is one continuous time line of posts and many conversations take place in that time line, in many ways similar to Twitter. In order to sort out the chaos, as a general rule almost everyone participates in whatever is the current set of "topics". When the discussion of the current topic trickles off, the next topic pops up and everyone starts posting on the new topic. There is overlap of several discussions going on at once, and in general there are about 6 different topics that are "current". You can go back into the time line to find the earlier topics that were discussed.

I think most new users don't understand the flow of what is happening and don't believe that "real" conversations take place. Because everyone just posts a video clip that is recorded inside the Seesmic UI, it might not appear that real conversations are taking place. But in fact a unique form of communication is happening. Something that I will call "Turn Based Conversations".

In a regular conversation with a group of people or even just one other person, the possibility exists that one person is a better or more persistent communicator than the other. In this situation the dominate speaker takes up most of the conversation. Another situation is where one person isn't as verbally expressive as the other, in this case the introvert might not be able to get their thoughts out in real time in a way that they meant.

Another situation is when a group of people are all talking together. One person might start to say something, but then gets cut off because someone else interrupts them. All of these situations are what we experience every day.

Seesmic is different. Each user can take the time to record what they want to say and show. If they mess up their message, they can discard it and start over. When they are happy with it, they can "post" it and it hits the top of the time line, along with all the other incoming posts. Each post has a title so you know which topic it belongs to.

For someone who is not a great public speaker or feels uncomfortable revealing a lot of information in a live face-to-face manner, Seesmic is terrific. If you are a "quiet" person, you can still get your complete thought into the discussion. There is no pressure to come up with a fully baked idea in real time. You can think about what you want to say, then record it, and then post it. It is video, so everyone else sees your face and well as hears your voice. That is another great thing about Seesmic, because you "see" the person posting, you get some "context" of where they are coming from.

If you like to talk "a lot", Seesmic is also great. You can participate in as many conversations as you like and there is no limit on how many posts you can make. If you create stuff that is interesting to others, the other members can "Follow" you.

You take your "turn" to add in what you want to say. Your complete idea hits the time line along with the posts from everyone else all doing the same. You follow the conversations by listening and watching the posts in turn, usually sequentially as they happen, but you can also jump around to any post in the time line.

The result is that the conversations that do take place are "deeper" than what would probably happen if they were live in real time. Because you are recording off-line, most people can assemble a coherent thought that adds value to the conversation.

There are a lot of goofy topics, and some people are not serious, but the other interesting thing about Seesmic is that everyone is civil. There is no name calling, no rude obscenities, or unacceptable behavior. Everyone justs posts what they think about the current set of topics. Much of the material is not "G" rated, but none of it is "X". Most posts are G, PG and R (for explicit language).

Seesmic is not about "arguing" in order to determine who is the best orator, it is about sharing. Any because there is a global audience, the contributions from people all over the world make up a unique type of conversation that could not be replicated in any other format.

With "Turn Based Conversations", everyone is equal. One person can not totally dominate the discussion. It is an "opt-in" system. If you like the topics being discussed, opt-in and post what you feel. If you don't like the current topic, then just move on to the next one or start a new topic.

Once the system is fully developed and massive numbers of users sign up, there needs to be a way to segment the conversations. Undoubtedly there will be a lot of useless, foolish, stupid stuff added once the masses show up. The basic types of filtering mechanisms used for other communication tools should fix this problem.

If you are looking for a way to express yourself verbally in a way where you are not under any pressure to come up with genius thoughts on every post, then Seesmic is something you will want to check out. There have been some hilarious discussions and online "parties", as well as serious discussions about world events. Because users are from all over the world, you get a unique perspective that extends beyond the everyday cultural ideas that you are used to in your local part of the world.

Some people won't "get it", but if you just go-with-the-flow of what is being discussed, eventually it will sink in. Because it is video, and very simple to record a new post, the conversations move very swiftly. Much more so than any other text blog or text chat system. Sometimes it is hard to keep current with the time line because so many new posts are being added every minute. It can be great fun.

One other thing, your video posts can be tied into your Twitter account so when you add a new Seesmic post, you also send out a Tweet.

"tonyperez" on seesmic

Apple vs Windows Font Rendering ::: Who gets the headache?

2008-01-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

The Apple philosophy of showing screen fonts in a way consistent with printing is opposite of the Windows way of displaying screen fonts for readability.

This issue has been discussed at length in the past, but because of the recent surge in popularity of Apple laptops and desktops, I wonder if this issue will resurface as more ex-Windows users switch to the Mac and find out that the fonts might look very different to them.

I am a "dual mode" user. I have a XP machine I have to use at work, and at home I have a Mac. Since I was a Windows users for a long time before I started using the Mac, my brain is "wired" to think that the Windows way of showing the fonts looks best.

My XP machine is a Thinkpad X60. The Thinkpads have always had really great laptop displays that are really clear and easy to read. Because of this, I run Windows with no font smoothing. To me it looks "pixel perfect" and I can stare at the screen all day with absolutely no eye strain.

When I first got my Mac, I would get headaches all the time after a short period of use. To me the Mac fonts looked "fuzzy". I turned the smoothing to "Light" and set the font size threshold to 12, but the whole way the larger fonts where displayed gave me eye burn-out after a very short period of time.

I discovered a program called "Silk" that allows you to globally turn off smoothing in OSX 10.4.x. For the smaller size fonts that make up the bulk of text in documents and web pages, the fonts now look like "Windows" fonts in that there is no smoothing. This completely changed my ability to use the Mac. Now I can work with it all day with no headaches.

I know in Windows XP you can also control the font smoothing, but for me, I've always preferred "minimal" to none. That is what I define as "clear".

When I poll my other friends and family I get a split verdict on how the Mac fonts look versus Windows. When I switched my wife to a Mac from XP, she had no problem. I set the smoothing to "Light" in OSX, and to her everything looks fine. She of course was only a casual computer user and only used her XP machine for light activities.

My daughter on the other hand thinks the default Mac way looks "fuzzy" compared to her old XP laptop (which I had the smoothing tuned to the way I like it). So her brain got wired like mine. Fortunately using Silk I could turn down the smoothing on her Mac laptop, and now she is fine with it.

My other Windows friends are split. Some think the Apple way is "fuzzy", some think it is fine. It is about 50/50.

On a larger scale, I was wondering how many Windows users converting to Apple will have the same issue as I do. I don't have Leopard installed yet, so I don't know what font controls are available in the latest version of OSX. I would be looking for "no smoothing" or "extremely light", but I doubt if that will be there since that breaks the existing Apple philosophy of how the fonts are supposed to be rendered.

I watched a recording of Steve Jobs giving a commencement speech and he talked about how in his student days he took calligraphy and that had a huge impact on the design of the initial Macs. The whole Apple philosophy of screen rendering fonts in a way consistent with how they will be printed is surely rooted in that experience.

Anyway, just to provide a visual. Here is a screen capture of a part of the Yahoo home page showing how it looks on my Windows XP Thinkpad with no smoothing, and my wife's iMac with the font setting at "Light". The top portion is from my laptop, the bottom the Mac.

To me, the top is "clear" and the bottom is "blurry". I know people that have Mac "wired" brains say that the top part looks "jaggy". To me it is pretty interesting how different people define "normal".

Seesmic: Lots of users are just "watchers"

2007-12-22T02:59:00.000-08:00

So apparently there are lots of users on Seesmic that just watch, but don't post. For some reason that creeps out a lot of people who think these "watchers" are doing something sinister. Here is my "video" response.

For those that don't know, with Seesmic, you work it like a blog, except your posts are video clips. Imagine all the comments that form under a popular blog entry, instead of each person typing in an entry, they just record a video clip and post it. There are still conversations just like Twitter, they are just video messages. Some are really clever, some are really boring. Just like any other service, you get a mixed bag.

I'll do a full overview on Seesmic sometime soon, I definitely see why it is so popular. In the social networking realm, this is about as personal as it gets. Everyone gets to see the "real you", and of course every little word you say and how you say it is what everyone else sees.

Seesmic Post

Trade: Jaiku Invite for Seesmic

2007-12-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

If anyone wants to get on Jaiku and has a Seesmic invite, I can trade.

Update: I was able to get one from Loc Le Meur, the CEO of Seesmic.

It I get any invites to give away, I'll let you know.

"The Meaning of Twitter"

2007-12-17T00:24:00.000-08:00

Twitter Down.

They have a big banner up saying "down for maintenance" with promise of some new features being put into production.

This was the first time I was totally locked out of Twitter when I wanted to be on, so it made me think of what Twitter is all about, and why I like it.

When you first try Twitter, it is confusing in that it isn't structured like so many other Internet destinations we visit. At first it is like listening to the thoughts of 1000's of people. It is all mixed together with no way to sort it out.

Then as you figure out how to be a "follower" and also be "followed", you find that you can tap into a more personal understanding of the people that interest you. Instead of a carefully thought out statement, you get the real-moment-in-time happenings of the other participants. And those "real time" statements is what makes it fun. It is different than a traditional chat application in that your statements are added to what everyone sees on a global scale.

And from that stew, you are able to seek out those that interest you. Your "happenings" also attract interest from others. You are a follower, and you are followed, all at the same time.

I'm always amazed at how well everyone is behaved in their comments. Even though you can proactively ignore offensive individuals, you rarely have the need to do so. Because Twitter is new, it isn't filled with sex, profanity, or spam. The beauty of it is that everything is "opt-in", you choose who you want to follow. If you wanted, you could "follow" no-one, but still leave your daily trail for others to follow you.

Why do people use Twitter? I'm not a social expert, but to me it is all about the real-time aspect of it and how quickly ad-hoc conversations can form. Also tied into this is the allure that so many other people have access to what you are saying.

I'm sure a lot of the Twitter junkies are having a conniption about it being down for a while. Guess what, you can always email, skype, jaiku, etc., etc., etc. Twitter is cool but I think it is over hyped like so many other new things. The people that have the "influence" are the internet celebrities that have the name recognition. Those are the ones with the most "followers", same problem as "friends" in FB. I look at some of entries from the Twitter heavy-weights, no big deal, no different than the rest of us. Many of the heavy-weights use their pull to drag people over to their commercial ventures by embedding links in all their entries.

Hopefully the "big deal" for Twitter doesn't turn into a followers competition. Who can get the most followers somehow equates to how important you are. I've found some good stuff from "unknowns" and I don't want to use Twitter as just another means to drive traffic to my personal blog site, or commercial venture. Over time that of course will be a big part of what Twitter will become, just another 140 character "ad". Oh well, by then something else better will hopefully come along.

To me what I like about Twitter is that I've discovered some people that live in my local area doing some of the things I like to do. That's value.

Second Life mirrors real world

2007-12-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

The virtual world and game interface will eventually become our default user interface to the internet. Second Life offers a way to "get away from it all" in a virtual sense, but it is interesting just how much the real world mirrors itself in second life. Second Life is no Utopia, and has its share of cultural and societal problems as well as positive opportunities.

1) Pick Pockets

It was recently discovered that it is possible to steal someone's SL money which is called "Linden Dollars". Infected objects like videos that begin to play when a user is near can trigger the theft. So from the real world we have "CRIME"

2) Real Estate Speculation

It is possible to buy raw "land" in second life which is just space that has not been populated with any virtual content. It is just "empty space". You can then create content and improve that space and then resell it to other players. It is a basic free market economy which makes up a big part of the game. You can roam around "broke" or you can accumulate Linden Dollars and buy virtual "stuff" in the game. How about a villa, a private island, or a castle of your very own? The point being is that basic human "GREED" is a big part of what SL is all about. Greed is good, nothing illegal or dishonest about it, but it is interesting how the real estate and business concepts of the real world directly apply to the virtual.

3) Ego

No one creates an avatar that looks exactly like they do in the real world. Everyone applies a certain amount of "VANITY" and "FANTASY" to their avatar counter part. Players have wings, tails, full body tattoos, perfect bodies, bodies of animals, etc. You can express yourself in a way not physically or financially possible in the real world.

4) Sex

If you are with another player and you kiss them, did you just cheat on your real world spouse? When I'm wondering around I see couples together and occasionally you see them kiss. I'm sure there is no virtual limit to what could be done in this area. In google type "second life escort" if you are interested in this aspect of the game. So from the real world "LUST" and "DESIRE".

I wonder how long it would be before 2 avatars get a virtual marriage. Would they have joint virtual property? Could they then get a virtual divorce? How long before 2 avatars can "create" a virtual child? What if a living "real world" player wishes to become the "in world" child avatar of two virtually married players?

5) Boredom

You see a lot of avatars just sitting around doing nothing. There is a way that you can "camp" which means you can sit in certain locations and earn a few Lindens by being exposed to some advertising. This is the way a lot of players make pocket change. You also can teleport around to different playing areas. You see people "teleport in", look around for a minute, and then they beam out. They are looking for the "action". You also see a lot of people just standing around probably just "people watching" from their computers. From the real world "LONELINESS".

---
SL is just another type of social network, but since it mimics the real world, and has an economy, a lot of human behaviors both on the plus side and negative side are also part of the game. No doubt this will become bigger and bigger over time and it will be interesting to see how much of real world human behaviors and tendencies will spill over to "in world". It definitely isn't a bunch of people sitting around talking about philosophy.

Maybe in the future there will even be public services. For instance, I read of a way to break into a locked house owned by another player. Maybe a good business would be a virtual Burglar Alarm company. If someone breaks into your virtual house an alarm would send you a SMS in the real world. Then you could call the virtual police. But then the offender would have to go to a virtual jail....virtual court, virtual lawyers...where does it end?

Economy, Crime, Sex, Ego, Wanting, it is all there.

NOTEPAD.EXE is running for President

2007-12-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

Update:
======================================
After creating this original post I discovered the explanation of what is happening. Look here

Apparently it is a Windows problem. The same results can be obtained with other strings like "Matrix can not lie". No conspiracy after all!
======================================

In Windows XP try this:

1) Open notepad.exe and create a new file
2) With no quotes type "bush hid the facts" (no quotes)
3) Save the file
4) Exit notepad
5) Re-Open notepad and open the file with the line from #2 above

What is up with that?

Regardless of your political beliefs, if this was done intentionally, it has got to be one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen in the technology world. Are we so divided as a country that individuals now resort to injecting their political beliefs into the most atomic actions they perform in their professional lives?

What if I'm wearing something that is colored Red or Blue? Am I now a Crip or a Blood? Will I be judged as a person on my political beliefs if I wear a blue shirt to work? Will our current political war in the US someday become a war on the streets?

It seems like we are slowly heading down the path where at some time in the future there will no longer be a common thread making everyone in the US an "American". At that point the concept of having one single country called the "United States" no longer makes sense. I believe the correct term is balkanization. For our children's sake I hope it never comes to that.

In the mean time, I think I'll wear a blue shirt with a red tie.

The Internet Never Forgets

2007-12-07T23:43:00.000-08:00

Fightdump.com specializes in video of clips of people of all types fighting. On MySpace you have endless pictures and videos of young people who are probably under age, drinking and partying. On YouTube people are engaging in all kinds of activities in order to create their "internet reputation".

The internet never forgets, and those pictures of you looking like a fool will probably be around "forever". Hopefully those impressions won't impede your ability to get into college, or get that job you really want. "Internet Background Check", everyone will be doing it.

The downside of these and other social sites is that in order to attract attention you have to do something unique. And for kids that might not have any real world skills built up yet, unique means "dumb". Of course these dumb actions seem great to the others listed as "friends" on your social profile. And of course, people doing these things don't realize that the picture of them drinking beer out of a hose, will probably be around for the next decade.

I wonder if someday in the future people will end up with a "social score" similar to our current "credit score". All your online actions, emails, downloads, posts, profiles updates, etc. will all be tallied up and rated in some way.

An email from you where you misspell 3 words in the same paragraph, minus 1 social score point for poor education. Did you download the "BeerMe" application from Facebook, minus 1 point for excessive tendencies. Did you download some music or software without paying for it? Minus 10 points for being untrustworthy.

Your Internet Social Score is: 47

Who knows if 47 will be good or bad.

A composite of your internet actions and activities would probably create a "dead-on" social and behavioral profile of what type of person you are. If somehow your entire internet-life could be laid out in a continuous timeline, would it be an accurate self biography? I wonder about this especially for young people that start using the internet early in life. If all your daily internet activities could somehow be assembled, would it be a comprehensive diary of your life?

The internet really is the ultimate "big brother" even though it has not yet come to that. Luckily in the US, we have the Constitution, in the future I hope that will be enough. It probably won't matter, we all seem eager to post so much information about ourselves in public forums. Assembling all of it without violating personal rights seems possible right now.

In the future your "internet life" will be a bundled up piece of information that can be bought, sold, and leveraged in ways we have not yet thought of.

Review: RCA Small Wonder, Part II

2007-12-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

I took the Small Wonder with me this last week end and took some videos. Included are the YouTube links. After watching the uploaded videos on my Mac, I have these comments:

1) The video looks best when there is some contrast. Taking a shot from a very long distance away is not where this device is strong. Up close shots from 3-10 feet, or shots where there is lots of color and light yields the best results.

2) The Zoom feature works well for up close shots, but far away shots that are zoomed seem to give up some clarity in the image.

3) It seems to do pretty well in low light, which is nice for such a low end device. One of the example clips is taken in my office where only a desktop lamp is turned on. As a pan across the room, you can see how well it adjusts for the low light condition. If you watch the video closely, you can see the device adjusting the light as I go from the dark objects on the desk to viewing my computer monitor.

Like I said in my earlier post, this isn't a replacement for a high-end consumer grade camera. If you need something for everyday YouTube style videos, or something small and light to carry around, then this could be a decent solution.

Links:

These clips are all from YouTube, so a little bit of the quality has been lost during the upload process, but they should give the general impression of what is possible with the device.

My Pet "Buddy"
A close up in low light

Tortoise Walking
Shows how close you can get before the image gets blurry

Ferret Wrestling Match
Shows using the zoom and the quality of a normal shot. You can hear the button "clicks" when I press the zoom key. This is a side effect of changing the zoom while recording.

Ocean Seascape
Waves and cliffs at the Oregon Coast

Low light test clip
Taken in a room in the evening with only a lamp and LCD monitor

Also, if you have a pre-teen that is computer savvy, this would make a great gift, since it is easy to use, the videos are small, and would allow the creative kid to express themselves.

Yuwie Social Network Pays You

2007-12-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

P4P = Paid For Participation

Is a new breed of P4P social network on the horizon?

P4P seems to be the theme for the new social network called "Yuwie". With Facebook on the PR ropes, an opening has been created for a social network platform that cuts the user in on the financial action.

Users get paid for different types of visits to their profiles. If someone looks at your video, picture, or any of your "stuff" you build up visit points that eventually translates into dollars that you get paid. Advertising is of course the core of the financial model and your profile is sprinkled with ads.

There is also a pyramid scheme where the people that you "invite" to join become part of your "network" and you also get paid for clicks that happen for all the profiles that make up your referral network. There are up to 10 levels of referrals that can build up underneath you.

You get paid "per 1000 impressions", this chart of the pay-out potential was taken from the "help" once you log in.

Hey, if you are a "famous" blogger, personality, or celebrity, it looks like you could bring your cadre of "friends" over and get to the upper levels. For most people, making enough for a trip to Starbucks looks like a more reasonable goal.

Regardless of the actual reality of how much people will make, at least the "concept" is more inclusive of the user than the FB model. The FB model attempts to farm the herd of profiles. In return FB gives you "fun". It is true that FB is fun to use for the most part, but in today's competitive world, fun is probably not enough. Companies like Yuwie can capitalize on the FB-Beacon problems and offer an alternative that many users wishing to live the "internet dream" will probably think is appealing. I'm sure many will sign up (like me) as an experiment just to see what the potential could be.

It looks like there is only a total of 300,000 or so users, so in no way is this on the scale of FB or MySpace. It will be interesting to see how fast Yuwie grows and if other social nets eventually follow a similar "revenue share" model.

Here is the link to Yuwie. I am interested in knowing how quickly a popular internet personality could built up a network on Yuwie and actually make it to the higher end of the pay outs. That would be a great social experiment.

Main Yuwie home page:
http://www.yuwie.com

If Yuwie is successful, I wonder how long it will be before they are gobbled up.

The Yuwie model does place "value" on the reach of your network. In many ways this is similar to a concept I describe in another article on this blog called "How much is your Facebook profile worth?"

Review: RCA Small Wonder, Part I

2007-11-29T23:24:00.000-08:00

I just got a RCA "Small Wonder", which is billed as a one-button video camera. There are actually a few more buttons (Play & Delete), but the setup if pretty fool proof. The video is a test video that I took with the RCA device. The video shows one of my pets, "Buddy" who is a Coatimundi. He just woke up from a nap. It takes the best video when you have at least a foot or more of distance from the subject. A pre-teen will love this thing because it is really easy to use and when you plug it in via USB, you can just copy the files directly from the device to your desktop. It makes avi files, so on a Mac you need a plugin, but it was simple to deal with.

The video quality might not win any awards, but for simple web video, or to have something just to throw in your pocket, this works. And it is cheap. You should be able to get one from eBay for less than $100. I'm taking it with me this week-end to the Oregon Coast, I'll capture a variety of shots and post a few more with a Part II review.

I usually write about stuff that is broken or that I don't like, but so far the Small Wonder is bucking the theme of my blog.

Why Facebook Beacon is "The Matrix"

2007-11-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

Let's say I buy a book on a "highly personal matter". Who knows what, it isn't hard to image what a few topics could be. And during that purchase process I miss the one-time "opt out" of Facebook Beacon tracking for this purchase. Lo-and-behold on my FB profile a message appears: "Tony bought a book on XXXXXXX" posted for all to see. In most cases it would be harmless, but maybe just one instance could also totally wreck someone's life. This is why Beacon is critically flawed.

Yes I like and use FB, cool concept, but what is happening behind the scenes makes me feel like FB is a honey pot just to attract users so their data can be farmed. Is FB really providing value to their users? A business model based on covert confiscation of your personal information doesn't seem like a long term winner to me. It seems like FB has completely opened the door for another competitor to come in and create "Facebook done right" where the "unstated expectation" of the user is respected.

Yes, I clicked on the "I AGREE" button when I created my FB profile, so I realize that I gave up all my rights to whatever I put into FB. Did I know or realize that even when I'm "outside" of FB, that a tentacle from the FB engine is still attached to my actions taken on other portals that are popular?

"I like Xbox" doesn't mean I want to buy one.

To be fair, the concept of only getting ads for things in your interest domain has a great appeal. If I'm going to get interruption ads, at least let them be something that I wouldn't consider obnoxious.

My gripe is the "opt-in" versus "opt-out" concept. When I'm not "in" Facebook, and I purchase a personal item, I shouldn't have to worry about every purchase showing up for all to see.

The parallel I take is from the movie "The Matrix". Everyone it attached to their "pod" where they are plugged in and generating battery "power" to run the matrix. Each of the battery cells is happy because they are "in" the matrix and are leading a realistic virtual existence. But in reality the fun is an illusion, it is all created just to keep each battery content and generating power. Each human battery doesn't even realize what is going on because the illusion is so complete.

Human Battery Pod = FB Profile

Like in the movie, once you realize what is going on, some will still choose to stay as part of the battery farm, others won't.

How much is your Facebook profile worth?

2007-11-17T22:59:00.000-08:00

With all the recent announcements by Facebook on its new advertising model. I was thinking about how to establish a monetary value for a Facebook profile. Right now there are several calculations based on the number of FB users and the valuation based on the recent MS equity purchase. This all equates to a fixed cost-per-user, but I was thinking about something different.

I was thinking that the value should be variable based on the influence that a user has. The FB "influence factor" would be based on the number of friends I have, the number of apps I subscribe to, my groups, number of interactions, etc. My "influence factor" is a ranking of how involved I am in FB and hence a reflection of how FB "sticky" I am. The more sticky the better because the more time I spend in FB means that there are more opportunities to show me ads. Also a large number of friends means that my profile home page is prime real estate for product placement messages that my friends will view when they check up on me.

I guess I'm not that valuable. There is a FB application at http://apps.facebook.com/valuation that will calculate how valuable your profile is worth. Mine only comes out to $16 dollars.

It is an interesting concept because over time the high value FB user would also be considered an "influencer". These people would be more valuable to advertisers because of the social net they would cast over other Facebook users that they are connected with.

Taking this a step further you can almost imagine a "ranking" system that would calculate the pecking order of all FB users. Those at the top would be like Frequent Flyers with a lot of miles. They will probably get all kinds of perks and other inducements that we can't even imagine yet.

This whole line of thinking leads me to the concept of certain Facebook users eventually getting "paid" for being on FB. If your profile has a high FB-valuation, then it seems like people will start knocking on your door. "Hey if you just promote this product on your profile we will give you this...."

Who knows what "this" will be? Eventually it will come out what "this" is, and it is sure to happen. Your FB profile will be like the price of a stock. You will have a FB P/E ratio, and your valuation will fluctuate on a daily basis based on your marketing performance to-date.

And with profile "fame" a new industry will be born. You will be able to hire a Facebook PR agent that will work on your behalf to score the best deal with the various marketers that will want your profile endorsement and access to your friends list.

It is deja-vu-all-over-again. First we had web pages, then came web pages with advertising, then we had blogs, now we have blogs with advertising. Recently we had profiles, and now we have profiles with advertising.

One thing seems to be left out of the Facebook system for targeting ads. That is: "What is my ability to actually buy something?" Do I have a high FB value because I have a lot of free time on my hands to build my profile, and because of this not a lot of personal funding? Maybe I can get a high FB-valuation just because I have a lot of friends. I wonder if someone will eventually become a millionaire based on marketing dollars leveraged from their FB friends list?

It seems like even the ability to judge your financial resources is within the reach of FB based on the data in your profile. Right now you type in your name, your area of residence, and your birth date. With that information it seems like it would be possible to do some quick background research on "you" and figure out exactly who you are financially. From there it is only a hop-skip-and-a-jump to figure out what type of ads match up with your discretionary budget.

If FB actually knew the "real me", I'm sure my profile value would double. From $16 to at least $32.

FB Down

2007-11-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

Seems like this will be a problem, down on Friday night, still "early" around 1:00 AM PST. FB will have to take some of their cash and build an infrastructure that has higher up time. Maybe doing maint at 3:00AM on Sunday is ok, but 1:00 AM (PST) on Friday, is no good.

Light goes "out" on Silverlight

2007-10-21T00:40:00.000-07:00

Trying to navigate to http://silverlight.net on Saturday, October 20th after 11PM PST gave me this:

Oh well, I guess even with bazillions of dollars, not everyone can always be perfect.

The Internet Is Boring - Part II

2007-10-21T00:18:00.000-07:00

Mark Cuban wrote the original "The Internet is Dead and Boring". I just have a few more things to add in addition to what he said.

The internet, including the mobile web, is boring, it has been and always will be. The reason that technologies like Flash, Ajax, Javascript, and Silverlight were invented is to combat boredom. When people are bored they turn things off, the put things down, they look for something else to do. That isn't a great model for the internet, because boredom means you'll look for some other content, or you'll turn off your computer all together and do something out in the real world.

How are you going to view and click on ads if your computer is turned off?

Boredom is one of the biggest threats to the current internet model which is dependant on capturing "eye-balls".

In many ways it seems like an arms-race defined as: "a competitive building up of armaments by actors in a conflict". A lot of the current internet seems to be based on the concept of using some new technology to attract users and then keep them from getting bored and leaving. We try to create user honeypots like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and such as a way to corral users into one spot and then attempt to keep them from getting bored and leaving for the next temporarily exciting thing that comes along.

New assaults on boredom have been launched. Now all the user tar pits are creating an "open api" so that 3rd party developers can create anti-boredom weapons that can be launched within these private parties that we currently call social networks. I do Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and all the other usual suspects. Each one has a certain initial "cool" factor which quickly dies off. To me it is like watching a movie. The first time you don't know what is going to happen so it is exciting. The second time might still keep you entertained, but the engagement factor has fall off.

Apple recently announced that a new iPhone api will be released that will support 3rd party applications. Why? Because they know the iPhone will become boring if no new applications are created for it. I have an iPhone, the first few days of browsing the desktop internet over wireless was fun with all the pinching and finger flicking. Now it is boring and a pain. Now, most of my iPhone bookmarks are for the "mobile" versions of the sites I frequent, not the full desktop web site that causes me to pinch and flick.

The internet is extremely useful, it has revolutionized many aspects of our lives. At the same time it is boring and hasn't really changed that much in the last few years.

Korea gets no respect from Yahoo Mobile

2007-10-10T22:53:00.000-07:00

As of "now" try this:

1) navigate to http://m.yahoo.com
2) click "Yahoo! International"
3) click "Korea"

My BB8800 doesn't display Korean correctly. I get a string of about 20 characters and the rest of the page is blank. Seems like they should be able to detect the device type and if it can't display that character set, put up a message saying so.

Give it a try and let me know what you get. I'll post when it works again.

This is a similar situation to what I discovered with Yahoo and the link to Japan a while back. It was broken for a long time before they fixed it. Yahoo needs some type of automated link crawling tool to verify the top level links on their portal. Maybe they should run it every day to make sure everything is connected.

Mobile Web Americas (the mobile web is dead)

2007-10-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

I attended this years Mobile Web Americas in Orlando. There are a couple of people that have written reviews, here is one. They had a good set of speakers but the execution of the whole event could be improved. Of course on the positive side, because the conference was small, you could approach any of the speakers afterward. That wouldn't be possible at a big show like CTIA.

One of the sessions was called "Meet the Browsers" where representatives from Nokia, Opera, Microsoft, and Novarra spoke. In general theme of the browser makers seemed to be: "just send us the desktop content and we will make it look OK on your mobile". In a lot of ways it seemed like they were saying "the mobile web is dead, just browse the web desktop page with your phone".

Of course that has to be their stance based on the products they sell. I don't subscribe to that line of thought because I believe in "context". When I'm mobile I don't necessarily want to see all the content that a full desktop page might offer. I'm not sure that line of thought would fit their product agendas. In addition they are all living in a world where everything is being compared to the iPhone. So it seemed like the party line was "I can browse a full web page just like the iPhone".

Craig from Nokia took a few jabs at the iPhone, some being valid. One of his jabs was that the iPhone has no GPS. In the context of LBS and the future of search this is important. If I could have made one humorous comment as a rebuttal, I would have said something like "yes iPhone 1.0 doesn't, but I bet one of the next versions will...." That is probably what has these guys a little shaken. The first release of a product from a newcomer in the device industry is "better" in many ways than anything we have seen from companies that have been around for years making handsets.

You Can Get There From Here

2007-10-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

It looks like after several weeks of being broken you can now navigate to the Yahoo Japan site. I'll try another link crawler to see what else we can find.

I survived "iBrick" day

2007-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Based on early reports, I was a little worried that I would have a problem updating my iPhone to 1.1.1. You see, I have a little confession to make. I did what you might call a "mini-unlock". When I got my iPhone, I used this program: http://www.dvdtoiphone.net/unlock-iphone.html to "unlock" it. It does not do a "SIM unlock" but instead allows you to get access to the iPhone UI even though the handset has not been activated. I used it to play around with the iPhone for a few days before I finally activated it.

Luckily I was spared the "new reality" imposed by Apple. I was able to do the 1.1.1 update and so far so good.

I will be interesting to see the ripple effects of the crack-down, especially in Europe where locked phones are not the norm.

Most of my friends report that their 3rd party native apps have been wiped. These types of decisions by Apple, which I understand from a pure profit motive, will undoubtedly cause some of the Apple luster to dull. Apple is slowly becoming more like "the other guys". Could be the beginning of the end. It definatley leaves an opening.

Saving "Face"

2007-09-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

I solved my iPhone-Facebook photo upload problem. In my Facebook account I added a flickr application. Then from my iPhone I can directly email my photos from the iPhone to the flickr account. The images then show up in Facebook.

Still Can't Get There From Here

2007-09-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the sequence I mentioned before when trying to browse to Yahoo Japan from my Blackberry 8800. The error is "excessive number of re-directs".

If anyone else can duplicate the problem on other BB devices, I would like to know.

You Can't Get There From Here

2007-09-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

You would think the big portal/content companies would be able to put some effort into testing out access of their services over some of the most popular devices, but it doesn't appear that way. You don't have to look to hard in order to find a problem.

For instance, I have a Blackberry 8800. When I do these steps I get an error:

1) Navigate to the Yahoo mobile home page (http://mobile.yahoo.com)
2) Hit "Yahoo! International"
3) Hit "Y! Japan"

I get a 400 error saying an excessive number of redirects have occurred. You would think someone from Yahoo or RIM would be able to catch these types of problems. All they need is a link crawler running over a mobile emulator. This problem has existed for over a month, I tried it a while back, but thought it was a short term thing that would have been corrected by now.

I'll take a picture of the error over the week-end and post it.

If anyone else has a BB device, give it a try and let me know if you get the same error.

Facebook losing "face"

2007-09-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

All I want to do is take a picture on my iPhone and email it to the Facebook email uploader. Sounds simple right? Wrong.

Apparently the email upload service for Facebook only works using MMS and not as an email attachment. I tried it and in my email account I get a message saying something like:

"You have uploaded from an unrecognized or unsupported address. If you are sending from a phone, your carrier may not be recognized by Facebook. Please try again in 24 hours."

So I sent an email to Facebook tech support and got this replay:

"Unfortunately, we currently only accept mobile photo uploads as MMS. We will consider other methods in the future. Sorry for the inconvenience."

I just wanted to upload a picture of my face into Facebook so it appears like the pictures of my friends faces, but I guess I have to face the facts that it appears on face value that it can't be done.

Dying of Thirst

2007-09-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

I'm staying at a hotel for a few days and after a late night jog I needed a bottle of water. The vending machine on my floor has one listed for $1.75. I open my wallet, pull out one dollar stick it in. I pull out the second dollar put it in. The machine spits it back out. A small corner of the dollar is missing so the machine doesn't accept it. I look in my wallet, no more dollars.

I hit the coin return which gives me 4 quarters. I go back to my room find 3 more quarters. Now I have seven quarters and one dollar bill with a missing corner.

Back to the machine I go. I put in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 quarters, everything good so far. I put in the seventh. It falls through the coin return. I try again, same result.

Thinking this quarter has a physical defect that the coin mechanism in the vending machine is picking up, I return to my room again looking for another quarter. Back to the machine: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....7 "plink", it falls through the coin return. Aaarrrggg!

I hit the coin return and get all my quarters. I try again, but the first quarter I put in is the one that just dropped through the return. I drop in this quarter in a new attempt and "it works" --- "thunk" into the belly of the machine.

A quick look at the machine and I see the problem. All the other drink selections are listed at $1.50, only my water choice is $1.75. So it looks like the machine has all of the slots programmed to only accept 6 quarters even though the price of my water is 7 quarters. When you put the 7th quarter in, it falls through because the machine thinks it is extra money. Yet the price of my water is 7 quarters which I can't physically get into the machine.

Hopefully "digital convergence" allowing payment-by-handset will someday make it to hotel vending machines.

Yahoo Mail Server: us.f431.mail.yahoo.com

2007-09-15T00:41:00.000-07:00

I thought about calling the title something like "Lazy" but I'll be nice. One of the things that bugs me is when a company like Yahoo that should have gobs of money and resources can't seem to fix a small but annoying problem in a service they offer.

I use Yahoo Mail and just about once a day when I try to log into mail, the page seems to grind on a URL that starts off as http://us.f431.mail.yahoo.com/ - it is always the same f431 that has the problem.

I immediately think of the Seinfeld episode "It's not you, it's me", but a quick search reveals that a lot of other people have the same problem, and many have tried to report it.

There is an IT concept called "monitoring" where you use automated technology to ping all your web portal entry points in order to see that they return a valid web page. Yahoo must have some type of technology like this, and why they don't fix this problem that has been exposed by so many is hard to understand.

Today, it is all about "Brand", which should include the never ending commitment to continually refine the quality of your services. All the little things add up, and they add up to big numbers. Like a stock price being $525 versus $25.

New Google Reader Changes Subscription Layout

2007-09-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

When the latest Google Reader came out I was unhappy because the new default layout is different than before. Instead of your subscription list being in a frame on the left, it now "floats" above the article text that now takes up the full width of your browser window. In this new view I also could not find the "Add subscription" button.

Of course, as always there is a solution:

If you don't know this about Google Reader, hit SHIFT-? to get a pop up window of commands.

If you don't like the new look-and-feel hit "u".