Matthew Wronka http://bohmian.org/user/m http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo_Mail_for_Exchange http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo_Mail_for_Exchange Tue Mar 16 13:19:40 GMT-05:00 2010 I'm pretty sure Maemo Mail For Exchange corrupted some of my contacts list on my Nokia N900. Unfortunately, MfE as it's affectionately known as in Nokiland is the only way of synchronizing calendars with Zimbra on the N900 because the N900 doesn't natively support web calendars for some unknown reason.

Additionally, whether or not you want to use MfE to synchronize mail, it'll create a stub mailbox entry that you cannot get rid of without destroying the MfE setup. Finally, MfE only supports a single synchronization point.

In general, MfE introduces a lot of problems which could have been fixed by simply support web calendars.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo_Mail_for_Exchange http://bohmian.org/disc/Mail_for_Exchange http://bohmian.org/disc/Mail_for_Exchange Tue Mar 16 13:14:39 GMT-05:00 2010 Nokia's ActiveSync client. The S60 Mail for Exchange and Maemo Mail for Exchange are both from different code bases and support different features.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Mail_for_Exchange http://bohmian.org/disc/RIM_BlackBerries http://bohmian.org/disc/RIM_BlackBerries Tue Mar 16 07:34:58 GMT-05:00 2010 RIM has a selection of BlackBerries.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/RIM_BlackBerries http://bohmian.org/disc/Research_In_Motion http://bohmian.org/disc/Research_In_Motion Tue Mar 16 07:33:27 GMT-05:00 2010 Research In Motion is a Canadian based company responsible for popularizing the now genericized term BlackBerry. They have their own line of BlackBerries.

They have also been called Lawsuits in Motion given their propensity to fight battles in court over tenuous patents rather than via creating better products.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Research_In_Motion http://bohmian.org/disc/BlackBerry http://bohmian.org/disc/BlackBerry Tue Mar 16 07:30:02 GMT-05:00 2010 BlackBerry is a common noun, meaning either a small berry in the rubus genus, or more commonly today, any mobile phone that has support for real-time or semi-real-time push email.

The first company to coin the term BlackBerry was Canadian-based Research In Motion, but by no means are they the only company to produce BlackBerries which has through aggressive use as a noun by both RIM and its partners (noticeably Verizon Wireless who uses the tag Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry and uses the term as a noun in its advertisements).

Other companies that currently make BlackBerries include Nokia, HTC, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and a host of other mobile phone companies. It's argued that to be classified as a BlackBerry, you also need to have a slow, unstable, and basic web browser, but this appears to no longer be the case as even the Research in Motion mobile devices have announced that they will be switching to a webkit-based browser making it the last popular maker of BlackBerries to do so.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/BlackBerry http://bohmian.org/disc/Tortilka http://bohmian.org/disc/Tortilka 2010-03-13 16:06:13.776 Tortilka is a restaurant that has good cheap beer (specifically, Negra Modelo), but nothing else going for it. Somehow, they consistently get worse every time you visit--which you do just for morbid curiosity.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Tortilka http://bohmian.org/disc/%2A_quec.es http://bohmian.org/disc/%2A_quec.es 2010-03-13 15:50:28.266 *@quec.es is a Jabber bot which automatically logs status changes and messages sent to it as part of the microblog hosted at quec.es.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/%2A_quec.es http://bohmian.org/disc/Pinchmedia http://bohmian.org/disc/Pinchmedia 2010-03-11 18:52:49.878 Slimy Apple iPhone drop-in component developer, whose product is used in apparently many apps, reporting not only app usage, but the user's phone number, gender, and birth date.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Pinchmedia http://bohmian.org/disc/Banning_salt_from_all_food http://bohmian.org/disc/Banning_salt_from_all_food 2010-03-11 18:44:16.81 A stupid idea from an ignorant politician that just isn't practical.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Banning_salt_from_all_food http://bohmian.org/disc/Cloning_SIM_cards http://bohmian.org/disc/Cloning_SIM_cards 2010-03-11 18:30:41.467 Having a bunch of mobile phones kicking around, for different purposes, it would be much simpler if I had multiple copies of my SIM card rather than needing to swap them around. Unfortunately, most carriers I've talked to haven't been fond of this--although I've heard people in other countries have had luck (Scandanavia?).]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Cloning_SIM_cards http://bohmian.org/disc/NetworkManager http://bohmian.org/disc/NetworkManager 2010-03-04 10:00:07.965 A braindead network management daemon.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/NetworkManager http://bohmian.org/disc/Preferring_wireless_networks_over_wired http://bohmian.org/disc/Preferring_wireless_networks_over_wired 2010-03-04 09:59:12.145 Why would you ever prefer a wireless connection over a wired connection. The wired connection you probably needed to manually connect the hardware, indicating there's a good chance you want to use it. The wireless connection is probably your neighbors' unconnected wireless access point.

This is yet one more thing that NetworkManager seems to do wrong--worse, telling it to disable wireless while it's trying to connect to one doesn't cause it to fall-back to the wired network; that only happens if it sees another cable inserted (i.e. unplugging and re-plugging the cable in).]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Preferring_wireless_networks_over_wired http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice_support http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice_support 2010-03-02 14:13:30.381 see: unhelpful]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice_support http://bohmian.org/disc/My_BroadVoice_service_was_silently_suspended http://bohmian.org/disc/My_BroadVoice_service_was_silently_suspended 2010-03-02 11:56:56.172 In February 2010, BroadVoice decided to suspend my account because I'd switched credit cards--but not until after it'd already successfully charged the card which seems to make the entire thing somewhat suspicious not to mention frustrating. Because I primarily use the number for incoming calls (I don't tend to use voice calls), it took me two days to realize this, and after sending an e-mail to BroadVoice support, it took them four days and a follow-up from me to respond with an explanation.

I'm still confused as to why they need authorization after already charging my card, and why this wasn't better communicated earlier. I'm also curious as to why they need this information after I've been using their service for over two years without incident.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/My_BroadVoice_service_was_silently_suspended http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice 2010-03-02 11:52:39.098 I started using BroadVoice as my VoIP to POTS gateway provider a few years back, and haven't had any significant problems. There have been a few minor hiccups:
* Certain users of Sprint Nextel's Blackberry service don't properly appear with caller ID information which breaks some caller-based rules.
* For these same users, outgoing calls over BroadVoice don't get redirected to voicemail.
* I can't specify my outgoing caller ID information which is frustrating if I want people to call me back at a specific number (e.g. my mobile) rather than my VoIP line.

More recently however, my BroadVoice service was silently suspended, which I consider a bit more severe as this is somewhat isolating. The reason appears to be because I switched credit cards, and they've changed their policies regarding necessary authorization. I do feel like this could have been better handled.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/BroadVoice http://bohmian.org/disc/Neuros_Link_Gamma_Program http://bohmian.org/disc/Neuros_Link_Gamma_Program 2010-02-28 17:24:09.81 I bought a Neuros Link from Thinkgeek during their Gamma program (named as it followed their beta product, but preceded an official release). As part of the program, there was a no-questions asked refund policy that lasted for several months. I returned my unit through DVRUpgrade who manages the programs refunds and apparently technical support for Neuros Technologies, and two complete months after having record of its delivery, the most I've received (after actively following-up after a month) from either company was an acknowledgement that the product had been received and was being processed.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Neuros_Link_Gamma_Program http://bohmian.org/disc/Dating_website http://bohmian.org/disc/Dating_website 2010-02-28 13:28:27.722 Dating web sites are the logical progression from online classifieds, providing a specialized location for people who want to date, get married, or otherwise socialize. Their most important asset is their userbase, which tends to have high turnover as needs are met. Some, such as match.com have been notorious for having staff go on dates with no intention of progressing a relationship further, but only to provide the feeling that the site was helping connect the user with potential partners.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Dating_website http://bohmian.org/disc/TikiDate http://bohmian.org/disc/TikiDate 2010-02-28 13:24:05.31 An "international" dating website which has only 30 profiles, all in their early twenties, and all from Toronto, Ontario.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/TikiDate http://bohmian.org/disc/Treat_everything_as_an_iPhone http://bohmian.org/disc/Treat_everything_as_an_iPhone 2010-02-28 13:14:26.177 Not everybody using your web site with a mobile browser wants it to look like an iPhone app. If they did, they'd probably have an Apple iPhone mobile device.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Treat_everything_as_an_iPhone http://bohmian.org/disc/Mozilla_Fennec http://bohmian.org/disc/Mozilla_Fennec 2010-02-28 13:09:54.243 Mozilla's mobile FireFox web browser was codenamed Fennec. It has a well-done, simple to use interface and has surfaced some common tasks in very intuitive places. However, the rendering engine seems to have a few issues still, which is a little surprising given that it should be not much different from the desktop version.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Mozilla_Fennec http://bohmian.org/disc/MicroB_web_browser http://bohmian.org/disc/MicroB_web_browser 2010-02-28 13:07:44.822 The MicroB web browser is the default web browser for the Maemo operating system. For the most part, its developers have done a good job of integrating it into the Maemo environment, but certain aspects that are not expected to be seen by everyday users have some glaring lack of polish, such as the plug-ins dialog which looks to be holding onto its antecedent toolkit (possibly XUL--despite the product itself not supporting XUL in the browser).

MicroB sometimes has problems such as being non-responsive or stalling. In bugs filed against it at bugs.maemo.org, the suggestion has been to clear history and cache--although the specific bug with these recommendations should have been fixed with the first Maemo update of 2010.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/MicroB_web_browser http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo5_Web_Browsers http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo5_Web_Browsers 2010-02-28 13:04:06.392 There are three main options that I've seen for web browsers on the Nokia N900, which is the flagship Maemo product. Two of the browsers are based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine while the third is based on the webkit layout engine.

The MicroB web browser is probably the first that any Maemo user comes across. It's the default browser, based on Gecko, and is a continuation of the line of browsers on earlier Nokia Internet tablets. Of the three browsers, it's the most hildonized, feeling most at home on the platform. It uses the same status-bar slide-in to call-up customization options and Maemo notifications as the rest of the platform. It has some stability issues, however, and is internally the least consistent. Areas of the browser that are less common, such as extensions and plug-ins, did not get the hildonzied appearance resulting in needing to use an old-fashioned scroll bar.

The Midori web browser is the second option. It's based on the same rending engine as Mobile Safari and the Android's web browser. It renders about the same, and has built-in support for user-agent spoofing so that sites treat it just like if you were using an Apple iPhone mobile device instead of the higher-resolution N900. There are some rendering differences, which I haven't quite figured out the cause of given that they do both use the same underlying engine. Midori also has shown some odd behaviours, like forgetting about touch-scrolling at one point until it was restarted.

Finally, Mozilla Fennec, the code name for the mobile version of Mozilla FireFox. While MicroB supports limited ad-ons and extensions, Fennec is a mostly-compatible version of the desktop FireFox browser and supports many of the same ad-ons. The UI work that went into customizing Fennec for the N900 is impressive, and it does feel very natural. With that said, there are a few things I miss from MicroB, such as the "swirling" magnification. Fennec has only a double-tap that changes from zoomed-in to zoomed-out (somewhat reminiscent of Opera Mini's "map" feature), but does not allow one to continue to zoom in like MicroB does. On the other hand, some may find that double-tapping as a toggle makes zooming through a page quicker than MicroB which continues to zoom in on each double tap.

The summary report is that I'm using a combination of the three. With many sites wanting to treat everything as an iPhone, I use Midori in iPhone-spoofing mode to see what sites consider their superior mobile presentation, and am trying Fennec for most normal browsing right now, mostly because of its support for tabs which MicroB lacks (but Midori does have).]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo5_Web_Browsers http://bohmian.org/disc/Mobile_Internet_devices http://bohmian.org/disc/Mobile_Internet_devices 2010-02-27 16:49:27.799 A portable, network-enabled, electronic device whose main purpose is networked applications and communication. These often take various forms, including that of networked personal digital assistances or small tablet computers. There is an arguably blurry line distinguishing between smartphones and mobile Internet devices.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Mobile_Internet_devices http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo 2010-02-27 16:45:36.453 Maemo is a pretty neat Linux-based operating system that was developed by Nokia for its mobile Internet devices and later merged with Intel's similar Moblin operating system. Maemo makes for a decent appliance operating system assuming its touch interface is practical for the application. Unfortunately, there are still binary blobs required for most implementations.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Maemo http://bohmian.org/disc/Low_disk_space_and_updating_Maemo_on_the_N900 http://bohmian.org/disc/Low_disk_space_and_updating_Maemo_on_the_N900 2010-02-27 16:41:19.719 The Nokia N900 comes with a root filesystem with a minuscule 256MB. Nokia and the Maemo community have done a good job of making Maemo work with this through the liberal use of symlinks, but a limitation is still a limitation, and Nokia's still trying to get it right.

This morning I had about 27MB of free space, or about 10%, free. This hasn't been a big problem before, but today the first Maemo update after I received my device was released, and it need about 14MB to hold the downloaded files, and would need about 17MB of space extra after extraction. After combing my
filesystem, I realized that I had over 6MB of Maemo themes installed to the root filesystem.

After cleaning that up, I had 33MB free, which I would have thought were enough, but unfortunately, it wasn't for the Maemo application manager. A solution that seemed to work was to do it the old fashioned way and pull up an xterm window and run sudo apt-get dist-upgrade manually. That seemed to work just fine.]]> http://bohmian.org/disc/Low_disk_space_and_updating_Maemo_on_the_N900