Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

The BlackBerry Pearl has just been released for Verizon Wireless. I know I’m not alone when I exclaim “Hooooray!” I received my phone on 11/7, after five days of using and playing with the phone I feel competent enough to write a review.

First, let me give you a background on where I’m coming from. I’m a Mac user since March 2007 and I’ve been a Palm user since 1999. As far as Palm’s go I’ve had the Handspring Visor, Handspring Visor Edge, Palm m500, the Palm m515 and the Palm Treo 650. This has been a long way of telling you that, in the past, I’ve been a heavy Palm OS user and this is my first BlackBerry.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Treo 650, let me give you a brief history. It’s a brick (-), its battery weighs more than my Pearl. It has a QWERTY keyboard (+). It has a touch screen (+). It has a large screen (+). It does email (+) but not very well (-).

Right out of the box the Pearl started to impress me. The size of it is simply amazing! It fits comfortably inside the palm of my hand and my thumb easily reaches the trackball. And, as I mentioned earlier, it weighs less than the battery of my old Treo 650.

The phone is also very stylish. The pictures I’ve seen on the internet do not give it justice. If you’re interested, go to the Verizon store and see it for yourself.

As far as the phone goes, I was a little apprehensive of even ordering it. The lack of a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard really worried me.

On my Treo I could type amazingly fast, my fingers flew over the keyboard like a pianist’s fingers do over piano keys. On the other hand, the Pearl does not have a QWERTY keyboard. Instead it has two letters per key. In order to make typing easier the phone uses something called SureType. In short SureType is a Predicitive Text application that guesses the word you are typing based on the keys pressed.

In the past I’ve used T9 (another predictive text application) and quickly turned it off in favor of tapping each key in order to get the letter I wanted. So far I haven’t turned off SureType as it works rather well. One of the first things I did was type up an email with some of the words that most people don’t use - a co-worker’s last name, “Java,” “Lodgenet,” and some other things. It was able to guess all of them. But I found one problem - me. I worked against the application. In order for SureType to guess what you want, you have to type. I would type three letters, see that it was being displayed wrong so I would try to fix it. Instead, keep typing. Most of the time it will guess what you’re looking for.

If you’re a Mac user, beware of software installation. In the Palm world you would download a PRC file and tell the HotSync Manager to install it next time the Palm was synced. In Windows land this paradigm applies with BlackBerry as well. Unfortunately for us Mac OS users this simply isn’t possible - neither PocketMac nor Missing Sync support it. This is a major buzzkill for me. Thankfully OTA installations work but this is a major hassle.

As far as other Mac-centric things - I can’t find anything wrong. The Pearl integrates well with iCal, Address, etc.

BlackBerry has long been known as an email device. The Pearl is no different, it falls in-line with all of the other crackberries that have been released.

In order to get my email up and running, all I had to do was login into BlackBerry’s Verizon-Branded website, give them some information regarding my accounts and off it went. Within five minutes personal and consulting email (both hosted by Google) was being pushed to my phone. I didn’t have to enter in any technical information - just my username and password.

All in all the Pearl has been a rock solid device. I love using it, I love carrying it and I have love/hate relationship with instant access to my email.

Do you love or hate my post? Are you thinking about the Pearl and have questions? Do you have the Pearl and need to vent? Would you like to tell others how much you like your Pearl? Leave a comment!

---

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 is available from Verizon Wireless for $199 after two-year contract and on-line discount.

Over on Arstechnica’s forum there is a verbal battle going on about Twitter. What is Twitter?

First off I’d like to describe Twitter. According to the Twitter’s website, Twitter answers the question “What are you doing?” I find this to be a succinct explanation. People post what they’re doing, where they’re going and what they’re thinking. If you’re an outsider looking in then this probably seems trite. You may be wondering why you should care about what people are doing and thinking. For strangers you probably wouldn’t care. But, when it comes to your friends, you probably do care.

In the times that we’re living in keeping in touch is hard to do. Each of us have different schedules and different responsibilities. Although email, cell phones, VoIP, IM and text messaging have helped us to work around this gap it still takes two. How often have you sent an email or made a phone call and not expected a reply? How often have you done either of these just tell someone what you’re doing? In both cases I’m willing to bet not too often, if ever. Enter Twitter.

Twitter allows us to tell our friends, family or even the world what we’re up to. Although Twitter has been described as an exercise in vanity, I don’t agree.

When we post to Twitter we do not expect a response. We are creating a log of what we’re doing, where we’re going and what we’re thinking. This log is viewable by the world or only those we choose. This log allows our friends to keep track of us and conversely, allows us to keep track of our friends. No dialog and no scheduling required.

In short, Twitter allows us to provide bite size glimpses into our lives and allows our friends and family, or even the world to view them.

invititis n: An inflamation whereby a person is overloaded with invitations to join different web sites, often sites used for social networking.

In recent history many sites have allowed users to join only after they have been invited. Some of the more notable of these sites include GMail, Orkut, Joost and Pownce. So many sites are only open by invitation that a community named Invite Share has been created so that people can get trade invitations!

Why are so many sites invitation only? The most used reason is that it helps to limit how many people are using the service. Since most sites that are invitation only are in beta, this is a very good idea. It allows the web site operators to give their application real world test while preventing the servers from being overloaded.

But I think there is another reason. Going “Invitation Only” gives the service a “cool” factor. If only a select group of people have access to site then those who have access are cool and those on the outside are not. It is kind of like standing outside a club in New York City begging the bouncer to be let in.

Invitations also create a buzz. If only a select group of people know what it’s like on the inside a lot of other people will want to know. There will be blog posts and e-mails and IMs set. People will be talking.

The most recent “Invitation Only” site that I’m aware of is Pownce. I have invites, I can’t give them away. No one wants them. It could be that Pownce is trying to break into a market that already has some heavy hitters - Twitter and Jaiku. Or it could be something that I like to call “invititis.”

As I mentioned above, invititis is an inflammation, an overload of invitations to join a web site. “If you’re cool you’ll join GMail.” “Hey you’re a loser if you don’t join Pownce.” It goes on and on. I think people are sick of being pressured to bounce from site to site. Tired of being with the in-crowd one day and waking up only to find that the new cool is somewhere else.

The Internet is supposed to be for sharing ideas and knowledge. If you create a website, and it needs to be tested then by all means open it up to a limited amount of people. But the idea of invitations is an exercise in vanity. “Look at how many people want to join my service. They’re even selling invitations on Ebay!”

I too have fallen prey to invititis. I scoured the ‘net for Gmail invitations. I quickly emailed someone when they announced that they had Joost and Pownce invitations. But I think the time has come that I back away from trying to catch the next wave as it is heading for the shore of common place.

I am embarking on a new project and I’d like to use AJAX. Being unfamiliar with AJAX I decided to buy some books on the subject. After an hour or so spent browsing Barnes and Noble I settled on two books: Pro Apache Struts with Ajax and Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology both from Apress Publishing.

Below you’ll find mini-reviews of each book and the reason for this post.

Pro Apache Struts with Ajax

I have been using Struts for about two years now. By no means am I an expert but I am quite proficient. I was drawn to this book for two reasons: 1) I could use some more in-depth knowledge of Struts and 2) Combining Struts and Ajax seemed like a natural progression.

I perused the book before purchasing it and I found some interesting pieces of information and a very nice introduction to Ant. So I figured it was worth a shot. If the Struts part of this book is so in-depth, imagine the Ajax portion!

To say the least, the Ajax information in this book is lacking. By lacking, I mean the XMLHttpRequest object is explained and that is about it. If you look in the Index under “Ajax” there are a few references, but everything listed is in the appendix.

Although this book is interesting and still worth the price I found the title to be very misleading. I almost feel cheated because it seems like the publisher is trying to win sales on the back of the Ajax hype.

Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology

This is an excellent book. For a technical book it is a really great read!

The book is laid out in different projects starting from an implementation of Johnny Carson’s Karnak through a simple webmail application and onto a chat and RSS reader application.

Along the way the author, Frank Zammetti, shows us different Ajax Libraries such as Java Web Parts and DWR.

Also included in the book are some design patterns and anti-patterns. Although this falls more into the academic arena these sections are also a good read.

In the end, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for an introductory course in AJAX. As I mentioned, it is more of a big tutorial so those looking for a reference book may want to look elsewhere.

My friend Colin and I often spend our Sunday nights video chatting using iChat. More often than not we get into discussions about programming, or Apple, or life in general. Although these conversations seem inane, I had the brilliant idea (or not so brilliant idea) that other people may be interested in hearing these chats. So Colin and I are turning our weekly conversations into “No One Will Listen Anyway” a weekly podcast.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is not to advertise NWLA but to discuss some of the things we are going through in order to get our podcast off the ground. I imagine that this post is just the beginning of a series describing the trials of two geeks turned podcasters.

Technical Genesis
Although the first step to creating a podcast is the idea, the real beginning, especially for geeks, starts when things get technical.

Recording
Since both Colin and I are Mac users, we started with Garage Band an audio recording suite including in Apple’s iLife suite.

Unfortunately GarageBand got us into trouble when we tried to record our second podcast.

For our second podcast, we recorded it after we prepared for it. Topics of conversation, links, ideas, even a mini rehearsal! All of this culminated in a longer (and hopefully more interesting) podcast. This longer podcast crashed GarageBand after almost 30minutes of recording so we had to re-record the show over again.

I’m running an Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook with 1GB of RAM and GarageBand records its data into RAM and, at certain points, seems to write what has been recorded to hard drive.

In order to get around this issue, we interrupted the podcast, saved the recording, and continued on. This proves to be a huge pain and ruins the continuity of the show. So now I am in search of a different program. If you have any suggestions, please post a comment!

Distribution
Although there are many places to post a podcast, we decided to first post our show to iTunes.

In order to post to iTunes, you must provide an RSS. This allows your listeners to keep track of new episodes. Apple provides lots of information on their Podcaster Tech Specs page. This page provides information on submission to special iTunes-specific fields to include in your RSS feed.

To help make RSS feed generation easier Mightyseek has created Podpress, a wonderful plug-in for Wordpress.

Well, that is all for now. As NWLA grows I will be sure to write more articles. For now, feel free to send post your comments and questions.

I imagine many of us use multiple Workspaces during the course of our daily lives. If you’re like me, switching back and forth between workspaces can cause trouble. i.e. Changing code in one workspace when you think you’re in another. You setup your machine to run multiple versions of Eclipse but that takes up Taskbar space and resources. With the tip below you can be privy to all the workspace you’re currently working in without having multiple versions of Eclipse.

Right click on your Eclipse shortcut and append the following text to the “Target” field: “-showlocation [workspaceName].” Restart Eclipse and you’re ready to roll!

If you’re not familiar with the movie “Hackers” I suggest you do a little research before reading the article. May I even suggest buying the movie Hackers?

Anyway, this post is about Razor and Blade the “elite” hackers that Kate and Dade visit when they need help dealing with the feds. They are self-proclaimed media icons and run a pirate television show named “Hack the Planet.”

I understand that podcasting isn’t illegal so they do not share that in common but they do share more important commonalities. Both of them are below the radar of mainstream media and Both of them have huge followings.

And just like Razor and Blade when their broadcast was received all around the world, podcasting is breaking through. With the sale of one-hundred million iPods podcasts are more popular than ever. In the fray are not only iPods but many other multi-media devices such computers, PDAs, and other “MP3″ players. All of these add up to an ever growing market for podcasting.

Thanks Razor and Blade for being the fathers of podcasting! Sorry Adam, I know you’re the true father of podcasting but I think they beat you buy a few years …

Today Google announced a new version Google Apps named Google Apps Premier Edition. Although I subscribe to the regular version currently I may switch to the Premier Edition since I now run a business.

My experience with Google Apps has been extremely positive. I love being able to separate my personal life from my business life while still using the Google’s great tools. While GMail is my favorite feature the other features are nothing to sneer at.

From a business perspective Google Apps just makes sense, especially if you run a small business. For email you used to register a domain, buy hosting, setup a mail server and bought/downloaded an email client. This was such a hassle, at least I always thought so. I want to spend my time performing tasks that make me money, not System Admin tasks that don’t. And that was for email, but what about other office tasks such as documents and spreadsheets?

For other office tasks, Google Docs is a nice solution although I don’t feel that it is truly ready for the enterprise yet. Don’t get me wrong, Google Docs is great for simple documents and spreadsheets but it does have its problems, all of which have been noted numerous times around the Internet. But when it comes to document sharing, Google does a great job! I’ve used it for a project (Shasradio) I’ve been working on and I plan on using for my consulting business.

Overall Google Apps is another great product from Google. I just have one piece of advice - remember to backup all of your information! Although Google promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee I don’t see any mention of a data guarantee.

Google Apps Premier Edition costs $50/year/user and provides a host of features, including an API. This has not been a paid advertisement, I just want to spread the Google Love.

Tonight is snowy in Sioux Falls and I’m a little bored. So I decided to write about some of my favorite podcasts.

• Geek Brief. A gadget oriented show by Cali Lewis and her husband Neil. Cali has a great personality and she’s great looking. Gadgets and a sweet, beautiful girl - what more could you want from a podcast? (Video).
• Mobuzz. A technology oriented show hosted by Karina Stenquist. She is another beautiful host, and she’s extremely intelligent. Her on-air banter is fantastic! (Video).
• This Week in Tech (TWIT). Another technology related show. The original cast is made up of the bastard children of TechTV, most notably Leo Laporte. Another regular on the show is John C. Dvorak. (Audio).
• FitPod. This an exercise related podcast that contains great music for getting you pumped up and keeping you going strong throughout your workout. Make sure you download “Fit&Run.” (Audio).

If you have a favorite podcast, email it to me at: zechariahs+podcast@gmail.com.

Because of my recent GMail fiasco I’ve been downloading all of my email to my computer. I’ve been able to download most of my messages, in fact I was able to get all of my messages until 9/1/2006. Then the pipe ran dry. Every time I logged into Gmail via Thunderbird the GMail servers would tell me that I had no new messages. After some research I found the GMail POP Troubleshooter.

The GMail POP Troubleshooter checks your Outlook or Thunderbird settings to determine any configuration problems. After running the tool it alerted me to the fact that the “Leave messages on server” setting is invalid as this is GMail default behavior (Help Center - Incorrect ‘leave on server’ setting). I changed the setting and my Gmail messages started downloading again. w00t.