Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

In a previous post (BlackBerry Code Signing Help), I ran into problems signing my API Keys (.CSI files).  Also in that post, I had trouble Requesting Signatures for my application.  Both problems are now resolved and I was able to successy install my latest project onto my BlackBerry Storm.  (My tweet-of-joy)

Instead of simply making this a “yippee” post, I’m going to provide details on how to sign your API keys and then how to request signatures for your application.  I realize that BlackBerry provides instructions but they don’t seem too clear, at least they don’t to me.

Request Java Code Signing Keys

RIM requires that a developer register with them before he is allowed to access certain “sensitive” APIs.  These APIs fall under three categories: Runtime APIs, BlackBerry Application APIs, and BlackBerry Cryptography APIs.

Registration is $20 and you can register online using the “BlackBerry Code Signing Keys Order Form.”  For more details as to why RIM requires registration and for what specific APIs are controlled, visit the “Java Code Signing Keys” page.

Registering Your Keys with The Signing Authority

Once you have registered for your code signing keys, RIM will send you three files: a “client-RCR-#####.cod,” “client-RRT-#####.cod,” and a “client-RBB-#####.cod.” Each file will be sent in a different email.  You can then follow the instructions in the “BlackBerry Signature Tool Developer Guide” (a PDF download).

This is where I ran into my first problem - when I double-clicked a .COD file, Windows did not know which application to open the file with.  Please refer to my “BlackBerry Code Signing Help” article for instructions on how to resolve this issue.

Once you have successfully registered your keys with the signing authority two files will be generated - a “sigtool.db” and a “sigtool.csk.”  These files will be placed in the same location as the “SignatureTool.jar” file.

If you have the BlackBerry JDE Plug-In for Eclipse and the BlackBerry JDE installed be very careful as the “sigtool.XXX” files may have been placed where you don’t expect! In my case, they were placed in the directory of the stand-alone JDE therefore the Eclipse plug-in couldn’t find them.

Signing Your Application Using the BlackBerry JDE Plug-In for Eclipse

To sign your application first make build it by going to Project >> Build Active BlackBerry Configuration.  Next, go to BlackBerry >> Request Signatures this will bring up the “Signature Tool” window.

The Signature Tool window will contain multiple rows of data but you really care about the rows with a “Status” of “Not Registered” and a “Category” of “Required.”  If the text in the “Status” field is red it means that the key mentioned in the “SignerID” column is missing or that the key hasn’t been registered.  If the text in the “Status” field is navy blue it means that the key mentioned in the “SignerID” column exists and has been registered but the application has been signed with that key.

To sign your application (represented by a .COD file) click the “Request” button at the bottom of the “Signature Tool” window.  You will then be prompted for your Private Key.  Note that the Private Key is different from the Registration PIN you supplied to RIM.

Once your application is signed the “Status” fields will read “Signed” and they will be green in color.  You are now ready to deploy your application to a real BlackBerry.

Remember that each time you build your application a new COD file is generated and it will need to be signed again before the application can be deployed to a BlackBerry device.

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I hope this article provides you some guidance as you get started in developing BlackBerry applications.  If you have any comments please feel free to email me or post a comment.

For a little over two weeks I’ve been using a Pulse Smart Pen for my personal and professional notes.  (I haven’t been a student in a few years so my review is going to be geared for those in the business world.  But, since meetings are similar to college classes, I think my review will hold true for students as well.) Thus far I’m more impressed than I expected to be.  The microphone is phenomenal, the OCR engine works rather well and it didn’t take too long for the pen to feel normal in my hand.

By the way, I’m left-handed.  So if anyone is concerned that the Pulse is yet another righthand-centric device, let me allay your fears - it works for us in our right minds just as well.

Pen Size

Admit it, when it comes to pens, size matters.  In my case, I’ve always been a fan of the Pilot G2 which is a slim pen that fits comfortably in my hand.  I’ve been using G2’s for about 10 years now and I never thought I could give them up.  When I opened my Pulse’s package I was taken back by the size, at first glance the pen seems humongous, and, at first touch, it feels weighty.  Humongous and weighty are two adjectives that I don’t like to hear when it comes to a writing instrument, but the I still had to give the Pulse a chance.  I’m really glad I did.  In no time at all I was used to the feel of the pen in my hand and even after a week of marathon meetings my hand wasn’t aching.

The OCR Engine

The OCR engine included with the Pulse caught me off guard.  I’ve been following this technology since the mid 90’s and have been rather unimpressed as it has never lived up to its hype.  LiveScribe has renewed my faith in OCR.  The OCR engine included with the Pulse is not perfect, but it works really well.  I feel comfortable saying this given that it can read almost everything that I write - whether I take my time to write neatly, or if I write quickly during a fast paced meeting.

The Microphone

The microphone is one feature that I haven’t had a chance to use fully.  Due to the nature of my work, I’m not allowed to record all of my meetings.  Thankfully I did have a chance to record one of them and the microphone performed very well.

The meeting where I had a chance to use the microphone involved an impromptu conference room and it included ten attendees.  The microphone performed really well, clearly recording the people at the other side of the room with the same clarity it recorded the voices of the people that were seated next to me.

The Bad

The Pulse Smartpen is not without it’s flaws.  The paragraphs below go into detail about the things I found.

OCR Engine

I mentioned the OCR problems earlier, but such problems are to be expected.  Being a software engineer myself, I understand how difficult OCR software is write.  But I do want to go into more detail about what I experienced.

When I take notes, I tend to “tag” them in the margin.  These tags consist of an acronym surrounded by a circle.  Unfortunately, LiveScribe Desktop seems to have difficulty with these tags.  It does find some of them but their recognition isn’t reliable enough for my needs.

I’m also having trouble getting the OCR engine to recognize numbers the way I write them.  My handwriting isn’t perfect, but LiveScribe Desktop seems to parse most of the text I write while it has a hard time with numbers.

Software

The pen does not come with a software CD.  This annoyed me since the installation file for Windows is ~50MB, and even with a fast cable connection the download still took ~10 minutes.  Having to download the software does guarantee that I’m using the latest and greatest version, but it is also another step between unpacking the pen and being able to use it.

After I installed the software and setup my Pulse, I was required to update the software on the pen.  This part was torturous.  Not only was it yet another step I was required to perform before I could the Pulse, it was horrifically slow.  (Yes I was using a USB 2.0 port.)

Things I Haven’t Tried

Due to my schedule there are some things I haven’t tried.  For instance, I use a Mac for my side-business and for personal things and I use Windows for work.  Unfortunately I did not have time install the Mac version of the LiveScribe Desktop.

Related to the fact that I have two computers is that Livescribe does not recommend using the Pulse with two different computers.  I haven’t tried this, so I don’t know the exact issues.  My theory is that it would cause the notebook pages to be out of sync - pages 1-5 on computer A and 5-10 on computer B.  That’s even if you’re allowed to associate the pen with two different computers.  My recommendation to Livescribe would be to allow for some kind of syncing.

Wrap-Up

The Pulse Smart Pen is a wonderful device.  It does have its problems, but I wouldn’t give mine up.  It saves me a lot of time (I used to scan and then run my notes through OCR software).  If you’re thinking of getting one, do it now.  I’m pretty sure you won’t be dissappointed.

Note - If anyone is interested in seeing samples of the notes I’ve taken, please post a comment and I’ll post the images.

The Storm first arrived at 10am this morning and I’ve been playing with it ever since.  My first impression is that the device is named incorrectly, it should be called the Blackberry Flurry.

I’ve been following the Storm since early 2008 when information about it was first leaked.  During the months between the initial leaks and its actual release I read every little piece of information - pictures, features, specs, etc.  I was truly excited to get this phone.

I liken my experience to a child going to bed on Christmas Eve hoping to wake up to a ton of presents and winter wonderland outside of his window.  The Storm does provide a ton of a new presents, in the form of new features, but no winter wonderland.  To better explain my analogy, let me start from the Storm’s release date.

The phone was officially released on November 21, 2008 and it immediately sold out.  I ordered mine directly from Verizon at 1pm that day, even after reading all of the horrible reviews.  The Storm didn’t arrive until a week later even though I had it shipped FedEx Next Day.  (To be fair, the shipping problem wasn’t RIM’s fault, but Verizon’s.)

This morning the phone arrived.  Before I activated it, I decided to run a few tests: type a few fake emails, navigate around the menus and the applications, etc.

Typing on the keyboard feels strange.  My first experience with PDA’s and smart phone’s began with a Handspring Visor back in 1999, so I have a deep-rooted sense of how a touch screen should work.  The Storm’s screen doesn’t fit that idea.  Simply placing your finger on a button or an icon will highlight it, you actually have to press down on the screen in order to activate the button or icon.  The press isn’t a big deal, it requires the same amount of effort as a mouse click.  But it will take some getting used to.

The strangeness of the keyboard led me to make a ton of mistakes.  One mistake caused me to send an email to client well before it was ready to be sent.  Thankfully the client had a sense of humor and the email didn’t contain any “gaystack“-type mistakes.  I could only imagine what could happen…

The menu system and general navigation is just slow, painfully slow.  One example is attempting to make a telephone call.  I placed my Blackberry Pearl 8130 next to the Storm then I clicked the “Phone” button on each device.  The Pearl’s phone keypad displayed noticeably quicker than the Storm’s.  Very disappointing.

The accelerometer is also slow.  The commercials lead one to believe that the screen’s orientation changes quite quickly, unfortunately that’s just advertising voodoo.  In real world use, it’s painfully slow.  So slow in fact that it actually caused me to press the wrong button a few times because I didn’t know if the orientation change didn’t register or it was just taking a while.

In order to take advantage of the accelerometer, applications must be updated.  While it seems that the applications packaged with the Storm do support the accelerometer, some of the other 3rd party applications do not.  Twitterberry (an otherwise great Blackberry Twitter client) doesn’t work well as it could, but todoMatrix seems to work just fine (but they released a Storm-compatible beta), and WorldMate Live (a favorite travel-related application of mine) just doesn’t work.

Another thing I noticed while playing with the Storm is its weight.  Normally, I don’t take weight into account when comparing devices unfortunately the difference is noticeable when it comes to the Storm. The Pearl weighs in at 3.4oz, the Curve about 4.2oz and the Storm weighs 5.5oz.  Not a big difference, just a few ounces but, in your hand, it feels immense.  My hand actually gets tired after typing a long email.  I’m not sure what the difference is.

One thing the phone does have going for it looks.  Right now the phone is sitting on my desk and it looks very stylish.  The screen is crisp and the colors are brilliant.  Videos playing on the phone are wonderful.  No lag, no slow downs and no shadowing, even when playing action movies.

The phone also comes with 1GB on-board memory and Verizon is shipping it with 8GB microSD card.  The extra 8GB of space was something Verizon definitely got right.  I’ve never purchased another device that came with so much extra memory.

The Storm is also a worldphone and Verizon will send you a SIM card already installed if you ask for it.  I didn’t have to pay anything extra for the card.

I really want to fall in love with this phone.  It is a beautiful device and the feature set is wonderful.  Verizon Wireless has a 30-day return policy for existing customers and it may take me the full 30-days to decide whether or not to keep it.

Comments?  Questions?  A good or bad experience with the Storm?  Post a comment!

Pro’s:

• Great looking.
• Nice feature set.
• Beautiful Screen.

Con’s:

• Heavy
• The accelerometer and menu system is laggy.

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!

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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 …