Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

If you’re a reader of my blog, or a friend of mine, you know I recently started working on a new project named BlackPing.  BlackPing is my first foray into BlackBerry development and what a bumpy road it’s been.  The BlackBerry API (for CLDC applications) is very robust and is written in Java. Java is a big part of my life, I’ve written thousands of lines of code and most of it has made it into a production environment.  But writing for the BlackBerry is different.  You may know how to speak the Java language but do you know the BlackBerry dialect?  Different APIs, different rules, different constraints to take into consideration.

Over the years I’ve learned a few different languages - C, C++, Java, Java Script, some PHP, some Perl, some Ruby-on-Rails, PL/SQL and a slew of other ones.  With all of them I learned through trial-and-error, by looking over a friend’s shoulder or by looking at code examples.  I only ever asked for help at 3am.  Once my brain was fried, my eyes about to bleed and I could barely write a coherent sentence let alone a technical paragraph describing the problem I was having.  Not a good, or fun, way to learn a new language.

This time I decided to do something different - instead of simply posting questions to a forum I found, I tried answering them.  A lot of the posted questions were well over over my head but I read them anyway.  I performed Google searches, I analyzed what other people wrote back.  I tried to understand, I asked questions about the responses not the original post.  By joining in the conversation I was able to learn a lot about BlackBerry programming.  More than I ever would have using my trial-and-error methodology.  By reading what other people had to say I found problems in my application that I didn’t know I had!  I was able to find cool coding tricks and learn what else the BlackBerry API had to offer.

By joining the conversation I was able to rapidly expand my knowledge of what the BlackBerry API allowed me to do.  I think this is the way I’ll try to learn every new language.

I’ve been a member of Ars Technica for over 7 years now and I’ve never been a fan of its search functionality. Tonight was the last straw so I whipped up a quick-and-dirty Firefox add-on to search the Open Forum.

Please remember this is quick-and-dirty so its features are a little limited. That being said, below is its meager feature list.

• Automatically sets the “Site” parameter to “episteme.arstechnica.com”
• Automatically sets the “All Words” parameter to whatever you type into the search box.

I feel the add-on lacks the following.

• A pretty Ars Technica icon. Anyone care to donate one?
• Advanced search features such as “Exact Phrase,” “At Least One,” and “Without.”

You can install the add-on or view its source.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please post a comment or email me.

After a week long hiatus from the Internet, read: I went on a real vacation, I am now back. Today, for the first time, I checked my blog and its stats. What’s this? A ton of hits on June 15th? Where did they come from? Why Mobuzz TV.

While I’m happy for the traffic, I’m sorry to see Karina leave. It seems that a post I wrote awhile back on my favorite podcasts made it onto the episode’s web page.

Karina, you will be sorely missed. Your banter and wonderful personality is one of the reasons why I love Mobuzz. Good luck in all your future endeavors.

I’ve just received word that Leafyhost is ceasing operations. I doubt this will come as a shock to many people considering the trouble they’ve had in the past.

Although they are offering partial refunds, I wonder how long it will take for them to arrive. This may be prove to be chapter 3 of the saga.

Below is a copy of the email sent to their subscribers.

Hello,

Due to rising costs and a number of recent crises, we regret to inform you
that we have decided to cease offering web hosting and domain management
services effective June 30, 2007. We ask that all users move their data to
another location by this date, and we will be available to assist any users
in the process between now and the end of the month.

Due to recent mail issues, please use the following email address for any
and all questions or concerns from now on: leafyhostsupport@gmail.com

- Domains: Modifying DNS/Whois contact information
Email us at leafyhostsupport@gmail.com with the subject “Domain Ownership -
*your domain*” and include your username in and zip code in the email body.
Upon receiving your information, we will send you a password and details
with which you can access and modify your domain’s Whois and DNS
information.

- Domains: Transferring to a new registrar
All domains under our ownership are currently unlocked, but to transfer a
domain you will need an EPP Key. First, follow the steps listed above to
change the Whois contact email address to one that you are currently
receiving mail at. Then, email us at leafyhostsupport@gmail.com with the
subject “Domain Transfer - *your domain*” and your username and zip code in
the body. Upon receiving this information, we will have an EPP Key generated
and emailed to the Whois contact address for the domain you requested.

- Domains: Renewal
We will not be renewing any domain names, so you will need to transfer your
domain to a new owner using the instructions listed above. We suggest that
you do this as soon as possible, but you do have until your domain’s
expiration date. The expiration date can be found with your DNS and Whois
information. (See above.)

- Lifetime/Yearly accounts
Partial refunds will be offered for all Lifetime and yearly accounts. Yearly
accounts will have the remainder of their unused hosting refunded, and
Lifetime account refunds will be calculated as if the accounts were Yearly
accounts costing $150/year. To receive a refund, please email us at
leafyhostsupport@gmail.com with the subject “Account Refund - *your
username*” and include your hosting plan, the last 4 digits of the credit
card that was billed OR your PayPal email address that was billed, and a
name and address that we can send the refund check to.

Again, if you have any other questions or concerns, please contact us at
leafyhostsupport@gmail.com as soon as possible. We sincerely thank you for
your support over the past 4 years, and wish you all the best in the future.

Thank you,
Samuel Fine
Christopher Budnick
leafyhostsupport@gmail.com

As a business traveler I spent a lot of time on airplanes. Last year alone I took over 100 different flights. All the time I was sitting in the plane, I was curious about the goings on in the cockpit. I would imagine flying the plane myself, breaking free from gravity and rising above the clouds.

Last Saturday I took the first step to becoming a pilot - I took what is called a Discovery Flight at the Ascent Pilot Training Center in Sioux Falls, SD. It was an awe inspiring experience.

Meeting the Instructor
My flight was scheduled for 1:30pm and I arrived a little early. In fact I arrived earlier than the instructor. A few minutes later my instructor, Jeff, arrived. He explained to me the basics of how everything works, gave me a headset and we walked out to the tarmac.

On the Tarmac
If you’ve ever taken a commercial flight you’ve probably seen the maintenance people, or the pilot, walking around the plane. He’s looking for any visual indication of problems with the plane - dents, hanging pieces, holes, etc. They also check the fuel to ensure that there is no water in it. The same is true with pilots of smaller aircraft.

After Jeff and I neared the plane, a Cessna C-172 S, we did a walk-around. He was looking for any visual damage, checking to make sure all of the flaps, etc moved properly and he also checked the fuel.

Then we climbed into the cockpit and he showed me the controls - the autopilot, the Garmin G1000 cockpit system. The airplane even had an XM radio!

Next he showed me how to operate the foot pedals and then we taxied down the tarmac towards the runway. After we got on the runway he let me control the plane for a little while. It was a very weird experience considering driving the plane on the ground is all done with your feet. Unfortunately I did pretty bad at driving the plane.

A few minutes later Jeff took control of the plane, called into the radio tower and then taxied down the runway. A few minutes after that we were airborne.

Airborne
After we were safely a few hundred feet in the air, I was allowed to take controls and take the plane to 1400ft. Then we started flying around and I was shown the autopilot.

The autopilot is exactly like you think it is, set your heading, set your altitude and hit go. The autopilot then fly’s the plane for you. Jeff then told me to change the heading West, South, East and then had me take control again and fly North.

As I was turning I asked how hard the plane could be turned. Jeff grabbed the control and turned the plane almost on its side then he said “This is about how far.” At least I think that’s what he said, I was to busy grabbing my spleen off the floor.

Floating in Mid-Air
After a few more minutes of getting used to the controls, we turned to head back to the airport. As we were flying he mentioned that he didn’t want to scare me too much on my first flight. It turns out I was being baited, and, of course, I took the bait. “No, please do,” I responded to his comment. To which he pulled back the yolk and we started a steep climb. He was going to stall the plane. As he was explaining this to me, the plane stalled, the nose fell and I became weightless. I wish I could say that I relaxed enough that I could thoroughly enjoy the experience of complete weightlessness but I wasn’t. In fact, I believe my exact words were “Waaoooooohhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!” To which Jeff laughed maniacally. (He didn’t really laugh maniacally, it just makes the story sound better.)

Back to base
After descending to a safe altitude, we circled Sioux Falls and then came in for a landing.

Landing in a small aircraft is very different than landing in a larger jet. Besides the size, normally you’re sitting on the sides of the plane so you don’t see the ground coming. In the cockpit you can see the ground coming, you can see how uneven the plane is coming in.

Redux
My first flight was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I recommend that you check it out if you have a chance. It is definitely worth the money! Spend the time, search for flight schools in your area.

Although I don’t have many regulars readers, I’d like to change that. I’ll never be a Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Amber MacArthur or any other of the other web populars. But I would like to write things that interest people, that cause them to think.

In its short history my blog has been a plethora of things. Serious articles, tales from my life, links from Digg, paid stories, etc. This has contributed to its post count but it has also increased its noise. I still want to share the things that I find on the internet but don’t care enough to write about. And I will continue to share them on Geekkink.com my Tumblog.

My current blog, zechariahs.org, will contain the interesting things that I find, read about, or hear and that I care to write more about. If I wish to just link to things, or share a pretty picture, that kind of stuff can now be found on my tumblog, Geekkink.com.

I hope this change makes my blog more interesting and a more substantive source of information.

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.

Recently Verizon Wireless announced a sale on the Motorola Q - it was only $99 after all the rebates.

When the Q first arrived on the market I was unimpressed. The lack of a touchscreen turned me off and I have been a user of the Palm OS for about 8 years so moving to Windows Mobile wasn’t too appealing. But because of its sexy form factor and its small price tag I figured I would give it a shot.

The new phone lasted about a 1.5 days before I decided it wasn’t for me. First off, I couldn’t find any software that allowed me to sync directly with Microsoft Money. Even Microsoft didn’t have an application that was compatible with WM 5!

The next reason I didn’t keep the Q was because I kept missing calls. People would try my cell a few times and then call my apartment. The source of the problem, as I see it, was that I had some running process that was preventing my phone from ringing. Once I shut down those processes, the phone would ring. I don’t know which process it was or why it would cause such a problem, but it did. This issue could’ve been caused by my inexperience with Windows Mobile devices, but there was no way I was going to keep the phone if I had to worry about the applications I was running causing a problem with me receiving calls.

Another reason why I didn’t like the Q was the fact that it lacked a touch screen. I found myself time and again reaching for a stylus that wasn’t there. Again, I’m a heavy Palm user so I’m used to a touch screen. The scroll wheel was nice, even though its located on the right side of the device and I’m a lefty, but I wish it had a touch screen also.

Here are the things I like about the device:

• Crystal Clear Screen. The screen is beautiful and sharp.
• Small form factor. The phone didn’t weigh much at all and it was so thin.
• Sound. The sound quality was superb.
• Bluetooth. I’ve been using Bluetooth for about 2 years now and I love it. But this phone has great Bluetooth range. With my Treo 650 I can’t walk more than 10feet away before I hear static. Also, the Q supports audio! My ringtones would play over the headset and they sounded great!
• Voice Recognition. The Q comes installed with voice recognition software that worked pretty well. Even the name “Charing” (LYJC), which most VR applications mangle, was recognized by the VR software on the Q.

All things considered, the Q is a nice phone it just wasn’t for me. I’m hoping that Palm realizes the amazing draw the Q has and comes up with something similar. Until then I’ll stick with my faithful, although brick like, Treo 650.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve updated my resume.  It contains a detailed history of my professional experience and a listing of my work experience.  If you have any questions regarding it, please send an email to zechariahs+resume@gmail.com.

Well I just returned from a trip to Washington DC. What a blast! Thanks Charing, Monica and Julie for a great time!

For the past few days I’ve been able to live a dream. A dream that’s been in my heart for about ten years. Although, like all good things, it came to end. Hopefully the “end” is more like an ellipsis and not the grand finale. Here’s to a better future and here’s to hoping that the future is not far.

Here’s some randomness to spice up your day:

Use your shuffle to answer these questions…don’t cheat, go in order.

Q: What do you think of me, iTunes?
A: “First We Take Manhattan” - Leonard Cohen

Q: Will I have a happy life?
A: “Only One” - Goo Goo Dolls

Q: What do my friends really think of me?
A: “Fair” - Ben Folds Five

Q: Do people secretly lust after me?
A: “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing” - Jack Johnson

Q: What should I do with my life?
A: “Independent Thief” - Kathleen Edwards

Q: Why must life be so full of pain?
A: “Good People” - Jack Johnson

Q: How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
A: “Seven Years” - Norah Jones

Q: Will I die happy?
A: “A Little to Late” - Mark Chestnutt

Q: Can you give me some advice?
A: “Hey Girl” - Billy Joel

Q: What do you think happiness is?
A: “Sweetness Follows” - REM

Q: What’s my favorite fetish?
A: “King Medicine” - Jets to Brazil