Was It Worth It?

Here I am speaking of Gingerbread upgrade for HTC Desire. And in short - it was worth it.

First thing that I noticed after upgrade was different vibration feedback on key press. I cannot say whether it is better, worse or just a product of my imagination but it is noticeable. :) Screen looks the same as in Android 2.2 but there as subtle differences (e.g. icons in status bar).

There is improvement in speed. It might be just effect of finally clearing phone of all nonsense that got installed over these months but I think that there are some optimizations behind it also.

Although HTC did cut some applications, only one that I found missing from original ROM was Flashlight. Since this application’s install file is included in same zip file that brings update, I didn’t miss it for long.

Calendar application got small change - addition of time zones. This feature is worth the whole upgrade mess to me. As with all killer features most users will neither need nor notice it. However, if you travel a lot this is life saver.

Additional nice touch comes in form of “Pocket mode”. It basically makes ring tone extra loud if it detects that you have phone in pocket or case. I still have to see how this will work in practice but it at least shows some actual thinking.

And that was all that I consider worth mentioning. This is not a major upgrade as far as user interface goes nor it is as different as HTC would make you think. It is just a simple evolutionary step.

Gingerbread Desire

HTC Desire got it’s Gingerbread update!

In order to keep shitty attitude they have made it as difficult and frightening to install as they could possibly do. First of all, there is no version for Germany (Telekom Deutschland), North America, South Korea and Japan. Most of my readers will probably notice this “North America” part.

Another thing to notice is zip file with another zip file and then an installation inside. It reminds me of Babushka doll. All that is rounded with layer of warnings that would make Charles Manson seek his mommy. And for a good reason - all your data will be gone once upgrade starts.

In order to even think about phone upgrade, you need to get HTC Sync from HTC support. This is probably most bloated piece of shit software from HTC but unavoidable. Just to be sure this won’t mess with my development setup on this machine I made fresh install on my wife’s laptop.

Whole update takes approximately 5 minutes and it goes without any problem (if you discount wiping data as a problem). It leaves you with software version 3.14.405.1 (Android 2.3.3) and no hope of getting next update. :)

P.S. If you are wondering, my internal storage has 124 MB free.

Lenovo App Store

I have quite a few freeware applications out there. Some are for Windows, some are for Windows Mobile and last few were for Android. Occasionally I get some offer related to them. Something like this (direct copy of mail, excessive white-space removed):

I am Jessie, strategic alliance manager of Lenovo App Store (http://www.lenovomm.com/appstore/). I’m writing to seek opportunities for introducing your Mobile/PAD applications to lenovo app store, which is a premium brand and good distribution channel in China market.

If you are interested, the process is simple: 1) Pls sign up here: http://developer.lenovomm.com/developeren/index.jsp. 2) You can simply send us your APKs and authorize us to upload your apps on your behalf. 3) Your apps will be put on shelf after passing test work.

If you are not interested in cooperation now, the reasons are appreciated!

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Best regards, Jessie Strategic Alliance Manager Lenovo Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group

This email communication is confidential. Recipient(s) named above is (are) obligated to maintain secrecy.

As I said, this wasn’t that unusual so I went ahead through registration. After e-mail confirmation I got form where I was expected to enter my bank’s name, account number and to give them copy of id card or my passport!

While I have no idea whether this page is scam or not, it does not look good. Why would any normal company ask me for those details? Even if they don’t have any fraud on mind, can I trust them never to be hacked? Can I trust that my data will never be abused?

Frankly, I am scared more if this is valid company. For any company to nonchalantly ask this sort of questions is unsettling…

P.S. Here is form that I was asked to fill:

P.P.S. Upon asking, I got instructions to lie to the system and insert fake bank account data. However, I still need to add ID. Yes, I am probably paranoid, but I will not do that…

In Redmond for a While

P.S. I’ll be in a Redmond for few weeks. If you read this blog and you are near Redmond, let me know and we can have a beer.

Azure Java

Another presentation is done. Materials can be accessed here. Do notice that PowerPoint slides are in Croatian. Fortunately, Java code is in English. :)

P.S. You will need your own Azure account to run HelloBlob project.

P.P.S. Applications are available here and here. Unfortunately, I only have few days on account left so don’t expect it being there forever.

Slightly Updated VHD Attach

Few weeks ago I announced VHD Attach 2.00. Unfortunately, on quite a few systems, settings could not be written.

To make long story short - it is fixed now. As always, version is available at https://www.medo64.com/vhdattach/.

Not the Funniest Joke I've Ever Told (To a Three-year-old)

This is last time I retell joke that Raymond Chen recommends. He wrote that most funniest joke to tell to three/four year old is:

There were two kittens walking down the street, and one of them fell on its butt!

Maybe something got lost in translation (since I did use Croatian to tell this joke). Maybe I am just not that good at telling jokes. Maybe I have children that are too much into bad cop / good cop style of questioning. All I know is that it took me a while to escape:

• Why kitten fell?
• Where was their mommy?
• What did it brake?
• Were they crying?
• …

And list goes on and on. There was no laughter but there were questions. And since I brought subject up I had to answer them all. Those with kids know how long this “Why?” game can last…

You might be good with all Windows peculiarities Mr. Raymond but this is last time I take joke advice from you. :)

WinDays 11

This WinDays in Rovinj, on 6th April 2011 at 9:00 I will give presentation named “Azure Java”.

It will be (hopefully) interesting talk about Microsoft Azure and Sun Oracle Java. After presentation there might be some beer involved so be sure to visit. :)

Bingo

Strange thing just happened. I got same one-time password two times. First one I got in November last year and second one I received just now. Some would call it an error but I call it a warning.

Run away! Laws of physics do not apply here. Escape while you can.

P.S. I already heard best joke about this from friend in office: “Only Chuck Norris and you can get same one-time password twice.”

Dirty Docs

I usually like Google Docs. They are not full-blown editing tool and they will not replace Microsoft Office for me (at least not soon) but they offer quite a lot when it comes to editing documents from various locations. Your document goes where your browser is.

For reasons I will not get into, I had to do some automatic processing on one of my Google Docs textual documents. I created it with care, all headings were properly defined and most of text was of “Normal” style. It was made with clean export into HTML in mind.

Unfortunately export result was quite far from clean code. First thing is that all is in one line. Yes, this saves few bytes but it is pain in the ass if you need any manual editing of this document. Fortunately PSPad knows how to expand such code.

Biggest issue I have here is that everything is set via style-sheets. While I usually agree with that, Google overdid it this time. They added bunch of span tags all over place. Even when you have just “Normal” text, you can be sure that it will not stand without around it. Event bolds and italics will not get just and but they will have full-blown CSS definition.

I agree that this is not an issue if you just want to view it. However this makes any automatic processing of text real pain-in-the-ass. It definitely brings back memory of Microsoft FrontPage and it’s html mess.

P.S. No, ODT export is not solution - it is even bigger and dirtier.