Dev Connection

February 8th, 2010

Kindle developers: Don't ask, don't tell

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 5:57 am

Categories: General, Programming

Tags: Developer, Source Code, Agreement, Labor Relations, Human Resources, Ed Burnette

Hypothetically speaking, if I had received an invite to join the Kindle Development Kit (KDK) for active content limited Beta program, which I didn’t, and had read over the Terms and Conditions for the KDK, which don’t officially exist, I wouldn’t have seen this section:

You will not, without our prior written consent, use our trademarks, trade names or logos in any manner, or issue or contribute to any press release or any other public statement relating to the Program, our relationship with you or the terms or existence of this Agreement.

If such a policy existed, and I’m not saying it does or doesn’t, it might prevent anyone from disclosing that they were even working on any Kindle apps. It’s a good thing I’m not doing that. And I certainly wouldn’t be able to share any source code examples or documentation from the KDK with you because the non-existent policy might say:

We will from time to time provide you access to certain software, documentation and related materials (the “Materials”) in our sole discretion. … You will not use or authorize a third party to use any software in a manner that would in any way cause the Materials to be licensed free of charge, distributed in source code form or modifiable other than as expressly permitted in this Agreement.

It’s really too bad the beta program doesn’t exist because if it did I could tell you about the neat <redacted> feature, the fact that the whole thing is based on <redacted>, or the <redacted> limit of <redacted> KB/month. Wow, I can’t believe nobody has reported on that yet.

So… what could we talk about instead? How bout ‘dem Saints?

January 28th, 2010

Computer-driven trading puts stock exchanges at risk

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 6:58 am

Categories: General, Programming

Tags: Stock, Computer, Productivity, Ed Burnette

Here’s a scary thought for you. Every day, hundreds of billions of dollars of financial transactions are driven completely autonomously by computer algorithms. The fate of corporations and nations rests on bits of computer code sent out by their makers to do battle in a high-stakes trading war. And when something goes wrong, it can go spectacularly wrong.

When you think of stock exchanges you probably have a quaint notion of a paper-strewn room full of stressed-out traders yelling to be heard over each other while watching big screen monitors that cover every square inch of the walls. Or maybe you have a more modern picture of an army of white collar workers barricaded in their caves of steel intently staring at computer displays, waiting to pounce on the right news or slightest movement by executing a quick buy or sell order.

In reality, today’s markets are largely driven not by bellicose bombasts or educated elites but by algorithms written by programmers like you and me. Programs that are set free to wreak profit (or havoc) in the innards of the world’s electronic cyber-market. According to the Financial Times, program trading accounts for about 30% of the total daily activity on the New York Stock Exchange, and a whopping 60-70% of the activity on other markets such as the Nasdaq. In 2008, the total world derivatives market was estimated at nearly $800 *trillion* dollars.

Unsatisfied by the decision speeds of mere humans, huge banks have turned over the keys to the vault to programs to do the trading of stocks and derivatives for them. The idea has a certain appeal: Put in a few billion dollars, push a button, and walk away while the computer does all the work. When you come back, if all goes well, you’ve made a nice profit. “Leave the driving to us,” as the slogan goes. Even a monkey could do it. Right?

Well, if you’re not a developer and you’re reading this, please take heed. Computers make mistakes, because they just do what their programs tell them to do, and all programs have mistakes lurking in them. “Bugs,” we call them. Much of the craft of computer programming is concerned with reducing the number of bugs. When a program controls something really important, like say an X-Ray machine, a fighter jet, a space craft, or a nuclear power plant, extreme efforts are put into eliminating as many bugs as humanly possible. But as a number of high profile cases have proven, it’s impossible to detect them all.

Take the case of the NYSE Euronext exchange operator. Recently it fined a trading firm for “failing to control” its trading algorithm. One day, out of the blue, the program decided to send “hundreds of thousands” of messages for faulty orders, clogging up the exchange for everyone for hours. All it takes is a bad “if” statement or a misplaced semicolon, or maybe an array that grows larger than expected or a race condition in multi-threaded code. Let’s not even mention what a malicious hacker with an agenda can do.

So what’s the fix? Acknowledge that bugs happen, and put in checks and balances to catch and contain them. Don’t assume computers are infallible. They’re just as fallible as the humans that build and program them. More, because humans have the advantage of common sense. Let’s use it.

Photo credit: Walt Dabney

January 27th, 2010

Apple iPad: $499 gets you a powerful tablet for browsing, books, and apps

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 10:14 am

Categories: Apple, Games, General, Web Browsers, iPhone

Tags:

Steve Jobs has just announced the iPad, calling it a “magical device at a breakthrough price”. Apple says the iPad runs all applications currently available on the iPhone App Store, plus apps customized for the device.

Here are the official specs direct from Apple:

• Powered by a custom 1GHz “Apple A4″ CPU chip (built by Apple),
• 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage
• 25Whr built-in li-poly battery, 10 hours battery life, 1 month standby
• 1024×768 9.7″ IPS glossy display (132 pixels per inch)
• 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth
• Speaker and microphone
• 9.56″ x 7.46″ x 0.5″ (242.8mm x 189.7mm x 13.4mm)
• 1.5 pounds (.68kg) for WiFi Model, 1.5 pounds (.73kg) for 3G+WiFi model.
• (Optional) unlocked 3G capability using GSM micro-SIM.
• Video out: 1024×768 with VGA cable or up to 576p with A/V Cable.
• H.264 video up to 720p, 30fps.
• VoiceOver screen reader

Price: $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. If you want 3G that’s $130 extra up front, plus $14.99 for 250MB/moth, or $29.99/month for unlimited data.

Shipping is expected in March worldwide for the WiFi model, April for the 3G model. Unfortunately you can’t pre-order one right now pending FCC approval.

The iPhone 3.3 beta SDK with support for the iPad is available now from the Apple Developer’s web site. It includes an iPad simulator so you can begin testing right away. Similar to Android, you write one iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app that runs on any device but adapts its user interface to the user’s resolution.

If you try to run an unmodified iPhone app on the big screen, it will either display in a small window in the middle of the screen or the user can zoom it up to 2x size. Zoomed apps won’t appear as crisp as apps adapted for the iPad, of course. That’s because original iPhone apps were designed for a resolution of 480×320 pixels. If you blow that up to 2x the size, you have 960×640 but every dot is 4 times bigger (and blockier) than it was originally.

See also: Live coverage of the announcement.

January 22nd, 2010

Live coverage of Apple Tablet event: Hello, iPad

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 11:44 am

Categories: Apple, General, iPhone

Tags: Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Ed Burnette

It’s “T-Day” for Apple as the company is set to announce the long awaited Apple Tablet. I blogged about the event as it happened, and now that it’s all over I’ve re-arranged the comments a bit for easier reading. Enjoy!

[ See also: $499 gets you a powerful tablet for browsing, books, and apps ]

7:57am (Pacific time): The media mob is already assembling at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. If you’re like me and you can’t be there in person, I’ll try to make you feel like you are. The temperature is a little nippy, 50 degrees, so bundle up, folks.

8:02am: It’s not too late to try your luck at the Apple Tablet polls. Scroll down to the very end of this post to see them. Polls close at 10am Pacific time.

Read the rest of this entry »

January 12th, 2010

Android 2.1 (Eclair MR1) SDK is out

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 7:11 am

Categories: Android, Google, Programming

Tags: Google Inc., Voice Recognition, Multi-touch, API, SDK, Android 2.1, Telephony, Networking, Ed Burnette

One week after releasing the Android Nexus One phone to the public, Google has released the software development kit (SDK) that allows third-party developers to write applications for the phone. Android 2.1 has several new features including:

• Live Wallpapers
• Support for HTML5 video, geolocation, and web storage in WebViews
• New APIs for determining cellular signal strength
• New methods for Android views such as automatic view flippers and opaque views
• Support for a voice recognition audio source and camera-facing microphone
• New features that an app can optionally require before installing, including a multi-touch screen

Version 2.1 is also referred to as Eclair Maintenance Release 1 (MR1), or API level 7 to programmers. In all, 2.1 has 118 API changes, which is approximately a 0.48% difference compared to the previous version.

Availability

Android 2.1 is currently shipping on the HTC Nexus One. The Motorola Droid (Sholes) sold by Verizon is currently at 2.0.1 but users should expect an over the air update “soon” (which could mean anything from 2 weeks to 2 months). As of this writing, all other Android devices (about 80% of the market, according to Google) are running version 1.5 or 1.6:

Source: Google market data collected during the two weeks ending on 1/4/2010

Eventually 2.0.1 will go away, replaced by 2.1 just as 2.0 was replaced by 2.0.1. If current trends continue, we predict that 2.0.1/2.1 will achieve a 25% market share by February, and 50% by the end of the year.

Note that all programs written using the 1.5/1.6 APIs should work on newer devices, but you should test your apps on all targeted versions and screen sizes just to make sure. Programs written to require the 2.0.1/2.1 APIs will not work on older devices.

January 11th, 2010

Are SSDs too fast?

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 7:19 am

Categories: Dell, General, Programming

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Disk, Disk Drive, Memory, Solid State Disk, Computer, Reboots, Productivity, Ed Burnette

When buying a new computer, the conventional advice is to buy the fastest one you could afford. That’s what I did when I recently replaced an aging laptop with a desktop screamer sporting an Intel Solid State Drive (SSD). But now I wonder, for those of us developing software for others to use, are we doing our users a disservice by always getting the latest and greatest?

My IBM ThinkPad T42 served me well for many years but it was beginning to show its age. For one thing, the 40GB disk drive was always running out of space. I used a great program from JAM software called TreeSize Pro to track down where the space was going, but there was a point of diminishing returns.

I upgraded the memory as much as I could, but the Pentium M 1.7GHz CPU running Windows XP had reached its limit. Rebooting took over a minute, and starting Firefox or Eclipse could take 30 seconds or more. Running the Android development emulator was especially painful: several minutes to start one instance, and don’t even think about starting two or more.

After months of reading excellent technical reviews of the Intel Core i7 and Intel SSD’s at anandtech.com and other sites I decided to take the plunge…

Read the rest of this entry »

January 5th, 2010

Live coverage of the Google Android/Nexus One event

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 9:58 am

Categories: Android, General, Google

Tags: Google Inc., Event, Ed Burnette

Stay tuned here for live coverage of today’s Android press event, being held at Google HQ in Mountain View, California. It’s time to finally separate the truth from the rumors.

Also see: Google’s Nexus One: Is it super? And is there a market for a superphone?

9:53am: The intro slide is showing and the music is blaring. All that is shown so far on the projector is “Android Press Gathering January 5, 2010″.

9:59am: Looks like about 100-200 people are in attendance.

10:04am: Still waiting…

10:05am: Ah, there we go, looks like it’s starting.

10:09am: Mario Quedas of Google relates The Android Story So Far… [9 minutes and I'm already bored, lol]. 20 devices, 59 carriers.

10:10am: People with Android search the web 30 times more than people with “feature phones”. [Good news for web's biggest search engine, yes?]

10:10am: The G1 begat the MyTouch3G, which begat the Motorola Droid.

10:15am: Android’s principles include an open platform, always on applications, and free access.

10:15am: The next step in Android evolution is the Nexus One.

Continue reading: Live coverage of the Google Android/Nexus One event >

December 15th, 2009

Top 10 Google Phone rumors

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 12:25 pm

Categories: Android, Apple, General, Google

Tags: Google Inc., Phone, Telecom & Utilities, Ed Burnette

Usually I don’t post about rumors but this one seems to have legs so I’ll make an exception. On Saturday Google announced on its mobile blog that it was handing out a mysterious new phone to select employees across the globe. Calling it a “mobile lab”, the device runs Android and enables experimentation with new mobile features and capabilities.

That might have been the end of it, except that rumors started flying about whether this was the mythical “Google Phone“, whether or not it would be sold to the public, and so on. Here’s a roundup of the 10 most believable rumors that I’ve heard. Keep in mind, these are just *rumors*, because Google refuses to comment on unreleased products. I’m sure they don’t mind all the free publicity though.

Rumor #10: The new phone is called the “Google Nexus One”. This is a pretty safe bet because videos of the boot animation have been posted on the internet, and the name Nexus One is clearly visible on the screen. However it might be a code name and not a real product name.

Rumor #9: The Nexus One is made by HTC, and is the same hardware as the Passion, which may or may not be the same as the Dragon. One site called it “Phone 88″. What is it with Android phones and their multiple names anyway? From the pictures, the phone does indeed look like the HTC Passion/Dragon photos that have been circulating, so again, that seems like a safe bet.

Rumor #8: The phone features a 1Ghz (maybe 800MHz) Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 5 megapixel camera, and 800×480 touchscreen. Earlier this year, HTC came out with a Windows Mobile phone that used the Snapdragon, and the Motorola Droid has a 5 megapixel camera with a 854×480 touchscreen. So all this sounds reasonable.

Read the rest of this entry »

December 11th, 2009

Dell unable to meet demand for Christmas, blames parts suppliers and elves

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 7:23 am

Categories: Dell, General

Tags: Dell Computer Corp., Order, Computer, Productivity, Quality, Sales Strategy, Business Operations, Sales, Ed Burnette

On November 27th I ordered a Dell Studio XPS 8000 computer with an i7-860 processor and 8GB of memory. My old Thinkpad T42 is getting a big long in the tooth so I needed something new for development and writing. The estimated delivery date was 12/16/2009.

Today Dell mailed me to say the order had been delayed until 1/5/2010! I checked the online forums and found several other people in the same situation. On 12/5, dgoobs wrote:

Dell has, so far, delayed my desktop purchase 4 times. … Makes me think it is time to cancel and order an HP.

On 12/9, snapshot2 wrote:

I too ordered a Dell and had to wait 3 weeks for delivery. Just checked the status and my order has been canceled. Why? waiting for parts to arrive.

Dell uses the “just-in-time” inventory system whereby they have no inventory of parts.
They require their vendors to deliver on a specific date. The “just-in-time” inventory system only works if you have reliable vendors. Apparently, they don’t.

Using Dell’s sales chat, I asked “Brian B” about the problem and he said “It’s the holiday season and we’re getting a lot of orders”. Um, yeah. Before I could ask anything else I got disconnected.

I tried the chat again. “Brian B” answered, but when I told him I was disconnected he asked if I’d like to be transferred to the person who helped me before. Huh? Does everybody there have the same name? Or did Dell do some research and decide that the name “Brian B” somehow gave US customers a warm, fuzzy feeling? In any case, this Brian said he couldn’t help me and I should call their order support phone number instead.

So I called that number, and after a few minutes on hold I got connected to a real person. After looking up my order he said it was delayed because it was waiting on a part.

“Which part?” I asked.
“It doesn’t say,” he replied.
“Can I swap the part with something else that *is* available?”
“Not without canceling and re-ordering the computer.”
“Well if it’s the graphics card you could ship me the computer without the card now,” I suggested, “and then ship the card when it arrives.”
“Our system doesn’t work that way. Besides, as you can imagine, we have to deal with a lot of orders at this time.”
“Is your name Brian?” I wanted to ask.

If you go on the Dell.com web site right now and order a Dell XPS 8000, it says the estimated ship date for a Dell Studio XPS 8000 is 12/24/2009. Sure it is.

December 10th, 2009

Nominations open for the Eclipse Awards 2010

Posted by Ed Burnette @ 8:07 am

Categories: Community, Eclipse, General

Tags: Eclipse, Nomination, Java Development Tools, Open Source, Development Tools, Software Development, Software/Web Development, Ed Burnette

Every year the Eclipse Foundation hands out awards at its annual EclipseCon conference. Nominations are now open for the next conference, to be held on March 22-25, 2010 in Santa Clara California. Anyone can submit a nomination, and you’re free to nominate your own projects, products, and applications if you like.

The categories for 2010 include:

• Individual Awards: Top Committer, Top Contributor, Top Newcomer Evangelist
• Eclipse Project Awards: Most Innovative New Feature or Eclipse Project, and Most Open Project
• Technology Awards: Best Commercial Developer Tool, Best Open Source Developer Tool, Best EclipseRT Application, and Best RCP Application

The deadline for nominations is January 29, 2010. Good luck!