Derek Bodner’s Blog

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The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) in Adelaide says it is worrying that two girls lost in a stormwater drain raised the alert on a social networking site rather than ringing triple-0.

The 10- and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in a drain on Honeypot Road at Hackham in Adelaide’s southern suburbs on Sunday night

Of course, had this been posted on twitter, it would probably be something like:

Help!! I’m stuck in a drain. Hurt badly. I think my leg is broken. I’m not sure how much longer I can stay down here. You can find me at

I get so many that I don’t typically make note of them (Although I do tend to read phishing emails. It doesn’t get boring reading about “overthrown Nigerian dictators with billions”), but I was so impressed that this one actually had passable grammar that I just had to post. I mean, how often do you see “edification” used correctly in a spam email?

Props to these guys for actually having someone who speaks English as their primary language proof read their spam before sending it out.

Good Day,

Let me start by introducing myself, I am MRS. KRISTIE UGGERRI, REGIONAL AUDITOR OFFICER BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK. I am writing you this letter based on the latest development at my bank, which I will like to bring to your personal edification. I am a top official in charge of client accounts in (EQUITABLE PCI BANK) which is now BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK inside the Philippines the merger was (2007). The merger is part of a long-term goal of Banco de Oro to become one of the largest names in the Philippine banking industry.

In 2001, my client was going through a horrendous divorce in the United States of America and was on the verge of losing most of his estate to his vicious and diabolical wife. As a result of this alarming predicament, my client came to me with a very brilliant idea. He transferred some funds, Ten Million Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($10.2m) to a fixed deposit account in my bank under an alias which only the two of us knew about as the confidentiality of the matter was necessary for his protection.

Due to his untimely death in early 2002, the funds have been sitting in the account ever since and will continue to do so perpetually unless we do something about it. This is where you come in. I actually searched through Google to get your email. My client did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I would like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to our client so that you will be able to receive his funds. I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we can come out successful.

All that is required from you at this stage is for you to provide me with your Full Names and Address and telephone number to me via email. As soon as i get your positive response, I will contacted an attorney that will prepare the necessary document that will back you up as the next of kin to my client. .

The allocation of our money will be as follows: 30%($3.06m) to you for your part in this, 70% for me. Again, I will be in charge of everything else. I will assume all responsibilities for this endeavor so you don’t have to worry about any legal ramifications, just what you will do with all that money. Your urgent response is highly anticipated so please email me through this email address (mrs_k_uggerri@msn.com) for more details on this transaction as soon as possible.This should be kept very secret and confidential.

Hope to hear from you soon .

Kind Regards,
Mrs. Kristie Uggerri
E-mail: mrs_k_uggerri@msn.com

So if anybody’s interested, please contact Mrs. Uggerri.

I got the Palm Pre this week. I’ve been a palm/handspring user for quite a long time, having a Treo 300, 600, 650 (briefly) and 700p (as well as an iPod Touch and Blackberry Curve, for work). I’ve become accustomed to the old PalmOS. and the Treo’s overall have treated me very well, but it’s been sorely in need of an update for the past 4 or so years, falling behind in many areas.

Being a sprint customer, my options for a good smartphone are limited. I’m also a huge Linux supporter, and love the fact that this phone is a linux-based device. Also, while from a technical perspective Palm has been behind for quite a few years, their attention to detail on user interfaces gave me reason to look forward to their next offering.

So, I’ve been looking forward to the Pre for quite some time. That being said, I’m not a big fan of being an early adopter. If I did decide the Pre was my next phone, I expected to wait for the 2nd generation (at least) devices. Every device (iPhone, Android, everyone) has problems with 1st gen devices, particularly with brand new OS’s. People forget how flimsy the Apple apps were at launch, or some of the weird design decisions. Mistakes are made, products aren’t finished, and they improve over time.

That being said, I’m a gadget geek, and after walking into a sprint store and (more or less) liking the device that I tried, I talked myself into it.

Dislikes
- No expandable memory. 8 gigs for me just isn’t enough. Can’t store either all the photos I want or all the music I want, much less both. Would have been nice to have some form of expandable memory, even if the device was slightly larger because of it.
- Keyboard. Keys are small, too close together, feel cheap, and the top of the slider is too close to the bottom of the top part of the phone. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not HORRIBLE. I can still type on it, better than I can on the virtual keyboard of my iPod touch. But it’s not as good of a keyboard as my blackberry, or even my old Treo’s.
- PIM functionality. One of the strengths of the old PalmOS have been almost forgotten here. The tasks are virtually worthless, memo’s barely functional, and calendar a step back (in terms of features) from the old PalmOS. And I miss my today screen.
- Lack of customization. You can’t change the ring tone on text messages. Seriously. The device is littered with stuff that you think “I should be able to customize this”, and yet you can’t. I expect some of this to be added with updates, others to be fixed when 3rd party apps start hitting the app store. In terms of “this feels like a 1.0 device”, this is the area that you see it the most. I hope this gets fixed relatively soon.
- WTF decisions. No ability to change text message ring tones? No ability to have a flashing LED when I missed a call/text? Hopefully this will be addressed (there is a backlit center button that can be used). These two missing options by themselves would have me returning the phone if it was my primary work phone, as I’d be missing text messages (which we use for alerting, and I’m on call) left and right. Luckily, this is my personal phone. Needs to be fixed. Also, texts aren’t timestamped (grouped solely by date), and you can’t forward texts. Really?
- No 5 way directional navigation. Sure, mostly tapping’s fine, but there are times (i.e. moving up a line) where a 5 way nav system like the old treo’s would be preferred. There are tricks (holding option and sliding across the screen) to accomplish this, but those aren’t all that intuitive, and would be much easier with a good 5-way nav button. And there’s some wasted space (button wise) that could be utilized.

But that, overall, is greatly outweighed by the good.
Likes:
- Love sync’ing everything with my google account rather than some clunky, old desktop software. Hated having to be at my desktop, remember my cable, and deal with all that. Hitting “sync now” from anywhere and shipping my calendar and contacts to my google apps account (that I setup for the sole purpose of backing up my Pre) is great.
- User interface. While I think it’s not all that customizable, the interface is beautiful, and intuitive. The screen is sharp with great contrast, and once you get used to the new interface, it’s very intuitive to use.
- Attaches as a USB Drive. Want to add a new MP3 ringtone? Copy/paste. Want to add photos? Music? Back up the contents on the Pre? Copy/paste. I hate going through apps, such as Palm Desktop or iTunes, to manage my libraries.
- Apps. Sure, it’s not the apple apps store, but then again, the apple apps store wasn’t what it is now on release. After coming from the stone age of the treo’s, just having these apps as a possibility is great. Easy to use, easy to install, and the ones available fill needs for the site.
- Email. Much better than the app palm used to ship with treo’s, this email app is actually functional. Could it be improved? Sure. But it’s at least on par with the iphone version.
- Size/form factor. Much smaller than my old treo’s (with a better screen). I need a real keyboard, and this one sliding out makes the phone much more manageable. And the phone feels good in my hands during a phone call.
- Bluetooth actually works. It might be something other users take for granted, but if you ever owned a Treo, this is a huge deal.
- Notifications. Non-abtrusive, but always reminding. I’ll try to post a screenshot to show what I mean. Really, really well done.
- Muiltitasking. Left this last one until the last for a reason. It works. Companies (*cough*apple*cough*) have claimed that staying away from multitasking is a good thing. Well, while I initially had some concerns on the Pre’s battery life, it’s more than usable now after a few days of letting it drain all the way down and re-charging. Some common sense needs to be applied (there’s no reason to have bluetooth on if you’re not pairing it with a device, no reason to have the weather app constantly running and updating, no reason to have the gps constantly running, etc), but the battery has more than enough to get me through the day on one charge. It’s not the battery life of the old Treo’s, but it’s at least comparable to the iPhone. Multitasking is not killing the battery life, nor is it slowing the phone down at a noticeable level. This is usable multitasking, and the ability to be checking email, drop over to my browser, fire off a text message, check movie times, then go back and finish my email without having to start over is priceless.

Overall, this is a great communication device, that does a great job of managing my online contacts, great phone, and an OK PDA. Once it improves as a PDA (which should be able to be done with a combination of updates to existing palm apps and through 3rd party apps), it will be almost complete. There are times I miss functionality I had in my old Treo, but overall there’s no way I could see myself going back.

If I had to give it a grade? A-. As I said, there are some definite “WTF” design decisions, some lacking features, and an overall polish that just isn’t quite there. Overall, it exceeded my expectations, and webOS is a great base for palm to rebuild their business on. Assuming the Pre sells enough to keep Palm a viable company, I think good things are to come for their new OS.

I love bouncebacks. Can’t this be considered spam? I certainly didn’t solicit information about their services.

550 We would love to have gotten this email to …@… But, your recipient never logged onto their free AIM Mail account. Please contact them and let them know that they’re missing out on all the super features offered by AIM Mail. And by the way, they’re also missing out on your email. Thanks.

God bless AOL. Never miss a chance to market their services.

I recently got a new TV, and finally entered the HD world.

Problem is, my trusty old series two TiVo can only do standard definition.

Comcast charges $10/month for an HD cable box, and only $5/month more for their HD DVR. So my options were to throw down $300+ to get an HD TiVo, and pay $13/month for TiVo service, or pay $5/month for Comcast’s Motorola DVR.

Because of the enormous difference in cost, I elected to go with Comcast’s offering, as it would actually save me $8/month, and have no upfront cost.

I’ve been using it for about a month now. While I appreciate the technological edge it has on my ancient TiVo (besides being able to record in HD, being dual tuner is nice), there are plenty of things I miss about my trusty TiVo.

I think the menu system (which has largely been borrowed by competing DVR manufacturers) on the TiVo is much more intuitively laid out and easier to use. I like that I can go online and schedule DVR recordings, and trust that the TiVo is going to sync up relatively quickly and get my recordings. I also like that I can install TiVo desktop and grab recordings off my DVR to store on my personal computer. To my knowledge, I haven’t found a way to do either either with the Motorola.

For the time being, I’m going to continue to primarily use the Motorola because of its capability of recording in HD and the fact that it’s dual tuner. That being said, I find the TiVo much easier and more intuitive to use, and find that I’m missing many options I had come to expect from the TiVo. From a usability standpoint, the two just don’t compare. Some day, I’d like to replace this DVR with a Dual Tuner HD TiVo.

The latest version of my Desktop Environment of choice, Xfce 4.6, was released. It certainly isn’t a huge revolution, much more of an evolution release. It’s not something that’s going to cause longtime KDE or gnome users to switch because of. But for longtime Xfce users, it’s a nice progression and improves upon stability considerably. The installer they have is fantastic (making it almost pointless to use your package manager), and the entire upgrade went without problems. Hats off to the Xfce team.

In a similar vein, I had to use Windows (Vista) today for the majority of the day because it’s the only thing I had on me. Windows has some catching up to do. I’m not talking about the whiz-bang factor. I think I’ve had compiz installed on my machines for all of about 10 minutes in total. I’m talking about usability.

Sure, Linux is still lacking in the unified “control panel” type configuration, although all of the major DE’s are making major steps in that regard. But on usability things, concepts like (and I’m going to use the Xfce names as that’s what I’m most familiar with) snap to border, focus stealing prevention, smart window placement, heck, even multiple workspaces. I get on a windows box and it just drives me nuts when I go to stick a window in the corner and I just ever-so-slightly miss, and part of the app is hidden offscreen until I notice. Or when I open up a new mail window in thunderbird in a dual monitor setup and, for some reason, it sticks the new mail window in the completely different monitor that I’m using. And don’t get me started on focus stealing. And why can’t I maximize a window horizontally with a keyboard command?

The more I’m away from Windows, the more convinced I become that Microsoft’s edge and “ease of use” comes more from its marketplace advantage than technical prowess.

Well, it happened. For years Microsoft has been claiming Linux infringes on patents they hold, and it appears they’ve finally acted on that threat. Microsoft has sued TomTom, makers of GPS systems powered by Linux.

Microsoft is claiming 9 patent infringements, 3 of which are related to the Linux Kernel and its use of FAT32.

TomTom uses FAT32 to natively recognize removable media.

Which is ironic. Why do you need to use FAT32 if you’re making removable media? Because it’s the only real way to have it be recognized across platform. Microsoft’s refusal to use non-proprietary filesystems has forced manufacturers into using their patented filesystem if they want their users to be able to use it problem-free.

I smell an anti-trust lawsuit coming.

(Note: IANAL).

I don’t find it a coincidence that Microsoft is coming after an embedded device. Microsoft is gaining in server market share, and Linux/BSD’s are not (and likely never will be) a real threat on the desktop. Where is Linux making the biggest gains? Embedded devices. That TiVo you use to record TV. That TomTom that tells you how to get everywhere. That Palm Pre you’ll be buying in a month. Thousands of devices that are powered by Linux, mostly unknown to the general public, represent potential business Microsoft is losing.

This could get interesting. We could either be opening up a Pandora’s Box, or it could be the retaliation leading to another anti-trust case against Microsoft. Or, more likely, TomTom will cave in and settle out of court, which would at the least negate setting a legal precedent for Microsoft to attack future vendors with, but would represent another successful bully for Ballmer and Microsoft.

Saw this a while back, but didn’t have time to comment. It appears the post on the data loss is removed, but here’s a post referencing the journalspace data loss.

Essentially, some data was deleted, either accidentally or maliciously, the details are a little murky. But, the site owner’s response was basically, “well, we had RAID”. He then went on to describe what RAID is.

Huh?

Maybe someone should have described to you what RAID is (and isn’t). RAID is not a backup. Database replication is not a backup. Clustering is not a backup. My lord, if your business relies on data, you might want to be a little more careful about it.

I’m a monitor person. I can never have enough screen real estate. I recently bought a second video card to put in my computer at work so I can setup 4 monitors:

They’re over two different bus types (pci-e and pci, unfortunately I don’t have two pci-e slots to setup in SLI), so I had to disable Xinerama, which was painfully slow. But just having 4 monitors to use is a godsend.