Category: Mobile Phone

The Digital Economy Class

Lorin Olsen
Economy Class...With A Little Quality
Economy Class…With Quality Touches

One of the most important things that you do as a consultant is the marketing of your expertise. You have to build a brand that screams, “I AM AN EXPERT”. At the same time, you need a brand that also proclaims, “I am savvy, suave, and not at all desperate for business opportunities.” I usually favor one of these two messages. I need to embrace both of them. In the past few weeks, I have taken a number steps that will amplify both messages. By assembling both spare and specialty parts in innovative ways, I hope to conduct my business in the “digital economy class”.

What do I mean when I say, “digital economy class”? It is exactly what it sounds like. When the first airlines offered transportation services, air flight was novel – and it was expensive. So the airlines offered “first class” accommodations: large (and comfortable) seats, ample storage, and fine dining. But as airlines re-focused upon mass transit goals (exploiting economies-of-scale to reach a larger markets), seats became smaller – and food became paltry – and sometimes non-existent. Today, you can get inexpensive transportation in a no-frills kind of way.

Digital Parallels

The same thing has happened in the digital economy. consulting services have seen the same transformation as airlines. In the eighties and nineties, huge accounting firms provided “first class” services – at a steep prices. And shareholders saw this by the IT department’s impressive share of corporate margins. Yes, you can still find big consultancies. But today’s service landscape now includes budget (commodity) services offered by offshore consultancies. And you can find specialty firms that offer the “first class” experience – but their services are limited to a specific technological niche. For example, there are countless consulting groups that specialize in security or networking or web site / content development. And there are just as many consulting firms that specialize in specific industries.

The final result is the same. As airlines reached out to a larger market, they needed to achieve economies-of-scale in order to maintain shareholder profits. In the same way, digital consulting firms must address digital efficiencies. But in the digital market, there is a very limited cost of entry. You don’t have to spend millions of dollars (or hours) to get into the business and compete. You just need to define your scope and focus on building a team that will deliver premier services to your targeted market.

Proper Scoping Is Essential

I have grand plans for my company. My eyesight may be poor – but my vision is unrestricted. Consequently, I wanted a team that could focus upon anything and everything. I may realize that dream – at some point. But for now, I have to narrow my scope to something more achievable. But where should I focus?

  • I can do application and web site development. So can millions of other people. And my poor eyesight does limit my ability to deliver stunning visuals. Why? Simple. I can’t appreciate visual distinctiveness as well as others.
  • I can sling code. But the nineties taught me that other people would willingly sling code for far less compensation. Yes, I can learn any programming language. I’d even put my adaptability ahead of most folks. But like a renaissance man, my breadth of knowledge and my aptitude at learning new things does not always serve me well. When someone is looking for a house painter, they don’t need the cool flourishes that I can develop just for them. Some people just want paint on a slab.
  • I can architect complex systems. Yes, hundreds of other people can do the same thing. But there are fewer competitors in this space. And if I can further narrow my scope to specific domains, I can stand out even further.
Our Current Scope

So what is our current scope / focus? For today, we are focusing upon strategic services – in the small and medium-sized business market. We can’t compete with the mega-consultancies or the offshore budget services. But we know what we are doing when it comes to key services:

  1. Security architectures
  2. Infrastructure architecture and design services
  3. Business architectures
  4. IT Governance
  5. ITSM / ITL Operations Excellence
  6. IT Collaboration
Building A “Digital Economy Class”

Can we build the digital equivalent of “economy class” services? Sure. But so can others. The toughest part of this is setting the right scope so that we can maintain “first class” attributes in a commodity-oriented market segment. And the way that we deliver this is through our team. Our team wants to offer “white glove” service at an affordable price. We won’t skimp on quality. And our team will innovate wherever possible. We don’t want to deliver the most expensive service. But our team does want to deliver the most affordable “first class” experience. We will get you where you want to go. That is our first priority. But we will make sure that you have enough leg room so that we don’t cut off the circulation to your toes.

But how can you do all of this?

You have to save money some place. So we believe in helping you to reclaim the value from past investments. We want to help you to ‘recycle’ (and redeploy) your technology assets. You’ve already spent thousands (or millions) of dollars for point solutions. And you have a lot of technological assets that can be more fully utilized and/or repurposed.

For some companies, the journey is simple. You can extend the number of years that you keep assets (assuming that you have purchased them). So whenever you buy new infrastructure for a new project, you can cascade established (and lower priority) applications to your more mature infrastructure platforms. There are risks to accept when you do this. But with every new generation of IT technology, those risks are diminishing.

You can also increase systems utilization for existing systems – especially hosting platforms. Because technology efficiency has increased, you can now run your systems at higher utilization levels than you did in the past. So some companies can leverage what economists call economies-of-scale.

Finally, you can re-purpose existing assets that are not currently used. You may not have any such assets. But we have found that many companies have not focused upon their asset inventory and asset disposal processes. Indeed, most companies have surplus (older) assets that can be used for lower priority tasks. Of course, this assumes that you have both a 1-n priority list of your application/system assets and a 1-n list of your technology assets. If you have done just such a asset prioritization, then we can help you to create service tiers and allocate systems to appropriate platforms. If you haven’t categorized your assets into 1-n lists, then we can also help you to do that.

A Simple Example

We have the same technology needs that every other company has. But as a small and nimble company, we have to wring every bit of value out of every asset. So when I started to do the speaking (i.e., Meetup) circuit in the Chicagolands, I needed to have additional capabilities. Specifically, I needed a good presentation platform. That meant having a good laptop, a good traveling network infrastructure, and a good projector.

In most small and medium-sized businesses, I only have to bring my laptop. The network and the projector are usually provided by the host. And this is the same for large venues; there is almost always network infrastructure and a projector. But this is not the case for one of my upcoming presentations.

The venue for this presentation will be a room in a local pub. My host is graciously providing a projector. And the venue may or may not have wireless networking. But since my presentation is about security and privacy, I really didn’t want to run my presentation across an ill-secured public hotspot. So I decided that I wanted to bring my own network to the venue.

This could have been done in one of several ways.
  • Purchase a new router with an embedded mobile network interface: While working for major corporations, I would have just requisitioned what I needed. But I no longer have an infrastructure budget of my own. So every purchase must be connected to a real revenue opportunity. And many of my presentations are now for lead generation. So this option was a non-starter.
  • Re-purpose an old wireless router (that is in our office inventory: Since the router is big, it might have been quite impressive. It’s not a rack-mounted device. But it is bulky. And it doesn’t have builtin mobile network access.
  • Purchase a mobile hotspot. And I may do that at some point. But since this is a meetup function, it made no sense to acquire new corporate or personal funds for a network device, an access contract, or a pre-paid SIM.
  • Build our own mobile hotspot: I consulted our asset inventory and found an unused mobile phone. It was an old Nexus 6p that I had used while working for a carrier. It is an existing asset. And we do have unlimited data plans. So it would be possible to temporarily move an existing SIM to this device. Since this solution meant zero incremental capital or expense investments, I decided to pursue this option. After all, I could always purchase a solution after I tried this option.
The Pixel Experience

I had two phones that I could use. One is my Samsung Galaxy S8+. The other is a Nexus 6p (from Huawei). I needed one phone to be the hotspot and the other phone would then be the device that I would display on the projector. It would have been nice to do both on the same phone. Unfortunately, the builtin hotspot capability turns off the builtin screen casting. Could I have paid for a presentation app that would have done this? I probably could have. But I wanted a stock experience as much as possible. Since all of my mobile phone privacy apps are all on my “daily driver” (the Samsung S8+), I decided to use the Nexus 6p as the hotspot platform.

I took a few hours and I rebuilt the Nexus 6p. Specifically, I decided to upgrade the phone to a build that would support Android Pie (i.e., Android 9.x). I did this to ensure that I would get the latest hotspot software from the Android team. Then I swapped SIM cards so that I could use my T-Mobile unlimited data on my “presentation” hotspot. Apart from a few hiccups that I encountered while unlocking the bootloader, the process was remarkably simple. When I was done, I had a shiny new Nexus 6p running the Pixel Experience ROM (featuring Android Pie).

Bottom Line

When you need “economy class” services, you can still find distinctiveness. A good company provides economic value to its customers while not sacrificing the personal touches. We did this for ourselves when we leveraged existing gear in innovative ways. You can do this for yourself by selecting technology experts who share your desire to provide high quality to your customers while leveraging the best value at hand.

Mobile Privacy Demands Some Sacrifices

Lorin Olsen
Managing mobile privacy is complex
Managing Mobile Privacy

As noted previously, the effort to maintain anonymity while using the Internet is a never-ending struggle. We have been quite diligent about hardening our desktop and laptop systems. This included a browser change, the addition of several browser add-ons, the implementation of a privacy-focused DNS infrastructure, and the routine use of a VPN infrastructure. But while we focused upon the privacy of our static assets, our mobile privacy was still under siege.

Yes, we had done a couple of routine things (e.g., browser changes, add-one, and use of our new DNS infrastructure). But we had not yet spent any focused time upon improving the mobile privacy of our handheld assets. So we have just finished spending a few days addressing quite a few items. We hope that these efforts will help to assure enhanced mobile privacy.

Our Mobile Privacy Goals

Before outlining the key items that we accomplished, it is important to highlight our key goals:

  1. Start fresh. It would be nearly impossible to retrofit a hardened template onto an existing base – especially if you use a BYOD strategy. That’s because the factory images for most phones are designed to leverage existing tools – most of which exact an enormous price in terms of their privacy concessions.
  2. Decide whether or not you wish to utilize open source tools (that have been reviewed) or trust the vendor of the applications which you will use. Yes, this is the Apple iOS v. Android issue. And it is a real decision. If it were just about cost, you would always
  3. Accept the truth that becoming more private (and more anonymous) will require breaking the link to most Google tools. Few of us realize just how much data each and every mobile app collects. And on Android phones, this “tax” is quite high. For Apple phones, the Google “tax” is not as high. But that “good news” is offset by the “bad news” that Apple retains exclusive rights to most of its source code. Yes, the current CEO has promised to be good. [Note: But so did the original Google leaders. And as of today, Google has abandoned its promise to “do no evil”.] But what happens when Mr. Tim Cook leaves?
  4. Act on the truth of the preceding paragraph. That means exchanging Google Apps for apps that are more open and more privacy-focused. If you want to understand just how much risk you are accepting when using a stock Android phone, just install Exodus Privacy and see what your current apps can do. The terrifying truth is that we almost always click the “Allow” button when apps are installed. You must break that habit. And you must evaluate the merits of every permission request. Remember, the power to decide your apps is one of the greatest powers that you have. So don’t take it lightly.
  5. Be aware that Google is not the only company that wishes to use you (and your data) to add profits to their bottom line. Facebook does it. Amazon does it. Apple does it. Even Netflix does it. In fact, almost everyone does it. Can you avoid being exploited by unfeeling corporate masters? Sure, if you don’t use the Internet. But since that is unlikely, you should be aware that you are the most important product that most tech companies sell. And you must take steps to minimize your exploitation risk.
  6. If and where possible, we will host services on our own rather than rely upon unscrupulous vendors. Like most executives, I have tremendous respect for our partner providers. But not every company that we work with is a partner. Some are just vendors. And vendors are the ones who will either exploit your data or take no special interest in protecting your data. On the other hand, no one knows your business better than you do. And no one cares about your business as much as you do. So wherever possible, trust you own teams – or your valued (and trusted) partners.
Our Plan of Attack

With these principles in mind, here is our list of what we’ve done since last week:

    Update OS software for mobile devices
        Factory reset of all mobile devices
        SIM PIN
        Minimum 16-character device PIN
    Browser: Firefox & TOR Browser
    Search Providers: DuckDuckGo
    Browser Add-ons
        Content Blocking
            Ads: uBlock Origin
            Scripts: uMatrix
            Canvas Elements: Canvas Blocker
            WebRTC: Disable WebRTC
            CDN Usage: Decentraleyes
            Cookie Management: Cookie AutoDelete
        Isolation / Containers: Firefox Multi-Account Containers
    Mobile Applications
        Exodus Privacy
        Package Disabler Pro
        OpenVPN + VPN Provider S/W
        Eliminate Google Tools on Mobile Devices
            Google Search -> DuckDuckGo or SearX
            GMail -> K-9 Mail
            GApps -> "Simple" Tools
            Android Keyboard -> AnySoftKeyboard
            Stock Android Launcher -> Open Launcher
            Stock Android Camera -> Open Camera
            Stock Android Contacts / Dialer -> True Phone
            Google Maps -> Open Street Maps (OSM)
            Play Store -> F-Droid + APKMirror
            YouTube -> PeerTube + ??? 
        Cloud File Storage -> SyncThing
Our Results

Implementing the above list took far more time than we anticipated. And some of these things require some caveats. For example, there is no clear competitor for YouTube. Yes, there are a couple of noteworthy challengers (e.g., PeerTube, D-Tube, etc). But none have achieved feature sufficiency. So if you must use YouTube, then please do so in a secure browser.

You might quibble with some of the steps that we took. But we believe that we have a very strong case for each of these decisions and each of these steps. And I will gladly discuss the “why’s” for any of them – if you’re interested. Until then, we have “cranked it up to eleven”. We believe that we are in a better position regarding our mobile privacy. And after today, our current “eleven” will become the new ten! Continuous process improvement, for the win!

5G: Qualcomm Takes One Step Closer

Lorin Olsen

5G Antenna Modules
5G wireless is one step closer to reality. AT&T and Verizon have made huge investments in millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio spectrum (e.g., 28GHz and 39GHz). Sprint and T-Mobile have placed their bets on existing spectrum below 6GHz (i.e., “sub-6”) radio spectrum. A huge step towards the 5G aspirations of these two camps was made yesterday when Qualcomm announced its mmWave and sub-6 antenna modules.

Now that these modules are formally available, handset designers and producers will accelerate their movement towards these pivotal 5G technologies.   Don’t expect everything to shift to 5G by the end of this year. But you should expect that handsets being developed for launch next year will begin to feature 5G capabilities.

In the meantime, expect to see niche offerings. Based upon published plans by the carriers/operators, the first products featuring 5G will probably take the form of “pucks” that will provide a “semi-fixed” wireless connection. What does “semi-fixed” mean? Simple. You won’t carry these things in your pocket; they won’t be a mobile phone. You will set them up so other devices can connect to them. I expect to see these fixed wireless solutions to start to show up in households or in the briefcases of road warriors.

Will these “hotspot” use cases dominate the residential and/or mobile office space? They will not dominate any market in 2018. I do expect to see the early adopter crowd will jump on board in the first half of 2019. But I don’t expect widespread adoption (beyond 10%) until 2019. Nevertheless, these un-tethered back haul connections will be a substantive challenge to the cable operators. Specifically, the cord-cutters (who want wireless connectivity without content bundling) will jump on these connectivity devises – assuming that the operators price them appropriately.

In the final analysis, yesterday’s announcement by Qualcomm outlines the future. And the future will be 5G. But one question remains: which team will win?

Lorin’s Prediction: The millimeter wave crowd will win in the fixed wireless challenge to cable companies. And since the mmWave build-out is starting in dense urban settings, I think that AT&T and Verizon will clean up in urban centers. For the rest of the markets, the sub-6 enthusiasts will garner more market share – until the 5G tower build-out is complete. And the sub-6 crowd will register early wins in the mobile wireless use cases.  But the real fun will begin when mmWave and sub-6 antenna modules are in every device – whether mobile or fixed. Then we will see who secures the future markets.

From Uber-Geek to…Corporate Wonk?

Lorin Olsen

It is always good to see when talent is rewarded. So many of us began our careers very humbly. I started my career by building my own PC. [When I started, you were forced to solder them yourself. And most folks were using CP/M (from Digital Research).] Still others gained their notoriety by being public hackers (some more ethical than others).
Recently, the term “hacker” has been blurred with the term “geek” (not to be confused with the term “nerd”). There have been some fabulous hackers who are very dedicated to the platforms that they “expanded” (through their often unauthorized projects). I still remember many of the Windows Mobile geeks based upon their work on various “kitchens” (i.e., the collection of tools they used to “cook” their products). While I don’t remember any of their real names, their pseudonyms are still memorable.
Many of the early mobile hackers moved on to work for carriers or for handset vendors. They moved from their hacker lifestyle into their corporate lifestyle as effortlessly as changing a suit of clothing. Basically, they morphed from pop stars (in small circles) to anonymous contributors in a much larger lake.
But it is far harder to make those kinds of transitions into anonymity these days. First, the exceptional hackers are elevated to an elite (and very public) status. Today, the application of cred points is done by a community in a social media setting (e.g., Twitter, Google+, etc). And it is also far more difficult to fade away from your past. Today, every word you speak is recorded, parsed, analyzed and used in your next job interview.
Nevertheless, it is still possible to make the jump into mainstream.
A few weeks ago, Samsung hired Steve Kondik (aka, cyanogen).  Now, Apple has hired Nicholas Allegra (aka, comex). While I am glad that big companies are looking beyond their own short-sighted misgivings to recognize real talent, I am even happier that exceptional talent will be put to exceptional use in the industry. Let’s welcome Steve and Nicholas to the next phase of their careers/lives.
-Roo

Bouncing Between Various Quanta of Activity

Lorin Olsen


It has been an amazingly hectic week.  And today has epitomized the chaos that I’ve felt.  This week has seen a lot:

  • We got back from vacation (which was really just a long weekend).  But we have been struggling to re-integrate into our normal routines.
  • The man who enticed me to leave my previous job has left our company.  I am quite disappointed.  But God has already quieted my heart.  And He is teaching me how I can transform a disappointment into a blessing – and a ministry.
  • I’ve decided to step back into the management pool.  So I’ve submitted my name for consideration by the company’s leadership team.  I have been heart warmed to learn that my application was not summarily dismissed!  😉
  • Our dishwasher decided to develop a weak bladder: when we turned it on, it leaked everywhere.  At eight years, it was time to buy a new unit.  So we went and bought an updated dishwasher (Bosch) with a stainless steel finish.  Our black appliances are starting to look a little dated.
  • After getting a new dishwasher, we also realized that it was time to update the refrigerator.  While we liked the looks of a matching Bosch unit, we decided upon a Samsung stainless steel unit because it had better reviews on Consumer Reports.  It also had some features that my wife really wanted.  So Samsung got the nod.
  • We cleaned out the garage to get things ready for appliance delivery.  Actually, we’ve re-arranged some stuff while sorting some other stuff into the trash.  We now have room for the old refrigerator in the garage.  I am voting for a beer and wine fridge; Cindy is considering my suggestion!

With these things as a back drop, today has been chaotic and wonderful.

  • We’ve worked to get the old fridge ready for replacement.  We still have to move the final stuff into coolers.  But we will be ready for the arrival of the new refrigerator.
  • I’ve updated my resume so that I can get it submitted to the leadership team.  I’m really hoping that they have the same opinion of my capabilities that I have.
  • We’ve gotten all the dishes done.  Normally, this is simple.  But it’s been years since I washed a lot of dishes by hand.  We did mostof them earlier in the week.  But we now have to keep up with them throughout the day.
  • My son left a boatload of laundry for us to do for him.  Apparently, he’s been stacking the clothes in his room waiting for someone to do them.  Gosh, are all nineteen-year old men this naive?  And are all middle-aged parents this accommodating?
  • After many hours of sorting and shuffling leftover laundry, we’ve finally gotten around to doing the week’s laundry.  Phew.  I never thought I’d make it to this point today!

With a lot of tasks finally moving through the pipeline, I’ve finally gotten a chance to address a couple of tech challenges.

  • I’ve copied all of the photos from Meredith’s wedding onto our media server.
  • I’ve updated Cindy’s phone so that she can access the media server from where she travels.  The latest firmware build for the storage server is quite good.  Western Digital provides a redirect service so that I can get to my photos (and music and movies) from the public Internet.  This is very cool.  But it reminds me that security is an everyday consideration these days.
  • I’ve updated my router firmware to enable uPNP sharing.  This will certainly help our mobile experience.  But I am a little leery about this change.  I’ll have to research a little more to see if I’ve opened myself up to exploitation.
  • I’ve flashed my phone with the latest CyanogenMod firmware.

I think I’m finally able to breathe a little sigh of relief – but not for long.  Once the refrigerator is delivered, Cindy and I will have a lot of work to do.  But now that most of the prep work is done, this part should be fun.  But I do think that pizza will be in order!

-Roo

Welcome Back My Friends…

Lorin Olsen


…to the show that never ends.
Last weekend was exciting – and frustrating.  Seven days ago, I decided that I needed to switch to a different ROM on my phone.  I loved Liberty GB.  But about a month ago, it lost all of its momentum.  Daily builds had dried up.  And there was no sustainable roadmap for future development.
But the CyanogenMod distribution was thriving.  Nightly builds were flourishing.  And this ROM was even pushing boundaries by adopting cutting edge features from many sources – including the carriers.  CM7 was headed towards Android 2.3.5 (which was delivered this past week).  And CM& has included the T-Mobile Theme Chooser.  This mod was smoking.
So last weekend, I took the plunge…
…and landed in a dry lake bed.
I really didn’t want to wipe my phone to bare metal.  I had read quite a bit that seemed to indicate that I would need to wipe the cache, data and even system files on my phone.  Since I had never wiped the system files and used SBF to rebuild my base system, I was nervous.  Then I read a whole lot of posts that said that if I was on a Gingerbread build (of Liberty), I could just wipe cache and data and then install.  So that’s what I did.  And that’s when I landed in the dry lake bed.
The result of this approach was a fully bricked phone.  In fact, I’ve never torched a system quite as successfully as I had torched my phone.  There was absolutely nothing left on my phone.  So I had to learn about SBF and then do it for myself.  Fortunately, the process is simple.  All you have to do is get the right software on your desktop, connect your phone via USB and then use the bootloader to re-deploy the basic image (that originally came from your carrier).
Once I flashed the phone, I was tempted to just stay put.  That temptation lasted thirty minutes before I flashed the base CyanogenMod system.
And what a wonderful change this has been.
I love this ROM.  It is fast.  It is stable.  Most importantly, it is actively developed.  In the past seven days, I’ve loaded six nightly builds.  The only reason that there weren’t seven nightlies is because one of the nightlies included a whole new Android build (i.e., 2.3.5).  So there was no new build on July 26.  I guess it took an extra day to put together such a big change.
It is even more exciting to see that CM7 is the productof a lot of code branches assembled together.  I am so impressed with the T-Mobile theme chooser.

Is it the best such tool?  Probably not.  But it was developed within a massive company.  Nevertheless, it was released as open source.  So the CM folks pulled it into their ROM distribution.  This is one of the greatest things about open source development.  You are able to pick and  choose the things you want to assemble together.  I suspect that this theme chooser will now find its way into almost every Android distribution.
Vive le difference.
-Roo

Using Android to Remotely Control Media Playback

Lorin Olsen


It’s interesting to see how mobile devices can be used for the oddest little tasks.  My Android phone can do a lot.  It can run all sorts of network apps.  And the latest app I’ve picked up is a remote control tool for the VideoLAN VLC media player.
When you think about it, there isn’t a lot of “never been done before” tools in this kind of application.  But the folks at VideoLAN have really assembled an innovative package.
An http server is installed on the machine that you want to control. The server accepts incoming web connections and processes these requests as control strings to manage the operation of a VLC media player on the target computer.  The server provides content listing and content playback controls via http packets.
A TCP/IP control program on your phone communicates with the web server on your computer.  The mobile control program has a nice little GUI that displays the content and allows you to manage the server.

The PC-based server can either send the content to a display attached to your system or the server can stream the ontent to your phone.  And I was incredibly surprised at the picture quality when it was streamed to the phone.  I wish I could share a picture with you, but ShootMe didn’t get any good screen captures of the Android-based VLC player.  I’ll have to try and get these at a later time. But trust me when I say that the streaming quality is good.
So what did this experiment prove?
First, the open nature of the platform breeds this kind of innovative tinkering.  People can fiddle and tweak things as much as they like.  And you don’t have to go through the app police to get a permit in order to test, to distribute and to operate apps.
Second, the size of the Android developer community is huge.  The sheer enormity of the developer base is leading to some very cool innovations.
Finally, it’s great to have lots of choices.  But it can get crowded in any given application category.    There needs to be a good method for recommendations and curation.  The Amazon philosophy of 4/5 star customer ratings is an excellent way to weed through enormous piles of similarly featured tools.
Is this tool cool?  It most certainly is cool.  Is it an essential tool for home media center management?  It most assuredly is not essential.  But sometimes cool is enough – at least for tonight.
 
-Roo
 

My Phone, The Chew Toy

Lorin Olsen

It’s marred and unseemly… but it still functions.
These words will haunt me for awhile. When I got up at 4:30, I really  didn’t want to get moving. But my life has mission and purpose. So I  got up and got prepared for the morning commute.
Everything was progressing to plan until I went to disconnect my phone  from the charger. Alas, there was no phone there. I worried that I  might have left the phone at Cheddars last night. But I dismissed that  thought and proceeded to hunt the phone down.  I called my mobile phone  from the house phone. After three or four rings, I heard the phone  vibrating. I chased down the sound.
When I found the phone, I was disheartened. The phone was in my wife’s  chair in the family room. The protective case was utterly destroyed.  And the phone itself has scratches and bite marks. Apparently, my 19  year old son’s 75 pound puppy had decided that my phone was a chew  toy. He had disconnected my smartphone from the wall and carried it to  the family room while I was asleep.
I was furious. Since everyone else was asleep, I restrained the urge  to utter a primal scream. I settled myself and finished preparing for  the morning commute. Then I hit the road, I was white hot. And that’s  when God began to speak to my heart.
I wanted to rage. He calmed my heart. I wanted to punish the puppy.  God reminded me that the puppy didn’t know any better. I wanted to  have harsh words with my son. God reminded me that my son is a lot  like the puppy… a whole lot like the puppy.
I was finally cooling down a bit. I then started to think about  replacing the phone. My anger swelled. Then I thought about cool new  replacements. And that’s when the real lesson began. Yes, the phone  was blemished. And there are some serious teeth marks on the speaker  grill. But the phone works. After all, I’m typing this, aren’t I?
God then spoke even more clearly: I am the phone. I was made with a  purpose. And in my “as built” state, I was sleek and beautiful. Then I  entered this fallen world. And the world wantonly ripped me from my  purpose. It chewed me up. It marred my image of myself. But it didn’t  alter my purpose. Nor has it prevented me from fulfilling that  purpose. God will still use me to accomplish His purposes – despite  the scratches and bite marks found throughout my soul.
Friends, don’t let your daily concerns rob you of the joy that can be  found when fulfilling your God-ordained purpose. You WILL be marred  and bruised. But your purpose remains. Go forth with joy as you  discover and fulfill your purpose.
-Roo

A New Market Is On The Horizon

Lorin Olsen

 

 

Just when you thought Google’s plate was too full (with Gingerbread/Honeycomb, Google Music and Google+), it looks like the Android team is sprucing up the Market a bit.
The snapshots above were taken from my phone on the new Market.  The functionality is almost the same as it was before.  But the look and feel seems vastly improved.  More importantly, there are hints about new things on the horizon.  In particular, there appears to be a movie rental option that may soon arrive in the Market.
But from my vantage point, I’m just satisfied with a Market that works when I need it.  In the past, I’ve relied upon the Market to rebuild my system whenever I’ve had to do a clean install of Android.  In fact, I just have to point a newly pressed image at the Market and let my phone build from there.  It is seamless and nearly faultless.  Sure it takes some time to rebuild.  But  the feature is well worth the wait.
Now, the Market also looks great as well.  My only concern is that the newer images will require a great deal more downloading and file transfers.  I sure hope that you aren’t paying for all the new graphics that Google is now pushing at you.
-Roo

Naming Your Phone Ain’t Easy

Lorin Olsen

 

This week has been hectic at work and hectic at home.  When there weren’t too many things to be done, there were hugely important little things that needed to be addressed.

This ain’t either one of those! 🙂

Like a lot of other geeks and music freaks, I’ve been fiddling with Spotify.  I’ll post a full review of Spotify sometime this weekend – along with a more complete review of Google+.  But I saw some things when I installed Spotify that made me address a long-standing challenge I have with Android.  Specifically,  Spotify allows you to sync your music to your mobile devices based upon the host names that your mobile devices present to your WiFi infrastructure.  But Android doesn’t provide useful names for your phone.

In fact, the name that most Android phones provide is positively hideous.  It usually takes the form of Android + <hexadecimal character string>.  And when you have three or more Android phones connecting to your WiFi router, this kind of naming is impossible to manage.  Like most folks, I prefer seeing a name that is customer-selected.

So I began the great Google quest.  I found out where the odd name comes from.  I also found a means of changing that name via a command shell and rot privileges.  I even found an app that will change the name – but it is only effective until the next reboot of the phone.  Finally, I realized that I could change the name on my home network by updating the DHCP tables on the router itself.

So I can affect the change that I desire (see above).  But it sure would be nice if Google (and the Android community) would update the core OS to allow for customer-selected host names.  That way, the platform will be even more manageable for the average user.

 

-Roo