Rubenerd

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

S74 from Bardwell Park to Central

Cleanliness: Excellent!

What surprises me about this story isn’t that Google "temporarily" closed the source for Honeycomb, but that people are up in arms about it in the first place.

The gist is the wrist

The gist of the story is Google claims they’re "pending" the source code to the Honeycomb version of Android because they don’t want OEMs attempting to shoehorn this tablet-oriented release onto mobile phones and ruining their brand.

Allegedly their definition of open has changed. Looks as though Steve was right for saying Google was being "disingenuous" when claiming Android was open… not that most people will admit it ;).

Google’s point, and they do have one

To play devil’s advocate for a moment, Google does have a point. Unfortunately one of the aspects of free and open source software that makes it appealing to developers makes it decidedly less palatable to end users. The ability to customise the system means OEMs can differentiate their products from the competition, but for consumers it means there’s less consistency across products they expect work the same.

Ultimately OEMs can use Android in whatever way they see fit, which means they can spread the Android love, but also replace Google with Chanandler Bing, or slap on an even uglier UI, or change it to an extent that users have to wait months or years after a new version of Android is released for their hardware manufacturers to update their phones… if ever. OEMs could even implement the OS — say, Honeycomb — in a way its not designed to be used.

Google and its fans have cultivated this image of a cohesive platform taking on Apple’s iOS, which the mainstream tech media has gleefully propagated. While great for inflating market share figures (every other manufacturer combined is outselling Apple lol!!1!one!!), it also means consumers who expect a certain level of consistency across Android devices may be turned off the entire platform by one flawed implementation, such as a phone with Honeycomb on it. Microsoft is acutely aware of this after companies shipped craptops with Vista that clearly weren’t capable of running all the bloat, and Google obviously doesn’t want to take this chance.

No surprise!

Since Android’s inception, its been sold as a free and open source alternative to the perceived closed nature of the iPhone OS/iOS platform, which the mainstream tech media have also been happy to propagate in their "Android versus iOS" articles.

Of course those of us who are technically inclined have known this to be a mixed truth at best. Most of the Google branded applications are closed. OEMs get priority access to newer code. Most of it is still developed in-house rather than being given to the community to develop ala Linux. Their ideals of openness are so quickly and hypocritically jettisoned when they feel they can publicly one-up iOS, such as with the inclusion of Flash.

The temporary closing of the source of this open source project has got a lot of people who were genuinely under the impression Android was open a little disillusioned, but it shouldn’t really be a surprise to the rest of us. Android was never completely open in the first place.

Its also worth remembering that Google isn’t creating Android out of the goodness of their heart, but as a matter of business. The fact Motorola and Samsung have released tablets when smaller OEMs and the rest of us can’t get access to the code amounts to unfair competition. It also suggests there’s some cozying up and favouritism going on, exactly the kind of bahviour free and open source software was theoretically designed to prevent. I’m naive though, so I’m willing to give Google the benefit of the doubt on this.

Common sense isn’t

Android is an interesting platform, and provided they come clean about the origins of its Java-ish code we all benefit from it being here. Certainly Android is more open than Windows Mobile Phone Enterprise Service Pack Seven or whatever it is, and we’ve all benefited from not having a large install base of IE on phones to support. There are also those who the iOS platform doesn’t meet their needs and Android might, and vice-versa.

I would however appeal to people’s common sense (always an interesting thing to try!) in this issue. Sure its a terribly disingenuous thing for Google to do after we’ve been repeatedly told how wonderful and open the platform is, but its certainly not surprising, and its still a compelling platform if one is realistic about its philosophical and technical limitations and doesn’t buy into all the advertising hype. Hey, just like iOS.

What I’m interested in next is how Maemo/MeeGo/MeeSillyName will fare after Nokia climbed into bed with Microsoft. Now there was a far more open platform.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

sandaleo.com :: pantone color web conversion

More of a rough guideline, but still useful

(categories: design graphics colour pantone)

Taking Stock: July 2010 Archives

Some of those cows look like sheep! Wait, how did I get onto this site again?

(categories: blog random)

Febi-desu, Nyan!: MOE

Surprised that I knew nearly all of these already :)

(categories: anime glossary blogs)

Share House | Australia's FREE Share House Website

Sounds like a great way to travel on a shoestring. Accommodation thesedays is often more expensive than the actual travelling!

(categories: australia sydney travel accommodation)

So I wanted to download some trial software from Adobe.com. No wait, scratch that, I was required to download some trial software from Adobe.com. This is My Tale.

Adobe hates Firefox extensions

Firstly, I'm fully aware that I'm a paranoid internet user. I run NoScript for dynamic content, XSS protection and a slew of other privacy and security features, PermitCookies for cookies and RequestPolicy for XSRF protection. These tools all operate on a whitelist principle; that is block everything by default unless I explicitly make an exception.

Most sites break with these extensions blocking everything, but temporary exceptions allow sites that were written poorly (in my opinion!) to work. That is, except Adobe.com. No matter what I did with these extensions, Adobe.com refused my login credentials, and when I attempted to create a new account just in case my old password didn't work, the site refused to finish the signup form.

For a company with billions in the bank and with the specialities they have, this is inexcusable. I'm sorry, but I don't buy into the idea that it's my fault for my privacy and security extensions if almost every other site is able to work without problems!

Adobe hates security

So eventually I gave up attempting to use Firefox to access this site, so I fired up Camino. Before I got extremely paranoid Camino was my favourite Mac browser, and I still use it for sites that refuse to play nicely with my bolted down Firefox installs.

After ascertaining that the site wouldn't log me in because I'd forgotten my password (which they didn't inform me of in Firefox), I went through the process of resetting my password. Adobe.com assured me they'd be sending me an email to my elected email account with a link to reset my password.

That was over two hours ago, and nothing arrived. Nothing in my spam folders or filters, nothing. Eventually I gave up and opted to create a new account with a disposable email address, which fortunately worked.

I got a kick out of the fact the sign up screen truncated the Australian Capital Territory rather than just abbreviating it, and that they informed me my password was not between 6-12 characters. That's right, Adobe complained that my password was too secure. @ShaunLorrain on Twitter knows what I'm talking about.

@Rubenerd I know right, @Adobe always tells me my password is too long or complex.

Seriously though, who designed this facacta site? What a bunch of jabronis.

Adobe hates simplicity

Of course downloading trialware from Adobe can't be easy either. Adobe, like IBM/Lotus and Microsoft, can't just give us a direct download to the software we're requesting, they have to get us to download a stub application that is then used to download the application. Reminds me of this dialog box on Windows that I blogged about, and my adventures with downloading Windows 7.

Unfortunately its even worse than the obnoxious Java applet you need to run from IBM to download Lotus Symphony. Like the Microsoft download tool, Adobe actually makes you download an application to your desktop in the form of the Akamai Download Manager that then downloads the file you requested.

I like to keep my systems extremely neat, clean and tidy, and I simply don't install software unless I have to. Considering I spent most of my living days in front of computers, my /Applications folder on my Macs and my package managers on FreeBSD and Linux are kept reasonably trim. The fact I have to download and install software to download and install software… is offensive. It means I have to uninstall the junkware they got me to install… to install something. Given Adobe's appalling software security track record and the fact they're software is known to be the most insecure in the industry now, installing extra software from then puts me on edge.

So, did it work?

As of now this download is moving along at about 430KB/s, which means it should be done in about an hour. Granted at least their downloads are faster than getting drivers from HP, if I were downloading 1.72GiB of stuff from them I'd be waiting for weeks for it to finish. Not an exaggeration!

In the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I'll be using Inkscape!

… and a bag of crisps in the street near our house. Honey Soy Chicken. Sounds nice.

This post originally appeared on the Annexe.

HDR makes a HUGE difference with backlights!

After recently voicing my concerns about their internet banking policy here, Westpac sent me a cover letter and pamphlet this morning that discuss card and internet banking security.

My old man and sister are also Westpac account holders, but neither received a letter like this which leads me to two possible conclusions. Either I was statistically chosen at random based on the fact I use their internet banking services and debit cards, or someone at Westpac reads my blog and wanted to appease me. Because the latter is more fun, I'm going to assume it.

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

M23 from Central to Bardwell Park

Cleanliness: Good

Running in DOSBox 0.74 on my quad core Mac Pro. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah!

Granted my first experience with Borland software was with their GUI-oriented C++Builder in 1997, but still cool nonetheless. Have I ever told you I'm a sucker for nostalgia? ;D

Given recent events overseas, my sister has bemoaned the use of tasteless headlines such as "bloodbath" regarding the New South Wales state elections results. In my opinion, this one takes the cake though:

Seismic shift shapes nation: NSW delivered a tectonic shift in Australian politics yesterday – a shift so dynamic it has the capacity to alter the cultural course of the nation for the next decade and longer.

Is this guy for real? I know it was was written by the far-right Piers Akerman for the Sunday Telegraph and I should have expected as much, but what a load of blowhard crap!

It wasn't just his assertions I found intellectually offensive however, it was his crude metaphors. I've had comments refused from their website before, so just in case I'm recording it here for posterity.

Am I the only one who thought the use of the phrase “seismic shift” and “tectonics” to be utterly tasteless given recent events overseas?

No matter how major such a political change appears, its in a subordinate part of a country (a state- an unnecessary extra layer of expensive, tax payer funded bureaucracy) and not the result of real “seismic” activity caused by real “tectonics” that has killed thousands and left many others homeless in Japan, China and New Zealand.

Bemoan this attack of “political correctness”, but I for one won’t be grieving the Labor government’s defeat here in the same vein, nor do I take the Liberal’s win as anything other than politics which is (to borrow a phrase) simply the primary school playground with money, bigger words and ammunition.

For what its worth, Labor deserved what they got in this latest election. The scandals and corruption went above even what we all expect from politicians. I'll be interested to see how/if the new conservative Liberal leader fulfils his campaign promises of increases spending in key areas such as education and public transport, while somehow also reducing the state budget deficit.

That said, this defeat is absolutely nothing like the real hell people are going through around the world right now, and his use of the terms techtonic and seismic were at best a cheap shot, and at worse macabre. I wish I could say I expected more from journalists in Australian papers, but to their credit they're consistently terrible.