Technology – Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Motorola T605 Bluetooth Hands Free Mute Problem

JesterXL — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:58:42 +0000

My dad has a Motorola T605 cell phone with Verizon. Most of the time, if he received a call when the phone was on the holder and connected to Bluetooth, it wouldn’t work. Dialing out was no problem. The phone would remain on, but no audio could be heard. If he attempted to re-dial, you couldn’t hear any audio either. So, while voice activation might be working, you couldn’t hear the robot chick on the phone prompting you. Basically, when receiving an incoming call while connected to the hands free Bluetooth, the phone would mute once you answered.

We fixed this by plugging in the car charger into the cell phone. That seemed to fix it.

Some additional details for Google searchers: He recently had Circuit City come on-site install the Bluetooth Hands Free set. He’s got an older Toyota Tacoma, so it doesn’t integrate with his stereo. It merely has the stand, the included speaker the size of a brick, and whatever connections for power. I read on a forum that the yellow wire was mis-documented to be the mute wire, and the orange the correct one. However, since this was wired in the back of his dashboard, and I’m not a mechanic, I figured maybe the phone couldn’t do certain functions when not plugged in. A lot of computers run at half power when on battery. Apparently the phone is the same way.

Diffing on a Mac Resolution

JesterXL — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:42:35 +0000

I have everything I need on a Mac now after finally getting svnX to work, and thus justifying it’s existence (still doesn’t work with Google Code, though… must need more practice). Subversion client? Check.

All that’s left is a diffing tool that is comparable to BeyondCompare for the PC. I hit Google, and read this blog entry as well as every single comment.

Subclipse? Negative, Ghostrider.

I do not work from my code base. SVN goes into 1 folder and my local copy into another. I then shuttle back and forth using BeyondCompare. Subclipse forces you to work in your checked out files. There are a lot of advantages to not do this.
Diffing tool is a joke when you’ve used BeyondCompare.

Guiffy? Nope.

I have to know Regular Expressions to exclude things? Um… no. I’m too dumb to use that feature, or is that I’m not smart enough to take advantage of it?
I only gave it 1 hour, and got frustrated. Unfair, but I’m a user. I’ve got another month with the trial, so I’ll definately give it a ton more tries.

BBEdit? Haven’t tried it yet. I couldn’t find anything describing diff stuff in their docs, so didn’t bother. Someone know more?

FileMerge? A C guy I respect swears by it. I didn’t like it. It doesn’t (as far as I could find) support comparing file structures. This is an EXTREMLY important feature for me. The diffs do that same thing the others do where they have the strechy line things… dude, just f’ing point to the difference lineary, and I’ll fix it, you don’t need to kick it Sportacus style with the arrows for me to clearly see where the difference is.

Solution? Purchase CrossOver, use BeyondCompare. 2nd day in a row and I’m not looking back. It just works.

Creative Commons is not for Software, I Disagree

JesterXL — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:31:15 +0000

I was irritated there was no attribution style license on Google Code, specifically, no Creative Commons license. So, I joined the Google Code mailing list, found 2 previous posts from people asking for CC being added as a license option, with responses that didn’t make it seem too likely to happen. I posted anyway, and got the response that it pretty much wasn’t going to happen, and that although they do not have the older bsd license that has an attribution aspect, they suggested other code hosting services.

Further irritated, and thus emboldened, I joined the Creative Commons Developer mailing list. I let them know the situation, asking if there was a way maybe we could use some positive PR to show how it was a good move for Google to support the CC license. This would work well when people use graphics and other design elements for projects, for example in the software projects hosted since a lot of that stuff is CC Attribution nowadays.

Instead, I’m provided with a link to the Creative Commons FAQ by a CC developer representative. It clearly states that Creative Commons is not designed for software, and they ask you to use other licenses. I was floored. I’ve been using Creative Commons since 2003; that’s almost 4 years, and I had no clue! I started using CC Attribution because:

Mike Chambers did
Darron Schall did
Aral Balkan talked about how cool it was

So, naturally, I just assumed I would too. This was about the time many Flash Designers were stealing other’s code online to show as their own during interviews for Flash Developer positions. I am a big supporter of sharing code, but I wanted some form of control over how that code was used; specifically, keeping my name associated with what I originally had a hand in writing. This made my career, so Creative Commons set clear expectations of that. Secondly, it made those using my code for commercial projects comfortable in knowing they had legal rights to do so. Share the love, empower the masses, and as an artist you get exposure. A lot of early ActionScript is a lot easier to remix anyway, so it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Fast forward to yesterday, and me feeling like an idiot.

For now, I’m stuck with MIT; I briefly read the other licenses (Apache 2, Artistic License/GPLv2, GNU General Public License 2.0, GNU Lesser Public License, Mozilla Public License 1.1, New BSD License) and the MIT one is the only one that is immediately understandable, and appears to jive with my “I wrote this for fun, hope it’s useful to you, just don’t hold me legally liable for it’s use”. I’m sure if I find an open source guy at the next conference I attend, I can get some more layman explanations of my options.

Anyway, I think the Creative Commons FAQ is wrong. ActionScript is a dynamic language in a wonderful artistically capable runtime engine (the Flash Player) and tool set (Flash & Flex). The sharing & remix culture is what helped ActionScript become so successful and contributed to my career. This is exactly what Creative Commons is built around, and the Attribution 2.5 specifically is aimed at the Flash Developer culture in my opinion. This isn’t a cop-out or excuse to my previous ignorance; I truly believe the statements above.

Running out of PC Defenses

JesterXL — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:41:23 +0000

I played WoW on my Intel MacBook last night. Her majesty had been playing it for a week on her new MacBook Pro Core Duo. After seeing how well it ran, I figured I’d give it a try on my MacBook (which is not a pro, nor a Core Duo, just a regular ‘ole Intel). It ran well; well enough for me play and actually enjoy it.

…I’m running out of defenses in the PC vs. Mac debate. That was always my trump card. You could always score a critical hit to any insecure Mac fanboy by using the gaming argument. Unfortunately, after playing WoW, seeing the gaming store having more native Mac games, and with a plethora of Mac hacks like CrossOver and Parallels, I’m failing to see the point of buying a PC in the future. I have a few reasons left to still justify Windows, just not non-Apple hardware. I STILL haven’t found a diff tool for Mac that compares with BeyondCompare. I keep hearing “terminal” this and “SubClipse-piece-of-crap” that. Granted, using CrossOver, I could pretty much remedy that problem by using BeyondCompare.

My Alienware laptop plays Quake 4 sweet. It also weighs 14.5 lbs (6.6 kilos). My MacBook plays WoW, and runs Flash, and Flex Builder weighing 4lbs (1.8 kilos).

Vista looks hot, but… man, times have changed.

Net Neutrality & Mobile Gaming Parallels

JesterXL — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:07:36 +0000

Lawrence Lessig links to a RampRate market commentary about how “Net Neutrality” will seriously hurt online gaming. Like global warming, with Net Neutrality I’ve had a bunch of articles shoved in my face and expected to take them as fact and act upon them vs. discussion, research into the facts, and a clear, widely accepted tangible solution. So, while I get the general idea and thus threat of Net Neutrality I’m still extremely skeptical. Congress is 1 for 1 for me on the with regards to the internet. Their prevention of online taxes for so long is perceived for me as awesome to spur growth. Ted Steven’s rant about tubes, while not a neccessarey true representation of the tech knowledge of my Senate, still doesn’t seem to bode well. I’m indifferent about online gambling.

In short, not sure what to think.

For the sake of disscussion, let’s assume Network Neutrality truly means speed prioritization of internet service based on paying a higher fee to Internet Service Providers. The article makes a really good comparison to Mobile based on this assumption in the ” Parallels with Mobile” section, specifically mobile gaming. I think this could apply to any mobile software service, though, since they have the same distribution mechinism. Their bullet points pretty much summarzie my attitude as a developer towards Flash Lite, at least as a USA developer. Mainly being forced to assume insane business risk with weird revenue sharing, no easy access to the direct consumer, and having success held on the thread of being “chosen” by the operator to be put on the phone if they “feel like it”.

I know of one guy in the US here in Atlanta doing work for oversea’s mobile clients. That’s just one guy, and yet, any Flash Developer is hard to judge “the rest of the market” by because we are so small in number compared to other software programmer industries.

Anyway, this paragraph summarized it for me; the whole bloody section hit home:

In short, when the network controlled the content, developers could not effectively iterate towards improvement or be fairly rewarded for their accomplishments. Their businesses and products suffered, which in turn severely retarded market development. Mobile gaming today is probably better on an original GameBoy than on the latest smartphone. And for all the limitless possibilities of using unique portability and location features to create new gaming communities, there is no World of Warcraft or Everquest or Second Life on mobile. If IP networks become akin to mobile networks in their restrictiveness, we may all find out why billion dollar revenue generators such as these die off.

That “Parallels with Mobile” section is to me an accurate assessment of the mobile industry as perceived by a wanna-be Flash Lite developer right now. As such, if that accurate assessment is also an accurate assessment of Network Neutrality with regards to online gaming, yeah, major suck ahead, hard to port! The #1 problem with online gaming is lag, and if Network Neutrality increases ping time vs. the trend that has continued for years in ping time being LOWERED, then well… bummer.

I’m not saying my life would be a different place if her majesty had said “lol” 8 seconds later vs. 1 second… I just wonder if it would of even happened online in the first place had Network Neutrality actually come to fruition when Star Wars Galaxies first started. Scary thought.