Playtime is over in Android Land. Over the last couple of months Google (GOOG) has reached out to the major carriers and device makers backing its mobile operating system with a message: There will be no more willy-nilly tweaks to the software.

Via Do Not Anger the Alpha Android – BusinessWeek.

So @Google will not be like Microsoft.  They are learning from the mistakes of Windows Mobile.  How fare will they go?  Will they be like Apple?

Apple is delighted because it’s a way of “proving” that the iPhone’s notorious problems with call-dropping and voice quality are AT&T’s fault, not theirs. Now, it’s theoretically possible that the AT&T iPhone’s problems are still Apple’s fault — it could be that the GSM iPhones have hardware or driver problems that the CDMA iPhone 4 does not. But, alas for AT&T, GSM iPhone users around the world do not share in the problems of GSM iPhone users in the United States. Regardless, what matters is mass market perception. Technical people understand that the Verizon iPhone 4 is not exactly the same hardware as the AT&T iPhone 4. But normal people see them as identical. That’s the whole point of Apple’s “two is better than one” commercial: the only difference is the network.

via Daring Fireball: The Verizon iPhone 4.

I like this post.  The explanation is great.  He outlines all the questions you could possibly have when you compare both the Verizon iPhone and the ATT iPhone.  I for one am going to wait till the masses receive their Verizon iPhones.  After everyone is off my ATT I want to see how the service will be.

Unlike most providers, we dont plan for our users to be down, even when were upgrading our services or maintaining our systems. For that reason, were removing the SLA clause that allows for scheduled downtime. Going forward, all downtime will be counted and applied towards the customers SLA. We are the first major cloud provider to eliminate maintenance windows from their service level agreement.

via Official Google Enterprise Blog: Destination: Dial Tone — Getting Google Apps to 99.99%.

Wow What will Microsofts response be?  Well Microsoft Exchange depends on the setup the company that purchases the software implements. I use Apptix for hosted Exchange services.  While we rarely have downtime…we do have some downtime and performance issues over the internet.  My clients that use Google Apps also experience similar problems as the Exchange users.  The problems are connectivity loss and slowness. I wonder what others use for a hosted email solution now a days besides these two.

Free Day 2011 is done. Thanks to everyone who helped load our servers to a crawl. Free Day officially ended at Thursday January 13th at 11:07:03AM. $150,541 was given out and $22,988 was donated to charity. Here are some other fun stats from the day.

via Free Day 2011 Recap – News – SparkFun Electronics.

Free Day 2011 was great.  I won $60 and donated $12 to charity.  To win I answer electrical engineering questions via their quiz.  It was great fun.  Below is what I ordered.  I am going to use this products to build my home projects work space and work on some projects.  Stay tuned for updates to my project pages.

Product	Desc	Quantity	Price
	TOL-09317 Third Hand	1	$9.95
	TOL-08964 Brass Sponge	1	$2.95
	TOL-09672 Soldering Station Variable Temperature 50W – Analog	1	$39.95
	TOL-08696 Wire Strippers 30AWG	1	$4.95
	DEV-09384 LilyPad Bobbin	1	$4.95

To reach a deal, Apple and Verizon had to reconcile different approaches to branding. Verizon puts its stamp on other manufacturers’ devices, including phones from Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola. By contrast, only Apple’s name appears on the iPhone.

via Apple, Verizon Took Years to Clear IPhone Differences – BusinessWeek.

Wish I was a fly on the wall at that meeting.

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

I love using the Arduino. It has rekindled the EE (Electrical Engineer) in me. If you are interested in purchasing one go to Adafruit Industries or SparkFun Electronics. I got the Adafruit ARDX – v1.3 Experimentation Kit for Arduino at Adafruit Industries. SparkFun Electronics has a very cool kit called the SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for Arduino with Retail Case. I am currently work on a project using the Arduino.

I want to got to this.

Beautiful Sunset

Test

While I am opposed to Facebook’s new draconian privacy stance I know the naked truth…I can’t delete my Facebook account.  Can you?  It’s the tool I use every day to communicate with the 250 friends this average schmo has around the world.  That’s a lot of frequent flier miles Facebook is saving me.  LOL
Okay.  That said, here is another fact.  I’m a professional techie.  I know what centralized data can do for the profitability of a company.  I know they have to make money to succeed.  I can’t survive without making money.  Can you?  And so we come to it… I want my cake (total privacy) and I want to eat it, too (Facebook completely free).  How am I going to be an instrument of change?!  How can an average schmo force Facebook and other social networking businesses to take my privacy seriously?!
I don’t have a clue.  Do you?



What did you think?  I liked it, but thought it was bit jumbled.  I can’t wait for part two.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/12/27/apple-iphone-inexplicably-unavailable-for-nyc-via-online-orders/

http://mashable.com/2009/12/27/att-iphones-new-york-city/

http://gizmodo.com/5429424/avatar-review-yes-it-changed-everything-after-all

It is not only Google saying our privacy is gone, but also Facebook (see ACLU Facebook Quiz link below. last link).  I bet you didn’t know that when you play one of these online Facebook games you are giving the game publisher access to all your information.  Some people are saying that this must be a flub on Facebook’s part.  But wait…give me a break.  I am not so sure about that.  How are these games to make money if not having access to your friends to propagate themselves?  Well I think Facebook users should be asked first before the game starts what access is needed. 

Recently Facebook changed how the privacy settings worked.  Facebook benefits from having as much information in search engines as possible.  So their initial settings places all your information on the web.  I have heard that they just changed back.  However you should check your settings ASAP and set them accordingly.

Some commentary from around the web…

http://twit.tv/225

http://calacanis.com/2009/12/13/is-facebook-unethical-clueless-or-unlucky/

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/eric-schmidt-google-and-privacy-2009-12-11

Things you should know about your privacy on Facebook…

http://dotrights.org/what-does-facebooks-privacy-transition-mean-you

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=114232425072

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/12/15/apples-mac-os-105-snow-leopard-server-playing-nicely-iphone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheIphoneBlog+(The+iPhone+Blog)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Ok they changed the name to “The Shack”. Now I hear from my local Radio Shack guys that within a year they will stop selling electronic parts. They will be sold online only! Ugh I am so sad. Where will I go for my solder and resistors?

Yes it is Cloud based.  All your data is saved to the Cloud.  Google’s Cloud.  Humm…I guess this solves backup problems.  Everything you work on, documents and spreadsheets, get saved to Google’s servers.  No backup required.  Nice for the end user.

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/11/10/easier-great-twitter-client-iphone-android/