As you read my blog, you’ll see I’m a fan of the iPhone, and Apple. I like their products, I like the way they do things. But, there are quite a few things I would like to see changed . The only way to see real change in any business, is to have competition.

I just saw a sneak peek of Viigo for the new Blackberry Storm. I’m not too impressed with the storm itself, but I am happy and motivated to see other devices with touch screen interfaces coming out. Viigo seems to be the RSS reader I want for iPhone, currently I use NetNewsWire, but Viigo seems to be able to do things that the current version for iPhone doesn’t. Here’s hoping someone from NNW is reading my lame blog, and gets some cues, on ways to enhance my experience with the phone. I’m loving the landscape mode, and the use of gestures to navigate from one article to the other.

The results of the election have proven once again, that the ideals of humanity, know no color, or ethnicity. That there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and that race relations are getting better, things are changing and the younger generation, is ready to take control of it’s future.

Now, I’m not delusional, I don’t believe that by the end of November, Gas prices will be around $0.99/gallon, or people will not be evicted from their residences. There is a lot of work ahead of us, the hard part is about to start. Enjoy this electoral victory for a few days, but start preparing for the tough times ahead.

Keep in mind, we need to elevate ourselves, and our society from the bitter, partisan, and petty actions of the people we did not vote for. Like Obama said, he’ll listen to us, especially when we disagree with him. We need to listen to the dissenters. Just like we claimed, it was our patriotic duty to question the policies of the current government, the McCain supporters, and future dissidents are doing their patriotic duty. Respect them, and their opinions.

This victory by the democrats, does not mean that the Obama supporters get to do what they please, with no regard to the other side. Doing so, would make them no better than the people they voted out.

We need to be sure, that just because someone disagrees with Obama’s policy, it doesn’t mean he’s racist. It doesn’t mean he’s a terrorist, or he doesn’t love America, it definitely doesn’t mean he’s dumb. I hope people understand and appreciate Obama’s call for humility. The mud slinging is over, the fight is over, now it’s time to extend your hand, and help your opponent up. The opponent wasn’t running to rule you, he was running to serve you.

Honor it.

It takes a lot of courage, and more importantly conviction, to willingly try and lead a nation. You know you won’t make everyone happy, you know that rocks will be thrown at you, and you know
you may end up losing. But, how many of us truly have the courage to fight for what we believe in? How many of us ran for president? How many of us were willing to face the boos, and the intense scrutiny, how many of us are willing to travel day in and day out, without taking a sick day, or sleeping in late.

So, just because the other guy lost, doesn’t make him any less of a warrior or patriot.

Don’t Forget
Let’s not forget what angered us, what moved us to vote the way we did. The voter suppression issues, the voting machine inaccuracies, the corruption, these things run deep, far deeper than one man. The President of the United States is not an individual, but an embodiment of the sentiments of the people of America. He is not capable of leaping tall buildings, he’s not capable of deflecting bullets, he is a man. He is a father, he is a husband like the rest of us.

So, like us, he’s not perfect. He’s susceptible to the greed, the power, and temptation that comes with such power. .

Keep an eye out on him, don’t trust him, because that is what your duty as an American asks you to do.

So, it’s been a few months since iPhone 3G came out, and a little over a year that the original jesus revealed itself.
After using the phone from the day of launch, here are my thoughts on where Apple can focus on, to make my life easier.

1. Wireless Syncing: Seriously, AppleTV has it, why not the iPhone? I’d like to be able to keep the phone next to my
   bed as an alarm, charging via the supplied wall charger, and still have the phone update my music, my new TV shows, and
   podcasts automatically. I don’t want to go back to the office to connect to my laptop. What’s the point of the wall charger otherwise?
2. Dashboard Sync: Here’s another thing which would help me and others considerably. I already have my dashboard configured with my weather applets, my clocks, and my stocks. Why do I have to renter them into the phone? Granted, it’s a one time thing usually, but if I make a change to the cities I want to check the weather for, I have to do it in two places, same for the hot new stock my friend just told me about.
3. Legitimate Tethering: I love my phone, I am happy with AT&T’s 3G service, I want to use it with me whenever I need to, why do I need to have two separate plans? This is the most customer unfriendly thing Apple has ever done in my opinion. Apart from greed, I have not come across any other reason for not allowing this. AT&T and Apple have shown complete and utter disregard, and contempt for their users here. I bought the iPhone because I thought it would be a converging device, so I wouldn’t have to have a cell phone and an mp3 player when I travel. Now, I have a cell phone/mp3 player + 3G data card, with software that sucks for it. AT&T offers users of their 3G unlimited plan, basic access to their wifi hotspots, but they have no way of getting this access via a mac. Plus, the option GT ultra card software, is horrible, it crashes randomly. It makes no sense that these two companies can’t work with each other and make sure the products they peddle work with each other out of the box.

That’s my list, how would you change things? Not that Apple is listening over here, but it’s always nice to dream eh? I purposely left out the copy/paste thing, as it’s a given, it would be nice to have, I personally have never needed it on ANY phone, maybe I’m not a power user after all?

Computer World has an article about Telecommuting . So, I thought I’d chip in my inflated $0.02. Telecommuting, doesn’t mean working from home. This is one of the biggest myths, and truths people will realize over time. What makes me such an expert? I’ve been telecommuting for the past 3 years, straight, full time. I’m not talking about moonlighting, and doing part time work for companies who post on craigslist. I’m talking multi million dollar projects. I haven’t been fired, I haven’t left the company, and I’ve been rewarded with a raise, and more importantly, I haven’t missed deadlines.

You still have a job, act like it. (The Ugly)

Telecommuting, is not that hard. But, it’s not the holy grail for workers either. You’re not going to become productive because you work from home, you’re not going to save a lot of gas, and you’re definitely not going to “make your own hours”. The last part is true, if you want to be a telecommuter.
Just because you work from home, or remotely, doesn’t mean your responsibilities to other people go away. Deadlines are deadlines, people need to know what you’re up to, and what the status is. The only time they can get this information is when they’re working. So therefore, you’re still working when they are. Sure, you can actually do the work later, but you better be awake and available to answer phone calls during the 9-5. Your client is being nice enough to let you make your own hours and work remotely, but they can only do so much, you must extend the favor back to them, by being available when they need you.

Working from home isn’t so awesome after all (The Bad)

You’re not going to work from home, if you itch to telecommute, you itch not because you love your home, it’s because you hate the monotony of your cubicle, and your office. You’ll hate your house soon enough. I’ve found that if I work from my house for more than a week, I go crazy, and productivity drops. I’ve found many cool coffee shops and bars that I work from. Yes, I said bar. No, I don’t drink while I work. Get yourself a good pair of headphones, a 3g card, and a good laptop. You’re finally free to work from where you want to, don’t waste it at home.

And the commute shall set you free! (The Good)

I’ve found that I’m more creative, I get more done, and more importantly I’m happier. I don’t have to worry about the morning traffic report, and I don’t have to worry about inclement weather. I make sure I’m available during the day, even if I’m not working, I can answer a phone call from the pool, if the call requires me to get on the computer, I can very quickly. It’s a type of freedom, that can only be experienced once you understand your new responsibility.

So, I was reading an article about how Macs cost twice as much as PCs, and how they’re such a rip off, and only gullible consumers buy Macs. I thought, oh no, not again, not the vim vs emacs, linux vs windows troll bait.
Anyway, Macs cost a lot of money, PC’s cost less money. We get it. Pound for pound, spec for spec blah blah blah.
Well did you know that if you drive a Porsche at 60 miles per hour, and a Nissan Sentra at 60 miles per hour, they both travel the same distance at the same rate? They both stop for red lights, and they both get to the same destination at the same time? So why buy a Porsche?

Personal preference, some people like mid engine cars, some people like rear wheel, some people like the ability to get to 60 MPH in 4 seconds (please don’t start on exact times, or model numbers). People work hard for their money, and they usually make a conscious decision to buy a mac, they feel it gives them a better experience, and they’re willing to pay more for it.
I’m sure you can make your Ubuntu, Windows, OS X box to do the same things the other OS has, or you can find 40 reasons why y or more open than z.
Yes I’m sure you can tune your Sentra to go from 0-60 in 4 seconds, but that doesn’t mean that everyone should do it.

Let them be. They aren’t spending your money, let them spend it how they want to. Don’t you have a more pressing problem like:
If Worf was to fight Chewbacca, who would win?

(Reposted from Zack Urlocker’s blog)

Andrii Nikitin, one of the MySQL support engineers located in Ukraine, has asked for help from MySQLers and so I’m sharing this information to the community at large. Andrii’s son Ivan, who is 2 1/2, is in need of a bone marrow transplant operation. This will require going to a clinic in Europe that will not be covered by regular insurance. So Andrii has aksed to see if we could help raise funds. The cost is expected to be 150,000 - 250,000 EUROS. A huge amount for an engineer from Ukraine to cover. But a small amount by many people could make a big difference.

Many MySQLers have kicked in to help out, but more is needed. Ivan’s health has taken a turn for the worse recently and the issue is now quite pressing. Even a small donation could mean the difference between life and death for Ivan.

I hope some of you who use MySQL or have young kids will join me in making a donation today. You can do so by using Paypal, by sending a check to MySQL, or via wire transfer.

Paypal:
http://tinyurl.com/6rxjsz
Or
by check payable to:

MySQL, Inc.
Mail to: MySQL, Inc.
Attn: Linda Dong
20450 Stevens Creek Blvd #350
Cupertino, CA 95014

or
US wire transfer:

MySQL Inc: 7396643001
SWIFT: NDEAUS3N

or
International wire transfer in any currency:
Bank: Nordea Bank
Bank address: Stockholm, Sweden
Bank account: 3259 17 03868
IBAN: SE27 3000 0000 0325 9170 3868
SWIFT: NDEASESS

Thanks to those who have donated already. A child’s life is precious and I hope we can give Ivan a chance.

To the KTLA reporter who was amazed by the people standing in line for the iphone. Yes, we know it’s just a phone. It’s just a phone, for God’s sake. Yet, you seem to miss the sad truth about your career. It’s a line, for a phone, and you are so horrible at reporting anything else, that your bosses sent you to report on a line. A line for God’s sake . Now, I could go on insulting you for your pathetic job, but you have kids to feed, so I understand you had to do what your bosses told you. So, let’s try to see this from another perspective.

Have you ever been excited about a sporting event? A football game, soccer, basketball, etc? Have you gone early for a movie premiere? I hope you said yes to at least one of the above, because otherwise you lead a very boring life. Now try and rationalize the logic of people who want to be home for kick off, tip off, or have to see the movie at midnight, the day of the premiere. Think about all the people who stand outside the line for the Oscars, who want to catch a glimpse of their favorite actor or actress.

Watching the opening kick off, with all your buddies at home is not going to change the outcome of the match. Getting to see a celebrity in the heat, is not going to change your life for the better. Yet, people do it. It’s called excitement, about something they care about. Something they’re passionate about.

Don’t mock someone’s passion, chances are you’re passionate about something they can’t relate to either.

Disclaimer: I stood in line for one hour on opening day, and decided to leave due to a conference call I had to attend, and I’ll be in line at 1:30AM for the premiere of The Dark Knight, so I can watch the 3:15AM show. I expect 450 other people in line with me, to watch “just another movie”.

I’m not sure if all recruiters work off some hidden cosmic rhythm, or if they share information.. but I find it amusing, that a bunch of them call me around the same time every month. Anyway, in the past 3-4 months I’ve been underwhelmed, and frankly offended by these email recruiters.

In light of This article by Nick Halstead , I thought I would throw in some experiences from contractor/job seeker side. I’m glad to see that these recruiters aren’t horrible just to the recruitee, but also to their paying client, yet disappointed.

Actual Conversation (this happened last week):
Recruiter Email and immediate phone call: Looking for web designer with over 10 years of experience in Adob (that’s how they pronounce it), photoshop, html, xhtml and css.
Me: I haven’t used photoshop since photoshop 3, I suck at design I learnt that in high school, i’m not fit for this position.
Recruiter: So how many years of Adob experience do you have? I have your old resume on file and I don’t see any.
me: Yes, because the last time I messed with photoshop, was when System 7.5 was out, and I had a pirated copy of it on our high school computer. I am not interested, and more so, I am not qualified for this position.
Recruiter: Ok do you think you can add photoshop to your resume and send it back to me?
me: ……. …. .. ..

This happens a lot, and I hate to say it, the recruiter is always some guy from India.

Now, almost all of my contracts I’ve found have been through recruiters, there are some really good ones out there, but finding the good ones shouldn’t be so hard. Recruiters are necessary, I’ve been on this one contract for 3 years now, this contract was found by a really good recruiter in Chicago. These guys were so good and ethical, that they haven’t tried to recruit me away, or use me as a way to get other candidates through the door, though I do know some other contractors that have started working there via them.

PS: To the recruiters reading this, this is not an invitation to solicit me. I’m just venting, I’m sure the good recruiters out there, have some horror stories of bad candidates themselves, I’d love to hear them.

There’s a really good paper that has won the first annual Security Best Practices competition held by FIRST (www.first.org ) and the CERT Coordination Center . The paper is from Taiwan, and shows a very interesting methodology of study, and more importantly a means to educate the human. As the paper says; “Social engineering concentrates on the weakest link of the computer security chain, which is also the most essential part of the security component: human.” You owe it to yourself to read it, and try to implement something educational within your organization. Your security patches will have no effect against a good social engineer.

Dismal. It seems the only thing I got right were:

1. Mobile Me
2. 3G
3. GPS

From the perspective of what’s next, I guess more information will roll out, I’m a little worried that Mr. Jobs didn’t find one small piece critical.. and that is Tethering..
Will the iPhone 3G allow tethering? Or do I need to have two unlimited data plans from AT&T? Sure, dropping the price by $200 is nice, but even if I was to take the cost savings, that’s only 1.5 months of 3G service with the laptop and phone.. I really hope they have a tethering option, and I hope they announce this ASAP, I’ve been using AT&T’s 3G network again for the past 2 weeks, and I’d really like to know if I need to cancel my service and just the iphone’s or if i’ll get hit with a $200 termination fee, if I decide to upgrade to the iPhone 3G.