Free the Phones

This article, Free My Phone, does a good job of explaining many of the things that are wrong in the telecommunications world. I hope that Google or (much less likely, unfortunately) OpenMoko can break things open (I intend to buy an OpenMoko phone in a year or two, provided they have reasonable stability). Also, the problem is slightly worse than he describes for Sprint -- they couldn't even transfer numbers from my old phone to the new phone, let alone the rest of my data. Also, they're responsible for the br0x0red Bluetooth implementation which prevents my phone from synchronizing contact information (or anything else) with my computer.

Gmail mobile app 1.5

I just deleted Gmail mobile 1.5 from my cell phone, keeping version 1.1.1. The new version (1.5) is way slower, as mentioned here. Startup and shutdown times are noticeably longer. Two possible factors:

1. The file was about 3x larger and might take longer to load into memory (though I don't really know much about the memory hierarchy of phones, so this may be bogus). The new version does have a bunch of new features (draft saving, etc.) so the new bloat might be warranted.
   
2. When starting up the new version, it displayed a list of emails immediately. The old version displayed an empty list and fetched the emails, so it looks like the new version might have cached emails locally. This might explain the slow startup and shutdown times. However, considering that usually there is at least one new email when I check Gmail from my phone, caching the titles of emails from last run is not really a savings.

The weirdest thing is that Google claims here:

New! Our new Gmail version is even faster and uses less data than before.

So maybe it's just my/some phones?

Don't panic: Part 2 (Panic)

Remember this link on Five things that are worse than Global Warming?

Meet #3: Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices [NYTimes]

Forgetting something?

Every once in a while, I see some totally ridiculous spam headlines. Here's my current favorite:

Subj: LET:account,password,shop,did you forget?,are you forget?,why are are forget?,damn you forget}

Damn you, "forget" indeed. If you have any idea what these things could possibly mean or how they originated, I might even buy some \/!@gRA from you.

Recommended viewing: Daily Show 10.2.2007

Another grillfest, this time with Hardball's Chris Matthews. Matthews was there to discuss his book, "Life's a Campaign," but Jon's opinion of the book and its philosophy is anything but positive. A transcript can be found here and here are two other takes.

How we saved the world from Thrash Cakes, part 1

It went something like this:

Ryan: This Wikipedia article on pancakes "may contain original research"
Me: I like pancakes, what's their pancake research?
Ryan: Well, that depends on which type of pancake you want.
Me: What are my choices?
Ryan: Well, there's American, Canadian, Vermont, Hotcakes, griddlecakes, flapjacks, drop scones, Scotch pancakes, pikelets, ...
Me: Wait, go back one!
Ryan: Also, it says that "[i]n Santa Rosa or anywhere near the San Fransisco Bay Area they are known as "Thrash Cakes" named after the musical genre, which is popular in the region.^{[citation needed]}"
Me: That can't be right.