This Should Not Be Possible

According to T-Mobile, the G1 would not be functional without their G1 data plan. Even if you have an activated phone, it would stop working the moment you disable the data service. But who would want to use a phone that becomes a dead brick the moment one enters the subway system or goes on a plane trip? As implausible this sounds, many people still believe the claims of the company that’s trying really hard to sell their value-added services.

Next To Useless Without Data

I’ve heard two conflicting myths. One camp says that while one could use a G1 on WiFi alone, it would not be possible to use it as a phone (i.e. a voice communication device). The other asserts that while voice communication would be possible, the other features of this network-centric device would be gone. So who is one to believe? Neither group is right, as it turns out. It should be trivial to use the G1 with most voice plans, as is the case with most other mobile phones. And networking features work as well on WiFi as they do on 3G/EDGE.

But What About GPS? ShopSavvy? Shazam?

The GPS radio functions just fine without a data plan; the problem is that the built-in Google Maps application relies on a network connection to retrieve map data. While it works on WiFi, it becomes useless when on the road where mapping is most useful. However, there is a superior mapping application called AndNav2 that is able to cache the map data and provide offline functionality. This is the way GPS-mapping should work.

ShopSavvy and Shazam, on the other hand, do not have offline alternatives and therefore do require a constant network connection such as 3G or EDGE.

So It Works?

Verily, the G1 makes a great PDA and its voice capabilities are excellent. With an optional data service, it becomes even more useful. Those who have WiFi access most of the time and do not need networking on the go should be able to do without the data service. Those who indulge in augmented-reality functionality and require mobile networking should find the data service useful. It is possible to enable the data plan for a short amount of time on a prorated fee, so travelers should have no trouble getting network access when needed. And in the future, it might even be possible to route the data service through WiFi/USB and fully replace conventional networking at home.

But remember, the initial activation (after a factory reset) requires the data service because WiFi can be enabled only after activation. Subsequent reactivations (to change Google accounts, for example) with WiFi enabled should not require the data service.

Not MySpace

In high school, online social networking was an easy way to quickly gain new contacts. We didn’t go crazy with it, but it was just cool to have an online profile. It was slightly amusing to those of us who had been building websites, but we hopped on the bandwagon anyway. MySpace was the most popular social networking website but Facebook was the friendly new kid on the block. It felt good to be part of something new, something exclusive. As our ambitions grew, Facebook grew with us. Unlike MySpace, Facebook had a simple and consistent user interface. Unlike MySpace, Facebook takes care of most page design and presentation. Unlike MySpace, Facebook was open not to the world but only to students. In short, Facebook was everything MySpace was not, and we identified with it.

As version after version of Facebook rolled into existence and new features were added, it quickly became clear that Facebook’s signature lack of customizability was also its greatest strength. Fewer design concerns meant better focus on content. Less variety of page components meant the ability to quickly find things on anyone’s profile. And a simple email notification system kept everyone up-to-date on what friends were doing.

Not Facebook

As a developer for the Facebook platform, I was one of the first to see the current iteration of Facebook. I’d designed widgets before and I was satisfied with the minimal API, but the new one threw the doors wide open to all sorts of possibilities. During its initial offering meeting in May 2007, the new API attracted shiploads of engineers looking to leverage the Facebook platform. As a result, Facebook is now filled with widget choices and rivals even MySpace in customizability. Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t been added is the option to change the page theme at either the account level or the profile level. My guess is that it’d happen eventually, and even the diehard Facebook fans of old would grandfather the changes.

Facebook is now its very antithesis. The simplicity that had been so attractive earlier has been replaced with an overwhelming number of different configurations. I had joined Facebook with the hope of being able to focus on content without being distracted by presentation. The new Facebook platform completely violated the fading tradition of usability.

I Have Hundreds of Unread Messages…

… and I am not going to read them all. Most of these messages are from groups and events to which I had been invited but not not had time to examine yet. The quirky thing about Facebook is that by default, one can be spammed purely by virtue of being invited to an event. Updates are important when it comes to time-sensitive arrangements, but they’re irrelevant when one does not have an interest in the said arrangements. It is silly to assume acceptance without explicit rejection, and I don’t want to disable notifications altogether for the groups and events that I do care about. I have not had the time or patience to wade through the complicated interface to find the option if it exists at all.

There, I said it: Facebook is neither simple nor complex; it is complicated. And if I had to summarize my relationship with Facebook using one word, that’s what it would be.

Hello, WordPress

I’m not gratuitously bashing Facebook; I’m just mildly upset about the way Facebook has been developing recently. And why would anyone else care? I’m just a little-known writer in the middle of nowhere as far as the Internet is concerned. All I want is a medium through which I could express myself without the stress and distraction of presentation. WordPress is exactly that. Its control panel is pure simplicity and its widget interface is powerful but unobstrusive. As the date of my graduation draws near, I occasionally entertain the notion of dropping my Facebook account. After all, bloggers network too… through their websites. It appears that while Facebook, MySpace, and the like appeal more to teenagers, true Web publishing is for the grown-ups. In a way, typing out this essay does make me feel slightly more grown up than prowling through my Facebook friend list and trading juicy snippets on people’s walls.

This does not mean I’m going to stop using Facebook. To me, it’d be useful as long as most of my friends still use it to exchange information. However, I will be maintaining a more traditionalist perspective when it comes to customization. SuperPoke me, but I’m not going to install the application just to SuperPoke you back. I’ll think about it, though.

1. using AnyCut, create a shortcut to the activity “Setup Wizard”
2. launch “Setup Wizard”
3. unplug+replug the battery and power on the device

The applet apparently disables the lock and re-enables it when it finishes. I wanted the screen lock back so I simply ran “Setup Wizard” again, this time completing the procedure.

Note that this method also disables the manual lock triggered by pressing the End button.

December 29th, 2008: Incidentally, other people have noticed strange effects after a botched Setup Wizard. The folks at xda-developers have experienced similar effects, but their connection to Setup Wizard is at the moment unconfirmed.

When we study history, we often ask, how did we get here from there?, where here is the state that we are in now and there is some state that we were in previously. Rarely do we ask, starting from there, where could we have gone? Historians do not concern themselves with possibilities; what could have been is not nearly as important as what has been. As far as we know, there is just one timeline linking our very beginnings to now, and we invest quite a bit of effort into linearizing our account of the past. If it did not happen to us… if it did not happen in our universe, we should not care. After all, we are a selfish people.

History has always been a selfish perspective, and proudly so. Any attempt at interpreting history as pure fact simply distorts its true meaning. As a complex species with a multifaceted culture, we place particular weight on our values. What we perceive and what we transmit are always tied to the current situation. We filter the endless stream of information that we are subject to depending on the particular subcultures to which we subscribe. Any attempt to detach ourselves from culture or to transcend our humanity would dilute the context that is so very relevant in our history. Each step in our past is defined by the unique blend of culture that existed at the time. Together, these cultural moments create a multidimensional tapestry. Each subculture views the tapestry from a different angle and distills from it a linear projection. This is not how history actually occurs, however; the wild edges of the fabric have no direction until they are constrained by threads of the past. While retrospective history is a selfish and linear projection, prospective history is an infinite tree of possibilities constrained by the past.

It stands to reason, therefore, that each turning point in history should be interpreted in a variety of ways. The second world war, a topic of much debate, means different things to different nations. Each participant views itself as a victim, never a victimizer. Each group was fighting against barbaric marauders who threatened their righteous motives. Indeed, the Japanese account stressed the devastation due to the atomic bomb and their subsequent compromises for the benefit of humanity; the American account emphasized with indignation the attack on Pearl Harbor and claimed that the atomic bomb saved lives; the German account told of a quest for a better world of superior humans; and the Chinese account is that of an innocent bystander drawn into conflict, courageously defending its existence.

But is any one history more correct than the others? While each group would certainly uphold its own version as truth, it is worth noting that each history is valid within context; no history is inaccurate for selective presentation of information. Taken as a whole, history is relevant to all of us. History defines us, and each interpretation is as important as the others.

The installer is a small file available from the KDE on Windows Project. It’s a basic dependency-resolving package manager that could be run multiple times to install any desired KDE package available for Windows. The installation process could not be simpler. There were a few settings, such as target directory, download mirror, and desired packages. I selected my local mirror, so the whole process took only 15 minutes from start to finish. Your installation time may vary depending on system specifications, connection speed, and packages selected.

Next, I launched a few KDE applications to see just how they worked under Windows. Surprisingly, they blended quite well into the desktop. It is worth noting that while most of the graphics are from the Oxygen collection, fully-native dialogs retain the default Windows artwork. For example, Kate’s Filesystem Browser tab displays Oxygen icons while the Open File dialog displays classic icons. Still, I feel that there is a nice balance between Oxygen and classic, and Oxygen looks beautiful on Windows. Overall, KDE/Qt applications integrate with Windows much better than GTK applications.

During installation and testing, resource usage was at a minimum. KDE applications competed well even against fully-native software. In particular, Okular is great for PDF-browsing and is much lighter/faster than Adobe Acrobat Reader. KolourPaint handles all common image formats with ease while Microsoft Paint tends to botch JPEG’s and the like. Gwenview is a great replacement for the native Windows image browser. And Kate packs so many useful editing features within such a small footprint that Notepad&Co. can finally be laid to rest. The whole system was rock-solid during testing.

Here’re pictures of the installation process and some applications. The installation process flows from left to right, top to bottom. The applications depicted are, in the same order: Gwenview image viewer, Kate text editor, KolourPaint image editor, and Okular document viewer.

1. install webkitkde
2. when viewing a Web page in Konqueror, select from the menu: View > View Mode > WebKit

It’s beta-quality software, but it works alright. Konqueror defaults to KHTML whenever navigation occurs, so you have to manually select WebKit for each page. Now you can do some basic WebKit-compatibility testing using Konqueror.

Dude: You’re telling me you’re studying biochem? Whoa, that’s interesting.
Me: How come?
Dude: Well, I’ve been writing quite a bit lately. Mostly detective stories, you know.
Me: I love detective stories.
Dude: Yeah well, I was wondering if you could help me. Know any good ways of killing someone? Like a poison, maybe.
Me: I don’t exactly study this stuff, but we were talking about arsenic and cyanide poisoning in class the other day.
Dude: Oh, those are classic. How do they work?
Me: Well, arsenic inhibits some important enzymes in the aerobic respiration pathway. It also affects the oxidative parts of some other pathways, which backs them up and keeps them from working. Cyanide works sort of like arsenic in that it affects energy metabolism, but it’s more acute; it binds to cytochrome oxidase in mitochondria and blocks aerobic respiration. Basically, it keeps cells from using oxygen and suffocates them.
[I explain in a lot more detail.]
Dude: Ah, now that’s all very interesting, but how would you actually use these?
Me: Erm… I’ve heard of people getting sick from drinking arsenic-contaminated water. But cyanide can be used as hydrogen cyanide gas or cyanide salts.
Dude: Awesome! I might have to call you up later for details… but I’ve a quick question for you. Do you know where one could obtain arsenic or cyanide in a place like New York City?
Me: … erm… I gotta go to class…
[I retreat into the nearest convenient lecture building.]
Dude: Hey! What’s your phone number?

Excited about the discovery, I decided to have some fun. A while ago, I’d purchased a disc full of fonts. My Kubuntu setup comes with some 400 system fonts, but I wanted to find out just how many my laptop could handle. After I copied in several thousand TrueType and OpenType fonts, I fired up OpenOffice.org and the GIMP for a quick test. While OO.o was not able to use the OpenType fonts, everything was pretty smooth. But the real test was just about to begin. The disc included some 150000 font files, and I proceeded to install all of them.

At the moment I’m taking a break at 56398 fonts (4.0GB). It takes a couple of minutes to load the desktop after logging in, and many operations have slowed drastically. So uh… I guess installing lots of fonts does affect performance. It would be interesting to perform the same experiment on Windows and Mac OS X.

November 13th, 2008: I now have 124479 fonts (8.1GB) in my personal fonts directory; I figured this is as slow as I could tolerate, so I’m going to stop here and revert to the original state of zero fonts. That was fun!

The 2008 puzzle archive is now available for public consumption on the official website.