Android 2.2

Looks like Android 2.2 (FroYo, for Frozen Yoghurt) is looking really good. Not only is there a massive increase in speed, but this is the clincher for me: it can provide a Wi-Fi hotspot. On Friday, I should get a Wi-Fi only iPad, and didn't bother getting 3G because I just wouldn't use it often enough to justify the extra cost, and then having to pay for an extra data contract. No. However, if my next phone is Android 2.2 capable, I can just tether it to the phone's connection via Wi-Fi. That's just friggin awesome.
Today Dad showed me his brand new HTC Desire and damn, it's sweet. With FroYo, I could easily be swayed in this direction for the next phone. For now though, my Nokia E61 struggles on. Maybe it will throw a rod or something soon...

Day of the Triffids

Just read Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and even read a print from 1960 complete with pages falling out.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Written in the 1951, it hasn't really aged. The only thing that dates it is the very reserved English prose and conversation, which you really don't find in more modern novels. Given the situation, some of the good British stiff upper lip is almost amusing.
I found it interesting that the Triffids really aren't the centrepiece of the novel, and really, could have been replaced with something else, and have had the same effect. The main concept of the novel is that all but a very small proportion of the population of the world go blind one night, whilst watching strange green lights in the sky, possibly some sort of comet. The novel is really about how those remaining deal with the situation, and struggle to survive amidst lack of power and food etc, but also the political and ideological struggles and conflict as they come to terms with how best to move on and try to survive as a species.
Much of it was really quite disturbing, with wide spread suicide, murder, plague, and generally everything going to hell. Then of course, you throw Triffids into the mix, and it really spices things up. Triffids are plants that can uproot and walk around, but also have a deadly stinger on the end of a long lash sprouting from their tops. Not so bad if you can see them coming, but then they also become a much larger menace as they are free to multiply, and humans are not.
Well worth the read.

T-Hub Thumping.

I've been having a look at the Telstra T-Hub as a friend of mine mentioned it. It is essentially a touch screen phone base station, but it communicates over wifi with your network. Actually, it has to use wifi, there's no hard line connection and it only works with a Telstra HomeLine or broadband connection. It doesn't use VOIP, which I find really weird, but clearly Telstra are trying to get people back onto its copper lines. That's not going to work. Copper lines are dead except for DSL, and with any luck a fibre network will get rid of those.
The actual device looks like a half decent touch screen, the same as the Tabbee, only Telstra have crippled it. OK, it does web surfing via Opera, and does Youtube and a few other tricks. It's $300 and you have to use a Telstra connection. Vomit. Get a cheaper broadband connection with a wifi router, use VOIP and get a decent tablet.

Portal is teh Awesome.

Portal is teh awesome. And now it's free. So download before it's too late. I just played the first 18 levels or so. Brilliant.

iPad AU Bend Over Pricing Factor: Zero.

Excellent. Thanks Apple. Recently I suggested $AUD 895 a zero Bend Over Factor for the 64Gb iPad in Australia. It will be $879. It's actually lower than my estimate, but I was being conservative on the shipping front, so if I had chosen $23 for shipping, I would have had it spot on.
I guess I'll be pre-ordering tomorrow then.

[update - done. 64Gb wifi iPad in the pipeline]

[update - 3 days later, looks like the first batch are gone. Next ship date is June7. This report seems wrong as my details show it is still due to arrive on May 28]

Prepare for the flip.

We're going to see some big changes in the way we use computers in the next few years. Most consumers, when not at work, just aren't going to need full desktop workstations like we do now. I'm including Mac, Windows, and Linux here, desktop, mouse driven workstations. The vast majority of stuff we do while not working, at home, is consuming content with occasional writing, tweeting, email etc. Yes, there are always going to be people at home who want to produce more, either writing, programming, video, whatever, but not most.
Replacing the desktop for consumption will be touch based mobile devices. Phones and tablets. Mouse based operating systems just don't work well in this environment. Operating systems designed from the ground up for this purpose are going to drive this. We've seen the iPhone prove this, and iPad is pushing it further. Android can compete, and in the next couple of years we'll see others try, including Microsoft's Phone 7 OS, and the competition will really make mobile computing explode. I suspect the heyday of laptops and netbooks is gone too.
Content producers, workers, are going to be using desktop workstations for a while yet. You just need a bigger surface, better multitasking and more input richness than a mobile device can provide. Personally, I think Windows 7 is really good in this space, but that's a religious war for another day.
Still, this is bad news for Microsoft and Intel, unless they can move in this direction faster. Microsoft may be able to follow Apple with Phone 7, but they are three years behind at least, with another six months until anything happens. Intel just don't have anything decent for mobiles, ARM has it all over them.
It's going to be all Apple and Google in a few short years. Let's see what HP can do with Palm and WebOS.

[Update - some iPad experience showing exactly this]
[Update - TechCrunch calling it the Third Wave, this site agrees with the threat to Windows]

Shadow of the Scorpion

Just finished reading Neal Asher's Shadow of the Scorpion.
An excellent insight to, and deepening of Asher's main Polity character, Ian Cormac. This is a twinned and then intertwining tale of Cormac of him at age 8 or so, and as a young man just having joined ECS, Earth Central Security. Everyone's parents shape their lives, and in Cormac's case, probably more than usual in a sense.
I particularly enjoyed seeing how a young, little trained Cormac gets out of some fairly bleak situations as we see how he starts to develop into the character we love in the other Cormac novels. Damn, he's one hard bastard when he needs to be, but we also see him suffering, and wondering about his hardness too.
Gore. Classic Asheresque gore. Unrelenting violence. Destruction. CTD explosions. Finishing with a fantastically gruesome death of the baddie. What's not to like?

Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx

I upgraded my Ubuntu domain server to Lucid Lynx. The upgrade went fine, and there are lots of little incremental improvements, which is great. What isn't great is samba not starting properly when the machine boots. I've found some references to this. Hopefully there will be a bugfix coming. Annoying.