JIL SDK Beta – Serious mobile widgets without the serious…. well theoretically
If you haven’t heard of the new JIL platform (www.jil.org) yet, I’m sure you’ll come by it pretty soon somewhere on the interwebs. Basically, JIL can act as a middle layer allowing developers to write simple widgets that can easily access the different features of the phone. It’s cross-platform and provides full PIM integration as well as access to other phone hardware, including the accelerometer and GPS.
The only problem right now is that it’s still in (super) beta. I say “right now” because the potential of the JIL SDK is so big, that I’m sure it will be able to do everything it boasts soon enough. And now is probably the best time to hop on board the JIL train since very few developers have experience using it — you’ll be the front line for the next generation of widget development.
Major phone manufacturers have already stated their intention on supporting the framework so we’re not too far off from being able to create small application-like widgets that work on a variety of phones running a variety of Operating Systems — all working off one code project. As I continue to develop on this platform, I’ll keep posting issues and tips as I come by them 
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Oracle and Sun Just Got in Bed Together
Well, Oracle just acquired Sun Microsystems and I think that’s some pretty big news. In case you don’t know, Oracle makes a wide variety of applications but it’s most predominate is its Database Systems application. Sun Microsystems, while mainly a hardware company, is probably best known for Java and it’s OS Solaris. So, it’s kinda interesting to see a purely software company acquire a “hardware” company.
I’ve neve really seen Sun as a hardware company — probably because I’m a student and just haven’t had any real experience with the company’s products. So I still see Sun as a company that makes software with some hardware backing.
The funny thing about this acquisition is that this will be another huge company that can offer their customers a full end-to-end solution. It’s another Intel, or IBM but, in my mind, it might even be bigger. An assortment of Management apps and suites for business use coupled with an OS and JAVA has got some real potential. Oracle’s previous acquisitions has cost them a little though in layoffs so we’ll have to see what happens here. Sun currently employs 33 000 employees and Oracle employs 86 000 — that’s a big new-to-not-new ratio.
Either way, I’m pretty excited to see what comes of all this. This can have some significant impact on the IT sector of business locally and globally.
Business Year 4: Learn Through Observation
I’m a double degree student at Wilfrid Laurier University taking Business and Comp Sci and I’ve noticed 1 very specific truth over the last 4 years of schooling. While most logic-oriented people can learn computer science on their own (with considerable effort and passion), the same is not true for business. Look around. The people that are good at business didn’t have a great idea when they were 30. Some had them when they were 15 and thought: “I think I can sell this to people”.
These people are pioneers and none of them think through all the different models and theories they learned about business in class. Hell, of all the speakers I’ve gone and listened to, most relied on instinct and clever thinking to get ahead. Computer science is a little different. While instinct and creativity is great (and needed to be the best of the best), you can’t write code without knowing the intrecacies of the language. Period. You might be able to do code reviews and debug it without knowing every little thing but the true breakthroughs happen with people who eat, sleep, and breathe it.
I’ve been in university for 4 years and, so far, I’ve learned that my business courses can be learned through observation. So far.
I hear it gets better
Mobile Weekend is revived!
Well, after a little bit of a break, Mobile Weekend is back on track. Another person on the organizing comittee, a full sponsorship/info package, and a little determination has brought this project back out of the dark!
You can find the blog over here for all the MW info . Entrepreneurial at heart? You need to check this event out!
Widescreen? Then why doesn’t it fit on my screen?
Random rant:
When a movie is “widescreen”, shouldn’t it fit on my widescreen tv? Now, I’m not an expert in this field but I have an average customer of the technoogy so would someone please explain this weird “super” widescreen they have?
Anyway, I just wanted to bring it up
Breaking Through Preconceptions
Today I went to my first conference — the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference. While it was pretty much exactly what I suspected it would be like, they had a couple of fantastic speakers. The first was Chris Anderson, Editor of WIRED magazine discussing the concepts of his new book “The Long Tail” – A very interesting look at the new marketplace in the world and how the internet and the online medium is completely revolutionizing the economic model. I actually think I may buy his book…
The second was Chris Sacca, former Head of Google Special Initiatives, blogger, activist, venture investor and advisor. He had a direct role in introducting Twitter and I managed to stay behind after his keynote to discuss some Mobile Weekend points. Now he’s just waiting for our documentation .
His keynote was probably the most refreshing presentation I’ve seen in a long while. He basically discussed what he learned while working at Google and listening to him dismissed a lot of preconceived ideas I had about Google and the way they ran their business. See, I always thought Google offered a whole bunch of perks to try and keep employees in the office longer. You know, to try and squeeze all the they can out of you. Naturally it would make sense to assume that the longer you’re at the office, the more likely you are to punch out more code than the guy who left 3 hours before you but you’re forgetting a very important, yet overlooked point that Chris spotted.
In a given day, how much of your time is dedicated to actually working? 100% pure quality I-got-all-my-attention-on-this working? And don’t fool yourself. Chris pegged it at about 1.5 hours in your 8 hour day and when you stop to really think about it….. he’s right! Statistcally, a developer produces 15 lines of usable code everyday so the 1.5 hours of work you put into those 15 optimized lines seems to make sense now, doesn’t it? By offering all the perks it does, Google is merely trying to make sure that those 1.5 hours of productivity happen while you’re actually at the office and if you’re in an environment that accomodates your needs, you’ll be far more likely to be productive. Really, it comes right down to common sense (and money)…. but mostly common sense.
Based on his Keynote, you can realy see that Google’s main train of thought was this:
- Find a problem. And not just a small but a REAL problem
- Find a solution to the problem putting the CUSTOMERS’ needs first
- Money will come somehow
Did you know that when google was starting to do web ads in 2000 (while it was still a startup), it would terminate ads that were getting a <0.5% click through rate. It’s important to note that, at the time, the industry average was 0.1%…. Google didn’t want their users to be bombarded with ads that didn’t matter to them and 5 times the industry average was just not good enough to make the cut. It wasn’t satisfying the cutomers’ needs.
These are just a couple of examples, but I could probably write a short book on how that presenstation really opened my eyes. You can follow his twitter here or his blog here
Either way, I think he’s worth keeping an eye on. All in all the conference was a good experience and getting in for free made it that much better . I’d reccommend it if you can make it out next year.
What the Hell, guys?!
Remember “Fight Club” the movie? Rmember how you turned to your buddy and whispered “those guys are messed up…”.
Well, never underestimate people.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3361421
My First Real Conference
So, tomorrow is the Communitech Tech Leadershipt conference and I’m going! For free! Take that all you people that paid the 300 dollars to go!
See, as a student, I get in for free….. stay in school, eh? Anyway, I’m pretty excited. I’ve never actually been at a conference before so I have no idea what one is like. It starts at 8 am and ends at 4 with breakast and lunch provided…. not bad I think. I’ll be sure to post what it’s like.
Retraction…. of the AJAX kind
Ok, I have to get this out there….
A long time ago, I came up with a back alley when of dynamically adding tabs to a tab container. Well, it turns out I also found a way to actually add tabs WITHOUT actually knowing how many I needed. In short, I was building my entire page dynamically at Init based on some session variables that stored the number of tabs I needed. All in all it was pretty cool but it made me realize something that I think the world should know:
If possible avoid using the AJAX control toolkit, at ALL COSTS. Sure it’s cool and look all the pretty things I can do but it’s slow and very high traffic. If you want to do the cool things it does, I would use the AJAX Extensions class and write the rest myself. It’s sounds like a bad idea and a lot of work and it is. But TRUST ME, it’s well worth it.
I just try to find different ways to provide the same user experience in the end. The big downfall with dynamically generating all the controls at Init was after you added 3 tabs, the site really started to slow down and the user experience is just thrown out the window. I managed to achieve the exact same experience by replacing the tabs with entirely seperate pages and just managing a dynamially created menu control at the top of the page. So now, we have a much better performing site with code that’s WAY easier to manage!
*Removes Cobwebs*
So, it’s been a little while it seems…..
Well, I’m back. Let’s see what’s cooking.
I did it. I made the reverse Mac switch. You know, the one you don’t hear about very often because it’s kept under wraps so well! I used to be a mac guy. A pretty hard-core one at that too.
I used to be the worst kind actually. I was the one that, no matter how awful a mac product was, I would find ways to make it better than whatever else it was competing with and I was good at it. Well, until the iPhone came out… then I really didn’t have much going for me.
So here I am, typing this from my new Vista-loaded PC, reminiscing about the good-ol’-days when Apple made quality products. I’ll admit it, I own two mac laptops: a powerbook G4 and a macbook. The powerbook is 4 years old, has been dropped down s flight of stairs, always kept on (or on standby) and it works the same as the day I got it. My Macbook, however, is pooched at being 1 and half years old. I figured “Why get the warranty since my other mac is so awesome?”. Well, now it’ll cost me $700 to fix the Macbook or I could go and buy a new computer for $800. I think it’s a pretty easy choice.
Unfortunately, I need windows for my development endeavours so a PC seemed to be a better choice.
You can already start to see the decline in quality of Apple products. And by quality, I don’t mean how shiny it is. I mean how functional and stable it is. Look at the iPhone…. I mean, it’s pretty but did you know that it’s not a multi-thread capable device. It only runs one application at a time!! What good is that? And safari 3 was a winner wasn’t it? I had it on my computer for all of 25 seconds before it crashed….. 4 times in a row. Apple is so concerned about getting their innovative products out to the public before their competition that they seem to be forgetting the most important thing about creating a successful business. Write this down if you have to.
No matter how amazing your product is, it’s only has good as it’s support structure. A product is ALWAYS half tangible and half intangible. What happened to you Apple? I’m sorry, but the shine is definitely no longer on you.
