Rapid Fire Nov 3

Twitter Lists
I organized my Twitter contacts into lists. My largest list was "dontknow". Now going through that list and figuring out who these people are. Following a lot less of them now. Was this the goal of lists?

iPhone Envy
Coming down with a serious case of it, especially after seeing them all at Strange Loop. This is not a fad, the game has changed. Those who have it, will never do without anymore. Those who don't, want it.

Processor Architecture
Will we ever see a new server processor architecture? The x86 started in 1978. Nobody has been able to come up with something better. Not even Intel, who failed with their Itanium processor, can replace the x86. Zero innovation there.



NHIN CONNECT
I'll be attending the NHIN CONNECT Code-A-Thon in November. This is an open-source project to help build the National Health Information Network. I know there are lots of developers who are between jobs now. If you have Java or Web Service experience, (especially Netbeans or GlassfishESB) experience, consider contributing to the project. The community is building and you could have a great impact, and maybe even find your next employer through it.

Rare NFL Play
Sundays Rams win, while ending an amazing 17 game losing streak, was really unique in that it featured a play most have never seen in the NFL. It was an offensive safety. That's what happens when a defensive player intercepts the ball, runs into his own end zone (on purpose) and is tackled by an offensive player. Has this ever happened in the NFL before?

Dear iPhone Review Team

To Whom it May Concern,

You claim to the FCC (to your customers too) that Google Voice has not been rejected, but is still "Under Review". Fine, then please tell us:

Who is reviewing it?

What aspects need more time to review?

When will the review be complete?

Where is the review being done?

Why is it taking so long?

If all of what you say is true, these answers should be really easy to come up with. However, I suspect either it is not under review, or that the reasons it is under review is not what you claim.

Love

The Schmitzer

Apple's March To Evil

Apple has been an admired company for years now. They seem to be in the news constantly with this release and that upgrade. Has this been a good year for Apple. I think not.

Lately, they sure don't seem to care what image they are projecting. They could use a little PR help, as they are looking rather evil. Here is the year's highlights which Apple would rather we forgot, and their progression towards an evil company.

Deceit
First, there was lots of mystery concerning Steve Job's health. Apple announced his dramatic weight loss was due to a hormone imbalance. Later, he announced a sudden leave of absence, with no reason why. Later it was announced as a very serious transplant. Finally, Apple claimed he returned to work, but there was a mysterious lack of pictures of him until TMZ got this photo. Another, incidence of deceit came later when iPhone's voicemail was down for 2 weeks, and neither Apple nor AT&T bothered to tell their customers.

Pride
Apple celebrated their newest innovation, copy and paste. This was, of course, a 35-year-old idea. They also released an update to their desktop line with surprisingly little updates.

Greed
We also heard about Apple being late in paying developers who published apps through the iPhone store. This smells of the kind of greed evil companies soon develop. Reminds me of some Walmart stories I've heard.

Bully
Apple further said thank-you to their iPhone SDK developers by forcing iPhone 3.0 compliance on them. Of course the 3.0 SDK was not compatible with the 2.0 SDK. This was viewed as a move to sell more 3.0 iPhones (see Greedy, above).

Anticompetitive
Apple recently rejected the Google Voice iPhone app, which competes with services offered by AT&T, their iPhone partner. Sources are blaming AT&T, but AT&T is blaming Apple.

Stupid
In a final move, Apple is now making the claim that jailbreaking an iPhone is a threat to national security. They propose making jailbreaking the iPhone illegal, rather than improve cell tower security. This move, if successful will cement Apple's place in the Evil Corp hall of fame and prove that evil begets stupid.

My advice to Apple: You are a great company, and have had a tremendous run of success. But you don't know what your best asset is. Its not the iPhone, nor the Mac. Its your loyal fans. You are destroying what you built. Stop now. Start anew. Respect your customers, especially your app developers. And spread the iPhone to other carriers already.

Ten Predictions for 2009

Rails Hosting Specialists Take Market Share...
finding they can cut costs more due to convention over configuration.

Bill Evjen Writes a Book About Something Other Than .NET...
signaling the beginning of the end of C#.

Zune Works All Year Long...
but thinks Feb 30 is a valid date.

Open Source Investment Increases...
as companies move to cut costs by leveraging community development.

Static Languages Get Dynamic Envy...
try to add closure, open classes, and metaprogramming but fall way short.

Ruby is Forked...
so many times, we won't be able to count. Thanks, Dave.

Technical Patent Mess Gets Even Worse...
as the 1 bit gets patented, hosing us all.

Ruby GUIs Become Real...
but not with FxRuby or Shoes, but Monkeybars on JRuby.

Steve Jobs Shows Up at MacWorld...
but Gizmodo claims he is a fake.

Yet Another MVC Framework Emerges...
but Rails still wins.