I'm back!

It's been a long long time since the last time I wrote here.

Lot's of things happened. Having a second son was the most important. And I'm preparing to move to a new job.

I hope this move enables me to have more time to write here.

For the moment, here is a list of the software I have on my android phone. In a subsequent post, I'll explain what version I'm running, and in what phone.

Here is the list (in no particular order):

• 3G Watchdog
• ASTRO File Manager
  
• Car Mode
• ColorNote
• Dropbox
• EboBirthday
• Facebook
  
• Fancy Widget
• Gmail
  
• Google Translate
  
• Handcent SMS
• Jorte
• KeePassDroid
• Libra
  
• Maps
• Mileage
  
• MyPhoneExplorer
  
• OI Shopping list
• Phonalyzr
• SMS Backup +
• Street View
• Titanium Backup
• Twitter
• wardrive
• Wifi Analyzer

Lots of apps... the ones I use mostly:

• Gmail
• 3G Watchdog
• SMS Backup +
• Jorte
• Car Mode
• ColorNote
• Mileage
  

In the next episode, I'll explain what android I have running in my HTC Touch Cruise.

Surfing the Wave

Yes, a very lame title for this post. Specially when this is nothing useful, just some links about Google Wave.
I'm still trying to understand what can I do with it, but I need people to join my waves. So, if you want, i have some Google Wave invites. Just drop me a line in the comments, or email me.

And now the links to help things get started:
Google Wave First Look
Google Wave 101
Google wave Extension List

Translation Party

This is the best Google based app ever made.

It really is. Trust me and go try it out.

Internet downtime in Lisbon... and a lot other places

Is it only me that feels a little strange that a truck accident in an highway cuts internet to a lot of people?
And that no one really cares? If you look at the mainstream news agencies, the news is just a few lines long... but yesterday morning we could do no work... probably no one is going to do the math how much this breakup cost... but everyone one wants to know the color of Cristiano Ronaldo's knickers... What a great country we have...

PS: And the accident is a very nice excuse for a problem that started the day before...

Is Windows Mobile in Danger of Becoming Software Plumbing?

Here is a very interesting article, with some relevant questions about Windows Mobile future:

Pocket PC Thoughts: Is Windows Mobile in Danger of Becoming Software Plumbing?

My first photosynth

Here is my first photosynth. The pictures were taken in August 2008, but only now I managed to get them online.
It turned out very cool, 100% synthy!

Optimizing a web application

Here is a very nice article about how you can improve the performance of your web application, using Firefox, Firebug and YSlow plugin:

Squashing the asp.net MVC response - part 1 - BradVin's .Net Blog

OpenStreetMap

Do you have a GPS device? If so, keep it connected all the time, tracking your moves. And then upload the tracks to www.openstreetmap.org and contribute to build a great mapping database.

"OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways."

If you have a Garmin PNA, you can convert the data to Garmin's format and use it in you device.

Please contribute!

Life and Death

Recently I saw a very interesting presentation about Geneva, Microsoft's implementation of claims based authentication, using WS-Trust and WS-Federation. I like very much this paradigm, if it catches on will simplify a lot the way we manage identity in our applications and networks. I for sure will start implementing applications with this framework.
A claims-based approach removes from you the hassle of seaching for user capabilities in the AD or other system. You trust a third party to authenticate the user and create a token with just the info you need, nothing more, nothing less.
This connects directly to your online persona, a living thing outside of your control. As the death of a friend showed it to me...

Alex died some months ago. He was one of the most briliant minds I ever met. And a troubled one, unfortunatly.
His death touched me a lot. Since I've been working near Portela, I've passed near his house almost everyday, and always thinking I had to arrange a lunch or something with him. Now it's too late.
But his online persona is still alive.
Everytime I open GTalk, his address is the first in the offline contacts.
His phone number is on the top of my contact list.
His blog is still in my blogroll.
My PDA alerted me this weekend for is 34th birthday.

This is a very strange thing... how do you manages the contacts, the links for someone that died?


Me, i'll keep them.


PS: Happy birthday Alex. This one is for you.

Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark

Editorial: Ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark - Engadget

I think they are right on the spot...At least for me, my first and current WM phone will be the last...

Palm Pré

Palm is again on the mobile device race. At least they hope so, with the new Palm Pré.

Will it be enough to regain some market share?

I'll follow it in the next months to come...


Oh, happy new year

Visual Sudio Encodings

UTF-8 is great. I like anything that takes the hassle out of thinking in regional characters and stuff.

But older software doesn't know about UTF-8... particularly Oracle SQLPlus.

When I added a sql script to my project, if I call sqlplus with it I receive a nice error:
"SP2-0734: comando desconhecido comeτado por "∩╗┐set ser..." - o resto da linha foi ignorado."

Even if you don't know portuguese, you can guess the error (not even the error message is printed right...)

The problem is the first 3 bytes of an UTF-8 file are EF BB BF, and SQLPlus doesn't like it...

For now, I don't have a solution, just a work-around: in Visual Studio, open the file with an external program (notepad to the rescue) and save it as ANSI.

Does anyone know how can I tell Visual Studio to save that particular file with a different encoding?

OLPC G1G1 coming to Europe Nov. 17

OLPC News: Breaking News: G1G1 coming to Europe Nov. 17

To buy or not to buy?

Can I convince my wife? That is the real question...

IDictionary options - performance test - SortedList vs. SortedDictionary vs. Dictionary vs. Hashtable

Long time no writing...

Well, just for reference, here is a nice benchmark about these types.

Dazed and Confused

Sometimes things just make you wonder if anything is worth it...

Sleep well Alex, I'll miss you...

Photo Tourism / Photosynth

Photo Tourism is a project from some brilliant guys at University of Washington and from Microsoft Research. Microsoft showcased some videos a while ago and finally some days ago released Photosynth.
In a word: incredible.

Finally the guys at CSI can say they use an incredible piece of software that really exists.

If you are a Windows guy, go to photosynth.com. If you use Linux, go here. If you are agnostic(Java), here.

Be patient... its worth it.

dateTime deserialization in .Net

The problem:
We created a webservice in .Net to implement a contract with a supplier. Among other things, we receive dateTimes. These dateTimes represent a point in time in another country (for instance, an accident occurred at 15:00 in Spain).

What happens:
when we receive the message, the deserialization engine converts the dateTime to a DateTime, assuming local time. So, we get 14:00. All information about the original timezone is lost.

The solution(s):

1. Change the WSDL to receive another parameter (timezone) -> NOT AN OPTION. We don't own the contract.
2. Add a new table and code on our side so we can compute the timezone ourselves, according to the original country.
3. Guess the correct timezone
4. Implement the webservice in another platform, like Java (deserializes dataTime to java.util.Calendar).

If you have other solutions, please give me a note...

My experience with WM6

After a month using a windows mobile device, here are my first impressions:

Pros:

• Good screen, very bright, can read it even in sunlight
• New applications I didn't have in palm
• HTC interface, you can dial your favorite contacts very fast
• All in one: GSM, GPS, WIFI, 3G
• small and lightweight
  

Cons:

• Slow, very slow interface compared to my T5
• When I disconnect the device, the app that was running goes to the background
• Clumsy windows interface - to lauch an aplication I have to tap on the screen lots of times
• Some itches - calls dropping frequently, system freezes sometimes
• Missing some apps I had in palm
• To send an SMS, I have to tap 4 times on the screen, just to start writing... and this is because I have the SMS app to launch on pressing the GPS button... the guys at HTC forgot this is still a mobile phone, and sometimes you want to text someone...
  

Overall, I'm happy with my Touch Cruise. As soon as I install VS2008, I'll try to do some useful things, like porting some apps I really got used to. And yes, you still have more useful apps in PalmOS than Windows Mobile.
Here is a little table with the apps I used in PalmOS and the apps that I'm using in WM6:

PalmOS	WM6	Comment
HandyShopper	HandyShopper	That was easy. Someone had the excellent work of porting it to WM
Aqua Dive Log	-	Still couldn't find an app to replace it :-(
pFuel	- (excel)	Still couldn't find an app... I'll probably have to create an Excel sheet
PunchClockPro	-	This one I REALLY miss... does anyone know a decent timekeeping app?
cotoGPS	-	Still need something to trace my routes...
Progect	ADBIdea	It is not a great replacement, but does the job
Keyring	KeePassPPC	Great Upgrade
FreeCoins	Pocket Finance Diary Lite	Looks promising
Filez	Total Commander	very decent

But what I really don't like is Windows Mobile interface... why the hell the guys at Redmond still think a Windows-like interface is good in an hand-held device??? IT IS NOT!!!
If I want to run any application, I have to click Start, then Programs, then scroll searching for the app... and why the heck is copy/paste dependent on the application? We should have it everywhere... It is a pain inputing some text that you want to copy, just to find out you can't... and I have to find some software to use strokes, something they also forgot... and if I'm using an app, if the devices disconects after a minute or whatever you configure, when you connect it again you want the same display, get it?
I hope they finally abandon the stupid windows interface and create a new one in WM7. HTC Cube helps, but it is not enough.

Feel free to give me pointers to other useful software.

WinSaaS

My good friend Miguel Ribeiro has decided to became an entrepreneur. After a year of hard work, his baby has seen the light.

Meet WinSaaS. And HotelASP. And SaasLight.

WinSaaS is a software-as-a-service host.

HotelASP is an Hotel management and reservation application running on WinSaaS.

SaasLight is a CRM application running on WinSaaS

Feel free to register and mess around. Try it out. It looks very promising.

If you want to contact Miguel you can drop me a message or use the contact options on WinSaaS.

The big step

This week I gave a big step. It a was a big change in my life, a new starting point:


I bought my first PocketPC! (and got married, but that is not important right now...)


After years of being faithful to Palm, I changed... because Palm didn't.

I choose the HTC Touch Cruise. It has everything: GPS, 3G, Wifi, etc.
As an added bonus, I bought one edition bundled with NDrive.

Guess I'll make a review of both in a few weeks.