my blogupdate
Just a quick update on the HTC Desire: After using it for a few days more now I've decided the keyboard is actually fine - I'm not sure if I've got used to it or the upgrade to Android 2.2 is the difference but for whatever reason I'm now pretty fast and accurate on it. The slight UI lag still annoys me though :-)
HTC Desire
I have spent a good chunk of the day playing with a high end Android device, an HTC Desire. Overall I'm pretty impressed with it - the screen is beautiful and crisp (especially compared to my Palm Pre) and the device, while quite large, is very light.
There are a few issues I have with it though, and I suspect it is Android itself rather than the HTC hardware. Firstly when setting up things like wireless and carrier APN settings it seems like you have to dig through multiple levels of menus to get these things done - why can't I simply "click" on the wifi icon to get (say) a drop down menu to enter access point, passphrase etc? Secondly the keyboard - it's not too bad I guess but it was definitely not as smooth as the iPhone for example and I found I mistyped quite a bit (although I must say I've been spoilt by the hardware keyboard on my Pre so it could be something I get used to. Still, I was typing much quicker on an iPhone with a virtual keyboard...). Having said that the auto correct I found to be really good so my ham-fisted typing ended up looking ok, but I still found it annoying. Thirdly I found the UI lagged a bit - I know it's pushing a really high resolution but couldn't they have provided some sort of hardware acceleration? I mean c'mon, the phone costs near NZ$1,000 so to expect it to be a bit smoother is not too much to ask I think. As well as that I found the phone made some strange choices in the zoom level in the browser when double tapping, the battery life was terrible, multi-tasking was a bit clunky and I could see no obvious way to close a running app (something which I don't like about iOS as well it must be said - again I'm spoilt by my Pre and its seamless multi-tasking).
Having said all of the above it's not actually as bad as it sounds - and it was running Android 2.1 which is now almost a year old and has seen a few updates and performance improvements. There is much to like about this phone too - the hardware feels really solid and of a high quality (something which can't be said about my Pre unfortunately) and as mentioned at the start the screen is really nice and sharp. I think my biggest gripe is the lack of UI smoothness - if they can sort that then the whole experience would be a lot nicer!
I think Android is definitely getting better (the previous version I used was 1.6 and this is a big step up) and probably sometime next year will really start to shine - but for now I don't feel the urge to run out and spend a big chunk of my cash on a new Android device.
Kiwicon
So just got back from Kiwicon, New Zealand's own hacker con "by hackers for hackers". It was a ton of fun, much beer was had, much pizza consumed and much knowledge was impressed into my feeble brain. It was pretty amazing seeing some of the live demos - seeing how to hide processes from root, how to completely pwn a kiosk, home-brewed distributed WPA crackers, hell, even how to go urban exploring! It wasn't all about teh hax0rs either - we learned about unsolvable problems and how to work around them, the law regarding search and surveillance, RFID tags (are they the best thing since sliced bread or the devils own children?), even the morals behind setting someone else up to take the fall for your nefarious deeds.
In between these talks (and many more besides - it went on over two days) we consumed beer, participated in hacking contests, tried to gain control of a radio-controlled robot and many other activities besides. To be honest I was too scared to connect to the wireless access point there - it's been described as a somewhat hostile environment and who knows who was wielding a 0day OS X exploit...
I'll definitely be back again next year and I've convinced a bunch of network security guys from work to come along - I think there's a bit of an image that only long haired pierced up cyberpunks go along to these events but the real people that should be there learning all they can are the suited up corporate security guys, after all they are the ones trying to protect against some of the guys giving the presentations...
Borders
Apparently borders aren't what they used to be. "They" tell us that with the advent of things like the internet physical boundaries are a thing of the past. Well if that's the case why can't I buy the same things here in NZ that people can get in Europe and America?
I bought an unlocked Palm Pre cell phone about 6 months ago from Spain. It works perfectly here on my carrier of choice thanks to the fact that it is a gsm device (all I had to do was insert my SIM and I was away). I can access the app store and browse and download any free apps that I desire - yet I can't purchase anything. If I go to enter my credit card details in the Palm App Catalogue I can't - I can't enter my address because my country isn't on the drop down list.
I can understand not being able to buy the phone in certain parts of the world (as annoying as it is) but to lock down the purchase of apps from certain countries? Does Palm (now HP) not want my money? I can buy books and games off amazon.com, purchase pretty much anything I want on ebay, send money to random people via paypal yet can't buy something that has no physical package to ship, something that costs them nothing to get to me.
No wonder people "hack" their devices...
Friday
Thank God it's Friday.... That is all.
First Post!
So - first entry! Well, this blog is less about blogging and more about me learning html5. I owned the domain toki.co.nz for a few years now and have been meaning to put up some content more because I can than because I actually have to. I thought I may as well learn some modern html while I was at it rather than installing some blogging framework that did it all for me as the last time I had to touch html was back in 1998 when Netscape Navigator ruled the roost and I was at Uni (ah, remember geocities?? Memories...)
So, I'm an "Open Source Engineer" (whatever that means!) currently working for a large (by New Zealand standards!) ICT company in Auckland. My daily working life consists of keeping Linux servers up and running as they should and a bunch of networking and firewalling (mostly Linux/IPTables/IPSec with a dash of Cisco and Juniper thrown in to remind me how little I know).
I hold a BE in Electrical Engineering, RHCE in RHEL5 with the Deployment and Systems Management Expertise and half of a CCNA which I really should complete one of these days.
Cheers, Andrew