The Androids are Coming!!!

Yeah I know what you're thinking -- you're thinking that I've lost it, eh? I'm seeing little androids riding by on skate-boards. Guess what? SO ARE YOU!

This is what happens when you spend just a little too much time studying about two gigabytes of source code in preparation for writing an article with a due date that was shortened by a month. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I love this kind of work, so let the androids party on dude!

T-Mobile G1 Android Cellphone

My new T-Mobile G1 Android cellphone (developer's version) arrived yesterday (on my Birthday no less!) and I've been working with it all evening and all night - it's now 3:35 AM.

Background information: I live and work where T-Mobile access doesn't exist, so I can't use the cellphone as a cellphone, at least until Verizon gets their act together and allows it to work on their network. I've been a Verizon customer for many years and this is the only area where they greatly disappoint me - not allowing customers to use their own unlocked phones.

But since the G1 is a Wifi machine, and there is information on the Internet of how to set up and configure the G1 without actually having a phone account, I was quickly able to set it up to use my Wifi and then register the machine.

I've been working for a few months with the Android Emulator and it's a real pleasure to now be able to actually work on a real machine!

First impressions:

1. It's a smaller and more solid machine than I was expecting. The quality of it is HIGH - well done HTC and T-Mobile!!!
2. The audio quality is incredible! One of the first things that I did was to copy 1 GB of my favorite MP3 songs to the microSD card that came with it and play the music.
3. The machine is very fast and responsive - I downloaded from the "Android Market" a few tools - Terminal, System Monitor, Weather Channel, etc. When playing my songs, the CPU barely blips at 24% - WOW!
4. Speaking of the "Android Market", I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is a HUGE number of FREE programs available for instant download and usage. A+++ for Google!

Combine the open source architecture, solid hardware, fast CPU and memory, this machine has immediately captured my attention. I look forward to building on this foundation myself with programs, articles, and hopefully I will someday be able to use it as a PHONE too!

Vacation in NC

I haven't posted for a while because I was on vacation to the beautiful land of North Carolina! My good friend Tom's daughter Megan lives and works in Statesville, NC, and my daughter Rachael is best of friends with her as well.

The total distance traveled was over 1,700 miles, but my van was made for trips like that and we had a good time getting there, a great time there, and a bittersweet time coming back home. We were guests in Megan's home for four all-too-brief days and she was the perfect hostess.

While there, I was very impressed with the lay of the land, the warm winter weather, and the local cuisine. I especially enjoyed the salmon filet steaks that I ate at "Gluttons" restaurant (you gotta love that name!) and the hours of fellowship playing games with beloved friends - I didn't want it to end. Sigh.

The memories are deep and rich - listening to the girls sing and enjoy themselves at a local Karyoke bar, laughing and enjoying good food at Kobe's Japanese restaurant, and watching "Santa" stumble around in Starbucks - yes, I will cherish the memories of this vacation for a long time! Lord willing, we'll be able to do it again someday.

Bill's Favorite Things

Inspired by the "Living By Faith" blog post, here is a list of my five favorite things...

#1 - Reading. I love to read. I am very much like "Mr. Henry Bemis" from the Twilight Zone in that literature is my favorite hobby. Close on the heals of reading I like writing and computer programming -- which is in essence another form of writing. My favorite format for books is the eBook format on my Palm Treo 755P and my favorite book is the Holy Bible.

#2 - My Children. I have a son, a daughter, and a grandchild - Michael, Rachael, and Jacob. The significant others of my children are also important to me - Sarah and Joe. I have been blessed by God to have been able to raise my children from childhood to adulthood without significant problems and now they are self-sufficient with families of their own. Praise the Lord!

#3 - Retirement. With my children being grown adults and independent now, I have been retired from the proverbial "rat race" for about five years with no regrets. Retirement doesn't mean that I don't work -- it just means that I work when I feel like it and do something else when I feel like it. Retirement is the culmination of a plan that is established when young and followed carefully as the years pass. Perhaps more than anything else - retirement means establishing strict self-control of spending habits early in life.

#4 - Rib-Eye Steaks. Yum yum! Along with salmon, rib-eye steaks are my favorite food. Just thinking about a good rib-eye steak along with a fine wine is enough to "perk me up". Recently, my mother, sister, brother, sister-in-law, and I purchased ¾ of a cow that was hand-raised by a man that my brother works with. At a price of close to $3.00 a pound for the most quality meat we've ever had, it was quite a bargain!

#5 - Survivorman! My favorite program on television is the Survivorman series staring Les Stroud. It may seem strange for a guy like me who is primarily an indoor dweller who relishes modern living to enjoy such a back-to-nature show as this, but it always pleases me to watch Les surviving while I sit back on the proberbial "easy chair", drinking cup in hand, thanking God every moment that I'm here and he's out there!

Technology and Time

I never cease to be amazed at how technology can change our lives!

I'm old enough to know what it was like before cell phones, MP3 players, and PDAs existed - times when we dreaded going to places (doctor's offices, license bureaus, busses, metrolinks, etc.) where huge amounts of potentially productive or entertaining time was wasted on the altar of boredom. I used to dread having to go to these places - and now, thanks to technology, I actually look forward to going to them! You see, I love to read eBooks while listening to music. I love to write as well. I love programming. I love talking and SMSing my son and daughter. All of these I can do and do while waiting now.

You might ask, "but Bill, can't you do these things without having to go to the doctor's office or the license bureau?", and you would be correct. It's just that I don't fear these places any more and in fact, it's the technological evangelist in me that desires to SHOW other people who are bored out of their gored a genuine way out of it.

Unless you were a woman and carried a purse, a paperback book just wasn't an option in those bygone days. Paperback books, as great as they are, just didn't fit in a pants pocket like my Treo 755P, for example, does. But now with my Treo, I can and do carry AN ENTIRE LIBRARY of hundreds of books in my pants pocket! Now that's cool for the literati of our times!

Kenwood TH-F6A - The BEST Radio Ever Made!

In my last posting, I briefly mentioned the gadgets that I always carry around with me and one of them was the Kenwood TH-F6A. This is an Amateur Radio transceiver known as a "tri-bander", meaning that it can receive and transmit on three popular HAM Radio bands - 144/220/440 MHz with FIVE full watts of power on all of the bands. Even with just those specifications, it's a valuable radio - but Kenwood goes WAY beyond that!

The nicad batteries are very long lasting, the design is rugged, and the device has that solid, quality feel to it that gadget lovers appreciate. But beyond the basics, the radio is so much more - it can receive far more bands using far more modulating modes than any other handheld radio that I am aware of. And not only does it receive those signals - its sensitivity to them is unsurpassed by any handheld radio I know of either. Amazing!

With the TH-F6A, I can listen to such diverse broadcasts as the standard AM radio band, the standard FM band, the NOAA weather radio frequencies, HAM HF bands such as 20 meters in UPPER SIDEBAND MODE - and on and on. Wow! What a radio! Here are a number of Google links about the TH-F6A and here is a great hyperlink to the manufacturer with more details on this remarkable and best selling radio. I've owned mine for many years and it has never let me down.

Of Gadgets and Shoes

My sexist comment for today is - men like gadgets and tools like women like dresses and shoes. Leaving aside the sexism, a lot of women I know are fans of gadgets too ... no comment on any of the men!

Four gadgets that I carry around with me all the time are my Treo 755P smartphone, my Sansa e280 MP3 player - *, my Kenwood TH-F6A tri-band handheld radio, and my Leatherman Surge multi-tool.

The multi-tool is an extremely useful device for such diverse things as bending, cutting, and stripping wires - tightening bolts - screwing and unscrewing flat head and phillips screws - opening letters and packages - filing rough edges - etc. No matter where you are, there's always a need for handyman work, and the multi-tool is the perfect tool to carry around.

I prefer to have high quality tools and am willing to pay a premium price for them, if necessary. In my opinion, the Leatherman Surge is the best multi-tool ever made, and my faith in that statement grows with every task I discover that the Surge is the perfect tool for the job.

One of my favorite television programs is "Survivorman", starring Les Stroud, and he is a great proponent of the Leatherman Wave multitool - taking it with him on all of his survival episodes. I have big hands, so the Surge, which is larger than the Wave, is my preferred tool, but no matter which Leatherman you choose to carry with you, you won't be disappointed.

* - P.S. I "upgraded" my MP3 player from the 4GB Sansa e260 described in an earlier post to the 8GB Sansa e280 when NewEgg.COM made me an offer I couldn't refuse. (But not in a negative sense like the Godfather series puts it.)