Ry's Blog

why didn’t BP use a linear shaped charge to cut the riser off? It would have required a collar to be fitted, pump the water out of the volume between the face of the liner and the pipe, and a detonation. I’m certain it would have left a cleaner, more-square edge than the mechanical shears.

ah, the future is almost here!

You do now; of interest to me: IMC.

It would be nice to have calendars subscribe to other calendars, then publish the result. For instance, I want to set up events on track A and track B; A and B share common events like lunch. I’d like to set up calendar C for common events. I would then like to publish A+C and B+C, such that if details for C change, it is reflected in A+C and B+C.

It wouldn’t even have to be that tricky. When I’m editing a bunch of calendars, it would be nice to create an event in multiple calendars; the editing interface could be much like for recurring events, where when opened for edit you’re asked “is this for this occurrence, or the series?” “Do you want to edit this event in this calendar, or in all calendars where it appears?”

I would also like a pony. That is all.

When you import calendars into Google, the names are mangled – only if you use the Android application. The website reflects the proper names.

Same issue existed in 2.0, and probably all releases prior. The issue is images in rss feeds are scaled down (impossible to read) or full size (truncated); when the image is full size, you may not scroll the page to read it. Something tells me nobody at Google uses Reader to read webcomics on a Droid.

This reads like a press release; I hope the product lives up to the hype.

Upgrading an old project to VS2005 (ugh), I ran into this compile warning:

System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings’ is obsolete: ‘This method is obsolete, it has been replaced by System.Configuration!System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings’

To fix this, do three things. One, add a reference to System.Configuration to your project. Right click on references, add, .Net, pick System.Configuration. There is a bug here; it will show up in the list of references as System.configuration.

Next step: Add a Using System.Configuration; to your file.

Last step: Update the references from ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings to ConfigurationManager.AppSettings and you’re gtg.

Hopefully we’ll upgrade to VS2008 sometime in 2010.

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

I’ll cover the Motorola Droid in two parts: the device, and the software stack. The device:

Good:

• The screen is amazing
• Feels solid
• Not the bar-of-soap design aesthetic that infects HTC
• only two external ports: USB and headphones
• Did I mention the screen?
• I like the four v buttons and the dpad – I know there isn’t a lot of love for them on the forums, but I find them easy to use
• Haptics
• High DPI displays are nice; high DPI displays on phones are awesome.

Bad:

• The black and gold is a little ghetto fab
• I hate capacitive touch screens (hated it on the iPhone, hate it here).
• Comes with 3″ USB cable. Well, maybe 6″. It doesn’t make it from my machine to my desktop.
• Drivers to charge a phone on a USB port? I know WHY this is done, but it still sucks.

Wash:

• I got used to the lack of a spring assist on opening.
• The keyboard is compromised by the desire for a thin device; I didn’t like it, but I got used to it.
• USB micro? damn, need more cables.

Software stack:

Good:

• Apps can crash without taking out the phone
• Can make phone calls
• Inbound text messages don’t crash the phone

Perhaps the bar was set a little low by WiMo; let me try that again.

Good:

• Have you seen Google Sky Map? So pretty!
• Google Voice integration: awesome
• Facebook, Gmail, and your contact list co-exist. Low bar again; try using Facebook, Windows Live for Windows Mobile, Exchange, and see how well that combination works.
• The phone fucking works. I know, low bar again; still, after 5 years of WiMo, having a phone that just works and makes phone calls and sends SMS without falling over is an E ticket, man.

Bad:

• Google Sky is pretty – when it isn’t crashing; too bad crashing was the P0 functionality they shipped with GSM.
• The default apps (I guess the “carrier deck”) are lame shortcuts to mobile sites. Verizon’s rich account control application is really just a bunch of shortcuts; way to raise the bar on your premiere device.
• I don’t know what service or caching method these apps are using, but Facebook shows days-old data; foursquare is much the same.
• The browser sucks. Much better than pIE; damning, faint praise, etc.

Wash:

• Using the browser with mobile versions of sites is a nice experience.
• The overall UI is different than WiMo; not really better, but different. It doesn’t have that taste-of-1992 look, though.