Apple took a while to approve the app. While I was waiting I completed most of the Android version. It’s in test now and will be coming soon. In fact, I had so much time that I decided to take a look at a BlackBerry version.

I had heard horror stories about developing apps for the BlackBerry but just assumed that it was a bit more difficult than Android. After all, it was Java, and they did have an Eclipse plug-in, right?

Well I’m here to tell you, all of the stories were right. I suppose this should have been my first clue:

That’s me attempting to log in to the BlackBerry Developer Zone and failing. And there is no place to "contact the help desk" by the way. When I emailed the webmaster I got this response:

Thank you for contacting BlackBerryTechnical Support. The email you submitted has not been delivered. Please find many alternative support options below.

Hmmm. That was helpful. Not.

Oh well. So I downloaded the tools. I use Eclipse on my Mac so it should be fine. Wait. PC ONLY? Seriously?

Ok, so I’ll run under Parallels.So I install Eclipse and fire it up. But it doesn’t work so well with the BlackBerry simulator. RIM recommends their Java Development Environment(JDE). So I install that, and it works a bit better.

The simulator is another story. It seems that each version of the simulator is for a different OS version, and mocks up a different RIM device. I’m working in OS 6.0, so my simulator pretends to be the Torch 9800. Hmm. So that means that I can’t test my 6.0 code on a Bold? Or any other non-touchscreen device? Oh and it takes about 10 minutes to start up. Just imagine how many coffee breaks I’ve had in the past two weeks.

Fine. So I write some code, and things are humming away when I run it. Until I start to debug the code. Then the simulator starts throwing all kinds of exceptions around. Null pointer. Illegal state. You never liked my mother. Oops, sorry about that last one.

And this little gem:

And my favorite one of all:

That one happened repeatedly whenever I typed a key into an EditField. So I switched from EditFields to TextFields. No visual cue that you should be entering text there in either case, but at least the TextField didn’t blow up. And these aren’t little blow ups. They require me to restart the Parallels virtual machine – reboot basically.

Then I tried to set a border on the field. The JDE walked me through the setBorder() method perfectly. Unfortunately the compile insists that even though the JDE thinks that it is there, it is an unknown method, and therefore simply will not work.

I’ve banged my head against the wall for two weeks trying to get these things to work and I will eventually prevail; I don’t give up that easily. But I have a point in writing this.

RIM makes a wonderful email device; people clearly love it. But though they aspire to be more they seem to be failing miserably at it. For a company that has been building BlackBerries for over 10 years, their SDK is abysmal, and their tools just awful. Their look and feel lags both Android and the iPhone, by at least one technology generation. I can forgive their PC only mentality as it is still dominant, but tools that have been around for years should work much better.

Forgetting the iPhone for a second, I was able to write the bulk of my Android app with fewer lines of Java code resulting in a much prettier and better working interface. The BlackBerry version looks like an old-school DOS application by comparison.

The best money RIM could spend would be to hire four or five bright developers and fix their SDK. Just match what Android does, because that should be enough for now. Worry about iPhone later because they are just out of their league right now.

And really, fix all of your products like Developer Zone. When I told people that I was developing a BlackBerry app they all asked "Why?". You really don’t want to alienate the developers that you already have.

Stop shooting yourselves in the foot.

I’ll try to keep you all updated on my progress. And if you’re from RIM and want to talk to me, feel free to email me at larry@larryborsato.com. Even if you don’t agree with me.

“Ten plus 10 has been 20 for a long time”

Textbooks are a multi-billion dollar market, for information that really doesn’t change. The internet and the world of open-source are forcing publishers to realize that things are changing though:

The nonprofit Curriki fits into an ever-expanding list of organizations that seek to bring the blunt force of Internet economics to bear on the education market. Even the traditional textbook publishers agree that the days of tweaking a few pages in a book just to sell a new edition are coming to an end.

I’ve often heard the comment that students are forced to deal with 20 year old textbooks. So what? Math hasn’t changed substantially since I was in school. And I doubt that English classes have kept up with modern literature either.

But why can’t we have free and open source textbooks?

They could have editors who assure that information is correct, and we could allow virtually anyone who wants to contribute. Wikipedia has grown exactly that way. And there is absolutely no reason college students should be forced to pay for this year’s brand new edition when the information is the same.

Open-source textbooks could include video and other media, and could keep up with the current state of each subject.

It is ridiculous to have to pay $200 for a printed copy – therefore obsolete by definition – of information that hasn’t changed in decades.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It is beautiful in its simplicity. Elegant speech, no superfluous words, and direct to the point. Protecting rights and freedoms.

I feel it necessary to remind everyone of that amendment, because the Democrats currently in power seem to have forgotten what it means:

The bill isn’t simply a spending disclosure reform; the Disclose Act also wouldbar"electioneering communications" by corporations that have government contracts worth more than $10 million, received TARP funds or are controlled by foreign entities. So it’s not simply about disclosure, it’s also about suppressing free speech.

You also would not know that while proponents frame the bill as a response to theU.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, which lifted restrictions on independent political advertising by labor and corporations, the House version of the bill imposed restrictions on the above corporations – with no parallel restrictions on labor.

Another view from the U.S.Chamber of Commerce:

The administration declared Monday that the Disclose Act "takes great strides to hold corporations who participate in the Nation’s elections accountable to the American people. As this is a matter of urgent importance, the administration urges prompt passage of the Disclose Act."

But Josten says the act would heavily restrict the rights of more than 100,000 associations nationwide to run ads expressing their political views.

Groups opposing the measure span the political continuum, including the ACLU, the Sierra Club, PIRG (the federation of state public interest research groups), the chamber and many others.

The chamber recently called the bill a "desperate attempt" by Democrats to grab a political advantage in the midterm elections.

And from Don Surber:

Apparently our government is run by people who do not understand what “no law” means.

Indeed.

Sit-down family dinners are rare in the Grunling home. Myles, 16, and Colin, 14, play soccer on teams coached by their father. Crystal Grunling and her husband, Manfred, work full-time jobs, and the boys, in Grades 11 and 8, attend different schools.

“We’re running every night of the week,” said Ms. Grunling, 44, a program director with the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association. “We have practices for one or the other, games for one or the other. It just never stops.

To be fair, Americans are just as time-crunched. But we often do it to ouselves. And what are we teaching our children?

When I was a kid my parents didn’t schedule our lives every minute of the day. We played, in a totally non-structured format, with our friends. We ran, jumped, climbed trees, and did a lot of stuff that would make parents choke today. Those same parents who did all of that stuff themselves.

Somewhere along the line somebody decided that we needed to program every moment of our kids lives, or we were bad parents.

That’s just wrong. As parents we should spend time with our kids, letting them do things that they enjoy doing with us. And the rest of the time we need to let them play. Unscheduled play.

Maybe when we can let our kids have a break we can relearn that it’s ok to relax occasionally too. And maybe put down the BlackBerry and forget about work for a few minutes. Then we will be teaching the kids a valuable lesson. That there is a time for work, and a time for play.

I saw a two-year old kid (in diapers, in a stroller), using an iPod Touch today. Not just looking at it, but browsing menus and interacting. This is a revolution, guys.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The iPad is often written off, but when I saw it announced I believed that it was the single most important advance in computing technology since I started working with computers many years ago.

The iPhone and the iPad have ushered in an era where technology has ceased to be technology and has become a tool we use in our everyday lives – casual, intuitive tools that do just what the average person wants them to do.And they’re comfortable for all age groups, from the very young, to the very old.

The benefit for Waterloo-based Research In Motion, who makes the Blackberry, could be in current iPhone users realizing they can get more out of RIM’s device.

“Now, as RIM is poised to unveil BlackBerry 6 on new smart phones with improved browsing and UI, BlackBerry users may realize they can ‘do more’ under caps vs. iPhone (e.g. 3x browsing), while some iPhone/Android users may suffer from ‘bill shock’ if they breach caps unintentionally.”

This could especially apply to business users, who tend to consume more data than the average customer.

This is a fallacy. The truth is that users of smartphones such as the iPhone simply do more. As early as 2008, Google noted that search traffic from iPhones was 50 times greater than any other smartphone.

With far better browsers users do more surfing on iPhones and Android-based phones than they do on BlackBerry phones. Watching video is a better experience as well, leading to more usage. Twitter, Facebook, as well as posting photos and video are simpler. And the proliferation of apps for those other platforms leads to even more data usage.

With its current OS, the BlackBerry still tends to be used as an email device, leading to an overall lower data usage. BlackBerry users don’t do more; they just do more of less.

In yet another nod to the protection of fledging self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.

Even from a very young age kids know enough to play to win, and even if adults pretend differently, the kids know the truth. They can count. And we certainly don’t improve their self-confidence by lying to them.

It surprises me that Canadians, competitive to the death where hockey is concerned, would introduce such a stupid rule. What happens in ten or fifteen years when we’ve taught these kids to expect that the loser suddenly is the winner? We’ve given them no incentive to win; in fact we’ve taught them to lose.

Canada’s big city mayors are calling for "a new partnership" between all levels of government, so municipalities don’t have to continuously ask for more funding to deliver services and meet infrastructure needs.

As the article notes, this is just code for a more one-sided partnership:

The mayors were light on specifics, pointing instead to areas of unified concern like transit, and a national affordable housing strategy.

Toronto Mayor David Miller said there is already evidence in place of partnerships that work, like the federal gas tax transfer, the GST rebate and stimulus spending through the Building Canada Fund, the latter of which has created jobs and softened the blow of the recession.

This just boils down to "Give us more money".

Which they will then fritter away until a year or so from now when they go back, hat in hand, for more money for the very same things they promised to do last time but didn’t.

A new report from one of the country’s major banks says house prices in Canada are sitting 14% over their "fair" value.

Strangely, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has nothing about this on their website. That might suggest that their assessments are incorrect, and municipalities would certainly be none too happy if assessments were actually correct, meaning that they extract as much property tax from homeowners.

My last assessment increased the value of my house by 20%, what according to this report it should be more like 6%.

Isn’t it odd that, regardless of circumstances, assessments always go up and never down?

Patriotism: Patriotism is an expression of love for one’s country as it is, a truthful appraisal, maybe loud and garish but not demeaning to others, and most of all never founded on ignorance.

Nationalism: Nationalism turns true patriot love into a false premise that we are the best people and therefore have a God given right to tell others what to do.