The Unctuous Rants of Leif Andersen

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Archive for category Technology

Sansa Fuze and Rockbox, Sandisk hurt me

Mar 3

Posted by Leif Andersen in Technology | No Comments

My Sandisk Sansa E260 recently bricked itself.  Why did this happen?  I don’t know, I didn’t do anything to it, it just wouldn’t turn on one day.  To be fair, I knew it was dying, I had several read errors, and I suspected the filesystem was becoming corrupted, and the controls were certainly dying, being touchy at best.

As such, it was time for me to buy a new player.  I looked around, wasn’t quite ready to by an android phone, but still needed a player to play ogg files.  After a quick trip to ABI, and several days of searching, I finally decided to get a new Sansa, this time the SanDisk Sansa Fuze, it had 8 GB of internal storage, not much, but 4 more than what I previously had, and best of all, it was capable of running Rockbox, the open source firmware which was the only reason I bought the e200, and then the fuze, in the first place.

I knew that there was two versions of the Sansa Fuze, a newer one, and an older one, thusfar, the people at Rockbox have only been able to port it to the older one.  The catch is that there is no way to determine which version of the hardware you got, until after you have bought the device.  I even asked a representative of Sandisk, and they were unable to give me a proper answer.  Again, to be fair, the person was still very helpful.  Here is a clip of our conversation:

*****: Let me provide you information on this.
*****: You are asking the firmware of the player currently running on the Fuze that you want to purchase.
*****: It is depending on the firmware that we released before it hit the market. Some Fuze might have the older firmware and some can have the newer firmware.
Leif Andersen: Yes
*****: Nevertheless, the firmware of the player can be updated to the latest that we have to enhance it.
Leif Andersen: Okay, is there anyway I can tell before I purchase it?
Leif Andersen: Okay, thank you.
*****: Even if you don’t have the latest firmware. There is a firmware update that we can do. You can check this link for the Fuze’s firmware update:
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/278

Without being able to get any form of conformation, I took the plunge, and bought a player from Tiger Direct.  It came in today.

I opened the box, started up the player (being very surprised to find it had a few dregs of power sitting in it’s battery), and played around with the menu.  I went into my settings menu, and to my horror, I discovered that the version of the firmware began with V02, meaning that I couldn’t put rockbox on it.  Horrible news.

Now, if I knew ahead of time that I wouldn’t be able to put Rockbox on it, that would be one thing, and I would be fine with that.  However, it drives me nuts that I have no idea of whether or not I will be able to put Rockbox on the device at all, until after I buy it.  I don’t blame the Rockbox community for this, after all, they’re just a bunch of people that develop a good software solution for audio players, but rather SanDisk.  At one point in time, they made a small gesture to Rockbox, by giving them two Sansa E200 devices, however, they have not done anything since.

On the up side of the coin, at least Sansa’s firmware is actually usable this time, unlike on the E200, and maybe in the future I will be able to put Rockbox on it.  Until then, I will contact Sansa support, and see what they have to say about the matter, and I will post it here.

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Maple: The Pain

Mar 2

Posted by Leif Andersen in Education, Technology | 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve said anything.  However, that is about to change, I hope.  In the meantime, I must complain about Maple.  For my linear algebra class, I am required to use MapleSoft’s main program, called, Maple.  It is a Computer Algebraic System, or CAS, designed for use in academia.  It is total and complete rubbish.

If you have hopes of getting a project done efficiently on it, give up, and go get a piece of software like Matlab, by MathWorks.  Although I’m not a big fan of MathWorks, and find GNU Octave (an open source/free software, program that is very similar to Matlab), at least Matlab is usable.  First off is the UI.  The graphical version of Maple prides itself in being able to print out text in a pleasing way.  This is true, however, Maple has implemented it horribly.  Typing anything into it is a pain, because Maple will make several subfields for something as simple as an exponent.  And it doesn’t even use common sense when ending those fields.  If I were to raise a number to a summation, I would use parentheses, and if I wanted a polynomial, I would just leave the exponent clear, without any parentheses.  As such, it seems logical that maple would automatically end the exponent subfield, but maple insists on continuing to type in that field until you hit the right arrow key.  Also, if you want to go back a bit in your equation, it is a pain to hit the back button, and edit what you wanted to change.  Also, if you want to remove an equation you typed, forget about hitting the delete or backspace key, you have to manually select it, and delete your selections.  There is also the matter of entering equations.  The syntax that maple uses is awkward at best, and downright painful at it’s worse.

I was amazed that such a program that could be so bad.  However, I went to open up the font color chooser, and out pops the JColorChooser, the interface was made in Java.  No wonder it was so horrid.  Now, to be fair, I don’t think the whole program was written in Java, I think the engine that powers Maple is written in C, and to be fair, it is still a very powerful engine.  But why would you get it when Matlab can do the same things?

All in all, on a scale to ten, I have to give maple a 4.  3 points for it’s engine, which, while powerful, it’s not revolutionary, and 1 point for at least having a UI, and having some documentation, rather than some other programs that have nothing whatsoever.

What do you think, am I wrong, right, neither?

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Going for Gold: Google Rolls out 1 Gb Fiber Optic Network

Feb 12

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Technology | No Comments

Today, Google announced that they are working to roll out a 1 Gb fiber network to select areas, with the hopes of making it a ubiquitous connection.  They claim, the idea is so that next generation apps can be made, without having to worry about bandwidth concerns.   Despite my initial misgivings about running all of our apps in an extremely fast cloud, this seems incredibly cool.

Usually, this is the point where I get up on my soapbox, and complain about how much control Google is having, even though I love it.  This time, I must state how happy I am.  Despite the fact that Google will now have complete control, and can soon be part of every aspect of the internet, this really is a benefit.  First of all, this will provide competition.  The main reason why I support the FCC’s lock down of the internet, is due to a lack of competition between ISPs.  On the other hand, if Google is able to roll out world wide fiber, despite the  brevity of that statement, all ISPs would have a large competitor, meaning that current ethical issues with ISPs would be lowered.  Not to mention the speed.  If this is a success, not only will Google have yet another market share, but they will have one of the fastest connections in the continental USA, and possible the world.

On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, Google is getting quite big.  They now have a hand in everything from your hardware, to your software, to your web searching, to even a large chunk of your content.  If Google pulls this off, they will have a hand in every single level of accessing the internet.  And because they’re currently not a telecommunications company, they could abandon the ideas of net neutrality, and speed up their websites, however, to be fair, with the current leadership of Google, I think they would rather speed up their websites by making them better, not by slowing everyone else down.  To be honest, I think that may be a little much for one company to have, even if it is a company that I love, and would like to work for in the future.

What do you think?

You can read more about this at GoogleBlog.

Google Buzz, and the Invite Craze

Feb 10

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Reviews, Technology | 2 Comments

Today, Google unveiled their latest product Google Buzz.  Supposedly, it will be Google’s new way of communicating, not to be confused with Google Wave, which is, well, if you know, please tell us, because the rest of the internet is trying to figure it out.  Currently, if you go to the Google Buzz webpage, you get a nice Google logo, with Google style cartoons, saying all of the great things you can do with Google Buzz, and a video talking about just how great it is.  It also contains a button that says “Try Buzz in Gmail”.  When you click on it, you get taken to your Gmail inbox.  Once their, I noticed that it looked exactly like the old Gmail inbox, that is to say, there was no Buzz.  after a little confusion, I went back to the original website, and noticed a bit of text at the top that said:

We’re still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don’t see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon.

Meaning that Google has not decided that I’m not worthy enough to actually see Google Buzz on the day that they announced it.  That’s somewhat typical.  I’m just a standard internet user, new to blogging, programming, and engineering, as such, why should pick me, other than that the remainder of the website says that it’s out and ready to use.

Having a private beta is not just how Google works, most companies will do that.  However, Google is notoriously public who they invite, or how to get into this beta, namely, to ask for an invitation.  However, Buzz is working differently.  Google has decided to an approach similar to Twitter.  That is, role it out quietly.  Make it part of some people’s accounts, and eventually to everyone.  In some ways, this is good, it means that you don’t need to create a new account, or fill out some form asking for an invite, etc.  Also, the massive rush for Google Wave invites has been qualmed as well, as the invite isn’t even being used..

All in all, this doesn’t seem like the biggest thing Google had done.  Their video seems incredibly similar to Gmail already.  That is to say, it will likely be the best social network platform on the planet, but everyone will still continue to use Facebook.  Also, it will be somewhat difficult to tell whether I am getting an email from a mailing list, or just another buzz post, with the exception that buzz posts won’t have a little number on them that says unread.  Thus, I must say that this product doesn’t seem very useful.  Now, if they integrated Google Reader, and GMail, and Twitter, and possibly Google Voice, and every other social networking platform into one place, then we would have something.  However, there still isn’t much new going on.

With that being said, I may be grouchy because I didn’t get an invite, like Mike Arrington hates the Pre.

Update: It looks like I’ve been ‘invited’.  I must say, I like the idea much more than Facebook or twitter.  The UI is fast and sleek, I also love how it integrates into Gmail.  My current gripes are the lack of options.  Currently, you are forced to sort by posts with the latest comments, however, this simply means that the top posts in buzz are just popular ones, unless you only follow close friends.  Also, while I like seeing replies to threads I’ve commented on in Gmail by default, that should be an option that can be turned off by request.

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So Much to Learn, Such Little Time

Feb 3

Posted by Leif Andersen in Education, Technology | 2 Comments

I am writing this blog post at great pain to my time.  As you can see from the title, there is so much to learn, and simply not enough time to learn it all.  In the internet era that we live in, everyone is talking about how to get content onto the  web, and into people’s hands.  However, in this time, we are also seeing a phenomenon that small start ups have been seeing for a while, that is, how to get attention in this mass of conversation.  There have been some ideas posed, such as the good ideas will come to the forefront, and content that meets the zeitgeist of the society will be improved.  However, what I am talking about right now is a little bit different.

I am talking about academia in the internet.  Yes, academia is somewhat competitive, but not in the same way that a start up would be competitive.  Academia will have space for multiple papers, and multiple theses that contradict each other.  Also, academia in a good state, will keep multiple proofs, even if one of them is not as good as others.  However, academia is now feeling the same effects from the internet as start ups felt several years back.

As mentioned in earlier articles, MIT’s OpenCourseWare has been a great resource to learn.  There are syllabuses, readings, and lectures, available for many classes.  Also, iTunes U capitalized on that revolution.  However, the amount of course work that is now on the internet, is rapidly approaching critical mass.  Students have had this problem for years, even before the internet.  They get out of highschool, where there is at most one or two really good classes per period, or they are just given a schedule of what classes to attend.  However, when they go to university, they find themselves with a set of options that appears to be infinite.  If it was true that universities offered an infinite amount of classes, than the internet has found a way to go higher than infinity.  Now, students that are in university, and manage to narrow down what classes they want to take, now have enough resources to learn the material, to the point where they couldn’t do it if they had 42 hour days.  They have their university’s lectures, the course book, online lectures, other books that cover similar content, free online books from reputable sources, online texts from non-reputable sources, and for those that are brave, Freenode’s IRC.  And the choices don’t stop there, those are just the ones that I have found to be useful.

With all of these choices, what is a student to do?  Well, obviously the need to match two things.  They need to do what the professor of their course wants,  for in the end, that professor decides what grade the student gets.  Then the student must learn the material.  For students that can’t read well, or do other things better, can watch or listen to the material.  Not only that, but they are able to pause, rewind, and fast forward as necessary.

In the end, there is just a lot of material to view, a lot of options to be used, and a lot of proofs to be digested.  Because of that, I will now take my leave, and go back to viewing material which I will use for my education.  Have a nice day everyone.

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The Technology Soap Opera

Jan 24

Posted by Leif Andersen in Technology | No Comments

If you were to take everything that is happening in the technology world, you could create a soap opera out of it.  My friend, who currently wishes to remain anonymous, recently sent me a letter personifying some of the companies.  I thought that you would enjoy it. Read the rest of this entry »

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User Interface, Blender Vs. Apple

Jan 19

Posted by Leif Andersen in Technology | No Comments

Being a person who enjoys tinkering with tiny mobile devices, one of the largest questions that comes up, especially when talking with iPhone programmers, is interface.  There appears to be two camps in the debate, the Apple, and lesser so Ubuntu or Gnome side of things, these are the people who pride themselves in simplicity, claiming that there is one right way to do things, and that nothing should be cluttered up at all.  The other side is the Blender, or KDE way of thinking.  They claim that there is no right way to do things, and there should be multiple tools to get the same job done.  Also, while they may take pride in the placement of their options, the believe that it is vitally important for the user to have all of the options laid out before him/her.  As such, programs such as Blender look very intimidating to new users, who see all of the buttons, tabs, nobs, and switches.  Some of them may try to flip a few, to no avail, and many just give up, I did anyway, although I did come back to it, and am happy for it.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Horrible Academic Web Software, such as WebAssign

Jan 14

Posted by Leif Andersen in Education, Reviews, Technology | 1 Comment

There seems to be a horrible trend in academia these days.  Or maybe it’s just here in Utah.  It is the problem of University classes trying to become technology savvy, and use the internet in their curriculum.  On the one hand, I applaud them, I, and many others continue to talk about the future of education in a web 2.0 type of society.  However, they are doing it very wrong.  Rather than using open standards, or at least standards that appear to be open, even if they aren’t, they are basing it off of programs that are shoddy at best, and simply don’t work at worst.  The only exception is the occasional dedicated CS professor, who takes the time to build his own system.  WebAssign is one example of this.  The problem starts that once you have paid to enter the class, and have bought the textbook, you then need to pay a $35 fee just to turn in your homework, which is pathetic.  Although, there is some good points to WebAssign too, first of all, you can choose to pay $35 for every semester, or if you have multiple semesters that use the same book, you can pay a flat $85 fee, and get a free copy of the ebook, along with being able to use Webassign for free, at least for every class that uses that version of the textbook.  Don’t jump out of your seat just yet though, you don’t get a PDF file of the book, you don’t even get some proprietary ebook download, you are required to view the ebook on a horrible flash type of interface.  In addition, you are allowed to print the book out, along with the notes that you make on a page, but you have to print out each page individually, also, they have taken provisions to make it difficult for you to print it to a PDF printer. Read the rest of this entry »

Attempts to Podcast: Some New Media Advice

Jan 9

Posted by Leif Andersen in Podcasts, Technology, This Blog, Tutorial | No Comments

I have a few observations about podcasting that I would like to make.  I have done a few shows, TWIBS, This Week in BS, also I have done Rant5.  I also tried to do a few other shows, but none of them have really gone anywhere, not that Rant5 or TWIBS did either.  I also have started a few video shows which you can find on my TV Channel, which I have also found to follow similar trends to podcasts.  If there is anything I have learned from podcasting, it is hard.  For those of you new bloggers who are about to drop your blog because it’s too much work, podcasting requires much more work, especially to make it good, and is really hard to keep going.  Very few podcasts live longer than 10 episodes.  For example, my longest running series has gone on for 15 episodes, with my average being closer to 6, and having tried to do about 7 shows, and other than my TV channel, none of them have lived.  However, in the process, I would like to give out a few tips that I have found to help you keep a podcast going. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nexus One Announcement

Jan 5

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Technology | 1 Comment

Today is the big day, where the Nexus One by Google is released.  I previously wrote a post on the price leak being a fake, and I was, in part right, while the price itself was correct, the T-Mobile lock in was not accurate.  Rather, when you go to the website, and go to the checkout page, you get to choose what provider you would like to buy it with, or if you would like to buy it without any provider.  At the time of this release, you can only buy it unlocked or with T-Mobile, however, as you can see from this screenshot, they have plans for other networks.  However, if you click on the Verizon button, it takes you to the droid website.

It also appears that the Terms of Sale Policy is the same as the leaked one.  This clarifies quite a bit.  I was complaining about a few discrepancies in the policy, however, when we take into account that there are going to be multiple providers, each with a different price point, the Terms of Sale becomes logical.

This is a good thing.  Unlike the iPhone, which is currently only provided on one network, you can get the Nexus One to work on any network, CDMA or GSM, however, it appears that currently, only the GSM model is available.  This will promote competition among providers, and a network will no longer be able to rely upon having the exclusive on the best smartphone.

The hardware and software on the phone is nothing special, or rather, the presentation did not reveal anything out of the ordinary with the phone.  And many articles on Engadget provide a good idea of what the phone provides.

The only thing that I am worried about is Google’s reputation.  They have a reputation of just dropping products.  To be fair, this usually only happens to products that are in beta, and they do not claim this is in beta.  However, other than selling a few server based products to enterprise customers, they have little expertise in selling hardware.  They are used to being able to release early, and release often.  For phones, this doesn’t quite work.  Unless you buy the incredibly expensive unlocked option, you are stuck with the phone for two years, and Google can’t just make a slight hardware change to their phone, as they are used to being able to do with their other products.  I am not very worried about Google doping support for the phone in the near future, however when it happens, I also fear that Google won’t do a very good job announcing it.

All in all, I am still very excited for the phone, and now I’m debating about buying this one in a few months.  I still think that there is a few things that they could fix, and I would also prefer a tablet to a phone, but I still am excited for this, and the general direction that Android is going in.

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