The Ramblings of a Fosgnilbmareht

Someone once asked me why would people work on an open source project or a free project (as in they aren’t getting paid by anyone to do it). They wanted to create a community around these people but did not know them (weird idea to me, create something for someone you know nothing about). I have worked on a few of these projects and have a site going for one right now at http://www.myhtcphone.com

What’s my reasoning for doing this? For the site I am working on, a developer ported Android to my phone, HTC Vogue (Sprint Touch) and I was interested in it. I want to see what Android can do and based on early impressions, it is looking really good. Fast, responsive and seems like it could be almost infinitely expandable. That is something I am very interested in. I created the site and started making contributions to the community because I want to help further this project. I want to be able to do more on my phone and since Sprint won’t help me get there, I had to look to other fans who were taking a proactive stance. I wanted to be one of them.

Another reason I am working on this site is a monetary one. I have ads running on the site, and eventually I will put other money making systems in place to bring in some revenue. I am not looking into turning this into a cash cow though. I just want to bring in enough to cover server costs and future expansions and then, if there is anything left, give that back to the community. I want to be able to give something back to the people working on this as a thank you for their time. Maybe invest in a couple of test phones so they don’t have to use their own phones. I also want to do other things like that for this community that is working so hard on something no one else will pay them for …. yet at least.

So the reason I work on these projects is mostly to help something that is useful to me. If it isn’t available yet and I can use it/need it, then I want to help out. I want to make things that others will find useful. I want to be part of something that is greater than myself and where I feel I can actually make a contribution.

If you contribute to this type of project, what are your motivations?

dzo over at xda-developers.com has ported Android to the phone I am currently using, the Sprint Touch. The phone also goes by the name VX-6900 (Verizon) and Vogue (generic name). It is made by HTC. It comes with Window’s Mobile 6.0. Carriers are starting to release version 6.1 which includes threaded messaging, EVDO Rev. A and GPS. The threaded messaging is nice because it means no more 3rd party apps are required for something that should have already been built in. Palm had it on the Treos for years so why did it take Microsoft so long to make it standard? EVDO Rev  A speeds means faster Internet connection. The connection was pretty fast before, slightly better then low DSL speeds, but now its 2-3 times as fast, or it seems like it. The GPS isn’t true GPS, I’m not sure if any cell phone does have true GPS, but it works pretty well, when it works.

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Another post from Clear Night Sky:

Steve Nelson recently sent me, and a few other people here at Clear Ink, an article from the New York Times. It tells about a new approach being tested to measure a marketing campaign’s effectiveness. The company, IMMI, is providing cell phone service for it’s test audience, and in return, the audience doesn’t have to do anything. Well almost nothing - they are asked to carry the cell phone around like normal, as it replaces their existing phone. IMMI monitors what these cell phones can hear throughout the day and then match it with whatever marketing they are measuring. They say it isn’t listening to your conversation, only the media around you. Very Big Brother-ish if you ask me, but how do you know that your *current* cell phone isn’t already doing this already?

And with GPS apps like Google Maps, it even knows where you are and where you have been. Of course, most cell phones have built in GPS anyway so you don’t even need to have the app installed to be tracked. Granted some of this is pretty cool when used right, but where do we draw the line between usefulness and having the CIA know our every action, word and location?

Another one of my posts over at Clear Night Sky:

Now that I have a HDTV, I feel this is even more of an important issue. Draw me back to TV. Live TV. I pretty much get all my content from the ‘Net now. Especially since it was so easy to hook my new TV up to my computer using a standard DVI port. I think my apartment still has cable … I would never know since my TV rarely leaves PC mode (Except to play video games).

I posted this awhile back on Clear Night Sky and I liked it so I thought I would repost it here:

Yahoo! just released a beta 3.0 of its Yahoo! Go mobile service. Version 2.0 gave you mobile access to your Yahoo email, calendar, contacts, news, maps, traffic and more. While 2.0 was ok (would have been great if I could use my slide out keyboard on my phone), 3.0 looks simply amazing. I am truly excited about 3.0. It’s doing what Facebook Apps did for Facebook, but on something I use constantly, my cell phone.

My normal cellphone of choice is a Windows Mobile device so I am used to having real applications on my phone that are fully functional just like on my computer. But Yahoo! Go 3.0 will let me write apps for it in a simple-ish language and have the added benefit of being able to use it on my other cell phone line (don’t ask, it’s cheaper for me to have 2 cell phones and service then 1 so I go with it), or any cell phone that can support Go. There are so many uses that someone could come up with for this, but me, I am looking forward to finally being able to write a ledger for my accounts so I can track my spending. Call me new school but I never carry a checkbook around, or even a pen for that matter, so being able to enter this on my phone and have it update online would be really useful to me. It’ll be interesting to see what others develop for it.

In the title I called Yahoo! mobile crazy cool and the last paragraph gave just a hint of how cool it could be, well now just a taste of how scary it can be. While not supported yet, Phase two of Yahoo!’s launch will try to make use of some of the phone’s built-in features like location based services. This means the application will be able to locate where you are physically and update the service with that information so you can get usual facts like nearby restaurants. This sounds cool to, but combine it with the tracking and stats they plan to implement soon and then anyone, not just the CIA, will be able to track where you go. They can also track how long you stayed somewhere, what people you were close to (if they also have the program installed) and where they went. Of course, the thing that makes me feel better about this is that it *should* only work if you have the app running.

Overall, I am excited about this news but slightly worried. I may be a lot more worried when they roll out phase 2 but for now, I am going to go write a checkbook widget.

Read more about this at Yahoo! Mobile