If I see this at 8:10 am in the morning, what does it mean?

Here is one possible answer:

Another possible answer is that the TWL is close….

Happy hacking!

(Image (c) Dilbert.com)

I need to rant about this… the Dojo documentation is simply in very very bad shape… For example the superb description of the dojo.subscribe feature:

This is one of the major features, available since Dojo 0.9. And there is NO documentation available. And I’m even not going to talk about the fact that there are tons of broken links in the documentation or examples do not work on their own site… (if samples are available at all).

“Unbeatable JavaScript Tools” – I agree to this slogan 100%. Unbeaten in performance, bugs and documentation.

</rant>

Wow, I can hardly believe it… In Dojo 1.6.0 my very old bug has finally been fixed…. it supports scheme less URLs, after almost 2 years, wow!

Bug closed.

Recently a new startup in Germany released a task manager, called wunderlist. As I already did some reviews about GTD applications for the iPhone and because wunderlist is free I checked it out on day one. Not so impressive in my opinion. Good application, but requires some work to be really useful.

Today the iPad application called wunderlist HD has been released, again with great buzz around it. Downloaded it. Again not so impressive. Decided to write about it.

Don’t get me wrong, wunderlist and wunderlist HD look beautiful. They are developed using the Appcelerator platform which makes development for multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android….) relatively easy. Wunderlist offers cloud syncing. And it is actually a real, released product.

But in the end I think there are other alternatives (ToDo, 2Do, Toodledo to name a few) that are around way longer, offer more features and work faster (wunderlist sometimes reacts slowly). Also faster in terms of task entry and efficiency for me, the user. Furthermore others have proven over years to work and sync reliable and they improved their features over time…

So I really wonder what’s so wunderbar about wunderlist? To me it solves an already solved problem with more buzz, that’s it…

Getting rich by writing an app for the iPhone and selling it in the appstore sounds very lucrative… however all those free (and most times useless) apps don’t make it easier to be successful. And in my opinion they destroy the business model, as free can’t pay any bills.

For example:

Pano’s not particularly cheap, at $3, but it can create some enormous, impressive panoramas right on your iPhone. (source)

Unfortunately lots of people I talk to think the same – “oh, this app is sooooo expensive, it costs 3 Euros!”. Come on, you paid at least 200 Euros for your iPhone and you pay about 20 Euros per month for a contract… and then you complain about 3 Euros for some useful software?

What bugs me even more is if these people are software developers who write software on their own! They know how much time it takes to write (bug free, nice and shiny) software, earn money by writing software and and still they complain if a developer wants to get 3 Euros for his software?

Wow.

Update 1: it seems iAd does not really solve the issue of the million apps in the appstore. $ 14,- per sale is not worth it.
Update 2: same problem on the iPad – just too many apps and too little showroom.
Update 3: make sure you don’t miss this comic!

(Image copyrighted by theoatmeal.com)

Raubkopierern geht es jetzt mit “neuen Geschäftsmodellen” an den Kragen. Anstatt Inhalte günstig und überall zur Verfügung zu stellen wird lieber geklagt. Wobei das auf neudeutsch “einen Einkommensstrom zu erzeugen” heisst. Das ganze ist kein vertreten des Rechts mehr, sondern einfach eine neue Einnahmequelle.

Hallo liebe Film- und Tonstudios! Macht Inhalte günstig und überall verfügbar, dann werden sie auch gekauft!

Und liebe Verlage, macht nicht den selben DRM-Fehler, den die Film- und Tonstudios gemacht haben! Wir Konsumenten wollen Bücher kaufen, weitergeben und günstiger bekommen, wenn wir uns schon einen teuren e-Book Reader anschaffen!

Siehe heise online für den ganzen Artikel

(Bild von flickr)

Der/Die/Das Apple TV ist ja an sich eine gute Sache. Da kann man Videos, Fotos etc. am großen Fernseher ansehen anstatt sich vor den kleinen Laptop setzen zu müssen. Und man kommt auch relativ zeitnah zu den US-Ausstrahlungen an Serien ran. z.B. an die letzte Staffel von Lost.

Theoretisch.

Praktisch nämlich nur wenn man in Deutschland wohnt und nicht im Entwicklungsland Österreich. Weil hierzulande wird im iTunes-Store kein einziges (!!!) Video angeboten. Aber die Apple TV Box wird weiterhin verkauft.

Ob die Käufer das vor dem Kauf wissen? Dass das Gerät in Österreich zum großen Teil nutzlos ist? Und ob den Filmstudios bewusst ist, dass sie so sicher nicht mehr verkaufen? Besonders wenn man die Filme auch kostenlos bekommt?

During the beginning of the iPhone Apps area a lot of multi-protocol messengers came out. They allowed the users to use one application to chat via MSN, ICQ, Jabber and others. For most of these clients a new account had to be created – the service provider would then store the username/password of the IM services.

So far, so good.

Now, after testing some different applications for a while, I decided I don’t need some of them so I removed the applications from the iPhone. But the Websites still have an account which stores all my MSN, ICQ, … passwords, right?
For most providers it was not a big deal to remove or delete the account – the “hardest” was to write a mail to the support to get a hidden URL where I could request removal.

Not so for eBuddy. They simply don’t offer any way to remove an account. Yes, I can remove all IM service accounts from the eBuddy-account, but I cannot remove the eBuddy account itself. I also tried sending various mails to feedback@ebuddy.com, pr@ebuddy.com or privacy@ebuddy.com – all unanswered, even after several reminders.

So I can only recommend to think twice before creating an account with eBuddy – there is no way to opt out and it seems there there is no support at all!

Where are students supposed to learn about version control, bug tracking, working on teams, scheduling, estimating, debugging, usability testing, and documentation? Where do they learn to write a program longer than 20 lines?

Well, I could not agree more. Most students and new-hires do not know to work in a team for longer than a night (the last night before the deadline). And unfortunately a single, long night with energy drinks does not require source control or anything else that is required in real-world code in a real-world team…

Read the full article on JoelOnSoftware.

A new IM for the iPhone is out – Fring. It even allows to make calls using Skype – great! Unfortunately I used a very poor password (no, it’s not test123) because I was to lazy to type and remember something long when I signed up on the phone. Can change it later anyways. Can I? At least the iPhone client does not offer any way to change the password. The Web site does not offer anything. The support wrote me:

Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the password you registered with.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you are not satisfied with the password you used, we suggest opening a new account.

Not very smart… so I stopped using the application – if I cannot change my password to protect my account, what else will not work?