A free lesson in multi-user web apps – Google Docs collaboration

Google has published a 3 part overview of how their Document collaboration framework.

If you’ve ever wrestled with permissive locks and multi-user collaboration (ex: encounter based care) it’s a bit mind blowing. They must have a bucket of patents on this one, but the lessons are free for all to learn and apply …

1. Working together, even apart
2. Conflict resolution
3. Making collaboration fast

If nothing else, these articles do lay out all the issues. They provide a framework for thinking about these problems.

I do love blogs.

An iPhone 3G with unchangeable black wallpaper - solved (groan)

Skip to the end for the (sob) solution ...
--
Tim's 3G wallpaper was black. For him this was not a feature. He likes setting his wallpaper, though not always to my tastes.

I tried restarting his iPhone, but the problem persisted. Then I installed 4.1. That went oddly; it threw up a very cryptic and long error code about a firmware update failure, but then it completed. (Yes, I wish I'd noted the error code. These sorts of number codes are typically useless, but they're better than nothing.)

The phone seemed fine, but the wallpaper was still black. Interestingly it let me choose an image, but only the lock image changed - but there was no error code and no option to choose a background image.

After that I ran the troubleshoot gamut ...

• restore default settings
• erase all from iPhone then reactivate
• force into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode do a new (4.1) firmware restore

The repeated firmware install went without an error, but even that didn't work!

I think next fix I can imagine would involve jailbreaking and browsing the file system to see if I can locate an odd image stored with some kind of permissions or lock problem. Or I could try an Apple store.

Or it could be a memory hardware error.

Puzzling.

Then I tried restoring the phone, and I got "an error occurred ... -402636802". I then looked at the app install and it was grayed out. I knew what that was due to!

I disconnected from iTunes, turned off restrictions (App Install), reconnected, and let iTunes finish the app restore.

Still can't fix the black background (missing background image really) problem.

Update:

I figured this one out.

Remember, it's been a while since I used a 3G.

The 3G never had changeable wallpaper. Only the lock screen could be changed. Tim misled me by phrasing this as a lost feature. In reality he just wanted me to make his phone work like his parents' phones.

Well, that was certainly educational. Embarrassing too. At least it was a cold gray day.

The phone is fine. The install bug is real though.

When Safari locks up - Kill Flash process

A #$!@ ad on Salon locked up Safari.

I started Activity Monitor, sorted by Process Name, and force quite Flash Player (Safari internet plug-in).

Safari lives again.

Death to Adobe.

Updating Emily's 3GS to 4.1 - crash

I waited until 4.1 to be safe, but when I tried to update Emily's 3GS it was a disaster.

The phone went into recovery mode. Of course I forgot to pull photos off it, so I fear any on the phone will be lost.

Stupid of me not to pull the photos off.

So how often does the 4.1 update bork a 3GS?

Update: I was wrong. Backup does include photo and video. iTunes did an initial restore of the firmware (to 4.1 actually) then it let me restore from backup and we have the photos. I can think of a few reasons why her phone blew up

1. As it was doing the upgrade I plugged in another phone to iTunes. This is not normally a problem. iTunes can normally manage multiple connected iPhones. The upgrade pear shaped within a second, probably less than a second, of plugging in the other iPhone.
2. I used to sync this phone with a different account with a shared .Mac ID. I'd moved it over (separate post why) to a family account with the same .Mac ID, but I hadn't bothered to replace the music.

Update: With Tim's 3G iphone, which has always been synchronized to this account, I got an "error occurred while restoring this iPhone" during the 4.1 update. I think there's another reason for that however.

Synchronizing iPhone to Google - a review

Nothing new here, just a summary of the different ways one can sync between an iPhone and Google (Personal or Apps).

Ok, some of these things (dual alarm) are new with 4.2. Also new in 4.x, I think, is that if you choose the default Gmail account sync in the iPhone you get an option to sync your calendar. I think that used to require some separate setup. Note "Exchange" means ActiveSync.

My impression is that Apple likes CalDAV/IMAP and Google likes ActiveSync; they call it GoogleSync.

Calendars:

• CalDAV: get two alarms, I think color assignments might be coordinated across accounts? Multiple calendar configuration requires a secret web page accessed from any browser.
• Exchange: can invite people and can sync more calendar types (holidays,etc). Multiple calendar configuration requires a web page accessible only from the phone

Email: 

• IMAP: can choose between delete and archive, more iPhone like UI.
• Exchange: Push works much better, can't delete email, only archive

Notes

• IMAP only - not sure this is worth anything anyway. Use Simplenote.

Contacts

• Exchange only

Why the new look?

I'm trying a new template, and making some other changes with "carriage returns" to see if I can get slightly less awful results with Blogger's rich text editor.

Update 9/25/10: didn't fix the problems

OS X 10.6: Synchronizing Address Book to Google Contacts

The Help file for OS X 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard) Address Book sync to Google Contacts links to this oddly named Google page: Where can I find information about Contact Sync? - Contact Sync Help.

This is what we get.

I'm working up to trying this. Currently I sync my iPhone contacts like this:

1. Corporate: to and from Exchange 2007 [1].
2. iPhone Personal <-> MobileMe Contacts

There are two additional syncs

1. MobileMe <-> OS X Address Book <-> Google Contacts (My Contacts)

The last of these is mediated by Spanning Sync.

Both MobileMe and Spanning Sync cost money. I could easily live without MobileMe Contacts.

So I'm considering either  ...

1. iPhone Personal <-> OS X Address Book <-> Google Contacts
2. iPhone Personal <-> Google Contacts <-> OS X Address Book

Either way the Google Contacts to OS X Address Book would be mediated by Contact Sync.

Remember how easy this all way with the Palm III?

[1] This means my employer can wipe my iPhone at any time. This might or might not delete photos. Everything else is either synchronized or backed up, but a remote wipe would be a pain. Know your risks.

Speck PixelSkin HD for iPhone 4 - review

A month or so after I ordered it, I received my Apple funded case ...

PixelSkin HD for iPhone 4 - Black - Speck Products

.... Patterns and textures can turn “plain” into absolutely fabulous. PixelSkin HD has a shiny polished back with matte pixel overlay, creating an eye catching, sophisticated, and modern artful look. Light dances off the crisp, linear pattern of mathematical protection and perfection...

My iPhone feels obese. I had grown accustomed to the slender, almost imperceptible, naked iPhone 4. The case is great, but it is still a case. It is also black, which was the only option. Were I spending my own money, I'd have bought a case that's harder to lose on an airplane seat.

I've seen Apple's bumpers recently, and I think they'd be fine too. They may even be more shock absorbent. This Speck case, however, doesn't interfere with older iPhone connectors and, of course, it does protect the back half of the phone and the camera lens. If you're going to use a case, you might as well protect the back of the phone.

Now that I have the case, I'll be more relaxed -- so I'm sure to drop the phone. (Same phenomena is said to occur with bicycle helmets).

I'll get used to the obscene bulk. One day ...

Update 9/25/10: It has a thin rubber segment that crosses above the connector slot. I think that will eventually stretch, catch on my pocket and break. One day ...

The big problem with iPhone Gmail sync via ActiveSync (Exchange)

Google's recommended approach to Gmail iPhone synchronization is ActiveSync/Exchange.

This method has some advantages (push, simplicity) and some minor disadvantages (filing is awkward if you do that).

It also has a major disadvantage. If you delete in Mail.app, then Gmail archives.

Gmail doesn't delete it. It archives it. This appears to be intentional, and it's not configurable.

Update 9/22/10: I switched to IMAP.

Apple's iPhone parental controls are completely broken

I've ranted about how crappy OS X Parental Controls are, but I thought iOS did better.

Not.

My son specializes in hacking iOS. It's not hard. Even #@$@ PublicRadio.app has an $@$# embedded webkit browser function. Disabling Safari doesn't disable embedded WebKit access, and it's evidently extremely easy to incorporate WebKit into an app. So app developers do it -- because they can.

What the heck is wrong with Cupertino and parental controls? Is it the (bottled) water?

Update 10/2/2010: Martin in comments suggested a brilliant idea Apple could implement now. They could say that any app with unrestricted embedded webkit access gets an NC17+ rating. I'm sure PublicRadio and WolframAlpha would close their backdoors immediately.

Of course there are lots of things Apple could do in software, but that would take at least 6-12 months to do if it's not already done. I like Martin's suggestion.

Where OS X Chess Engine comes from ...

In case you ever wondered what powered OS X Chess ...

Sjeng - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

An earlier open source version of Sjeng has been the engine of the standard Mac OS X Chess application since Mac OS X v10.4

There are far more powerful modern versions, but the price is right for the open source version.

Installing from an ISO file for OS X VM hosted XP - use Disk Mounter

This is fun, but geeky.

I run XP in a Fusion 3.1 VM so I can use PowerPoint 2007 (PPT 2008 for Mac is a disaster,my dept requires PPT)  and a few other ancient Windows apps (Quicken, Access) with no Mac equivalents.

Recently I had to install from an ISO file. There are lots of ISO mounting solutions for Windows (not needed for Vista/7?), but I didn't need to bother. OS X Disk Utility (Mounter) will mount an .ISO file, just double click on the file.

I mounted the ISO file in OS X 10.6, then in Fusion I shared it into the Fusion environment.

Sweet.

[1]  OS X .DMG files are a form of .ISO file, and the simplest form of .DMG will mount with a Windows ISO mounter if the extension is changed.

Update: Andrew W, clearly in a party pooping mood, points out that if I'd looked in VMWare under "CD" I'd have seen it will mount an ISO image itself.

Google, please fire the team that's working on Blogger's rich text editor

I've finally cracked. I hate Blogger's broken rich text editor. It's time ... Please fire the team that's working on the Blogger rich text editor - Blogger Help.

GV Mobile is back - wait for the reviews

GV Mobile has returned to the App Store, presumably due to FTC pressure on Apple. Is the Battle of Google Voice entering a new phase?

It's now GV Mobile +. I bought it, but you shouldn't until you read some reviews. There are already troublesome signs

• Sean didn't manage to update his web site prior to launch.
• It's not an update to GV Mobile, so you pay again. I'm actually fine with that, but it does mean GV Mobile customers should wait for reviews.
• It wasn't tested on the iPad.
• It apparently doesn't run on 3.1 -- and there's no mention of that in the iTunes description! (Bad form.)
• It's not compatible with Google's "Multiple sign-in" feature.

Basically the developer got caught out, GV Mobile + was not ready for launch. Give it time, read the reviews, and one demerit to Mr Kovacs.

Update 9/25/10: Working fine in light use. Probably coincidence, but the voice connections using this methods have been better quality than what I was getting dialing direct. It's faster and more reliable than setting up a long dialing sequence with pauses. I use it 3-4 times a week to call Canada.

Reeder vs Byline: Battle of the iPhone Google Reader clients

I've used the Google Reader client Byline. app on my iPhone for over a year. The latest version is the best to date, but it's still has synchronization problems. It continues to show me articles I've read.

Reader itself has problems of this sort, but Byline is significantly worse. So lately I've been trying Reeder. I wrote this quick review for the app store ...

Bad news first. It crashes more than it should, but not more than Byline. Secondly it needs a manual, and it desperately needs a "reset" button to wipe its local store and force a reload from Google Reader. Thirdly it get its sync state confused, but no more than Byline. Lastly it doesn't precache the source pages, so Byline has a big edge there. There's no support for creating a Google Reader "Note" status update (Byline doesn't either).

Now the good news. The under-documented UI is elegant -- once you figure it out. (Programmers raised on games think life is a role playing adventure.) Readability is excellent. There's an option to open source pages in Instapaper Mobilizer - a vast improvement over Google Mobilizer. Services and configurability is excellent. Performance is great, so stability is now a bigger issue. It shows Following (Byline doesn't) - but here it gets counts wrong.

Bottom line - definitely worth the money, currently the best of breed, room for stability and synchronization improvements and, for the love of Binary, please add a reset option.

I think Reeder is a better app than Byline -- for the moment. It's not perfect though. If the developer doesn't fix a few bugs soon I'll take a look at Mobile RSS next.

See also (reviews found by search on [Reeder Byline "Mobile RSS"]:

• Reeder vs. Byline – An Instapaper Addicted Mobile RSS App Review: He loves what I miss -- the caching of full pages in Byline. In the end, he's torn.
• Reeder 2.0: Finally, An Awesome iPhone Feed Reader Arrives
• iPhone’s Missing Feed Reader – Shawn Blanc: Likes Reeder, but wants more

Update 9/30/10: No contest. Reeder is much better. There are bugs (Followed count), and crashes, and I miss the original page pre-caching -- but it's still the clear winner.