The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2011

By TechKnow | December 18, 2011

This geek gift guide is not so much for geeks and techies but for those that have geeks and techies in their life and need a little help in finding the right geek gift this holiday season. If you want to wow the geek in your life with the latest technology gadget you need to look no further.

For two years straight the iPad has been the most coveted piece of technology on most self respecting geek. The iPad is great for geeks no matter their expertise, music, photography, gaming, social media, etc. A geek that travels a lot or enjoys reading on their iPad when at a coffee shop would enjoy the 3G iPad so that they can always be connected no mater where they are. Whether you give the geek in your life an iPad or if they already have one, there are a ton of great accessories, such as a envelope iPad cases from Poketo.

Poketo Envelope iPad Case

Poketo Envelope iPad Case

Over this last year there has been an explosion of tablets come into the market such as the Amazon Kindle Fire, and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet. The Nook tablet at $249 is a great bargain but so is the Amazon Kindle Fire at $199. The Nook tablet is a bit faster and more powerful than the Kindle Fire, but if you already own a Kindle or have purchase Kindle ebooks then the Kindle Fire would be the obvious choice.

For the financial whiz in the family I would recommend the HP 12c Financial Calculator. The HP 12c Financial Calculator has a retro HP look and over 120 mathematical functions that would be appreciated by any business and finance power user.

Every engineer needs a notebook and there are no better notebooks than Moleskine notebooks. Moleskine has come out with a limited edition Star Wars notebooks perfect for that die hard fan. For the old school video gamer in the family, they also have a limited edition Pac-Man set.

As everyone already knows, the standard geek uniform is jeans and a t-shirt. Any self respecting geek needs to have some ThinkGeek shirts in his wardrobe. ThinkGeek gear is like Armani Exchange for geeks, binary fashionable and geek chic.

If you need more suggestions, take a look at previous years geek gift guides:

The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2010, The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2009, The Ultimate Geek Gift Guide 2008

Posted in Gadgets, TechKnow | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Android Lacks Polish

By TechKnow | December 16, 2011

I’ve been an Android user since the HTC G1 first came out. Since then, I’ve had and used the Google Nexus, HTC G2, and the Dell Streak 7. I’ve tried to like my Android devices but they lack polish or frustrate me in several other ways. The first annoying lack to details is noticed immediately as soon as you un-box the device. Just turn over the device and you’ll see three or more logos, the maker logo (such as Dell, HTC, or Samsung), the carriers logo (T-Mobile or Verizon), and the product name or other insignia. Apple products just have the Apple logo. On Android devices, you’ll have different logos each placed on the back plate separately, the vendor’s logo will be etched into the back while the carrier’s logo will be some cheap vinyl sticker placed afterward.

My personal pet peeve with Android devices is the craziness with moving apps from the internal device’s memory to the external SD card. Even relatively recent Android devices such as the Google Nexus and Dell Streak 7 have less than 1GB internal memory so if you download a lot of apps you’ll soon need to move apps around to the SD card. But some apps you can’t move to the SD card so that presents a different issue.

Who cares if the phone’s memory can be extended by using higher capacity SD cards if a one year old device can’t even be upgraded to the latest Android version. So the whole thing with extensible SD cards and moving installed apps from the internal memory to the SD card I find completely and frustratingly useless. The whole concept of an Operating Systems is that best manages the resources of the device, the Android OS should best manage installed applications in either the internal memory or SD based on some intelligence. Why am I doing Android’s job?

Another concern I have with Android devices is that they usually come with a lot of pre-installed apps. For example, my Dell Streak 7 came with Kongregate Arcade app which I can’t remove and reclaim the wasted internal memory. Similarly, carriers and vendors add and customize Android so that no two devices have the same user experience.

My last concern with Android’s lack of polish is its dark goth color scheme. Most application’s menu and option screens are as if they were designed by a goth listening to The Cure. The Android UI design is not “Just Like Heaven.”

Posted in TechKnow | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Retweet November 2011

By TechKnow | December 2, 2011

From time to time I just blast tweets about software development, project planning, team dynamics, or whatever else comes to mind. Here is a synopsis of recent tweets and rants. If you want to follow the conversation follow me at techknow and/or juixe.

Software Development

  • Making good UI means making ugly choices.
  • There was a time when having a computer made you a nerd. Today, people being “good on Facebook” does not make you a nerd.
  • Love working with jQuery Mobile.

Thought Leadership

  • Everyone has a vision, the difference is the scope, lens, and filter around the vision.
  • Tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to be amazing and amazed.
  • You ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers.
  • I’m not on StackOverflow, so when people ask for my SO reputation I instead give them the the monthly referrals I get from SO.

Product Placement

  • Sweet. Amazon just sent me a $5 credit because of a “technical issue on the Amazon.com website” that I am not even aware I encountered.
  • Found my first handheld device… An HP iPaq RX3715 running Pocket PC 2003 Pro w/ Outlook 2002. It’s still in great condition!
  • David Pogue wrote his review of the Kindle Fire, sounds like he wrote it from his iPad.

Overheard

  • OH: Don’t they have Cliff Notes for the DMV driving manual?
  • OH: Your brain cells are sexy!
  • OH: Sometimes when you put things in the closet it doesn’t mean you have a clean house.
  • OH: don’t do it but it you gonna do it make sure you get paid for doing it.

Thanksgiving

  • I’m turkeyed-out. I had all major food groups and at least four different meat groups.
  • McDonalds should have a McTurkey with McStuffing.
  • Thanksgiving is the time to eat food you don’t like, I mean why do you only have it only for Thanksgiving?
  • The holidays forces families to come together because everyone else is with their families.
  • I dislike food holidays. Especially when everything is so good.
  • Instead of counting sheep, I’ll be counting turkeys tonight.
  • Gobble gobble gone.
Posted in Programming, Rant, Social, TechKnow | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Retweet October 2011

By TechKnow | November 28, 2011

From time to time I just blast tweets about software development, project planning, team dynamics, or whatever else comes to mind. Here is a synopsis of recent tweets and rants. If you want to follow the conversation follow me at techknow and/or juixe.

Software Development

  • To checkin or not to checkin a large changelist five minutes before you go home, that is the question?
  • A test like a good movie, has three parts: the setup, the car chase, and the test of the results.
  • Testing is like a tax, you have to pay 5-10% to have a good running infrastructure or system.
  • Testing takes time, make sure you make the time, because it will save you time in the long run.
  • All programmers have a black belt in hubris.
  • One bytecode to rule them all.

Thought Leadership

  • Your miles may vary, but it often depends on your attitude.
  • Passion + Perseverance = Possibilities
  • Sometimes you can’t afford to lose a client, but there are other times you can’t afford keep your client.
  • Just like there should be no hard coded strings there should be no unwritten rules, or assumptions, or specifications.
  • The dumbest people I’ve ever encountered are those that think that the rest of the 99.99% of people are a bunch of idiots.
  • If you are unique no one can compete with you.
  • Team meetings should not feel like an AA meeting, “Hi, I’m bob and I work here.”

Product Placement

  • I’ve used the iPhone apps for Google Voice and G+ and I have to say, Google does not know how to make a good iOS app.
  • I’m not liking the new Google Reader look. I would not be surprised if the next version of Google design has ribbons.
  • Leave no smart phone behind. Google won’t upgrade the Nexus One to Android 4.0.
  • Google is set to update its motto to “Do no evil if you ain’t getting paid for such evil.”
  • Android is to Google what Internet Explorer was to Microsoft in the Browser Wars. MS gave IE for free just to take out Netscape.
  • Siri is to Apple what Kinect is to XBox what Facebook Connect is to Facebook what Circles are to Google Plus…
  • Every time I upgrade a MS product an angel loses his wings.
  • Is Amazon also adopting social networking features? I just noticed that Amazon has a like button on its product pages.
  • Facebook should update its mission “to trick people to over share and make the world more open, connected, and trackable.”
  • Google should update its mission “to organize the world’s information about our users and make it accessible and useful to our advertisers.”
  • @att has two options in terms of text messages. Pay as you use for $0.20 or unlimited for $20. What about a third option, disable texting altogether?
  • Why does it cost half of the price of a stamp to send or receive a text? It’s endemic of an industry that has no competition or innovation.
  • The Kindle Fire tablet is a modern day physical shopping cart for Amazon’s virtual online store.
  • History is being made every day, yet @historychannel airs reruns of Ancient Alien.

Quotes

  • OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW. – Steve Jobs’ Last Words
  • I’m so embarrassed. I wish everybody else was dead. – Bender Bending Rodriguez
  • Goodbye monobrains – Bender Bending Rodriguez
  • There is no recession for great companies… – Jason Calacanis
  • Software is like sex: it’s better when it’s free. – Linus Torvalds
  • Coming together is the beginning; keeping together is a process; working together is success. – Henry Ford
  • When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. – Walter Lippmann

Randumb

  • On Monday mornings we are all zombies.
  • Why am I listening to old school British punk rock? #GodSpankTheQueen
  • The truth is that truth is absolutely relative.
  • And then God said, “Let there be bacon,” and there was bacon. God saw that the bacon was delicious.
  • You’re so vain, you probably think this tweet is about you.
  • Fist pump for peace.
  • Anybody that gets lost in a corn maze is an absolute moron.
  • I hate Lifetime movies!
  • Business is legitimate thievery.
  • Some of the most common elements on earth idiotum and dumbtonium.
  • meta-disrupt: Disrupt those disrupting disruption.
  • I am, therefore I meme.

Thought Equations

  • Meaning > money
  • problem = opportunity
  • means != ends
  • Success > Perfection
  • Experience != Information
  • Thinking > Knowing
  • Do > try
  • Platform > product
  • Creation > criticism
  • Passion + Perseverance = Possibilities

Million Dollar Ideas

  • Million Dollar Idea: Online Speed Dating Site
  • Million dollar idea: a news channel with nothing but news tickers…
  • Million Dollar Idea: self cleaning floors.
Posted in Programming, Rant, Social, TechKnow | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

jQuery Mobile + PhoneGap = Awesome Mobile Development Platform

By TechKnow | November 14, 2011

I’m currently prototyping an iPad application and I’ve just found working with jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap to be a breeze for mobile application development. I’ve used iOS SDK before and I’ve experimented on test applications with Android and I’ve always found issues with both the iOS and Android development frameworks. I’ve also looked into cross platform mobile development toolkits such as Appcelerator Titanium and Sencha Touch but I found these were not of me at the time. Any of the aforementioned platforms and frameworks can be used to create a great looking and functional mobile application but I found that they each ask the developer to make a trade off.

With jQuery Mobile, you develop your mobile application with HTML5 and JavaScript/jQuery. With jQuery Mobile, all of your UI is written in pure HTML5 tags with the correct CSS classes and attributes. jQuery Mobile is built on top of jQuery so many web developers can immediately start being productive with jQuery Mobile.

Everybody has an idea for the next great iPhone application. The top reasons I’ve heard from people, including from developers, as an excuse for not getting started is that they don’t have a Apple computer, they don’t want to learn another programming language, they don’t have time, etc. jQuery Mobile invalidates all of these excuses. You can use Firefox or Chrome to test your jQuery Mobile application, you develop using plain HTML5 and JavaScript, and most it’s easy to pick up.

Because a jQuery Mobile application is just a HTML5-based web application, if your an run it on your iPhone or other mobile device using the native web browser. On the iPhone, when you run a jQuery Mobile application the browser will take up a small portion on the screen for the navigation buttons, bookmarks, and other controls of the browser. One way to claim all of the screen real-estate is to create a native application, that is where PhoneGap comes in. PhoneGap is a native shell around a web application, such as those developed in jQuery Mobile. With PhoneGap, you can turn your jQuery Mobile application into a full fledged native application.

Posted in Gadgets, HTML/XML, JavaScript, Programming, TechKnow | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment