Three Fields, Three Rings, Troika

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/07/mozilla-geode-released-with-support-from-pownce-and-fire-eagle/

Am quite intrigued: http://pandastream.com/

If you get a chance, please check it out and let me know what you think.

In a sign that all those 3rd party developers and companies are keeping pushing the envelope when it comes to apps for iPhone, MokaFive announces iPhone Sentinel: http://www.mokafive.com/solutions/downloads.php

I do get the programming itch from time to time. Yesterday I came by offices where my friends work, and I stood there, listening to their brainstorming on Java classes, interfaces, etc. Truth be told, sometimes I do like programming, sometimes I hate it. But I love nothing more than working along brilliant programmers, soaking up every gem of knowledge from them, even if that makes me look dumb compared to them.

I got rid of my bloated Eclipse Europa, reinstalled it, installed Spring framework, installed Tomcat 6.06. And now, the only thing I need is TIME… Determination and motivation are there, time is not…

It’s been a long time since last post. The month of May has been absolutely insane! First, I am doing a couple gigs on the side. Second, I am seriously considering pursuing MBA this coming fall, so I’ve been busy taking GMAT, writing essays, and such (sponsorship, anyone? please?). Third, I had the luck of taking a vacation with my wife to San Francisco and Sonoma. We actually took an open cockpit biplane ride! I highly recommend it - anyone coming that way in Sonoma and planning to take plane ride should go there: Vintage Aircraft (http://www.vintageaircraft.com). I highly recommend these folks!

As June rolls in, I’ve decided to focus on these things:

1. Work on the consulting gig - this gives me the opportunity to get back in touch with software development world, and thus, keep my brain cells from dying out at disproportionate rates.
2. Work on my own family’s start-up. We have exciting things coming up, and the buzz among the musicians has finally picked up. Stay tuned!
3. I am thinking about creating a subsection on this blog, which will feature my analytical articles. These will, theoretically, feature synopsis of the market, company, or product, and associated metrics with it. I’ve always been interested in analysis - be it business or market, and then deriving the high level strategy based on the findings.
4. Preparing for the MBA school in Fall - if all goes well!

There’s been some buzz going around the Internet that Android SDK is still full with bugs and is still very much in pre-baked state to be truly useful for the developers. The CNET says as much: Is mobile really a sure thing for Google?

The critics claim that Google is too “desktop-centric” and thus the field of mobile apps presents risk to Google due to its relevant inexperience in this industry.  I somewhat agree, but I don’t think that the obstacles are that dangerous or unsurmountable for Google. For starters, Google has already developed the mobile versions of its applications such as GMail and GMaps, and quite successfully! One only needs to take a look at the newest version of OS for iPhone, which sports the new GMaps functionality developed in collaboration with Skyhook Wireless, that mimics the GPS functionality.

I’d just give Google a bit of time to shake out the bugs and streamline the development efforts, along with the negotiating efforts with the related companies.

Finally started playing with this stuff (especially now that my employer replaced my laptop that died with a widescreen T61 Thinkpad). And one thing worries me a bit: the emulator is a memory hog (or is it?). See the screenshot below. What do you think? Given that it’s Java technology we’re talking about, it’s of course expected. Still, this coming from Google, famous for its fanatical adherence to the “lean and mean” maxim - this makes one think.

Exactly a week later, Google released the SDK for developers! Read here. Tomorrow I’ll download it and start checking it out… To get your hands on the SDK as well, download it here: http://code.google.com/android/

And here we already can witness some resistance to Android - read the BBC article.

For those of you who were wondering, the official website for Google’s Android project is: http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/index.html