Archive for October, 2007
Blogged on October 23, 2007 at 23:11
So GMail is offering IMAP… finally! 
It’s not out to public yet, but I’ve been one of the lucky ones to get it for testing! Here are my thoughts on my first 20m around it.
First off, IMAP is GREAT!! It’s a great way to keep all your mail and folders (inc. sent, drafts, custom folders, etc…) on the server so that all you have to do with every client you may use (be it Thunderbird, Mail.app, Evolution, KMail, etc…) is enter your account details and you have it all right there. It gives you the mobility of a webmail with the power of a desktop client.
Then GMail came out! It was the first true web-based email that could cope with the his desktop counterparts. Google didn’t even offer POP3 support until later on, focusing their efforts on their web interface (that hasn’t been change since then!). If everyone remembers when it came out, the frenzy around the invitations was the best marketing the web has seen, and since then many have copied it. It introduced the whole concept of “Beta” being something “cool” more than “buggy and not ready”!! Kudos for that.
But with the advent of mail on mobile phones, they had to find a solution past their (nice but limited) phone app. In my opinion, they knew they needed IMAP now.
And so I went to try it on my preferred desktop mail app: Mail.app. I was curious on how they would get “around” the “Labels vs Folders” issue that has been long discussed around the web. And that is what the picture on the right shows: they turn them into folders. Please note that on that picture, I have already set my Drafts, Sent, Trash and Junk to the appropriate folders, so I have them correctly set along with the same folders on my other IMAP accounts. But the Labels into Folders was horrible: Why are they placed as local folders (although they’re not) and not under my Inbox for GMail??? Why is a “[Gmail]” Smartbox created for my GMail, when it should be “under” my Inbox, like any other IMAP account, and just like it appears in the web interface??
I think IMAP is a great feature, but it messed up my Mail.app organization. I need those Lab… err… Folders to be listed inside my Inbox, just like the “All Mail” and “Starred”.
When I tried moving them, the Labels on the web interface where changed to “INBOX\Label_name” implying that it is possible to do it with the necessary arrangements on their folder structure on the servers.
And oh boy, I can’t wait for that!
PS: I know there is at least one major university considering moving to GMail for their institutional mail. If anyone is aware of how the process of moving their current mailboxes and mails goes, and it’s twists and quirks, please mail me so I can inform them on how to proceed. I’m sure IMAP will be a feature they’ll have as a pre-requisite… and now they can have it!!!
PS2: I’m having some problems with Firefox and Wordpress… The link dialog is not showing up on the editor and I don’t have time to manually enter links. I’ll put some appropriate links tomorrow!
Blogged on October 19, 2007 at 23:20
One of the things I tend to do with some relevant news, is actually check their sources (google comes in handy here).
The latest news on a IM application is Instantbird. Everywhere I read about it I read something along these lines: ” (…) a great IM application, still in it’s early development stage, but brought to us by the great folks down at Mozilla“. It caught me by surprise!! I have been following Mozilla’s blog, and all the tech feeds around the planet and was unaware of Mozilla having any development on a IM software outside of Chatzilla!!! I went to their “Projects” page, and saw nothing referring to it. I used the search on mozilla.org and the only result I got was from a blog aggregated to Planet Mozilla, from David Ascher, but in no way relating Instantbird with Mozilla (beyond the obvious: Instantbird is build on Mozilla’s framework!). Also their own website mentions no connection whatsoever with Mozilla other than the above mentioned. Please prove me wrong if this is the case!
So far I got two websites saying that Instantbird is a Mozilla project. If you find more, please tell me and I’ll add them!
- Mashable (for more “fun”, check their trackbacks!)
- WinTech (portuguese) UPDATE: I emailed them, and since then, they’ve edited the content! Still horribly written and flatout wrong mention of “Mozilla’s collaboration with a company in the making of a new IM app”. Badly written, flawed news report… argh
Talk about viral news, huh?
Blogged on October 19, 2007 at 22:45
I’d never heard of this… After seeing this at Amazon, I had to google it and found this. It’s basically a press release of EA and Valve, saying that EA will distribute Valve’s games worldwide, meaning the “hardcover” version of the games (sold in shops on CD/DVD) are distributed by EA, and it explains the avalanche of EA games being distributed through Valve lately… 
I’m always learning in the most unexpected ways… I did *not* see that coming! (and it’s old news too… “July 18, 2005″)
Blogged on October 17, 2007 at 11:06
Apple announced earlier today they’ll be releasing a third-party SDK in February 2008. In my opinion this was planned all along and there are a few reasons why I believe this didn’t happen at launch, but they needed to “buy” time to get the whole infrastructure ready for the wave of development coming in.
I felt like the iPhone was somewhat “rushed out” and I can back that by saying that Apple has not accustomed us to announcing a product that was to be actually released over 6 months later. And the reason behind this being that they knew other competitors were investigating the same technologies, and Apple wanted to keep the “novel” factor
The other reason is the large infraestructure that has to be deployed both on the hardware and on Apple’s end, to ensure both security but also ease of use and of install of those new apps. After all, Apple just released their “Web Apps Collection” website a few days ago, something that should have been out all along.
The final reason is that they didn’t announce that iPhone apps were to be online web apps until later on. They did mention that it would be some closed format, etc… but only in June did Steve Jobs announce that their intentions for apps on the iPhone were webapps. I can’t agree with having a phone, or better, a portable define that is a *lot* more than just a phone, to not be able to include offline apps that are missing from the phone. An example pops to my head: my boss is switching back to a Blackberry (although he hates it now, after having used the iPhone!!!) because of the lack of a To-Do list app… In all honesty, he bought an iPod Touch to go along with it, but I believe other people discovered other things that were missing. I miss a password management app. I’d love to have Password Safe (Password Gorilla, on OSX) on my iPhone.
Another parallel thing is the whole “webapps paradigm”… I really like some webapps out there! Heck, I’ve been using more webapps lately, and the percentage is increasing. But I don’t feel so good about entering my passwords and personal data into a webapp, that’s hosted somewhere, susceptible of attacks and data mining, etc… This are very serious issues! And I’m not a “privacy freak”… I don’t care too much about having photos, mails, profiles, etc… around the web. But not personal stuff, like credit card information, secure passwords for home banking and such, etc…
And, oh boy, I can’t wait to get a SSH client working on my iPhone!!! Can we access the disk now, Apple?? And have some web development tools for quick hacks and fixes on my stuff?? Pleeeeeeeeeeease… ??
Blogged on October 16, 2007 at 10:28
iPhone Biggest Bug… should it ever exist…
Starting with this one, I’ll try and post individual bugs I keep finding on my iPhone…
BUG: If listening to the iPod while docking the iPhone, the song will fade out to a stop. When done syncing, and pressing Play again (either from the headset button, or from the quick “double-tap-home” shortut) an older state is resumed, and not the one during which the dock happen. That means another song will be resumed. Annoying!
See you next time…
Blogged on October 15, 2007 at 21:41
I’ve talked about this project sometime ago (post in Portuguese), and I’ve kept it dearly. It’s a great project and concept, and a key feature in desktop Linux. Everybody interested in Gnome, Linux and Open Source in general *should* take a look!
On their latest version, they’ve added YouTube and Google Calendar support, along with bug fixes and some other cool features.
They’re still a development product, and they’re releasing versions with some known bugs (and warning you about them!) but the idea is to get user’s input into the making of the product. If it were a webapp, they’d call it “Conduit Beta”… :p
You can get some screenshots and even a screencast on their website.
Blogged on October 15, 2007 at 21:25
Well, I thought it was just my imagination, but I just read that others are feeling the same thing.
Ever had a strange vibration-like feeling in your leg, in your pocket area? Like you had your phone vibrating in it?? Well, I have… it’s happening less since I got the iPhone, because I tend to keep it out of the pocket quite more often! hehe But it happened a lot with my previous phone, my good-ol’ Nokia 6630 (great phone for the 2 years I had it).
Geez… it’s scary!
Blogged on October 14, 2007 at 19:01
Alguém me consegue, por favor, explicar o que leva a se protestarem valores, tais como 426,50€ para o salário mínimo nacional??
E mais ainda: o valor que exigem para 2011 (porque foi prometido em 2007 pelo actual governo) é de 450€, contra os actuais 403€… Hmmm… Se em 2007 426,50€ é o absurdo que nós conhecemos, em 2011 450€ vão ser uma fortuna pelos vistos, já que o Governo está a “descartar-se” dessas promessa.
Antes de mais, os valores estão errados… Não sei se o erro é jornalístico ou partidário, mas segundo li, os valores prometidos são de 450€ e 500€ para 2009 e 2011, respectivamente. Mesmo assim…
… E que tal se estes senhores se preocupassem com coisas mais importantes como a produtividade, a redução do peso da função pública, a privatização da segurança social (não eliminando a pública), a criação de zonas de incentivo à criação de novas empresas no campo tecnológico, nomeadamente a Norte (sem os custos dum Tagus/Lagoas Park, nem sem a falta de condições duma Lispólis, onde a ligação à Internet é deplorável e o serviço deixa bastante a desejar), na luta contra a desinformação latente da população no que a novas tecnologias diz respeito, na verdadeira liberalização das telecomunicações sem a Anacom a fazer o papel “pseudo-acusador” da PT e bloqueando assim soluções revolucionárias que a PT tem recursos para implementar, etc…
Não vou listar mais, porque a lista é interminável. Nem era para listar ponto nenhum, mas senti que devia pelo menos “abrir o pulmão” nas coisas em que quero ver o meu país evoluir. Ponho a criação de zonas de incentivo a “start-ups” no topo das prioridades, nomeadamente a nível de “startups” de software e “web apps”, algo que a nível empresarial em Portugal é visto como “fundo perdido”, investindo-se apenas em empresas que produzem algo visível, como hardware ou software comercial, com versão “Retail”… Estarei enganado?
Blogged on October 11, 2007 at 23:55
This might be too good to be true, but news came out that 2 of my favorite bands of all times are about to embrace the same paradigm Radiohead did this last Wednesday, October 10th. They’re about to go label-less and release their new albums on their own!! Although that doesn’t mean they’ll use the same pricing strategy as Radiohead did, it means they help keep the major labels… “ticked”! (this a family-safe blog :p)
Interesting enough, they’re all… European (british) bands… 
I could go on and on about this issue, but I really have been thinking over this, and I don’t want to get all excited about something I don’t see happening in a broader sense… period. We all know Radiohead, Jamiroquai and Oasis have huuuge fan-bases and lots and lots (and lots!) of money, but *unfortunately* many bands rely on getting a major label contract to really start selling some music.
I say “unfortunately” because this is result of our generation’s way of consumption: we wait to be presented with something we’re told to like, it turns into a hype, it’s shown everywhere from commercial products to TV shows and… the hype dies out, and we wait for the next one!
Of course I’m not talking about myself. I’m very much into post-rock (that term alone is unknown to many!) and listen to amazing bands like God is an Astronaut, Sigur Rós, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, etc… and buy their albums, and try going to concerts when possible. But I’m part of a minority of music lovers, that uses amazing tools like Last.FM (I’d vote on them for best social/music website EVER!), to find artist unknown to the general public. But let’s face it: we’re not the ones filling stadiums and buying band-branded school gear, etc…
I’ll stop here! First, I’m loving this new paradigm of true music communication. After all, music is an art-form and for it to fulfill it’s main purpose is to be heard by as many people as possible, whether they buy it, rent it or borough it, but have the music speak to them. Second, that’s what I love about post-rock… and Radiohead!
The links on the bands names are for their Wikipedia page… It can help getting a background and some cool info on them. But I can’t stress this enough: Visit their websites and listen to some music samples… Heck, buy their albums!! Most of them, if not all, can be found on the iTunes Store. On a side note, God is an Astronaut sells their albums for $8, DRM-Free and in 320kbps… And yes, they’re one of my favorite bands, and they’ll be in Portugal next week for 3 concerts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
via Telegraph.co.uk
Hey! I‘m Levi Figueira, an ‘82 portuguese tech enthusiast a.k.a geek! My interests range from design, photography, multimedia, production and music to linux, networking and development! *Personal tastes are subject to change without prior notice* :p Enjoy! =)
