(This started out as a comment to (e:jenks) comment on (e:paul) 's journal, but I think it's gotten too long for a comment. )

I'll be getting an iPhone from work, hopefully, that we'll try to use with the ERP system we're developing.

We're kinda bummed that we can't take the OS X code that we're using in our database client and reuse it to make a stripped-down version that runs on the iPhone. And I'm personally bummed that there's not going to be, at least for a while, an iPhone Cocoa API that would vastly increase the potential job opportunies for myself (and (e:zobar) as well). So much for my fantasies of buying a house on Richmond with plenty of insulation, no dust, and central air.

Yes, it sucks, but then again, Cingular has been very good about respecting users' ability to use bluetooth and the users own file's however they see fit. Someone like T-Mobile or Verizon or Sprint deciding that I can't put a public-domain midi file on my phone as a ringtone and charging me $$$ to have to use their ringtone from their network, which I'll have to keep paying for over and over again when my subscription to ringtone runs out, pisses me off vastly more than the iPhone apps issue.

I've heard that one of the reasons why Apple went with Cingular (aka AT&T) only is that they were given a wide amount of latitude in what they are allowed to do. If Verizon or T-mobile had iPhones, they would probably put in enough restrictions that sucked even more than Apple's.

I am salivating. Severely.

I've wanted to write programs for cellphones for years, but most mobile manufacturers make the process needlessly difficult. I've looked at Windows mobile, but I can't find a single, bare bones "Hello World" visual basic/c# tutorial anywhere on Microsoft's site (lots of pretty promotional crap, though). And the mobile java community has had it's head shoved up its ass for years (how many acroynyms and layers of abstraction does one need, anyways?). And palm? Don't even get me started. Nokia python? Was easy, but couldn't do much with it. The closest thing I ever found to a usable mobile API was Trolltech's Qtopia+python, and that had way too many user interaction issues.

If this phone comes with some sort of Cocoa programming library like the kind I use for the macs as work, this phone will kick some serious ass.

I am posting from my old Sharp Zaurus. It dates from a time when I used to have in a group of technologists that I today no longer have faith in. Still, it's a intriguing curiosity, sort of like a steam-driven car from last century.

I thought that I'd turn the Zaurus into something useful' maybe a recipe guide to keep in the kitchen or something of the sort, maybe some kind of remote for home automation. Who knows. Since my powerbook's LCD got cracked, it's also the only portable web browsing technology in my apartment. I guess this post technically qualifies as a mobile post, though it's not really from a cell phone.

In my first week back from my micro vacation in NC, Ifindthat I come back to a situation where I still don't have my shit together. My house is a mess and the spreadsheets at work that I'm supposed to hook up to the database are full of typos that break things and this weekend was taken up by sleeping constantly to get rid of my sore throat with rest and tons of OJ.

I guess I need to look on the bright side of life. Last weekend I found out that there's still a lot of people back home who love me very much.

Mix one part boredom, one part curiousity, and rudimentary text-editing skills, and the result is this silly little thing I created: an estrip Dashboard widget for Mac OS X. It's basically a stock Apple thingy I modified to work with estrip (which probably doesn't even count as real programming work). But I find it useful for getting a quick summary of the latest posts. gather tracking number: 0385317001160110609
In the future, I'd like to add some more features and more customized artwork.

In other news, I go to yet another PHP users meetup. Again, I'm the only person attending. Everyone else has been such flakes, and I can't blame them totally because the people running the group have cancelled so many group meetings or changed venus that not a lot of people seem to have faith in the group. Also, the H.R. guy who started the group (as a sneaky recruiting tool) got fired from the company that had a lot of the members coming to the group. Arrgh. Why can't there just be one tech group I can attend in Buffalo, like Internetworkers back home?

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of creating an informal technologist group that meets every week somewhere (spot, bars, etc) to drink beer/coffee, network, and shoot the shit about the latest developments in digital stuff. I'm still toying, because the PHP group is really not giving me my fix because they're almost never meeting.