Re: Heller versus DC

2008-06-27 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Which would give new meaning to the term killer feature and I would be
first in line to buy one (after I passed the screening process).


-Original Message-
From: George Brooke [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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To: community@lists.openmoko.org
Subject: Re: Heller versus DC
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:03:15 +0100


Or maybe future US versions of the Freerunner should include a handgun
builtin.

solar.george

from the UK

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:21:41 -0600
Joe Pfeiffer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Guys, this is really, really off-topic in this forum.  Please, the
 list traffic is heavy enough with items that are germaine, let's not
 get into this branch of politics
 
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Re: humor

2008-06-23 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Agreed...one of my favorites.

http://xkcd.com/325/


-Original Message-
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Subject: Re: humor
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:28:34 +0200


On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:38:59 +0200, Flemming Richter Mikkelsen  
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 http://www.xkcd.com/433/

Who needs to tell jokes when you have XKCD? Just post a number, and  
everyone will have a good laugh.


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Re: Wish list for future Freerunner

2008-04-17 Thread Jonathon Suggs
My Nokia N95 works fairly well.  They don't do too much with it, mainly
just adjust the backlighting to conserve a little more battery.

To agree with Mickey, just because the hardware can do something (that
may seem cool at the time) doesn't mean that it should be done.  But on
the flip side, not having the hardware being capable of something
completely eliminates any possibilities.

So, a light (or proximity) sensor could be a good addition to the next
hardware rev, but just don't go crazy trying to make use of it.


-Original Message-
From: Michael 'Mickey' Lauer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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To: List for Openmoko community discussion
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Subject: Re: Wish list for future Freerunner
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:14:29 +0100

On Saturday 12 April 2008 18:46:16 Ron K. Jeffries wrote:
 Next significant iteration of Freerunner
 should include light sensor.

Actually I have yet to see a device where a light sensor does not get in the 
way and eventually annoying a lot. This seems very hard to get right (both on 
the older iPAQs and the N8xx it's barely usable).

 My understanding
 is that's one part of iPhone secret sauce for intelligently
 dimming LCD while phone is held up to user's ear.

IIRC they're using a proximity sensor rather than a light sensor.

:M:


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Re: Neo Freerunner manufacturing status

2008-03-19 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Awesome update both in progress and content!  I realize that you are
right in the middle of the crossfire and probably get a lot of flack for
things that are mostly out of your control.

I put in one email yesterday why I think people get frustrated with the
lack of hardware updates.  Its because they are given so much insight on
the software side of things, but comparatively little on the hardware
side of things.  Combine that with the fact that (to an extent) any work
effort they put into the software can't fully be realized until the
hardware is completed.  So it definitely puts FIC into an
interesting/unique spot.  They (from a manufacturing standpoint)
probably give out more internal info than most companies, but the above
scenario makes it feel like they are being even more tight lipped.

Keep up the good work!

-Jonathon


-Original Message-
From: Michael Shiloh [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
community@lists.openmoko.org, steve [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Neo Freerunner manufacturing status
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:55:29 -0700

Hi everyone,

I just received a status report from our VP of Marketing, Steve Mosher:


The Freerunner design is currently staged to go through Production
Validation Test (PVT). The hardware design A5 is, we believe, solid. We 
are updating this design to A6 to maximize production yields.

The purpose of PVT is to make sure the yield is high enough, and to make 
sure the manufacturing and testing process is smooth and efficient.

Steve also welcomes direct contact from you. He can be reached at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Michael

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Re: FreeRunner delayed a further 6 months?!?!??

2008-03-18 Thread Jonathon Suggs
This isn't another negative post about the delays, I promise.

I have loosely followed this project since somewhere around the middle
of last year.  There were delays, they didn't tell/inform us.   It was
very frustrating because I was in a situation like yours...I really
needed a new phone and I wanted to wait it out.

My honest suggestion is to not wait, but go out and get a phone that
will either make you happy now or just one that can live with.  I'm
currently *extremely* happy with my N95!

Why?  Don't know your exact situation but my guess is that even when the
FreeRunner is initially released it isn't going to be completely
polished anyway.  So rather than get all frustrated (and build some
resentment toward the project like I did) don't put an artificial
timeframe on them...they will release the hardware when it is ready, not
when you are ready for the hardware.

Besides, now that I am not in need of a phone I can be more supportive
and fell less compelled to complain.  Also, having a second phone is
going to be a good thing in case you manage to somehow screw up the
software.  Last thing, I don't want to hear the I can't afford two new
phones argument.  You are looking at dropping $400 on a phone...so
another ~$25-100 is NOT that much of a difference.


-Original Message-
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To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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Subject: Re: FreeRunner delayed a further 6 months?!?!??
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:17:39 -0700 (PDT)

Delayed another 6 months is a deal breaker for me. If I can get a
Freerunner that is hardware stable, makes phonecalls and does most phone
functions in a month or two, I'll be fine, otherwise I'm gonna have to
start looking at other devices. My current phone is on it's last leg and
it's time to upgrade. 

- Original Message 
From: Ben Burdette [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
community@lists.openmoko.org
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2008 4:53:22 PM
Subject: Re: FreeRunner delayed a further 6 months?!?!??

JW wrote:
 On 14/03/2008, Tom Cooksey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  

http://www.telecoms.com/itmgcontent/tcoms/news/articles/20017514053.html
 Please, PLEASE tell me this is not true? Or at least it's the
consumer version that's delayed?


 Is this just not sowing seeds of realism along previous lines...?

 FreeRunner hardware release in spring 08.
 Polished software not available til much later

  
I guess it comes down to your definition of slightly.  To me
slightly 
earlier than 6 months from now is more like 5 months from now, not 1
or 
2 months from now.  That would put the gta02 dev release into august.  
However, this article doesn't have a direct quote from a FIC 
representative, so something may have been lost in the retelling.  I'm 
looking forward to some clarification of this, as I was under the 
impression that gta02 hardware was projected for availability in the 
next few months. 



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Re: FreeRunner delayed a further 6 months?!?!??

2008-03-18 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Just throwing my $.02 out there, but your first paragraph is exactly the
type of paragraph that I personally feel is what the community is
wanting/expecting from Michael in his community updates.  Furthermore,
*if* they do find a showstopper bug, knowing that too would be nice as
well.

I honestly think that most of the frustration centers around the fact
that there is a decent amount of visibility (and discussion) around the
software and its maturity, but there is (especially in comparison)
almost zero visibility into the hardware.  I'm not necessarily faulting
FIC for that lack of visibility behind closed doors as most companies
wouldn't do that either.  I'm just merely pointing out the obvious
contrast and why it is causing frustration.

-Jonathon


-Original Message-
From: joerg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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To: Lally Singh [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: List for OpenMoko community discussion
community@lists.openmoko.org
Subject: Re: FreeRunner delayed a further 6 months?!?!??
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:06:25 +0100

The hw-designers hope they hold the golden master in their hands with 
version A6 currently.
Seems there are no showstoppers been found so far.
Power management is at a reasonable some days to some weeks in standby 
with GSM.
 
Sean Moss-Pultz wrote:
 Over here we're working as hard
 as we can to get FreeRunner out of the factory. Things are moving nicely
 now. Pilot runs are in a few days from now.

Note he didn't say working hard to find the bugs. To me it sounds like it's 
all about ramping up the factory.

So i guess you *will* see some timeline or at least an update to be published 
in the next weeks, no more need for a _monthly_ update blog.

cheers
jOERG

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Re: Community update: GSM firmware, 850MHz experiment, GTA02 progress

2007-12-10 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Depending on the level of complexity, this could be *great* news for me.
I don't travel internationally that often (currently, but the frequency
could always up in the future) so having quad-band is borderline nice
and necessity.

But if I could make changes (before/after trips) to switch the bands,
then I might consider that a workable solution.  I'm fairly handy with a
soldering iron, so as long as it isn't too complex I'd feel comfortable
doing it.

I know that they are probably into very finalized versions of the
hardware, but it might be worth looking into how much change would be
required to ease the transition between bands.  Example, if it is just
a small number of wires that has to be changed, possibly creating a
switch to toggle between the settings.  I, for one, would consider
that a more than suitable workaround and almost nullify my no-quadband
issues.

-Jonathon


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Subject: Re: Community update: GSM firmware, 850MHz experiment, GTA02
progress
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:32:50 -0500

In regards to the 850MHz Issue:
It seems that very little effort was required to switch a phone board
to 850 for testing.  So my question is what exactly is involved.  Was
it simply switching which pin is attached to the antenna?  If it is a
relatively simple circuit change and involving only a top (or bottom)
layer trace, is it possible to tell us what connections to change to
convert an existing unit to 850MHz.  Obviously only  for the very
experienced people.  If there is different capacitor, etc required to
match the frequency it might be less doable, but details would be
nice. once the design has been confirmed.  On a side note this is
excellent news that the 850 variant may not be far behind GTA02.

Mark

Mark

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Re: A problem with usb networking

2007-12-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I was wondering why people we using static routes.  I have my own dhcp
server, so if I want static routes, then I just put the configuration
into the dhcp server (based on MAC address).  It lets you only have to
configure one thing and everyone get the same information.

Whether or not a dhcp client was part of the standard build/image, it
will almost be required for GTA02 as *most* wifi networks make use of
DHCP.  So, I would say that making sure that it works as expected will
give you a jump start on GTA02 testing.  In addition, whatever the
method for configuring network information needs to also play nice with
dhcp.

All I got,
Jonathon


-Original Message-
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Subject: Re: A problem with usb networking
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 00:07:10 +0100

 Something I haven't investigated -- could the NEO do dhcp?


yes - in fact i'm using this to avoid all the hassles with my  
network .. ipkg install udhcpd should give you what you need ..

;
--
Jay Vaughan





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Re: Gphone isn't open, linux dev not possible

2007-11-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Just came across this discussion

http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/e8efe3d7e9927851/04302351954cbc6f#04302351954cbc6f


-Original Message-
From: William Voorhees [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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Subject: Re: Gphone isn't open, linux dev not possible
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:55:48 -0600

I wouldn't say I'm not concerned, but I'm hopeful. In one of the
video's Sergy Brin says that it will be entirely open. I hope that
google's Do No Evil slogan takes hold.

-Will

On Nov 14, 2007 1:34 PM, Festival.Star [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Yeah that is true but Googles saying:

 Over time, more of the code that makes up Android will be released, but
 at this point, we have been concentrating on shipping an SDK that helps
 application developers get started. In short: Stay tuned.

 But what does over time mean, that can be 2 months but also 2 years.
 So at the moment it is definetly NOT open.

 William Voorhees schrieb:

  upon further inspection it looks like your right, though I am still
  hopeful based upon this entry in the FAQ.
 
  http://code.google.com/android/kb/licensingandoss.html
 
  Assuming that this is true, it only strengthens the case of the  Neo
  1973 and openmoko project. If the 850mhz issue resolved, I'll be
  buying one. The ability to run various linux based platforms on the
  Neo 1973 device is great. Furthermore this offers great opportunities
  for porting the openmoko platform to any of the android based phones
  that should be coming out in the next year. They will already have a
  working kernel, etc.
 
  -Will
 
  On Nov 14, 2007 11:55 AM, Martin Kirchgessner
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
  2007/11/14, William Voorhees [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 
  that's what I thought, till I found this:
 
  http://git.android.com/
 
  -WIll
 
 
  Don't be fooled it's only the kernel sources: they have to publish
  them, as required by the GPL. What about the libs sources? The VM?
 
  Marty
 
 
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Re: Community update: The 850 MHz issue

2007-11-06 Thread Jonathon Suggs
First, thanks to Michael for giving the update.  It is never good to
have to be the bearer of bad news.

However, this is huge!  My probability of purchasing just dropped from
95% to about ~5%.  I'm getting ready to move and not knowing what my
coverage will be like in those areas is definitely a deal killer.  I
occasionally do some international travel and also spend time in more
rural areas so quad-band coverage is an absolute must have (not just
something I want for the warm fuzzies).

I'm not going to be overly critical, but how does this just slip through
the cracks?  Although somewhat marginal, quad-band chipsets do cost more
than tri-band.  It just seems really really weird that ensure you have
all of the functionality working would be an absolute no brainer.  When
putting all of the components together for a *PHONE* you would think
that you would test, re-test, check, double-check and then triple check
the actual *PHONE* components.

My mind is pretty much blown over this one...

-Jonathon


-Original Message-
From: Jae Stutzman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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Subject: Re: Community update: The 850 MHz issue
Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:37:15 -0600

Man this royally sucks for me. We only get 100% coverage because of the
850 band where I live. 1900 is being added slowly, but not anywhere
close to full coverage.

Anybody want a neo? I sure wish this information would have been
provided _before_ the purchase.

Jae

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Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

2007-11-02 Thread Jonathon Suggs
That does look pretty impressive especially considering that hardware
acceleration isn't implemented.

But now my question is how does e17, OKL4, raster, etc. all fit into the
overall OpenMoko equation?

-Jonathon


-Original Message-
From: Oliver [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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To: community@lists.openmoko.org
Subject: Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 19:45:52 +0100

Hey guys, there's even a video of fancypants showing video on the Neo:

http://www.fluffyspider.com/demos/live_videos/flv/fancypants-openmoko-neo1973-video-browser-phone-dialer.html

Woo! /Oliver
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Re: Openource handwriting recognition

2007-10-30 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Two separate quotes from the main website

However, some Tablet PCs or PDAs may not have a pen button or any other
convenient way to right-click. The alternative gesture to bring up the
context menu is the hold-click. Press with the pen without moving for
one second and the context menu will show up. If you start drawing ink,
you have moved the pen too far.

To insert a space, point the mouse cursor at the insertion hotspot at
either the bottom or the top of the dividing line between cells. If you
are pointing at the hotspot, arrows will appear at the top and bottom of
the dividing line, click to insert a space.

So yeah, they do talk about mousing over things, but they also talk
about PDA/Tablets as well.  Either way, this looks like a great stylus
input method, but probably won't work too well for a finger input
method.

-Jonathon

-Original Message-
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Subject: Re: Openource handwriting recognition
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:40:26 -0600

looks like it was developed with an active digitizer... (eg mousing
over stuff the insertion hotspot)

On 10/30/07, Gabriel Ambuehl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I believe this merits some very in deep looks:

 http://risujin.org/cellwriter/

 (via http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/2007/10/30#cellwriter)

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Re: Exact release date of GTA02v4?

2007-10-26 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I'll admit I was one who grumbled in the past.  My complaint was that
there was good flow of information when things were on track (which was
appreciated), but as soon as things slipped it was complete and utter
silence (hence most of the angry emails, not the actual slippage).

That said, posts like this are exactly what I wanted, and thank you very
much for taking the time to respond.  I can't speak for anyone but
myself, but I would much prefer hearing SOMETHING (whether it be delays
or not).  I honestly don't get that hung up on targeted release dates
that much...I would just like to know about the overall progress
(exactly like your email addressed).  However, I did grumble and still
think it is/was bad business practices when they posted release dates,
missed them (which is fine) BUT DID NOT SAY ANYTHING.

So again, thanks Michael.  We (or at least I) very much appreciate this
type of information.  It doesn't have to come that often, but a quick
blurb like this will go a LONG way in reducing the grumbling about
lack of information.

-Jonathon


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Re: Evolution - Message Filters

2007-10-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Ok, I wanted to share what I found.  It isn't quite as
easy/straightforward as that.  There is a preliminary step that you have
to take for that to work.

You have to go to your Edit-Preferences then on the mail accounts menu,
select Edit for the mail account you are wanting to have filters enabled
on.  Then on the Receiving Options tab, you have to check the option
Apply filters to new messages in INBOX on this server

I find that very non-obvious and extremely frustrating since you setup
filters but they don't work.  Oh well.  Maybe that is something we can
address in the version that is used in OM.

Thanks to all who responded.

-Jonathon

-Original Message-
From: Brian Wolfe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], List for OpenMoko community discussion
community@lists.openmoko.org
To: List for OpenMoko community discussion
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Subject: Re: Evolution - Message Filters
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:48:32 -0500

Just select one of the mailing list messages, right click select Create
filter from Mailing list in the pop up menu. :)


On Tue, 2007-10-23 at 09:56 -0500, Jonathon Suggs wrote:
 Sorry to send this to the whole list, but I figured at least one person
 out there is using Evolution.  I just (well, still in the progress)
 migrated my work desktop from XP to Ubuntu.  I was using Thunderbird for
 reading this list and had no problems having it move all OM related
 email to specific folders.  I've been trying several different
 combinations of message filters to get it to recognize the OM mail, but
 nothing is working and it is starting to become very frustrating.
 
 So, for anyone using Evolution (and sorting OM list mail) please let me
 know what you are doing.
 
 -Jonathon
 
 Side note, I was going to use Thunderbird here on Ubuntu, but I thought
 that since Evolution was what was going to be used for the Neo I'd go
 ahead and get familiar and hopefully have less troubles syncing the two.
 
 
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Evolution - Message Filters

2007-10-23 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Sorry to send this to the whole list, but I figured at least one person
out there is using Evolution.  I just (well, still in the progress)
migrated my work desktop from XP to Ubuntu.  I was using Thunderbird for
reading this list and had no problems having it move all OM related
email to specific folders.  I've been trying several different
combinations of message filters to get it to recognize the OM mail, but
nothing is working and it is starting to become very frustrating.

So, for anyone using Evolution (and sorting OM list mail) please let me
know what you are doing.

-Jonathon

Side note, I was going to use Thunderbird here on Ubuntu, but I thought
that since Evolution was what was going to be used for the Neo I'd go
ahead and get familiar and hopefully have less troubles syncing the two.


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Re: New TOP SECRET OM device??

2007-10-09 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Rodolphe Ortalo wrote:


Hmmm. Does it mean that (all real programmers use vi and all real
programmers use perl) or that (a programmer using vi is real and a
programmer using perl is real) or that (a programmer not using vi or not
using perl is virtual)?

Am I ok wrt to speculations at least? (To be real or to be virtual? That
is the question...)

Rodolphe
Actually virtual programmers are all the rage right now, so maybe using 
perl and/or vi actually *IS* outdated.


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Re: New TOP SECRET OM device??

2007-10-08 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Rodolphe Ortalo wrote:

Yes, that's pointless. Let's get back to more productive debates, like
the respective merits of using emacs or vi for $your_favorite_task_here,
or even maybe python or perl as a default scripting language for the
Neo.
  
Ok.  Only real programmers use vi.  Only real programmers use perl.  
Anything else and you are just kidding yourself.


Well now thats done are you ready to go back to speculating?



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Bluetooth - Hardware vs Software

2007-10-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I'll just be honest and say that I am just too lazy to search the tubes 
for the answer, so here goes.


From the bluetooth perspective, are many/any of the profiles dependent 
upon hardware or can just about any hardware module implement the 
profiles via software?  I thought that Bluetooth 2.0 was supposed to 
have a higher data transmission rate, so I would think that would 
require appropriate hardware upgrades, but I could be wrong.  That said, 
it wasn't completely obvious from the wiki whether the Bluetooth module 
was 2.0 capable or not.


I'm not a Bluetooth idiot, I just don't know where the line is drawn 
between hardware and software.  Any clarification would be appreciated.


-Jonathon

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Re: Bluetooth - Hardware vs Software

2007-10-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Brad Midgley wrote:

Johathon

Yes it is a bluetooth 2.0+extended data rate adapter (strangely there
are a few bt2.0 devices without edr)

The available profiles are determined by the software stack.

Brad
Thanks for the response, but if it had not included edr, then would 
there be profiles that it could not support?  That is more my underlying 
question.  Are profiles determined ONLY by the software stack or do 
hardware limitations that come into play as well?


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Re: Qtopia coming for Neo1973

2007-09-26 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Tim Newsom wrote:
I guess my only comment is that while I don't really care which 
interface people use on their phones, it seems like the data 
interfaces should be the same... If I open up qtopia phone edition and 
look at my contacts or maybe even edit them and then close it down and 
open up my OM interface and look at them, they should be the same.  
All edit are visible.. No double entry.


In general, I think that all of that should be possible regardless of 
which interface you use to view/interact with the phone.  Gives a 
little more isolation of the interface from the implementation of 
where everything is, and it gives people the option to switch at any 
time without fear that they need to copy / backup-restore their data 
when switching.  Especially with the relevation about being able to 
run them both at the same time. (Qt has x11 libraries/bindings 
right?)   So you could write qt apps which interact with GTK+ apps 
through the common data infrastructure.

--Tim


I 100% agree and that is just about the only constructive thing I've 
heard said on this (somewhat) pointless thread.  I don't know the answer 
to what he is asking, so if someone does, please speak.  At least then 
we might actually make some type of progress and meaningful discussion.


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Re: other text input concept...

2007-09-04 Thread Jonathon Suggs

--- wrote:

I had made some updates on my idea to a new text input method:

http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~guy/text_input.html

an append: when the user press the key it could expand (about 40%) that key
and contract the others. With that, the user probably will see all chars
that he can access by that key, even with his finger on the keyboard...

what do you think?

Guy
I really like that general style of input as it has large keys and can 
be done fairly easily using one hand.  However, the only thing I'm not 
too thrilled about with this design is the key layout.  What was the 
logic behind where they keys were placed?  I would think with just some 
minor tweaks, it could be very usable.  Yeah, and the color scheme does 
need a little work.  Keep up the good work.


-Jonathon

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Re: Yet another finger keybord (gui mock-up).

2007-08-27 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Lars Hallberg wrote:
You mean 8 drag directions + just press+relese... 9 functions per key. 
Might work. Guess testing on the device is how to find out. But 6x5 
keyboard with 8 drag directions give:


6 9 9 9 9 6
6 9 9 9 9 6
4 6 6 6 6 4

A total of 128 'keys'... Good *if* it works :-)
As someone who used MessageEase, which is what I think this topic is 
somewhat related to, my opinion is below.

http://www.exideas.com/ME/faq.html

Especially since the screen is smaller than most pda's, the actual 
button sizes need to be even larger to make it easy to hit what you 
meant without having to concentrate too much.  The version that I used 
had two setups.  One had lots of buttons that allowed you to input most 
any character, the other had only a 4x4 grid (shown in that link).  It 
had just 3x3 that were used for input, with 6 others that allowed for 
switching modes (uppercase, text/numeric, punctuation).  I personally 
found that *MUCH* easier to use with just my fingers.


Considering that just a 3x3 grid allows for 56 combinations (which is 
quite a lot).  If you surround a 3x3 grid with 7 switches, you can 
achieve 7*56 or 392 different keys, all from just a 4x4 grid!  So not 
only would the buttons be much larger, but you would also be able to 
have a much higher key density.

6 9 6 X
6 9 6 X
4 6 4 X
X X X X

I guess what I am trying to say is that less is more, and that is even 
more so with buttons competing for screen real estate.


-Jonathon

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Re: OK, the forum is coming..

2007-08-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Ben Burdette wrote:
I'd have to say that for the casual or occasional user, there are 
significant advantages to a web forum. For me, monitoring an active 
email list like openmoko in my email client is a fairly sizable 
undertaking - there are many emails per day to look through.  I take 
time several times a day to look through these, or just mark the 
folder 'read'.  If I were only want to look at the forum once every 
few weeks, then subscribing to the list would be overkill.  On the 
other hand, in order to participate in the list you need to 
subscribe.  So web-search only users are in effect barred from posting.
Even if our casual users wanted 70-80 emails a day for something they 
only use once in a while, its still a hassle to set up if you don't 
know about email filtering and etc.  Lots of people don't.
Compare this to the effort needed to visit slashdot.  You register 
once, and you never need to worry about it again.  Visit every day or 
every 6 months, doesn't matter.


The other aspect is that you are putting your real email address out 
there on the internet for lots of people to look at.  This means its 
an excellent place for spammers to harvest email accounts.  With a 
forum your personal data is more anonymous.  Plus there is potential 
for other social networking style things like user profiles - what 
users are working on, etc. 
You are exactly correct.  Quite frankly I am completely, totally, 
overwhelmingly baffled at the resistance to the forums.  Quite a few 
people have expressed their dislikes of mailing lists and how they were 
*very* reluctant (like myself) to join.  Although I consider my self a 
developer and on somewhat on top of technical stuff, I still would 
prefer a web forum.  I think that *most* non-technical people would also 
be more comfortable with a forum.  I'm really not sure what the motive 
for NOT wanting a forum is, other than people being set in their ways 
and unwilling to accommodate people less technically proficient as they are.


Now, the title of this thread is OK, the forum is coming.. because I 
thought that someone was going to set one up on at least until 
FIC/OpenMoko created an official one.  I think phpBB is the general 
consensus.  I would do it myself, but my servers are located at my house 
on a cable modem.  I have decent uptime, but it isn't as stable as a box 
in a noc.  I don't mind running it, but would prefer a more stable 
environment.  That said, just let me know if you want me to go ahead and 
set it up.  FYI, you can easily import/export to a different instance if 
we do want/need to change its location.


-Jonathon

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Re: GPS data from gllin

2007-08-06 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Krzysztof Kajkowski wrote:

Hi! I want to ask phase0 developers: what is the format of gllin
output data? I am trying to  convert it to google earth using gpsbabel
but I have no clue what i could be. Most possible guess is NMEA but
the error for my location is about half of the world ;))) so I guess
this is not it...

best regards


cayco

  
This doesn't answer your question, but can someone send a dump of a GPS 
session?


Also, if an application is going to make use of GPS data, what is the 
preferred method to get the data?  Directly from the device or is there 
some type of multicast protocol that you need to subscribe to?


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Hardware Recommendations - Desktop Bluetooth Module

2007-07-31 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Does anyone have a good recommendation for a  Bluetooth module/adapter 
for the desktop ?  Features: Bluetooth 2.0, good support under Ubuntu, 
and also provide most all of the Bluetooth profiles.


I don't mind a dongle, but would think that having an internal card 
would be less likely to get broken...since a dongle would always be 
protruding from the case.  Thoughts, opinions?  What does everyone else use?


-Jonathon

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Re: OpenMoko Forums Update...

2007-07-28 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Kyle Bassett wrote:

Hello Everyone,

forums.makeopensource.com is online and running.

For those of you who are unable to use the forums on a consistent basis, I
am actively searching for a solution for integrating the mailing lists,
NNTP, and forums; as one community.

I am setting up a second beta forum that has the ML/NNTP/forum integration
built-in.  Please test the functionality and report back.  I'm curious to
see if this new forum in the solution...

www.makeopensource.com/beta/

beta.makeopensource.com   (awaiting dns propagation)


Thanks!

-Kyle
Just thinking out loud here, but what email is the forum registered 
with?  Can you submit to this mailing list without joining?  If not, 
then Kyle, you'll have to sign up on the forum mailinglist with an 
address from makeopensource.com


Any other thoughts, suggestions?

-Jonathon

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Re: OK, the forum is coming..

2007-07-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Ted Lemon wrote:
Quite frankly I am completely, totally, 
overwhelmingly baffled at the resistance to the forums.  Quite a few 
people have expressed their dislikes of mailing lists and how they were 
*very* reluctant (like myself) to join.



Worrying about your email address being exposed is pretty silly.
Glad you can read my mind and figure out why I was reluctant to join a 
mailing list.  Here's a hint, it has nothing to do with my email being 
exposed.  Honestly, I just really don't like mailing lists...you can 
give me all the reasons in the world why *YOU* like them, but that will 
not change my opinion.  I would be willing to bet (even quite large 
amounts, seriously) that I am not alone in this feeling either.


Mailing lists are very efficient if you use them correctly.  Several 
people have explained their overall technical benefits.  However, even 
though it is by no means as difficult as compiling a custom kernel, the 
people are we are eventually going to be targeting will view it that 
way, and *WILL NOT USE THEM*, therefore rendering them useless as a 
communications method with that demographic.  Until you (the collect 
you) realize this, there cannot be a meaningful discussion on this topic.


The bottom line is that mailing lists are not an acceptable means of 
communicating with technical novices.  AGAIN, we are not talking about 
discontinuing the development list (that is/should be used by 
*developers*).  We are talking about Joe and Jane Sixpack, people that 
don't understand the term MUA, people that would be HORRIFIED if they 
started getting 70-80 email in a day, people who *don't* use email for 
project collaboration or searching for answers.  *THAT* is the reason 
that we are requesting a forum.  Not for me, and certainly not for you 
(again, the collective you) that look down upon anyone who can't figure 
out how to setup email filters, conversation threading, and whatever 
else is required to make mailing lists be the more efficient means of 
communicating.  Get off your technical superiority high horse and 
realize WHY we are requesting this...for improved communication with 
those who are less technically savvy.


Sorry for the rant, but the arrogance and snobbery are killing me in 
this discussion if you can't tell...


-Jonathon

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Re: OK, the forum is coming..

2007-07-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andreas Kostyrka wrote:

To put it differently, there is at least one Linux based gadget that I
use, that I'd probably put some time into it (it's my sat receiver ;) ),
where I don't participate, because the community organizes around a
forum. Well, end effect the community is very static and very small, and
  slowly dieing :(
There you have it folks, unmistakable proof that forums kill 
communities. I mean if Andreas won't contribute to a forum, then it is 
most certainly doomed.  :) (I kid, I kid)


Well, I've said it before and I will say it again.  We are not wanting 
to kill the mailing lists!!!  We are wanting to supplement the mailing 
list with a forum.  I cannot see ANY reason why this would be a bad thing.


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Re: OK, the forum is coming..

2007-07-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Not arrogance or snobbery -- different view of reality.

At this point, openmoko *is* a development project.  It's emphatically not
for Joe and Jane -- it says so on the web site, where you order your phone. 
There are disclaimers all over the place.  It's not even for early adopters
-- it's for hackers and developers.  Explicitly. 


It is devoutly to be hoped that someday there will be a need for a forum for
Joe and Jane.  But as a real concern that's at *least* 6 months away. More 
realistically, it will be a year before there is a unit that will be robust 
enough for Joe and Jane.
Point well taken.  However, we are starting to get some interest from 
people who fall into that middle ground category.  They follow 
technology (to an extent) but aren't willing/capable to actively 
develop.  So we are suggesting creating a forum to be able to answer 
their basic questions...ones that they wouldn't register on a mailing 
list to ask.


Mailing lists are great tools for keeping the developers in touch, and 
so we should not change that (nor has that even been suggested).  We are 
merely trying to establish another method to communicate with potential 
customers, even if they aren't going to be purchasing for 6-12 months.


Sorry for being so aggressive in my posts, but seeing people shoot down 
the thoughts/ideas just because it doesn't suit them is a little 
arrogant/snobby.  Anyway, thanks for bringing the tone down a little and 
making good solid points.


-Jonathon

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Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

2007-07-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Mathew Davis wrote:
Sorry for writing so much but I really feel strongly that a forum will 
only
be a positive thing.  The more information we can get out to general 
users

and the more help we can offer them the better.  I personally thing the
forums and the mailing list will be two seperate tools.  I don't think 
there
will be that much overlap.  By that I mean people who use the mailing 
list
now will probably want to stick to the mailing list.  But I also see a 
lot
of things that really don't need to be on the mailing list.  General 
topics

about equipment to go with the neo, new way's they will use the neo, and
just general questions about network providers and plans don't need to go
here.  Let them ask those question in the forums.  I think the forums 
would
be a good place for people to ask general questions get general 
answers and

just enjoy discussing a wide range of things.  I think the mailing list
could benifit a great deal from a forum.  Just my $0.02. 
I think Matthew's post was 100% correct.  People need to get off their 
high horse and realize that just because the mailing list and wiki works 
for them, doesn't mean that is the best tool for everyone.  A forum is a 
great tool, that allows people to follow threads based on what interests 
them instead of having to receive ALL of the messages.  Not providing 
one would be a great disservice to a lot of the people that (possibly) 
will be purchasing the Mass Marketed phones.


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Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

2007-07-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andy Powell wrote:

On Thursday 19 July 2007 23:39, Steven ** wrote:
  

Is that searchable?  Is it threaded?  Will there be someone on 24/7 that is
knowledgable and helpful?

I understand that some people love IRC and mailing lists.  But users expect
to search and ask questions in a forum, not on a mailing list and IRC.  I
think it's about time for some forums.

-Steven



Those were never specified as requirements at all.  What they asked for was 
somewhere they could ask questions without  spamming the list  - irc is 
perfect for those little questions.
IRC is great for technical people to ask quick little questions without 
spamming the list.  However, IRC is not an option for those 
less-technical.  Basically, if they can't get the information they are 
looking for using their browser and ONLY their browser, then they will 
NOT find what they are looking for...


IRC and mailing lists have their uses, but so do forums.  I honestly 
don't understand the resistance to the idea of a forum.  Other than 
people being so closed minded and elitist that they can't understand how 
people are soo stupid not to have know the answer to the question already.


So if anything, hopefully those people (who are the people who give FOSS 
a bad rep) will stick to IRC and mailing lists, and people that can 
actually perform social interaction can help people out in the forums.


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Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

2007-07-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andy Powell wrote:

On Friday 20 July 2007 17:35, Jonathon Suggs wrote:
  

IRC and mailing lists have their uses, but so do forums.  I honestly
don't understand the resistance to the idea of a forum.  Other than
people being so closed minded and elitist that they can't understand how
people are soo stupid not to have know the answer to the question already.



At what point did I actually say *anything* against forums? Please, show me. A 
question was asked and I made a suggestion - just because you don't like it 
doesn't mean others weren't aware of it as an option or whatever.


  

So if anything, hopefully those people (who are the people who give FOSS
a bad rep) will stick to IRC and mailing lists, and people that can
actually perform social interaction can help people out in the forums.



Wait, did you just insult everyone who uses irc / mailing lists. Good move.
You just failed 'social interaction 101'

Andy
Ok, before this turns into an argument, I was not referring directly to 
you.  Very sorry for not stating that explicitly.


As far as insulting people, I do not mean to offend.  However, you can't 
honestly think that the general consensus of the FOSS help groups is 
positive, do you?  There is a time and a place for RTFM to be a legit 
response, but 9 times out of 10, it is someone asking a simple question 
that they don't know the answer to, and someone doesn't take the extra 
few seconds to give a link or reference instead of belittling them.


So my point is to keep the mailing list technical, but offer forums for 
those who are less-technical and are inevitably going to ask stupid 
questions.


-Jonathon

P.S. I did not fail, social interaction 101.  But you are certainly up 
for the jumps to conclusions award for 2007


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Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

2007-07-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Jonathon Suggs wrote:
IRC is great for technical people to ask quick little questions 
without spamming the list.  However, IRC is not an option for those 
less-technical.  Basically, if they can't get the information they are 
looking for using their browser and ONLY their browser, then they will 
NOT find what they are looking for...


IRC and mailing lists have their uses, but so do forums.  I honestly 
don't understand the resistance to the idea of a forum.  Other than 
people being so closed minded and elitist that they can't understand 
how people are soo stupid not to have know the answer to the question 
already.


So if anything, hopefully those people (who are the people who give 
FOSS a bad rep) will stick to IRC and mailing lists, and people that 
can actually perform social interaction can help people out in the 
forums.
I will again apologize for the social interaction comment.  It did not 
come across as I meant it (especially after re-reading my own post).


But the fact remains that we must be conscious of the less technical 
users.  I personally do not feel that mailing lists and IRC are 
sufficient to provide a broader audience with the information that they 
will be looking for.  If you think that the spamming of the lists, and 
improper netiquette is bad now, just wait till the userbase is more 
diluted (meant in a positive way) with non-technical people.  Will 
simply having a forum solve the problem...obviously no.  However, it 
will be a LOT more user friendly, and that in itself could be a deal 
breaker for some.


Sorry if I offended,
Jonathon

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Re: community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

2007-07-20 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Jeff Rush wrote:

1. Our community is small -- spreading the discussions thinly before we have
reached critical mass will dilute the synergy.  We are just now starting to
come together as a community, and I think we even have too many mailing lists
as it is (not always clear on which one to discuss X).
  
~1000 users isn't necessarily that small.  And I would be willing to bet 
that there are quite a decent number of people that actually are 
interested but just don't want to sign up with a mailing list.  I'll be 
honest and say that this is the first mailing list that I have ever 
participated in despite being very much involved with the technical 
industry.  I was very hesitant to sign up (fear of the unknown, maybe).  
Anyway, even now that I am getting involved with it, I still do not like 
this interface.  I would much prefer a forum style, and would think that 
quite a few people (non-techies) would be of the same opinion.

2. The OpenMoko team at FIC are spread _very_ thin and lack the time/resources
to research and establish a forum themselves.  They were overloaded just
getting a basic storefront up.  I don't understand why a company the size of
FIC isn't providing more logistics support to them, so they can focus on the
hardware/software but that's the way it is today.
  
Agreed.  But I don't think that is a very valid point.  What percentage 
of the communication of this list comes from actual FIC employees, 
pretty low.  So, just like it is now, the community would provide the 
bulk of the answers.

3. Because of #2 and the fact this is the world of free/open, groups are
welcome to establish a forum someplace and announce it here.  In fact no one
can stop it.  Then instead of debating it you apply the governance principle
of open source, in that if you build it will they come.  If so, you were
right.  If not, you were wrong.  A very objective approach.
  
Again, you are correct.  There are plenty of examples where the dominant 
discussions of products/services/whatever comes from a non-official 
source.  So, if someone wants to put this together, then I think that 
would be a great thing to do.  However, having all of the information be 
in a single location would provide a much better unified experience for 
the users.

And for those (another thread) who are looking for someone official to tell
them how this or that is going to be done on the device, I think we as a
community will be applying #3 above - teams will form and follow their (quite
likely divergent) visions.  Those who (1) produce results that (2) some
significant portion of the community approve of will have their work
integrated into the core as required/optional packages.  And some fraction of
those will be cherry-picked by FIC for delivery in the consumer distribution.
 And perhaps other flash images will arise targeted at the power user and
the gaming user and the multimedia user.

Being open source folks and time-constrained themselves, I rather think that
the OpenMoko team will be blessing running code and not managing the various
teams that form.  And that is good, because they cannot see the future uses of
this device any better than we at this point.  Not a planned economy but a
chaotic marketplace of competing ideas, where decisions are made in the
free/opensource tradition of running code and rough concensus.  Scary
sure, but also refreshing and very exciting.

-Jeff
I think its healthy to discuss both pros and cons of the ideas, so feel 
free to rebuttal my comments.  However, I am of the opinion that a forum 
would do a greater benefit than harm.  Feel free to disagree, but that 
is just my take in this situation.


-Jonathon

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Re: Again: Advertising thoughts

2007-07-16 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Giles Jones wrote:
If you minimise the time using the stylus then you eliminate a huge 
section of the public who don't want to use a stylus (yes I know the 
Nintendo DS has one and has sold 40 million ;)). I would say the main 
reason for using the stylus is drawing lines.


Using fingers to touch is less precise, but you could have an 
interface that zooms, touch and hold an area to zoom that area, you 
can then touch more accurately the item you want. Would be possible 
with the additional 3D hardware in the consumer hardware.
*Most* of the application should be completely navigable fingers only, 
because people are much more likely (at least I know I am) to be on the 
go while using their phone.  Whereas when people are playing a game 
(Nintendo DS), they would be more likely to be stationary and willing to 
take the time to take out and use the stylus.


I think it takes a little bit of extra time and effort to design for a 
mobile (finger only) application.  However, less IS more.  Fewer but 
larger (and intuitive) buttons.  I don't mind going through a couple of 
screens if it is clear what I am doing.


For the address book example.  I would prefer to have a list that showed 
only a few names with a large area for each.  When you clicked the name, 
it would pop-up (again large buttons) the actions that you could take 
(Dial, SMS, Email, Edit/Other).  Extra clicks aren't always bad if they 
are well defined and easy to use even at a glance.


-Jonathon


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Re: Will Openmoko ever see the light of day? Was Re: Concern for usability and ergonomics

2007-06-15 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Well, if that is correct, I think I'll win an award for biggest foot in 
mouth.  Still, 492 + (500 * (1 - defect%)) isn't a very large number.


I guess only time will tell.

mathew davis wrote:
That is very exciting news.  I look forward to more from Sean sortly.  
How

did you find that article?

On 6/15/07, Thomas Gstädtner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


Some (pretty good) news:
http://gnumonks.org/~laforge/weblog/2007/06/15/#20070615-gta01-factory-trip 



2007/6/15, Gabriel Ambuehl [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 On Thursday 14 June 2007 23:45:29 Jonathon Suggs wrote:
  Well as far as we know (no *official* word) the models (GTA-01) that
 you
  have actually are vaporware as far as we are concerned since they 
are

  not going to be mass producing them in favor of rolling out the
 GTA-02's.

 Which assuming GTA-02 doesn't take much longer, would be a bad thing
 why?

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Re: Will Openmoko ever see the light of day? Was Re: Concern for usability and ergonomics

2007-06-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Well as far as we know (no *official* word) the models (GTA-01) that you 
have actually are vaporware as far as we are concerned since they are 
not going to be mass producing them in favor of rolling out the GTA-02's.


Ole Tange wrote:

I understand your concern. I have at the moment 2 Neo1973
pre-production handsets in my hand. So if this is vaporware they are
*really* going the extra mile to make it look convincing.

Is there anything I can do to put your mind at ease? Will photos of
opening it help, so you can see it really is not just a bunch of
plastic?

/Ole

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Re: Openness (was RE: Concern for usability and ergonomics)

2007-06-12 Thread Jonathon Suggs
First, the mailing list is to be used for ideas and communication.  You 
are absolutely correct that FIC will have to make the final decisions 
about what is and isn't included.  However, suggesting that people 
shouldn't be expressing their interests about features no matter how 
niche/picky/whatever is just plain wrong.  FIC will hopefully use some 
of the ideas (and mailing list reaction to those ideas) as a mini focus 
group to determine what features users will really want/use.  There will 
always be complainers, that is just life...ignore them.


Overall, I thought your post was full of fluff (and somewhat out of left 
field).  On the other hand I was someone who posted my disappointment 
with the amount of communication that has been given back to us lately.  
Do they have to keep us in the loop?  Absolutely not, most companies 
aren't even near this open about future products.  However, my 
frustration (if you want to call it that) is the missed delivery date.  
They set a concrete date, missed it, and then just told us soon.  I 
don't think that is very professional.


I was going to put my disclaimer about how I am 100% for FIC and 
OpenMoko, but its on my original post so don't think that I am trying to 
bash Sean and the gang.  I'm just disappointed at how the last three 
months have progressed.


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Re: Clarification Rant

2007-06-08 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Well since this was supposed to be available back in March, there was no 
immediate need.  Now the pressure (for me) is starting to build.  So it 
is more of a question of I've been waiting for ~3 months now and there 
is still no idea of when it is going to actually become available.


Yes, I could go out and buy a cheap phone today.  But then the Neo could 
be out tomorrow and I would have wasted my money.  But its not even a 
money issue for me.  Its a lack of communication issue.  The original 
date was March.  Sean clearly explained why they had to push back the 
date, but only said that new devices would be out soon.  Then there 
was another production run and we all thought that THAT was going to be 
when they were available...but there were issues and we got bumped back 
to soon again.  LCD shortages, bad production runs, whats next?  Are 
they are going to scrap the GTA-01's in favor of ramping up production 
lines for the GTA-02 (since that will possibly be the mass-market 
hardware) but at a few months delay?


So while I'm complaining, I'm also appreciative of the information that 
has been passed down to us.  However, that doesn't erase the fact that 
they set a date and missed it only to be followed up with a soon 
response.  It would be different if they had just said that it would be 
available in 2007, but to set an exact date then not come through?  Then 
not even give a follow up date...it just seems a little off to me.


So I know that I'm sounding really down on Sean and the bunch and that 
isn't my sentiment.  I'm excited about what the platform has the 
potential to do.  But its just deflating to see it failing at such an 
early point in the development cycle...I guess my optimism can only last 
so long.  I guess what I'm getting at is if they can't get something out 
the door now (when it is arguably the most important time for the 
platform) then what is the future going to be like?  I'm going to have 
to see some MAJOR progress to get my hopes back up to where they were 
when I first heard about and started following the project.


Luit van Drongelen wrote:

Well, if you can't live without a mobile phone until the Neo with WiFi
comes available, why not buy a temporary 25 buck phone? That's what
I'm doing now... 


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Re: Clarification Rant

2007-06-08 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I understand being careful with what you say, but even something like 
We've built X devices with a defect ratio of Y.  We want that ration to 
be Z before we push the production line full steam ahead would be 
promising.  That is unless X=0 Y=100 and Z is anything greater than 
zero, THEN we'd be a little disappointed.


Just a quick blurb here and there go a long way, but there hasn't even 
been that.  Also there is all of this talk about GTA-02 and how great 
and awesome it is going to be...but we don't even have GTA-01 out and 
available???


All I'm saying is that unless there is nothing positive to say, then 
something is better than nothing (and we used to get something a while 
back).


So again, I apologize for negativity, but I'm finding it really hard to 
keep the faith and...keep waiting.


Mikko Rauhala wrote:

pe, 2007-06-08 kello 12:05 -0400, Alan Ide kirjoitti:
  

In the first few months of development there was a great deal of
communication, but it seems to have dwindled which makes me nervous to
be honest. 



I'm sure the team is also quite honestly nervous to start talking
expected shipping dates again after many false alarms.


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Publicity

2007-06-06 Thread Jonathon Suggs

You asked for it and you got it...
Here is a link to a frontpage slashdot article.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/06/1327238

It links directly to this page
http://www.hothardware.com/image_popup.aspx?image=big_fic2.jpgarticleid=979t=a

Just thought that I would share.

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Clarification Rant

2007-06-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Again, please only respond to my Clarification email if you have 
something FACTUAL.  This is my rant email, so if you are just anxious 
like me then respond to this.


I've been following the project for quite some time now and was 
anxiously awaiting being able to purchase the phone in March (when it 
was originally scheduled to be available for developers), but that date 
came and passed and at the time I was ok with the setbacks.  However, 
almost three months have passed and there is still no hardware available 
for me.  Now to top it all off there has been talk of a hardware 
revision that will include some really good upgrades (that I would 
normally just wait for).  However, my phone is on the skids and I am 
going to need to make a purchase soon.  This is by no means a threat or 
whatever, but I'm seriously considering jumping ship on the project 
because I don't like waiting for something that I have no idea will ever 
come to fruition.  There are plenty of phones that I could have now that 
I would be perfectly content with and every day that my current phone 
lets me down just makes it harder to...keep waiting.  Before someone 
says that's just the way it is with hardware projects can continue 
playing the waiting game, but you may have to do it without me.


I guess the point of this is to say that I am 100% behind OpenMoko, and 
I wish you the best but considering the circumstances I may have to 
either catch you in September (or later).  I really need some details if 
I am going to be able to delay purchasing any longer.


-Jonathon

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Re: information efficient text enty using dasher

2007-05-29 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I did the same thing.  I had played with it in the past using the 
browser applet and it really didn't do it much justice.  I put it on my 
pda and (after some training) and you were inputting common words, then 
it wasn't that bad, but still not a super intuitive method for input, 
but may be a good option since we don't have a hw keyboard.


My favorite input method is still the finger splash concept (needs some 
tweaking to the concept though)

http://www.micropp.se/openmoko/

Thomas Gstädtner wrote:

Btw: I tried dasher for some minutes and its a bit hard at the beginning.
After 5-10 mins of training it works very well! 



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Re: Fwd: tomtom on the Neo1973

2007-05-29 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Yes, but if I am relying on my device to be able to get from point A to 
point B then I would MUCH rather have it be able to give me an accurate 
map and directions.


Its almost a chicken and egg problem.  TomTom only sells/ports to high 
volume platforms.  Platforms need TomTom (not specifically, just in 
general) to be mass marketable.


I fully plan on supporting OpenStreetMap (although the US coverage is 
terrible), but it is NOT ready for use outside of enthusiasts and 
certainly NOT ready to be a mass marketable option.


Ian Darwin wrote:
And besides, wouldn't you rather have an open source program drawing 
your maps? 



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Tactile Feedback

2007-05-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I had mentioned this before, but it didn't get much conversation since 
it was deep within a thread.  Anyway, since there are no hardware 
buttons for input, could we not use the vibrator to give a quick pulse 
so that you still have some feedback as to when a button is pressed?  It 
might go a long way in making hardware keyboard less entry more acceptable.


http://www.time4.com/time4/microsites/popsci/howitworks/cellphone_motor.html

Any thoughts?

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Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded

2007-05-07 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Don't know if people saw this or not, but Ubuntu just announced that 
they will be working on mobile and embedded distros.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2007-May/000289.html

I'm not sure what all their goals are, and how they align with what 
OpenMoko is doing, but if it was possible to join efforts with such a 
large organization/project could really help out with the overall 
development/support.


-Jonathon

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Re: Audio Jack 2.5 mm

2007-04-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs



I don't mind about 3.5 or 2.5mm, but we could start a vote. ;-)



Or a flame war 8-)

Carlo
Umm, I don't think we can just vote and have the hardware magically 
change.  It takes quite a bit of time (and necessary hardware) to change 
the design.  So unless this is a vote for future hardware revs, then 
I'm not expecting this to change anything for phase1-2 devices.


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Re: 0K Re: OpenMoko light web server

2007-04-17 Thread Jonathon Suggs



I wonder if there would be an advantage in embedding the server in the
browser or vise versa. Then the whole issue of polling localhost would
be moot.

Alex
Something else to consider (again) is that we are talking about an 
embedded device.  So the javascript implementation/engine may or may not 
be as robust as a desktop equivalent.  What browser and/or webserver are 
we talking about having on the device?


We *probably* aren't talking about Firefox and Apache (or dare I say IE 
and IIS)...which is *probably* what most people are used to developing 
with.  So just because we are talking about using HTML and browsers as a 
common platform, doesn't mean that it is going to be exactly the same.  
Not trying to burst anyone's bubble, but just giving a little reality check.


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Re: Blacklist/whitelists

2007-04-06 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Tim Newsom wrote:
That seems weird... Even in email you can turn off read receipts... It 
seems like an invasion of sort (though a minor one) to not allow 
disabling of delivery reports for the receiving party.


If the sending party can enable it and the receivers phone 
automatically responds, then you can always know when someones phone 
is turned on/available.


Does the sms message system work while the phone is in call mode? Does 
that require multiplex code also like the gprs while on a call does?
If it doesn't work while calling, you can always find out when someone 
is done talking on the phone / is available to talk (assuming they are 
at the phone) by sending an sms with delivery report first... Right?


Seems like there should be some kind of control message that could be 
sent over the serial port via 'AT' commands which would enable and 
disable this.
--Tim 
Ok, I'll be honest that I have no proof that this is how it actually 
works, but I don't think it works the way you are saying it does.  
Again, not 100% positive, but the receipt that you receive is only a 
message that it has been successfully transfered to the carrier.  The 
carrier will then try to push the SMS to the recipient whenever they 
become available.  So there are two discreet actions.  1) Transfer from 
sender to carrier 2) Transfer from carrier to destination.


Rather than get all worried about big brother, just do a simple test.  
Turn off a phone and send a text message to it.  See if you get a 
receipt.  If you do, then I'm right.  If you don't get a receipt until 
the phone you sent a text message to is turned back on THEN commence the 
meetings of the tin foil hat club.


-Jonathon

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Re: Choice of scripting langage: towards Web2.0?

2007-04-04 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andrew Turner wrote:

For a dynamic scripting language that would be best served to consume
web resources and already tie into a big development community there
are two primary choices: Python and Ruby.

Python has had incredible support and impact on Nokia mobiles with
Py60 (see Nokia's Py60 extensions to device access:
http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/PyS60_extensions), and Maemo
(N800) Python/Hildon bindings for building 'native' applications.

Ruby has a growing community, but hasn't yet gotten good support on
mobile devices. There are some potential projects for building Ruby
bindings on Maemo that will be very useful. So could look at it either
that Ruby doesn't have a big mobile community contingent so why
bother, or that the community really *wants* a Ruby mobile so would
jump on the chance.

Both languages have excellent networking libraries/frameworks, so this
really isn't a concern.

Really, both languages could be supported in tandem and in fact build
on one another's work/efforts. And you wouldn't really be dividing
effort since the two communities are both strong in their own right,
and so would support their framework.

Andrew 
Out of those two, I vote Python.  The only reasons are that I feel as 
though Python has better supporting libraries (and community) and I also 
prefer its syntax.


That said, I still think we should consider perl.  People say that it is 
losing support, but I feel as though that is propaganda from the other 
languages.  I don't think it is even a close comparison when you look at 
the number of supporting libraries compared to just about any other 
language.


However, I do feel perl is at a crossroads.  It isn't the cool 
language anymore (python and ruby currently take that crown).  So you 
have a lot of older gurus that could do just about anything with it, but 
who may not be willing to learn a new language.  Then you have new 
developers that are just learning the in languages (ie python and 
ruby).  So you kinda have a clash of cultures.  Me, I'm still pretty 
young but learned perl straight out of college and I love it as it is 
just so powerful and there are libraries to do just about anything you 
can imagine.


All that to say, lets at least consider putting perl back into the 
conversation.  I'm not going to be disappointed or upset with just about 
any decision, but I wanted to throw this out before it was too late.  
I'm not too old to learn a new language ;)


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Re: tomtom on the Neo1973

2007-04-02 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andrew Turner wrote:

Caching googlemaps tiles, and not through their client, is a violation
of their Terms of Service.  Same for all the other providers. 

snip

Here's an interesting question.  What if you constantly logged your 
position (while driving).  Then when you got back home, you could upload 
all of your data back to your desktop.  Would it be legal to have a 
script analyze that data, and make suggestions from public sources (ie 
google maps, mapquest, etc) as to what roads you traveled.  Once you 
verified that information it could automatically upload back into 
OpenStreetMaps (OSM)?  Basically just reducing some of the time/effort 
required to upload information into OSM.


Better description: the script would break down each segment of your 
trip (like a turn by turn breakdown) and give a list of possible street 
names.  You pick the best one (or write in the correct one) for each 
segment, then click finish and it handles the formatting of the data and 
the uploading.


I'm not against paying money for tomtom software.  But if I could just 
make my normal usage patterns translate into more information being 
uploaded into OSM, then it could eventually help make it a viable 
alternative (which right now it is not).  Bottom line, I'd be willing to 
contribute a marginal amount of effort, but not much more than 
that...and I'd be willing to bet that there are many others that would 
do a little here and a little there but who wouldn't do it if it was 
difficult/time consuming.


FYI, I have no idea how the OSM upload process works.  So if it IS 
really easy, then nevermind.  If it isn't easy.  Does this sound like a 
good idea (and is it legal)?


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Re: Adapter for MicroSD Card

2007-03-27 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Gabriel Ambuehl wrote:
I dont know in general, but all Sandisk microsd cards I've seen have been 
shipped with microSD to SD adapters.
I know that when you purchase a microSD card it will come with an 
adapter, but doesn't the Neo come with an included microSD card?  If so, 
does the Neo also come with a microSD adapter?  That is my question...


I'm probably going to purchase a new/bigger microSD card, but just 
wanted to know in case that purchase doesn't come till later...


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Re: OpenMoko - SoC--- is there a mentor?

2007-03-26 Thread Jonathon Suggs



 please fell free to comment...
I've only loosely followed this conversation, so please forgive any 
oversights or re-hashes.  However I did notice two things 1) Google 
Summer of Code 2) Finger Splash application


So, here is my input.  Google wants *high quality* projects that will 
hopefully have far reaching benefits.  So, instead of bickering over 
minor details that are hard to come to a deterministic conclusion via 
email.  Why not write the proposal for something along the lines of 
advanced input system for mobile devices.  Part of the proposal could 
be to do some research on the most common letter sequences and 
incorporate that into the design.  Think different languages and a 
pluggable expandable architecture.  Think possibly shortcuts to common 
words.  Think predictive text.  THINK!  Instead of trying to hit the 
nail on the head before you even get your hands dirty, why not take all 
of the ideas and develop prototypes, then see how they stack up in the 
real world with real people (ie different thumb sizes).


Bottom line, think BIG.  Make this project something that Google will 
notice.  Make it something so that text input on a mobile device (an 
area that is HUGELY lacking) takes a HUGE step forward.  Having 
something like that would bring great publicity to the OpenMoko platoform.


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Re: OpenMoko - SoC--- is there a mentor?

2007-03-22 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote:

Jon Phillips wrote:
  

Heya Mickey, on the official openmoko side, how many students is
openmoko shooting for and how many qualified mentors are there? Not that
I have an official in at google, I'm just curious?



Right now we are 4 mentors and we aim for 8 projects, provided
a) we get so many slots assigned by google and
b) if there are enough convincing applications.

Cheers,

  
Just curious, but what are the qualification for being a mentor?  Are 
they going to be official FIC/OpenMoko employees or phase-0 devs or 
whoever volunteers?


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Re: Compressed SMS (and other text messages)

2007-03-21 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andreas Kostyrka wrote:

...plus probably a system that would automatically upload/download moko-ness 
information.

snip

This way all mokos could keep in touch, and people that switch phones
more often would be able to tune it.
  
First, I'm not a SMS user (I use email.), so you can take this comment 
for whatever its worth.


This is just a very general statement, but I personally think that 
designing features that will only work with other OpenMoko phones is a 
bad idea.  Yes, there are some ideas that will probably only work 
between similar/identical devices, but they are probably going to be 
very specific and not receive as much overall development time.


My challenge is just to think bigger.  Think how this could be 
incorporated to work with *any* phone.  Then you can have a much larger 
group of people to brainstorm, test, and bugfix.  We have enough 
protocols and standards to support.  Creating yet another one isn't 
really going to help that much.  Also, I don't know anyone else that is 
planning on getting a OpenMoko device, so its pretty pointless for me at 
this point.  I know you've got to start somewhere, but starting out a 
battle fighting uphill isn't the best of ideas.


Sorry if I completely missed the point.

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Re: Proposal: Personal Data Encryption (maybe SoC?)

2007-03-19 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Tobias Gruetzmacher wrote:

Hi,

Am Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:28:28 +0100 schrieb Sven Neuhaus:
  

With regards to encryption - it'd be great if microSD cards can contain
dm-crypt'ed partitions. It's probably rather trivial to add this.



Partitions are a major usability nightmare IMHO. That is the reason my 
proposal focused on encfs/ecryptfs, which both are layered encryption 
file systems. This removes the requirement to set a fixed size for the 
encrypted space and makes it easy to use standard tools to backup the 
encrypted data.


Greetings, Tobi

  
Just wanted to throw my $.02 into the mix.  I think the most important 
aspect of this is ease of use...KISS.  Some of the ideas floating around 
are over the top.  It might give you warm fuzzies to have some super 
cool encryption scheme, but it will be completely pointless if you make 
it so difficult to use that (normal) people don't use it.


There is a big difference between what is needed for keeping nuclear 
launch codes and your shopping list secure.  Since it is much more 
likely that you will be storing your shopping list rather than 
top-secret documents, lets focus on encryption schemes that are more 
target for that use.  Also, *most* times that a phone is lost/stolen 
people are just going to want to wipe it then sell on eBay, not hook up 
a debug board and do a memory dump.  Seriously, where are you at that 
crooks are THAT tech savvy??? Please let me know so I can stay far far away.


Now to contribute something productive, rather than just complain on the 
list.  Here are two ideas that if used together be simple and effective.


1) I do like the gesture based approach as that is something that can be 
easily input using one hand (remember, KISS).  However, that may not go 
over as well for a non-phone interface.  So, having an intermediate 
layer that transform gestures to a key-phrase would be a great idea.  
Then you can have a preference to either input your password/key-phrase 
directly OR you can launch the gesture analyzer and that will handle the 
inputting of your password/key-phrase.


2) The sudo style of access could also be useful.  Whenever private 
data (still not sure the best/most user friendly approach to determining 
what is and isn't) is accessed, you are required to put in a password 
(via method above) and it will last for a pre-determined amount of time. 

Just the combination of those two ideas would probably suffice for +90% 
of users needs.  Then, if someone was actually carrying nuclear launch 
codes, then a secondary more robust implementation could either replace 
or supplement.  But your grandmother would still be able to (hopefully) 
figure out that scheme.


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Re: Can OpenMoko Make Coffee? - SoC Project Proposal

2007-03-19 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Ben Burdette wrote:




I think that the Neo1973 is both a phone and a portable handheld 
device. Using it as a remote control is one of the things I've 
personally been interested in this whole thing for. I'd like to think 
of the OpenMoko device as an extension of myself into the world of 
electronic devices. My own interface with the world ... until such 
time as we can get wetware to do brain-computer interfaces, ;).

--


Me too.  I want to use the moko to control a media center PC that is 
connected to my stereo, for queuing up audio files and etc.  My PC 
uses a video projector for the monitor and turning on the projector is 
too much trouble just for queuing up audio.  Leaving the projector on 
uses up the bulb life too.  I wonder if one of the linux based media 
center apps like mythTV would work for this?  A custom remote control 
app for the moko would be best, but a web browser interface would be 
fine too. 
MythTV can be adapted to just about anything that you can think of.  
I'll be the first to say that it is more difficult to get setup 
initially (compared to a Windows Media Center), but once you've got it 
up and running then you've just begun to scratch the surface of what all 
it can do.


MythTV does have a web-interface.  Depending on what all you are wanting 
to do, it is possible that what you are wanting is already available, 
and the Neo's built-in browser could probably handle all of the 
controls.  If not, then both are open-sourced and you could throw 
something together to fit your needs.


Hope that helps,
Jonathon


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Re: Proposal: Personal Data Encryption (maybe SoC?)

2007-03-19 Thread Jonathon Suggs
On Mon, 2007-03-19 at 22:57 +0100, Marcel de Jong wrote:
 From a user's standpoint:
 I do not think I'd like to enter a passphrase or any other measures
 just to open up my contacts list (which is after all a piece of
 personal data). Also for opening my calendar and such actions on the
 device, I'd prefer to have no passphrase.
snip a de doo daa

I think Marcel is probably stating what *most* people are going to want
as well.  Having the ability to encrypt data is a priority, but not
having to use it should be a higher priority.

One of the biggest mantra's I hear coming from the FOSS camp is choice
and so keeping with the whole practice what you preach ideal, I think
the level of encryption should be a user configurable preference.


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Re: I know why I dislike anonymous participants on mailinglists :((

2007-03-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Robert Michel wrote:

PS: Ahh, and when your aim is to sabotage openmoko (or someone
would try it in your style) your noise will not stopp anybody
here who is seriously active on/with openmoko - no it will/would
strengthen the community.
Yeah, through all that ranting I think I/we actually laid out which 
plans will/won't work very clearly.  So, now anyone who will accept help 
from the list, can get it in a well refined/thought out manner.


So in a very strange way,
Thanks Mike

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Re: I know why I dislike anonymous participants on mailinglists :((

2007-03-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Eric Heinemann wrote:

Guys/Gals,

Cingular is not clear as to which data plan is the proper one to purchase for a 
specific phone.  Some reps are well informed, while others are not.  I 
currently have a Blackjack, and after 3 days of asking which is the proper plan 
I just decided to screw it and went with the $40/month plan.  Some users have 
gotten away with the $20/month smartphone plan, and other users have not.  It 
all depends on who you get on the phone.  I figure it is a standard corporate 
thing for a company to issue overage charges, and refund them to those that 
complain, but let those that do not continue to pay them willingly.  I can 
attest to the fact that communication within a phone company does not exist 
(used to work for BellSouth).  Mike, from my personal experiences with 
Cingular, anytime I got overage charges from data, I refuted them and was 
credited back.  All that is required is to threaten to switch usually.  You do 
NOT have to sign a contract.  Contracts are used to offer a discount on
 a phone, that you are not purchasing from them.  All you would have to do is 
get a sim card from the carrier and have it activated with the voice/data plan 
you desire.  All of this is from my 5 year experience with Cingular.  I hope 
this will help.

-Eric
  
Just for your information Eric, I talked with a rep from Cingular.  He 
very clearly stated that the smartphone plan would work you just have to 
make sure that you use the correct APN (ie wap.cingular.com NOT 
isp.cingular.com or you WILL get the overage charges).  So you are 
throwing away $20/month unless there are other reasons behind your decision.


So to say it very clearly and concisely, The Neo will work with the 
Smartphone Connect plan from Cingular for $19.95/month


As far as not having to sign a contract, I'm pretty sure that you could 
do it, but it will take some time and dedication.  Meaning that when you 
ask the first person, they will tell you no...but if you keep going up 
the chain of command explaining that you are bringing your own phone 
then you MAY be able to bypass the contract.  I make no promises on that 
one as this will depend on your own personable ability to negotiate and 
explain your case.



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Re: I know why I dislike anonymous participants on mailinglists :( (

2007-03-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Andreas Kostyrka wrote:

well the wap apn would make me suspicious if you'll get normal internet 
connectivity with it.

But yes if it's only wap, and if the final version will include a wap browser, 
then yes, the Neo will work with the plan. OTOH you might something different 
than what you expect from it.

Andreas
  
The wap APN does provide generic internet access.  But the difference 
is that is uses a NAT'ed private IP address.  Therefore you probably 
can't use it with a VPN (you would need PDA Connect if that is a 
requirement for you).  But for basic browsing, it will work just fine.


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Re: Crossroads

2007-03-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Mike wrote:

Thanks Harald, I'm out,
I think I speak for us all when I say, Don't let the door hit ya where 
the good Lord split ya.


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Re: Idea: up-to-date business card

2007-03-14 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Matthew S. Hamrick wrote:
Yes... if you have a Blackberry, Treo or HTC phone, run Windows and 
don't mind keeping your data on Plaxo's servers, Plaxo is indeed a 
good solution.


Still... I'm fairly certain that most GSM phones can't make the data 
call to the Plaxo servers _while_ they are on a voice call with 
someone else.


The vCard bursting concept moves data directly from one phone to 
another without third party involvement. And it does is as part of the 
session created when you're talking with someone else. i.e. - you 
don't have to hang up the phone to receive burst vCards.
Couple of thoughts.  First, this is an open platform for you to create 
whatever you want.  So go ahead and knock yourself out making this 
(actually not mean to be as sarcastic as it sounds).  Second, this is an 
open platform so you can either port the Blackberry, Treo, WinMo app to 
OpenMoko.


I don't use Plaxo, but I know people who do and like it 
(thought/thinking about trying it).  For ideas/apps that are a closed 
loop between you and your data feel free to come up with brand new 
protocols for the communication.  However, don't expect it to have wide 
adoption.  Even if OpenMoko takes off, it isn't going to become 
prevalent overnight.  So to have the ability to interoperate with 
Blackberrys, Tres, WinMo PPCs (which make up a decent percentage of the 
[smart]phone population) you are going to have to be able to speak a 
common language.  vCards are pretty standard, so the idea does have some 
merit (not that my blessing is a requirement).  But unless most people 
are able to support vCard Bursting then you target audience is only as 
large as the OpenMoko install base.  I for one am not really interested 
in using a protocol with such a limited user base, although it is an 
interesting concept.


Plaxo does what it does well.  I *somewhat* understand your not wanting 
your personal data to be stored on someone elses servers, but creating 
new protocols for data transmission is probably not the best way to go 
about obtaining privacy/whatever.


This isn't meant to be a derogatory post, but I would prefer to be able 
to communicate with a broad range of people running a broad range of 
devices.



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Re: Crossroads

2007-03-13 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Gabriel Ambuehl wrote:

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 18:49:17 dimitris wrote:
  

Sean, given the uncertainty surrounding Wifi drivers, would an
externally-accessible SDIO slot be a better step for the next hw revision?



I would very much welcome a standard SD slot anyhow. SD cards are available in 
bigger sizes than MicroSD. 

Possibly even better, retain the microsd slot for storage and add an fullsize 
SDIO one for well whatever people want ;)
  



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Don't know how much re-work that would require, but I really like that 
idea.  I already have 2GB and 4GB SD cards.  I'm not overly thrilled 
about having to use a different format.


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Re: Crossroads

2007-03-13 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Rod Whitby wrote:

I can't believe this thread.
Anyone who is going to be a phone developer should be able to do their own 
research on phone plans.
With the attitude being displaying (I'm out and advising others to do the 
same), I wonder what the reaction would be to a P1 device with bugs in it.
Anyone with an attitude of OpenMoko must spoon feed me everything should 
probably wait for September ...
Sheesh!
-- Rod

-Original Message-
The openmoko people had better provide us some information about what will work 
and what won't, or I'm out and advising others to do the same.





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Agreed.
And since Mike couldn't read my other post that had this exact same 
information, I will post it one more time...just for him.  This time 
with a little more detail.


Cingular - SmartPhone Connect or Data Connect will work
T-Mobile - Can't find the exact details, but you can sign up for a voice 
plan, then add on a data plan as well...those data plans will work with 
the Neo.


Does that help?

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Re: Crossroads

2007-03-13 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Mike wrote:

SmartPhone Connect and Data Connect ONLY?

All t-mobile data plans will work? All?

Are you with the openmoko project or is your advice conjecture?  Is 
your advice official?


This is my point.

I would shut up since on this subthread, I look like the only one with 
the problem.  But if you read my What mobile plan... thread, you'd 
find others with similar questions and confusion.
First of all, if you can't accept help from anyone other than and 
official OpenMoko developer, then you probably should not be a part of 
this community.  We will make things work together by helping each 
other.  There are only a few official OpenMoko developers, but there 
are many of us here in the community that will give you a hand if you 
will allow us.


That said, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO HELP YOU! (It's amazing that I have to beg 
you for permission to help you).


T-Mobile
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/T-Mobile_Data
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/default.aspx?plancategory=7

The stand-alone data plans are more expensive.  I can only speak from my 
personal experience in that I pay $19.95/month for unlimited internet as 
an add-on to my voice plan.  I'm sorry that I cannot find a direct link 
to an official site that says this is possible/available.  However, 
I'm just speculating that it is still available.


Cingular
http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/Cingular_Data_Plans
If you read, both Smartphone Connect and PDA Connect have unlimited 
access to wap.cingular.com  I've looked into this pretty extensively as 
I was considering switching to Cingular (from T-Mobile) due to coverage 
at my house.  I talked to an offical Cingular representative on the 
phone.  He said that I could use my PocketPC on the Smartphone Connect 
plan.  Therefore, in my non-official opinion, you should be able to 
use the Neo on the Smartphone Connect Plan.  It costs $19.95/month.


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Re: Creating a SIP client for the OpenMoko

2007-03-12 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Chuck Pareto wrote:
I was thinking about getting a Sip phone to use with the Gizmo Voip 
service

(my friend is using it and loves it), but then thought about creating a
Sip/Voip client to run on the OpenMoko. Does anyone know if this would be
possible? Can it be done exclusively in software? I don't know if this 
has

already been covered in the forums so any response would be helpful.
-Chuck



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Its been covered, I'm just too lazy to dig up the old threads.  I don't 
think there is a problem with creating a SIP client, but the main issue 
is the lack of a sufficiently fast enough transmission (ie no WiFi).  
There is bluetooth and that is a possibility, but would require a 
Bluetooth Network Access Point.  If you have (or plan to have) one of 
those in your home/wherever then it could make sense, but that won't 
help you while you are on the go as network access via Bluetooth is 
pretty scarce.  GPRS possibly even EDGE (not in current hardware, but 
possibly in future revs) isn't great for VoIP.  There is a lot of 
latency in those protocols, so that is why voice doesn't sound that 
great coming over them.



Very simplified explanation, so if you want more details just let us 
know and I/we will be more specific.


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Re: What moblie service to get, part 2

2007-03-09 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Mike wrote:

mathew davis wrote:

  you also don't _need_ to sign up for a data plan, but I would bet 
if your getting this for the neo1973 you will have more features like 
google maps, internet browsing, and many other features that would 
require a data plan.  


Thanks by why don't I need to sign up for a data plan? Can I get on 
the web/internet without a data plan? Can I dial up like I asked in 
my last email?


And if I can, then couldn't I just get google maps by opening up a web 
browser on my neo and going to maps.google.com, what's the advantage 
of a data plan?


What services are you looking for?  You should check the wiki I think it 


As in what cell phone service plans- tmobile, cingular, contracts, sim 
cards, data plans, prepaid. what plans will it work with.  This seems 
like an obvious set of common questions.  The only thing I found on 
the wiki was A: Wikipedia has a list of providers and technologies 
here. A brief look gives the impression that T-Mobile and Cingular 
(which is renaming itself ATT) seem to be the only major ones.  
That's not enough.


thanks
m
You can dial up, it will be really slow and probably unreliable.  I 
think 9.6k is as fast as you can go.  Not to mention that when you 
dialing in you will be using your cell phone minutes.  A data plan 
allows you to use GPRS, which is a newer (still pretty old though) and 
faster connection up to 56k.  The down side is that you will probably 
have to sign a contract.  You will then either get an unlimited plan 
(~$20-40/month) or a pay as you go plan (~.15/kb).


Let me know if you want more details.  And anyone else feel free to 
correct any mis-information.


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Re: Yet another finger keybord (gui mock-up).

2007-03-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Gabriel Ambuehl wrote:

Clear yes, but also about 3 times smaller than on your desktop screen...
  
First, I really like this idea for input and think it has potential to 
being very intuitive while allowing a decent input rate.


That said, the screen size (and corresponding button size) is an issue 
to be conscious of.  You want to find the happy medium where you make 
the most efficient use of as little space as possible.  As you make the 
button input area larger, you are taking up more of the application 
area.  But without seeing how this would look on the actual device, it 
at least looks like a good ratio.


Which gives rise to the question of how to best arrange them...
  
That is a question that people will probably have different opinions 
on.  How much effort would it be to have several different layouts.  
Some with more characters, some with less.  Some more similar to qwerty 
other more sequential (abc...) and possibly others mimicking fitaly.  
You could define your default layout as a preference.  And you could 
switch between layouts at any time (possibly via the scroll-wheel or 
other method).
Add another button that allows to tap shortcuts (for example like it is done 
in some of the vnc clients). In general, I find I'm using LESS keys for 
terminal work than for text entry. YMMV.
  
See everybody has their own unique usage requirements.  So lets keep it 
flexible to accommodate the most amount of people possible.

I think the size is close to optimal with 6 buttons wide (but it must be
tested on a neo to be sure). The total area is not to big and high, and
the 'drags' is not so long. 



If you use drag vectors instead of actual taps on the buttons, you might get 
away with very short drags, really.
  
Exactly.  I don't think it would be that hard.  You've got 60deg of area 
for an accurate hit.  Also, having the background of the keys change as 
you are on the key gives great visual feedback.
Do you really need all those keys? I generally don't. Then again, I don't plan 
on doing non emergency work in terminals either... And on a notebook you 
usually don't have all of them for direct access, either.
  
Again, just showing that different people have different opinions.  Lets 
try to make it useful for everyone.  I would prefer less keys, but that 
is just me.


Heres another thought.  Don't know how it would work/feel, but it might 
give good tactile feedback to give a quick vibration pulse after every 
key press (on the release).  It might help to minimize the disjoint that 
can sometime happen with you are just touching a flat surface.  One step 
further, it might also help if it gave a quick vibration when you 
dragged into different areas.  That way you could tell via touch when 
you were in the different sectors.


Keep the ideas going.  This is one of the best to come out in a while!

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Re: Yet another finger keybord (gui mock-up).

2007-03-05 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Ian Stirling wrote:
Ideally - if designing it from a completely clean sheet, you want it 
so that 'typos' result in very different letters.


  a
e 0 i
  o

would be a spectacularly bad pick, for example, whereas

  a
d 0 q
  f

might be good.

This is so autocorrection software can function well.

Then there is the fun question of how many 'initial' points, and how 
many vectors per point.
10 numbers, with 8 drags from each number gives you alphanumeric, and 
easily 30 common phrases, or word components.

'I'll be ' 'home ' 'at ' '6' 'P' 'M' ' ' 'Love you!'
In 8 strokes.

If you go slightly further, and each stroke can either terminate 
normally, go longer, go clockwise, go anticlockwise, or return, that 
takes you up to 5 per stroke, or 400 'keys'.


It would be lovely if this was incrementally learnable.

First level - press 0, hold, get
  d
a 0 q
  f
splashing out.

Once you're comfortable, you get
D d Q
a 0 q
A f F

Drag and hold to F, and you get

Finish First


Found F


Find Friday

( down-right stroke from 0 = F, turning clockwise is Find )

And the words for 'f' might be 'food, friend, ...'

Being silly, you can then hold on food, and go out to 'pizza, chips, 
kebab, lunch'


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One thing to do is look at existing designs for reference/inspiration.  
I mentioned the fitaly layout in a different post, but here is a link to 
help with the visualization.

http://www.fitaly.com/wince/pocketpcfitaly.htm

Auto-correction software is great when it works, but annoying when it 
doesn't.  So it should be configurable and not mandatory.  You had some 
good ideas in there.  The food = 'pizza, chips, kebab, lunch' is 
stretching it a little bit, but still not a bad idea.


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Re: Possible security hole for Dialers/troyan horses

2007-03-01 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Martin Raißle wrote:

On 3/1/07, Krzysztof Kajkowski [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

However there might be such attempts to create GSM trojans
and we should be aware to enable user to protect itself. The question
is how to do that?

What do you think?


First off all I think that there are good chances for a trojan, even
if it has to be downloaded manually ... think about all the trojans
for windows ... and in phase 2 and beyond this phone will probably
have users that don't mind about security ... I think it would be a
good idea to be able to set the rights of an application, like
- can/cannot make calls / send sms
- can/cannot read/edit adress book / calendar
- can/cannot initiate gprs-connections
- can/cannot use gps

and to safe normal user all rights, that can create costs should be
disabled by default ..

regards
martin
Isn't this something along the lines of SELinux?  If that is the case, 
is that something we should look at implementing?


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Re: Bluetooth Headset - Voice Commands

2007-03-01 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Mike Hodson wrote:

On 2/28/07, Jonathon Suggs [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


The reason that I ask is that on my PocketPC phone (iMate PDA2K), there
is supposedly a hardware limitation that will not allow for this to
occur.  It can have the bluetooth headset button initiate the program,
but it cannot use the bluetooth headset to transfer the audio to the
program.  It has to use the built-in microphone for routing audio to the
voice command software.  I don't remember specifics, but I think it was
because the bluetooth module tied to the gsm module in hardware or
something along those lines.

All of that to ask, is the bluetooth implementation on this device going
to have that same limitation?  I was looking through the wiki and
noticed the bluetooth is connected to the USB Host Controller...so I am
hopeful it won't suffer the same limitation.


I'm going out on a limb here and hypothesizing again, however it may
shed some light:

My understanding of how the OpenMoko software stack works, is that it
will be using some a software audio routing interface, either direct
ALSA or gstreamer (tied into ALSA as the audio access method). The
audio can go between the mic/speaker thru the wolfson codec, or you
can  switch it to the bluetooth device.

By being connected to the USB bus, this works exactly like every
current Linux computer with bluetooth: as of now, the BlueZ stack can
do SCO / headset, and they are working daily on properly working A2DP
(advanced audio) stereo codec support both as alsa modules.  It would
then be my guess, that all the OpenMoko software would have to do, is
change the alsa input/output by responding handsfree button or avrcp
commands (for stereo headsets).
snip
That sounds reasonable and based on what I can see about the hardware in 
the wiki seems correct.  So unless someone sees a problem, then I think 
we are good to go with that.


So, somewhere in the configuration there needs to be a setting for 
handling BT headset (and button presses).  The first thing should be a 
checkbox for Respond to Headset Presses  then if it is checked, then 
it will have a box for a command to run.  The command would be (from my 
previous example) /path/to/VoiceControl.  I guess there should also be 
another checkbox for Route Audio to Headset which would do just that.  
Allowing my previous scenario of being able to initiate voice commands 
from the BT headset possible.


Does this make sense to everyone?

The reason I think this is so useful is that it can make the phone (with 
a BT headset) operateable without having to ever touch it (useful while 
driving).  You could have the phone docked and say Run GPS or Call 
John Smith or Show John Smith or Directions to John Smith and it 
take the appropriate action all while keeping you eyes on the road.  
There are plenty of other possibilities, but those are just the ones 
that I find useful.


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Re: FOSDEM OpenMoko talk now on video.google.com

2007-03-01 Thread Jonathon Suggs

kkr wrote:

Why not use an open format (.ogg) rather than proprietary one (.avi)?

Regards,
  
Really not trying to start a fight here.  But more players support avi 
than ogg.  Therefore I agree with the choice.


Open formats and standards are great when they stand on their own 
merits.  Not that ogg isn't better, but the goal is to spread 
information, therefore we want the most people to be able to view the 
video.  Bottom line is open standards aren't better just because they 
are open standards.  I can't believe this argument comes up even on 
which video codec is used...  No wonder mailing lists can be scary to 
new comers.


All of that to say.  They guy did something positive.  You criticized.  
Why should he want to help you in the future?  Instead of complaining, 
re-encode into ogg with your own time and resources and let people have 
the CHOICE of what they want to use.


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Re: Possible security hole for Dialers/troyan horses

2007-03-01 Thread Jonathon Suggs

kkr wrote:

Le jeudi 01 mars 2007 à 09:48 -0600, Jonathon Suggs a écrit :
snip
  
Isn't this something along the lines of SELinux?  If that is the case, 
is that something we should look at implementing?


snip

As I understood SELinux, it would be a good tool for security. 


Many (or most) other (close) Linux phone use SELinux to (successfully)
block hacker who want to free their phone. But if we use it for our
interest, I feel, it would be fine.


But if a user doesn't  want to think about the problem of security, as
he will download anything from everywhere (binary from untrusted
source), he will simply switch off SELinux in a way of making working
his new (downloaded) application...

As I remember, with Fedora Core 6 (which use SELinux), when I've
installed some application from official repository, some application
doesn't work because the policy of SELinux is not, or badly implemented
for them. So, I did have the chose to:
- write by myself a new SELinux policy (but I do not have enough skill
  to do that)
- disable SELinux to use it
- not use it

So, if I've chose to wait an update of the SELinux policy, I guess, some
users would simply chose to disable SELinux...

We can do nothing for users which doesn't care about security concern,
except trying to educated them... Or simply don't care about their
problem.


Regards,




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Good points.  The goal is usability.  We shouldn't have to make the 
device bend to our will...it should behave naturally as one would 
expect.  Having end users even think of what a SELinux policy is 100% 
wrong.  First because they don't necessarily need to know about it.  
Two, some/most won't comprehend what it is or why then need/want it.  
Third, when given your three options I would guess there are only two 
solutions.  One is have a nasty enough dialog Doing this WILL cause 
your phone to explode, don't do it and they won't use the software and 
be confused.  The other is that they just disable SELinux (or whatever 
security/preventative measure) and install the software.


Designing software is hard.  Making it user friendly is hard.  
Preventing users from doing dumb things is hard.  Then throw into the 
mix trying to design a system that will protect against poorly written 
software or malicious software and things get really hard.  But that is 
why we are discussing this...trying to figure out a solution.


That said, is SELinux a good thing to look into for OpenMoko?  What are 
the difficulties?  How does that affect the developers?


Keep the dialog going.

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Re: Possible security hole for Dialers/troyan horses

2007-03-01 Thread Jonathon Suggs

Tomasz Zielinski wrote:

2007/3/1, mathew davis [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

then give it a rating of some sort 1 - being safe/trusted program and 
10 -

being known bad binary/ don't use at any cost unless you really want bad
things to happen.


Well, nobody will recognize difference between rating 2 and 3 or 6 and
7. I think set of three values is sufficient: 1 - allow network/GSM
activity, 2 - ask every time app is trying to open connection/send
SMS/make voice call, 3 - ban without asking.

I wonder if OpenMoko system/library calls can be overriden or catch at
layer which will be able to show dialog popup for setting 2.

I really like that idea.  That could be a standard part of EVERY 
installed app (outside of trusted OpenMoko apps).  Just one more step in 
helping users not shoot themselves in the foot.


As far as the implementation.  If this is the way we wanted to proceed, 
then yeah its possible, but would require a decent amount of work that 
would have to get incorporated into the main trunk.  As a general rule, 
anything is possible.  But it comes down to how much time/effort would 
it require, and if people are willing to put in that time/effort.


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Bluetooth Headset - Voice Commands

2007-02-28 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I know we never came to an official conclusion on the voice command 
question, but I'm going to intentionally jump ahead and ask another 
question concerning Bluetooth.  So for the sake of the question, lets 
assume we have a program called VoiceControl that handles taking spoken 
commands and taking appropriate action...and we'll assume its an awesome 
program too.


When there is no call currently in progress, can we press the button on 
the headset and have that do two things.  First, route the audio input 
and output to the Bluetooth headset and secondly call VoiceControl?  
That way when driving/walking I could have the phone docked/cradled/in 
my pocket and when I wanted to make a phone call, I could simply press 
the bluetooth headset button and say Call [whoever] and the phone 
automatically dial [whoever].


The reason that I ask is that on my PocketPC phone (iMate PDA2K), there 
is supposedly a hardware limitation that will not allow for this to 
occur.  It can have the bluetooth headset button initiate the program, 
but it cannot use the bluetooth headset to transfer the audio to the 
program.  It has to use the built-in microphone for routing audio to the 
voice command software.  I don't remember specifics, but I think it was 
because the bluetooth module tied to the gsm module in hardware or 
something along those lines.


All of that to ask, is the bluetooth implementation on this device going 
to have that same limitation?  I was looking through the wiki and 
noticed the bluetooth is connected to the USB Host Controller...so I am 
hopeful it won't suffer the same limitation.


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Thunderbird - Reply to Mail List

2007-02-27 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I feel really stupid asking this, but I am having troubles using 
Thunderbird.  I receive the list in digest mode.  For each digest, it 
will show up as a single messages in my inbox.  Also for each digest it 
will have each individual message as an attachment.  But I cannot find a 
way to respond to an individual message.  If I open one of the 
attachments (ie individual message), it will not let me reply (can click 
the reply button, but nothing happens).


I was thinking this should be a very easy thing to do (and other mail 
clients make this easy), but I am pretty much stumped.  Any thoughts?


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Voice Activated Controls

2007-02-26 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Does anyone know of any software for natural language processing that
could be ported to OM/Neo?  I really like some of the software that is
available for the PocketPC (MS Voice Commander and Fonix).  They both
run and work well on a resource limited platform as well, so it *can* be
done, but both are closed.

Here are a couple of OS engines:
http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/pocketsphinx/
http://julius.sourceforge.jp/en_index.php?q=en/index.html
http://xvoice.sourceforge.net/

So I guess, is there already any voice control software planned/worked
on for use in OpenMoko?  If not, I'll help out, but can we get a project
up and running?

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Re: 2-3 parallel solution to choose by the user? Re: Any, alternative ideas to fullscreen popup-messages?

2007-01-31 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote: 
 Do you really want e.g. the incoming phone confirmation dialog behave like 
 that? 
 [more notification strategies]
 ...
 I understand your point, I just think that this kind of thinking is not what 
 the majority of smartphone users wants or is it? Guys?

I think Mickey is right about the majority.  When I get a phone call,
97.842% of the time it is the most important thing that is happening and
should be treated as such (almost fullscreen pop-up with VERY large,
easy to press with a finger buttons [ANSWER] [IGNORE] (or whatever they
would say))

Now, do I want all pop-ups like that? Probably not.  I really like the
idea of the 'footer' being able to stack several notifications that I
can review at my convenience.

Moving right along, I think a good way to proceed is to have a system
API for creating notifications.  You can give them different levels,
priorities or whatever you want to call them.  But so long as there is a
generic way to create them (and all applications use that API) then
exactly how they are displayed can be customized by the user.  The
default setting can be the 2/3 screen pop-up.  But it could be overridden...

-Jonathon

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Re: Fax modem? Fax software? Neo as T.38 gateway?

2007-01-30 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Harald Welte wrote:
 yes, the GSM Modem we use has standard AT command Fax modem functionality.

I'm not 100% sure about everything I'm about to say, but I vaguely remember 
some things from a similar discussion a while back.

In order for you to send/receive fax via a GSM connection requires you to 
notify your carrier and them enable some features (CSD fax/data service plan).

Here are some links that have some information, but I'm not sure how current it 
is...
http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/598950-1.html
http://www.conklinsystems.com/palm/forum/viewtopic.php?t=212sid=4513920d88d45b8bc13c2d1b1bc4f661
http://www.ksesoftware.com/showthread.php?id=21

Hope this helps...


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Unified Profile Management (Should be part of Moko Core Apps)

2007-01-26 Thread Jonathon Suggs
One thing that should be developed is a unified profile manager (and
well defined API).  With all of the application possibilities, there are
going to be several programs that will take action based on (location,
time, schedule, whatever).  One of the most frustrating things is to
have several different applications all trying to do some of the same
things (and subsequently configuring each app on what to do).

So instead of each app controlling low-level functions (sound level,
ringtone, bluetooth, gps, backlight level and power features) there
would be user-configurable profiles.  The apps would change profiles
instead of the low-level functions.

Example.  Instead of a calendar app just muting the phone when in a
meeting (nice feature) it would activate a profile (maybe silent or
meeting).  Other apps could also use those profiles.  For instance a
GPS location aware app could know to use the same silent or meeting
profile when you were at movies, church (or anywhere you wouldn't want
your phone to ring).

Not only will this make for a MUCH better user experience (less
redundant work).  It will GREATLY speed up application development (no
complex interface for what to do just a single simple dropdown what
profile for this action/trigger).

Take a look at this app.  But just imagine how much more powerful it
could be if it were fundamentally integrated into the OS.
http://www.pocketzenphone.net/PZPForum/index.php

FYI, I've purchased and used the app.  It is top notch for anyone out
there in the PocketPC Phone camp.



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GPS Power Requirements

2007-01-25 Thread Jonathon Suggs
There has been a lot of talk about GPS recently.  There are some really
good ideas floating around, but before people start getting really
excited the BIG question is what is the power draw on the device?  Will
you be able to keep the GPS receiver on constantly without having the
battery get drained in a few hours?  If so, then *most* of the ideas are
going to be pointless.

For instance, having the device be able to do specific things when you
come into a certain area (100m from home = queue up music, 100m from
school = turn off cell phone or just mute, etc).  Those are amazing
ideas that could make this platform really stand out (if the interface
is done correctly).  But if you have to remember to turn on the GPS when
you get close to those areas for that feature to work will completely
defeat the point.

So, what is the power requirements for GPS.  Is it a constant draw or
can it be improved via advanced/better  drivers (polls less frequent if
stationary, etc).

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Re: GPS Power Requirements

2007-01-25 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Marcus Bauer wrote:
5mW if you get a fix every ten seconds.

10 seconds is a pretty big interval.  Where did you get that information
from?  Is there a table that shows the draw/polling interval?

Where is the documentation for the chip?  Can its polling interval be
controlled?  Who is working on the drivers?

Sorry for the inquisition, but this is the type of stuff that will have
to just work for normal people to use it.

Great ideas are just that...ideas.  We can dream up all sorts of
features to add, but unless they just work then they will fall by the
wayside with all of the other could-of-beens.

I hate how things keep getting compared to Apple (and lately the
iPhone), but what they are promising is that it won't do anything new
and earth-shattering.  But what it will do is provide a sleek, extremely
well refined interface.  Things will just work and be intuitive.  If
they manage to do it, they can keep the architecture closed, charge a
$1000 and they still won't be able to keep it on the shelves.  Lets not
get so caught up in coming up with new ideas that we forget to not just
implement and move on, but take the time to refine it beyond (well it
works if you download the libraries, update the config, etc).

Sorry for the rant, but this project has potential to be great.  But it
also has the potential to me a geek novelty.  Lets take the time to make
it great!

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The man behind it all

2007-01-25 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Sometimes it helps to put a face with a name.  Anyway, found this link
and thought the community might want to see who is leading the charge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRvtAAXTIlg

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How to get involved (HELP!!!)

2007-01-24 Thread Jonathon Suggs
I'm a computer engineer and want to get involved.  All I'm seeing coming
across this mailing list is feature requests, basic inquiries, etc.  Is
there another list that is focused more on the development side of things? 

I'm a little lost on how this project is structured.  Can someone please
either respond back to this list or email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
more info.

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Bluetooth Voice Dialing (and A2DP)

2007-01-23 Thread Jonathon Suggs
Just got signed up on the list, so sorry if this has been covered in
previous topics.  But one feature that I find to be very high priority
is the ability to use voice dialing over bluetooth and for it to be a
seamless experience.

So, first.  What is the status of the bluetooth on the phone?  What type
of hardware is it using and who is developing the stack?

Second, is there voice recognition software already developed for the
device?  If not, is someone working on it?  If so, can it be initiated
from the headset via bluetooth?

Last question, is A2DP implemented in the stack?  I feel that will be a
highly requested feature (down the road at least).

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