andy's nerd blog

Boeing 787 First Flight

Myself, a few coworkers, and about 2500 other Boeing employees and suppliers stood out on Paine Field this morning to witness the 787 “Dreamliner” take flight for the first time. I’ve been working on this program for the last 3 and a half years, but I know many people who have been at it for more than 5, so for all of us it was very nice to finally see the product of our efforts!

According to my camera, lift-off took place around 10:32am PST. Everything went off without a hitch, it was glorious :-D Their timing really couldn’t have been better because within minutes of take-off it started drizzling and visibility worsened. Fortunately, by then they had flown out towards Port Angeles and away from the rain clouds.

As far as photos and video, we did the best we could as our spot was about 5 rows back from the fence. Thanks to Dougie for snapping the stills and having the smarts to use the rapid multi-shot mode. I posted up some photos here and a YouTube video here. The video unfortunately missed the lift-off part because I was holding the camera up above my head and couldn’t watch the viewfinder but the sound does help place you there in the crowd.

The landing took place about 3 hours later at Boeing Field in Seattle. Here’s a video. Great success!

MacWorld’s Mac Gems of 2009

Mentioned 3 of these already. ClickToFlash is a must-have. (Make sure you disable invisible flash.) ScreenSharingMenulet is very handy if you VNC frequently. Growl is very nice. I particularly like it paired with the Facebook Desktop Notifications app.

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droid doesn’t

Well, that was quick. After making the following pro/con list I returned the Droid. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Android though and hopefully 3.0 matched with a white knight device will be much more compelling. At the same time I’m sure Apple will improve iPhone, though as of yet we haven’t really heard anything about what’s coming in 2010!

Motorola Droid vs. Apple iPhone

Pros:
Google Voice integration in dialer
Screen is beautiful and has a ton of pixels
Navigation works well, especially with voice car mode
Wifi/Bt/GPS toggles built-in via home screen widget, no need to jailbreak
App multitasking built-in and somewhat effective
Notification system is better, shows more than just the most recent notification
Better integration with G services, Gmail app is great, calendar and talk
More reliable network and better call quality
You can see the entire screen while typing with the physical keyboard and it has useful arrow keys
Universal click and hold sub-menu access is nice
Quick access to recently used applications by holding home button
Universal back button is useful
Widgets are helpful
Can potentially modify lock screen

Cons:
Big, heavy and brick-like in appearance
Physical keyboard is not very good and doesn’t offer word correction
Cut and paste is cumbersome
Can’t use mobile data during a call
Camera app is slow and camera itself isn’t up to snuff
Limited to 3 home screens
No syncing of music, pictures, videos or bookmarks!
YouTube low quality option is too low quality and high quality option is too slow on 3G
Not enough granularity in media volume settings
No Yelp app and very basic Facebook app
Also, no ability to receive notifications from Facebook
App store is quite a ways behind in quality and selection
Built-in media player is weak
UI frequently seems slow
No pinch zooming in built-in apps like web browser and photo gallery

droid does?

Note: I wrote this last Wednesday.

I’ve been in a place for several months now where in order to be happy with my 3G iPhone I’ve had to jailbreak. The two primary reasons are SBSettings and MusicControls but I also use GV Mobile for Google Voice, the tethering hacks and Backgrounder. There are many other potential benefits but beyond those the device pretty much slows to a crawl. Technically, a 3GS would solve my problems because of the more powerful hardware. But not only is the upgrade prohibitively expensive, it would also likely require a 2-year extension of my AT&T contract. Not to mention that they can be tougher/riskier to jailbreak.. and that jailbreaking in and of itself may not be around forever.

For these reasons I felt compelled to try out the new Motorola Droid. I’ve always liked Android and have been attracted to the platform because I rely on so many of Google’s services.

Some of the potential benefits:

• Verizon over AT&T
• Better notification system
• Google Voice integration and more
• Multitasking

A few of the biggest complaints against the Droid don’t really affect me. Regarding the 256MB app storage limit; I hardly ever play games. The weakness of the built-in media player app; I don’t use my iPhone for video and music much in lieu of Pandora. The weakness of the Android Market may be an issue though. I rely quite heavily on apps like Touchpad, Prowl and Yelp. In any case, it won’t hurt to give it a try!

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Links for week ending 11/1

Inside Facebook’s Super Cool Designer Offices:
http://www.shelterpop.com/2009/09/29/inside-facebooks-super-cool-designer-offices/

Geek Heaven? Grand tour of Google’s new Kirkland campus:
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/10/video_the_grand_tour_of_googles_new_kirkland_campus.html

Google talent search: error 502?:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=50641&tsp=1

Push notifications from Facebook

While waiting for version 3.1 of Facebook’s iPhone app, I’ve tried two methods of receiving push notifications from Facebook. The easiest method is with Boxcar, which is now free thanks to the recent change allowing in-app purchases from free apps. However, Boxcar notifications from Facebook don’t show much detail.. only that so-and-so has commented on so-and-so’s status.

The slightly more involved method that I prefer and am currently using relies on Prowl, the Growl client for iPhone. If you haven’t heard of Growl it’s basically a customizable notification system for Mac OS that will display notifications from any application that supports the protocol. Prowl on your iPhone displays Growl notifications that have been forwarded from your home machine. This means that if you have a server or home theater machine that you always leave running, you can install Growl and the Facebook Desktop Notifications app that I blogged about earlier and receive the complete notifications on your iPhone. With this method the push notification you receive will say “so-and-so has commented on so-and-so’s status: blah blah blah,” saving you the time of having to load the Facebook app just to read the update. The only caveat is that you must have a machine at home that you always leave running. Oh and don’t forget to go into the Growl system pref and set the Facebook Notifications app display style to “Prowl.”

Facebook Desktop Notifications

Very cool addon for mac os providing facebook notifications right in the menu bar.

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Facebook plugin for iPhoto

It’s about time!

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