I haven’t got so much data, with less than two weeks usage under my belt, that I need external spreadsheets and such but there is a Google Docs script that a Jawbone user put together that does a pretty good job of showing the UP data in a variety of charts and I am looking out to see if anyone else has created a similar version for Excel or Open Office.  Jawbone user Aurelien created an UP Google docs analysis script here: http://bit.ly/13FEqSq

Nothing has changed as far as I can tell in the Android App availability department, so my warning from the first post still stands. Try the App on your Android device before you buy the UP. If you can’t get the app because Google Play won’t let you download it – or even worse can’t run the app wouldn’t you rather know this before you layout $129.00+ for the UP?

My stock, non-rooted Xoom running official Jelly Bean was not allowed to download the app from Google play – luckily I got it from another Android user and loaded and ran it just fine. Syncing the tablet with the UP was not a problem but there were a couple of times that I wanted to try timing an activity when of course I did not have my tablet (to sync and see results not to initiate the activity) and it would be cool to run this from my phone so….

I updated my Samsung exhibit over lunch a couple of days ago to Cyanogenmod 9.1, i.e. now running Ice Cream Sandwich. I loaded and ran the UP App just fine. While I had rooted my phone almost from day one to get rid of the installed T-Mobile/Samsung installed crapware, I was still running stock Android with updates. I should have done the ROM upgrade ages ago. ICS on the Samsung exhibit is SO much faster, has noticeably better battery life and a user friendly ICS interface (ICS) all in all its been a good week living with UP!

Jawbone had some problems with their first generation device, but they seem to have overcome them for this second generation at least according to the iPad crowd.

The Jawbone hardware, so far appears to work very well, exactly as they described and I’m glad that I bought it. However, it appears from my interaction  with them that Jawbone doesn’t quite ‘get’ the Android market. The Jawbone UP app is only available on the Google Play store and is only available apparently to the dozen or so devices listed on the Jawbone  device compatibility list. Google Play will not let you download the app because the Jawbone App manifest is apparently very restrictive as to what devices it will allow. Of course I only  found this out after Amazon delivered my Jawbone in one day and I couldn’t use it.

I called support at Jawbone and emailed them and even though I explained via email and over the phone that  my phone was running 4.0 and my Xoom was fully JellyBean at 4.1.2 there was no joy in getting the  app. They seemed surprised to know that  they could actually put a  link to their own app on their own web site and we Android owners could download for ourselves they didn’t actually need to be in the  Play store and unlike Apple they could allow the app to be obtained directly from them. In fact I received a follow-up email today from Jawbone support explaining  that my Xoom was released with 3.0 and so would not be supported. I’m sending them a link to this blog post so that they get that Android devices just like Apple devices do get updates to newer versions they are not stuck with what was installed at the factory.

Bottom-line if you are not on the list of their supported devices, and even if you  are. Download and install the app before you even think of buying the Jawbone UP. If you can’t  get the app installed before you buy it – the experience will not  get any better when you actually have the Jawbone in hand.

I ended up trying out 4 tablets and 3 Android phones (hoping to get the .APK that I could email to myself) and none of them  worked including a supposedly compatible Samsung LG phone. I did eventually manage to get the app from a kind android user who mailed it  to me and if you want  to risk it, you can try the torrent route (so not recommended). Of course Jawbone may listen and provide a download link but who knows. I’m using the Jawbone with my Xoom and I like it – more about that in my next post after I have more  than 1 day  experience.

Clearly Carrier IQ is facing the prospect of some serious class-action lawsuites, if not criminal charges (wiretap laws do still exist) and of course the carriers that installed this (unless they can throw Carrier IQ under the bus and somehow claim lack of knowledge) are also going to be facing some tough legal action. Of  course if it turns out that this is an outgrowth of the older NSA warrantless surveillance suites that got AT&T into trouble then they will face no legal action as they can just say the government told us to this so you can’t sue us (the government gave the carriers a get-out-of-jail-free card for things like this) and that would of course make us all feel so much better right?

One other issue that may come about is a return to the question of the carrier data usage discrepancies. A number of people and researchers have shown that they have been charged for far more data usage than they have actually used and the carriers have always denied that there is a problem. Of course this was before Carrier IQ but now that we know that the carriers have also installed hidden software that can send every button push, text message, email, web click or URL that you visit even when you are on WIFI and not supposed to be using the cellular connection then you have to wonder, privacy concerns aside, who is paying for that bandwidth and will there be other lawsuits for the overcharges?

Interesting times – Don’t Blink.

I have been using a T-Mobile's mobile 4G Hotspot (MF61) for about three months,  replacing a similar unit from Virgin Mobile that I have previously written about. The Virgin Mobile unit and network connectivity had started to become increasingly unreliable in terms of both network speed becoming extremely slow (maybe 50 – 100kbs) and even the ability to connect to the internet – sometimes having to make several attempts before getting a connection.  When the MiFi unit suddenly decided to reset itself to factory default settings – the prospect of trying to get it connected back to my account had me looking for alternatives. From day one the T-Mobile unit has been five to six times faster than the Virgin Mobile unit and has never had any connectivity issues (when there is cell phone service).

If you asked me a week ago I would have given T-Mobile at least an 8 out of 10. This week I tried to connect to my library's web site and got instead a message that "Web Guard was blocking access". 

What is Web Guard?

Web Guard is supposed to be an optional add-on feature that restricts access to web sites that have adult content.  of course the T-Mobile salesperson at the Maiden Lane,NYC store neglected to mention that the feature is turned on by default on pre-paid devices or ask me if I would like it disabled. From the T-Mobile web site:
"While the filter is intended to remove such adult-themed Web sites from browse and search results, it does not block user-generated or user-shared content. This filter is not error-free and may over-restrict or under-restrict access from the customer's (or parent's) perspective. The filter is not available on all phones and may not work at certain times and/or in certain locations or block all sites within a particular category. The filter does not work with client server applications (such as the Opera Mini Browser). "

Of course T-Mobile’s definition of adult is questionable, once I started looking – almost every college and university library that I tried was blocked as was my ability to manage web sites GoDaddy was blocked too Strangely enough they didn’t block Facebook or Youtube so their blocking criteria is ttuly bizarre.

Neither T-Mobile online, customer care over the phone nor an in person visit back to the T-Mobile store on Maiden Lane, NYC  could get Web guard removed without my providing a lot of personal details that I had no intention of providing T-Mobile – again this is a prepaid device they didnt need any of that information to sell me the device or to setup the account and of course, T-Mobile does not have a great reputation for safe guarding this type of information.

Note: Do not go to their Maiden Lane store  unless you have at least an hour to spare as they never have more than 2 people actually working no matter what time of day you go and no concept of having at least one person just do basic sales rather than have 20 minute conferences with every person – whether they are customers or not.

So, while I like the T-Mobile service I don't like the whole creepy Big-Brother-ISP thing. I looked around for some VPN solutions and then for some proxy service approaches and even into setting up my own VPN tunnel but nothing low cost or free that would work with my Xoom was apparent and then I realized that I already had the perfect proxy solution that cost nothing, worked very well and was already installed on my Xoom: "The Opera Mini Web browser". T-Mobile's Web-Guard FAQ (table above) had even stated this in an indirect way when they mentioned this as a client server application.

I had installed the Opera Mini Browser several weeks earlier but it was not my main browser. While the Opera Mini-Browser was fast, the Dolphin HD and Firefox browsers had plugins that I wanted to use.  Anyway, I tried a couple of web sites to make sure that Web Guard blocked them and then I tried the sites with Opera and no blocking at all.  So, if you are having problems for whatever reason with Web Guard or equivalent software with one of the other ISP's give the Opera browser (Mini or Mobile) a try. While T-Mobile may not be keeping any of the information that passes througn my browser, with Opera as mu primary browsing tool it doesn't matter – I don't have to trust them because they are NOT seeing that content when I use the web. Opera Mini Browser – recommended.

How does Opera work?
From Opera's web site:
"Opera Mini requests web pages through Opera Software's servers, which process and compress them before sending them to the mobile phone, speeding up transfer by two to three times and dramatically reducing the amount of data transferred, chargeable on many mobile phone data plans. The pre-processing increases compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones. "

Anyway with the MiFi unit working again the Xoom remains a great tool for commuting I haven't used my Mac book in months. In the next article I'll cover some of the other networking and communication tools that I use on a regular basis.

Yes, that just may be an iPad under-foot. The Honeycomb 3.2 update just came in overnight on my WiFi Xoom. I clicked yes to restart and install the system update and a few minutes later, there was 3.2.

My SD card, which has been inserted but completely unrecognized since the 3.1 update now showed up as external1. I copied and deleted a file on the card just to make sure it wasn’t a non-working placeholder and life is good. **Update** May have been premature on it works – I think I copied the file to SDCARD not to external1 so later tests are showing that I cannot actually write to the SD Card from the Xoom. SDCARD if you don’t have a Xoom is internal to the Xoom and may or may not be an actual internal SDCARD.

Other impressions? Honeycomb 3.2 is fast. I don’t think 3.1 was slow but with 3.2 everything seems to just ‘pop’ – wish that I did some kind of benchmark before the update but for WiFi US Xoom owners I think you will be even more pleased with the Xoom now.

The update doesn’t appear to have done anything for the video player but I have been using the free version of the “Vital” player which also got an update this week. I will probably have bought the upgraded version by my next review but if you are going to watch video on the Xoom just get this app as of this week, my mkv container movies are now playing so I have mpeg mp4 avi all playing just fine either with the Xoom hardware codecs or the built in software ones.

< p>The newest addition in the computer family is a Motorola Xoom. Yes, I still have my Pocketbook IQ 701 and I still use it every day mostly as an ebook reader because it is fast enough and has a nice form factor for reading. The Pocketbook IQ 701 does not come close to being a replacement for my laptop though, so I was still carrying around my Mac everyday.

My daughter has been rocking her iPad 2 for a couple of weeks which has given me pretty good view of the iPad 2 capabilities, so why did I get the Xoom? Ultimately, it comes down to control. Apple maintains very strict control over the iPad experience. I could hand an iPad to almost anyone and they "get it". You have to puzzle things out a little more with an Android tablet though much less so with the made for tablet Honeycomb or Android 3.0 release that comes with the Xoom. My wife, other than where's the "on" button was web surfing with the Xoom for a couple of hours with no problem. She also noticed a couple of sites that she got into with the Xoom that were a problem with the iPad 2 (flash based) but I didn't tell her that.

Control, however comes with a price – I've had an iPod touch for more than 4 years and STILL have not written a REAL iPod (or iPad) application. The barrier to entry and to learn is too high – Use .NET? Program in Java or Ruby or C#? Use Eclipse or Netbeans for an IDE? – TOUGH – suck it up buy a MAC and learn Objective C or else go away. Meanwhile Google gives away the Android SDK. Use whatever IDE you want and while Android is Java at the core, Google has thrown in hooks to use whatever language floats your boat. Hell I wrote an Android app before I even had an Android device and as of right now I've written 3 of them.

Microsoft is the new IBM, Apple is the new Microsoft and Google Is the new Apple. I personally want the openness. i wan ted the USB slot and the SD Card slot – I want to be able to write my own apps. Like the old Apple and their famous "1984" commercial, I'm on the side of the lady slinging the sledgehammer through the screen. At the end of the day I wanted the Xoom.

Does this post look familiar to you? Well it's that time of year again when the CEO and founder of Facebook stands up and apologizes for the company's privacy transgressions and promises not to do it again. As I noted last year, it must be tough being CEO of one of the largest internet properties around and still have to prepare a sincere heartfelt apology each year.

 In case you've been on top of a mountain or something. it's just come to light that Facebook hired a PR firm to conduct a smear campaign against Google and its lack of concern for user privacy. To summarize what sounds like a bad grade B movie plot:

PR Flack firm Burson last week stepped up a whisper campaign to get top-tier media outlets, including USA TODAY, to run news stories and editorials about how an obscure Google Gmail feature —Social Circle— ostensibly tramples the privacy of millions of Americans and violates federal fair trade rules. USA Today broke that news http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2011-05-06-google_n.htm and then an internet outfit  "The Daily Beast"  discovered that it's a company nobody suspected—Facebook. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-12/facebook-busted-in-clumsy-smear-attempt-on-google/?cid=topic:mostrecent1# Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson, citing two reasons: first, it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.

 Holy Moley Batman – this year's Zuckerberg Conundrum needs asbestos gloves to handle.

We should be seeing the Zuckerberg  Mea Culpa in about another week – just remember folks this is an annual event – you can see last years winning entry here http://winstonlawrence.com/notebook/2010/the-zuckerberg-conundrum-a- facebook-apology/ and be sure to vote (in the comments section) for this years winner.

Yes, if you use advanced search, bracketed keyword and date range filters you can still get decent search results but this is a long way from what used to be the Google trademark minimalist drop dead easy. The internet really needs Google 2.0 classic. whether or not that is delivered by Google present.

While I am on the Google roll. Can I donate the $100.00 Adwords gift you keep tossing my way to say "Doctors without Borders"? Can they in turn cash it in? I'm not interested in buying into Adwords fueled Pagerank schemes no matter how attractive and lucrative you make them seem. You and J C Penney go off into a corner and slug it out. This is just a a blog.  I'm not selling stuff and I neither want nor ask for your editorial advice as to whom I should talk to, follow or lead.

Honestly, if you published the constitution every amendment would open with "sponsor-targeted Adword links" and close with a "no follow" tag.  Bring on Google Classic and thanks in advance.

So yesterday (Saturday April 3rd) I figured I would try the Apple store in Smith Haven Mall again. I got there around 8:45am. There was a smallish line of about 4 customers, 1 apple employee a mall rent-a-cop and an open Apple store with at least a dozen customers already inside. The Apple employee said that the only iPads left were 64gb Verizon models which I did not want.

I was asking the Apple employee why they just couldn't be honest about when the store opens. The listed opening time is 10am – when I went to the store  two weeks earlier, it was at 9:15am and the store was clearly already open and doing business. An employee then told me that they sometimes open at 9am to take Genius Bar appointments except now it was 8:45am and the store was swinging.

While I was talking to the Apple employee, a lady came out of the store, walked over to us and said "Does anyone want a 32gb Wifi iPad"? I suspected that she had just bought it and was looking to make a quick profit, but I told her "Yes, I'm interested".

She handed me two white, 2" square pieces of cardboard on which were printed Ipad 2 Black Wifi 32Gb. Apparently Apple hands out these cards, with the kind of iPad that you wish to buy, to people waiting on line. I told the lady "Thank you" she said something about not being able to (or needing to) send it to China and walked off. The Apple employee who had witnessed the whole transaction said that I could now enter the queue and wait on the (now empty) line to get my iPad 2.   He did ask me if I wanted 2 iPads and I said "no" just one and I handed him the other white card.

An employee walked out of the store and ushered me in to the store to get an iPad 2. As I was finishing up actually buying my iPad I saw the lady who had given me the card, come back into the Apple store, accompanied by a man this time and they headed over to the Genius bar which was about 10 feet behind where I was standing. So,  when I finished buying the iPad I walked back over to her, showed her the bag and thanked her again.

I asked her name and she said it was Kitty – I told her this was for my daughter's birthday and she would be very happy not having to wait almost 5 weeks after her birthday to get her present. Kitty said "I hope it brings your daughter a lot of luck" and then asked me if I had been waiting long. I told her no I had just come up to the store about ten minutes earlier, thinking that the store only opened at 9am. Kitty said that she had been waiting at the store since 4AM! So much for my 9AM 'early' visit – who knew that the mall would even open up their doors at that time!

Anyway, Thank you again Kitty – my daughter and her iPad have been pretty much inseparable all weekend

     Business Continuity Planning, also called Operational Risk Management, Disaster Recovery Planning, or the even more colloquial  CYA is, in a nutshell, a business strategy for managing Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it will go wrong so when it does go wrong you need to have a plan in place to make sure that the situation does not take out your project or the business.
 
        BCP can be a set of requirements and objectives specified as part of an overall project deliverable, sometimes the successful implementation of a BCP strategy might itself be the primary project deliverable. Of course BCP is an ongoing practice and needs to change and adapt as priorities, business, risks and legal requirements change. An important component of the process is the analysis of events when they occur to understand the underlying causes, the effectiveness of the response and to amend the BCP process to improve the response to future events. From a project perspective just assume that Murphy is a one of the stakeholders.

        I was particularly proud of an e-commerce portal project that I worked on, from planning through deployment the project took a little over a year from start to finish and involved everything from designing and setting up the server farm within an existing company data center, to developing the e-commerce portal and working with third party vendors from telcos to graphics designers.  The e-commerce portal ran on essentially a mini data-center contained within a much larger facility. One of the steps taken to ensure that the portal would operate within a 99.9% availability requirement, was to obtain internet connectivity in the form of paired communication lines from two different telcos just to ensure doubly redundant communications. Backups were taken both online to another facility and locally via standard disk and tape backups. We had an arrangement with an offsite facility where we could declare a BCP event and generally have our environment up and running within about 4 hours, which was the stated business requirement. Who knew that within 3 months of our grand opening of the portal go-live event we would be  operating out of that backup facility?

What happened? Earthquake? Tornado? While the infrastructure design had carefully made sure to bring in redundant telecommunications from two different telcos and we had even routed the telco wiring through two different connections into the building. What  we didn't know was that the telcos themselves were sharing the same physical conduit under the street about 500 feet from the building. A  backhoe ripped right through that conduit three weeks after we went live and we had no outside communications in our brand new facility for about two days.

      Lessons learned? Trust but verify — vendors will not necessarily answer questions that you don't ask and while we internally specified separate communications links we never thought to ask the Teclso themselves if they had redundant (and separate) paths along their own lines into our facility.
Murphy was an optimist – something will go wrong its how you respond that makes the difference