It’s not that hard to create things that in an ideal world work well.

The problems start when we realise that it’s not an ideal world, that things aren’t always predicatble, and that the unexpected often happens.

So the art of creating ’stuff’ for the real world, is not in making it work well, but it making it so that when it doesn’t work, it does that well too.

I’ve been meaning to get around to making sure all my good files (mainly photos and some crucial documents) are properly backed up for some time - I even played with getting an old machine running as an rsync server - but it was too noisy and … crap.

So I finally got around to buying something proper, and after some research into Network Attached Storage settled on a Linksys NSLU2 with a Buffalo DriveStation 500GB USB hard drive - expandable flexible storage, and I thought there would be some fun to be had with various open source firmware available for the ’slug’.

Day 1 - install the thing in my network, get the drive formatted, set up users, get things going ‘out of the box’. Great, does what it says on the tin, I’m a happy bunny, time for bed.

Day 2 - do I quit while I’m ahead? No.

I’ve been reading up on the unslung firmware and it sounds easy, and a lot of fun. Perhaps I can get it acting as a Subversion repository, streaming media to remote iTunes etc. - all the things I don’t need but will be great to tinker with. So I get the latest release of the software, fully digest all the instructions, including the warnings, and following the process to the absolute letter (apart from ensuring I can RedBoot because I’m an optimist) I proceed to upload the .bin file through the web interface at the right moment. “Can take 5 minutes or more …” it says “… do not turn off the power while upgrading!” it says.

One hour and 5 minutes later it’s still blinking, and I’m now pretty convinced I’ve got a nicely styled plastic brick. What do I do? Should I leave it running all night in the pathetic hope that the pixies will sprinkle their magic dust and it will have sorted itself in the morning, or should I do the thing I’ve been told not to and turn it off to try and follow the process to un-brick it? Why didn’t I leave well alone?

To cut a long, boring story short, I finally managed to get into the RedBoot prompt, reading through the instructions on what to do next made me chicken out of going that route - with my luck I’d permanently screw something up. So I found a bit about using the Sercomm Updater (I only had a Windows machine to hand) - and it worked an absolute treat upgrading to the unslung firmware (brave decision - I was a gnats’ away from going back to the Linksys) Why isn’t that the first suggestion rather than teasing the unsuspecting with talk of trying to catch a 2 second telnet window with a Vulcan nerve grip keyboard maneouver?

I’ve now got an unslung NSLU2 with all the original Linksys web interface still working - when I’ve regained my composure I may see if I can figure out another way to brick the thing.

Another exciting conference from Carson Workshops - I’m all booked and looking forward to it. Lots of big names - should be a blast!

I could have been laughing at this one for some time…

http://xkcd.com/293/

Found this app which really makes me wish my phone was 3G with a bigger screen - MGMaps - it’s a Java app that runs on most mobile phones (those supprting J2ME at any rate) and allows you to access Google Maps Yahoo! Maps.

Runs on my K750i but it’s painfully slow loading the bitmapped images. Once it does though it’s a nice interface. Very useful if you’re stuck without a map - if you know where you are (?)

Now all I need is a phone with 3G and GPS - hmmm. a Nokia N95 perhaps?

Postscript: Following instructions on mgmaps and markus.brosch.net I got mgmaps going on my PocketLoox PocketPC - and in the process got the IBM J9 Java/Midlet runtime going on Windows Mobile 5 - what fun!

I happened to be passing Cameron Moll’s Authentic Boredom site which I delve into every now and then, and read with interest his revisiting of predictions on the iPhone some time after the release, and having been using one. Now I haven’t had the oppotunity to play with one yet, and as described elsewhere I’m less than impressed with Windows Mobile offerings.

“As for the iPhone overall — hardware, software, user experience — I remain completely satisfied and even in awe in some instances. The deeper I dive into the UI, the more I’m impressed with decisions made at every level within the experience of using it. Simply stated, this is one killer device.”

OK, that makes me want to give one a spin - perhaps they are worth the hype. But then I want to get my hands on a Nokia N95

I’ve not been keeping up with the news as much as I should have, nor my R&D, which is why I’ve missed until now the news that dotMobi have appointed Andrea Trasatti as Director of Device Initiatives (how many people claim that as their job title?) with the goal of developing a ‘global mobile phone database for developer community’

Andrea certainly has a suitable pedigree - having been co-founder of WURFL, an active participant in the W3C Mobile Web Initiative’s Device Descriptions Working Group, and I’ve used some of his PHP code in my tinkering with mobile device detection. In his inaugural blog posting, he says “We don’t want to re-invent the wheel, but we want to learn from past experiences and then try to make some steps forward. When the meeting started everyone had a number of ideas that did not really seem to work out very well with each other. I have to say that after two days drawing on a blackboard, talking, writing notes and sharing ideas, we have come to a very interesting solution. … I am very excited about all the features we have thought so far and I am confident that most developers will be BLOWN AWAY by the software that we are going to build.”

I’ll follow this development with interest - but my first questions are ‘What will this do that WURFL doesn’t?‘ and ‘What will this mean to WURFL‘?

I have to say I’m immediately suspicious of a corporate entity trying to do something in an Open Source sort of way - it may get swallowed up in bureaucracy, or it may be that the commercial drivers make it a great tool.