Roland Tanglao's Weblog

(Part 2 of my Bug Adventures series, for more real time wiki action check out my Bug Adventures wiki where I flesh out my thoughts before posting them here!)

Why doesn't my GPS aka BUGgps seem to work? By "not working", I mean it doesn't get a GPS satellite lock which results in a Java exception for those using the high level API and void values e.g. "$GPGLL,,,,,022837.595,V*1D "for apps reading the RAW GPS sentences.  My guess is it's a low level software bug that will be fixed in the "real soon now" R1.4 software release. Note that I have attached the external antenna and put it on the window sill where my other GPSes (Nokia LD-4W, Nokia E71) have no problems obtaining a GPS lock!

Herewith my debugging notes:

1. http://bugcommunity.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=351 seems to be the definitive source of how to fix your GPS! the fix in the thread:
   
   1. "navigate the front-panel menu to the GPS module and you will be able to see fix: True/False and IOX, which is the value of the IOX register:"
      1. (front panel led sequence is: modules->GPS->IOX) I get 0x63 which means
         1. bit  0: 1 == no GPS fix, since fix is active low
         2. bit 1: 1 = no overcurrent condition
         3. bit 2: 0 = no wakeup from sleep
         4. bit 3: 0 = don't know what this is, guess is 0 means don't download firmware
         5. bit 4,5 unused
         6. bit 7,6 0,1 == external antenna
            
2. Other people's code I have tried
   
   1. GPSRawFeedExample always outputs "V*blah" which I think means void!
      1. e.g. $GPGLL,,,,,051302.397,V*10
   2. GPSLoggerSimpleGUI - the GUI doesn't work but at least the program doesn't crash :-)
   3. GPSLogger2 creates a zero length file in /tmp but does nothing else e.g. /tmp/GPSSun Jan 04 20:25:49 UTC 2009.log
   4. GpsLogger_1.1 java.lang.NullPointerException
      at com.buglabs.bug.module.gps.GPSModlet.getLatitudeLongitude(Unknown Source)
   5. My friend Simon's app has the same bug as GPS Logger 1.1 i.e. java.lang.NullPointerException
      at com.buglabs.bug.module.gps.GPSModlet.getLatitudeLongitude(Unknown Source)
      1. Simon's guess: the NMEA sentence they are getting from the underlying
         hardware isn't quite in the format they expect, so they end up trying
         to get a double out of the string  ","
      2. http://lists.buglabs.net/pipermail/bug-dev/2008-December/000167.html seems to be the same problem!
3. Evidence that this is a Bug that's being worked on:
   1. this fix went into  svn trunk (svn://svn.buglabs.net/bug/trunk  ) on December 14, 2008, http://svn.buglabs.net/svn/!revision/7632
      // default to passive (external) antenna, until
      // such time as we have confidence in the internal            
      // antenna's ability to obtain a fix          
      log.log(LogService.LOG_DEBUG, "GPSModlet defaulting to passive (external) antenna");              
      setPassiveAntenna();       

I'll be assisting Fearless, Dave and Kris with the "mobiles for DTES residents and artists donation drive" tomorrow. Let's get together and donate and have some fun!

[Cross posted with permission from the Fearless Blog]

Donate your old mobile phones to help DTES artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs & family

How can you help?

1. Your used mobile phones - preferably with video, camera, wi-fi
2. Cash donations (* tax deductible) or new phone donations
3. Conversation - tell your friends on your blog, twitter, etc. - post a badge

Action Plan:
First, Gather phones!

Collect all the unused mobile phones at your office and home - dig into your boxes of stuff, ask you friends! Digital cameras gratefully accepted too.

Next, Arrange Pick-up:

• Let us know via Twitter: Fearless City, email: info (at) fearlessmedia (dot) ca, Phone/SMS: 604.644.4349, Voice mail: 604.682.3269 xt 8320
• We'll come by on purple Yahoo bikes on Tues. Dec. 23rd & 30th to collect your devices
• We'll take your photo, bring treats, and thank you publicly with a link

Or, Drop-off (after Tuesday, 23rd) at:

• Roundhouse Community Centre - 181 Roundhouse Mews
• Pathways - 390 Main Street (kitty corner from the Canegie)
• Raincity Studios - 1 Alexander St. @ Water st.

Want to be a drop-off point? Let us know.

Even send by Postal Mail to:

Fearless City
c/o DTES CAN
PO Box 88023
418 Main St
Vancouver, BC V6A 4A4

Notes:

• Remove your chip, and clear your contacts before donating (all phones will be completely cleared before released).
• Please include chargers and accessories - used digital cameras also welcome
• Unusable phones will be donated to FreeGeek for reuse and recycling

Who is Fearless?

Fearless is a Vancouver Non-Profit group providing tools, resources, and cultural outreach to artists and residents in the improverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Fearless is a project of the DTES Community Arts Network (CAN)

More:

• About Fearless City
• Fearless City wiki
• Fearless City community site
• Fearless City Youtube channel
• Fearless City Flickr photos
• Fearless City Flickr group
• DTES on Wikipedia

Thank you for your support!

Post a graphic on your site with this handy code snippet:

<a href="http://fearlesscity.ca" title="Donate phones to Fearless to help Vancouver downtown eastside artists and residents" >
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/3121575464_8a062db061_m.jpg" height="240" width="195" alt="Donate phones to Fearless to help Vancouver downtown eastside artists and residents">
<p>Donate used mobile phones to help DTES residents and artists at fearlesscity.ca</a></p>

I have started a personal Google Wiki called "BUG Adventures" to track my adventures with my Bug Labs BUG. There's not much there for now other than some newbie eclipse questions and  the usual anti-Java whingeing :-)  (since I have only played with my BUG for about an hour), but if you are interested you can check it out at your leisure.

The question of the moment is: what is this ? (couldn't find it in the wiki and manuals but then again I only searched for about 15 minutes!)

Otherwise, I'll post highlights here.

Real artists ship! My Bug Labs Bundle Arrived today. Check out my BUGbundle unboxing pics (including the nice touch of the team's signatures inside the box.). The Camera module is on back/order but I received a cool von Hippel hacking module as a bonus for the delay. Now for some GPS hacking. Oh, and if anyone else in Vancouver has a BUG, contact me and let's get together to exchange notes!

We don't have real free movement of goods between Canada and the USA because the process (at least 15 minutes, probably more plus crossing the border which involved a 1.5 hour wait today) to pay GST and PST and duty takes too long when a consumer imports something into Canada from the USA. Why not streamline it? It's almost as if we don't want to have real free trade!

BTW the above form is the one that was used when I paid my GST and PST for the Bug from Bug Labs which was shipped to Blaine, Washington and imported by me into Canada today. More on the Bug later

Or at least it appears to. The N97 proof is in the pudding which is the user experience including hardware and software (skeptical about S60 but willing to be convinced), but at first glance appears to be great. Hope it's both North American and European 3G and available in Canada officially soon! I trust it has lots of RAM and will run ShoZu, Qik and viNes in short order! Vive la competitiion! Go Nokia go!

QUOTE [From Nokia N97 - The Nseries Dream Device: Nokia S60 News and Reviews]

So what makes this Nokia's Dream Device? The N97 is the first Nseries device with QWERTY keyboard!!!!! Now thats not the only thing that makes this a dream device... and let me just state that the endearing term "dream device" is solely based on my own initial impression and opinion of the device.

END QUOTE

QUOTE [From Meet the Nokia N97 - The New Nseries Flagship!]

On first glance the N97 compares to the 5800 in size and seems like it’s older brother … until you slide the keyboard out and realize you’ve got an altogether new breed in hand. While it’s not a small device, the N97 feels great in your hand and can easily be used while walking without needing two hands in most cases. The virtual keyboards (numbers and T9) were clear and the softkeys seemed eas to access for quick data entry. Of course for larger text needs a quick flip and you’ve got a real keyboard at your disposal. Weight (Approx. 150 g) felt semi-comparable to the E71 and in the front pocket of my jeans it was not in any way uncomfortable.

END QUOTE

QUOTE [From Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger » Blog Archive Nokia N97: the ultimate Facebook device «]

Nokia just announced the N97. I got a chance to play with it last night and realized they have built the ultimate Facebook device. Now, I’m sure, lots of you will wonder how it compares to the iPhone. Well, for a Facebook user it isn’t even close: the new Nokia device wins hands down. Why? Let’s compare:

1. It does 16:9 video. The iPhone doesn’t even do video. So, how can you go to a Daft Punk concert and record it to taunt your friends?
2. It has a 5 megapixel camera. The iPhone only has 2, and the quality isn’t even close. The camera also has a dual LED flash, so you can take pictures in the dark where the iPhone can’t.
3. I can type three Facebook status messages on the N97’s nice QWERTY keybord in the time that I can type two on the iPhone.
4. It does copy and paste, so you can copy URLs to send to your friends. The iPhone can’t do that.
5. It has replaceable batteries so you can charge up three batteries and Facebook for days, while the iPhone needs to be hooked back up to the wall for recharging after a few hours.
6. The GPS device does turn-by-turn and has a built in compass, so you’ll get to your parties faster than with the iPhone, which doesn’t have a compass and doesn’t do turn-by-turn.

OK, so how else does it compare to the iPhone? It has a touch screen, with a cool customizeable home screen. You can add a Facebook component and can drag and drop different components with your finger. You can also use gestures so you can “flick” through your photos. That part is very similar to the iPhone, so you can see that Steve Jobs had a big influence on the user experience.

The device itself has only one button and you can see Jonathan Ives’ challenge taken up all over the device. Close your eyes and touch the device and you don’t feel buttons or other things protuding. Smooth.

END QUOTE

Ha ha, thanks Ewan. I guess after posting 21000 photos with ShoZu I am a ShoZu Grand Master. Glad to help! Vanouverites with Nokia cameraphones please text me at 604 729 7924 or twitter @rtanglao or leave a comment. I am really looking forward to helping others use ShoZu.

QUOTE [From Our first ShoZu Grand Master reveals himself in Vancouver | Mobile Industry Review]

Yes, Roland Tanglao has grabbed hold of the MIR ShoZu Campaign Mantle and thrust a stake in the ground right in the centre of Vancouver.

To paraphrase the A-Team introduction: “If nobody else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire Roland Tanglao.”

That’s right, Roland is offering to help anyone understand, install and setup ShoZu — although he rightly points out that if you’re using an iPhone, you probably don’t need any help as it’s so easy.

But if you’re in need, buy Roland a $2.25 macchiato and the knowledge is yours. What a deal. Even if you’re already a dab hand at ShoZu, you might want to hook up with Roland anyway and say hi.

END QUOTE

Nokia has to do something soon. Don't think it's quite as urgent as "must introduce something this week" as Scoble describes but the window is closing for Nokia to re-capture the "high-end today but quickly becoming profitable mainstream" mind share that they have lost.

What do I want? Here's my N999 "multimedia-creator phone" vision updated for Dec 2008 (not in order of priority):

1. screen the size of the 5800 Tube
2. S60 simplified and fixed as Rui describes
3. 5 megapixel camera with cover and Xenon flash with 3x optical zoom and 640x480 30fps video (basically re-use the awesome N82 camera hardware and software)
4. Quad band GSM and 3G (i.e. works on Rogers and AT&T in North America AND European 3G out of the box just like the N85, no funky North American model)
5. Built in ShoZu (with 10MB limit removed for 3G and WiFi, make the limit 50MB for 3G and WiFi) - killer app for photographers and videobloggers
6. Bult-in Qik (killer app for videobloggers!)
7. Awesome web browser (Nokia's Web Kit browser was great in 2006, it is now far behind Apple's)
8. Lots of available RAM (as much as the N95 8GB please!), 8GB storage on built-in card
9. Built in Nokia viNes to take advantage of Nokia's great GPS hardware (killer GPS app!)

Here's what I don't need:

1. QWERTY keyboard
2. Email (Email is dead to me; I continue to use it reluctantly for work)
3. Touch (would be nice, but not convinced Nokia has the software chops for this; I am not interested in S60 transmogrified with touch, I would prefer touch to be part of a totally revamped user interface that's NOT S60.)
4. Micro SD card slot
5. Calendar (would be nice but that's what my laptop is for :-) !)
6. IM (Twitter is IM enough for me and I am fine with using it in the browser)
7. VOIP is dead to me except for Skype
8. MMS - I am not convinced I need it, I can always use ShoZu email photos :-) but I was wrong about SMS (so maybe I am wrong about MMS)

Would be nice:

1. Built in S60 Python so I can hack around and do some Geo hacks (and with reasonable security model to let mash up creators create some insanely great mashups) - Sorry widsets, Nokia WRT and flash lite don't cut it for me, but I am willing to be convinced of course!
2. Built-in Skype (the one on the N800 is fab and yes I know it's on a different operating system but Nokia has some awesome developers, c'mon and get with it :-) )
3. USB charging
4. Over the air firmware updates

QUOTE [From Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger » Blog Archive Nokia’s touchiest week «]

Translation: this is the week that Nokia either shines or moves to the B list of the cell phone market. Yeah, you won’t know how this week turned out for a year or two, but there is no bigger week for Nokia.

Now, can you count Nokia out yet? No way. It has the biggest slice of the cell phone marketshare pie. Its devices are much better engineered than Apple’s are (GPS on Nokia is better, so are the antennas, the cameras, and bluetooth radios that Nokia uses). But engineering does NOT equal a great experience. Yeah, my Nokia does not drop phone calls in places in Silicon Valley that my iPhone does, but generally I reach for the iPhone when I want to make a call or surf the web. Why?

Nokia is behind in experience. The executives here from Nokia that I’ve talked to know that. They know this is Nokia’s touchiest week and one where they either deliver a much better device or they are going to face a very tough 2009 globally.

END QUOTE

Hey Vancouverites! Got an N95, N82 or other Nokia cameraphone and a data plan (or a Wifi phone)? If so, I'll show you how to install ShoZu and configure it to send photos to any email address, flickr, facebook, twitter, Now Public, any arbitrary email address, etc. (ShoZu supports an incredible number of photo and video services in fact over 90% of the popular ones!). All I ask is we do this over coffee in downtown or Gastown before work or at lunch and that you buy me a $2.25 macchiato :-) in return. Text me at 604 729 7924 if interested! iPhone ShoZu users, the offer applies to you too but I doubt you need any help :-) !

Some little known cool ShoZu features:

1. Did you know you can use ShoZu to send to multiple flickr accounts (e.g. one for work and one for family)?
2. Did you know ShoZu supports videos? Who needs 12seconds.tv when you can send 20 second videos from your Nokia to flickr (or anywhere else! e.g. facebook)?

QUOTE [From The ShoZu Campaign begins on MIR! | Mobile Industry Review]

And here we are: My Campaign! I want to raise awareness of ShoZu amongst the Mobile Industry Review audience and beyond. My hope is that you, dear reader, will take it upon yourself to educate at least five normobs about ShoZu. Further, I hope you will help them get the app installed on their handset and setup to send to Facebook or Flickr or the like.

It’s my firm belief that ShoZu is a ‘gateway application’ — like a gateway drug — that converts a normob to a mobile data user (a ‘promob’).

ONCE you’ve tasted and started using ShoZu, you ‘get’ mobile data. You can start to look at other applications and uses. You might like to check out Jaiku. Or try and get your head around Twitter.

But the key is photos. Photos OFF your handset, on to the internet. That’s the magic that converts the normob.

Too often, nobody cares. We’re all busy. Normobs just get on with their lives. Take 10 seconds out to explain the concept though — and you spread a little joy with your technical experience.

END QUOTE

Just tried viNes on the E71 (check out my my Y! Purple Bike 1st ride route). The mobile app part of viNes is much nicer than Nokia Sports Tracker (this could be a "honeymoon effect" due to the E71's expanded RAM and fast processor but viNes on an E71 is much better than Sports Tracker on an N95-1! Sadly viNes doesn't work on an N95-1). In a bit of an oddity, the maps show on both the Nokia Sports Tracker site as well as the viNes site. The website (like far too many Nokia websites, what is the problem Nokia? Adopt Joomla, WordPress, Drupal or Rails, stop using proprietary web systems with ridiculous amount of flash please!) is still very bad: not enough social media features (that you get for free on the aforementioned platforms), too much gratuitous flash and bad URLs (check out my past whingeing :-) about the Sports Tracker site!). Someday when the iPhone has background processing, an app like this will come to that mobile too! Until then, viNes is much better than any of the iPhone GPS tracker apps I have tried.

QUOTE [From Nokia viNe Has Been Released - Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen]

It is official, Nokia viNe has been released into the wild and is now available for download. This version of Nokia viNe is a mobile geo-path-tracking / photo / video location based mobile app that allows one to create "vines" or "journeys" on one's phone and then upload it to the nokia server to be displayed on the web or via a widget.

END QUOTE