Some of you may have seen the web banner at right (or something similar) circulating around social media sites or other places. I agree with the sentiment. The MPAA and RIAA have been trying to fight a losing battle with piracy for far too long, and we’ve all been caught in the middle. They’ve taken a brute force, “scorched earth” approach, rather than coming up with an innovative way of handling the issue. I’m convinced that this is true mostly because they really don’t understand what they’re fighting against.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) which are both pending (and currently languishing) in Congress are two of the missiles that the entertainment industry has lined up in this mishandled battle. Looking at how they have been written, it’s very clear that there is absolutely no understanding of what the true ramifications of their actions will be. For example, the congressional folks who are backing SOPA and PIPA are so clueless that they won’t even listen to those who really do understand what’s going on. Check this link out.

So, would it be effective to hit the corporate sponsors of these two unequaled threats to the U.S. Constitution in the pocketbook? Sure it would. They’re businesses, and like any business if an action loses them money, they stop that action. However, I think that the boycott idea is misguided and will not be effective. Here’s why.

The Money is Already In Their Pockets

Okay, so I think that boycott supporters are thinking that if they don’t buy movie tickets for a month, the movie industry won’t get paid for a month. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The studios and distribution houses have already sold the movies, so they don’t care any more. They sell the rights to show the movies to the movie houses and chains, usually before the movie is even “in the can”. The CDs and DVDs have already been bought by the retailers.

They don’t care if you boycott for a month. They’ve got their money. By boycotting the theaters, the DVD retailers, the legitimate streamers, etc., you’re only hurting those retail-level firms.

Who Will Really Be Hurt?

Beyond that, they know that come April 1, they’ll get the money from all those who have been boycotting and thinking, “I can do without, I’ll just buy it after the boycott is done!” Everyone knows this. The corporate retailers and chain theaters will weather it with no problem. The little independents will be hit the hardest. They’re the ones who probably agree with you, and they’re going to be the ones that you’re punishing. Not a message that we really want to send.

What Should I Do?

If boycotting makes you feel better about the situation, then by all means do so. However, if you really want your boycott to be effective, take that time that you would have spent shopping for CDs, watching that DVD, or going to the theater and use it to write your Congressperson. Instead of spending money on movie tickets, spend it on a PAC that supports your cause. Don’t assume that not going to the movies will have any impact at all. What will really hit the politicians is a good old fashioned paper snail-mail letter telling them that if they support similar legislation, they’ll lose your vote.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m 100% against SOPA and PIPA, and I think that the MPAA, the RIAA, and quite frankly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should all go the way of the dinosaurs. But before jumping off the cliff without considering what your reaction will be to these terrifying actions, make sure that you’re hitting the mark, and not shooting at a red herring.

I’ve pulled my blog for the day, January 18th, 2012, in protest of the pending SOPA and PIPA bills in Congress. If you haven’t heard of them, you should read up. It’s scary. It’s like Brave New World scary. In fact, it’s so scary that if it passes, I could be thrown in jail for just having a blog like this one with a comments box, or for using the title Brave New World in a post without permission.

Look here:

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

Sign the petition here:

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

It’s your and your children’s future. How do you want the world to look when they grow up? Take action now. Contact your Senators and Representative. Let them know that no business is worth the price of our freedoms of speech and expression.

UPDATE: My Twisted Brain is twisting once again, but I’m leaving this post up. President Obama has done the right thing, so far, with respect to SOPA, but we can’t turn our back on the politicians for a moment. Keep the pressure on.

Defeat the censors!

So T-Mobile sent me this phone, and I’ve been happily using it for about a month now, and I figured it’s time to start yakking about it. It’s an Amaze™ 4G manufactured by HTC. Some may know it by its HTC production name, the Ruby. Either way, it’s a stunning phone, and as I’ve found over the past several weeks, it ROCKS! Let me tell you the ways…

The Story

But before we get into it, let me give you a bit of back story. A few months ago, the Emerging Media Manager for T-Mobile, along with their public relations company, Big Fuel, asked me to be a part of T-Mobilizer, their consumer-driven Emerging Media group. The idea is that, as a loyal T-Mobile subscriber and active member of the T-Mobile consumer support community, T-Mobile is giving a bit back by giving me access to some of their cool new products. While it’s not required, I’m encouraged to share my thoughts about the products that they send and T-Mobile in genaral. See my previous post here for more details.

So, after nearly 2 years of working my stout old Fender MyTouch 3G, T-Mobile sent me a shiny new and pretty Amaze 4G to play with. Now that I’ve got some experience with it under my belt, I feel that it’s time to share my thoughts with all of you (which I hope will make Mr. Elliott a happy man).

The AMAZE-ing Story

Around the first week of November, I receive my new Amaze 4G (well, not mine, it’s only a loan). I’m like a kid loose in a candy store.

Okay, my first thought after opening the box? This thing is GORGEOUS!! Very clean lines without looking like it was built by shaving down a black plastic brick. The back has a nice aluminum look (although I learned later that it’s just painted plastic) with a rubberized overlay on the top and bottom that looks great and helps you grip the phone (I’ve heard that the white model has smooth panels where the black is rubberized…a minus in the white’s column in my book). I love the look.

Second thought…the screen is enormous. This phone is big, probably about as large as you’d want to get for something that sits in the palm of your hand. The nice thing is that the screen fills almost all of the phone’s face. There is a little slice taken off the top for the speaker, notification LED, and front camera, and a slice off the bottom for the navigation buttons, but otherwise it’s all screen. More on that later.

Third thought…this phone is a bit on the heavy side. Not like it’s made of gold heavy, but it’s got some heft. Maybe about the same weight as an apple. Now, before you start thinking of this as a negative, consider this…this phone has fantastic feel. Think about driving a car. Do you prefer a car that feels like you’re driving a sponge down the road, where even small boulders don’t even give the steering wheel a shiver, or do you prefer a car with a wheel that lets you feel the size, shape, and consistency of that tiny pebble that you just ran over? If the former, then this phone isn’t for you. Look at the Samsung Galaxy S2 instead (great phone, lighter feel). But, if you like something that says, “Hey, I’m here, FEEL me!”, then the Amaze 4G is a Godsend. It still sits nicely in my pocket, and I can hold it for an hour reading a book, but it just feels…well…substantial, like something built for quality.

First Use

So, I get it unpacked and set up with the new SIM card (you need it to use the recently enabled WiFi calling), fully charged, and boot it up. Boy oh boy, what a beautiful screen. This puppy is full 960×540 pixel qHD equipped, and that means huge, tight, sparkling digital goodness for your eyes to feast on. I’ll grant that the SGS2 is a bit brighter and the colors are a tiny bit punchier, but the screen on the Amaze 4G is, for me at least, more elegant and less “cartoony” than the Sammy. No diss on the GS2’s screen. It’s beautiful too. I just prefer the more realistic and cleaner look of the Amaze’s screen.

Booted up and registered (took a couple of hours for the new SIM to register with my number), I start to play. This phone comes stock with the HTC Sense 3.0 as a launcher. It’s pretty nifty, and comes with some great preloads like Netflix, the Google suite (except for Google Plus, which you can download from the Market), Lookout security, T-Mobile TV HD, and qik Video Chat (for 2-way video chats).  Of course you can load up on other apps as well, and I’ll discuss a few that I like in a moment. It also comes with some preloads that I’m not really keen on, and unfortunately they can not be removed without rooting the phone WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT DO! That is, unless you really really really really really really know what you’re doing, and are ready to accept a total loss of operation of your brand new $500+ investment. So, you’re stuck with the shovelware that you don’t like, but luckily you don’t have to use them, and they don’t seem to cause problems with the phone if you just ignore them.

HTC Sense. It’s the whizzy, bangy, nifty launcher that the Amaze 4G comes with. It’s very slick, gives you lots of options for widgets and looks, but from what I’ve read, and what I’ve seen on this phone, it comes with a cost in battery life. I opted for a little different launcher that I downloaded from the Market. Just like the differences between the Amaze and the SGS2, your mileage may vary. This highlights one of the beauties of Android phones like the Amaze 4G and the SGS2, that being the availability of choice. If you don’t like the launcher, change it. If you don’t like that launcher, change it again. It’s all up to you, and not up to some drone in a fruit-based electronic device development hive.

My Impressions

Okay, so now I’ve had it for well over a month (almost two, actually). What are my impressions? Let’s discuss.

I still love the phone. It will be a sad day when I have to send it back. I’ve become quite comfortable with its size and feel, and the operation has been flawless. Big happies to HTC and T-Mobile overall. Here are some of the things that I love about this phone:

Build Quality

I’m still impressed with the quality of this phone. It’s solid! Heavy, yes, but I think that is partly due to the fact that it is a rock-solid piece of engineering. Everything fits precisely, and the back has a satisfying “click” when it closes. I’ve used the phone without a screen protector in place, and it’s held up beautifully (it’s supposedly made of some analog to Gorilla Glass, and it seems to be just as durable and functional). The hardware buttons have a very positive feel, and you can tell by touch when they’ve bottomed out. No squeaks or mushy feel when pressed. Overall, this seems to be a very solid piece of equipment.

One thing that I would like to note though is that I do have the black model, which has a rubbery material on half of the back panel. Given the phone’s weight, I’m very glad for this grippy surface, and the white version, which is a smooth plastic finish, may be a bit more difficulty to handle. I’d recommend sticking with the black version unless you’re really into white for fashion reasons.

Call Quality

Call sound quality is beautiful. I’ve not had difficulty hearing people on the other end (in fact I’ve had to turn down the volume from time to time), and the Bluetooth connection seems to work well with my Plantronics stereo headset. I’ve not had any issues with people hearing me on the other end either. Quality also remains high when using wifi calling (recently enabled) for those times when you’re outside of T-Mobile’s signal range but within a wifi hotspot.

Screen

All I can say is, wow! This is one beautiful screen. I noted above that the SGS2 seems to be a bit brighter and punchier, but the Amaze 4G screen is plenty bright. The colors are, in my humble opinion, very well saturated and rich, without looking like they were painted in a cartoon cel. The resolution is the kicker though. There isn’t a phone out there that beats it, and it really shows. Viewing a Netflix video or something off your media server is just so clean and clear. Some people are bothered by the light bleed from the buttons (the light from the soft buttons at the bottom of the screen can bleed into the main screen), but I don’t find it to be too annoying, and I believe that there’s an app on the Market to shut off the button illumination if it’s really a problem for you. I’d much rather have this delicious resolution than worry about how black the blacks are.

Camera

This is one of the real standout items of this phone. The camera is phenomenal! Resolution is amazing with the 8MPx rear-facing camera, and it’s really not too bad with the 2MPx front camera either. Low light shooting is fairly nice, especially with the built-in twin LED flash (only for the rear camera). The thing that really blew me away though was the way it handles contrast. I’m used to cellphone cameras really blowing out highlights and blocking up the shadows. They are also notorious for bleeding light over from bright areas into dimmer areas. The Amaze 4G shows none of these drawbacks. It also boots up and is ready to shoot immediately.

Another cool feature of this camera is actually on the app side. It provides you with several effects options that are very useful. One of my favorites is SweepShot. It’s a panorama setting that lets you shoot about a 90 degree pano shot by sweeping the camera while the shutter is open. The software then stitches the shot together into a wide pano shot. It really is pretty neat! There is also SmartShot that lets you capture a series of photos of people, and it combines them into a “best of all worlds” shot. Great for eliminating the old “I blinked!” disaster that can ruin a group shot. There is also a burst-shot setting, great for action shots, ClearShot HDR that helps in high-contrast situations, Portrait to set off a subject with a soft background, and several other options. I have to admit that I haven’t even tried them all yet.

All in all, considering image quality, features, and ease of use, it really is an outstanding camera for a phone camera, and would even shame a few purpose-built digital snappers that I’ve seen!

Video

The built-in video isn’t too bad, and can shoot up to 1080p (1920×1080) resolution on the rear-facing camera (limited to SD on the front camera), which is the current high standard for HD video. The video is nice and clear, without any noticeable stutter or motion blur except in very low-light situations. There are some nice features too, such as the ability to turn on the camera’s flash LEDs as movie lights in low-light situations.

However, the audio leaves a bit to be desired. It’s not a complete disaster, but I had higher hopes for audio quality given the quality that the rest of the phone exhibits. It’s possible that we’ll see an improvement with future firmware updates. In the mean time, I wouldn’t replace a decent quality purpose-built HD camera with this unit just yet. It’s nice for those spur of the moment shots, but don’t count on it for high quality stuff.

Camera Buttons

This is something that is extremely cool, and something that you have to experience to see just how cool it is. The Amaze 4G has two dedicated buttons along the right side of the phone (when held vertically). The smaller button activates the video camera, and the larger one activates the still camera. They both double as the shutter/record buttons. Why so cool? When’s the last time you’ve fumbled around, opening up the camera app, finding the shutter soft-button, only to see the picture opportunity fade before you’re ready? This gets you ready to shoot in an instant. Believe me, once you’ve had this feature, you’ll cry if you lose it.

Overall, these are some great features, and have helped make my experience with the Amaze 4G a very good one. However, there are a negatives that I’d like to point out:

Soft Buttons

I hate soft buttons. This isn’t an issue that is specific to this phone, and I fear that, because it’s cheaper, all phones going forward will have soft buttons rather than physical buttons. However, I find myself constantly brushing the buttons accidentally, closing windows that I’m typing in, deleting email, jumping to the home screen in the middle of some other activity, etc. This happens most often when I’m one-handing it, reaching with my thumb to drop down the notification window and end up palming the Home button accidentally. Very annoying.

Screen Sensitivity

The touchscreen on the Amaze 4G is extremely sensitive. In fact, I’ve noticed several times that the screen has responded without my actually touching it. Typos waiting to happen! This is especially annoying when you consider the soft button issue that I noted above. I haven’t tried this phone with a screen protector yet, and that may eliminate the issue, but I don’t recall any difference between a protected and non-protected screen on other touchscreen devices, so I think that this is a flaw that won’t go away. I’d suggest that HTC dial down the sensitivity a bit.

USB Connector

The USB connector on the phone is a brand new style. It’s not the old Mini-B connector, nor the Micro-B connector that some more recent phones have. The connector that the Amaze 4G uses is a funky little adaptation of the Micro-A connector with an extra channel down one side. While the manufacturer and T-Mobile indicate that a Micro-B connector will work, function is often sketchy, and you find yourself tinkering with the phone to get it into just the right orientation to keep the cable connected. I will say that the new connector is inordinately stable, and feels much more solid than the Micro-B connector that my wife uses in her MyTouch 4G, but I haven’t yet found where to buy any aftermarket cables, so would be forced to purchase a T-Mobile branded cable to ensure compatibility. Not sure that’s a good move, given that the biggest competitor of Android phones is also notorious for forcing esoteric configurations on their users, to their detriment. However, it works well when used correctly, and you can always do the Micro-B route in a pinch.

Finishing Up

So these are my impressions so far. Would I trade it in for anything else out on T-Mobile now? Not willingly. It’s an outstanding phone and digital assistant. T-Mobile’s 4G speeds are outstanding, and I’m still exploring some of the phone’s incredible array of features. The rumored Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the next few months only makes it more attractive to me. There are plenty of other fantastic phones out there, such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Nexus (soon to come to T-Mobile, I hope!), but I’m very happy with my decision to go with the Amaze 4G, and would recommend it for anyone.

This isn’t a post about politics. It’s not about grace per se. It’s not about music, although music plays a part. It’s just that I had an experience a while back that really turned my head, and made me think for a moment about how magical the world that we live in today can be. If I were to travel back 30 years, visit my high school self, and tell the anecdote that I’m about to outline to you, I wouldn’t believe myself. I’d laugh. I’d look incredulously and wonder what I’d been smoking.

A Jezzer, a Hamster, and Captain Slow

I was lounging a few months back watching one of my fave shows, Top Gear UK. It was a rerun, which is fine, since being a UK show meant that most of them were still new to us colonists. Top Gear, by the way, is hands down the best show on television. I can’t prove this, nor can I say anything other than the fact that it just is. Accept it or don’t. Your choice.

So, I’m sitting there, happily watching Jeremy Clarkson (Jezzer), Richard Hammond (The Hamster), and James May (Captain Slow) on a romp south of the border in the Top Gear Bolivia special when the scene shifts to a series of particularly spectacular shots, punctuated by Clarkson’s iPod playing a song that caught my ear (scroll to about the 9 minute mark for the exact scene). I really liked the sound of it. But, who was it and what was the name of the song? 20 years ago, or for that matter even 10 years ago, that may have been a difficult question to answer. However, let me share some modern magic with you all.

SHAZAM!

Okay, I really like this tune, or maybe it’s just the scenery that got me all emotional-like. Either way, I want to know who this is. How can I do this? Well, there’s this little app called Shazam (available on all of the smartie-phones). There are other apps that do the same thing, but Shazam was first, and I’ve used it for a couple of years now. It’s essentially voice recognition software for tunes. You let it listen to a sample, and it tells you the song title, album, artist, etc.

But the scene has already passed, so how can I Shazam the song? What a dilemma. But wait, I have one of them newfangled DVR thangs! I quickly hit rewind and pause, queue up Shazam, and let ‘er rip. Bingo! Will Young, Grace. I have my song! Sort of.

The Amazon Connection

Okay, I know the song. Now I go out, get in the car, run to the store and buy the CD, right? No. I close down Shazam, turn off the TV, run into the office/bedroom/etc., boot up the PC, and order it from Amazon? Newp. Do all that shutting, running, and booting and then download the MP3 from Amazon? Not quite.

See, Shazam (and I’m assuming the others) allows you to link directly to the Amazon MP3 store. I click the link within Shazam, go through another step or so, and a 30 second download later, I’ve got the song on my phone ready to play. In the words of the Hamster, astonishing.

The Capitalist’s Dreamsong

So what does this all mean? Let’s recap, shall we?

1. I heard a song on TV that piqued my interest.
2. I rewound live TV to hear the song again.
3. I identified the song, album, and artist in seconds.
4. I clicked to purchase and download the song to my phone.
5. I had the song playing over my Bluetooth headphones.

What an amazing thing it is. All of the above was accomplished within the space of 5 minutes, and without leaving my couch. If you would have told me 20 years ago that something like this was possible, I would have laughed at your silliness and told you that we hadn’t quite gotten to the Star Trek years.

But there it is. Talk about a capitalist’s dream. The ultimate in convenience for the consumer with a minimal cost for the provider. Of course, the minimal cost assumes a huge initial infrastructure investment, but it’s still astounding if you really think about it. My fave wireless provider, T-Mobile USA, just provided me with a new phone for evaluation (an Amaze 4G) and it does so much more than the little MyTouch 3G Fender that I did the above magic with. It only makes me wonder what’s still to come. Maybe next week, Will Young will be performing for my wife and I right in our living room, or I’ll be able to download an app that smells that mouth-watering aroma, tells you what it is, and orders delivery to your front door, all with one click. Young capitalists, start your search engines!

Ain’t communication grand? Without it, we’d never get anywhere. How many times would I have traded a body part for a babel fish to stick in my ear? Lots, that’s how many. However, think about what I’m writing right now.

We all have in inner monologue that runs whenever we read a message, especially when we’re reading something personal like email or a text message. That’s the little voice in your head that talks to you as you read. You know, he or she is talking to you right now. And now. There they are again! They won’t shut up!

The Life and Times of an Inner Voice

Read the last few sentences of the previous section again. How did your inner monologue sound to you? Did it sound like the computer on the U.S.S. Enterprise, with a monotone droning on and on? More likely than not, you heard increasing frustration and exasperation, but maybe not. Consider that for a moment. What is telling your inner voice to give those simple words tone and inflection? Punctuation helps, for sure. However, how much of it was based on your life experience? How much was based on the conversation that you just had with your boss or spouse?

Many studies have shown that, in verbal communication, less than 10% of the actual message is carried by the words themselves. In fact, according to these studies most of the message is carried through vocal tone, inflection, and non-verbal communication (such as gestures). While there is some controversy about the validity of the studies in their ability to predict behavior in all circumstances, there is little disagreement over the idea that in most informal communication (such as this blog’s writing style), there is plenty of room for interpretation of meaning outside of the actual words.

When you write a message, you are subconsciously assigning tone and inflection via your inner voice. In a sense, your inner voice is “telling” you what to write. On the flip side, your recipient’s inner voice is “telling” them what you wrote, supplying that all-important tonal and inflective content. That’s right. Their squirrelly little inner voice is putting words in your mouth.

In my work as a customer service professional, and later as an instructor and instructional designer, understanding how the different parts of communication work is essential. I wrote a training course on customer service soft skills, and a large part of the training dealt with vocal tone and how to control it. While using inflection and tone can be an important tool in working with consumers, it’s also very easy to say one thing, but be understood in a completely different way.

Nothing Says “I Love You” Like a Punch in the Gut

“I didn’t say he beat his wife.”

Quick, without thinking, which word in that sentence did your inner voice inflect? Which word was emphasized? It’s important to note, because the sentence changes meaning completely depending on how you answered that question. Consider:

1. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - Someone else said it.
2. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - I said something else entirely.
3. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - …but I strongly implied it.
4. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - I said that his lover did.
5. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - I said that he covered her in lime jello.
6. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - I said he beat his neighbor’s wife.
7. I didn’t say he beat his wife. - I said he beat his dog.

Now, let’s remove the emphasis in all of those sentences and see what we’re left with:

1. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
2. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
3. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
4. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
5. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
6. I didn’t say he beat his wife.
7. I didn’t say he beat his wife.

Surprise surprise, they all look the same on the printed page. Without other clues, your inner voice doesn’t know how to inflect the sentence. It can pick any of the seven meanings above at random, or more disturbingly, based on your mood at the moment, or other influence that the writer has no control over.

Emails, Blogs, and Comments, Oh My!

So think again about what’s going on in your head right now. You’re reading what I’m writing, but are you hearing what I’m saying? You’re reading this page and interpreting how you think I meant to inflect and set tone. I am at your mercy, and the mercy of your environment at the moment.

When you write an email, or a blog post or comment, or anything else that is only text on a page or screen, you’re writing it using your inner voice, but all that is being conveyed with any reliability to those who will read your composition is the shallow meaning contained in the words themselves. Without proper care, you will not be conveying the true meaning that you intend. Remember, people will add meaning according to their own momentary situation. They don’t know what you’re thinking, and they’ll never hear your inner voice.

Be Careful Out There!

The only thing that I can do is try to make sure that all of my words live in a very clear, concise environment. I have to be very careful to read my words to myself in a very flat tone, with as little emphasis as possible, to make sure that my meaning is clear. Even then, I expect that somewhere along the line someone is going to misunderstand.

That’s sort of the bottom line here too. With more and more communication moving to the written word, or so it seems to me, there are infinitely more opportunities for misunderstanding to lead to conflict. I think that it has to be a two way street though. Yes, we need to be careful how we write our emails, our blog comments, our Facebook posts, etcetera, but by the same token, we need to offer up some slack when reading other people’s words. Did they really mean to insult you, or were they just poking you in the ribs? Was that a challenge, or a compliment on your solid character?

Language is a wonderful thing, especially, in my humble yet biased opinion, the American English language. It offers so much flexibility and nuanced meaning, but therein lies the rub as well. It is quite easy to misconstrue a statement, or misunderstand the “deeper meaning” of what was intended as a completely innocuous question. We all need to consider our writings very carefully, not only for how we would perceive their meanings, but for how our audience will perceive them as well.

Earlier this week, I spent a day working with Project Homeless Connect here in San Francisco.

“What what WHAT?? Jeff’s HOMELESS??”

No, fortunately, and I think that word has more meaning to me now than ever. Let me tell you about my day.

Project Homeless Connect

First, let me tell you a bit about the organization that I was working with. From the fact sheet that I received:

“Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is designed to offer one stop help for people experiencing homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.  One location where they can get everything from medical and dental care, food, books, hair cuts, massage, long distance phone calls for free, eye glasses, links to financial benefits, mental health and substance abuse treatment, shelter reservations, get an ID replaced, get legal advice, and more.”

The organization’s roots go back 40 years, and through their work thousands of volunteers have helped thousands of homeless people with basic services that, if you’re reading this on any sort of digital device, you probably take for granted. You can click here for more information.

My Volunteer Day

I found out about the project through work. My company has pledged 25,000 hours of combined employee community service for the 2011 calendar year. As part of our attempt to meet that goal, we asked each employee to pledge at least 8 hours during that year. Although I don’t plan on limiting my involvement to 8 hours, this was my first “official” attempt at completing that goal, and I must admit that it was the self-imposed pressure to fulfill my company’s pledge that drove me to respond to the announcement email.

My perspective on that motivation has since changed.

I spent the entire day as a “Check-In” specialist. It was my responsibility to take some information from clients, share with them the services that were being offered, and try to get them hooked up with the services that they needed most. I helped a few dozen people get started, along with the 150 or so others doing the same work that I was. I’m told that altogether we helped serve about 1500 folks.

The most profound feeling that I came away with though wasn’t the satisfaction in helping people get the help that they need. It wasn’t a feeling of “Job well done”. My most profound feelings were shock and realization.

They’re Just Like ME!

The picture that pops into most people’s minds when the word “homeless” is spoken is of some grizzled old man with a scruffy, dirty beard, shabby clothes, and a mouth full of gums. Granted, that picture is fed by what people who live in cities like San Francisco see every day walking through downtown. However, be mindful of that guy over there, wearing freshly washed jeans and a polo, with a look of not-quite-disorientation, or a stare looking far away. Check out the lady in black slacks and a white sweater towing her 5 year old son down the street with just a hint of fear, lying barely hidden under the surface. These all describe the people that I met on Wednesday. All walks of life, all levels of intelligence and skill, all types of experience.

As the day wore on, I began to feel more and more bewildered, and less secure in my own spot in life. These people were JUST LIKE ME!! What’s to say that next year I wouldn’t be sitting in that chair across the table from where I was sitting that day?

I’ll answer that question.

Nothing, that’s what.

What I learned was that the fear, the uncertainty, the hopelessness…all of it…was only a bad day away. I guess that I always knew that intellectually. Now, I feel it in my heart. I went home Wednesday and had a chat with my wife. She’s been in some dire situations before, as those who know me personally are already aware of.  She gets it.  Now,  in the small way that someone who hasn’t actually been there can, I get it too. All that she could do was smile and say, “I know.” I didn’t sleep well that night.

It may well be that I have something that they don’t. Maybe I’m just a bit more resourceful. Maybe I’ve got a slightly different way of dealing with situations that keeps me out of a similar situation. I don’t know, and I’m not going to rely on it. But how do I live my life now? Do I live every day as though it’s my last day of relative financial security? Do I live as a hermit and stash away every spare penny for a rainy day? I don’t think that either one is correct.

What Would You Do?

I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to continue to live my life as I have been, with perhaps just a tad more frugality. However, I’m going to keep these thoughts in the back of my mind. I’m going to remember that there are opportunities for help out there, and learn from the experiences of those unfortunate folks that I spoke with on Wednesday. I’m going to remember the looks of hopelessness, of resignation to their spot in life, and fight those feelings tooth and nail.

Some of the people that I met seemed content to be who they were, and to live life where they were. These are the ones that we all hear about from the political conservatives…the “freeloaders.” Yes, they’re out there. There are plenty of them.

However, there are more people who are looking to get out of the situation that they’re in, and to be a productive part of society. These people still had pride, and they are the ones who I am going to hold in my mind. My last client was a young woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She had a son who had just turned 5 years old. She was well groomed and dressed without looking particularly well off, as was he. She was well spoken, and her son was bright, inquisitive, and well behaved. She was definitely NOT a poster child for any homeless campaign. All she was really looking for was to change her Florida ID for a California ID (unfortunately the DMV booth had closed by that time) so that she could get a job. She wasn’t looking for handouts, although I sat with her and was able to identify some other things that she could really use, like a flu shot for her son. She really just wanted a job so that she could get her little boy out of the transient hotel that they were in and into a decent home. Her name was Cynthia.

I think that I’m going to use Cynthia as my role model from now on. Her undying hope and devotion to her son, her pride in herself without trying to project someone who she was not, and her willingness to let others help her so that she could help herself gave me comfort, and I wish her and her little boy the best. I’m glad that I live in a place that still understands that not everyone who is down on their luck is a leech. There are places here in the U.S. where the feeling isn’t the same.

Thanks to Those Who Helped, and Those Who Shared

Cynthia and all the rest of you that I met on Wednesday, thank you for sharing your time with me. The work that I saw people doing that day gave me hope for humanity, and I can only dream that we were able to give you even a small bit of hope in return. You are all the most courageous people that I know.

There but for the grace of God, go I.

You may have noticed some of the links along the right side of this blog page. These are links to pages that I’ve found interesting, or that I think fit well with the content that I’ve created. It also includes some links to Twitter feeds that I’ve enjoyed or feel are relevant.

If you haven’t seen the links yet, they’re over there.

Take a look at the blogs. Some have to do with adult learning, which as you have probably figured out is my passion and my living. Others have to do with mobile devices and gadgets, which is another little passion of mine. In any case, they’re entertaining for the most part.

*WARNING!* I am not responsible for, nor can I control, the content of these links. In some cases, you may find content that is objectionable to you. All I can ask is that you approach it with an open mind, and if you find it objectionable, click that little in the upper right corner and your life will be saved, your truck will get a new paint job, and you won’t ever have to pay taxes. Really, you won’t. Trust me.

Anyway, click away, and enjoy. I did.

Okay, so T-Mobile wants me to start blogging about their products. I’m totally excited to start, but I guess I should set a benchmark. I hear you saying, “Who the heck is this guy, and why should I listen to him?” Well, here’s why you may (or may not) consider me someone to listen to.

My History

I’ve been a T-Mobile customer for about 7 years. I’ve renewed contracts, called customer service, had billing issues, and dealt with several phones on their network including a Motorola W490, Samsung G300 (bought that one in Hong Kong), Samsung T-509, HTC MyTouch 4G, and an HTC MyTouch 3G (Magic) among others. I’m currently using my old MyTouch 3G Fender (hacked, modded, and hotrodded) and my wife is carrying the 4G. None of this is necessarily important, but it’s there if you want to know.

The most relevant aspect is probably my work with the old Fender. I bought the phone on day one of it’s availability in the U.S., January 20, 2010. You may say, “Bah! Why are you so excited about a pretty painted phone with a stupid guitar app? Haven’t you watched that silly Geico commercial?” Well, I’ll tell you why it excited me. It was a whole new MyTouch 3G inside with more memory and a headphone jack in addition to its USB port (the old version only had a USB port that doubled as a headphone jack via an adapter). This was important to me at the time because of the new Android operating system (OS) version waiting in the wings, Android 2.x. The phone came stock with version 1.6 (Donut). There were doubts that the older version with less memory would be able to run Android 2, but this new, brainier phone promised to handle it with aplomb.

MyTouch 3G Fender

My MyTouch

So, I plunked down four and a half bills for the thing, and began waiting for the OS upgrade. Depending on who you talked to, read, or divined, Android 2 would be out for the MyTouch 3G any time between March and December. There were lots of opinions, some based on fact, and some on wishes. As it turned out, my particular version wouldn’t get the new OS until January of 2011 (and some say that it was a poor update, with the fault being somewhere between HTC, Google, and T-Mobile…my bet is on HTC). So, while I waited, I started exploring, posting on message boards, reading message boards, and chatting with folks. I learned more about “rooting”, about aftermarket operating systems, phone hacking, etc.

Rooting

Late last year, I finally got tired of waiting for an upgrade and jumped on the rooting bandwagon. For those who aren’t familiar with what rooting is, essentially it’s a way of gaining control of a devices operating system (the base software that runs the device). Most phones are set up to prevent users from doing things with the phone’s operating system, partially  to protect the user from themselves, and partially to protect the provider from angry consumers whose phones stop working because they weren’t protected from themselves (it also lets providers set up phones the way they want with software that is advantageous to their network, marketing efforts, etc.) In my phone’s case, it meant running an application that took advantage of an exploit in the OS that gave you full access to the system.

After rooting, I was able to update the OS to Android 2.2 (FroYo) and enjoy much new functionality, smoother operation, and more fun. I chose a version of FroYo published by CyanogenMod (version 6.1), and I’m still using it. I’ve flirted with some others, such as Yoshi’s Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but I’ve found that CM6.1 is the best for this phone.

If you’re interested, I wrote the whole process down with the help of some fellow MyTouchers. You can see it here.

Clock it Up, Baby!

Another thing that rooting gave me the ability to do was to “overclock” my phone. Without getting too technical, a phone’s (and any computer’s) hardware works by using a clock of sorts to keep track of timing the operations.

For example, a computer might have 10 calculations to do. It does 1 calculation per clock “tick”, and so it takes 10 ticks to complete the task. The faster the clock runs, the more calculations it can do in a given amount of time.

So, why not just spin the clock up to some huge speed and make things run really fast? Two reasons: accuracy, and heat. The faster the clock runs, the greater the chance of instructions getting garbled as they run through the computer chips that make up the hardware. If you talk at a normal rate, you have little trouble being understood. Try talking at 3 times normal speed, and you’ll see what I mean. The second reason is heat. The faster the clock goes, the harder the chips work, and the more heat they generate. If things get too warm, things tend to come apart, burn up, etc.

So, there’s a happy medium that I needed to find. I ended up using an app called SetCPU to bump the clock speed on my phone up. I had to be very careful to keep from burning up my phone, but was able to squeeze out a bit more performance.

What’s Next?

After my tweaks, the little phone that could ran like newer than new, and I’m still using it today. I love it and use it constantly, but it’s beginning to show its age. Apps made today are made to take advantage of hardware that this phone doesn’t have. There are applications, such as Adobe Flash, that will never run on this phone, and that severely limits its use in some circumstances. So…

There are a couple of phones out now that intrigue me. One is the HTC Sensation 4G. Chatting with people who have been using the phone for a while has told me that it’s a solid phone with some very nice features, such as the Gorilla Glass front that resists fingerprints. Another nice upcoming phone is the Samsung Galaxy S II. Dual core 1.3 GHz processor, FTW! There’s even a rumor that T-Mobile has amped it up further with a dual core 1.5 GHz processor. I’m excited!

I think that the phone for me though is going to be the HTC Amaze (also known as the Ruby). I tend to favor HTC phones because of their historical friendly nod to the modifier community. Samsung tends to be more interested in defeating modding attempts than HTC in the past (although the founder of CyanogenMod, maker of the aftermarket OS running my phone, now works for Samsung USA, so that policy may change!). It’s rumored to have the 1.5 GHz dual core processor that T-Mobile looks to be putting into their Galaxy S II, with a slightly better screen and potentially a faster data connection (up to 42 Mbps). Both phones offer a huge amount of memory for a phone (a whopping 1 gig!) and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Whatever I end up with, I’m looking forward to playing around with it.

Keep Your Eye Here

So, that’s a bit about my phone past. Whether or not you think that I’m worth listening to, I’m hoping to be able to share some insight about the new gadgets and services that T-Mobile comes out with. If you’re interested in what’s new in the world of the best (IMHO) mobile provider in the U.S., keep your eyes here!

Okay, some of you may know that I’m a long time customer of T-Mobile, and that I’ve always thought they were a good company, with great customer service, fantastic and affordable wireless plans, and decent service. Well, today they came to me with a message of thanks for being a loyal customer with an invitation to join their T-Mobilizer group!

“What’s T-Mobilizer?” I rhetorically hear you asking. Well, here’s their description:

“T-Mobile created this [T-Mobilizer] program to thank a select group of loyal fans by providing access to their latest devices, to provide a channel to share feedback directly with T-Mobile and to give perspective on what they have in the works. We’re not expecting anything in return. This is just T-Mobile’s way of showing appreciation for your loyalty and for being an advocate for them online. “

So, I’m taking the opportunity to start posting here again (and may be posting some other products of my twisted brain under a different category as well!). Keep an eye out here for some info on cool new stuff from T-Mobile!

Well, it’s over. I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, gotten to within walking distance (thanks, dad, for that one!), seen the cows come home, and put the horses to bed. My M.A. (in Education with a specialization in Instructional Technology, for those who care) is not only within my grasp, it’s IN MY HOT LITTLE HAND!

What a ride. It started two and a half years ago where I learned how to say “Hello” in Korean, and it ended up with me creating an online learning site for learners of the Thai language. Not related to my accomplishment, you say? I say NAY! They are tightly connected.  Let me share my thoughts.

Language is often a barrier to learning, especially in higher education.  My wife, who is an English language learner, is currently pursuing a degree at a Bay Area college, and must demonstrate English proficiency before proceeding on to courses related to her major.  She understands why, since a language barrier may not only affect her learning, but may affect the ability of her classmates to learn as well, as the instructor is forced to spend more time with her.  Understandable, but frustrating and time consuming.  Her need to learn English before starting to take even her basic general requirement classes will delay her graduation by two to three years.

Now, consider services like Google’s Translate.  Copy any text block into the input box, select languages to translate from and to, and BANG, เสียงดัง, חֲבָטָה, 강, you have a fairly accurate translation.  What’s to stop these types of tools from being built into Learning Management Systems (LMS)?  Set the student’s and instructors languages in the LMS learner interface, and suddenly there is two-way synchronous or asynchronous communication between the two, even though neither speaks the other’s language.

There are, no doubt, many difficulties to overcome before something like what I’ve hinted at above can come to be.  However, need it really be that far away?  It seems to me that the pieces are there.  They just need to be assembled in a viable system.  I’m certainly not the one with the skills to do so, at least not yet, but I can’t help but see the huge opportunity that we have to provide inter-lingual, cross-cultural online learning.  From the standpoint of educating those who are educationally challenged, I see the potential as world-changing.

Perhaps my next degree will be taught by someone in Africa who speaks only Swahili…any programmers out there up to the challenge?