Score:5, Offtopic

You're probably thinking, "what? How can that be? Android has to be the most open, it's open source, right?"

And you'd be right... until you get into actual Android devices that are for sale. Other than the Google Dev Phone 1 (which has some other restrictions,) all of the devices are locked down at least somewhat.

There is one exception to my point - in one or two ways, Palm OS is more open than Windows Mobile. However, Palm OS is irrelevant nowadays, but I'll include it in the comparison anyway.

So, here goes, a comparison between the major smartphone platforms, in terms of openness. Openness will be compared on the following metrics: openness of source code, ability to run unsigned applications without jailbreaking, difficulty of getting applications signed if needed, presence of a "kill switch" for applications, cost of developing for the platform, and ability to manipulate the device filesystem from a user perspective (not an application perspective.)

I'll note that I'll use worst case scenarios for difficulty of signing.

In the case of Android, I'm using real world implementations, not the Google Dev Phone, and not Android distros on phones that didn't ship with it.

Palm OS
Source code: Closed
Unsigned apps: Allowed, no support for signed apps
Difficulty of signing apps: N/A
Kill switch: None
Cost of developing: Free (prc-tools)
Filesystem: Fully accessible

iPhone OS
Source code: Closed
Unsigned apps: Disallowed
Difficulty of signing apps: Difficult (all apps must go through inconsistent and restrictive approval process)
Kill switch: Yes
Cost of developing: $99 (SDK, more money for a Mac if you don't already have one)
Filesystem: Inaccessible

Blackberry OS
Source code: Closed
Unsigned apps: Disallowed
Difficulty of signing apps: Easy (purchase a signing key from RIM one time)
Kill switch: No?
Cost of developing: $20 (signing key)
Filesystem: Restricted access (it's also not actually a filesystem, but I digress)

Android
Source code: Open
Unsigned apps: Allowed, but not by default
Difficulty of signing apps: Easy?
Kill switch: Yes
Cost of developing: Free
Filesystem: Inaccessible

Symbian
Source code: Open
Unsigned apps: Disallowed (workaroundable, though)
Difficulty of signing apps: Self-signable for partial access, free rubberstamp for most access to one device, may be difficult (but documented) for full access
Kill switch: No?
Cost of developing: Free for self-signed, $20 for Symbian Signed Express, >$200 for Certified Signed, more for full access
Filesystem: Restricted access?

webOS
Source code: Partially open
Unsigned apps: Allowed through developer mode, normally signed apps required
Difficulty of signing apps: Unknown as of yet, should be easy to moderately easy
Kill switch: In development
Cost of developing: Free
Filesystem: Inaccessible?

Windows Mobile
Source code: Shared
Unsigned apps: Allowed (supports signed apps, some devices could theoretically require signed apps)
Difficulty of signing apps: Must purchase certificate from a CA, after that, easy
Kill switch: No
Cost of developing: Free for unsigned (although MS would prefer you buy VS,) $350 for Mobile2Market from Verisign (1 publisher ID, 10 content IDs) for signed, may be less from elsewhere
Filesystem: Fully accessible

If I'm wrong anywhere, let me know.

But, it is a sad, sad day when MS makes the most open OS in a field, and two of those OSes are Linux-based, and a third is open source.

So, lately, people have been making a big deal about green hardware - hardware that's produced using environmentally friendly methods and uses as little power as possible.

But what about green software? You don't really hear all that much about that. And, all this green movement right now is, make slower hardware, and expect users to put up with it. It works because hardware arguably passed the "fast enough" point in the past few years.

However, for a lot of tasks, we arguably should've passed the fast enough point 10 or 15 years ago. Word processing and web browsing are not rocket science, for two examples. Operating systems (all of them, yes, I'm even looking at you, modern Linux distributions) are bloated. Let's not even talk about Adobe's stuff.

Why isn't there an equivalent green software movement? Improve compilers, strip out bloat, don't pull the "you've got the CPU power, don't worry about optimization" card. That way, we can either use slower CPUs and have quite good performance, or our current CPUs and run them at partial load (resulting in less power consumption) or have mindblowing performance.

I know, I know, that'd require actual work.

But, just a thought.

So, for whatever reason, you want to make a font. Be it your handwriting, or whatever.

Looks like you can do it now... there's this service called YourFonts.

You simply print out a sheet, fill it in, scan it, and then it generates a font from that. Or, you could download a copy of the sheet and fill it in in a graphics program, if you wanted to make a font that way.

I decided to do one myself:

Oh, and I used an extra fine point Sharpie, and it still worked great.

Thanks, Rich, for the tip.

Holy crap it's been a long time since I've made an entry...

Where do I begin...

Well, last day at my job was June 13... that sucked. Oh well, I'll be able to get more experience this way...

Got new wheels for the Miata - Konig Heliums. 15x6.5, 11.4 lbs per wheel. They look great.

Palm OS web browsers suck the big one. And Opera Mini runs like ass in WebSphere. How do I know this? I got a Centro. Much better than that dying Sanyo.

Today, I got a Selectric II. Man, that thing is fun to type on. For some reason, the 6, 7, 8, and 9 keys don't spring back up properly, but other than that, it's in perfect working order.

Oh, and not sure that the sidebar is updating properly, but I got a Twitter account... check it out at http://twitter.com/bhtooefr

I should probably state my qualifications before I begin this post... I work as the computer technician for a K-12 private school. I don't work directly with the students, but I DO work with the teachers in implementing their educational needs on our computers. Also, it wasn't that long ago that I was a student myself.

I personally feel that modern computers are the wrong approach for educating our students.

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