The Droid is Coming!

So I’ve been working from the same, boring ‘ol, non-smartphone phone for longer than I can even remember now. Verizon sent me a text message something like 6 months ago telling me I’m elligible for a new phone, but I’m still holding out. I’ve known for years that I want an Android phone, but of course the G1 is slow and chunky. The MyTouch 3G doesn’t seem much better. Only now are we starting to see some proper Android phones coming out.

The upcoming Droid phone (or Sholes if you believe this report) from Motorola seems to be not just be the Android phone of my dreams, but a smartphone that will truly shake up the whole mobile space and perhaps give the mighty iPhone a run for its money. Just about everything about it seems appealing: big (854×480 — iPhone is 480×320 for comparison), beautiful screen, slide-out keyboard, fast processor, 5 megapixel camera, and of course all the usuals like an accelerometer, GPS, compass, etc. It’s only a hair thicker than the iPhone, to boot!

I think I may also grab the separately-sold dock accessory. It lets the phone become a little widget dashboard so I can see bits of info and run all manner of nifty apps off to the side.

Why didn’t I just get an iPhone already? I’ll tell you why. If I buy a piece of hardware, I expect to be able to install software on it. The iPhone platform has some serious issues with that way of thinking since you can only install software that Apple has deemed “OK” via the “App Store.” Further, their approval process can seem entirely arbitrary as they have approved apps only to later deny them, and deny apps only to later approve them. And if they don’t like you, they’ll take their sweet time at coming to any conclusion! Oh, and while I know Verizon employees are trained to ignore basic math, I have heard a slew of even more horrifying stories pertaining to the locked-in iPhone carrier, AT&T.

I’ve already began dabbling in Android app development, and it looks like their API’s are very workable. I think it’s pretty empowering to be able to write software for my phone, and I really don’t think Apple belongs in my way when I want to share my app with a friend. And the ability to actually have background processes running like a modern, multi-tasking operating system is also very appealing!

So needless to say, I’m psyched. Verizon’s big announcement is on the 28th of October, but based on some leaked infos, we’re expecting to see the phone(s) become available on the 6th of November.

Check out this hands on preview from Boy Genius Report!

Hooray for a Blog Makeover!

So I’ve finally gotten around to migrating my blog from Mephisto to Wordpress. I took a free theme that was pretty simple, and applied a good amount of tweakage to make it my own. I hope to find more things to blog about, so prepared for more traffic than we’ve seen in a while.

Edit: Almost forgot to include a screenshot of the old design like I used to do.

All Settled in the New House

Hi, Internet! My site only just came back online because I took my sweet time about properly configuring my Gentoo Linux server to support my Mephisto blog. The site was being run by my good friend and roommate, Matt Nagi, but now that I’ve moved into my new house with Julie, I’ve set the site up the site to run on my very own cable modem. So please be gentile. :)

The new house is awesome—having a cozy place to call your own is totally worth the bit of extra work required to repair and maintain it.

And I’m still “Unraveling” on dnbradio.com every Tuesday at 7:00 PM EST.

Quizzle Goes Live!

The project that I’ve been a part of for most of my time here at Quicken Loans has finally gone live. Think of it as a flexible financial tool. We want Quizzle to one day be your one-stop shop for learning where you financially stand against the ever-changing climates of the home markets and economy.

The most important feature for most folks seems to be the FREE credit report. You might laugh and say there’s no such thing as a free lunch (as you may have learned in attempting to get other “free” credit reports from other sites). But at Quizzle, we not only give you a completely free and easy to understand credit report, but we manage to do so without your having to provide your SSN! I don’t believe anyone else is doing this right now.

There is a lot to be had inside Quizzle apart from the credit report, though. A set of your incomes and debts will be imported from your credit report into the Budget section of Quizzle where you’ll be able to manipulate them to gauge your debt-to-income ratio. You will receive a free home value estimate along with a list of comparable homes in your area. You will have access to handy calculators to help determine how much you should be saving each month for your retirement or your children’s college funds.

We have a lot of interesting ideas for the future of Quizzle, and there’s just no end in sight for the development of this intriguing new tool. We even have the groundwork laid for an invite system where people can refer others to Quizzle and gain credit towards perks and freebies.

I encourage home owners out there to check it out, see what they think, and perhaps offer some feedback! We’ve really only just kicked this thing off. And if you’re a renter, let us know during sign-up, and we’ll let you know when functionality for renters is added!

I’m Still Here

… I just haven’t had much to say, I guess. The weekly DNB show is still going on—usually running long. If you’re into that, do check for those MP3 archives if you can’t listen live on the DNBRadio.com Podcast page. This last week’s set rocked out with a length of 3hr 13m, while the prior week’s show clocked in at nearly an insane 4.5hrs! I was all cookin myself up some pizza during it so I could keep spinning till my eyes got blurry :) That could be my longest ever.

In other news, I seem to be sinking deeper into this “hobby” they call headphones. I’m really, really enjoying the sound of a good pair of headphones on my head with an amp and external dac. I have some pretty nice stuff at this point, but I’m not quite sure I’m done just yet. Damn this hobby, I tell you! (My Head-fi.org profile always has my equipment status.)

Done with School; Got the Job

Nine days ago, Tuesday December 19, 2006, marks the last exam of the last semester of my undergraduate college career. It was a long time coming, but I’m finally done! (What blows is that I was unable to find a subleaser for my room up there on Gunson Street. I haven’t quite given up on the search, but I think I might be getting screwed on this one.)

The good news, though, is that I’ve joined ranks with the brilliant folks at Quicken Loans in full-time fashion. I get to work in a tight team of only a handful of people (the Web Interaction Team), and I’ve so far really enjoyed working with them. I can’t wait to see what we’re capable of moving forward with our current project. The company as a whole is doing really well in the marketplace, and appears to have a very bright future, indeed. I’m very excited to be a part of it.

Oh, and a Very Happy Holidays from DJ Thread!

New Web Host

My site has been out for about the last 24 hours. I finally got things sorted out on the web server. We’ve moved from the shaky-service Dreamhost to Railsmachine.com. This company employs some real Ruby on Rails contributors who know what they’re talking about, and who seem to care more for their clients than Dreamhost. Their specs/price ratio is a bit higher than Dreamhost, but it’s guaranteed specs. We’re all pretty sure that Dreamhost is overselling their capacities.

Anyway, I’m back now, so everyone can just calm down. ;)

Next: my weekly dnbradio set!

Julie’s Blog Goes Live

My girlfriend, Julie, has just launched JewloftheLotus.com. She says she’ll just talk about whatever on there—not too much in the way of focus. (But who needs focus on a blog, anyway?)

Isn’t it nice (and cheap!?) to have a little domain to call home?

The DNB Continues

I haven’t missed a week yet! Check out my latest mix in the DNBRadio Archive and another good recent one has been added to the torrents page for a few days now.

Update: Oh, and I also meant to mention that I’m now using Textmate to blog with. (Check out the screencast!) It is damn sexy, and I’m not kidding.

Typo 4.0!

Every so often, I do an svn update on my Typo codebase to see if there’s new updates… particularly because of a rather nasty bug I’ve been experiencing. Whenever I post a new item, it inserts some error message in the post’s text_filter column, which causes my entire blog to break. The home page appears empty (0 posts) and the admin area crashes when trying to view the post. I had to go into the database and manually set the text_filter field to NULL. Needless to say, this undoubtadly had an impact in my posting frequency. But with the latest update of Typo 4.0.1, I’ve found the issue to have vanished! Hooray for blogs that actually work properly! \o/