Techno-speak

[peterbirks]

I've had my Dell Streak (Android o/s) for a month now, and I have to say it's exactly what I've wanted from a portable device for many years, but which up until now has not been available.

A recent survey of youngsters seemed to indicate that although the mobile phone is a vital part of kids' lives, making phone calls with them is not high on the list of uses to which they are put. Texting and using as an MP3 player are far ahead. Which makes one wonder why the things are still designed primarily as phones.

Well, the Dell Streak isn't. And that suits me, because I doubt that I use a phone, any phone, more than a dozen times a month. And of this I would guess eight of them are at work and three of them are at home. You can use the Dell Streak as a phone, but it isn't designed as one. It's just a little bit too wide (nearly three inches) and a bit too long (about five inches). But as a portable online device, it's brilliant. I could if I wanted use it as an MP3 player. And, of course, there's the ubiquitous camera (with two lenses, just in case you want to talk on Skype or record a vod cast or whatever).


The landscape/vertical mode works as on the IPad, shifting according to how you hold it. This only causes a problem when you are looking at it while lying on your side in bed!



The on screen keyboard is, I admit, just a bit small and fiddly, even in landscape mode. I'm looking for a better one for the Android o/s. However, it pops up and pops down without difficulty. The major "controls" are those three buttons on the right hand side, with the central one the most important. It gives contextual options, depending on what you are doing at the time.


And I haven't quite worked out how it decides what emails to keep and which ones to discard.

But these are minor software issues. I've got an Office emulator, and I've signed up to Dropbox, which effectively gives me documents-to-go at any time. The data allowance from )2 is fine, and the only silly thing is that I have to top up a tenner a month (I bought the machine so it is contract-free) to get the required 'unlimited' data allowance. That means that by the end of the year I'll have about a hundred quid in credit on the phone -- presumably just in time for when I go abroad and the data cost of three quid a megabyte kicks in.

It does have a tendency to freeze if you connect it up to your PC and then disconnect without remembering to cut the communication cord between the two machines through the "disconnect hardware" button.

But in size and weight terms it's perfect. The screen is big enough to be a 'proper' web browser, but the machine is small enough to slip into my top pocket. And the Android o/s really does show what a pile of shit Windows is.


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Comments

[geoffchall.livejournal.com]

My HTC is getting there - it's 3.5" x 2.25" which is around half the size of yours. Very big for a phone and if I could oinly be arsed to study its functions in detail, I could run the planet with it. It seems almost as if the industry is filling in the gaps so there is a seamless range from tiny screen phones up to iPads and netbooks.

But I can't get the HTC to take decent photos and my on-screen keyboard takes a bit of acclimatising to as well. Fine and much faster than a non-touch screen when stationary but difficult to text even as a car passanger.

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Just out of interest (and since I spend half my on-line time on the Linux Hater's Blog), would you care to expand on your comment that "the Android o/s really does show what a pile of shit Windows is?"

Seriously -- intelligent analysis from the consumer side is always interesting. (I say "always." It's almost non-existent where Linux desktop systems are concerned.) It'd make a good post when you're short on material.

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Just as a taster?

Linux-based file systems are prone to freeze when something unexpected happens.

Like, say, oh, I dunno, removing a cable without chanting the magic words.

(And if you're ever asked to use EXT4 -- which you won't be, because Linux desktops generally default to it, and Android is too sensible -- just say no.)

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

I tend not to like saying "this is what is wrong with Windows", particularly to anyone in IT, because the response tends not to be "right, we'll fix it". It tends to be; "Ahh, that happens in Windows because....", followed by an explanation about which I care not one whit.

So, put simply, to my user-defined brain, the Android o/s comes on straight away, hasn't frozen except when trying to disconnect from a Windows machine that didn't want to let it go, seems easy n the processing power requirements and, generally, doesn't piss me off with updates every 48 hours.

PJ

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

If it helps any, I hate Windows. I also hate Solaris and other Unix systems, and the only reason I don't hate OSX is because, well, I don't use it. The OS world has gone massively down-hill since the 1980s, when we were offered the bright new Multics alternatives of VOS, VMS and AT&T Unix. We also had Capability-based OSes from Cambridge, and so much else.

But, to your feeble little issue. You are permitted to control Windows updates as follows: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525.

You'll be pleased to know that the same update problem that bugged you has also affected the Swedish Stock Exchange. There's nothing like walking in at 9am and seeing a massive great plasma screen that features the dreaded update shield.

Gaah. I absolutely hate defending Windows. Unfortunately, it matches up well on the "power requirements," and is set up (by Bill Gates fiat, I believe) to work well with SDDs.

What does that mean for you? (1) A Windows OS manages hibernate/suspend fairly well. Vanilla Linux, awfully (if at all). Android? Maybe. I'm sure you'll tell us.

The Solid State Drive thing? Well, it's good for an 80% power saving on something the size of an Android. Who knows? Either side could win here. I'm betting on the ones with a five year head start (Vista was based on it).

But then, I'm one of those people "in IT," whatever that means, that will give you "an explanation about which [you] care not one whit." That's kind of a loaded requirement, isn't it? I hate the fucking OS, I'd rather not link to something that helps you on it, I'd love to see Android beat the shit out of it, I'm going to reluctantly point out the technical difficulties that Android faces, I'm therefore fucked, and what do I get?

"Seems easy."

Well, good luck with that. You're already half-way to zombie-land when you come out with a comment like "hasn't frozen except when trying to disconnect from a Windows machine that didn't want to let it go."

There are two chip-filled, complicated machines involved here, mate. Which one do you think "doesn't want to let go?"

As an equivalent instance, let's attach a latest and greatest 2010 20 megapixel camera via USB to (a) a random Windows machine or (b) a random Android machine.

Let's see. Which one won't let go? My guess is certainly not the camera.

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

No, it was definitely the Windows o/s that didn't want to let go. Not sure what you are getting at.
Sadly, hibernating (or lack thereof) is one of my biggest nightmares on Windows Vista, although I don't have any such problems on Windows XP.

That said, with BOTH XP and Vista, the electricity consumption when in "hibernation" is far from negligible. I recommend you run a test on that at home, leaving the machine in hibernation for eight hours one night and turning it off for eight hours the next night, and checking on the difference in electricity consumption. Maybe it's just me.

And, of course, part of it isn't Windows, it's Microsoft, with its fucking XP and Vista and 7 and Mobile and so on and so on. I got stuck with Vista because I bought a machine in that short period before the public rebelled and insisted on XP as an option on new machines because Vista was such shit. It issues me with warnings about my User Account Control every time I turn the machine on (because you have to turn the default UAC off to get several of my programs to work AT ALL).

Obv I have the Windows update controlled, but eventually you have to bite the bullet and do a massive install, EVERY ONE OF WHICH will have the sentence "you may have to restart your machine" as a rider. Not sure why this annoys me so much, but I really feel like saying "well why don't you check whether I will or I won't, you lazy cunts?"

I can only talk as a consumer here. Windows annoys me nearly every day, one way or another. Android has yet to annoy me at all. Surely that counts for something?

"Ahh, but the reason why Windows...."

PJ
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[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

BTW, should add that Windows Vista doesn't HAVE a hibernation option. Just a "Sleep" option. And that doesn't work properly, if at all.

PJ

Mysteries of Stupid Geek Universes

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

Try this (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/re-enable-hibernate-option-in-windows-vista/) advice.

Oh, and whilst maintaining the abject apologies and so on -- honestly -- wait until you get a problem with the Android. You'll never believe how friendly these people can be.

Re: Mysteries of Stupid Geek Universes

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

(Incidentally, I removed the "Hibernate files" on my own laptop, and as I recall it was a single (completely unannouced) file called "hibernat.dat" under some stupid invisible system directory like C:\System, simply because they're a goddamn memory drag on a laptop with a small disk. Essentially, it's 1:1 (for no very good reason, but I'm not going to get into compression algorithms right now), and therefore the file on disk is the same size as the amount of RAM you have. I'd guess that's, say, 4GB. It used to be a lot of hard disk space, but not so much these days.

(Getting it back from hibernation? Another issue again. And nothing at all to do with your OS, other than the fact that Windows -- yes, Vista! -- was deliberately designed around this obvious consumer headache. Unfortunately, Microsoft assumed that Samsung and other makers of Solid State Drives would step up to the plate and deliver, and built Vista accordingly. It didn't happen. Without an SSD, and on any operating system you care to name, the best that hibernation can do is to store 4GB of RAM on disk and painfully spin the goddamn thing back up again when you re-open the case.

(We live in an imperfect world. Some OSes that were close to perfection have died along the way, for various rather boring commercial reasons. Some survive, and work on a sort of Benthamite principle. Some, mostly based on Linux, are a fucking abortion just waiting for an accident to happen.)

Before anything else, abject apologies...

[real-aardvark.livejournal.com]

I spend too much time on blogs these days. Have you noticed? Almost nobody ever apologises. It's part of the blog credo. Because you're (effectively) anonymous, your only important organ is your spleen. And because it's trivial to swap from blog to blog, your spleen carries over.

Which is not an excuse.

I apologise humbly and profusely and abjectly. I'll do better next time, as the trans-sexual halfway through the operations said to the punter.

I'm not one to object to a personal IT choice. (I've never understood why anybody would want a phone that costs more than £30 and does anything more than a phone. But then again, I bought one of the first brick-like "mobiles" at £300 plus rental. Oddly enough, the one feature I miss was the button that told me what my number was ...) If an Android works for you, it's good news, and I'll file the fact away as a "plus."

Since you're still using Windows elsewhere, you might find the following to be useful on your UAC issue (http://www.ehow.com/how_5862299_disable-vista-avoid-pesky-reminder.html). Should you have to do that? No. Not all hardware is designed for people with an IQ of higher than 110; Microsoft, less so.

Please wrap the following comments around a continued apology on the same abject level, but I'm not sure what you mean by "the Android o/s comes on straight away, hasn't frozen except when trying to disconnect from a Windows machine that didn't want to let it go."

I'm just guessing that this involves (a) a USB cable and (b) a Windows notification along the lines of "Safe to remove USB hardware." Presumably a lousy guess. Unless there's some dialog box on Windows that says "I don't want to let go!," or alternatively a directory in File Explorer or whatever that still claims that your Android device is attached, even when it isn't, then I'm just offering the hypothesis that your Android freezes -- whilst not connected to anything any more -- because your Android freezes.

Short of other information, and knowing USB devices (simple ones like pen-drives, slightly more complicated ones like cameras, and not as yet really complicated ones like an Android) as I do, the fact that your USB device (ie your Android) freezes is difficult to reconcile with the assumption that Windows doesn't want to let go. Unless Windows is the Borg. Which is always possible.

On the principle of triage support, I'd suspect the Android OS. And not just because I know the underlying Unixy file system has been susceptible to this sort of thing for the last forty years.

Whatever. That was an extremely obnoxious response; particularly since I asked for your honest opinion. I have no excuses. I was utterly in the wrong.