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I just wrote a comment to an article I read on the Symbian Foundation blog: "Improving the developer experience", by David Wood. I think it’s worth replicating it here: detronizator Says: May 18, 2009 at 9:58 AM @Mark Burton: I had EXACTLY the same experience. It was like jumping back to the “future” of software development and see that IT’S NOT MANDATORY to have to deal with ANCIENT C++ to write software for mobile. More funny: it’s all based on Open Source/Open Standard technologies, like gdb and qemu!!! @wtr1: Did you ever see Android running on the Emulator (because that’s what it is: WINSCW is a SIMULATOR)? And Symbian itself? I did when I was there. A guy started working on Symbian for QEMU, achieving to start th OS in a 10th of the time, if not less. Even faster than ANDROID to boot!!! But at that time people took me as a fool for supporting this guy so strongly… Seriously: WINSCW is “theoretically” faster but so badly written that it’s actually slower. @David Wood: I basically agree with you, but to say that “there isn’t such a Symbian controlled by manufacturers”, it’s what I’ll call “more than just a personal and partial opinion”. The control and the “steering” of THE manufacturer (who said “Nokia?”) was in every step that was taken in Symbian. And that was absolutely “correct”: after all Nokia owned the most of it. Now you are “step by step” trying to change this. But the problems you are dealing today are heritage of a “not so far past”. And, as you said yourself, “it’s not going to change overnight”. A last thought: I’m realizing that the most of those posts are focused on discussing the “technical philosophy”, “political moves”, “current market”, “business model” of Symbian but… are we ever actually going to discuss technical and more interesting stuff? And, bear in mind, this is not a critic to the audience here, neither to the bloggers (who always arise good, important and interesting points): my critic is to make people realize that the problems of this Platform are so “deep in developers soul” and “frustrating for beeing so old complex”, that the main discuss driver is always away from the technical stuff. For example: what about “common mistakes made by C++ developers and how symbian address and solve them” or “how to build a Client-Server architecture in 5 minutes” or “how to optimize performance of a UI-intensive application” or “how to generate JSON files in your web-based S60 app”… and I could say more. Developers, at least of my age, want code, snippets, smart patterns and so on… My 5 cents. PS Please, bear in mind that WINSCW is a “SIMULATOR”, while QEMU is an “EMULATOR”, like the ARM one that Nokia preferred to QEMU… and we are still waiting here! :P PPS At least this is the definition you can find on books from Tanenbaum or Sterling. ...

From "Who’s Minding the Store", by Jerry Lewis From “Decameron - La Macchina da Scrivere”, by Daniele Luttazzi (blog) “Ciccotti e la Macchina da Scrivere”, by Tommaso Ciccotti

Good Jobs Here at Home Ending Bad Habits I wish I had such a President: I don’t know if he is really going to do what he says, but at least he says correct and agreeable things.

After I received an email, this imaginary story came to my mind: Kiddo>Mom, my friend G. Android came today at school and said “he is Open Source and it’s cooooool”. Not everyone understood in it and ignored him. Then we all got it, and he became very popular. Can I do it too? Pleeeeeease!!! Mom>Ok S. Symbian, but don’t forget that you need to explain IP, binary compatibility, Active Objects, Descriptors… and you can’t give away all the secrets of your mommy away to those Open Source folks. Kiddo>But moooom, this is not really… Mom>Hey young man! This is my house and I say what you can do and can’t do. You do Open Source, but in my way! Nokia way! ...

Be a Media-Dictator in a semi-democratic country. Like Italy, for example Act like a stereotyped Italian clown in every International Meeting, pretending you are the one of the politicians that “actually do the job” Enjoy yourself with the youngest and stupidest show-girls during your 70, just to confirm, again and again, the shameless stereotype of the “Italian playboy” Have a wife that, after she was “seduced” by your money and your power when you were younger, making your first marriage fail, now complains for your unfaithfulness and the shame you are bringing to the family ...

For the once of you that tried “home made ways” to update their ADP1, like my previously published how-to, this news can be interesting. Google and HTC finally managed to push-out an official page on the HTC site, to explain step-by-step how to update firmware and baseband of the device. I just did it, having a very pleasant and straightforward experience. The phone seems to be way more stable, bug-free and the battery lasts for more then 50 seconds ;) ...

Another update for Detronizator.org’s theme. Say hello to “The Journalist”, from Lucian E. Marin. Great job Lucian! ;-)

Ridicoli. Questo siamo. Un popolo di RIDICOLI che permettono ad un uomo RIDICOLO, Silvio Berlusconi, cancrena degli ultimi 20 e piu’ anni d’Italia, senza alcuna vergogna, remora, timore o paura, di fare il bello ed il cattivo tempo. E di RIDICOLIZZARE ogni Valore, Diritto, Legge, Organo Istituzionale. Il tutto abusando, anzi dire i violentando, stuprando, le parole. Parole come “Liberta’”, “Diritto”, “Stato”, “DEMOCRAZIA”. E quindi si arriva a cose orribili e disgustose, come il gesto fatto in chiusura dei “lavori” del nuovo partito da lui fondato, PdL (Popolo delle Liberta’), con cui si e’ letteralmente mangiato tutta la destra italiana. ...

WOW! I mean… WOW! Look at what people are doing using the power of HTML5 + a very fast Javascript Engine! Those experiments are collected here: Chrome Experiments (note the subtitle: “Not your mother’s JavaScript” - LOL). Bear in mind: this is not only because of Chrome itself. This is the power of HTML5 Canvas element, plus, of couse, the very (very) fast V8 Javascript engine). And indeed, I ran them on my Safari 4 beta without a glitch: the Javascript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme (SFX) is pretty good too. ...

This is another thing it happens to me as well! I don’t really know what does it says: probably that some of the studenthood “duty” left a deep mark on our subconscious, making us imagine realities in which we “didn’t do our job”… and now we pay the consequences. Or, simply, that some teachers at school should be reported for “mental raping”! :-D LOL