http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com General thoughts about mobile software, technologies and industry Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:37:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Left: Ibsen Espada, Right: Cofresí. Source Houston Press I really believe "artist" is the one of the most difficult jobs in the whole world; and only the best can survive as true artists. People don't buy paintings all the time, and painters are affected by hard economic times too; ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/general/2008/11/19/about-artists-and-painters-and-ibsen-espada/ ...or, the Network Providers/Operators must be having a blast. The network providers are doing just fine... new cool handsets here and there, handset exclusivity on certain networks, message usage is up, data consumption is up, new services are coming up, very cool applications from web to native, developers and more developers, ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2008/11/18/the-gods-are-being-good-to-network-operators/ Thanks to everyone who voted for Sean at the JCP elections. The two with the most votes have been elected for JCP ME Executive Committee for the next three years. Having Sean at the EC is a very good thing, as he will represent the developer community; he understands well ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/javacommunity/2008/11/18/jcp-elections-a-good-day-for-the-developer-community/ The iPhone and Android platforms have validated a number of things; below is a list with some of such things: iPhone: Applications are at the center of next generation of handsets. That software, not hardware, is the main driver and differentiator. Touch-screens rock! Everyone knew it, but Apple showed the world how. The mobile web ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2008/11/17/the-iphone-and-android-platforms-as-validators/ A good writeup by James Shore on The Decline and Fall of Agile (James Shore blog). Software development projects are a hard thing; not necessarily because of the software, but because people are involved. I've worked on the most mature (and rigid) software development process in the world, the Space Shuttle on-board ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/development/2008/11/16/the-decline-and-fall-of-agile/ A beautiful night launch of the Shuttle Shuttle Endeavour and the STS-126 mission (PDF)... See the launch in High Definition, or in standard definition version on Spacevidcast.com's YouTube channel. In Endeavour's payload bay, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo is packed full of about 14,500 pounds of equipment and supplies, making it ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/space/2008/11/14/endeavour-sts-126-night-launch/ This upcoming November 17, 2008 is the last day of the JCP Executive Committee elections. This year a number of individuals have chosen to run for the SE and ME seats side-by-side large companies; see the JCP Ballot. On the ME side, we have Aplix and Sony Ericsson running for election, ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/javacommunity/2008/11/12/java-community-process-2008-elections-vote-for-sean-sheedy/ I've written an article/tutorial on mobile web/widget development using Yahoo! Blueprint; see Develop mobile widgets with Yahoo! Blueprint (IBM developerWorks). The article shows how to develop a Weather widget using the Blueprint XML markup and infrastructure, PHP for server integration, and the consumption of Yahoo! services on the web. Developing ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/general/2008/11/12/on-mobile-web-development-develop-mobile-widgets-with-yahoo-blueprint/ Andrea Trasatti wrote that Everyone wants an App Store these days. Yes, very true. I was talking about this with Brian Fling at Mobile 2.0. Apple, Google, BlackBerry. The number of independent vendors. Next, network operators... App Stores are the new Deck. But a very deep deck. A searchable deck. A deck-catalog. The ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2008/11/11/app-stores-are-the-new-deck/ Over-the-Air (OTA) updates make sense; no need to connect to the PC to download needed updates. At least that is the theory... In practicality, OTA updates translate to delays, sometimes for weeks. Because OTA updates burn resources, here I refer to bandwidth, this puts the network provider on an odd situation: should they ... http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2008/11/11/the-problem-with-ota-updates/