Dear Google: Almost the entire world can upload and download free applications via Android market. Good. But only a select few (13 at the time of writing) can buy or sell applications. And point in case, Sweden is not among them. What the… ? I completely understand the need of rolling out one market after another, but I don’t understand the complete lack of transparency in the process. No one seems to know when country X is going to be supported, and Google, you keep your mouth closed. But it’s not like Android is new by this time for Christ sake! It’s been years! And Google, this is real money and real adoption we’re talking about. And further more, its 2010, and you’ve done your wealth on the fact that the Internet gives you global access, not local, not based on Market segment, but when it comes to Android you stupidly go the old school route and give us the equivalent of DVD regions one more time. Either you’ve turned stupid, you’ve been lucky this far or the gray suits have taken over, and if so: thank you, it’s was a good ride, but this is as far as you’re going to get; soon you’ll just be another Microsoft.

And then, the timezone calendar issue. You know what I’m talking about. It’s 2010 and you can’t handle time zones correctly?! This is one of the most basic functions of a calendar, if you don’t understand time zones you don’t understand your business. And complaints have been heard for years! Look, it’s simple: there are two types of appointments, those that I want to specify time zone for which will adjust when I travel and those that I don’t want to care about and which should not adjust when I travel. In the first case, a telephone conference is a good example. If I schedule 14:00 GMT+2 (Sweden) for a telephone conference I do want the time in my calendar to change when I’m in, say London, so that it stays correct. But on the other hand, if my plane lands in London 12:00 local time, I absolutely do not want to enter it in GMT+2 just because that’s where I’m currently at, that would be a nightmare! The travel agencies and air companies figured this out years ago, I’m simply not interested in knowing when my plane leaves in Swedish time! But that’s exactly where we’re at! Google, you went live with calendar in 2006, and you exited beta in 2009, and you still haven’t fixed it?! How on earth you’ve got stomach to claim you’re not in beta when you can’t handle time zones is beyond me. What have you done instead? World clock? Fucken swap?! And do read the comments on that last thread, I completely agree with the strongest of them: you’ve screwed up your implementation so badly that you can’t even fix it, and now you’re doing your best to pretend it’s not raining. This problem is on Wikipedia and Washington post and all over the web. It destroys your adoption rate among international companies. You really, really need to fix this.

There, I feel better now. But it still is worrying: is this the gray suits taking over Google? Or perhaps it tells us something about the quality of the code Google produces, that they are so deep in legacy issues that they can’t fix this? After all, it’s not like they wouldn’t want Android market to be available everywhere, that would make them even bigger, there’s something else stopping them. And then the time zone issue… That does sound like legacy code, their implementation is so bad that they figure it’s not worth the time it would take to fix the problem, that they would get their money back, or that the risk is too great trying that they’ve decided to do, well, fucken swap, instead.Google? Please, I still love you, but please…

• Google (there’ll be some of these):
  • Gmail – Since I started GTD’ing I’ve come to realize how much an empty inbox is worth. But then, you need search capabilities to back it up. At the moment, I’m doing all my emails, private and business, via Google. Also, the Android Gmail application rocks.
  • Calendar – What can I say? It is simply the best. I currently have 2 calendars for myself, one for me and one for my business appointments, as well as one calendar for St Jacobs Chamber choir.
  • Reader – Again, the best of the bunch. The ability to stay in sync with your reading list is a must have. I kind of like the interface as well. And I use NewsRob on Android too.
  • Documents – Not so much, but it is convenient at times. Otherwise I’m very much off-line when it comes to document management and editing.
  • Picasa – This is where my public albums live. That’s right, you may be in there! Have a look, fungrim’s the name.
• Remember the Milk – This is where my tasks and projects live. Live the simplicity, the Android application, and the name. I’m a paying user here.
• Hootsuite – The geek weapon for managing you social presence. Good stuff, but not for the weak hearted. I currently use it for Facebook (daytime), 2 twitter accounts and my LinkedIn account.
• Evernote – Together with WebClipper it’s the ultimate web reference tool. This is where I collect references and ideas. Good Android application too.
• TripIt – Damn convenient! Just forward your booking email to it and you have it all sorted out. This saves you from receiving a booking confirmation for, say, a flight and then manually insert it to your calendar. Decent Android application.
• Dropbox – Again, damn convenient! A shared storage that just works. Access the same folder from multiple computers. There’s all sorts of neat stuff you can do with this, and I have only started.
• Xmarks – Bookmark synchronising over multiple browsers. What would I be without it?

All of the above with the exception of Xmarks and Hootsuite works very well with Android (xmarks doesn’t exist on Android and the Hootsuite application isn’t very good) which is perfect, I’m a very happy nerd!And yes, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and LinkedIn as well. You’ll find links to my profiles below:

• http://fungrim.wordpress.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/larsan
• http://twitter.com/fungrim
• http://se.linkedin.com/in/fungrim

That’s about it. Not too addicted, eh?

• Guice and Spring
• Declarative transactions and JTA
• EDA, Pipelines and CEP
• SOA and ESB and NMR
• Column databases and distributed file systems
• Wicket and various related Ajax components
• OSGi in various permutations with the above
• BI, in-memory BI and CEP (again)
• AOP and/or IoC patterns

And now I’m contemplating the fultility of programming.

Else than that I’m a happy camper. I spent several hour yesterday upgrading from the original ROM (1.37) to the latest and gratest (1.93). They’ve cut a few animations and generally made the handling smoother, it really is quite a difference. Thumbs up HTC, well done!

Now, if someone could figure out a really efective gattery hack as well…

• First out, Sweden as an Echelon node by Rick Falkvinge (leader Swedish Pirate Party). Now, I’d be the first to admit that it feels absurd and far fetched. But it would also explain a few things, as for example the Swedish prime minister, or indeed the coalition itself, are so bloody close mouthed.
• Secondly, Falkvinge again, but this time on the idea that it would be a crime for a Swedish citizen to witness a crime without interfering. Branded by the coalition as a way to improve safety, this is a terrible, terrible idea.
• Thirdly, via HAX, Emma gives us a rundown on the laws and the ideas. This is truly scary stuff. A must-read.
• And lastly, HAX himself gets into trouble with the law. Because you know, if you’re the head of an organization that has admittedly broken Swedish laws for several years, the best thing to to when discovered is try to silence the discoverer. Right?

What kind of idiots are running this country anyway?