This time I narrowed down my attention to iPhone 3G and App Store. Just as I expected - two pieces of shit.

Before buying a well advertised "Apple iPhone from Apple" consider the following - it has almost the same software and hardware as iTouch plus GSM unit, GPS, Bluetooth and Camera. With additional hardware comes physical shape increase and additional software which leads to susceptible speed reduction.

A few months ago I bought iTouch and was surprised with it's usability and features. A month ago I became an iPhone owner and demanded the refund the next day after the purchase. It didn't give me nothing new but locked me into the contract with wireless carrier, set up a new requirement for my pockets and the recharging frequency.

Anyway this story is not completely about this particular crap. I'd like to emphasis the reduced usability and increased amount of bugs Apple has brought into this world with the release of Apple App Store. 3rd party developers got the ability to sell their own software via iTunes. Pretty neat, huh? Let me tell you about GTS World Racing game.

It's the best approximation of Need For Speed for iPhone which costs $7.99 + taxes. I bought it and installed seamlessly. Clicked the icon and started playing. The first think that freaked me out was steering. Guys, you need to bend over your iPhone to accelerate and band it back to break. Did you use brains seriously?  How am I supposed to watch the car when the iPhone screen is stearing at the floor? Was it really that hard to put a few transparent buttons on the screen? Anyway, it took me a day to adapt to this way of driving. As soon as I started to progress the most interesting things began to occur.

I reached the 11th track in 30 minutes and succesfully completed it. As soon as I reached the finish line the game hang. iPhone stopped responding to the famous "home" button. I had to restart iPhone. After reboot I started the game again and guess what - it didn't save my progress.

A few days later the curioucity took over me and I started playing again. As soon as I finished the 6th track you'll never guess what happened - the game hang. Gosh! Not again. It didn't save my progress this time as well. My frustration was growing...

Being a honest community member I went to the iTunes App Store to post a game review. For some reason this weird piece of web application asked me for my iTunes password to post a comment. Ok. I typed the review and gave it 2 stars as opposed to 5 marked by default. I deliberately typed no f-words and expressed a nice attitude in the comment then I clicked "Preview" because they don't have "Post" button there. Here's a stupid question to you guys - why would I like to review a plain text again? Just post it for God sake! "Not so fast" they told me - "You have to type your nick name". Alright, I typed mine there and upon another "Preview" click they told me that my nickname is taken! What?  Where is the logics? I have a unique Apple ID which was confirmed by the password and now they tell me that there's someone else with my nickname dangling around comments? Man! This takes more time and efforts than it should! I typed another nickname there which was the only one I could come up with at that moment, previewed my post and posted it. Then just out of curioucity I went to find my comment in the reviews. Guess what - it's not there! There are only positive feedbacks. I didn't find any problem reports, crashes, "I hate you", etc. This makes me think that Apple is filtering out negative comments in order to sell more software!

You may have my conclusion for free Apple - stop blaming Microsoft for its bugs - take a look at your own crap.

Wow... It's been quite a while since my last post on this blog. Confession time has come. I was doing my ordinary stuff as in working, traveling, having the time of my life...

Just a few days ago I came across the post on Eten Users forum that touches the deepst desires and the most intimate passion of all E-Ten G500 owners. It brings WM6.1 to G500! The idea was so crazy that I decided to give it a shot. Guess what - the update worked but then a nasty showstopper took place..

My update progressed up till the first WM6.1 setup page - Screen Alignment. The cross popped up asking me to tap on it 6 times in different places on the screen. Well, what can be simpler someone might think... Guess what, I failed more than 15 times. Then it hit me - there's a software workaround. With absolutely non-working hardward or even totally absent screen one can easily step over this problem and fix it in future. Here's how...

You need WM Registry Editor. You may use one bundled with Visual Studio 2005 / 2008, Mobile Registyr Editor or any other just make sure that it's running on your desktop. Hook up your PDA to your computer and let Active Sync connect to the device. Now you start your registry editor and connect to the newly patched WM6.1 gadget. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\TOUCH key and modify the MaxCalError (calibration error barrier value) from 7 (default) to say 2000. Tap the last 5 times on the screen and enjoy your new interface.

Now it's time to adjust your calibrated data to make sure you can use your device properly. Here's a similar post on XDA developers forum. All you need to do now is to modify your CalibrationData value in the same registry key with "495,634 132,248 126,1010 858,1010 858,240" which stand for an average calibration data collected in 5 attempts.

CAUTION: If your device has a different calibration values than the posted above then it would stop loading at all. Think twice before updating CalibrationData and do it at your own risk.

If you did screw up your WM6.1 instance and device doesn't boot anymore - don't panic. You'll be just fine. Do a physical hard reset:

1. Press Power Button and Reset Button together and release them at the same time.
2. Immediately before device starts to reboot, press and hold End Call Button for approximately 15 seconds until the "Erase all data and loads defaults ?" screen appears. Click Yes.

Now you can give it another shot to patch your G500. Hope this helps anyone just as it worked for me.

I just got back from a business trip to Redmond. My primary objective was to see my team, to meet my skip-managers and to talk to my manager. I successfully accomplished my mission and even exceeded it. We went out 3 times in 2 days. We had a team lunch, a few folks joined me to go to Seattle for a little drink and we had a cross-team building bowling activity on the day of my departure. I tend to think I had the brightest journey among all MCDC folks . No doubts SNAC team is the best!

My impressions are very diverse. On one hand I see a tremendous boost option in moving to US. You can participate the meetings in person, you can find an advice as fast as walk in someone's office. You can make an impact with your opinion. On the other hand you can't survive in US without a car. Seattle is much bigger than Vancouver but it's also a way dirtier. I love walking but you can't walk in Seattle. Don't know about the night life though but from my tiny experience I learned that Vancouver is much more active at night.

I guess I need to see Puget Sound a couple more times to develop a solid opinion on business/life balance. My trip pictures are posted here.

Due to an accident I've been away quite awhile. But now I'm back fully equipped to carry on an important missing of keep you on the same page with the life over here.

To cut the long story short, this post is dedicated to the new building Microsoft has prepared for employees in Richmond. It's awesome. No kidding. It's very stylish, warm colors, open space, comfortable furniture, new offices, new conference rooms and a lot more. Basically Microsoft Canada Development Centre (which stands for MCDC) has 4 buildings but 2 of them are under construction yet. When the last builder leaves the area, MCDC will be capable of housing 300+ talanted boys and girls who wish to make the difference.

Freshly squeezed part of the building #3 has 3 conference rooms: Grouse, Whistler and Blackcomb. The guy suggested these names was awarded with $25 from Bread Garden.

Offices in new area are intended for seniors. I don't know how senior you have to be to get one of them. I suppose you need to have at least a couple of reports. Most of the offices are currently vacant.

Now we got official Microsoft reception with a big corporate title above ladies heads, soft furniture in the lobby and free candies.

I should probably stop talking and start sharing photos. Enjoy.

There are a few places in the hood to go snowboarding to - Cypress, Grouse and Seymour mountains and Whistler village. The last place looks like an Alpine village with hotels, shops and restaurants. You don't go there for a day, you'd better stay there for a week. The only obstacle is 120 miles distance from downtown Vancouver.

I like Cypress. It's close, nice, convenient and affordable. It's the second weekend I spend there snowboarding. I ain't made up my mind about buying all the equipment so I just rent it. The whole package of the board, boots, pants, jacket, helmet and day pass costs $149 CAD. Note, no gloves and goggles included. You might wanna buy those two up there for an extra $60 CAD.

The terrain is amazing. There are a few slopes - the bunny slopes, green, blue and black. They are 300, 1200 and 1500 meters long correspondingly. I prefere green slope because. It's safe for me. If you're just a beginner you should start with the bunny and gradually grow up to the black.

There's a bus going from downtown to the Cypress hills and 7 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on the weekends. Anyway you can learn about this in details on the web site.

I put a few pictures of my recent snowboarding session here. They're taken with my cell phone 'cuz I didn't want to waste my camera so the quality is crappy.

I just watched the January '08 Steve Jobs keynote where Apple CEO puts Microsoft on blast with a bunch of st*pid PC-Mac ads and Apple TV. WTH Steve? Didn't your mama tell you not to smoke pot anymore? Let me figure out once and for all why Apple sucks.

Approach

Apple puts the strees on the product look and feel in time when Microsoft enriches the products with features. Apple's consumers are simple users. They don't know much about computers. They think a nice icon can solve the problem. Apple take already implemented feature from Microsoft and give a new look and feel. Take a look at the Leopard time machine. It's nothing but a system backup implemented in Windows XP!

Apple would rather charge you for an additional icon than give you something free. I bought iTouch with 1.1.2 firmware. Now they release 1.1.3 with all iPhone apps including Mail, Maps, etc. If I and a bunch of other folks, who bought the gadgets before this January, wish to have these apps, we must pay $20 for an upgrade, thought we paid even more for the devices! You won't get an extra dime ouf of my pocket Steve! I'm gonna be jailbraking my iTouch forever!

OS

I'm pretty sick of the falks thinking Mac OS is something extraordinary and stable as opposed to Vista. It is stable because it's simple! You can't put an apple computer into a domain! There's nothing like Microsoft Exchage server in Apple world! Apple's security is totally unix - no multiple group policies, no access controls... Do you know why there are too few viruses and volnurabilities in the Mac OS? Because nobody gives a shit about it! It covers a small group of people in the world. Microsoft has over 70% OS share in the world! That's why it is the main objects for all the world hackers.

What about games? What is the Apple's share in the game industry? How many games are released for Apple? It's nothing in comparison to Microsoft! A real gamer would never pay $2200 for the Mac to be unable to upgrade it when the time comes.

Now try to write an Apple app. These's no documentation on the web. You don't even know where to start. Microsoft has all the documentation in one place - MSDN. The docs are public and free.

What about corporate and business solutions? Apple doesn't have a single! Microsoft has SQL Server, SharePoint, Exchange, Windows Server, etc. These products are being improved every release.

Hardware

I want to take this time out to clarify a huge gap in people's minds. Microsoft is solely a software vendor! It doesn't make hardware. Apple does! It controls the whole process from the physical manufacturing to the software deployment. It's silly to blame PCs because they are thick! It's st*pid to blame Microsoft because Acer laptops have bad heat control!

Freedom

Apple tries to keep you on the short hand. The music you purchase from iTunes can be played on iPod or Mac only! The DRM forbids music playback on any other player in the world! WTH? I bought this music! I own it! Why would a someone dictate me what to do with my property?! Besides iPod playes only MP3 and AAC. They decided not to support WMA.

You can't download anything on iPhone and iTouch except music. Now take a look at the Pocket PC - you can install applications on the fly! You can tune your WM-based device as much as you like. You can change the complete look and feel of it. And after all the modifications it will still be able to connect to the corporate network, Microsoft Exchange and other corporate services. When do you think iPhone will be capable of this huh?!

Conclusion

Apple is a pricy sh*t trying to take over the world by persuading blind people that a graphical interface is all they need. They sue everyone who thinks different! This is my personal oppinion that has nothing to do with my job, political insights and skin color.

When you port your application to a different platform (e.g. x32 to IA64) or an alien application try to adapt for your platform you may encounter problems related to DLL loading. General loader information is not enough to investigate the problem. If the problem is caused by the DLL initialization routine there's no way to find it except to debug or to enable loader snaps.

To enable loader snaps you have to create a registry key:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Name Execution Option\<your application name.exe>

and put the following value in it:

GlobalFlag = REG_DWORD:0x2

Now you can attach the debugger without source code or Dependancy Walker and read loader log.

There's more information on debugging LoadLibrary failures on the MSDN blog. You can also use Gflags utility to do the registry modification for you.

I didn't happen to know Bill personally but for some reason I feel sad about his retirement.  There's a nice movie about Bill's last day at Microsoft. Even though it's funny and entertaining it also sends the message that Microsoft will be missing this guy. This spring he will lead his last ThinkWeek.

Good luck Bill and Melinda with your personal life!

I have just watched the Paycheck movie with Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman on the Space channel. I didn't expect to see anything special because I've seen this movie a couple of times. However this time was different.

Do you remember the episode at the very beginning when Affleck escapes the building and there's a bad guy eating pie sees him running. That moment I felt dejavu. I thought I saw that building somewhere. Just a couple of minutes later Affleck runs down the stairs into the subway. It suddenly hit me! Hey, this is the Burrard station. I take the SkyTrain to the office every morning at that station. A moment was amazing. I recognized the place and was 100% sure this movie was shot in Vancouver. Now I know that the building Affleck escaped in the first place is located here on the West Georgia street. I walk by this building every morning.

I love seing familiar places on the screen. I googled around and found out that Paycheck is far not the only one filmed here. Check out this website!

I'm back from the theatre after wasting 1.5 hours for another rare hollywood crap. Yes, I'm talking about Alien vs. Predator Requiem!

I like Sci-Fi and Horrors. I kept on watching all four Aliens and 2 last Predator movies over and over again. They are great. Idea is nice and the happy end leaves a great sketch in the memory. However this time I'm very disappointed. The predator space caft crash unleashes the beasts in the forest. The start killing everybody and spreading around. At the beginning of the movie there were 3 aliens. But in 1.5 hour they had the whole army! WTF? Are they growing 1 meter per minute? If they are I expect them to die in 10 minutes!

People appear rarely stupid. Predator as well. As soon as this dumbass figures out the space ship crash he saddled his own ship and heads towards the Earth instead of taking a few more predators with him. A fucken hero!

Hold on, that's not it yet. Aliens found a hospital. The camera shows an alien crawling amoung recently born little kids preparing to kill them all. After it finished the children it crawls another room and infects all pregnant women. They all die bringing aliens into this world! THIS IS IMMORAL!  

At the very and of this 1.5 hour shit the army nukes the whole town out, just wipes the entire area. This is the easiest and the most predictable solution a sick mind could ever invent! Oh, did I mention that all good guys and girls die?

I proudly entite this movie THE CRAPPIEST MOVIE 2008!

The're s another crappiest movie I saw - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. I saw that shit a couple of months ago so it's difficult to recall the details. Basically I didn't find there any magic, any mystery nor adventure. As opposed to my expectation It's full of politics, disappointment, sorrow and tension. I expect this to be the last movie or book ever sold about the Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling killed her little wizard, he grew up and became sexually insane.

I don't know who's responsible for filtering the crap from big screens. Whoever you are, please don't let the next Harry Potter or A.v.P make it through you.