Huibert Aalbers Portfolio

Joyeux Anniversaire, Collège Calvin

April 2, 2008

Founded by John Calvin, the Collège Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, will soon turn 450 years old. On February 24, 1428, the Conseil Général of Geneva decided to establish a collège in Rive (now downtown). In it was taught the liberal arts and universitary studies, which Genevan people had previously had to go abroad to study. After the Protestant Reformation, school was made obligatory as well as free for poor people. However, it wasn’t until May 29, 1559, after the enactment of the Leges Academiae Genevensis (Order of the Collège de Genève) that work actually began on building a new official Collège de Genève. When it was finally inaugurated, students didn’t have much time for fun, working generally for sixty hours a week or even more. But then, nobody should really be surprised, Protestant theologians were not famous for their sense of humor. What they appreciated was hard work and dedication which is why they started a tradition of excellency by recognizing every year the best students at a ceremony called “Promotions”

The Collège de Genève was renamed the Collège Calvin in 1969. Many things have changed since the school was founded, theology and latin are long gone, but the school still provides great education, free, now to everyone and the “Promotions” still reward the canton’s best students every year and have grown into a significant festivity in a town not exactly known for being fun (clean and safe yes but fun, certainly not).

I didn’t stay very long at Calvin, just under two years, from 1981 to 1983, because my father was transferred to Spain. I must say though that those years were probably among the most productive of all my student years. Sure, we had some excellent teachers, like Mme Lejeune, who I will always remember because she was able to inspire us with mediaeval literature (which was no small feat), but that wasn’t the only reason. There is just something about old schools that inspires a level of respect that modern buildings simply cannot easily reproduce or even replace with technology. It may have been the mystery of what may have been hidden behind the old doors or the implicit pressure to be up to the legacy of a school that has produced some great alumni like Jorge Luis Borges or red-cross founder Henry Dunant. Who knows? It doesn’t really matter. Whatever it was, I could sense it and that is why my short stay at this school will always be one of the most important parts of my life.

Speaking of old schools, I must say that I feel very lucky to have attended two other schools loaded with history. I attended elementary school at the École des Cropettes, also in Geneva, surrounded by a large park where kids could feed the squirrels that lived on the trees. Later on I went to Sécheron, a school housed in a large 19th century building next to the park bordering Lake Geneva.

It is easy to say that good students can learn at any school, but the truth is that a good environment can make the process much easier. Buildings like those really make it easy to love going to school. When I see some of the public schools here in Mexico I cannot avoid thinking that in order to improve education there is still so much work needed, better teachers, smaller classes, improved security and last but not least, much better buildings that make schools much more compelling to kids.

Fitna

March 29, 2008

Fitna is a short movie created by a Dutch politician and lawmaker about the threat Islam poses to the Western World.

The movie basically reminds people of many of the brutal unacceptable acts performed by radical fanatical islamists over the years. It is not a strong reminder of the dangers of religion. In some ways this movie reminds me of the attempts of many Europeans to warn against the thread posed by Hitler in the nineteen thirties. Nobody listened and people preferred to ignore the problem thinking that it couldn’t be as bad as these pesky protesters claimed. We all know what happened.

The Western world cannot accept threats to his citizens who are just exercising their free speech rights. We must also openly fight for the rights of dissidents, women, gays and all those who live in fear in Islamic countries. It is great to denounce Scientology for being a business or express outrage at China because of what is happening in Tibet, but the truth is that all this is just peanuts compared to what is happening daily in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or even Saudi Arabia. It is our obligation to denounce human rights violations everywhere in the world, independently of what caused them (a ruthless dictator, historical neighbor hate tread or a holy book), and clearly state them as morally unacceptable. This has nothing to do with liberty of cult.

Fitna was originally posted on liveleak where it was viewed by millions, but it had to be removed because of serious threats to the company workers. However, it can still be found here. It is also available on Bittorrent.

Firmware 1.1.4 fixes important iPhone bug

March 28, 2008

Last December I wrote that upgrading my iPhone to firmware 1.1.2 was not such a great idea. The reason was simple, the update made it impossible to control my iPhone from the harman/kardon drive+play device installed in my car. Since the next firmware update didn’t fix the problem, I started to think that I would have to give up on my beloved gadget since it pre-dated the iPhone and therefore could not be expected to properly work with it.

I am happy to report that my fears were totally unfounded. Apple fixed the problem with the release of firmware 1.1.4. I can now once again control the music playback from the drive+play wheel controller and the information appears correctly on the display, as expected. I am really relieved because I had been looking for alternative solutions and so far haven’t found a good solution that supports the iPhone, eliminating all GSM interference and supporting hands free conversations. Now that my current solution works again I can wait patiently for a better solution to get to market.

I have also learned that the problem was no limited to harman/kardon’s device. I have a friend who uses a completely different solution to play back music from the iPhone in his car and he had faced similar problems.

Beijing 2008 boycott

March 25, 2008

Picture 1.png The recent events in Tibet have prompted some world leaders to discuss the possibility of boycotting the olympic games next summers. So far only French President Sarkozy seems to consider the idea seriously but if the situation worsens I see more European countries starting to consider that option.

I personally think that at the very least the topic should be discussed. After all, the Chinese track record on human rights has been historically extremely poor and this is a good opportunity to show our dissatisfaction with this situation. I do not believe though that this decision should be taken by governments, it is up to the athletes themselves to decide. They are the ones who have spent at least the last four years training and they would be making the sacrifice, not the officials.

A couple of days ago, Haile Gebrselassie, who has asthma and is the world’s record holder in the marathon, announced that he would not risk his health by taking part in the 26.2-mile race in the Chinese capital, which is notorious for its poor air quality. This decision was widely discussed in the media and as a result many eyes turned east to examine the environmental situation in China. This clearly shows how individual decisions can have a significant impact on society and raise awareness about social problems.

A formal boycott is a political decision by a government that too often does not have the moral stature to chastise others. On the other hand, individual decisions made by people who make real sacrifices to send a message are much more powerful.

Objectivity on Digg

March 21, 2008

Digg has bothered me for quite a while. It is a good source for news as I do not have to scour the web for interesting stories. However, if you are looking for objectivity you will have to look somewhere else.

This is probably not a problem for those who only visit very specific Digg sections like Technology/Apple you or Gaming/XBox. You know what you are getting into. Those sections have fanboy written all around them. I don’t think that anyone reading the news posted there have any objectivity expectations whatsoever.

On the other hand, if you enter a more general section such as World & Business/US Elections 2008 you may think that all positions will be equally (or at least proportionally) represented. If you think so, you may be in for a big disappointment.

Today I tried to submit a story published on the Yahoo front page about how Hillary Clinton was now leading the polls among Democrats. I don’t really want Clinton to be elected President but I wanted that particular news to get posted on Digg since Obama suporters have clearly hijacked that section of the site (previously Ron Paul supporters had done the same on the Republican side). I was just trying to get some balance into Digg because I naively though that the problem was that only positive news for Obama were being published. I was wrong, dead wrong.

It turns out that the news had already been submitted by someone else. That should have made me happy, right? That is what I wanted, a positive note for Clinton in an ocean of notes favoring Obama, providing some well needed balance in my quest for objectivity. Well, let’s say that I was deeply disappointed (this is probably the understatement of the year). The person who actually submitted the story first is obviously an Obama supporter. Instead of titling the story “Clinton leads the polls” or something similar based on the actual content of the article, he decided to name it “The Media Is Already Gearing Up To Justify Clinton Winning”. With such an absurd title it is likely that most Digg readers will never read the actual note, which probably was the intent of this person from the beginning.

Since the same article cannot be submitted twice, it is easy to play the system. A partial solution would be to have Digg automatically use the original article title. However, this is hard to implement from a technical perspective. The problem here is that as long as some of those who submit stories are more interested in publishing their point of view than in hearing all the facts, a site like Digg will never become a trusted news source. While traditional media has its own share of flaws, it still beats hands down unmoderated web sites. That is why I do not see established newspapers going down anytime soon.

What is the point of Java on the iPhone?

March 12, 2008

I love Java. A large part of my success as a software developer over the last decade is due to the fact that I was an early Java adopter. Java also allowed me to grow professionally and become a Software IT Architect at IBM. Over the years I have written many J2EE web apps, some J2SE applications and even one Java2ME program for a Sony-Ericsson handset. The fact is that I am totally convinced by the many benefits of Java and I do not feel attracted by any other language to write enterprise web applications. But seriously, Java for the iPhone? Why?

On the server, J2EE is extremely appealing because it is an open, scalable, secure technology that allows developers to create complex solutions. If you plan to integrate all kind of legacy systems or develop true robust distributed systems Java simply has no competition.

On the desktop, the situation is quite different. Sun Microsystems tried to create a platform that would allow developers to create applications that would work on any OS. Their first attempt at providing a common GUI was the AWT. It was a complete failure because it only allowed to use controls common to all existing platforms. Complex controls such as trees or tables could not be used because even if they existed on Windows or the Mac, they were not available on other OSes such as QNX. The second attempt, an API usually known as Swing (or JFC) tried to solve the problem by avoiding native widgets altogether. Instead, each component was drawn in Java, bypassing the OS. This move allowed Sun to support complex controls on any OS. However, the first release of Swing was painfully slow and a memory hog. As a result, most developers have avoided the technology despite Sun’s efforts to improve it in subsequent releases. The problem is that every time the Look and Feel of an OS is updated, Swing needs to be updated also, to ensure that widgets are drawn properly. IBM proposed a better solution, called SWT, used in Eclipse and many other Java applications. Instead of hand drawing all controls, SWT uses native controls when available and draws them manually as a last resort. The result is a more efficient API that produces much better results. Even so, users normally can quickly spot Java desktop apps because they simply do not look native. This is specially true on the Mac. While PC users seem to have no problem at all using Java applications such as Azureus, Mac users seem to prefer non Java alternatives such as XTorrent or Transmission. To make a long story short, those who designed the Java strategy for fat clients assumed that all GUI were similar and that any differences were merely cosmetic. It was a terrible assumption that was made well before Apple migrated from OS 9 to OS X (which makes heavy use of transparency and animations) by people who could not envision how technologies such as hardware accelerated graphics would impact GUIs. The result is that very few still consider Java as a viable option for creating desktop applications.

On a phone, the situation is even worse. Developers don’t really know what to expect from a Java capable phone. There isn’t much standardization and capabilities vary significantly from one phone to another. The main benefit of Java2ME on a cell phone is that it makes migrating applications from one cell phone to another relatively easy. This is specially true for mobile games that do not require a standard user interface and where all the display is handled by Open GL.

The iPhone is a device that lies somewhere between a computer and a phone. It has an amazing user interface that users expect applications to fully embrace. Java currently does not offer any solutions to work effectively with that aspect of the device. However, Java could still prove useful to help quickly migrate all those games written for other handsets to the iPhone. Is this important for Apple and iPhone customers? I doubt it. With over 100,000 SDKs downloaded in just over four days, it seems that the iPhone will not lack native software (including games). The announcement made by Sun that it plans to make Java available for the iPhone is mainly targeted at existing J2ME developers. The company run by Jonathan Schwartz wants to open a new market for their software development partners to prove the value of J2ME by making it easy to sell old content on a new platform.

Until now, only large companies could negotiate with telcos to get their content on the carrier’s phones. The margins were razor thin and to make any money you needed to get your content on millions of phones. Supporting multiple brands of handsets was a necessity and in that context, Java was a blessing. The announced App Store is leveling the playing field. Now everyone can sell mobile apps. With 70% of the price of the software going straight to the developer, it makes sense to develop applications specifically for the iPhone.

On March 6th, Apple invited mostly large companies to show the software they were working on at the iPhone software roadmap event. However, you will see that by late June, when Apple releases version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware, most of the applications available through the App Store will come from passionate independent developers that will try to get out the most out of the device, not companies trying to obtain incremental revenue from something written years ago. In fact I predict that many large companies specialized in developing software for mobile phones will find it difficult, at least at the beginning, to compete against many of the enthusiasts who will create innovative solutions at home during their spare time.

I abandoned Java on the desktop for Objective-C years ago because Cocoa allowed me to get the most out of the Macintosh platform. The same applies to the iPhone. Objective-C is similar to Java in many ways. What makes the difference is Cocoa touch which is a great development framework and allows to get to the guts of the iPhone without compromises. That is why I personally don’t care if Sun releases a Java SDK for the iPhone or not. I am quite sure most of those 100,000 developers who have downloaded the SDK agree with me.

Apple customers prefer native apps

March 7, 2008

Picture 1.png At the 2006 WWDC I was amazed by how heavily Apple invested in their OS. New Leopard APIs such as Core Animation and Image Kit clearly demonstrated that they believed that they could differentiate from Windows and Linux PCs by offering a better user experience with desktop applications.

In 2007, despite being very close to actually shipping Leopard, much emphasis was put on Web Applications, not just for the iPhone but also for the Mac. From my point of view there were just too many sessions about JavaScript, Safari HTML features, SVG and WebKit. I really felt that Apple was dropping the ball and that they had assumed that the future was indeed in web applications.

What a difference a year makes, yesterday Steve Jobs spent well over an hour talking about XCode, Cocoa and the many benefits of native applications. It is clear that the news about the death of this kind of applications have been greatly exaggerated. Both customers and developers want to continue to use and develop native apps, at least on Apple platforms. On Windows the situation seems slightly different. The difference may lie in the fact that downloading native applications on a PC is much more dangerous than on a Mac. It could also be that a Windows PC with many applications installed soon becomes less stable. I suspect however that there is much more behind this than just security and stability concerns. The truth is that most Windows applications are just plain ugly and unintuitive. Writing such applications to run in a browser is not that hard. On the other hand, many Macintosh applications are really beautiful and a pleasure to work with. This is the result of a better GUI and higher standards. As a result, Mac users feel that Web applications aren’t nearly as good as their native counterparts.

On the Mac platform you will find some extraordinary clients for popular web applications like Twitterific (Twitter), iSale (ebay) or cocoalicious (del.icio.us). Sure, you will find similar Windows solutions but they will never look as polished and therefore people will be less inclined to use them. It is weird to realize that in the age of web applications, it is the native apps that make the Mac platform more attractive. Weird but true.

Why aren’t Vista users complaining?

March 3, 2008

Microsoft just announced that they would make Windows Vista cheaper. It is clear that Microsoft wants to spur adoption of Vista and lowering the price of a product is certainly easier and quicker than improving the product to make it more palatable.

What bothers me is that I don’t hear any existing Vista customers complaining. Compare that to the clamor that resonated through the blogosphere when Apple decided to lower the price of the iPhone. So, what is happening? It seems that despite Microsoft’s claims that Vista has seen a strong adoption, few customers have actually purchased the new OS, most Vista users are really new PC buyers who get it pre-installed. That probably explains why so few feel cheated.

However, that is not the only reason. It is clear that the expectations customers have from both companies are quite different. Microsoft customers have a business relationship with them. They understand that Steve Ballmer is running a business and wants to make a profit. Apple customers, on the other hand seem to think that they have a more personal relationship with the Cupertino based company. Many seem to believe that in exchange for buying from the underdog and heavily promoting their products among their friends they deserve to be treated almost as partners. That will have to change at some point, but right now Steve Jobs really needs the legions of Apple fans to continue growing, even if it means having to put up with the somewhat silly protests of some loud fanboys when they don’t agree with some corporate decisions.

Cosmo recommends Apple Stores to meet guys

March 1, 2008

This is amazing, it now turns out that according to Cosmopolitan Magazine (a.k.a. Cosmo), the Apple Stores are one of the best places to meet a guy. Cosmo stops short of recommending to date a geek (the picture of the guy included in the article is probably not representative of the average customer) but well, I am probably asking for too much. We all know that Cosmo readers are looking for sexy fun guys. That kind of guys isn’t always the loving, caring and faithful husbands women crave for later in life. Geeks usually are. Hey, after all, we’ve stuck to Star Trek for fourty years and to Star Wars for thirty. Being faithful is certainly not a challenge for us.

WWDC and the iPhone SDK

February 29, 2008

At MacWorld 2008, Steve Jobs made some important announcements. One of the new products he introduced was Time Capsule. Today that product finally became available, just in time to match the announced product availability date (end of February).

What is really weird for us old timer Apple followers is that in timeframe between MacWorld and the launch of Time Capsule, many new Apple products that were not announced at the expo have also be released. In fact the list is quite long and includes many major launches such as Aperture 2.0 new Mac Books and Mac Book Pros, and a new 16GB iPhone to name a few.

It is clear that Apple has decided to launch new products as they become available and not wait for events such as WWDC or MacWorld expo to announce them. This makes a lot of business sense, as conventions have become a thing of the past and increased competition does not allow for product launch delays that may give competitors an edge.

I am not really sure how this will impact WWDC though. This is a very special event that is crucial to Apple success. It is imperative for them to demonstrate year over year increased attendance and without the buzz of new product releases and no new OS version in sight, this is probably a difficult task for the organizers. That is why I am quite certain that this year crowd drawer will be the iPhone SDK. We may see some preview of the SDK next week along with some nifty demo applications at Apple’s roadmap event but it is clear that both the full SDK and the enterprise features mentioned on the invitation will not be available immediately. This meeting will probably be an opportunity for Apple to apologize for the delay while demonstrating solid progress. It will also be a great occasion to announce the dates of WWDC and generate hype for the event.