How iOS and Android manage multitasking and memory use

Recently, I read two posts, which were written two years apart but both thoroughly explained some fascinating concepts.

One is written by Fraser Speirs on how iOS manages multitasking, aimed at busting the myth of multitasking bar. The other is written by Remias Mate on how Android manages background processes, aimed at explaining how his app works. Although they had different purposes, they each gave a very detailed, easy-to-understand explanation on how each OS handles multitasking and memory usage.

In general, if you are an Android fan, next time you can laugh at your iOS counterpart on how iOS doesn't do "real" multitasking, and how you can determine which apps to run. If you are an iOS fan, you can surely enjoy your care-free style and let your Android friends know how you trust Steve Jobs (RIP) & Co, and not to mention all the battery life you are getting from that small battery of yours.

Root Verizon Galaxy Nexus using Mac

Got me a Galaxy Nexus (FINALLY!!) the day it comes out (Dec 15th). Naturally the first thing I do is to unlock the bootloader, since all Nexus devices have similar unlocking procedure. Now I want root to use Titanium Backup to transfer all my apps without using data, although I grandfatered in my unlimited data, and where I live just got 4G coverage.

With a little look around, unsurprisingly my idols, Koush and Pete Alfonso are ahead of the curve and gave out instructions and nicely packaged files to use.

I figure I can go into more details so a wider audience can root their phone and enjoy the fight against evil :)

I also only have a Mac, so that's the instruction I am going to give. My Mac is 10.5 (Leopard), so I am expecting you to have a better one :)

A little concept and step summary (optional)

1. Unlock bootloader
A bootloader is a piece of software that loads other essential software for a phone to successfully start up. It loads all kinds of firmwares, recovery, and of course the OS (Android). A locked bootloader only loads things with a verified "signature", i.e. preinstalled ones made by Google/Samsung/Verizon. We need to unlock it to boot whatever we want, such as things below.

2. Flash a custom recovery
With a unlocked bootloader, we can now flash/install a custom recovery software, such as SPRecovery and Clockwork. Recovery enables you to install software directly on your phone without loading the OS. These software can include, but not limited to, super user application (give you root privilege on your OS), and custom ROMs/Android builds. With this custom recovery, we can start install whatever we want, more to follow.

3. Install super user or custom ROM
Now we can install everything, so if you want to use stock ROM but elevate your privilege to root, install super user application. If you want to use a custom ROM (with different themes and features etc), you just need to install that ROM, but make sure it gives you root privileges, although I can hardly imagine anybody made a non-root custom ROM.

Now the how (all commends are in bold):

1. Unlock bootloader (WARNING: this will wipe all your settings and data, so back up)

• Download Android SDK from here (this provides utility tools to unlock your bootloader)
• Unzip the SDK to a desired location. For the purpose of an easy instruction, name the unzipped folder "android-sdk" and put it in your home directory (i.e. /User/YOUR_USER_NAME/)
• Download fastboot for mac from here (this is a utility tool not included in SDK, but uses utility tools provided by SDK. We will use this to perform many necessary operations.)
• Move fastboot-mac file to android-sdk/platform-tools folder
• Open "Terminal" app under Applications -> Utilities
• Type vi ~/.bash_profile (this edit your hidden bash_profile file. I use vi, and you can surely use other text editor, such as nano)
• Press i to start editing, and add following two lines to the end of the file (add these two path to your PATH variable will make all utilities in these two directory, including fastboot-mac, accessible everywhere
• export PATH=${PATH}:~/android-sdk/tools
• export PATH=${PATH}:~/android-sdk/platform-tools
• Press esc to finish editing, and type :wq to save and quit
• Command + Q to quit your Terminal and restart it again (to load the new PATH variable we just added)
• Shut down your phone
• Press volumn up and volumn down at the same time, and while holding those two keys, press the power button until an Android with its front panel open cartoon shows up (now you entered the fastboot mode, as indicated in the red text at the lower left corner. You can see in that text block that it says your phone is currently locked)
• Connect your phone to your Mac using the USB cable
• Type fastboot-mac oem unlock
• Select "Yes" on the following screen, and it will start unlocking. Should be fairly quick. Then you are back to the Android cartoon, and now it should say unlocked in the text. You are done.

2. Flash a custom recovery

• Download Clockwork recovery here (the only one I can find, and thank Koush for the quick post)
• For the sake of this tutorial, put this .img file to your home directory
• In Terminal, type fastboot-mac flash recovery ~/recovery-clockwork-5.5.0.4-toro.img (install this recovery mode onto your phone)
• Now you have the custom recovery, and choose 3 OR 4 to root your phone

3. Root your stock OS

• Download super user here (this will give you root privilege)
• For the sake of this tutorial, put this zip file to your home directory
• In Terminal, type adb push ~/su.zip /sdcard/ (copy su.zip to your phone)
• Once the process is done, disconnect the cable, and at the fastboot mode, press volumn down key until the "Start" at the top of the screen becomes "Recovery Mode". Press power button to enter recovery mode
• Use volumn up and down buttons to highlight install .zip file and use power button to select. Find the su.zip file on your phone, and select it to install
• Once this is done, restart your phone, and now you have root. To verify, see if you have Superuser app installed. If you do, success.

4. Install a rooted ROM

• Peter Alfonso quickly packed a rooted stock ROM for us to download here (ICL53F is the latest) 
• Rename the file to update.zip and put it to your home directory (again, for the sake of this tutorial)
• In Terminal, type adb push ~/update.zip /sdcard/
• Turn off the phone and then go into fastboot mode (vol up and down and power)
• Press volumn down key until the "Start" at the top of the screen becomes "Recovery Mode". Press power button to enter recovery mode
• Use volumn up and down button to choose install update.zip from sdcard, and once it's done, reboot your phone use the option provided by the recovery.
• Now you have root. To verify, see if you have Superuser app installed. If you do, success.

A little trouble shooting:

1. Can't mount sdcard
When I tried to install zip file from sdcard using the recovery, it gives . I restarted the phone, it stayed on the booting animation screen for a few mins, and I am not sure whether it restarted itself, or due to the fact that I was holding the power button for a while, but the second boot was successful, and I could use my phone. Then I restarted the phone and entered fastboot mode, chose recovery mode, and then chose to install .zip again in the hope that it could somehow work the second time. And low and behold, it did work. So somehow the recovery mode didn't recognize my phone's /sdcard/ partition at first, but eventually did the second time around.

Easter Eggs

It is not news now. The barrel roll of Google provided so much amusement to so many people in a very short time. Suddenly all the "Easter Eggs" planted by miserable yet creative, humorous web developers are trending now. Tilted Google, YouTube snake, Lego pegman, reverse mini cooper etc etc.

With this fun spirit, I decided to do a little Easter Egg of my own. I am obviously too afraid to do it on my project at work (or am I? ;)), so I decided to have a little fun with my blog.

So, officially now, there is an Easter Egg hidden in this blog!

The angel had to go back home

The world had been so lucky to have such a visionary, who didn't compromise on perfection. So inspiring, so creative, so charming.

As it turns out, he is not a man. He doesn't belong to this world. Our lease expired. The heaven wants him back now. The whole world is left in awe. We are using the technology started by him, perfected by him or popularized by him to spread our disbelief on his departure

Steve, if you can hear us, we are so thankful for your time here. We understand it is time for you to go home, and we are happy for you. Now, we just wait. Wait for your second coming.

Love,

Is a spinoff of iPhone coming soon?

As all rumors indicate, there will be two iPhones coming out this fall, one fancy for high-end users, one cheap for teenagers, and most Chinese.

Coincidentally, I watched a rerun of Shark Tank a few days ago, and one person was rejected pretty much because she wants to expand to low-end market while Sharks think she should stay high-end. Sharks made a lot of sense. If you are profiting beautifully from high-end market, why shrink your profit margin to go for low-end? Think LV, Hermes, PRADA etc etc (I have been shopping with my girl way too much...)

However, intuitively, it always seems to be a good idea to extend your market to the widest audience. The average profit margin may be low, but the total amount of profit is surely up.

The problem is that making your product available to general public would hurt your high end market, since people wouldn't pay as much for luxury if the same luxury name can be acquired with a much lower price (I don't think people who buy luxury care about the quality difference between 2-year lifespan and 5-year lifespan. I don't even think they can keep those stuff that long). People are competitive, but people don't want to brag and look like b&$%#. Therefore, people want their "better" stuff to be noticed in the most obvious way, brand name. Whether a product is made of the best cloth material on earth or just cotton, as long as it is not obvious to general public, i.e. friends, it is not worth the extra 200% money spent.

People in car industry had the right idea, spin-offs. Everybody feels it is worth the money to spend much more than they should for a Luxus / Lincoln / Acura / Cadillac, but not for a Toyota / Ford / Honda / Chevrolet. As a result, everyone is happy. Rich people distinguished themselves by spending tons more for a different logo, rich people's average Joe friends settled with good quality bargains, and the company squeezed every last penny from everyone.

Other industries have similar things as well, MiuMiu and PRADA, Marc and Marc Jacobs, dENiZEN and Levi's (Levi's IS high-end in China), etc etc (again, been shopping with my girl too much).

When I watched that Shark Tank, I was wondering why nobody proposed the idea of dividing the company. It might be because Sharks only focus on make small businesses take off rather than consider long-term strategies, or it might be because Sharks won't say that to a person who is obviously not interested in others' opinion.

In the case of Apple, however, I believe it is very possible that either 1) all high-end iPhones in the future are going to look radically different from low-end ones, or 2) there will be a name spin-off for all entry-level iPhones, so Apple can perform the old trick of price discrimination to maximize total profit. Apple is big enough to go after markets with smaller profit margins, and Apple is famous enough as well.

I don't think the price of a phone will go up by much, since people have a certain budget for things they are very certain will be changed in two years (people change purses more frequent than that, but a purse *looks like* can be used forever). However, the cost of producing a phone will be reduced while the price won't. Hence, the entry-level iPhones can go ahead and compete in the price war, while the high-end ones stay on top.

Maybe I should start a rumor about Apple like everyone else... mmm...

Take full advantage of the current situation

People complain about their current situation. Big deal. However, when you constantly hear people talk about how they miss being a kid, miss being in (Chinese hard-core) high school, it becomes irritating.

Two possibilities: 1) their lives do suck more as grown-ups than being in a high school with incredible amount of course workload. 2) They simply only see what they don't have as adults but did have in high school, and not see the other side.

If 1), well, karma is a bitch. You enjoyed too much in high school, college, you suck at real life. Blame yourself. Sure, go ahead and blame your parents too.

If 2), which I believe is a more common case, I feel it is important to switch perspective and realize how people would envy your current situation.

Back to the first scenario, people want to go back to high school times, and feel high school kids don't realize how easy it is to be in high school.

Feeling mature? think again. Back in high school, (Chinese) students are forced to obey / listen to parents, teachers. Kids have minimum liberty, make up lies after lies just to go out with a "person of interest". Privacy and relationships are almost impossible, if not immoral. Then it is all those course works that you do without pay. It is difficult to make fully aware adults to learn new things just because new things *could be* good for the future, let alone high school kids.

Of course, vice versa. Adults need to take more responsibilities etc etc (whiners talked a lot of that, and high schoolers never really say adults get it easier)

Everyone knows long distance relationship sucks. However, instead of complaining about it and telling couples that they don't realize how fortunate they are, people who are in long distance relationship should really take advantage of the situation (of course, if they really want this relationship to work. Otherwise, just break up already).

There are a lot of good things about being in a long distance relationship. Having a stable relationship requires no need to constantly improve the dating game, or make strategies etc etc. There is no need to pretend to be somebody else. Caring each other to maintain this relationship is definitely easier. There is no need to go back home right after work for family and kids. Hitting the gym while nobody is there is absolutely a great perk. Enjoy the maximum utility to improve health and shape. There is also the extra free time, which could be quite beneficial if used on reading, learning and career-related things.

Without a doubt, I'd love to give up a healthy body and shape and even some career security for being together with my other half, so we can travel, go outside, do stuff, or just cuddle. However, since the long distance is a given, why not try to fully utilize all the advantages of this situation rather than envying others? Why not make others envy your healthy body and shape and career security? Otherwise, you would have nothing regardless what situation you are in.

Stop saying how high schoolers don't realize how fortunate they are, and start thinking how fortunate you are to be at where you are. Take full advantage of the current situation, especially when it is a given. Otherwise, you are no different from people who just blame the unchangeable for their own failure.

Chromebook, continued

Find one thing I miss a lot about my MacBook pro: the easiness to create a PDF out of ... well, anything, especially a web page.

A very good tool (chrome extension) I found is iWeb2x, which reads the current URL and makes a pdf out of it.

There is a deadly and unfortunately unchangeable imperfection to this approach. It cannot handle log-in sessions. For example, if you want to save your Facebook front page, iWeb2x will load that URL (http://www.facebook.com) itself without any log-in info, i.e. session cookies, so you will just get the log in page of Facebook.

Solution: if you need to make a pdf out of a private webpage (one that you can only see after logging in), save the webpage use Ctrl + S to your inferior file system, and go to http://pdfcrowd.com/#convert_by_upload to upload the html file you just saved.

However, pdfcrowd adds a (rather insignificant) logo watermark at the corner. Additionally, Chromebook doesn't save the "entire webpage", which means many images "might be" lost during the save (strangely not losing all images, which could be good news).

I tried many other websites, and although many of them don't add watermarks or even allow you to add your own watermarks, they either require you to give an email address to send the resulting file to or give you a zip file, which Chromebook doesn't handle very well, or just does a poor job in converting (probably because those sites have a poor html parsing tool).

pdfcrowd also makes an extension, called "Save as PDF", which works very much like iWeb2x, and as the website, it adds a small logo watermark at the corner.

If you wants to upload the PDF directly to Google Docs, use "Send to Google Docs". This extension works the same way as the other two, and in fact, it actually uses pdfcrowd's service to create the PDF, and then just directly sends the result to Google Docs. Of course, it also has the pdfcrowd watermark.

Speaking of all the files Chromebook doesn't play, I decide to keep a list of video and audio format that I managed to play on my Chromebook, and of course those that don't.

Working video format:
- Some .mp4 (yes, some .mp4 files don't work...)
- Some .mov

Non-working video format:
- .avi
- .wmv

Working audio format:
- .mp3

Non-working audio format:
- .aac (rumor)
- .wma (rumor)

All lists are continuously updated, of course.

Cheers!

Update July/10/2011
If you are a heavy keyboard user, i.e. use key shortcuts more than mouse click, you may see the Ctrl + Alt + / combo tip I talked about here.

If you use a Mac, you know how bad it is to go from "command" key to "ctrl" key due to their different locations. Well, sad no more! Settings -> System -> Language -> Modifier Keys.

When I first saw this, I was confused why would somebody wants to press "ctrl" to have "alt"'s behaviors. Now I know. "Alt" is in the same position as "Command" in a Mac keyboard, and by altering the behavior, Mac users wouldn't get frustrated when switching between Chromebooks and MacBook. Genius!

Update Oct/21/2011
Finally got my butt around and rooted my chromebook.

Took quite a few tries, but the result of integrating two articles leads to success.

First one: http://goo.gl/f9JFS < this one would be sufficient, unless you are a Mac user, which I am. If using Mac to burn the recovery image to USB, then you need to reference the second link for completing Step one in this link

Second: http://www.google.com/support/chromeos/bin/answer.py?answer=183098 < Only the step 2 in this link is useful

Also, I used a 2GB USB, and it was sufficient, so...

A brief review (and perhaps tricks) of Chromebook (not Cr-48)

My chromebook finally got here right before the 4th of July weekend (about time!) Like a 16-year old boy seeing his girlfriend naked for the first time, I pretty much jumped on it right away. The only difference is, my play time lasted the entire weekend :)

Enough with the useless, let me just get right into it.

It is very much what you would expect from a "cloud terminal". Fast, clean, right to the point, because there isn't much else. A few things I find very useful.

1. Key shortcuts
The best thing about Chromebook is, you only need to remember one combo: Ctrl + Alt + /

This gives you all the key shortcuts on a map. Yes, a map. A virtual keyboard shows up, and as you press Ctrl, Alt, Shift or any combo of these three, the virtual keyboard highlights all keys associated with them (and of course description of what those shortcuts do).

2. Move files
This may sound insane, but as a terminal to the cloud, the last thing Google wants to do is to encourage you to use the file system. Therefore, it is a little different to manage files stored on your chromebook from what you are used to do.

As the key shortcut map can tell you, press Ctrl + m brings you to the file manager, but this manager only allows you to rename, delete, upload (if applicable) and view (a very limited set of file types).

Therefore, if you want to move files between folders or simply get files from a external storage, such as an USB drive, you need to open a new tab and put the following in the omnibox (URL bar / address bar)

- Move files from external storage:
file:///media

- Move files within Chromebook (File Shelf)
file:///home/chronos/user/Downloads/

In there, it is the good ol' tree / directory view of your file system. You just need to navigate to the file of interest and right click. Ta-da!

3. Some geeky stuff
If you really feel like it, you can of course check out the task manager (Shift + Esc), and test features ("About Chrome OS" -> "More Info" -> Change "Channel" to Beta or Dev -> put "about:flags" in omnibox) at your own risk.


I will add more tricks in the future (if there are some essential ones left to be known)

Now it's the review part.

Compare to laptops:

- Pros
a. Incredibly energy efficient. One charge lasts me all day (that's what sh...)
b. Incredibly fast on start-up and shutdown, <= 8 secs and <= 4 secs, respectively.
c. Internet-optimized keyboard (one button press for back, forward, refresh, full screen, switch windows, brightness, and volume http://goo.gl/5m71i)
d. Light weight (both literally and technically)
e. SD card slot
f. Apps are updated automatically on "the cloud", so no more pop-ups for updates
g. Files are stored on "the cloud", so you don't need to worry about losing files when you dropped chromebook in a keg, and you can access all of them anywhere there is an internet connection and a (modern) browser (yeah, I am talking to you, IE6)

- Cons
a. Although threats are everywhere, cloud is still more dangerous than your hard-drive, so no sensitive content (unless you feel very adventurous and trusting)
b. It is almost (not entirely) useless when there is no internet, because there is no native apps you can run, and only few offline apps (nice work, Scratchpad and Angry Birds)
c. Can't do any technical work, such as professional video / photo editing, coding etc.
d. Not much layout customization (Firefox is doing a much better job on this)
e. The extension and app store needs some improvement (selection wise)

Compare to tablets:

- Pros
a. The screen and keyboard are separate, so you don't need to angle your hands to make your head more comfortable
b. Full keyboard, so you don't need to cramp your hands and give up the most efficient way to type
c. Full internet (not tablet web browser, but full web browser, and support Adobe Flash, unlike some)
d. SD card slot, two USB port, and one video output (WITH cable)

- Cons
a. Similar to the comparison with laptops, no native apps (but most native apps on tablets require internet connection too, and often times features they provide can be done through web apps as well. The lack of these apps makes the whole web experience quicker and smoother as well)
b. Heavier (about 1~2 pounds heavier)
c. Not many games, which is part of the no native / offline apps issue (I am personally not a big gamer, so, not a big deal for me)
d. Similar to the comparison with laptops, the file system cannot do much locally, and the most painful thing is decompression. I tried wobzip but never really made it working.

In general, after three straight days, I find myself surprisingly comfortable with living on the cloud. I did need to adjust and give myself an orientation at first, but now I feel completely comfortable to migrate my entertainment and casual life to the cloud and enjoy all the pros I stated above. That is when I realize how little I do on my MacBook Pro besides opening up a browser. Even among those few things, I realize how little I cannot do or am not willing to do on the cloud.

Bottom line: If you often don't have internet connection where you want to use a portable device (laptop / tablet), don't consider chromebooks. Otherwise, it could be a very good fit for you. You may be surprised to find how boring all portable devices are without internet (remember not wanting to take your laptop out from your bag in the airport with expensive wifi and long layover?).

Happy 4th of July!

iPad, the new Louis Vuitton

This title sounds a little odd, doesn't it? Well, this idea suddenly hit me while I was driving home the other day. I was impatiently waiting for an update on my Chromebook order from Amazon, and thinking about all the terrible things that can happen to this order.

One thing that occurred to me was they would ask me whether a white one would be good (I ordered the black Titan Silver one), if I want it now rather than a month later. I felt grossed out by this idea alone, a white Chromebook? Ewww... I would never want that, and I would rather not use a Chromebook at all.

Wait a second, aren't they both Chromebooks? Same specs, same OS, and the only difference is the color? I would rather have none than the white one? And I call myself a practical person?

I suddenly realize why I want Chromebook at the first place. Sure, the whole living on the cloud thing is cool and all. I got one despite of all those security concerns because I want to be seen with it! I like the idea of trying out new stuff that I think is the future (without "too much" sacrifice to my personal security and privacy).

Then I realize why there are so many tablets out there that have so much more to offer than an iPad (more free apps, better hardwares, comparable OS, comparable types of apps, to name a few), but nobody is even close to catching up iPad, not even the sum of them. In fact, 97% of the tablet web traffic came from the iPad, and web browsing is actually more complete on Android devices, since the whole Adobe Flash thing.

People want to be seen with an iPad, not just a tablet, THE iPad.

When you have an iPad, it is not about what it can do, or not even what you can do with it. It is about the willingness of taking it out from your backpack during that 30 mins layover in Atlanta.

It is like Louis Vuitton. It may provide the same (or less) set of features or functionality or beauty as competitors, but people want to be seen with LV rather than some ... well, bag (btw, for once, the Chinese beat-up version actually came out first, in fact, decades earlier than the luxury).

Some may say they are completely different, because LV is a luxurious brand of handbags, while iPad is some technologically advanced, yet affordable device. They cost different, they are in different categories, and they will surely have different future.

Well, if you think carefully, both products probably have the same lifespan in your household (a new one every two three years), and their eventual costs are probably similar (don't forget about all those songs and apps you spent money on because of this magical device). As many of you may already know, it is almost impossible to buy a finite set of apps and be good with them. There are always new games, new productivity tools, and new fads (farts, vuvuzela, colorful flashlights), let alone all the endless possibilities brought by future advance in hardware. Therefore, even if you can transfer all apps from old iPad to new iPad, you will still buy apps at a very similar rate. There is no doubt about it.

LV is also not going out anytime soon either. As long as it keeps being selective, (and of course, not making absolutely terrible ideas too often), it will still be every girl's dream, and as a result, guys will pay anything for it, even if those bags are sometimes not really within some guys' financial means.

All in all, iPad is the Louis Vuitton for guys, and the second Louis Vuitton for girls. Android devices, you already one-upped iPad in technology, now step your cool game up! Otherwise, you will always be the right choice, which will only be made by geeks. You know, there aren't so many of us.

Gaddafi not stepping down is our fault

First of all, I wanna say, it is spelled Gaddafi, or al-Gaddafi in English, and al-Qaḏḏāfī in Arabic. Not Gadhafi, Qadhafi, Gaddhafi, Qaddhafi or even Kadhafi, like many blogger, journalists alike think

Nonetheless, he is a pain in the rear end without a question. Members of UN Security Council have unanimously decided that. While Gaddafi refuses to back down, we may have to ask one question: is his personality (being a jackass) the determining factor for this persistence, or we are partially to blame?

Let's step into Gaddafi's shoes for a second (assuming he is a sane person, i.e., do things that are good for him). He obviously has two choices, fight till the end, or surrender to protesters/"justice".

The breakdown:
1. Fight!
a. Protesters are scared, and supporters prevail - I enjoy my lavish life till death do us apart, and possibly find some more Ukraine nurses. Win!
b. I lose all my supports, and surrounded by protesters - Commit suicide or eat hundreds of bullets. Die.

2. Surrender
Now this gets interesting. My good ol' friend Mubarak just did that. Let's see how he is hangin'. Mmm... It doesn't look so bad. He doesn't seem to be killed or executed. Not like he got beaten up by thousands of pissed Egyptians.

Wait a sec, let's see what is on the news. Foreign assets are frozen, traveling is banned, and family funds are seized etc etc. How is that better than being dead with a few Ukraine nurses in my arms, especially after enjoying an extravagant life?

Alright then, I am winning either way if I fight till the end. I shall do the worst then!
- the end -

The way we deal with Mubarak while trying to convince Gaddafi to do the same is absolutely retarded. It only makes the whole Gaddafi situation worse. Mubarak stepped down because he didn't know how he would be treated, and he had that last bit of naive thought in the bottom of his mind. For Gaddafi though, we pretty much let him know that he is better off to keep fighting us. You can't just heavily guard Mubarak without actually doing anything for now? Just to give Gaddafi some illusion is too hard?

Well, whom can I blame, those people surely have never heard about the history of Chu-Han contention, and how the difference between Liu Bang and Xiao Yu's approaches of treating surrenders lead to the huge difference in how easy it was to seize cities in later battles.

Backing up my thoughts on Nobel Peace Prize

Not long ago, I freely expressed my thoughts on the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize result here. Something I left without any further discussion was the unknown impacts of cultural differences on freedom of speech revolution. It is way too deep to discuss.

However, it is not way too theoretical to observe in reality. Germany, a country widely accepted by most "righteous" nations in the world, refuses the possibility of coexistence, a theory widely accepted by most "righteous" nations in the world.

This fact doesn't give us any theory or law, but it says it is absolutely wrong to think one ideal can work in all cultures, in all geographic locations, and in all people.

Android, a tradeoff between open and secure

Android has been developers' heaven due to its openness. It is so easy to use your imagination to develop something without worrying about whether somebody else has already built it on Android. An app with the most common features (notepads, I wonder why ;) can be published to the market as the developer wishes. Obviously, this also creates a problem, a malicious / offensive app can be available for download as well.

Not surprisingly, Google has prepared for that, and we have already heard about Google's ability to remove an app from your phone remotely, and all you have is a nice little notification to tell you it has happened. Google will also *try* to refund the money as well, not too shabby.

As I was reading about how Google does it, I came across two blog posts by Jon Oberheide. One investigates how Google removes it, and the other one describes how potentially unsafe it is.

If you really feel geeky today, you can find these two posts here and here

Essentially, if you dial *#*#8255#*#* from your Android phone, you will open GTalkService monitor. You phone keeps a connection with Google's GTalkService, and "heartbeats" are periodically sent to this service's server. In addition to many important information, you can check out the entree at the end of the monitor log. If you installed or removed apps from your phone in the past 12 hours, you can see INSTALL_ASSET / REMOVE_ASSET entries at the end. It shows how many apps are installed on / removed from your phone in the past 12 hours. These two types of messages correspond to some functions implemented in vending APK. Google can use the connection established by GTalkService to push down either INSTALL or REMOVE intent to *organize* your app collection.

Wait, if Google can do it, anybody who can forge an intent message also can do it. Apparently Google uses SSL to ensure the secure communication. However, we have long known SSL is not the foul-proof security solution (won't it be nice if it is?), and as it turns out, Google is not using their private key to digitally sign each intent message. Therefore, theoretically, if the SSL channel is compromised, all the Android phones can be unwillingly installed with malicious attackers' apps.

Granted, signing each intent message using the private key is costly, and Google probably has a very good way to keep its SSL channels safe and sound. Still, only benefits from SSL for its confidentiality not integrity is quite an irresponsible thing.

God Bless Google for the sake of every Android user out there.

Thoughts after Nobel Peace Prize 2010

Well, well, well. I thought I would never come back to this topic again after arguing with my WASP friends in the first two years of college, but here I am, sharing my little thought on China' human right issue.

I am a pro-U.S., pro-freedom person myself, and that is why I am here working in the U.S. and going after the so-called "American Dream". I HATE the dictatorship taking place in my motherland, ranging from the government, companies, to virtually anywhere in between. It is absolutely not a place for innovation, not a place for hoping rewarded after working hard, and not a place to know the truth.

It is why the whole world, led by the U.S., urges the system to change. It is why a Chinese criminal won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The inevitable consequences of the Nobel Peace Prize is to encourage more and more people to fight for human rights, and that is what this organization wants to achieve. Good intention, but radically, it is to encourage Chinese people to start revolution, either a peaceful one or violent one, to start things over again, because let's face it, the current ruling party in China is too stable and too powerful to be willing to give away that power.

What does this mean? This means at least a whole generation is sacrificed for something we don't know whether we want. People say we are brain washed and then stop listening to us right here, or have that pre-assumption in their mind and ignore us with a smile. Well, what if I say, hey, we need to stop driving cars, eating steak, wearing cotton clothes, cutting power cores for about 10 - 20 years, and start over with cleaner energy and less aggressive demand, so our kids or grandchildren will have a MUCH better life.

Would anyone listen to me? No. Why? People are happy with where they are, and although everyone consciously knows what is better, hardly anybody is going to sacrifice for the possible better outcome for the kids. Civil rights succeeded, because the way most under-privileged people live at that time was no better than dying for a better future. Even that, not many people stood up for their rights. It is always those countable few who we commemorate for. RIP, Dr. MLK Jr., and Ms. Rosa Parks. Even after all those changes, can anybody say the U.S. is a country with racial equality? Can anyone say they didn't see any side effects of these changes? Can anyone say no other innocent people's benefits are sacrificed as a result? We are already the generation, which is supposed to see only the benefits. We are not listening to the generation, which sacrificed their own well being for all these anymore.

Back to China, people are way more satisfied and happy with their lives than those under-privileged people before the Civil Rights Movement, regardless if they live in urban, suburban or rural regions. Would multi-party system bring less political games and more specific beneficial policies? Would more human rights make them financially better off and happy in 5 to 10 years? Would the path to human rights take less than 5 to 10 years? If the answer is "no" or "maybe" for ANY question, it is not good enough for people to change.

What people know is, currently the economy is booming, lives are getting better, hopes are full and goals are clear. Life is good, isn't it? Granted, without enough human rights, more specifically, freedom of speech, (let's face it, every Chinese still has the right to live, has the right to own private property and has the right to feel safe and sound, among others), people will become the victim of political trades unnoticed. For example, people will be forced out of their home to make way for new development, although they are usually financially compensated for the "inconvenience", and people may die in an illegal coal mine, and all these may not see the news. Bad guys may not be punished or blamed. Wait, Ponzi Scheme does the same thing to people, right? Sure, people like Madoff get life sentence, and become celebrities in prison. Do victims get back what they lost? No.Will there be no more Ponzi Schemes in the future? No.

Eventually, people become victims for various reasons (I am not judging anything here, sorry), but the difference is, some of them get sympathy because their stories see the news, and some don't. Bad things will keep happening, and people lives will keep being irreversibly destroyed. Possibly only 1% people will be victimized in a "free" country, while 5% people will be victimized in a not so free country (numbers are purely fictional). That means nothing to regular people. What would? Between 99.99% and 100%, or between 0% and 0.01%.

By the way, I haven't said anything about culture yet. European countries and the U.S. are using different systems, and even among European countries, the system is different. Nuf' said. It is too difficult to say which one is the most suitable for China, or something completely unheard of, or just staying the same. This is too big and deep a topic and I am not going to discuss it here.

So, no guarantee for less political game more beneficial / encouraging policies, no guarantee for more happiness / financial well-being, no guarantee for not being irreversibly victimized, no guarantee for the length of revolution, and only guarantee for chaos. How is that better than keeping the current situation, where lives are *usually* full of hope, clear goal and most importantly, satisfaction?

I am not trying to agree with self-claimed artists, hippies, and other who can look through practicality and consider spiritual / ideological victory more important than anything else. Are you?

Surely, I can't say any of these in China if the government doesn't want me to. However, I won't need to, because most people share a similar view, so I don't need to spend all these time on arguing with friends for our ideological differences, but rather, we can spend time together on pirating DVDs for an enormous profit.

Nobel Peace Prize? You are just trying to encourage people to subvert when they don't necessarily want to.

More on luck

Successful people tell you it's luck, because they are 1) being polite and/or 2) trying to convince you your efforts will be a lost cause. Failures tell you it's luck, simply because of self-esteem. Try your best and be the best you can.

Feeling Unlucky? Attitude is everything

Finally somebody else agrees with my opinion on luck. As a self-declared atheist, I should be the last one to be blessed, but I feel blessed all the time. Yes, I do pray when I feel powerless and have no control over a thing, although I don't know to whom I pray, but I never stop preparing for backup plans or simply undertaking the worst scenario.

Enough about me, read the article, and you will know what I believe, and what I think happened to me. I just want to add that grasp every *could-be* opportunity, although it may just seem like nothing promising or useful at the beginning. As long as you can take the worst that could happen, try it out, because you never know which one could eventually becomes your big break

Google Instant Search - Simplicity Guaranteed

Today, Google finally brings out the highly anticipated big gun, instant search. This morning I was playing with the color changing doodle and read about how people think Google is making it clear that real time searching is the *future* direction. Not long after lunch when I wanted to know more about "Minnie the Moocher" (great song), I found out the future is here. Man, Google is fast...

Tried a few things here and there. Quite impressive, although I am still adjusting to the ever changing page, a little overwhelming. As I am trying to figure out the advantage of doing so, I can't help but recall a conversation I had with my ex-coworkers/friends when this came out. We had a fierce argument on whether the Google Search button and I'm Feeling Lucky button should stay there.

Besides the possibility of being overly minimalism, the point gets the most attention is whether there are relatively significant amount of people don't know you can hit Enter/Return to submit a form, in this case, to start a search. Finally, this argument is officially dead, and now let's get rid of the "excessive" buttons! (unless you turn instant search off, of course. By the way, I do love how easy it is to change settings for instant search and SafeSearch now)

Without a doubt, instant search is by far the best showcase for AJAX. More subtly, it makes "uncertain search" (much) easier. As a typical Gen Y'er, I have an incredibly short attention span, and am very purpose/result-driven. I hardly go to the second page of Google search results, and always want to find the best keywords combination and order so I can fill my need with as few search as possible. That's why when the suggestion came out, I wasn't sure whether I had been drinking or not.

Now? When I type in two misspelled words, I don't need to select one and hit Enter, and then type those two words (possibly still misspelled) again and hit Enter again. If I want to compare what I see and what I saw from last search results, I don't need to choose the first suggestion again. With a move of the arrow keys, I can keep changing between results returned by each suggestion, and instead of glancing through the whole first page for what I want before I change query, I can just look at the first three or five results for each search to convince myself which suggestion is more useful, and at which I should take a better look.

More efficient? Possibly. Reduce my attention span even further? Definitely.

Thank you Google. Where is the Google TV, by the way?

Facebook Places vs. Foursquare

After seeing Foursquare's success, Facebook decides to use Microsoft model, and create its own version of Foursquare to compete with Foursquare, and possibly knock out Foursquare eventually.

Never a big fan of Facebook (the idea of "self promoting and being a narcissism" conflicts with the teaching I thrived on as a child), never used Foursquare (always disqualify it before use it, because the description of Foursquare makes me feel if I don't have enough friends using it, it would be useless to me, like Google Latitude).

I do have a fair sense of what each does, and I am not trying to compare and declare a winner here. I just want to discuss about the issue brought up by this article.

As the conclusion of the article, the author implies Facebook clearly has the edge, due to its existing loyal following. Foursquare seems to be in trouble, and a nice descent innovator seems to undergo elimination due to inability to compete with legal "idea counterfeit" (again). Or is it?

First of all, is Foursquare truly threatened by Facebook Places?

"Maybe" is the best answer I can give, but I do think "not necessarily". Who are going to use this kind of service? Smartphone users. What does it mean for these people to use Foursquare? Click on Foursquare icon (wait for load) and start publishing to Twitter and Facebook friends. What does it mean for these people to use Facebook Places? Click on Facebook icon (wait for load) and click on Places icon (wait for load) and start publishing to Facebook friends (not sure whether Twitter friends can see them, although there is a good chance these two groups have a good size overlap).

This means, one more click and one more waiting time (for a generation with extremely short attention span), and possibly publishing to a smaller group of friends. The edge starts looking a little blurry. The practical example? On Android phones, Google separates features like Places and Latitude into separate apps. Pageonce creates a stand-alone app just for travel info, which was under its Assistance app's itinerary category originally. Twitter is not much different from Facebook status, besides the follow option.

Apparently, Facebook can also disintegrate its Places from Facebook, but not until then, Foursquare doesn't seem to be in trouble. (oh one more thing, Foursquare apparently support more platforms, and that is a big plus at this state).

Therefore, Facebook's path to consume Foursqure seems to be quite clear, make Facebook Places a one-click event, and support more platforms. Then what could Foursquare do to keep the competitive advantage?

That would be my second question.

The best feature-overlap but yet coexisting example is probably Twitter and Facebook. Twitter shifts its niche a little bit to create this "forever" living ground. What Foursquare could do? Simple options include 1) keep innovating and leave Facebook always one-step behind, 2) merge with a larger company, which has a significant user-base, like Google, and 3) make everything more intuitive. manageable and fun than the counterpart in Facebook Places.

For number 1), it is to imitate Twitter's "follow". Find something Facebook cannot do (possibly due to complication it brings to Facebook;s existing framework), or keep providing better and more features. Out-compete Facebook this way is to take advantage on Facebook's inability to focus on this one product.

For number 2), whatever.

For number 3), this is to imitate Apple's way to knock out Microsoft, in products like... pretty much everything. It is like saying "you want to out-compete me by imitating me with a larger resource? well, try harder". Better design, better user experience, making commonly used features more accessible, and possibly encouraging plug-ins. Maybe incorporating a scavenger hunt feature based on friends' rating or other users' rating on places in a town could be a nice start.

Anyway, either business's success is none of my business, and I just like to see better features as a result of competition.

China overtakes Japan as the 2nd largest economy... in the 2nd Quarter

Saw this news today. First impression, Mao's wish finally comes true. 超英赶美，终于实现了，但是ironically, when we are in the position of 赶美，我们超的居然是日... 一个理论上被我们用了八年时间千万人民鲜血而“击败”的国家。Not sure whether I should be proud for the great achievement, which arrives about four decades behind Mao's schedule.

Jokes aside, I am proud of the global image of my homeland nowadays, and it is enhanced everyday. 3rd world brothers are depending on us, and 1st world countries feel threatened by us. Nice. However, the present situation is far from an achievement.

Most of the money comes from export. What does that mean? Low domestic demand, which implies low income. Low income means cheap labor, the product most investors are interested in. That will promote more export. Wait a sec. Do I see a loop? More and more export will make the number look better and better, and to keep this number, we have to keep income low, which will keep domestic demand low.

What if we finally decide to pay more to workers? Investors shift to SE Asia, and other 3rd world brothers. By that time, will we be able to pull up enough domestic demand to maintain the same employment level? Will our own brands expand enough to use other countries' cheap labors to benefit our own citizens' well being? Or we have to go back to the self-sustained economy, like in the good ol' Qing Dynasty?

What if we decide to keep the investors interested? 我的同胞们将继续在国内水深火热，even in big cities, like my hometown Beijing, people are spending the money equivalent to their salary in 60 years to buy the right to live in a small 3-bed 1-bath apartment for 70 years. Saving for retirement? Employed people need to live with their parents so they can eat and wear like a Gen Y'er. We are surviving only because our parents sacrificed their life style throughout their lives, and we are all only-child's. It is too disturbing to think what is going to happen when Gen Y'ers have no one's saving to eat up, but instead, have not one, but possibly two kids to raise.

People in small towns? Still fantasizing about the elite status they thought colleges would offer.

While everyone is intimidated, surprised or enlightened by Communism China's fast development and great achievement, I feel the seemingly successful path needs to undergo some desperate and hysterical change to keep being successful. Otherwise, it could only be good in numbers, but not people's lives. Even for option 1, the promising land doesn't seem so promising.

Dictatorship brings us GDP growth and competitiveness by dictating foreign currency, exchange rate, and foreign investments, but it also brings us the weird "lifestyle for GDP" scheme.

Good night, and good luck