So technically yesterday was my first with the new phone, but it was late in the evening and I decided instead of try and formulate a review I would just get it setup and then use it for a day.

The phone is a dream! The 1GHz processor screams, and makes light work of heavy graphics and surfing. I am unfortunately stuck in an Edge network (Panama City, Florida) and so things are quite as snappy as they could be if I were back in SLC. All that aside things happen much faster still than they did with my old G1.

The Super AMOLED screen is dynamite! This is the best display I have ever seen on a phone (still haven’t seen a Retina display). The images are crisp and the colors are deep and rich. It is truly an amazing screen.

The internal memory is a big treat too. I have currently 14GB free with 1.4GB free on the external memory card. This is quite welcome as I was able to move all things from my phone over and keep going as if I never moved.

Running Android 2.1 is nice, but I had that on my G1, so nothing new there. I have seen and heard rumors that 2.2 is coming for the Galaxy phones, but we will have to wait and see. Rooting the phone was a cinch and I won’t look back. I can’t wait to find a good mod for the phone (hopefully Cyanogenmod).

The best thing I can report about the phone is the work that Samsung put into battery life. Android phones have been notorious battery monsters. The G1 on a good day would go 5 hours without a charge. These days are gone, and I brought proof. Today I charged my phone to 100% capacity, then I took the phone off the charger for the whole day. With the exception of 1 reboot (which fubbed the numbers to be shorter) here are the results:

As you can see from the screen shot I went over 11 hours and 27 minutes off the plug. This is just amazing! It wasn’t until the last hour or so that I noticed any real problems, like the camera not allowing pictures with such low battery.

The biggest draw back I have seen in the phone is that some features are turned off when on the phone or doing various tasks. For example you can’t take a picture while talking on the phone… I don’t know why.

The 5MP camera is nice, and quick to respond, would be nice to see a large MP but that is ok too.

Overall I think the Vibrant is a clear winner in the best Android phone category. Good work Samsung and kudos to Tmobile for picking it up.

I was looking through the No Starch Press catalog today to see what books Utahcon.com will be reviewing in the near future and there are so many I am excited for. In case I don’t get to them all I wanted to give No Starch a little love and post the books I think look exciting!

Network Flow Analysis

You know that servers have log files and performance measuring tools and that traditional network devices have LEDs that blink when a port does something. You may have tools that tell you how busy an interface is, but mostly a network device is a black box. Network Flow Analysis opens that black box, demonstrating how to use industry-standard software and your existing hardware to assess, analyze, and debug your network.

Unlike packet sniffers that require you to reproduce network problems in order to analyze them, flow analysis lets you turn back time as you analyze your network. You’ll learn how to use open source software to build a flow-based network awareness system and how to use network analysis and auditing to address problems and improve network reliability. You’ll also learn how to use a flow analysis system; collect flow records; view, filter, and report flows; present flow records graphically; and use flow records to proactively improve your network.Network Flow Analysis will show you how to:

• Identify network, server, router, and firewall problems before they become critical
• Find defective and misconfigured software
• Quickly find virus-spewing machines, even if they’re on a different continent
• Determine whether your problem stems from the network or a server
• Automatically graph the most useful data

And much more. Stop asking your users to reproduce problems. Network Flow Analysis gives you the tools and real-world examples you need to effectively analyze your network flow data. Now you can determine what the network problem is long before your customers report it, and you can make that silly phone stop ringing.

Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, 4th Edition

The Ubuntu Linux distribution makes Linux easy, and Ubuntu for Non-Geeks makes it even easier. Full of tips, tricks, and helpful pointers, this pain-free guide is perfect for those interested in—but nervous about—switching to the Linux operating system.

This revised and expanded fourth edition is packed with new material that covers all the latest features of Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx. It includes five new chapters that take you step-by-step through common tasks like installing and playing games, accessing your favorite social networks, troubleshooting common hardware and software problems, connecting with the Ubuntu community, interacting with your Windows installation, and more.

By following along with the book’s straightforward explanations and step-by-step projects, you’ll learn how to:

• Install Ubuntu and keep it updated
• Set up printers, scanners, USB flash drives, and other hardware
• Install and play free games like Frets on Fire, Frozen Bubble, and Warzone 2100
• Watch DVDs, listen to music, and sync your iPod, iPhone, or other mobile devices
• Edit and share digital photos and videos
• Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
• Customize the look and feel of your system
• Work with the command line (or avoid it altogether!)

If you’re looking for a pain-free way to learn Linux, Ubuntu for Non-Geeks is just what you need to get started.

Watch Cliffy B and some friends demo GoW3 at E3:

If that doesn’t sell you on the experience and get your pumped for April 2011… I just don’t know what will.

Matthew Weier O’Phinney has posted about the State of Zend Framework 2.0:

The past few months have kept myself and my team quite busy, as we’ve turned our attentions from maintenance of the Zend Framework 1.X series to Zend Framework 2.0. I’ve been fielding questions regularly about ZF2 lately, and felt it was time to talk about the roadmap for ZF2, what we’ve done so far, and how the community can help.

He goes on to talk about the processes being taken to get Zf2.0 the exemplar of PHP 5.3 and to add namespaces to the project. He talks about his team, the road map and the struggles they have already expereienced:

After completing this process, my entire team — all three of us — started the work of migrating the code to namespaces. Ralph wrote a tool that scanned the library and created a map file of existing classes and suggested namespace/classname combinations. We then used this tool as a launching point for the migration, each of us working on a component at a time. This work was by no means automated — we discovered very quickly that such a tool only took care of the most cursory work. I detailed some of our findings a couple months back; we ran into a number of issues we never anticipated, and the progress has been far from speedy. At this point, however, we have migrated everything but theZend_Service classes, the MVC, and those components that build on top of the MVC (Application, Navigation, Form, etc.).

Finally he shares details about getting ZF2.0 available through Git and Github, and what the community can do to help:

A number of contributors are also starting to discuss rewrites and refactoring of components. Much of this is being done on the zf-contributors mailing list, and some on the #zftalk.dev channel on Freenode. If you are interested in contributing, I highly recommend subscribing to the list and dropping into the channel when you can.

You can read the post in it’s entirety at  http://weierophinney.net

Go get it now! That is all.

All I want is my Nexus One, that’s it!

So here is the story. Google brought out this really kick butt new phone, the Nexus One; the thing is amazing sweet! I want it, so I start talking with Liz and finally convince her it is time to upgrade phones, maybe even plans.

Thursday April 8th

We are Tmobile customers already. Our contracts are over. We are free players in the cellphone world. So we head down to the local Tmobile Retail Store and look at phones. I am well aware that the Nexus One can only be purchased from Google, and that you have to have an individual rate plan to purchase the phone at a discount.

So I tell the guy at the retail store, and I am assured time and time again that I will be able to do all this and so we go ahead and purchase the phone for Liz, and break the plan to individual plans so I can go home and purchase a Nexus One. The purchase of Liz’ phone is all that happened that evening. We were told there was a system error, no one seems to know why, and that it would take 24 hours to fix it. Assuming 24 hrs is a short time to wait we went home happy with Liz’ new phone.

Friday April 9th

24 hrs later I have waited, heard nothing, so I call Tmobile customer care to find out what is going on. They inform me there is still an error in the system when trying to switch the plans and that it will take up to 72 hours to fix the problem. I am high on a cloud for my Nexus, so I can wait another weekend.

Monday April 12th

72 hours have passed, I call Tmobile. The news is the same, there is an error and they will put in a 72 hour ticket. I should be able to get my Nexus One by Thursday.

Thursday April 15th

72 hours have passed, I call Tmobile. Again the news that the error is happening, no one seems to know what is going on. I am told that I will get a phone call within 2 hrs and all will be fine and I can have my Nexus One.

No one ever called.

Friday April 16th

24hrs after the last call with Tmobile I call back, and demand an answer. I will admit the young lady who tried to help this time really seemed to try. She offered a alternate route of switching from my grandfathered family plan to a new family plan, and then to break the lines into individual plans. No dice, but a worthy effort.

The young lady then begins to break my heart, my Nexus One may have to wait up to a month, because a trouble ticket can take up to a FULL BILLING CYCLE to be resolved… what?!

The Red Rises

Sitting here before you, I am livid! I don’t know how to control myself, except to say Tmobile had better fix this, they had better fix is now, or I will be a happy Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T customer by the end of the month. I will return the Moto Cliq my wife just bought and I will take my contracts elsewhere.

This is absolutely ridiculous! To tell a customer that they can’t change their plan, they can’t get a new phone, they can’t even change the rate plan to a higher plan is insane! To lie to a customer not once, twice or three times but four or more in absolutely absurd! To think that Tmobile has a good service record (and to be fair they did in my mind until this week).

Figure It Out, NOW!

I am sure there are no Tmobile goons reading this blog, because I have low readership, but I hope the world gets to them before my fists do. I am out for blood (or a Nexus One).

Today I stumbled across a great site showcasing what may be a dead or certainly dying art. Letter Heady has preserved tons of famous (and not so famous) letter heads from days past.

There is letter head from Van Halen, Madonna, Elvis, Tennessee Williams, Hugh Hefner, Charles Chaplin and more.

It’s amazing how just seeing these true works of art, I just want to write a letter.

As seen on the UTOS Blog

Geek Lunch

Hey folks, this month’s Geek Lunch is in cooperation with the folks from PodCampSLC!  You should register for PodCampSLC, but if you just want to come to Geek Lunch, it’s open to anyone! 

NOTE: PodCampSLC attendees will be at the South Jordan location only

Here’s the Details

Meet at the nearest location to you at 12:00pm on Friday, March 26, 2010.  If you have never been, look for the group with this logo at their table.  Geek Lunch is organized by the Utah Open Source Foundation, but you must pay for your meal.  We look forward to seeing all of you there.

Date: Friday,February 26, 2010
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Salt Lake County

Weber / Davis / Utah Counties

Geeks unite! What a couple of weeks we have coming up, and things are going to be awesome! Here are some events I will be attending and I hope to see you all there!

Ignite Salt Lake

March 4th will mark the 4th Ignite event in Salt Lake City, at the State Room (21+). The event opens at 6:00PM.

As is tradition with Ignite there will be a building activity to start things off, this time the construction materials include twisty ties and 5,000 little green army men, that sounds like fun

Following the build they are going to have two session of 9 talks each, each talk lasting only 5 minutes.

The pace is fast and the talks sound interesting this go round:

• James Young – You sunk my Battleship!
• Jason Vance – 15 things to remember when dating in a post Apocalyptic Zombie Environment
• Matthias Shapiro & Jason Alderman – Mobile App Dev RAP BATTLE (this should be awesome!)
• DJ Waldo – Dude
• Kellen McAffee – How to tell your friends that you’ve seen a sasquatch

The event is free, and really fun. I encourage all (over 21) to attend this event, you will not be sorry.

Hostlers Model Train Festival

March 5th through the 7th will be the dates for the Hostlers Festival where over 8000 people will come to see the finest in model train setups.

The Hostlers were formed in 1988 and by 2004 had over 180 members! They specialize in all scale modeling, and love to spread the joy of model trains to all.

The event is $5 at the Union Station in Ogden. Hours are posted at http://www.hostlers.info/

Last year they had some really impressive setups and some excellent vendors. This show is a great one for taking the little ones too, they will love all the working models.

Also take time to go through the Utah State Railroad Museum while you are there.

Wired’s Game Life reported that 28 percent of Facebook gamers have paid real money for in game content.

Think about this for just a minute:

Fact: There are 400 Million Facebook users.

Let’s guess that only 10% of those users ( and I am sure the # is MUCH higher ) play these games on Facebook. That is 40 Million people.

28% of that group is 11,200,000 people.

That means if just $1 was spent by each person the Social Media game is an $11M/yr business. Not a huge number but let’s keep speculating.

I looked through a bunch of the games my wife plays online. The average ticket item is $3. That brings the tally to $33M/yr.

Let’s guess that my 10% of users is low, let’s guess 20%, now we are talking about $67M.

Anymore questions why there are “free” games on Facebook?