iPhone 4 mixed signals

You can't have escaped the hooha about the iPhone 4 and the antenna design / now apparent oversight of apple on every iPhone ever regarding the algorithm used to calculate RSSI (received signal strength indication). I worked in mobile phone comms until 3 years ago when I moved into doing work with tetra radios.

The way the story has been covered has been your typical bad science reporting, with this morning's BBC slot by some fellow from "click" explaining the problem.

Much as I love apple's products, the last 10 years of consumer electronics have persuaded me of one thing; resist the urge and don't be an early adopter. The iPhone 3GS I've got was around for quite a while before I got hold of it, and even then I only went for it because it finally offered the features I'd been enjoying in phones for many years. Kudos to apple for not rushing features out btw, which is one reason why this 3GS is a joy to use.

I've done a lot of apple defending in the past, but the iPhone 4 appears to have been something of a cockup. The antenna design is, I think, a good basic idea - internal antennas are a compromise and will never get as good a signal as a proper or stub antenna. Apple locating the surface of the signal receiver around the edge is a good idea, but the co-locating of the wifi antenna and the close proximity (allowing the 3G/2G antenna to ground through it) were poor design choices.

I had thought, in my admitted admiration for the polished feel of apple products, that this must have been some small software issue but now I think I know how this poor design got through. Secrecy. Pete Stewardson from work takes credit here, it didn't occur to me at all.

See, apple have to field trial phones like the rest of us. They love the slavering anticipation their product cycle produces, and hence they keep a tight lid on things; iPhone 4 was no different. So, to keep the physical design a secret, they had testers using the devices inside a case which gave the phones a 3GS "look".

This, of course, insulated the antenna from the testers' hands. And totally masked the antenna grounding issue. Woops.

What is happening now with apple suggesting that the rssi meter algorithm has "always been wrong" and that they were "astonished" to discover this, this I think is a total damage limitation exercise. If the meter had been wrong all along I simply cannot believe that 3 iterations of the iPhone would not have seen it fixed. Simple field trials would have shown it up.

Sean Cody, where are you matey and can you give me the lowdown!

I'm writing again...

Collaborations are gearing up for the summer.

I've got 4 ideas I'm working on.

Should get a mix from Aussie Rob with my rubber stringed Ashbory bassline soon.

Studio is humming nicely, automated desk is a dream.

Woohoo!

And great jazz band last night at the Wenlock Arms. Regret not seeing Blackmaninoff but there y'go...

Oh and the iPhone FB app sucks.

Good old fashioned acoustic fun.

Over the weekend, we were lucky enough to be invited to one of those impromptu BBQs that spring up amongst friends when the weather improves. Ours will be shortly I suspect.

Anyway, the occasion was firing up the Ozpig (www.ozpig.co.uk) amongst other things - this fantastic little piece of steel ingenuity is the result of Aussie outbackers converting gas bottles into portable wood burning stove/heaters. There is even. Community of OzModders, I understand, who weld further brackets and acoutrements on to utilise more of the heat.

This is by the by though. I brought the trusty Acoustic Bass with me, and had a grand old plonk well into the evening while being warmed by the pig. Some étude style pieces, a little bach, a lot of funk and some two-handed buffoonery. I must perfect the Inspector theme tune, although the full brass section middle 8 is probably a pipe dream without the MIDI driver.

A great night. My first public performance in a few months, so to speak; best compliment was the agreement that people only realised how much they enjoyed what I was playing when they detected the silence as I took a swig of beer or zhivago (Nic, of course, had a full portable kit with her - we have converted further masses to the zhivago cause).

Otherwise the warm weather is, as usual, and in an entirely predictable way, playing merry hell with any practice schedule I try to keep. But it's the best reason to spend more time on he acoustic. I just need some good backing tracks. Hmm...

Ash cloud remnants...

All that recent ash cloud goings-on and the way in which the airlines got back in the air troubled me; it seemed to me that a financial imperative put the planes back in the sky; now it seems the CAA have pointed a finger at aircraft engine manufacturers-this is from the BBC;

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines told Radio 4's The Report: "The critical path for this decision was the time it took for the manufacturers to satisfy themselves on the safe level of contamination. How long does it take for a manufacturer who has declined to determine something for many years to actually say, 'Given the evidence we've now got, we're happy to nail our colours to the mast and say that these are safe levels of contamination that don't present a hazard.' I suspect that manufacturers knew much of this, that they knew there was an acceptable level of safety but what hadn't happened is that they were prepared to underwrite that and validate it. I suspect that a lot of these things come down to a combination of commercial and safety pressures and actually there are levels of contamination which might impact on the life of the engine without impacting on its safety. But that's only a speculation on my part.... I'm just grateful that they came to the table and worked very hard to get it resolved. If we'd had the assurances from manufacturers that we have now at the start of this crisis, the response would have been different."

I see. Buried in there is a tiny little phrase

I suspect that a lot of these things come down to a combination of commercial and safety pressures and actually there are levels of contamination which might impact on the life of the engine without impacting on its safety

I stand by what I said before. I expect at least one plane to suffer from unexpected engine failure in the future due to pisspoor maintenance scheduling which didn't take this into account. The airlines were in trouble before this happened; I simply don't trust a financially driven organisation to be 100% vigilant.

Honest mistakes

I made a cracking mistake this morning; there's a hatch at the back of the boat you grab weeds from where they wrap around the propeller shaft (as part of essential maintenance). During our show-around, we were shown how to remove the retaining bar (which has two screw threaded handles which push down and keep the hatch in place) and a tip for remembering to put the bar back in-if you forget, the boat sinks.

Don't panic, this story isn't calamitous.

The tip was to place the bar across to top of the deck hatch, along the edge of the hatch's hinge edge. This means you can't try to shut the hatch without noticing the bar, at which point you slap your forehead, issue the time-honoured Homer Salute to Mistakes, and put the bar in.

Now, I had followed this to the letter, and the weed hatch cover (which comes out completely) was to the right, on deck, while I froze my hand removing weeds and checking the cotter pin.

As I moved the hatch cover to replace it, I knocked the end of the bar, which promptly fell down the weed hatch, briefly waving at the prop shaft as it headed for the bottom of the canal. Oops.

After a couple of minutes of reflection, I rang the guys hiring out the boats, and a fella with a hve magnet got the bar in less than a minute. He said he'd never had to fish out one of the retainer bars before, which surprised me !

I reflected on my mistake, and realised it was entirely honest; I was half awake but followed he instructions faithfully. The fella with the magnet said he'll make sure it gets fed back into the show-around, so I now feel quite pleased with my novel mistake as it should ensure nobody else panics (we didn't panic btw, it was all very logical).

Have you made any honest mistakes like this recently?

Success: what does it mean to you?

I had a conversation with Nic today which got me thinking, on several levels. It was about "success", and before I move on to my own musings I should give the whole thing a little context.

Nic's brother, it's fair to say, is what you might call a generation X casualty (my words!). He's pretty much opted out of interfacing with modern life, and on several counts I agree with him.

Nic worries about him a lot, which is admirable. I understand why he feels the way he does (and I am assuming I do understand, for the purposes of this piece, as we've talked at length about things in that way people do when they want to work out how to fix the world). There are personal compromises about the way society has decided to work itself out which mean if you didn't keep an eye on your path when you were younger, you find yourself in a situation you know you wouldn't have wanted if you'd thought about it back then.

I understand because I now hate desk jobs where you work in a large organisation. They're now the epitome to me of collective human worthlessness, where those who come up with great ideas and want to implement them have them squashed by accountants, middle managers and bureacracy. The tyranny of the project plan, the awful inevitability of the wash-up meeting, the liturgy of the lessons learned. All of it created by a group think so stifling no new ideas can be quickly brought to being.

This is my opinion: nic's brother has gone straight to opting out, before he ended up behind a desk. Nic believes that you just have to suck it up and put up with spending 1/3 of your time doug stuff you don't want to do so that you can do stuff you wantto do for the other 2/3, but when you pull 41 hour weeks, and add another 1.5 hours 5 days a week in the car, where is the 2/3 coming from?

Nic is right, of course. She's got the brass neck to start her own business, and opt out another, more constructive way. Those of us too timid or too entrenched (an excuse?) to do that can only look on and wonder. Or take to our beds and stop.

What do you do to stay alive? Or am I howling into the void again?

Mobile geek alert... Android's popularity amongst manufacturers could be its' undoing?

First up, in case you didn’t know, I have an iPhone. I’ve been using “smartphones” for many years, the first having been a P910i, then a P990i, both of which I kept using for more than 2 years. They weren’t bad, but the iPhone in my pocket makes them seem pretty slow and primitive, especially with regard to user interface elegance. I spent 7 years in mobile phone software testing (mainly in depth protocol stuff but I did a lot of UI testing as well).

I’ve had a fiddle with an android device and I thought it was pretty good: it was a G1, pre-recent Android 2.1 update (I think that’s what is gradually being rolled out). Smooth, slick, nice interface.

I’ve read a few things recently though, which make me think Android could have a problem…

I think there are several things about android which may result in a gradual slide away from it, and they stem from thinking about Android as a platform for “app” developers rather than as a nice open-sourced attractive operating system with good user interface characteristics.

1. Different hardware vendors produce different devices with different hardware platforms. Primarily, the issue here is screen size. If, as an app developer, you have to code for several devices with different screen sizes, it’s analogous to the awful situation web developers find themselves in trying to cope with rendering and processing differences between IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera… etc. Over time, app developers will grow tired of either having to compensate for small screens and rejigging their application interface to take advantage of larger ones, or only having their app run on one screen size and limiting their audience (and therefore their revenue – nobody’s going to keep doing this for free and produce good content).
2. Different Android handsets are on different software versions with different capabilities. Although there are a variety of methods of updating android firmware (including rather nifty over-the-air) the updates are by no means guaranteed to go out to EVERY android device – some will be on the end of a cable; some will be over the air; this proliferation of different Android versions across the handset population is corrosive to coordinated application development.
3. There’s the issue of no “central point” of Android OS software development as well: Google ain’t providing the firmware for HTC devices, Google are only looking after the overall state of Android, in the same way as Mandrake aren’t going to fix Linux issues in Ubuntu – but if core problems occur, they will find their way back into core Android eventually, but will they percolate out quickly? Another reason why an app might need to be tied to older versions of the OS to keep itself available to as many punters as possible.

There’s a spat going on between Orange customers who have their android app store view knackered by the latest updates, and apparently HTC aren’t interested, saying it’s an orange issue…

Some of this can be overcome using clever coding, and I’ve little doubt a second-tier industry will spring up to create tools to try to design UIs for a range of androids, with a range of OS versions, but it’ll still be compromising at every turn and that means the apps will miss compelling features.

Some of this is actually diplomatic – issues between companies who produce android hardware and networks. This is the really nasty one as large organisations are appalling at coordinating this kind of stuff.

But the overall picture, if it’s not reigned in damn quick, will see android descend into a pile of mush for developers – a great platform ruined by a lack of central control.

Most of the people who complain about the iPhone rant about the restrictive APIs, the lack of multi tasking, and the general feeling that it’s not “your” handset, that Apple retain control all the damn time. That’s why the iPhone keeps getting jailbroken, and there’s a community who have their own jailbroken apps store.

Good for them. But 99% of the population don’t give a shit if the iPhone is locked down, they just enjoy running apps on it, interacting with it and using it: it really isn’t an issue for them. The righteous indignation and anger of the Geek brigade is futile, even if it is justified. And in the current malware-obsessed criminal internet environment, we’re looking at moving towards always-connected mobile devices. Ask yourself, would you prefer a device with some locked-down aspects or an open-source OS with freedom for programmers? (well, Android is sort-of open source)

I decided I wanted a smartphone which wasn’t so “smart”. I’m a programmer during the day, I geek out building stuff from scratch… but I’m seeing that Apple’s approach has many benefits on many levels. Tied down APIs and a single point of delivery for OS updates and applications which is distinct and separate from the network I’m on are definite advantages if you want a popular, populist platform you can really code for and get to the widest possible audience.

Good luck Android, I think you’ll need it.

Total facebook FAIL

Wow. Not impressed this is the only way I can post anything to FB at the moment.

It seems facebook's glorious transition from interpreted PHP to cross-compiled C++ has not gone smoothly. In addition to totally screwing with the look and feel of FB again, they appear to have completely FUBARd the actual guts of the site.

Apparently the idea was to save cash and trouble reatnig ever larger server farms, by making the existing machinery work more efficiently - by running compiled code rather than PHP. They got quite a lot of kudos for this but my guess is that, as usual, not enough testing was done, and it's blown up. Very messily indeed.

Currently my iPhone will get some status updates (not all of them) - I can't log in to FB at all, or reset my password (everything is closed for "maintenance", that lowest of innuendos for "We're screwed right now, try again later")... oh dear.

As Dylan put it the other day - what's this Google Buzz business? Sounds interesting, even if it will always be in Beta, at least the bloody thing might work?

Or does all of this just feed my emerging belief that modern software systems are so huge and complex that we will either have to be connected and spend a lot of time with low-level angst and annoyance (with our Windows installation, our 27 inch iMac screen, our OS in general, OR our social networking sites) - OR - disconnect and go back to the way stuff was a few years back.

I'm getting v. close to closing the FB account for good, I suspect it wasn't doing me any good even when it was working...

Bloody snowy hell! It's like childhood out there!

I've been working from home for 2.5 days now, it's been rather productive. The valley we're in still hasn't had its' road treated, so I'm stuck. In fact, I pushed a Peugeot and a Porsche up both sides last night to rescue the poor idiots.

Today according to the met office things are supposed to get better; the sky looks bloody grey to me, with gathering darker clouds on the horizon. And it's getting colder again.

The view from the kitchen as I type:




I think we'll be walking to the supermarket and laying in a whole shitload of grub very soon. :-)

Merry Xmas to all. Especially the poor humps who abandoned their BMWs in Whitley wood and went to retrieve them only to find them minus alloys an radio. Jeez, that’s low.

Have to post a wintry pic.

I was forced to walk a mile or so today to get some milk, as our road didn't get gritted or cleared (still lethal!). On the way there I got some really picture postcard shots.




Who'd have thought anywhere near Slough could look nice?

New equipment.

Under-keyboard CAT add-in. Complete Audio Triumph.

Killing in the name of... Reality TV

There's a lot of talk about the race for Xmas no 1. I've bought my first online music by purchasing a copy of Killing in the Name Of by Rage against the Machine, as prompted by a facebook group, starte by a couple who got tired of preprocessed pap from Simon Belt-navel Cowell.

I thoroughly endorse their approach, but all the news reports I've seen on this seem to be missing the salient point with the UKs population now so tired of reality TV that they are willing, whenever possible, to subvert them through voting strategies, and now by deliberately pushing a reality TV "winner" (let's face it , long term his outlook isn't great) off the top slot.

Mr cowell's public annoyance will turn into something else a la the Jedward 180, I bet.

So buy a copy of the RATM track and be a rebel; be different; and actually recapture part of the spirit of Christmas by telling the prepackaged hypnosis-fest which is the unholy alliance of TV and music industry to "F@&£ you, I won't do what you tell me"

Breeze at the Flowing Well, Friday night

Good to see them again. Sounding awesome with new keyboard player who can get in there on bass and guitar as well. They do Queen now! And it's getting like the osmonds up there with Steve's nearest and dearest doing drums and vocal guest slots!


- Posted on the move

Last toms of the season

Yay! Before the frost sets in, look what was on the plants... And now rescued! I see lots of salsa. Mmmm!

Now, where's me fretless and the ashbory. Have a rap track to work on.


- Posted on the move

Alan Carr - chatty tw@t

I've never really seen this latest of our great British tradition of camp humourists before, but I just caught a few minutes of his show on BBC1. Bit tragic. I thought mercilessly taking the pee out of that slightly mentally fragile bint off x-factor last year who has "White horses" out on single was last years' tired character assassination based humour?

Seriously though, is this guy actually gay? Gay people are often naturally funny I reckon. The audience sound like they've been beaten around the head with applause cards. It's like listening to a giggling bath tap.

Not funny.

November. And it's tomato harvesting time, still.

Madness. But they are perhaps the hardiest tomatoes we've ever grown. They are just leaning against the house, user the deep eaves we have, and they get a fair amount of sun.

Weather looks okish this week. I reckon well still be cropping next week.



Got to love growing your own. Next year hopefully we'll get our patch up the hill working. Currenty it's all brambles!

Incidentally, anyone want to buy a green Xantia? I just got another one and I think I should at least pare it down to one.

;-)

The tyranny of push

I just turned off nearly all the email stuff facebook sends you, and turned on the SMS notify stuff, but only for messages, not wall posts, etc.

Apart from the annoyance having to look through about a million emails with one damn comment each, it was filling one of my inboxes with utter junk, making it hard to find actual messages.

Why can't facebook do a daily digest with it all in?

It's a bit academic anyway. Since I got this phone I tend to check facebook when I've got a free minute, and the support on it is great, so you soon catch up.

Anyone out here use Twitter? It sounds like a great place to meet up and discuss topics with other near-psychotic disillusioned thirtysomethings.


- Posted on the move

Output to rise

Nothing political. I have decided to take time out from playing live. All the recent stuff with stress has forced me to confront some ideas I have cast into stone, and question them properly to find out if they are as important as I think they are.

Recent advances on t'web mean I can collaborate far more easily with people, and the studio has had its' recent makeover. My inability to find time to practise and write properly within a band setting became another source of stress rather than the glorious experience it should be, so I'll be working solo and collab for now.

Hopefully this will mean more output. I hope so, this is an experiment.


- Posted on the move

The power of the web

Wow. Just got an email from the guitarist, he's already mixed down a live recording of our new track (and his studio has a bloody excellent live sound) and he's sent us out download links already.

How different is that to when I started, swapping tapes of rehersals. He's done a pro sounding recording already!

I love tech when it's useful, truly useful. That's why I'm not using windows any more. It's useful alright, but it's gone too far and has become a bewildering array of features accessible from a thousand areas (usually unintuitive ones). Top that off with vulnerability and instability and I'm finally off to unix land (prob osx).

Weird. No more windows, apart from supporting the ones left in the house.

His studio is osx now as well!


- Posted on the move

Ableton live

Wow, this feels odd compared to cubase. Very strange.

Some similarities but mostly damn odd.




Looks the part though.