Raible Designs

New Phone - BlackBerry Pearl

Yesterday I picked up a new phone - a BlackBerry Pearl. The main reason I got it is because I couldn't get my e-mail with my old phone. It seemed like I was tethered to my computer all the time when I was waiting for an important e-mail. Now I feel free. Not only does it works great as a Bluetooth Modem, but it also supports browsing the internet and all of Google's Mobile apps (GMail, Google Talk and Google Maps). Even cooler - when you add a bookmark to a page that has an RSS feed, it detects that and allows you to add a "Web Feed" or a Bookmark. When I added this site as a web feed, it prompted me for Atom Entries/Comments or RSS Entries/Comments. It also allows you to auto-synchronize with your bookmarks or feeds. In other words, it has a built in feed aggregator. With a $20 unlimited data plan from T-Mobile, I love this phone!

The BlackBerry Pearl doesn't work with iSync, but PocketMac seems to do the trick. Unfortunately, PocketMac makes you synchronize with a USB cord whereas iSync uses Bluetooth. The Missing Sync for BlackBerry may solve this problem, but with everything else being free, I don't know if it's worth shelling out $40 so I don't have to plug in.

Some of you may ask, "Why didn't you just get a smart phone with EVDO built in?" The reason I didn't do this is I had a Verizon EVDO card. We were up in Steamboat for a week in January and it absolutely sucked. I worked for 3 days while were were up there (8-12 hours per day) and it was way too slow for me. The average speeds where 120KB/sec and I can easily get those with the Bluetooth Modem on the BlackBerry. Also, I don't want a fully-functional mini-computer for a phone, I just want it for basic calling functionality and the ability to check my e-mail.

What about the iPhone? I'm sure this phone will kick ass, but the fact that it won't support J2ME means that Google's apps won't work. Of course, they'll probably create widgets that'll work on the iPhone, so that argument may be invalid in a few months. The biggest reason I don't like the idea of having an iPhone is one thing - Cingular. I had AT&T as my carrier for a couple years and their customer service was beyond awful. Whenever I would call them for help, it'd take anywhere from 15-45 minutes before I talked to anyone. Today, when I called T-Mobile to get my BlackBerry Internet service setup, they told me the wait would be 6 minutes and they'd call me back when it was my turn. I was very impressed. I hope more phone systems start using a "call me back" feature instead of the current "wait on hold for X minutes" debacle.

So I'm very happy with my new phone and anxious to use it in my travels next week. Where am I going? I signed a contract with a company out in Massachusetts to help them architect and implement a Java-based web infrastructure across all their projects. The initial scope is estimated to be 2-3 months. I'll be flying out to Boston periodically, but most of the time I'll be working from home. I had a number of very interesting full-time opportunities, but the gig I'm taking seemed to be the most interesting technically. With any luck, I'll make it to the New England JUG on Thursday night to hear Mark Fisher's talk on Message-Driven POJOs.

Update: I just found NewsGator Go! for J2ME. I use NetNewsWire on my Mac and FeedDemon on Windows, so it's great to see I can subscribe to my existing feeds on my phone. Thanks NewsGator!

Dad makes the local Montana News!

My Dad was interviewed in a Missoulian article a couple days ago:

CONDON - For years, Joe Raible and his family used a road across Plum Creek Timber Co. land to access their home in the Swan Valley.

Set about a mile from the nearest county road, the family depended on Plum Creek's generosity to access their homestead. And the company gladly obliged.

Not only did Plum Creek allow the Raibles to drive across its property, it even provided a utility easement for the family's telephone line.

Then, in about 1990, the timber company sold the property to a Florida man. Not long after that, a locked gate appeared across the road to keep the public out.

"At first he gave us a key to the gate, but then someone tore the gate down," Raible said. "He blamed us and dug a tank trap across the road right at our property line. He dumped the pile of dirt on our land and sowed the pile with logs so we couldn't just push it back in the hole."

Raible thought about suing, but changed his mind after a very direct discussion with his attorney.

"He told me that I could either put my kid through college or his kid," Raible said. "I had a friend who'd had an access issue and spent a lot of money on it. He lost."

The "Florida man" was a guy that I remember as "Jackass Burns". After using our "back road" for 20 years, he moved in and shut it down. That forced us to use the "front road" which has been a challenge ever since. My kids refer to it as the "bumpy road". Looks like lots of changes going on in good ol' Montana.

The Last Two Weeks

Ever since Virtuas shut down a couple weeks ago, I've been having a blast. Mostly, I've been working on AppFuse, but I've also been spending more time with Julie and the kids. Where I work varies from day-to-day. Some mornings, I'll head to our local Einstein's or the close by Spanky's Roadhouse. Other days, I'll work from home and let the kids harass me all day. I'll admit, there's some days that are frustrating when I'm about to solve a problem and the kids are yanking my fingers off the keyboard. However, there's others where the music is cranked, the kids are dancing in my office, and I just solved a problem that was bugging me for the last 6 hours. There's nothing like having a Woo hoo! after solving a problem you've been wrestling with all morning. It's even better when there's friends around to help you celebrate. My whooping and clapping often leads to games of "horsey", happy kids, and a worn out dad.

In AppFuse news, I finished all the web framework tutorials a couple nights ago. Since the beginning of this year, I've written over 100 pages worth of AppFuse documentation. Wednesday's "the web tutorials are done" was a huge milestone and it feels great to be done with it. We hope to release 2.0 M3 in the next few days.

Yesterday, after getting 8" snow reports from Beaver Creek two days in a row, I suggested to Julie that we "head for the hills" for a day of skiing. She agreed and we left a few hours later. We ended up at Keystone since they have cheap skiing for kids and it's one of the closest ski resorts to Denver. Leaving last night was brutal. It starting snowing around 2pm and we left town around 5:30. We quickly ended up in rush hour traffic and it took us an hour just to get out of town (to the top of Lookout Mountain). Once we hit Idaho Springs, the roads improved and by the time we got to the tunnel the roads were bare and dry.

Coming up here last night turned out to be a good idea. Denver experienced a record low of -18° F this morning. Furthermore, there were wicked winds and west-bound I-70 was closed for 9 hours this morning because a semi blew over and spilled all of its 2000 gallons of unleaded. I watched the story on the news and was quite impressed when I heard the wind was so strong it was blowing windows out of cars.

The skiing at Keystone today was bitter cold (-15 to -25 °F with wind chills), but I made it work. Hot Cider and bump runs are excellent ways to keep warm. Now we're sitting in the condo we rented and waiting for the kids to wake up so we can enjoy FAC at the local bowling alley.

Life is good.

Bandwidth Speed Issues

In the last few days, I started to notice a huge slowdown on my MacBook Pro when surfing the net. At first, it seemed to be a Firefox-hogging-a-shitload-of-memory issue. So I started using Safari instead. After a few hours of using Safari, the problem came back and pages were taking 5-6 seconds to load. I have a Cable (Comcast) modem, so I didn't suspect any bandwidth issues.

Last night, I got tired of waiting and decided to do some further investigation. I started off by running several bandwidth speed tests. All of them reported similar statistics: download speeds of under 300K/sec. I called Comcast, they ran some tests and determined that there were no package loss issues between my modem and their facilities.

Since I moved my modem downstairs last year, I tried moving it upstairs. Same result. I tried plugging it directly into my desktop and voila! - 3MB/sec. I have 2 NetGear routers setup (one for each laptop since my MacBook Pro's wireless abilities suck) and it seems like they are the source of the problem. Do routers go bad like this?

I'm considering buying an Airport Extreme to solve all my Mac-related wireless issues. Unfortunately, it only has 3 ethernet ports and I'd prefer a lot more.

Abbie can ski all by herself!

We've had a great ski season so far. I think I've skied more this year than the last 2 years combined. The best part is after a few days in Steamboat for Christmas and another long weekend, Abbie can ski all by herself! I'll admit, she did have a 1/2 day lesson, but I don't think she learned much there. Most of her learning occurred with Julie on the bunny slope. "Pizza" and "French Fries" where the encouraging words of the day.

By the time we left last week, Abbie was able to do the Magic Carpet runs all by herself. For those that don't know, the Magic Carpet is a flat escalator that hauls kids up the mountain. It's smaller than a bunny slope, but challenging for those that've never skied before. Jack is unlikely to ski by himself this year, but he's doing a lot better than the first time I took him. He'll actually stand on his own now instead of doing the "wet noodle" thing when I touch him. Click on the pictures below to see Abbie tearing up the bunny slope.

Abbie and Julie were going to head up to Keystone for some skiing today, but it's dumping right now and they didn't feel like dealing with the nasty roads and traffic. With my new found freedom, I hope to get some good powder days in before I start my next gig.

Let's Go DU!

While I'm a big fan of DU Hockey, I don't know many players names and I rarely know their exact ranking. That all changed when I found the Let's Go DU blog a couple weeks ago.

Last night, I had a great sports-infested evening. A couple of friends and I started by watching DU shutting out the Gophers (the #1 team in the nation) at Braun's in downtown Denver. From there, we went to the Nuggets game and watched them walk all over Labron and the Cavaliers.

There's another DU game at 4:30 today and some excellent football tomorrow. Seems like a good way to get through a cold Denver weekend.

Here it comes!

For the fourth Friday in a row, there's a snow storm hitting Denver. This time, we're up in Steamboat (for Family Snow Festival weekend) and it looks like we might be positioned perfectly:

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING is posted in northwest Colorado, including areas such as Meeker and Craig until 6 a.m. Saturday. Those areas can expect 10 to 20 inches of snow. ... In addition, a SNOW ADVISORY is in place for the area near Steamboat Springs. They should expect 4 to 8 inches of snow there.

Looking out the window, there doesn't appear to be any new snow yet. Here's hoping for some champagne powder this weekend!

Chief Beer Officer

Four Points' Chief Beer Officer has to be one of the best jobs ever created.

Who says drinking beer won't get you anywhere? For those passionate for pilsners or crazy for crafts, your favorite pastime could earn you a fancy new title and a seat at the Board Room Table. In celebration of the simple pleasure of a perfectly poured glass of beer and the launch of its Best Brews program, Four Points by Sheraton hotels today officially kicked-off its Chief Beer Officer (CBO) executive search and began making room in the executive suite for its newest chief.

In the words of Homer Simpson: "Mmmmm... beer".

Congrats to the Boise State Broncos

Back in December, some co-workers and I traveled to Boise for a client engagement. The day we arrived was close to the same day they announced the Boise State Broncos were going to be in the Fiesta Bowl. In a relatively small town like Boise, this was big news. Everyone talked about it, and so did we. In fact, one day, we even ventured to the campus to see the infamous Blue Field. No one was around, and we actually got to walk on the field and marvel at its blueness. I asked many cab drivers that week if the Denver Broncos or the Boise State Broncos were first, but no one knew. It intrigued me because the teams share the same name, colors and mascot. One of them has to be copying the other.

Last night, I watched the Fiesta Bowl between Boise State and Oklahoma. It was one of the best football games I've ever seen. The multiple comebacks (from both teams), the trick plays and good ol' American Underdog Story made for a helluva game. If you like football and you missed it - you shouldn't have.

Welcome to 2007

Happy New Year everyone! 2007 should be a great year: Julie and I will pass 7 years of marriage, Jack will turn 3 and Abbie will become a 5 year old. In addition to being happy and getting healthier, I hope to learn a lot this year. AppFuse 2.0 will be released, and I hope to develop applications with Grails, GWT, Rails, Seam, Stripes and Wicket. Yeah, it's ambitious - but these frameworks are supposed to be easy to learn, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

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