Facebook for Android

So.. Facebook and Google have finally released a Facebook application for Android. For this review, I’m testing on the following:


T-Mobile G1 (on the T-Mobile USA network in Atlanta, so full 3G)
OS: Android 1.6
It’s a very basic application, much more so than the Facebook application for Blackberry (which I used through several iterations, owning a Blackberry Pearl 8100, Blackberry Curve 8320, Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220, and using a Blackberry 8800 from work). It doesn’t let you see your Facebook inbox for one, but let’s hope Facebook (well, the Google engineer that is working at Facebook for this application) gets around to adding that feature soon. However, it is very quick at posting messages and loading your news feed (the page you see), and it does let you upload photos and videos (very well integrated with Android) and comment/like on posts. It even has a home screen widget that has a textfield for updating your status and showing recent status updates.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe

So I rented Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe from Gamefly the other day. While the game is a good game, its not a great game, due to way to many drawbacks:

  • Like all superhero-based video games, not all of the superhero’s powers are available to you. For instance, all of the flying superheros can’t fly, and some superheros have been seriously neutered, like Green Lantern.
  • The story is kinda weak, the concept is an interesting, but not well executed well upon.
  • During Story Mode, you cannot do Fatalities or the DC equivalent, Heroic Brutalities.

Weird error in DB2

So yeah.. while working on some new build automation stuff here at work (EyeWonder), I discovered an interesting error in IBM DB2 (IBM Data Client 9.5.0):

1. If you are attempting to create a database remotely using the DB2 command line processor, the DB2 client crashes.

If you get this issue, install the fixpack 3b for 9.5 on the client (not the server!) and the problem goes away. It’s a bug in the DB2 command line processor.

Macs suck: file paths

I am starting on a new series I call “Macs suck”. Case in point: file paths.
OS X is a UNIX system (BSD in fact). Paths are thus in the form /directory/subdirectory/file. But OS X presents paths in a convulated form: Drive/directory/subdirectory/file. Notice the problem? Programs which expect form A, when given a path in form B, get totally confused since that path isn’t valid!

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AT&T Messenger 5.0 review

AT&T released their new AT&T Messenger 5.0 IM client (http://www.att.net/messenger), based on the former BellSouth Messenger client acquired from the AT&T purchase of BellSouth almost a year ago.
AT&T Messenger is probably one of the few branded IM clients provided by an Internet provider and only available to their Internet customers. It’s currently only available to AT&T FastAccess DSL and AT&T WorldNet customer. There’s no expected date for AT&T Yahoo! customers to have access to the client. However, AT&T Messenger is based on Jabber, so you can IM all of your friends on Gmail, Livejournal, etc.. just by adding them. They can add you via your bellsouth.net or att.net email address.
Another great feature: multi-protocol compatibility. You can add your Windows Live Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger accounts and chat with your friends on those networks. While you can’t recieve files, etc.. from those users, the 3 special features of AT&T Messenger are available to you with them, such as file sharing, photo sharing, and webcam.
AT&T provides 3 really cool features with their client:

  1. AT&T File Sharing: Send a file to a user on AT&T, or any other protocol it supports, and it’ll send the user a download link to the file
  2. AT&T Folder Sharing, similar to Windows Live’s product
  3. AT&T Photo Sharing lets you share photos with ease, manage them locally and send users a link over IM
  4. AT&T Video Sharing lets you watch each other’s webcam, even if the other user doesn’t have AT&T Messenger

Overall, their IM product is not bad, even if it can use a better UI. It’s functional and fairly bug free. Kudos to the AT&T Messenger team, and if you have Jabber, hit me up at jhaygood86@bellsouth.net