Category Archives: WiFi

Nouvelle application Île Sans Fil pour Android

Sorry for the French post. Montreal folks will know what this is about and go straight to the QR code :) Remember this is very beta and not officially approved by ISF.

Ce matin Claude Chasse nous apprends sur le groupe LinkedIn d’Android Montréal qu’une nouvelle application pour localiser les points d’accès d’Île Sans Fil est disponible pour tester.

Direct link: ilesansfil.apk

Attention cette application est encore en développement – le but est de reccueillir des commentaires.

Je suggère fortement d’envoyer vos commentaires sur le Google Group d’Android Montreal.

Voici quelques captures d’écran pour vous mettre l’eau à la bouche :)

Mes premiers commentaires:

  • L’intégration Google Maps serait complète si on pouvait aller directement à “Directions” pour un point d’accès, appeler l’endroit, visiter son site web
  • Une section “Favoris” serait intéressante
  • On voit les point d’accès “down” ! Excellent pour éviter un déplacement
  • L’ajout de l’option “my location” dans les paramètres manque
  • Bonne intégration du blog d’ISF

Rogers Canada: how NOT to sell Android

I love Android (the platform, as a colleague put it).

But I hate my cellphone provider, Rogers Canada. I hope that’s clear. Rogers CANADA.

Being a community, people-oriented person, free software activist and open source enthusiast, and on top of that a full time technical trainer and support analyst, last summer when I heard that Rogers Canada would be the first company to sell & support the mighty HTC Dream (known as G1 to T-Mobile customers), I decided I would trust them. In fact I got my HTC Dream the day it came out, on June 2nd. If Google trusted Rogers with their first Android deployment in Canada, I would be OK. Big mistake!

I’ve posted before that Rogers Canada sucks. I’ve thought about documenting my own problems, but it’s getting easier to just gather other similar experiences Android customers have at Rogers:

That’s right, there is a whole blog dedicated to document and share all the mistakes Rogers Canada has made and all the problems they have caused.

When I saw that I started my own Identi.ca group: RogersSucks (or !rs)

As I write this I am waiting for a replacement HTC Magic which was promised once, order “lost”, promotion postponed, then secretly available again, then finally ordered on Sunday. I know, it’s Wednesday and we’re only a province away, but the phone hasn’t even shipped. Nevermind it’s only a slightly less outdated phone, I am waiting again to get the Rogers Canada Android Revolution.

Rogers Canada thinks it’s good business practice to suspend data service in order to force customers into upgrading to a firmware that basically locks down my phone. Why is it important it’s unlocked and rootable ? Because otherwise it’s very much useless, or should I say even less useful than a regular cell phone. At least regular cell phones behave well with BT headsets, don’t crash or reboot spontaneously, and don’t lag for >30 seconds when going from one application to the other. Among other things. It used to be possible to use Cyanogen Mod and other custom firmwares to make these phones somewhat usable. Not anymore.

How did Google let this happen ? I have no clue.

A lot of similar mistakes can be made by any company selling devices based on free, open-source software (and yes I know Android devices don’t come with 100% free software). I secretly hope some anonymous person inside such companies learns something from Rogers Canada mistakes. This is truly an example on how NOT to launch and service such a product.

Meanwhile I am gathering details on my own problems and getting all my services with Rogers cancelled without penalty for breach of contract. If that doesn’t happen, small claims court in Quebec should help, and I’ll document this in true free, open fashion so I can help as many people as I can do the same: vote with their money. I am angry such a great platform got such a bad start in Canada.

I guess the Revolution is not going to be available in Canada for some time.

How Rogers Ruined My HTC Dream

Geeks for Haiti

My weekend is starting, perhaps as it is for many geeks in NorthAmerica out there.

Those of you wondering how to help Haiti relief efforts with your knowledge and time (or money) can take a look at the following projects:

Remember there are many ways you can help in the above projects & efforts, without necessarily limiting that to money or physical presence.

Wiki cleanup, documentation, translation, or even just advertising any of the above projects in your social networks may go a long way.

Have a nice weekend!

Become a router port forwarding guru in 5 minutes

If you’ve ever helped someone over the phone change any router configuration, you know it’s a bit of a challenge to guide anyone through the mazes of menus and options each different router has just to enable port forwarding for any given application.

Fear not, you can now become your local neighborhood router guru, just bookmarkhttp://www.portforward.com and have it handy when someone requests you mighty knowledge. If you feel like letting anyone else in to this carefully guarded secret, do so at your own risk :)

Thanks for the tip, David!

Joining the Nokia N810 maemo device program

A few weeks ago I applied to the Nokia N810 maemo device program, as I’ ve become more and more interested in mobile devices. I thought my profile would fit their description of candidates fit for the program.

My close friends know a thing or two about my obsession with mobility (and, consequently, VoIP). I often have enough in my backpack to set up shop (or office) most anywhere and colleagues often come to me with unusual requests for adapters, connectors or accessories that I locate quickly among my desktop chaos. Unless you have lots of free time you don’t want my advice on the subject (including what kind of backpack best carries it all).

Last week I got an email announcing I had been accepted in the program, which means I’ll be able to buy a (discounted) device! Living in Montreal will no doubt help as we have a large free wireless network provided by Ile sans Fil.

My application basically proposed to work and contribute in the following areas, from a non-developer, end-user point of view:

  • Making the N810 work flawlessly with Ubuntu: syncing, access to data, etc.
  • Look for language support problems
  • Abuse the device’s VoIP and video capabilities
  • Obsessively use and abuse Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora content
  • Share the device with colleagues & friends and collect input about all the above
  • Report bugs, document and review this device on my blog based on all the above

I was clear in my application I won’ t be doing any dev work, and I have never contributed to the maemo project before, so I am happy I got accepeted and hope I will make the best of it.

OpenMoko phone now shipping, new web site launched

As previously announced, the open phone has started shipping its developer preview model. OpenMoko has also become a division of FIC, their OEM provider, who restructured their mobile division so it became OpenMoko, a commercial entity by itself.

From Wikipedia:

OpenMoko is a project to create a smartphone platform using free software. It uses the Linux kernel, together with a graphical user environment built using the X.Org Server and the Matchbox window manager. The OpenEmbedded build framework and ipkg package system are used to create and maintain software packages.

OpenMoko was announced in 2006 by founders First International Computer (FIC). The initial hardware product supporting OpenMoko is the FIC GSM Neo1973 device.

A few links to get you started:

Party 5

Ubuntu QC invite à un petit 5 à 9 bien informel pour se rencontrer, discuter et surtout comme prétexte pour partager une bonne bière, ou autre ce jeudi 19 avril, à l’occasion de la sortie officielle de la prochaine version d’Ubuntu Linux.

Quand: Jeudi 19 Avril, 17h à 21h
Où:Bar St-Sulpice 3ème étage, 1680, rue Saint-Denis Montréal, QC H2X 3K6 – Téléphone: (514) 844-9458

Le St-Sulpice est un point d’accès Île-sans-fil, quel heureux hasard ;)

Plusieurs employés du centre global de soutien technique de Canonical à Montréal (dont moi même) seront de la partie, nous offrirons des CD ou DVD de Feisty et des autocollants à ceux qui en voudront. Je veux préciser aussi que ce n’est pas une présence “corpo” officielle, d’ailleurs je vais devoir prendre congé (communautaire) pour y être.

7 bugs d’Ubuntu que j’aimerais voir dispara

Voici une liste de bugs qui me fatiguent beaucoup lors de mon utilisation quotidienne d’Ubuntu. Je crois que quand on devient un utilisateur à temps plein (ou presque) de Gnu/Linux et d’une distribution quelconque, on finit par remarquer de plus en plus ces petits détails qui rendent l’expérience plus difficile. Certains de ces bugs affectent d’autres distributions ou des logiciels libres qui sont aussi disponibles sous Windows et Mac aussi. Voici mon palmarès, sans ordre particulier. Continue reading →

A new angle in advocacy ?

I recently came across this post where Democarcy Player people announce they have a new page on MySpace. The new page in itslef is not what caught my attention but the fact that they clearly state this is intended to provide them with “a new outreach angle“. So perhaps they are not MySpace super fans, but hey, MySpace is a community they want to invite over. Continue reading →

Atelier: Économiser et augmenter sa productivité avec les technologies libres

Après plusieurs mois de préparation, je suis heureux de présenter l’atelier “Économiser et augmenter sa productivité avec les technologies libres” aux entrepreneurs membres du SAJE Montréal Métro. Le coût de l’atelier qui dure 3h et qui aura lieu mardi le 13 juin est de 20 $ pour les non-membres du SAJE, autrement c’est gratuit. Pour vous y inscrire c’est par ici. Continue reading →