Ok, so according to this article, the NSA has obtained a warrantless wiretap on all Verizon customers, with no known time limit.  In other words, that call that I got from my wife this morning, the NSA now knows when she called, how long the call lasted; and even more frightening, due to the metadata all carriers append to their call records, WHERE both me and my wife were at the time.  I don’t know about you, but that scares the bajeebies out of me!

Think about it for a moment.  If you’re on Verizon, the NSA knows where you are, every time you make a phone call.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve done anything wrong, they’re watching you anyway.  Law enforcement agencies nowadays like to say “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”  That’s bullcrap!  My family hasn’t done anything wrong, but I STILL don’t want someone coming into my house to watch me take a shower!  At what point does it stop helping us catch bad guys, and start becoming creepy?  I’d say…about frickin’ now!

Look, I know law enforcement has a hard job.  They look for ways to make it easier to catch bad guys.  But look, it’s not SUPPOSED to be easy.  It’s SUPPOSED to be difficult.  Because anything easier means it’s easier to put away someone you just don’t like, or don’t agree with.  Sure, YOU wouldn’t do that, but how about the guy down the line?  Can you say for certain he won’t?  Politicians notoriously take the short-term path.  Do you actually trust a politician not to throw you in jail because you did something he didn’t like, like maybe let a dog chew up his gardenia?  How many people can truly say they trust the federal government?  And yet, we let them do something like this?

Sometimes I wonder about us.

Now, I was never a Novell engineer or anything, but we had several clients that had Novell servers, so I got to mess with them on a regular basis.  For those who don’t know or remember Novell, it was an awesome file and print server back when Microsoft was still struggling with the whole “network” thing.  There were a few file and print sharing systems at the time, including Novell, Banyan Vines, and Windows NT.  The difference between them was that NT was a bootable OS, while Novell and Banyan ran on top of DOS.  This had the advantage that if something happened to the network server’s partition, you could still boot into DOS and run recovery tools.

Of the three systems, I liked Novell the best.  Granted, I came into it late (’98), but I still was working on Novell 3.12, 4.11, NT 3.51, and NT 4 systems.  We did have one customer that had a Banyan system, but I only worked on it a couple of times…and that was more than enough for me!  NT systems usually couldn’t stay up for more than a week or two before it needed to be rebooted.  In fact, at the time, Microsoft recommended a reboot at least once a week.  Not to mention it would freeze a lot.  Granted, quite a bit of that instability was from the poor quality windows software, but a lot of it was still due to the OS.

On the other hand, it was nothing for me to go to a Novell server, and see an uptime of months.  I believe the longest uptime I saw on a Novell server was 1.5 years.  Compare THAT to a Windows system!  Now, you can get IBM mini systems like the System36, or AS400 systems with uptime in the years easily, but Novell was a system that was being deployed on commodity hardware, was relatively inexpensive, and in some not-necessarily prime locations (like a hot garage).  For the price, you couldn’t beat the stability, and security of a Novell system.  And not once did I hear of a Novell virus.  Not once.  You could drop a virus onto a Novell volume from another station, but it wouldn’t affect the Novell system itself.

Unfortunately, Novell fell to the M$ juggernaut.  It didn’t seem that way at first.  In the early-to-mid 90’s, it was a tie between Novell and Unix systems on servers.  NT came a distant third.  Novell did everything NT did…but better.  File and printer sharing and file security was much more robust on a Novell system.  Novell even had a comprehensive network directory system (called Netware Directory Services) when Active Directory was flailing.  But as Windows 2000 started gaining ground, it was obvious that Novell wasn’t innovating fast enough.  Small businesses were quickly moving beyond needing just file and print sharing.  They needed internet connection sharing, email services, and firewalls.  At the same time, software designers were moving away from the client running all software, and only data on the server, to the server running some kind of service that the client connects to.   Novell either couldn’t or wouldn’t keep pace.  Novell attempted to add these services, but couldn’t do it for the same price as competing Windows products could do it.

After the release of Windows 2000, Novell’s fall went fairly quickly.  Novell tried to rally by buying Suse Linux back in 2003, but it was too little, too late.  By that time, Windows had pretty much trounced them.  Despite a clear (and by all accounts smooth) upgrade path from Netware to Suse Linux, customers continued to migrate to Windows.  Now, very few installations of Novell remain.  It’s a little sad, but the current market simply outgrew what Novell could provide.

I still have a copy of Novell Netware 5, though.  You never know when you’ll need it.

Twitter…not much happening there.  I have a few followers, most of them spammers.  I only have two legit followers.  Facebook, however, has exploded.  No more than an hour passed before I had friends on FB…family I haven’t seen in years.  Now, most of my high school classmates, and many friends, co-workers, and acquaintances are now on my FB friend list.  It’s amazing.

But I started having issues when I went to post links.  A lot of links (especially blog and article posts) have extremely long URLs (web addresses).  Since Twitter can only have 140 characters per post, I started looking at URL shorteners.  The problem was one of stability and longevity.  The shortener services out there are having scaling problems.  Too many people shortening too many URLs.  So I rolled out my own.  I picked up a short domain name, and downloaded a shortener script called Lessn.  The domain “smlnk.us” (short for Small Link Us) was available AND on sale!  So now, I can simply create a short link for some of those ginormous links out there.  An example is http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/.  I used this as a test.  It’s very large.  Now, the short link:  http://smlnk.us/1.  Not bad, eh?  If you already have a nice webhosting package, it really makes sense to roll out your own URL shortener service.  It removes the problem of a third party site going down unexpectedly, or removing your links.

I bought a USB OTG cable from Amazon.  This one right here, in fact:  USB micro-A cable.  However, as you can see, it has one problem…a male A connector.  Now, I’m not sure why this cable is being produced.  According to the OTG specs, the micro-A connector is for host-mode operation.  Since usually the male A connector is ALSO used for host-mode operation, the effort really seems futile.

Anyway, so I took a USB extension (a Male-A to Female-A cable), and cut the female end off, then spliced it onto the micro-A end of the OTG cable.  Voila!  Instant OTG host-mode goodness.  In fact, I’m writing this using a standard USB keyboard, with my n810.  Works awesomely…if I could stop misspelling things.

Michael Arrington wants a web tablet for $200.  Looks like he wants a Nokia n800 or a n810.  The n800 is now LESS than $200, and though the n810 is $400, it adds built-in GPS, free turn-by-turn directions using Maemo Mapper, sunlight-readable screen, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  Why does he want to re-invent the wheel?

I’ve been using a n810 for a couple months now, and I absolutely LOVE it.  The ablility to tether to a bluetooth phone and use it for internet access is awesome.  It gives me cellular provider independence.  Change providers, change phones, but don’t have to change the Nokia Internet Tablet.  And the super-sharp screen is amazing.  The only problem I’ve had is finding someone to test the video calling with.  No one I know personally uses Skype or Gizmo.  So I’m stuck testing the VoIP audio alone.

Here is a picture of Gizmo5 running on my n810:

I had to take it with my phone, then transfer it via bluetooth to the tablet, then email it to my desktop, because I get NO cell phone signal down here in the dungeon.  Still, it only took a few seconds to do.  I like Gizmo5 because it is a nice multi-protocol chat client, PLUS does the VoIP thing like Skype.  Video calls, callout to landlines, etc.

The tablet actually belongs to my employer.  I use it to VPN to the company network for administrative purposes.  I can remote desktop servers, workstations, unlock user accounts, etc.  The screen’s too small for complex stuff, but is fine for the majority of simple operations that I do on a nearly daily basis.  Throw in the fact that it’s an excellent ebook reader, email client, web surfer, and GPS, and you have the device that I have a hard time doing without.

It’s not without it’s flaws.  The user interface needs work.  It’s clunky in places.  The buttons in most programs (including the home screen and control panel) are too small for fingers.  And the built-in apps are spare to say the least.  Still, there’s a great developer community, and each iteration of the Nokia Internet Tablet (NIT) continues to improve.

So stop trying to re-invent an already incredible product.  Just go buy one!