An Initial Review of the Nokia 770

I'm usually quite far behind on the technology curve. For instance, I've never had anything that can play DVDs besides my computer, and I only got a DVD reader on my computer recently. And in the past, I've never had anything related to WiFi running at my house. I've never had a PDA and my cell phone isn't web-enabled or bluetooth-enabled. I guess you could call me a low-tech techie. This is interesting, especially since I make a living off tweaking, installing, configuring, and creating technology. And I haven't had any other serious full time vocation.

Somehow, I decided to to get a used Nokia 770. After a couple days of using it, I must say that I think it is great. It isn't perfect, but a pretty good device. Here I would like to share some of the positives and negatives. These apply to the device with their Internet Operating System 2006 installed.

• It runs Linux! This is good in my books :)


• It is compact, but not so compact that it lacks in screen space. It actually fits into my pant pocket!


• It comes with some good software by default, including: a web browser, a simple mail client, simple jabber/googletalk messaging, a calculator, a clock, a PDF reader, chess, etc.


• Unfortunately, it lacks some software which should be preinstalled on every portable device (ie. a good PIM, etc.)


• Once you have the right repositories added into your device, installing programs is extremely simple. They have a nice Application Manager feature. Installing Gaim (IM program), SSH, VNC viewer, Xterm, a weather program, a star tracking program, a sudoko game, etc. was extremely simple. There is a development platform readily available (Maemo), and there are enough apps available to make me think that porting most applications that run on Linux is quite feasible.


• The functionality related to WiFi is intuitive and extremely simple to setup and use. There still could be a bit more convenient by making hunts for wireless hotspots easier.


• The menu interface is well designed and easy to navigate.


• The file manager is simple, but seem to contain the necessary functionality


• Unfortunately the battery does not last long, only around 3 hours. This is probably a symptom of its nice screen and WiFi connectivity


• There appears to be no Bible software for the 770. I can load Bibles
  in PDF and text format, but it would be nice to have some Bible software
  ported, perhaps the GnomeSword project?


• Being able to install stuff like Xterm, SSH, and VNC allows this device to become a very handy system administrators tool, whether in an enterprise computing environment or for a hobbyist

Those are just some initial thoughts. I may post more as I use the device more.

P2P Bust in Japan

An author of a P2P software has been convicted in Japan. The charges revolve around copyright infringement.

However, the accused was not found guilty of "copyright infringement", but rather "enabling copyright infringement".

I think that decision is problematic. There should be a large and well-defined distinction between doing something and building something that might conceivably allow someone to do something. Isamu Kaneko did not force the users of his software to use it illegaly. It is quite conceivable that those users could have chosen to use Isamu's software legally. This sort of court decision is exactly what is needed to stifle innovation and punish those who produce popular (and free) software. Isamu's product had half a million users.


Here are some things to consider:

1. The software itself is not an infringement nor is it illegal.
2. The software does nothing that many other similar packages couldn't do.
3. There is no feasible way for such a general purpose file sharing program to reasonably detect what is copyrighted and what isn't. It just handles chunks of data.
4. The software does nothing to enable infringement that is fundamentally different than what your typical FTP or Web Client/Server does.

If it can be proven that the software does not in and of itself break any laws, I believe it is illegitimate to attempt to charge the author of it. While it may not correspond exactly, the basic principles involved are somewhat akin to MP3 player producers being sued because some of their users use illegally downloaded MP3s on the devices. It is patently silly. In almost in any context, this sort of charge would be so silly that the judge would laugh. However, somehow when it comes to coprights on the internet, many convictions for this sort of things seem to be able to happen.

The sort of logic employed here is very twisted, sort of akin to the Guilt By Association Fallacy. It goes something like "Joe broke the law with X. Fred made X. Therefore Fred broke the law". If X, in and of itself, is not an infrigement of the law, there should be no case against Fred. It is not totally unlike saying: "Joe murdered someone in MondoShoes. MondoShoes are produced by George. Therefore George is guilty of murder." This sort of reasoning would be ridiculous even in regard to murder, which is obviously of more gravity than copyright infringement. The software in question was really just a "transport" (hence the analogy of shoes) that the person used to commit the copryright infringement. The P2P software is really expendible in this matter, so there is no sane reason to blame the person who wrote that softawre. The people who are hosting and downloading the copyrighted products are the real "movers" in the act of violating copyright law.

Thankfully saner decisions have prevailed in these sort of cases in U.S. and Canada courts.

Why I Use Open Source Software and Linux

1. I enjoy using and endorsing software that I am not only allowed, but encouraged to makes copies and distribute to my friends and associates.

2. I enjoy using software that has a license which encourages rather than discourages innovation, bug fixes, and community-driven critique.

3. I enjoy being able to peer into the internals of the software I am running.

4. I depend on the stability of the software I run, and have found many OSS products to be superior to their closed-source alternatives in this.

5. I depend on the security of the software I run, and have found many OSS products to be superior to their closed-source alternatives in this.

6. I take comfort in knowing that if the maintainer of the software that I run were to drop dead or become disinterested, the basic building blocks for the continuation of the software are in place and would not need be hindered by legal barriers.

7. I enjoy knowing that most of the software I run is in active development through a transparent process, and that I also have various relatively accessable ways to encourage the development of features I want.

8. I enjoy knowing that if I can't persaude someone else to implement a feature, I can implement it myself with a realistic possibility of it being integrated into the product.

9. I like running a stable, secure, and powerful system which provides me with a flexible medium between ease of use and ease of tweaking.

10. I like the way that open source software has challenged a playing field which has been increasingly dominated by domineering corporations, and has consequentally sanitized and freed many corners of the industry for real competition and a real free market.

In concluding this list, I want to encourage people that Open Source software is not at all or nothing proposal. You may run Windows (at your own risk :>), but you can still reap the benefits of solid OSS software, such as FireFox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Apache, Gaim, etc.