Rage Against The Status Quo

It’s now official. I have updated my LinkedIn profile to reflect that I am President and CEO of Razortooth Communications, LLC. This is my freelance gig, or, depending on how you look at it, my life calling. I will be available for a variety of work:

• Sales Agency Operations - We can operate your US sales operation or supplement your existing Business Development efforts with a skilled technical team


• Mobile 2.0 Strategy, Design, Development, Implementation, and Standards - We can cover end-to-end Mobile development from client to server. Our team has experience with enterprise integrations as well as Web2.0 standards


• Open Source Monetization Strategy - Are you bringing a proprietary product into Open Source? We’ve worked with major Fortune 500 companies to develop launch strategies and build plans that even the lawyers will stand behind. Once launched, we can help to build thriving Open Source communities


• Startup Launch Strategy - Need to get your startup going quickly? Launching US operations? We can help you get started from 0-60 in under two weeks. We have an international team that can support US, Japanese, EU, Indian, and Russian companies


• Embedded Android Design and Implementation Consulting - Contact our partner company, Rationale Dynamics, Inc. for a bleeding team to back your project or your existing team

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about what we can do for you

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My current work has drawn me into the world of standards bodies, where I have involvement in the LiMo Foundation, The Open Mobile Alliance, and indirectly, the OHA. I have recently taken on the role of lead of the Java Technology Project in the LiMo Foundation. This is a tough task, given the state of Mobile Java in light of threats from the iPhone, Android, and to some degree, the Web Runtime. As part of my work, I was asked to write for the LiMo Foundation blog. I have written my first blog post for LiMo,”Mobile Java Matters 2009″, which was published today.

In this blog post, I believe I have unearthed some truths about the state of Mobile Java in 2009. I wish I was not writing about this topic in such a harsh light. The headline should read,”Mobile Java Matters (a lot) - 2009″. I am not sure that it does. Most of the technology we think of when Mobile Java comes to mind, has its origins in CLDC, under Sun Microsystems, circa 1999. The story that followed was the rise and fall from grace of a hero in the tradition of the Greek tragedy. CLDC/MIDP should have gone on to conquer the world, and it seemed, at Sun Microsystems, 2003, that it surely would. In a way, Sun had brilliantly accomplished with Java, a relatively new technology with no legacy or cash cow to protect, the impossible. It had single won the developer mind share of desktop developers, mobile developers, and enterprise developers. This was unthinkable in light of the strong position of IBM and Microsoft.

Sun wasn’t able to make the transition to a money making software company and reinvent itself after the dot com bust. While Sun pinned its future on many investments in desktop, mobile, and enterprise Java, it was not enough to overcome the tide that moved against it. I believe history will best judge Sun as amazing innovator that created more wealth in the Silicon Valley than any company, other than Intel and Apple. Sun, ironically, was an early investor in many companies that went on to become billion dollar public companies, including Network Appliance, BEA Systems, and Google.

What I hope is that with my blog post entitled,”Mobile Java Matters 2009″, that I lay out a positive way forward to those who believe in Java as much as I do.

Most people ignored the details when Android Open Source code was finally released back in late 2008. What got missed:
* Google held back Google Apps
* This isn’t your father’s Linux (bionic not libc, binder, no X11, etc.)
* Not all drivers were released (no 3G driver chipset source)
* Contained a lot of non-portable code (assembly routines for specific ARM target)
* No spec for Android was released (what is it anyways?)
* No clarification around the previous item, what does one have to do to call something Android (branding programs, conformance testing)
* Every effort was made to eliminate GPL code from Android (aside from the Kernel, it’s mostly Apache License)
* No Android Marketplace App was included

Now I think the we have reached a point where a critical mass of people will become aware of these issues. Yesterday, I came across this post from Sid Hubbard talking about Google’s cease and desist move against distribution of Google Apps on non-Android Experience handsets (i.e. anyone who is a not a premier partner licensee). Google has acted within their right to protect what is actually theirs.

However, they won’t win praise for this (it seems more like being evil than being good). What makes this significant is that it marks the first real threat to the Android franchise which Google has actively sought to eliminate. See the comments at the bottom of Dan Morrill, from the Android Developer’s “Official” Blog. I don’t know Dan, and I cannot offer a critique of anything he is doing. In fact, I perfectly accept the content of his post. Google has to make money and operate in a way that works to its own benefit, first. What do you think this is, Free Software? Hell no. If it was, we’d have it all under GPL. I am paraphrasing here a bit Google has made the appropriate response of a Commercial Open Source enterprise that seeks to defend its brand. It has not acted in the interest of the Community from the get go, and that should be clear by a review of the original source that was release on android.kernel.org.

So folks, honeymoon is over. This big hunk of an Android you thought was “Free”, is really just Open Source. Stallman, you may yet prevail in this war of ideas.

One must stand for something. So on this day, I declare I shall blog for 2009. For what? For unity? For peace on earth? Nahh. Just for blog’s sake. I’ve been more or less checked out on the blogging for a few months. It’s tough to find the time when there are revenue generating projects on the table.

So where are we now? It’s 2009. We’ve got a new president on the way. -Massive sigh of relief heard around the world- If we were in Africa, the ruling dictator would have changed the constitution to enable rule for life, and we’d be stuck with not just four more years, but a lifetime. So thank God for our democracy, in all of it’s glory and warts.

I’m grateful for the family, the pets, my job, a roof over my head. 2008 was a tough year for me. I had to overcome my own adversities with a lot of things I’ve never had to deal with before. I broke apart a long standing business partnership, and along with it, a friendship. I had to let four people go, or actually, they all quit under the reduced and limited opportunities for work. I scraped the bottom of my barrel for resources to keep my boat floating, and that was just the first half of ‘08. Sigh. As I said, thank God for all of my blessings. I still have all of these other things going in my favor.

So where do I stand on the Saø Paulo Diet? It’s working. I haven’t had time or freedom to report all of the progress. But I’ve been able to keep up a good pace of activity on projects. I haven’t spent nearly the time on the juicy technical pet projects, as I’ve been dealing with client work, learning a lot about embedded linux, and doing some pro-bono stuff for the school. My estimate is that I am at about 30 projects completed or in progress, with the majority leaning towards completed. I’ll do a massive update before April, which is the deadline to reach the magic # of 52 projects wrapped up in a single year.

So in the immortal words of the Pharcyde, “…Clinton’s (substitute: Obama) on his way, and everything’s gonna be ok!” To more coding and writing in 2009, and less Facebook!

No news is good news, right? It’s been nothing but news and plenty busy, only I haven’t really been able to elaborate on the day to day. I’ve wrapped up a number of projects beyond the current ones, but I will wait a bit until some of the other things get further along… back to #5. I’ll report on this project soon.

I was recently in Sao Paulo. It was inspiring. Brazilians have a great thing going: a touch of chaos, a lot of love of country, an insatiable desire to sing any brazilian classic, one foot in the futbol field, and a flair for greatness. While there, I decided to put myself on the Sao Paulo Diet. Forget the South Beach Diet. Nothing beats real exercise. The Sao Paulo diet is inspired by sky scrapers and chaos. The city looks as if it were set on a course to build as many rockets to the sky. These concrete structures are spread across the skyline everywhere you look

Instead of trying to lose some fat, why not lose some lazy habits, and go brazilian. I will attempt to launch 52 projects in 52 weeks. These won’t be major masterpieces, or even anything substantial. They’ll be as ugly and rushed as the typical Sao Paulo apartment building, part favela, part funk. The end goal is to have 52 towering ideas, a silhouette of what one can accomplish if one tries. I am sick of everyone around me talking about what they want to do, what they would do, what they could do, should do, f@#! you. I have 500 ideas. I need to burn some of the mental fat and just get out there and fill the skyline with some crap, and who knows, maybe something will stick.

So consider project #1 done. My personal wordpress blog was a project on the todo list for, oh, about 2 years. I have spent two of the past two years doing work for other people, waiting for a break, and now I have it. So now you have a chance to learn about me.

Project #2…Set up my own personal twitter world news bot.

There is no substitute for language. It simply speaks what our eyes cannot see, our hands cannot feel, our mouths cannot taste. The words on these pages will be the truth. My truth. If you don’t like the truth, y’all best be gettin’ on. If you are here for something real, drink your fill. Part of my mission here with this site is to deprogram some misinformation that so many of us spent our lives learning. I’ll use this blog for personal gain, expression, and for change. It’s up to me. I am the decider. You get to read. So read on. I’ll post information about my work, fragments of my day, a snapshot of insight, a fraction of a thought, a bean of an idea… you get it. Stay tuned for my first big announcement. Nothing is worth doing if no challenge has been made, no gauntlet thrown. And that’s what I’ll do.