cloud goes social

Hi all,
short post, but hopefully helpful to some!

I recently bought a new keyboard + mouse set from logitech. I tendo to get quite bad with the wrists, especially when typing much. Long story short, I have been using a Logitech Wave keyboard for a long time! Now, since I will be spending much time at the office (and not only at home) I thought I could buy a new set for office/home. I just went to the Logitech website and set for a wonderful Logitech Wave Pro. Now, if only I had checked the fact that they say that it’s not compatible with MacOS X!

But well, the set arrived, I plugged it in, and to my horror it wasn’t recognized in the System Preferences Logitech Control Center (latest version, 3.3.0). The message was simply: “No Logitech Device Found”…

My “hacker” spirit of course couldn’t bear with this fact. Especially because the keyboard looked exactly like the Wave (not the Pro, mind it)… The mouse itself is simply an MX1100, which is supported by default… Weird, weird.

I started digging and found out the the (in)famous Logitech Software installs some special files in the usual paths:

/Library/Application Support/Logitech.localized/Logitech Control Center.localized/LCCDaemon.app/Contents/Resources

In particular files named:

Hardware Descriptions 2002.plist
Hardware Descriptions 2006.plist
Hardware Descriptions 2007.plist
Hardware Descriptions 2008.plist
Hardware Descriptions 2009.plist
Hardware Descriptions 2010.plist

Now, if one is to open such files with the standard application (Property List Editor) he will find something along the lines of:

Bingo! Now I only had to find out the actual HEX number/product ID. How? Easy, I switched to a windows installation, installed the Logitech SetPoint software, dumped a text file generated by the bug/hardware/problems reporter and voila, found my numbers:

0.000 Device 0x009018d8 parent=0xffffffff model=0x0300001e bus=2-USB       type=3-RECEIVER  ser=	 vid=046D pid=C517 rev=3810 name=Loreley 2RX
0.000 Device 0x008010b0 parent=0x009018d8 model=0x01000087 bus=2-USB       type=1-MOUSE     ser= vid=0000 pid=003C rev=0000 name=LX8 Cordless Laser Mouse (Gomera Dkt)
0.000 Device 0x00a02100 parent=0xffffffff model=0x0300001e bus=2-USB       type=3-RECEIVER  ser=	 vid=046D pid=C517 rev=3810 name=Loreley 2RX
0.000 Device 0x00700888 parent=0x00a02100 model=0x0200005b bus=2-USB       type=2-KEYBOARD  ser= vid=0000 pid=0060 rev=0000 name=Wave Cordless Keyboard
0.000 Device 0x00d03978 parent=0xffffffff model=0x03000030 bus=2-USB       type=3-RECEIVER  ser=	 vid=046D pid=C529 rev=0700 name=eQuad desktop receiver (Kiwi DT Mercury)
0.000 Device 0x00b02928 parent=0x00d03978 model=0x02000063 bus=2-USB       type=2-KEYBOARD  ser=QADR:38CC4662 vid=0000 pid=2003 rev=0000 name=MKT name TBD (Mercury)
0.000 Device 0x00c03150 parent=0x00d03978 model=0x0100008e bus=2-USB       type=1-MOUSE     ser=QADR:38CC4662 vid=0000 pid=1015 rev=0000 name=MX Pro (Macau RC)

I just copied the MX1100 entry in the 2008.plist file and modified the pID (actually just one number increase!) and the one for the wave keyboard. Restarted the Logitech Demo and everything is fully working (well, almost, some keys on the keyboard are apparently mapped in a different way, but I never use them too much, it _might_ be fixable, if I have some more time…).

Anyway, for those who didn’t understand too much, here’s a .zip with the new file, you can just unzip it and place it in your directory, restart the Logitech Daemon (or reboot the PC) and your Wave Pro Set will now be supported!

1. Download the .zip
2. Uncompress its content
3. in the Finder go to: /Library/Application Support/Logitech.localized/Logitech Control Center.localized/
4. Right-click on the LCCDaemon.app and Show Package Contents
5. go into Contents/Resources/
6. (optional) backup the file called: Hardware Descriptions 2008.plist
7. Copy the uncompressed file
8. Reboot (or restart the Logitech Daemon from the Activity Monitor/Terminal)

As a result, you will get this beauty in your Logitech System Preferences

Hope it helps!

~Claudio

I haven’t been writing in a long (loooooooooong) time, plus I haven’t been writing a lot on general topics rather than technical ones.

I have finished my master at ETH Zürich with the maximum grade on my master thesis. AND I started my PhD there, with focus on system and network security.

I’m currently at Fosad, a summer school on security design held in Bertinoro, Italy

For all of you that come here for some ImageMagick update, please make sure to check out the latest compiled version on their ftp site (or any mirror, under the iPhone directory!). I always try to keep up with the compilation, but most of the times I will be a little late with their release.

For all of you that come here for some uMonitor update, please wait. I have some updates in mind, and some fixes. But uMonitor is totally not my first priority and probably won’t be ever again. It is open-sourced so that anyone can contribute. I’ve pushed an update on Cydia, lately, to fix some issues. Plus in the future I will have some icons updates for all the iPhone4 users around.

Stay tuned for any updates, as usual!

~C

… Or am I dreaming? (or well, having a nightmare!?)

[if you click on it you actually see something!]

Ok. Last time I checked the iTunes store, in Switzerland (where I currently live, and a friend of mine has a Swiss iTunes Store account) the most expensive songs (the “hits”?) were rated at 2.- chf – In Italy (where I have my iTunes Store account) most expensive songs were rated at 1.29 euro.

Now, the Swiss Store has always been more expensive (1.29 euro ~= 1.70 chf) – but now!? Are you joking!? 2.20 chf, as shown in the pictures, it’s 1.66 euro, or, for the US guys it’s 2.03 usd!!!

I find this price increase outrageous. We (everyone that’s not living in the US) have always been paying more for our songs (0.99 euro [1.21 usd] and 1.50 chf [1.39 usd]). But now it’s even worse.

It just doesn’t make sense, anymore, so what? I just feel robbed. And robbed. Over again. 10% price increase What’s next?

Bye bye.

~C

Hi,
I’m using Google Reader, as an aggregator for all the feeds that I want to follow. Great! So I don’t have to keep those 6 tabs open in my favorite browser, right? Well, kind of. The problem resides in the fact that then I would still have my mail and calendar open. And google reader. And …

Mike and me have been looking around for a solution to this and stumbled across Reader Notifier. It’s a small MacOSX application that resides in the Menu bar and notifies you when new items are available.

Since the code was publicly available we decided to have a look at it… Well, after coding for a while for iPhone and Mac applications we could tell immediately that we could have improved the code and possibly the application functionalities. Now Reader Notifier Reloaded is born. We keep the code open, so that everyone can just fork it, modify it, have a look at it, …

Currently Reader Notifier Reloaded lets you:

• Be notified through Growl about new unread items
• Mark all your feeds as read
• Read the feed directly through the menu application
• Star an item
• Automatic updates

And all of this with a much more structured code than the original and without any memory leaks (well, there were many and we managed to remove them all, hopefully).

A stable version is downloadable from github

If you have feature requests, find bugs or just want to get involved with the project, drop us a note either here or on github.

-Mike and Claudio

Update:

In Europe as well! :)

Ok, the long awaited beta for Mac should be on its way.
The (infamously inactive) link has become active. It still yields to a “forbidden” page, but that’s soon to be changed. All Mac testers, free your hard-drives, for Starcraft 2 is definitely coming!

Here it shows that the link is clickable:

And here’s the content of the linked page:

Last week, on Friday, I attended the rescheduled-at-the-last-hour Google Android Developers Lab in Zürich and, as a result, I started learning about Android application development, the Android Google SDK and, as a gift, I came back home with a shiny new NexusOne, which is not available in Europe, yet.

I’m now making a list in the typical fashion of a good ol’ Italian-directed western movie both from a (advanced, I daresay) user and a developer perspective. I hope no-one will feel bad about what I write as most of it, to me, are easily acknowledgeable facts, rather than my only suppositions.

Let’s start up without further waiting.

THE GOOD

NexusOne Overall

I must say that is the best non-iPhone iPhone-competitor that I’ve seen, tried and played with (played as in using, not played as in playing mobile games, for which I don’t have time). The size is right about the same as the iPhone (yes, don’t give me shit it’s one millimeter (I DO use the metric system, and all of you should, as well) less thick, and stuff like that). So, for any iPhone user it just fits good in your hand/pocket/wherever-you-carry it. The screen is bright, the manufacturing quality seems good, it has a replaceable battery with all the pros and cons of that (i.e. it fell and of course the shell opened up, the battery came off, etc, I don’t have to tell you all of this, right?). The screen finishing seems different from the iPhone one and oily fingers DO leave more visible traces than on the iPhone. But that’s just noticeable while the screen is switched off.

Android OS 2.1 updated

The OS is stable, it’s fast and it’s good. I like the interface elements, even though they are much different from the iPhone ones. Everything that’s shipping with/on the phone is good, fast and reliable. A few things could be changed, perhaps, but nothing too radical or that would have a major impact on the overall OS. The “notification system” is a well structured way of informing the user of changes or if something happened. Maybe having the date always on on the top bar while no notifications are available would be a nice thing, rather than having to touch the bar to display the date. But maybe that’s even an option, I do not know.

SDK

At the Android Developers Lab we had the pleasure to have a few talks by one of the Android Application Development Gurus: Reto Meier (The guy that wrote this book). And coming from the wonderful iPhone/MacOSX SDK I was impressed by the quality put into the Android SDK. It surely is easy to learn, easy to code against and quite good. A few very good ideas are Alarms (I smell cronjob around them! And I like it!) and Intents for inter-app communication. Please Apple, if you are reading this have something like it on the iPhone, as well!

THE BAD

The Keyboard
It just badly suck. Especially if you come from the iPhone. First of all, like many European user, we tend to know at least two languages. One being our mother tongue, the other being English. And that’s saying “at least two”, many do speak even three or four. It is very common for me, for example, but for many, many (yes Google, if you’re reading this: MANY) other to write in different languages. And sorry to say it but switching dictionary-based-not-so-well-working-word-recognition on the Android is even harder than on old mobile phones (and I DO mean old mobile phones). Basically it just has ONE language for input AND for the system. To change that you need to go all the way to the preferences. It just resolves into not caring about the language-input-recognition. Which isn’t a very good system, either, yet.

Secondly the keys are too packed together. Or the touch sensitivity isn’t that great. Or I do not know what, but on the iPhone I rarely rarely mistype a word, and in that rare occasion it just gets (properly) corrected. On the NexusOne Android phone I keep, keep, keep mistyping words. And they don’t get corrected, or get corrected in the wrong/weirdest way (for Italian input, at least).

Just two examples, first in Italian, second in English. In Italy we use accents. Quite a lot. The future first person singular of the verb “to go” is “andrò”.

Android I type: Andro – it suggests: Andro, androne, Andria, Andromeda, andrò – for it I have to scroll, as well, on the suggestion.

iPhone I type: Abdro – it suggests: andrò

Let’s see with English, where there’s much use of the “‘” character for shortening things around. Let’s write “you’ve”.

Android I type: Youve – it suggests: nothing

iPhone I type: Youve – it suggests: you’ve

Now, this is just two examples, and both use quite annoying things, such as accents, for which normally you would have to tap-and-keep-pressed a letter for the options to come up or the “‘” character which requires on both phones to “switch” keyboard to the punctuation and then back to the letters (which the iPhone is smart enough to do on his own, anyway, getting more points for it, as well), but I happen to use such features much. much. MUCH. And I do bet most of the user will find this “problem” quite annoying.

Enough said: Google, please fix the keyboard: changing input language, understanding what I would’ve wanted to write, user-interaction needed to write.

This is the ONE BAD THING about the Android OS. Unfortunately it is also quite a big issue for smartphones where we usually “write” more than “speak”. Fortunately it is a software-fixable issue. So just fix it! :)

THE UGLY

Apps

Ok, the iPhone has been out for longer, has less fragmentation, whatnot. But come on, some “bigs” can really do a better job with their apps. First of all, the Facebook app, if compared to the iPhone companion is like 1 era away. I won’t say much more, just update it! Shazam is at the same level, what a pity. And that’s just to cite two GOOD apps. The Market is plagued by bad applications that suck much. And they suck more than most iPhone applications, which already suck quite a lot (many of them, at least). This of course has nothing to do with Google, which is actually delivering quite GOOD applications. Keep the good work up, Google. Step it up, developers!

Just one thing related to Application development. InterfaceBuilder, for the iPhone GUI has no rivals. Just think of something, writing GUI for Java is THE nightmare, at the current state of things.

Battery Life

I haven’t played around too much with the phone. But battery draining seems quite fast. I’ve been mostly texting/writing emails and the thing (brand new!) lasts only two/three days. My iPhone 3G which is now one year and a half old, used exactly in the same way + for listening to some music lasts the same or at times more. This is NOT a good signal. So please, engineers, work on this issue. Please.

WRAPPING IT UP

The NexusOne is definitely a good phone. Possibly some Android OS updates which I hope won’t come too late in the future will make it even a better one. The openness of the Market is surely a good thing, but at this time I would still suggest buying and iPhone. That said, I will wait to see enhancements been thrown down the pipe and update you on the situation. I’m sure the Android OS has a bright future, and I’m happy to be using it and to be developing for it. As much as I’m happy that the iPhone is around, so I don’t waste hours to write an email :P

These are just my thoughts.

~C

Hi,
as one of the two developer (Mike Godenzi is my friend and colleague) of the free AR (Augmented Reality) application to identify mountains’ peaks in Switzerland (sponsored by ETH and EBP), I’m of course excited and glad to announce that SwissPeaks has reached place number 1 in the “Travel” category in the Swiss-AppStore!!

And just to document our success here is the screenshot of the AppStore “Travel” category!

You don’t live in Switzerland or are traveling around the world? Don’t worry, there’s also a general application, called WorldPeaks that’s at your service!

~C&M

First christmas for cloudgoessocial.net
Merry Christmas to all the readers. And now that I’m at it also Happy new year!

Next year’s proposals:
1) be more social on the net – in particular try to write something that also non-techie might appreciate – and in particular try to WRITE…
2) honor the sub-header of the blog and talk about cuisine and travel
3) keep on going with all the hard (but so much interesting) work!

Best wishes for a happy holiday season.

~C

Screenshots of the Who Am I? application

A new software developed by me and some others, over at caffeineapps.com. It’s a simple and funny game, just take a picture of yourself or some friends, disguise it with our tools and upload it. From that moment on you’re part of the game, anyone in the world could find you.

For more information just look at the application website or try it out on your iPhone, it’s free! Get it from the AppStore

Given the recent interest on my torrent-monitoring application (thank you to the guys at torrentfreak.com for finding it out and writing about it), I announce that I will start development of the application once more to try and satisfy user requests (and fix a few bugs that I know are around).

Stay tuned for an update, which I hope it will arrive as soon as possible (at the current time I’ve been focusing more on other applications!)

Thanks for the interest, and remember that if you enjoy the application you might donate, it will keep me updating (and not look into other forms of financing, such as in-ads, which I hate) it with more than just self-interest for it!

ciop ciop