I'm pissed at Google.

And no, it's not because of their claim that the custom ROMs available today are illegal. I always knew that stuff like HTC’s Sense UI and custom keyboard were proprietary and that redistributing them was probably illegal.

No, it stems from the fact that, for licensing reasons, Google’s own apps (GMail, Google Talk, Google Maps) and services (calendar and contacts sync) are non-redistributable as well.

To this, I say: WTF?

I’ve always assumed that those apps were freeware, but apparently Google makes a profit licensing those apps to phone makers so they can preinstall it on their products.

I’m sure that’s a great business model. But here’s the problem: Surely you knew that people would customise their ROMs, Google. It’s the whole point of having an open-source stack. So why isn’t there the most basic support for people to do this? Why not provide the minimal amount of support needed so that people can keep their apps when switching ROMs?

I believe the reasons are not technical. They aren’t even legal.

It’s just that Google doesn’t care. The code is open-source for business reasons, not community reasons. If you want to customise your phone, you’re on your own.

And that’s what makes me pissed. Simply put, Google never intended to encourage custom ROMs. And that frankly makes all the difference. For example, look at the Roomba: iRobot practically encourages you to hack the device. I expected Google, filled with hackers and open-source advocates, would encourage the same thing with Android. Instead, we get a code repository that doesn’t even work properly on any actual phones. (The custom ROMs work by modifying extracted images.)

So in essence, Google is treating their community the same way Apple tolerates jailbreakers: “What you’re doing is legal, sure, but don’t expect us to make things easy for you.”

Make no mistake: I can live without the Google apps.

But it’s the reasons why I have to that really piss me off.

So. about 1-2 months ago, I got myself a HTC Magic. If you don’t know, the HTC Magic is a smartphone running Google’s operating system named Android. The hardware is… eh, somewhat interesting, but the main reason why I laid down S$1,000 to get a new phone is what’s running on that hardware: Android, Android, Android. I was using an iPhone 3G for about 10 months straight before getting this phone, and well, I thought it’d be nice to try something different. And now that I’ve lived with this phone for a considerable period of time, I feel comfortable enough to pass judgement on it.

That said, there are already dozens of comprehensive reviews for this phone that exist on the web. What else could I possibly add?

Hmm... Good point. *shrugs* Well, that never stopped anyone.

I’ve waited seven years for this.

It’s hard to describe what I’ve been waiting for. All I remember is that I spent four years of my life solving endless problem sets, enduring late-night labs with Japanese classes every morning, not knowing why I was working so hard. Then, before and after, there was this crazy thing called conscription where I became part of what I’d been taught since young to be evil and treacherous. All in all, seven years have passed where I felt conflicted between what I did and what I believed. I was working under conditions where, sometimes, I felt it would be better if I were dead.

But last Friday, after I made my way to NIE to hand in some registration materials, I walked around the campus a bit, taking in the environment.

I made my way home on a bus which served NIE exclusively. The other passengers on the bus, almost stereotypically, were obviously other teachers. I fancied having them as my friends and colleagues in the years to come.

And then I realized, almost unconsciously, that I was becoming optimistic.

That, seven years after the fact, I could finally start doing what I had wanted to do when I first signed that contract.

I’ve been thinking about the topic of homosexuality for a couple of reasons.

1. There was this whole hoo-hah in Singapore recently about AWARE-blah-blah-blah-Christian fundamentalists-blah-blah-blah-homosexual agenda. If you can’t guess the plot of this whole saga from these keywords, you’ve been living under a rock.
2. As a moderate homosexual who’s starting to plan the remainder of his life (now that it seems I will survive NS after all), I need to consider how this relatively small-but-polarizing aspect of myself will affect my future.
3. Isn’t it always fun to think about sex?

That said, it is rather distressing to see anti-homosexual sentiments being expressed so strongly in what is, after all, my home country.

But you know, let’s get along. We’re all Singaporeans. We’re all human. We’re all going to die sooner or later, so let’s make the best of our existence together.

When I consider the reasons for why homosexuality should be opposed, I am confident that it all comes down to whether you believe homosexuality is innate and unchangeable, or whether it’s malleable through effort. You can make all the arguments about how immoral/unnatural/detrimental homosexuality is, but if it’s unchangeable like a person’s eye colour, then you’re pretty much whining about a problem with no cure.

Surprisingly, I actually believe that homosexuality is, to some extent, a choice. I know I can love and care for someone of any gender. If I try hard enough, sex might even be enjoyable. So in a very theoretical sense, I do have a choice.

Yet from the number of prominent people who have married but continue to have homosexual encounters (*cough*Larry Craig*cough*Ted Haggard*cough*), it’s clearly a difficult choice, and one that is hard to stick with if you choose deception.

So yeah, I’d rather have none of that.

And I accept that this choice will come with disadvantages. There will be awkward social moments. I won’t be able to get a HDB flat until I’m 35. I’ll get none of the benefits that married couples may enjoy. It’s part of the deal.

But hey, at least I won’t have to look at my wife sadly and think, “Man, she deserves better than this.”

Hey, wasn’t there was some convention somewhere? I can’t be sure…

But oh well, I couldn’t make it to that convention, so here I am, hammering out some silly blog entry on the Windows 7 beta. (So if you notice anything disgustingly wrong with the formatting of this post, blame it on Windows Live Writer.)

In short, Windows 7 is Vista with a new coat of paint. But you already knew that.

What you’re really looking for is some sharp analysis and witty shtick.

So I’m sorry to say, I got nothin’. *sad trombone*

Except, well, maybe this. You’ve probably heard quite a bit about Windows 7’s “new” taskbar and how it’s a Mac OS X rip-off. That much is true. But it’s also a good thing, because honestly, it was almost too easy to get the old taskbar overflowing with buttons.

There was one issue with the new taskbar, however, that annoyed me enough to file this piece of feedback:

In the Windows taskbar, when hovering the mouse from one program to another, the thumbnail pane animates from displaying the previous program's windows to displaying the newly highlighted program's windows. It's pretty, but a little disorienting since the windows from one program have no logical relation to the windows from another program. Having the pane of thumbnails animate has two disadvantages:

1. It feels sluggish since I have to wait for the animation to finish before my mouse knows where to click.
2. It feels illogical since I expect the thumbnail pane to "belong" to the button I hovered over. Having the pane slide in from its previous display violates this.

A solution would be to remove this sliding animation and just have the pane appear in its final position. Compare this to how tooltips appear when hovering over toolbar buttons. The tooltip does not animate when moving from one button to another, and neither should the thumbnail pane.

So if this issue gets fixed when the final release gets rolled out, you know who to tip. *whistles*

Hello, is this thing on?