"Wireless" Phone Backup using FTP

One of the most interesting things of Android phones, and specifically my HTC Magic, is the possibility to sync every application with the cloud. My contacts are sync with Google contacts, my email is stored on a IMAP server, the Calendar with Google Calendar... most of my Personal Information is thus in sync. This is great in the case you loose your phone or it is stolen as you can recover most of the information easily and without struggling. The only thing I missed (a bit) was the possibility to sync the contents of my microSD Card. The point is that microSD contents is huge, 8Gb, and thus syncing this with the cloud would have a big impact on maintenance cost in any of the webservices offering this (Amazon S3, mainly).

So, I have opted for a cheaper solution and is to use ftp sync while in my home network. The idea is, once I arrive to my home I usually activate Wifi on my phone for browsing and email reading so just installed an small ftp server on the phone, SwiFTP, that is an Open Source project hosted in Google Code. This ftp must be manually activated and is protected with simple username and password. I expect it to continually grow and, why not, have a simple daemon that detects when are you at your home network and when this happens, just activate the ftp server.

Once the server is up and running on the Android phone the backup system must be set up. I am using my Kubuntu home server as the backup system. Basically I have installed curlFTPFS on the Linux server and just mount the ftp connection to the Android phone as an additional local folder. The backup space is protected with Truecrypt on the computer so I have to mount two different folders, the ftp server on ~/android and the encrypted volume on ~/androidbak. Once these two volumes are mounted I can use the superb rsync linux tool to sync them unattended and keeping only the files in my Android phone.

Next step is to automatize all that stuff as much as possible: Automatically setting up the server when arriving at home and mounting the volumes in the backup system, as well as scheduling the backup to be perform without noticing, maybe at night when charging the phone. But this is something I am still working on and hope soon to get along with it.

The most impressive thing about all that is everything I needed was Open Source and set up in a couple of hours... this is simplification!!!

Finally, Giesecke & Devrient contributes to Android!

Well, after some months of work, G&D has finally gone public on the project that it was developing on Android platform. As can be checked in the press release the contribution consists on code that enables any Android based phone with a microSD card slot (all of them, for the time being) to use a special microSD with a SmartCard embedded on it (check more info about the Mobile Security Card) to deploy security enhanced applications with the use of hardware Security Elements.
But this is only a start point as, it can be checked in this document, several SE may be added in the future... so if you have a good idea or want to work on that project just visit the Google Code page of the Secure Element Evaluation Kit (SEEK)!!

Android Phone (& Development)

As I introduced several weeks ago, actually before enjoying a two weeks vacation that preceded a period of huge workload and social demands ;-) I have become a convert to Android. It was tough at the beginning to move from Symbian, first the 6120 and afterwards the superb N95, to Android. Actually I still miss the N95 Carl Zeiss lens camera, but the HTC Magic, thanks to Android, is such a versatile device that I usually forget about taking pictures :-/

The point is that I barely used the device that I borrowed from my work for the vacation in the US, mainly because I purchased a T-Mobile pre-paid card that you must know has no data plan, so you can not use it to connect to the Internet from the device. I should have bought a AT&T pre-paid that does have the service. I purchased the SIM in a small bazaar in Broadway, so no complains ;-)
But after been back of this awesome travel around the north-east of the US it was my birthday and I was given an HTC Magic. Nice present!

From that time I started to investigate it and I must say that I'm impressed on how fast is evolving all the stuff related with Android. Thousands of applications just do what you need to do and one of the most interesting things, most of them are for free and not under the strict control of an omnipotent Apple. Of course you have premium versions of some of them, but you have a broad selection of Open Source applications that you may contribute to improve. One of the first things I did is change Gmail client by K-9 client for my IMAP account... and it was so straightforward and well integrated that I almost forgot about Gmail. One of the things I have not found solution yet is a Open Source application to store encrypted notes and sync them with a service in the cloud. Anyhow I will continue trying. One of my dreams is to have a Truecrypt driver for on-the-fly encryption of the microSD. It would be nice to be able to encrypt the information in the microSD and just to unplug it, put it in an adapter connected to a PC and access the sensitive information easily.

In any case the next step is to install a "hacked" build of Android on my HTC. It is a bit tricky but from my early investigations I must say that does not seem impossible. Just hope to have some time in brief to invest some effort and who knows, maybe get an Android build of cupcake supporting STK Menu, feature not included by Vodafone!!

Android Phone

Finally, after talking a little bit about it I have the for the first time a Google phone in my hands.
Some months ago I had a HTC Dream locked to T-Mobile thanks to a friend, but I had no T-Mobile USA enabled SIM card to play with it so I had to be happy with "emulating" one and been able to play with the Wifi connection. I any case it was a nice experience and my first impression was that it was a nice OS, even though the handset was a bit bricky.

Now I have a HTC Magic unlocked phone, even though it is VF Germany branded, to play with it in my two weeks vacation in the States. I plan to acquire a prepaid SIM card and use it to access to Internet while travelling. I will travel also with my N95 but VF Spain roaming rate makes it very difficult to really explode it.
So, hopefully in some weeks I will have a brief report of my experience that I will be able to share here.

Rural Internet

As I have commented in previous post I have switched my Telefonica ADSL connection to Tele2 and also have a flat rate with my Vodafone N95 so I can access my mail, facebook and all when on the road. Anyhow, when I travel on Holidays with my laptop, I have a Simyo SIM card to connect to the Internet and browse full screen and access some services that are quite uncomfortable to do it from the N95 screen.
Simyo offers a prepaid rate for 1? per day that is great for sporadic use, like mine. Just have to do a recharge every six months, from 10?, and that's all! Additionally Simyo uses the Orange Spain radio network to offer their services and, I think, maximun bandwidth is 3,6 Mbps, so it is a full HSDPA service.
Beside this, and as the idea of this post, is to introduce the test speed I have done where I am at present spending Christmas Holidays. After a week in Tenerife, I am in Touro. If you don't know where it is, don't worry, Google Maps does the job. It is a small town in the middle of rural Galicia. This territory is quite difficult to deploy good landline coverage so Mobile Internet is quite a good solution. Since I have been coming regularly to this place I have lived the different evolutions of the Mobile Networks services. From simple GSM circuit data services, limited to 9,6 kbps in early 2000's, to first GPRS deployments, UMTS and HSDPA. Anyhow, at present I am using a simple 3G Motorona E770v phone to connect, so bandwidth is theoretically limited to 430Kbps on the downlink. After the test, with full coverage indicated by the handset, I got the following values

They are not that bad, actually is like an early ADSL (256-64Kbps... remember? :-) ) and allow me to browse quite conveniently so I think it's a great and low cost solution to access to the Internet sporadically in a simple way.

Google Chrome (or Chromium)

Recently has been released the Google Chrome, the new google application that is going to give them the control of the world. Just kidding, this new web browser is quite awesome. I downloaded it 10 minutes after it was made available and start working with it. 

The first thing I missed where my delicious plugin that I use frequently on Firefox, but this has been easily solved. Just with some Bookmarklets (small pieces of javascript code bookmarkable) I already have the buttons. Now just need to configure the keyboard shortcuts.

The second thing I missed was Portability. I actually use the portable version in all my Windows computers, on Linux the regular one suffices, because I am able to sandbox everything to a directory: No registry, no hidden folders... As Google Chrome source has been released also as Open Source with a BSD license, tons of developers are workin on this. Actually, the day after the publication of the browser, the first version of Chrome Portable was made available. And it rocks! I am at present using it and I guess is going to replace my Firefox Portable implementations in a brief time... 

The only thing that scared me was the Google Terms of use that you have to accept before using the Google Chrome executable... but thanks to Chromium and the BSD license you can get rid of it easily!

The social Enterprise

Before the Magic Black Box appears... a very good article on the Social Software applied to the Enterprise.

Excerpt:

"The discussion eventually brought us to an even broader question: Why should enterprises go social, and what are the compelling reasons for adoption? On the surface there are immediate benefits, but from experience we know that consumer technologies do not directly map into the enterprise. In this post, we explore the reasons for the social enterprise, look at what social technologies fit and raise various concerns related to adoption."

"As a rule, what is good for individuals is not good for companies and the other way around. This is because both are selfish and it is the tension between the two that drives capitalism. The same is true for technologies; consumer products have not traditionally been needed by companies, with the exception of communication tools."

"Apple, for instance, is known to be very secretive about its plans. Does it give them a competetive edge? Likely yes. How does the introduction of blogging and open social tools to the enterprise impact that? More leaks are likely to occur. Information has an amazing tendency to find its way forward through the human network. The challenge then, is to define a set of policies and rules that ensure that nothing classified gets out. This is not simple."

"New social tools can enable companies to be more agile and self-organizing. The have a chance to break down the walls of complex, ineffective hierarchies and to empower employees to get things done. These tools are simple, fun, engaging, and inspirational. Bringing fresh winds of change to the stale corporate mentality is a good thing and should be welcomed."

Bicing4Mobile, again

Some time ago I posted on the born of bicing4mobile. Basically was a lightweight way to check the status of a Bicing station while on the go, for instance from a mobile phone. It has some limitations, I have found problems in stations above Id # 103. Anyhow I plan to solve them.
Notwithstanding, as I already posted, the source code of the Bicing4Mobile is Open, so Its highly welcomed any help in expanding and improving it. Do not hesitate to contact me (pedro "at" domocat "dot" com) if any doubt arise.
The source code if formed by two files. I have uploaded them with a txt extension to be viewable for the browser and not interpreted as a php page. The first one, with the list of all the stations, and the second one that shows the information of the station referenced.

In addition, you can bookmark in your mobile browser the stationinfo pages in order to directly access to your favorite stations. Here you have a pair of examples of it: 1 & 2.

And now... Bicing4Mobile

Some time ago I published a google gadget that allowed users of this service of google to have updated information of the Bicing (Public bike renting service) station they choose. Some days ago, discussing with a friend at work, we started thinking in something similar but accessible from your mobile phone. We were thinking about geolocalization with the network cells, google maps API integration... the usual stuff when one starts to brainstorm ideas ;-)
I put my hands to work and today I can release the Bicing4Mobile page. It is not google based but PHP based. The iGoogle platform is very powerful but too heavy for the browser of a mobile handset. So I contracted a (free)hosting with PHP engine and started to work. I adapted the same code for the BicingGadget from Javascript to PHP and it was not very difficult. Like always the most of the effort went in debugging and testing activites. I attach to the post an screenshot of what you get once you connect to the page. Of course, it just shows the information of the Bicing station by my home. If anyone wants to expand it, feel free, like everything I post in the blog its licensed under Creative Commons.



The address, if you want to access to it is http://domocat.x10hosting.com/index.php. Enjoy it!

GPhone, OHA and the SIM

Some days ago the announcement of Google entry in the Mobile Business made real the rumors on the GPhone. Finally it is not going to be a physical handset but a software platform. It is business as usual for Google, but we have to thing that selling hardware is not estrange for Google as their Google Enterprise servers are installed worldwide and come from them!
The first thing that surprises from the Google announce is the fact that it is an Alliance. Android, a company bought by Google some time ago, will be the base for the platform, but the Open Handset Alliance, as it is called, has more than 30 members and I am sure that it will grow up in time. Secondly, it is about openness. No software, as far as I remember, is open. It is free for private use, but not open. Neither the Engine nor Google Earth are open source applications. They are proprietary but for free use by particulars. I guess is an important bet from Google to go in the way of openness.
Another interesting thing is that big worldwide operators like Telefonica and T-Online are in the Alliance. This boosts the possibilities of it to a higher level as a handset without a network is a very disturbing thing. Additionally, my opinion is that the intentions of Google for bidding on the new frequencies auction of the United States has been a way to press the operators to join the Alliance. Google, as far as I imagine, is not going to enter the telecom world, it would make all the other operators in the world, far more than a thousand, in its competitors, not its partners, as recently has been seen with Vodafone.
And if the operators are in... who will protect their information? The SIM card seems the natural way, as has been in the GSM-3G networks, and I think it will be. Than SIM card is a security token that belongs to the operator and so, it decides what is inside it. Information for authentication, service applications, user information like the phonebook, everything is at the reach of them. This fact has been a boost for the growth of the mobile market in Europe, and one of the important points in the leading of Europe in the Mobile Industry, and it will continue this way. The question I have is, will it be the preferred security token for the user? In an open platform based handset the probability of virus, malware, sniffing, scamming growths exponentially, so will be the worry of the user for security. If the SIM cards positions itself, with the help of the operators, as a useful and trustworthy security token for the user and third parties, then its life will be long. If not, it will be replaced by a broad number of dedicated and proprietary tokens that will partially do the role the SIM card can play in this future. Personally I am pessimistic... why? Just think in the number of ID, credit, frequent traveler and loyalty cards you carry in your wallet.

... and now, the RenfeGadget!

I've finally completed the two main ideas I had in order to improve my "just-out-bed" time. The first one, the BicinGadget was released some days ago. Now I'm running the RenfeGadget, a gadget that shows the commuter trains schedule between the city center and the place where I work. It can be tuned in order to include more stations (a combo-box would be excellent!) and time configurations, it's up to you to do so and send it back to me to put it in my web space to be available for everyone.
As it's developed now it shows the trains from Pça. Catalunya to Sant Joan Despí before the 12 p.m. and from Sant Joan Despí to Pça. Catalunya after this time. The schedules start from the present time to two hours later. As the BicinGadget it can be added from your iGoogle page: Click at "Add Stuff"-> "Add from URL" and put this address in the box. Once accepted the warning of "You're adding stuff not created by Google" it will appear in your page.

Enjoy it!

At last... BicinGadget!!

This weekend I gave a bit momentum to this project and I finished it late Sunday. It is available at http://www.domocat.com/bicingadget/bruc45.xml. If you want to see it just go to your iGoogle page, click at "Add Stuff"-> "Add from URL" and put this address in the box. Once accepted the warning of "You're adding stuff not created by Google" it will appear in your iGoogle page. In this screenshot you can see how it looks. I must say that it was easier than I thought and looks great for the effort invested!
However, the license of the publishing of the gadget is the usual Creative Commons on what I post in the blog.



Now I'm preparing the RenfeGadget!

Knowledge Society in Catalonia

This weekend I've been working in the bincingadget, a first approach to the idea I introduced in my previous post on having standard gadgets for my everymorning worries (bicing, renfe, weather...). At present I'm able to catch the information that I need and put it in an ftp server. The google gadget simply accesses to this information in the web server and shows it. Now I'm planning the step to put it in a dedicated server because I now have to keep the laptop on to execute the updating script.

Today I read this article on the knowledge society in Catalonia. It started setting up the fact that Catalonia, a former engine in software and IT services in Spain, has receded in its leading role. One of the targeted causes are lack of institutional strategy, or even diverging strategy, in the topic. I may agree with the idea but I would add also the high prices in the broadband access and the strong and rigid telecommunications regulation as factors that make a huge impact on it. At present, for a home to have broadband access to the Internet costs around 60 ? per month in Spain. This cost, affordable for middle and middle-high class homes contracting a double and triple play offer, lays quite aside for the 30-40 % of homes with incomes below the mean. Additionally, the ban for public institutions to offer free universal wireless access to the Internet is a hard barrier in order to give local administrations, like the city government and NPO's, the possibility to impulse and give momentum to local initiatives. These two factors may have been taken into account in the analysis of the KIS of any territory or country because the infrastructures are, like is mentioned in the article, the basement where the whole knowledge is build on.

Bicingadget

Today when I was having a shower (I know, it's an strange place to have an idea, or maybe not?) I started to think in an status screen where useful information at this time in the morning may be showed. The kind of issues I was thinking where the number of available bikes in the nearest bicing station, weather, trains schedule, traffic information... the kind of information news program give in the morning but more personalized. Once in the office, I opened firefox and my iGoogle page appeared and I thought... why not? I've just found a place where I kind find some of this information, in fact the one on the bicing station, and I expect this weeked to start working on the gadget development... Lets see if it works!

Simplification Age

One of the most amazing things of the Internet Era is the change made by two people, Larry and Sergei, to start competing with a lot of full-of-images web portals with a simple rectangle in the middle of a white page. Substituting all the WWW information by a simple rectangle may seem a bit pretentious, but it turned to be the key move in the new century history of the Information Society. It meant the possibility of accessing the wanted information in bulks of irrelevant one. Google had indexed in 2005 almost 9 billion pages. Access all this information would take hundreds of years for an only person and putting more people surfing was not the solution even, this was the strategy of yahoo paying thousands of surfers and rating and describing pages and it did not work. So, a solution had to be found and google did it.
Nowadays a new problem arise, and google is trying to give its solution. Time has become the most appreciate resource in western people lives. Social relations, news information needs, professional time management, long life learning... all this issues make people hungry of time and needed of organisation. A simpler manner to go on with his and her lives would be the big deal in these times. iGoogle is the start point: Give people a Calendar, news, mail account management, and you'll make people work, learn and live in a more efficient way.
This new effort in going further with the simplification has started in the digital world and is been lead by google but let's see how is it translated to the physical world. Simplification is seen as a bad characteristic in a complex and subtle world like our is and it may not be as straightforward applicable.

Google Phone

In my previous post I talked about the conference I recently assisted. Well, this event has become a bit famous because when asked about the possibility of the GPhone Isabel Aguilera replied with an statement collected in my event notes: "Google follows the 70-20-10 rule: Invests 70% on core business, 20% in related business and 10% in far related business". It has been seen as a confession on rumours saying Google was planning a cellular phone development.
It's interesting seeing how a mere comment on a speech- actually an answer to a question - can become so important in this digital era we are living. I'm sure a lot of stock exchanges this days have been related with these words... the networking between facts in this 21st century world is really astonishing!