We have a combination of Mac and Windows machines in our house, and I was unable to get a new Windows 7 64-bit machine to print. The printer is shared using an Airport Extreme Base Station.

I downloaded Bonjour for Windows and it immediately detected the printer. Everything seemed OK, but printing always failed.

This led to many hours of failed searching and troubleshooting. I found many people have the same problem, and many solutions being offered. Nothing worked, until I noticed the “here” link:

With those highlighted circles, it seems painfully obvious. But the “download” button is more prominent, so I didn’t read the text. Based on the number of people I encountered having the exact same problem, I must not be the only one to miss this.

The real kicker is the fact that 32-bit Bonjour fails to warn you if you install it on a 64-bit PC. It happily finds the printer, leading to a false sense of success.

One last tip — if Bonjour can’t find the driver, first plug the printer directly into your PC. Windows should be able to download the right driver.

I just chatted with T-Mobile about the Nexus One phone. Here’s the conversation…

You have been connected to _Kristi J.

_Kristi J:
Hi Eric, welcome to T-Mobile live Chat. I’m _Kristi and I will be happy to assist you. Please give me a moment to review your question.

_Kristi J:
I can definitely understand your interest in this new device. I’d be more than happy to get further information about that for you today.

Eric Burke:
ok

_Kristi J:
You can only order the phone through the www.Google.com/phone website.

_Kristi J:
The phone is being sold exclusively by Google, and cannot be ordered through T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
but it says I’m not eligible for the $179 price. why is that?

_Kristi J:
The requirements of getting a discount on the phone are set by Google alone, not T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
do you know the date when my two year contract expires?

_Kristi J:
One of the requirements to get the discounted price is that you are on a single line Even More plan for $79.99/ month.

_Kristi J:
While I am looking into this information, may I ask why you are inquiring about your contract end date?

Eric Burke:
so I can get a better phone. I’d be happy to stay with T-mobile if I could upgrade, but it sounds like I’m trapped with my now obsolete G1 phone.

_Kristi J:
The G1 is not an obsolete phone, and is still being sold by T-Mobile.

Eric Burke:
but it’s running Android 1.6, and as far as I know, won’t receive future updates to Android 2.1

_Kristi J:
I regret that your account does not seem to meet the requirements set by Google to get the discounted pricing on the phone at this time, Eric.

Eric Burke:
what’s my end date, and what is the penalty if I break the 2yr contract?

_Kristi J:
Your contract on the line ending in **** ends on 11/14/2010, and you would have a Termination Fee of $200.00 if the line is cancelled at this time.

Eric Burke:
$200 total, or per phone?

_Kristi J:
That would be $200.00 per line.

Eric Burke:
ok, thanks for the info. that’s all I need to know

_Kristi J:
I’m glad I was able to answer those questions for you today. Thank you for contacting T-Mobile Chat, Eric. Have a great day!

Teaching my boys right from wrong…

Aidan Prefers Chrome from Eric Burke on Vimeo.

Prior to GWT 2.0, there was no easy way to add custom HTTP headers when making remote procedure calls. The new RpcRequestBuilder in GWT 2.0 makes it easy to add custom headers.

// start with a custom RpcRequestBuilder
RpcRequestBuilder reqBuilder = new RpcRequestBuilder() {
  @Override
  protected RequestBuilder doCreate(String serviceEntryPoint) {
    RequestBuilder rb = super.doCreate(serviceEntryPoint);
    rb.setHeader("username", "sookie_stackhouse");
    return rb;
  }
};

// as with any other RPC, use GWT.create(...) to generate the client proxy
MyServiceAsync service = (MyServiceAsync) GWT.create(MyService.class);

// all client proxies also implement ServiceDefTarget
((ServiceDefTarget) service).setRpcRequestBuilder(reqBuilder);

// make calls as normal
service.doFunAndInterestingThings();

I just fixed a few bugs in State Capitals:

• I drew the Hawaii state capital star on the wrong island (epic oops)
• The “Move Known States to Last” preference was ignored, so you could not disable that behavior

I also reworked the graphics for Alaska and Hawaii. These two cards now show the state positions relative to the lower-48 states.

Publishing to the Market

Once I built the StateCapitals.apk file, I decided to announce my progress on Twitter in real time. Here are my updates:

• Update 1: OK, I just compiled a new build of State Capitals for #android. It is 12:45 PM and I am preparing to upload to the Market.
• Update 2: It is 12:46PM and the upgrade is published. Now I’ll check my phone. #android
• Update 3: Yep, 12:47 PM and I’m downloading the update to my phone. #android
• Update 4: And by 12:48 PM I’ve tested my changes on my phone, all is well. #android

Three minutes was excessive. I had to pause between steps to post those messages to Twitter.

Contrast this experience with other app stores.

As always, State Capitals is free, has no advertisements, and requires zero permissions to run.

The new DROID phone only offers 256 MB for app storage, as Taylor Wimberly points out:

The Motorola Droid will be the most powerful Android phone to date when it launches on November 6, 2009. However, the device still features the same shortcomings of all other Android phones. The Droid ships with a 512 MB ROM which contains only 256 MB available for app storage.

Fair enough. From this starting point, the article quickly devolves into speculation and FUD:

Google does not support installing apps to the SD card (and likely never will), so developers are limited in what they can create.

I question the “and likely never will” claim. Google knows about the issue and I believe they will eventually resolve it. It’s been discussed in public Google forums, and I think people on the outside are assuming the worst. I think it is far more plausible that the Android team has limited resources and this is a very hard problem to solve correctly.

Limited In What We Can Create?

I also question the “…so developers are limited in what they can create.” portion of the above claim. He goes on:

Have you seen all the awesome iPhone and iPod Touch games? Hardly any of them would fit on an Android phone. It is not uncommon for popular titles to easily exceed 100 MB. For example, the game Myst takes up a whopping 727MB.

The solution is easy. Make your app small and download textures and graphics separately to the SD card.

In Summary…

1. We all want the ability to download apps to the SD card
2. Google knows about the issue and understands its importance
3. Google has not officially committed to fixing the issue, or declared a timeline
4. Without an official Google statement, many members of the Android community assume the worst

I like how Cedric articulates his approach to testing:

Typically, I code a feature, iterate over it a few times and I reach a point when I’m pretty happy with its shape: it’s looking decent, it gets the job done and while there is obviously more work to be done on it, it’s mature enough that writing tests for it at this point will not be a waste.

Sony gives you the option to remove crapware from certain new Windows 7 PCs. They call it their “Fresh Start” option, as shown here:

Problems:

• A crapware-free PC should be the DEFAULT selection, not an easily missed opt-out selection
• Fresh Start is only available for Win 7 Professional

This leaves me with a very uneasy feeling about Sony. If I were to buy a laptop from them, it would be Win 7 Home Premium. But since Fresh Start is not available with Home Premium, what kind of crap is pre-loaded?

I thoroughly enjoyed Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid. It’s a very well-written, objective comparison between two great phones.

A family member got a Magic Mouse so I had some time to play around with it.

Here are my thoughts:

• Step 1 – Go to System Preferences and enable right click. Duh.
• Left and right click work perfectly, unlike the Mighty Mouse which I never could get to work reliably. You won’t mis-click with the new mouse.
• There are no buttons, but the whole mouse does physically move and click, so it feels right.
• The twoone-finger vertical swipe to scroll vertically works well.
• I do not like the two-finger horizontal swipe gesture. This makes your browser go back and forward. The problem is, the entire mouse moves when I swipe horizontally. So I have to awkwardly hold the mouse while trying to contort my fingers…it’s not good.
• For me, the mouse is far too dainty and tiny. Women and children will love this mouse. Men with big hands might be better served by a Logitech mouse.