Smartphone Widgets

Like the desktop widgets you commonly see on desktops these days, I personally feel that smartphone widgets should be equally important. Why is that so ? We would analyse through deeper into this blog post.

Benefits:

1. Quick accessing of data and information. (Weather, Currency, News...etc)
   
2. General simplicity of use.
   
3. Summarised information that is otherwise bulky.
   
4. Quick access to other apps or applets.

Cons:

1. Waste space on the screen.
   
2. Looks ugly. (if badly designed)
   
3. Leeches additional CPU and Memory (and possibly Network) to continue feeding users with updated information.
   

The list of Pros and Cons could go on but the above are the general and common Pros and Cons. It really depends on what your aim is and your vision of the smartphone "desktop".

I personally see the smartphone "desktop" or home screens as similar to your desktop "desktop" and therefore, gadgets and widgets providing only the important information should be loaded onto the desktop of smartphones. It is obviously unwise to litter the desktop screens of smartphones with so many widgets that it clutters your desktop space and resource usage (which generates bad user experiences).

You are not safe at US Customs

Read:

• http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/12/wikileaks-volunteer-1.html

What it shows is that you should NEVER EVER bring electronic gadgets to the US. They would be paranoid and be all over you.  You are better off properly setting up a SECURE SSH server and then use computers and internet available to SSH in to your server and work there.

Obviously the agents weren't happy when they found nothing. They were expecting to find a huge trove of juicy items..... some exciting challenges like an encrypted volume with AES 256 on it with a RSA 4096 key and all the good jazz (especially for the computer forensics guy who love nerdy challenges) so that they could do rubberhose cryptoanalysis on Jacob to find out the decryption keys.

They couldn't even extract the Bill of Rights from the portable device Jacob was carrying.

The best case is to totally avoid travelling to the US for a holiday or if there are business contracts, it's better off using conference calls than to travel there to avoid all the hassle if possible.

H2 simplicity

The H2 database start off is purely brainless. You just click on the H2.jar or something like that and you are off, it launches an internal server (web and servlet server and database server) and your default web browser just pops up a web servlet for you to connect to your database and you are in. You manipulate tables and data using the servlets and forms. I love the pure simplicity and brainlessness of using H2.

The build of H2 jars can be a bit complex since you need to setup JAVA_HOME and paths here and there but these are the fault of Sun Java because they don't automatically provide these setups and leave users hanging there and to figure out for themselves. Otherwise, when all thes eenvironment values are up, the building of different H2 jarfiles for different uses are purely brainless too. Just open a console and 'cd' to the 'bin' folder and type 'build xxx' where xxx is whatever kind of jar you want to build. Simple isn't it ?

If you like consoles to access databases, H2 also provides console (main jar rather than the rebuild jarSmall version). The console is as simple as just 'java -jar h2.jar' . What else can you expect ?

Look at other databases... do they provide such simplicity and luxury ? Java DB aka Derby ... I wanted to learn how to use it but just a glance at the manuals and it put me off...

Overly complex and untidy documentations. Looks of setups here and there, console without any GUI... not simple to use in general. Derby really need to do something to make it's manuals easy to use. I know some have gotten use to the doc in Derby but how about beginners ? Given the choice of H2 and Derby, I think people would prefer H2.

I am not bias towards H2, but the fact is H2 clearly won hands down by it's simple, brainless , usability. When I started to find a java database, H2 and Derby are the options I have. But I move towards H2 and consequently use H2 as my default database whether for storing data or for using them in my software products since it's so easy to handle compared to Derby.

H2 have consistently always try to be considerate to it's users by making it easy to use and that is the very strength of H2.

If you don't believe, try downloading the latest H2 database and use it and also download a Derby and use it. Within seconds after you install or unzip H2, the next thing up and running is a H2 ... or maybe let's leave it for you to experiment and see for yourselves.