An Open Letter to Palm

Dear Palm,

I love webOS. I really do.

I don't go a day without telling someone how great it is.

I bought my Prē on launch day on Sprint.
I have sold at least 6 more since then.

And I'll continue to do so.


Now can you do something for me?

I've sent multiple e-mails and tweets to you, and have received no reply.

I want to translate webOS into Klingon.

Officially.

Oh, I'm capable of putting my own phone into Klingon. But that's not good enough anymore.

You see, there are several third-party apps out there that I would also love to translate.

But first, they need the OS to auto-detect the language.

Which is where you come in.

Just send me the strings.json files, and I'll begin right away.

I won't even charge you. I'm volunteering.


If you didn't already know, webOS has more Klingon apps than any other mobile platform.

And I've already provided translations to devs who don't use the auto-detect feature.

Other devs have been kind enough to make sure that their apps work with the native Klingon writing system.


I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support that I've received from other webOS devs.

Now I need suport from the company that made webOS possible.

Thank you,

Michael Roney, Jr.
Professional Klingon translator and webOS dev

p.s. Both Macs and Firefox recognize Klingon as a language. The iPhone auto-corrects "klingon" to "Klingon".




nom qaS yIn. Hoch yIjon!
Life moves fast. Don't miss a thing.

Let's show @Evernote just how many "a lot" is! #tlh

On April 10th at 1:26pm ET, Evernote sent out the following via Twitter:

Evernote keeps adding new language support and language-related features: http://bit.ly/ajtFDs

Following the link, you come across the following line

If you would like to help translate Evernote into your language, then join our Translation Program »

Of course I want to join the Translation Program.

I'll gladly donate my time and skills to bring Evernote into Klingon.

Especially since they have a webOS app ;-)

I ended up on their Contact Us page.

While I don't have a copy of my initial message, it went something like this:

I would *love* to help translate Evernote into Klingon.

I would especially love to for that translation to end up on the webOS app, but of course I'll translate more than just that.

I received this reply:

Hello Michael,

Unfortunaly we don't have such plan. We translate Evernote into languages where there is a lot of users.

Thank you!

Irina Soshinsky
Evernote Corporation

I'm not sure which hurt more; the rejection or the grammar.

I replied thusly:

I think you mean "where there are a lot of users".

How many is "a lot"? I will start gathering names.

Evernote:

I am very sorry, but for now we don't have such plan - translate Evernote into Klingon language.

Thank you again.

Again with the grammar. And the rejection.

So, this begs the question: How many is "a lot"?

(and did mentioning the webOS app hurt? They haven't released an update in a while. And we need one.)

When Sophos released their Klingon anti-virus last year, they had a lot of downloads.

(I've been unable to track down the exact number.)

I've released a few Klingon-themed webOS apps, and I would say that they have had a lot of downloads. (Klingon solitaire has 1630)

They already have the infrastructure set up for adding additional languages.

It's not like I'm asking them to take on a massive project.

So, let's let Evernote know that there are a lot of Klingons in the world!

Send Evernote a message letting them know that you want Klingon!

tlhIngan maH!

Once again, the Contact Us link.

And for those of you a little more bold, the support address that replied to me.

(And for reference, it's Case 93795)

Old habits die hard?

The other night, we ate dinner out on our back deck.

It was a nice night, and we were enjoying the stars.

At one point, Ireland decided that instead of closing just the screen door, that she needed to close the glass sliding door as well.

My first thought was "But we won't be able to hear the phone!"


My phone is in my pocket.

We don't have a "house phone".

I don't even remember the last time we had a land line.


*thinks*


2006. We had a landline in 2006. For a few months.

And I never used it.

Time before that would've been early 2004 before I got married and still lived with my parents. Not that I used their phone much as I got my first cell in January of '04.

How far back does this go?

And why in the world is my daughter closing a door triggering a reaction that we're going to start missing calls on a phone we don't have?

Old thought processes die hard.

--Sent from my Palm Pre

A quick note to my fb friends

I'm not really here.

It just looks like I'm on Facebook.
But the truth is, I'm seldom on facebook.com

In fact, I'm not even writing this note on fb.

I'm composing an e-mail on my phone which will get sent to Blogger and then sucked into fb.

My status updates are sent through my phone to Twitter and then sucked into fb.

While you may see me as Available to chat; that's again because of my phone.

My phone is always on-line. And so I'm almost always shown as Available.

And when I do interact with fb, it's usually through the fb app on my phone.


There are times, that I actually log on.
But it's usually just to follow up on a comment.


So don't be surprised that I'm not joining your army or babysitting your sick seal.

And don't be offended if I didn't respond to your late night chat; I was probably sleeping.


While I love all y'all, I just don't have time to sit in front of my laptop playing on fb.

-Michael Roney, Jr.
Professional Klingon translator
webOS dev
http://twitter.com/roneyii

--Sent from my Palm Pre

My #palmspot Idea

For those of you who don't already know, the folks over at http://www.webosroundup.com/ are having a little contest.

Basically, make your own Palm Prē commercial.
I'll let you head over to the site for the rest of the details (and prizes).


And I came up with what I think is a good idea.
Problem is, it invoves a celebrity.

Yeah.

As I'm married to a foodie, I've seen my share of "Good Eats" episodes. The host, Alton Brown, is always talking about how your kitchen gadgets need to be capable of multiple tasks and have lots of applications.

As he puts it, the only uni-tasker in his kitchen is a fire extinguisher.


Now that all of the non-foodies are caught up.


We take AB here, and have him in his kitchen when he sudddenly needs to make a call, or look something up.
Point is he needs a phone.

Then Thing (a little hand who often hands him various items) pops out, and tries to give him an iPhone.

AB takes one look at it, says his line about uni-taskers, tosses it off screen and says while picking up a Pre, "No, /this/ is what I need."
And then have him highlight a few of the multi-tasking features of webOS.



Yes, it's still a rough idea.
No, I don't expect Mr. Brown to guest star in an ad for /me/.
And it's target audience is foodies.

But my wife loved it.


------------------
Last I checked, William Shatner uses a Pre.
Palm should get him to endorse it.
Seriously.

What has Michael been up to?

Let's start this off by answering the Army question.

For those of you that don't know yet, the Army doesn't want me. I shaved my head for nothing.

Pectus excavatum (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki?search=pectus+excavatum ). That's why I was rejected. They're afraid that I have a "diminished lung capacity" that would interfeare with going through Basic.

I assured them that I can breath.
I told them that I lettered in wrestling in high school.
I told them that I'm an Eagle Scout who has gone on countless hikes.

I also applied for a desk job dealing with satellite communications.


None of that seems to matter.
Just wish it didn't take them over 2 months to figure this out.

Oh, and my recruiter also has a pectus excavatum.


Meanwhile, I landed a job at Sam's Club as a Gas Station Attendant.
I had previously been unemployed since mid-November.


Enough of that.

As all of you should know, I'm the proud owner of a Palm Prē (you should be too. Available on both Verizon and Sprint.).
I have recently tried my hand at app development.

I currently have 5 apps published.
I hope to submit number 6 tonight.

Along the same lines, I review webOS apps over at http://www.webosroundup.com/
Head on over and take a look.


And as exciting as all of that is, there's MORE!

I recently began working with the folks at Jenolan Caves (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenolan_Caves ) in Austrailia.
They have a self-guided audio cave tour. This year, they're expanding the offered languaguages by 3.

I'm providing the Klingon translation.

I started translation earlier this week and things are moving along swiftly.
I have to say, it's a whole lot more enjoyable than translating an anti-virus.


Looking Forward.

It's only March, but my year is filling up fast.
This July I'll be co-presenting a panel on Klingon at InConJunction here in Indy.
And to make the weekend that much more enjoyable, I got the Con to invite Keith R. A. DeCandido, my favorite author, as their Author Guest of Honor.

Then in September, I've been asked to go to Chicago for a weekend to give a basic language lesson to the actors in "A Klingon Christmas Carol".


November brings Starbase Indy.
Last year, I co-presented a Klingon Language panel.
Nothing is set yet, but I'll get something in the works before long.


Lem'me know if you have something to fill in those gaps.

What've you been up to?

Brightkite vs Foursquare

I've been using Brightkite since it was in closed Beta.
At the time, it was exactly what I was looking for.
I traveled a lot for work, and I enjoyed being able to look at the little map of pushpins.

It was fun.

But it never really caught on.
I had some friends on there (and made some friends on there), but not a whole lot.

And then came Foursquare.
They took the same idea, but they turned it into a game.

While Foursquare isn't more popular with my friends, I get to play with complete strangers. People I don't know oust me as Mayor. I oust them.

I get to earn points.
As far as I can tell, they're worthless, but I earned them.

I can recommend things, like "try the ribs".

It makes using Brightkite kind of boring.

The one feature that Brightkite has over Foursquare is the ability to comment at a place after check-in.


If I show up at a restaurant, I don't know what I'm going to have or how long the wait is.

Brightkite lets me post countless times at a location.
Foursquare let's me comment with my check-in.
All other comments are in my stream, but not specifically at that place.

So what do I do? I bypass Foursquare for those follow up comments and send them directly through Twitter.

There's also no native notifications.

Brightkite let's me subscribe to my friends via e-mail and SMS. I also get notofied of comments.

Foursquare let's me get my friends check-ins via Direct Message in Twitter.
And as far as I can tell, there's no way to comment on a post.


So Brightkite has the features, but Foursquare has the sparkles.

If Brightkite wants to compete in this expanding market, it's going to need to get some bling.


(Gowalla just frustrates me.)