Eugenics doesn't work. Ask why, asshole.

Excellent article on Enron, social darwinism, and the motives behind eugenics.

J2ME and My RAZR

Last night I figured out how to create Java 'midlet's, small Java-based apps for the J2ME platform for mobile devices.

This wasn't a particularly cunning exercise in tech wizardry; it was more like several hours spent wading through documents and tutorials to see if I could get the whole toolchain to work, to the point where I could see "Hello MIDP" on my phone.

I got 100% of the way there in terms of getting the Hello World midlet to show up on my RAZR; I got the toolchain working about 90%. Here's what I did:

I downloaded Sun's Wireless Toolkit and Motorola's SDK. I already have Eclipse on my computer, along with Java 5. I installed EclipseME, an Eclipse plugin for J2ME development. I got everything working to the point where I can 1) write a J2ME app in Eclipse, 2) compile it there, 3) package it there as a JAD file (the deployable form of a midlet), 4) test it in an emulator on my computer (both a generic cell phone emulator and Motorola's RAZR emulator), and 5) deploy it to my cell phone so that I could run it as a normal Java app.

Only two things missing so far: I had to run the emulator separately from Eclipse. EclipseME is set up to work with Sun's WTK within Eclipse, but I wanted to use Motorola's more specific emulator, and I wasn't able to do that; I kept getting errors to do with the emulator connecting to the Eclipse debugger. Instead, I had to run Moto's emulator separately and switch to it. The other thing is using Midway, Moto's deployment tool (part of the SDK), separately from Eclipse to send the app to my phone. EclipseME doesn't say you can do that, but Eclipse's architecture should allow a way to script that behavior; I just didn't waste time trying to do it.

All of this depends on having unlocked my RAZR to allow direct-cable connections for Java app loading. Normally you have to send your phone in to the service center to get them to unlock it, a five week odyssey, apparently. I found guides and software on the Internet to do it. Motorola's SDK comes with an OTA (over the air) server to allow downloading, I believe (for testing purposes).

If anyone wants more detail, I can get into it, but for now I'm trying to come up with the next mobile killer app so I can retire.

My Seinfeld dating life...

Writing about the voicemail I got this morning reminded me of something that happened several weeks ago. Just before I quit smoking, I was standing in front of Bentall One having a puff, when a scruffy but hot girl in her mid-twenties approached me and asked for a cigarette and directions to the U.S. consulate. She was American, and had lost her passport and needed to file papers to get another one (and to make the loss official so that she'd have something to show the border guards when her name starts coming up on watchlists).

We're chatting amiably about passports, border crossing, and the sort of international law problems to which individuals are prey, when she looks me dead in the eye and tells me that 9-11 was the work of the Bush Administration creating a pretext for various invasions in the Middle East that would secure routes for oil pipelines.

Up to that point, I'd been silently cheering on the inside, thinking that this woman was actually fate signalling me that not all is shit, romance-wise. As I stood there listening to her, though, it became a silent debate about whether or not consistent sex was worth several hours a week of nodding at conspiracy theories. "Yes, sweetie, I know that the stickers on the backs of road-signs are codes for the location of concentration camps and RFID implanting. But honestly, I've got a killer headache tonight, and a meeting first thing tomorrow..."

When I looked up, she was in full rant mode, with both hands help up, framing the air between our heads, vibrating like the raw malignance could be sounded into my head through pure waves of extra-logical insight. She hadn't raised her voice; she was simply focused like a chin-sited hairy mole. As exciting as it would be to role-play NSA hit man vs. intrepid investigative reporter every time we went to bed, I begged off, wishing her good luck with her passport.

Weirdest work voicemail ever (for me)...

I get to work and there's a voicemail waiting for me, from 6:15 p.m. the previous evening.

“Hi, Justin? This is... Sean... and I'm just lying here on the couch... naked... wondering what you're up to tonight. Call me at xxx-xxxx.” Techno something-or-other in the background.

I don't know Sean, and I'm not gay, so I'm trying to figure out whether this is a prank (he sounded quite sincere), a random dial-a-proposition (an unlikely means of getting laid, in my experience), or a wrong number gone horribly awry (he got my name right).

The wrinkle is addressing me by name, which is on my voicemail message. I quick search of Craig's List didn't turn up my work extension (which I've had for 20 months+ now). I don't have time to check the stall walls of all the bathrooms in Vancouver (even limiting myself to just the cruisy ones).

The question is really this: Do I call the number to talk to Sean and try to get the story out of him, at risk of either confirming his dial-a-date methodology, or worse, convincing him that I'm a closet case who just needs a lot of encouragement on my voicemail to live what I've apparently been denying for so long?

Craig & Melanie, going to bed

"Whatcha doin'?" Mel asks, coming into the bedroom and seeing Craig propped up with a pillow and a pad of paper.

"Making notes for my next blog entry."

Mel pauses, then says brightly "my last blog entry was about pancakes!"