Blog Baltimore

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts about the Nexus One and the hype around it. From what I’ve read, there is a whole lot of excitement about what might be a whole lot of nothing. A very simple look over at the Motorola Owner’s Forum shows the Droid isn’t as magical as many thought it would be. Having one to use, I can agree with a lot of the complaints on the site. I understand that Google is trying to drop a bomb shell on to the market, but it might not be as big as most people are speculating. It seems there’s quite a bit of basic functionality that Google just hasn’t hammered out. To make matters worse, it’s near impossible to find someone to express these frustrations to. I’ve been to the development sites and I’ve looked through the web, your only true options are to mix in with the developers of the applications market (which isn’t the right answer) or bitch on the manufacture forums, which means they fall on deaf ears.

I have a feeling a few factors will screw this expansion up for Google unless they get them wrapped up ASAP:

• Fix the lack of support for corporate email tie ins to Exchange active sync.
• Allow for direct Global Address List look ups through corporate mail
• Improve sending signatures through corporate mail
• Fix the disappearing email act when your corporate calendar or email force closes.
• At this time your corporate email or calendar can either suddenly disappear or crash and then come back gone, forcing you to re-input all the information to connect back to the server. This is not as annoying if your users are educated on how to do this, but if they lack the knowledge to activate their phones on their own then it can create issues.

I think there’s expectations that Google’s going to enter the market (which they already have) and suddenly take over. I’ll admit that I’m a hard core Google fan boy, trying to get in to every Google application that I can get my hands on. I don’t see their OS as ready though. I see a lot of potential but what I don’t see is a lot of follow through. If Google is going to do this right, they need to throw more resources into getting the OS ready. Working with the WinMo systems, the Blackberries, and Apple’s iPhone, I’ve never experienced as many applications crashes as I have with the Android OS. There’s not enough support to make the OS as mainstream as everyone thinks it is.

Who knows though, maybe I just got a lemon….

I’ve got a pair of Novara gloves from REI which work great in the 40+ weather for bike riding, unfortunately they’re not cutting it in this cold now. I’m looking for a good alternative to use in the really rough cold that we’ll be experiencing for the next couple of months. If you have suggestions let me know? Also, anyone have any thoughts on a good face guard that doesn’t get too restricting while biking.

More on the story
The Baltimore Sun released an article today on the issue. There’s quite a heated discussion going on within the comments at this time. Much of the comments are for the biking with a few thrown in to troll the conversation. The article really only shows how Baltimore City’s managed to waste even more money on an issue that shouldn’t be critical at this time. The concerns for having bikers at Loch Raven aren’t even fully justified. They contain a few view points that feel that bikers are causing pollution and harming drinking water. If there’s a concern for water quality, the mayor’s office should take a look down at the harbor sometime.

I’ve been hearing reports from bikers and friends that $100 fines are being handed out at the Loch Raven watershed. From what I’ve been able to read from a couple other sites, Baltimorespokes.org and MORE. These fines appear to be related to people that are biking on the fire roads and surrounding trails. MORE, from what I’ve heard from sources, has been playing a part in helping keep these fire roads and trails clear.

From what I can tell from Loch Raven’s website it sounds like a perfect place to go hike and fish. So why are they cracking down on Mountain Biking? From what I can tell from their current plan it looks as though the members of MORE and the general community are doing more work than the officials.

I would think that they would want to encourage people to be out on the trails riding. Not only does this keep an interest in Loch Raven, it also adds additional set of eyes and ears to a very large place that could be awfully expensive to police and patrol.

Maybe it’s time they revise the laws from 1998 as to how and how you can access the Loch Raven watershed?

Ultimately lets hope that with Sheila Dixon being charged with her felony that we won’t see a loss in support for bicyclists in Maryland. It would suck to see Baltimore not take advantage of its perfect layout for alternative transportation like bicycling.

There was an air of excitement yesterday as I rode past the Baltimore Convention Center. I found that they’ve started marking Pratt Street for a bike and bus lane! Right now the marking is only from S. Sharp St. to S. Charles St. Regardless it’s nice to have some designation of a place where I’m allowed to exercise my right to ride my bike. I hope they continue this from the University all the way down to where the bike lanes continue along the harbor.

Now if they could only finish up the construction in the pictures because honestly it looks like shit and does nothing but crowd the sidewalk in that spot.