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While browsing Twitter yesterday, I came accros a Swype like keyboard for Android called TouchPal.  It is free in the Android Market and I installed it and started using it.

I was immediately impressed with how it works.  It seems much more accurate and responsive than Swype and I just prefer the overall interaction with it. I like the little switch on the space bar to switch Prediction on and off.  English is not my home language so prediction can be a real pain.  The only drawback at the moment is that I could not find a Afrikaans (my home language) language pack for it. 

It even has Voice input and recognition but I have not really tried this so not sure how good this works.

It is fairly customizable and lots of settings that you can set.  The defaults works just great.

For the time being this will be my preferred and default keyboard.  Here is a screenshot of me using it in Tweetdeck (my other favourite app at the moment)

My handset details:

Handset:  HTC Desire (yes the original from a couple of years back)

Android:  Version 2.2 (Rooted ROM .. just did not had the need to upgrade)

Give it a try, you will not be sorry 🙂

2012 have arrived very quietly in my household, not that I can say the same for the neighbourhood.  

I only have one wish for 2012 and that is that it is better than 2011.  It was a very tough 2011 and I do not want to have a year like that again.  

Wishing everyone a good and prosperous 2012, may all you dreams, goals and wished come true.

What a year, one that I do not want to have over.  This must have been the busiest year in my 31 year working live.  I have never work this hard with the accompanied stress levels that goes with it.

The year started off for me starting a job at Old Mutual for the first 6 months of the year.  It was one of the most interesting projects that I have managed with a great team of developers.  However for some reason Old Mutual decided to treat us contractors not to well and it was time to move on.

I returned to a company that I worked for in the early 2000’s called Fundamo.  Originally I was employed to become the Software Development Manager for one of the Business Units.  For some reason this position was then canned and I was offered the Project Manager position which I accepted.  I still do not agree with the decision that the Dev Manager position was canned. It is leaving a gap in the governance around Software Development and the proper management of the Development processes.

I am Project Manager for 5 countries in the Southern part of Africa.  During Novemeber I spend a couple of days in Uganda to visit and meet the people in Uganda.  I must stay that the past 6 months was very hard and is starting to take it’s toll on me.  I am extremely tired and the frustration levels are very high.  Not sure how long I will be able to keep this up.

On the family side.  My daughter completed her second year at varsity and moves on to 3rd year next year.  My son has one little subject to complete at the beginning of 2012 and if everything goes according to plan, he will obtain his Chemical Engineering degree in March 2012.  Now the struggle starts for him to find a job, so if anybody knows of Chemical Engineering jobs, then please let me know.

To each and everybody, may you have a joyeous holiday season and a great 2012.  For me, 2012 can only be better than 2011.

I was working for Independent Online (IOL) at the time and around 3:30 decided that it was time to hit the road and go home.  As I was walking through the newsroom my eye caught one of the many TV’s in the newsroom that happened to be on CNN.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  For a minte or 2 we all just starred at one another in disbelief and though by ourselves, can this  be real.

Me going home came to an abrubt halt and the newsroom became a hive of activity.  I was in charge of technology at IOL and we started thinking of what this will mean to our servers and the kind of traffic we could expect.

IOL was the first news site that had the story up and we immediately saw a spike in traffic.  We kept a watchfull eye on the servers and at the same time needed to ensure that the journalists had an optimum system to keep the stories flowing and keeping the site updated.  That day I came to respect the open source stack that we ran to serve IOL.  It did not strain at all under the load and just kept on ticking.

At about 11pm that evening things started to quiet down a bit and we could go home for some sleep while the night shift kept things going.  Early the next morning we were all back in the office to keep the news flowing.

Although we were looking on from afar, it felt like we were right in New York and today my toughts go out to all in America and the rest of the world that lost loved ones and friends.  I know it is a day I will never forget.

From the folks at Phandroid and AndroidandMe comes the news about the next pet name for Android .. I quote from Phandroid:

If you’re an Android fanboy (like me) there’s probably been a night or two where you kept up late wondering what Google’s name for the next version of Android would be. Well, toss and turn no more! According to a “trusted source” over at ThisIsMyNext, the next version of Android could be named — wait for it — JELLY BEAN. That’s right. Keeping true to Google’s alphabetical order, we’ve seen Android versions Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and now (possibly) Jelly Bean. Keep in mind it was long rumored that “F” would be Flan before later revealing itself to be Froyo.

and from the guys at AndroidandMe:

 Google has a tradition of naming Android versions after desserts. Ice Cream Sandwich is currently one of the hottest topics, as it’s the version we are all waiting for at the moment. It’s the Android version that will democratically unite tablet and smartphone software into one.

Due to the fact that ICS will be such a huge jump, we’ve not stopped to think about what Google will name the next Android version. If we follow the tradition, it should be a dessert starting with the letter J. We’ve heard a few assumptions, like “Jello,” but according to Thisismynext’s sources, it will be called “Jelly Bean.”

UPDATE: There is an update on this and apparently “Jelly Bean” is only one of the names in the mix.  Wonder how many food names are there which starts with a “J”, not many I can think of and do not think Google will just go with “Jam”.

I am a huge fan of WordPress and use is for all my websites, be it for blogging or any form of content management. Came across The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress and from what I have seen, it is well thought out and well written.

It is not technical but rather on how to make WordPress work for you. The book covers the basics, essentially explaining the significant difference between .org and .com versions of WordPress, as well as how categories, pages and tags are used. The book’s best guidance is a result of Gunelius’s (the author) reliance on Web designers’ experience. For example, she recommends the plugin All for One SEO by Joost de Valk, a Web designer favorite in the blogosphere.

What you will learn reading The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress

• How to create policies regarding comments, privacy, and terms and conditions of usage
• A few words about CSS and HTML
• How to manage feeds and subscriptions
• The subtle differences among categories, pages and posts, as well as managing hierarchy and navigation
• How to use links and polls
• How to insert advertising into your blog

See larger image The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress New From: $10.66 USD In Stock

At the moment it is almost impossible to get Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on your HTC Desire directly from HTC or any one of the operators.  In South Africa I would reckon that this will never happen.  

Now what to do if you want Gingerbread on your phone?  If you not interested in the stock HTC ROM which included Sense then you can install the CyanogenMod Rom and the easiest way to do that is via the ROM Manager which you can get in the Android Market.

Now if you want the stock HTC ROM with Sense then I have found only one worthwhile ROM and that is the one by XDA developer, teppic74.  I have been using his ROM for the past year (FROYO one) and have not had any issues with it.  The Gingerbread one is even beter than the Froyo one.

You can find everything about this ROM on the XDA forums at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1200261 and all the downloads are also there.  

Note that to flash this ROM you will need ClockworkMod Recovery v 2.5.0.7 and not the version 3 or later.  The scripts do not run in the never Recovery.  Also you will need to wipe your existing phone incuding apps and data.  So make a backup with something like Titanium Backup.

The one big advantage in this ROM is the better functioning of standard move to SD card.  I do not make use of a2sd so depend on this functionality.  In Froyo I ran out of memory soon and on Gingerbread it seems a lot better.

Happy flashing and hope you will like your new Gingerbread ROM.