Author: Jake

I have a new toy, a Nexus 7, which is why I ran across the device offline issue in Android 4.2.2. The N7 ships locked, which seems a bit odd, but no biggie. This will be a development device for me, and once I got it unlocked, the fun began with MultiROM, which allows the… Read More

Here’s another installment in the never-ending documentation of stuff for posterity. This chapter concerns a change made to Android 4.2.2 that could cause you some headaches if you’re an Android developer, modder or hobbyist. Google added a whitelist for USB debugging in 4.2.2 which adds another layer of security to your phone, so now you… Read More

As of last week, Anthony (@anthonyslai) didn’t mention that he had received a note yet from Google about the Glass Explorer program unit he had preordered. Even so, he was excited at the prospect of receiving it soon. He’ll be even more stoked now that details of the Glass API and device specs are hitting… Read More

Last week while I was traveling, I was reading a story from Wired about Firepad, a collaborative text editor that can be easily added to any web page to allow, well, collaboration. Think pair programming meets Google Docs. A couple sentences in, I notice a quote from none other than ‘Lab alumnus, old friend and… Read More

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind. I spent Sunday through Wednesday in Denver attending Collaborate 13 and then jetted to the Bay Area to speak at a new hire bootcamp on Thursday. As always, Collaborate 13 was a great chance to catch up with people I only see a couple times a year,… Read More

Not that it’s a tradition or anything, but here are some links to brighten your Friday. Or whatever day it happens to be when you see them. Google Glass SXSW video Google released the video of their Glass session at SXSW. Noel (@noelportugal) was in the room, and Anthony (@anthonyslai) has an Explorer set on… Read More

Facebook introduced Facebook Home today, and unlike most Facebook news, I’m actually quite interested in this announcement. Setting aside the features, the shift away from apps to focus on a holistic user experience is one that I’ve been investigating for several months. From the Verge: But from a user experience standpoint, perhaps the most significant… Read More

I’ll be at Collaborate 13 this year. If you read here, you probably know what Collaborate is, but just in case, it’s a mega-conference co-organized by three Oracle users groups, the OAUG (@oaug1), IOUG (@ioug) and Quest (@questusergroup). If you’re not into acronyms, that’s Oracle Applications Users Group and International Oracle Users Group. Oh, and Quest is the international users group for… Read More

I’ve been quiet here lately. After the trip to Mexico, I took some time off to unwind and enjoy the family unit, and I decided to bite the bullet and do a clean install of OS X as the final attempt to resolve the wifi issues that have plagued me for 18 months. Prior to… Read More

I’m drinking coffee in a Starbucks next door to an Applebee’s. Tough to tell that I’m in Guadalajara, Mexico. The AppsLab reunion tour is here looking for new band members. Did you know that Oracle has a 450-person development center here in GDL? Me neither until I joined Applications UX a few months ago. Mexico… Read More

By now, you’ve probably heard the news that Google will shut down Google Reader in July. This is extremely sad for me, since Reader is an essential tool that I use several times a day to keep up with hundreds of items. I’m not joking or exaggerating; I scan hundreds of items on a (mostly)… Read More

News seems to come in inverse proportion to my level of busy, e.g. SXSW is happening now. Noel (@noelportugal) is attending, so here’s to hoping he brings back some content. Anyway, here are some stories that have caught my very limited attention lately. Ultan (@ultan) has a nice overview of Endeca Information Discovery, including its origins.… Read More

I’m happy to welcome Noel (@noelportugal) and Anthony (@anthonyslai) back to the team. This has been in the works for some time now, so it doesn’t really feel like news to me. Since I joined Applications User Experience back in November, I’ve been trying to assemble a crack team to follow emerging technologies and create… Read More

A few months ago, I decided to change my personal policy on spam. For years, I just ignored spam, mostly because it was easier to delete messages than to follow the unsubscribe instructions on each of them. Given the high profile hacks of the last 12-18 months and the nature of spam lists, i.e. lists… Read More

One of the cool things about the last half decade is the influx of people and technology from acquisitions. You’ll recall that this team’s original incarnation included two PeopleSoft people, Paul (@ppedrazzi) and Rich (@rmanalan). I’ve found over the years that one cool byproduct of acquisitions is hidden technology gems. You know, projects or products… Read More

Interest is temporal, so I knew my case of the blahs about content would quickly resolve, and the Mobile World Congress has certainly helped. So, here are some nuggets I found interesting on a Monday. Mobile News from MWC LG buys webOS from HP, or some of it anyway, for smart TVs and maybe phones,… Read More

Google has been in the news a lot this week, releasing the Chromebook Pixel and giving the World a sneak peak at Glass. Couple these with persistent rumors about Google retail stores, and you have an interesting trail of breadcrumbs leading into Google IO. The Pixel is a head-scratcher. The Verge has one of the better… Read More

I haven’t had much to say here recently, combination of work and general boredom with technology news. However, my colleagues in Applications UX have been blogging. Ultan (@ultan) talks about the Oracle Fusion Applications User Experience Design Patterns and Guidelines in his latest post, which includes knitted aliens, always a plus. These design patterns have been tested… Read More

Many years ago, Rich (@rmanalan) and I decided to try out Disqus for comments, and I’ve been using it here happily since then. Disqus aims to aggregate comments across all blogs and web sites by a) providing an easy way for site owners to add the Disqus commenting plugin and b) allowing commenters to create… Read More

Having been at Oracle in Applications development for a really long time, I’ve heard about the Applications User Experience Usability Labs. In the past, the labs have always been a blindspot for me and a bit of a mystery, but now that I’m a member of Apps UX team, I have the opportunity to see… Read More