new phone, one week on

I got a Motorola E770v last week as a cheapy upgrade from my Sagem MyV55. Both phones are Vodafone-specific variants of mainstream phones, of which more below. My main requirements for the upgrade included bluetooth, better than GSM connectivity (i.e. 2.5 or 3G), and no Nokias unless absolutely necessary. Here's what I like about the Motorola:

• not just a digital camera, not just a video camera, but a camera with two lenses - one facing the phone user and one facing in the opposite direction. You can't use both to get picture-in-picture, mind.
• Java engine has full access to phone's features - this is something my old phone lacked, and it SUCKS.
• The power/data connector is a standard miniUSB. Plug it into a laptop and it starts charging. It's got a software switch to swap between CDC ACM modem and a USB drive.
• Music player which plays MP3 files and can be loaded via the aforementioned USB drive
• Curiously useful multitasking: you can use the 3G connection at the same time as you're on a voice call.

And, for balance, things I don't like:

• The USB connection is flaky. Sometimes it doesn't work, and the only way to make it work is to power-cycle the phone.
• There's no automatic keypad lock. There's an automatic phone lock but it requires you to enter a passcode to unlock.
• The music player can't be backgrounded in any way, to the extent that you can't lock the keypad while the music player is running.
• It's a custom build for Vodafone, like the MyV55, meaning that I'm pretty much guaranteed unable to get any firmware upgrades for it, like, ever.

The most amusing thing about it to date is that Windows couldn't talk to the modem on it on account of not having drivers (I found some a few days after getting the phone). Linux, on the other hand, shrugged and said, "oh, CDC ACM modem, fine, put it over there in /dev."

my low-grade form of fame continues

I've been working on a plugin for Gaim to allow it to connect to Microsoft Exchange Instant Messaging. It's reached the point where it's actually usable and mostly doesn't destroy major cities when you run it. This morning someone emailed me to say he's pushed it for inclusion in Gentoo's package list. On one hand, yay, distribution; on the other hand, ew, Gentoo (mildly NSFW link; I like this one, too, and it's totally SFW).