"You Get What You Paid For", Unabridged

You get *up to* what you paid for.

I guess the middle part just wasn't eligible enough when they were copying the old scroll. Yeah, like that "celebrate" part.

Google Authenticator Upgrade Horror Tale

When Google fails, it fails in epic ways.

So here comes their new authenticator. The old one issues a stern warning about the upgrade, and well, since my accounts are kinda somewhat important to me, I do install it.

Gotcha! say bright kids at Google. Should've been more careful and paid attention to the fact that this is a different application. All the account information is gone.

Guess what, you're screwed now. Catch-22.

• In order to get to your account, you need 2-factor authentication.
• In order to add a 2-factor account to the phone, you need to be logged in.
• Which is not possible since you need the 2-factor app with the account already added.

And not a word about it ANYWHERE.

Lemme see if I have my backup codes backed up now...

Android: Created By Bright Kids

Remember the rant about bright kids with no experience?

Well, turns out, experience is something you *do* get, but sometimes right after the world laughs in your face. And sometimes even that is not sufficient.

Consider, for example, the SensorManager. Consider how it is a concrete class, and there is no way for you to provide *your* mocks to develop an application, unless you add an extra abstraction layer. And how you have to come up with an abomination (see line 81) to fight it?

And how much simpler would it be if they just made SensorManager an interface and made getSystemService() return a concrete implementation?

But I have a hunch that we're stuck with it - it didn't change from Android 1.0 to 4.0.3.

Wonder how many jewels like this are there in Google's APIs.

PS: It is not a fault of OpenIntents' guys that they had to create this abomination, they did the only thing they could under the circumstances - kids at Google didn't leave us any other choice.

They Talk Behind Our Backs, Part II

More of the same...

Ever got those Shopping Helper mails from Newegg that you get shortly after you search for something, but don't buy it? Well...

Last couple of days I've been actively researching all things BeagleBoard.

And guess what, I get a "Shopping Helper" message from Newegg telling me about best selling motherboards... Haven't been on Newegg for ages, and, for sure, haven't had even a fleeting interest in buying one there.

So, how did the information about me searching for *board on Google get to Newegg? I guess I'll never find out. But I get shivers down my spine already.