It wasn't easy but we finally got the Java SDK put together, all of the documentation written, updated the API to the JSR-257 draft standard, wrote JavaDoc, a manual, tested, and then updated all of the other 3 java projects while we were at it. So to all of those people who have written and called wanting the Java SDK: you can download it now :-P

Of course if you're a commercial developer we would very much appreciate it if you would pay for it first, which you can do convieniently at the Semacode Store . Think of how happy you'll make the kitten.

And if kittens don't do it for you, well, let's see, I wrote some interesting info into the official press release that might pique your interest: there are now about 200 million phones that can run the software. That's about 10% of all mobile phones out there. And it's going up. Quickly.

Where did I get that number from? Well, it's a bit complex but basically we took the total sales for each company, and worked out what percentage over time of those sales are semacode-compatible phones (working from our freshly-updated hardware list ). Then we took analyst reports and projections that give the total number of sales in each year, per handset maker, accumulated them, added some spreadsheet pixie dust, and presto - a fairly reliable figure. And it's going to double by the end of the year, by the way.

Also, it's time to come out of the closet and announce that Semacode is a member of a Java Community Process standards committee. JSR 257: Contactless Communication API is defining both RF and visual tag interface for Java ME. This will be THE way to interact with visual tags and RFIDs, smart cards, etc. And since our SDK implements the public draft interface, you can future proof yourself. I've been in the Expert Group since about a month after last year's JavaOne.

Anything else? Semacode is free as always for all non-commercial use. The source code for the Standalone reader (not including the library) is included in that package under a simple BSD license. Go nuts with it.

Do you like the new icons?

Semapedia was featured in an article in the German magazine CHIP . And all I have is this unsatisfying photo of the article. If you have a better copy I'd love to post it here.

That's a picture of one of the Semapedia guys in front of the tower of Pisa, by the way. I'd also love to get my hands on that photo for the apps gallery .

I just posted a little blurb about Semapedia in the application gallery ... basically it's a sampling of some of the hundreds of pretty pictures of semapedia on flickr .

And be sure to check out the blog next week... (foreboding music...)

Slate:

What would happen if a rogue actor managed to get hold of a powerful patent and threatened to detonate it and destroy e-mail as we know it? You'd have the BlackBerry NTP v. RIM case — the tech world's very own Dr. Strangelove. NTP, a one-man Virginia firm, armed with nothing but patents, currently threatens to bring down BlackBerry and with it the sanity of millions of e-mail addicts. A textbook "patent troll," he wants a billion dollars to stand down. What to do?

RIM , the Waterloo company that makes the Blackberry wireless email thingy, is getting pounded by NTP, a one-person company that has only one product: patents. Basically the US patent office issued a patent to NTP that they shouldn't have, and now the onus is on RIM to prove that the NTP patent doesn't apply to them. If they can't, then they will have to pay bucket loads of cash to NTP in settlement or damages.

For some reason it seems as though the judge is forced to assume that the NTP patents are valid. So, RIM can't actually argue in court that the NTP patents are bogus. The judge would have to ignore that. RIM has to have a separate legal battle over the bogosity of the patents, and if that takes longer, then they are screwed. It's a race condition.

Fortunately, for the time being, the damage is limited to the United States only. This kind of patent nonsense doesn't apply to Europe. But that's not certain to remain that way forever. While the US government is considering patent reform, the EU Commission is trying to push through software patents against the wishes of the EU Parliament.

There is just one more thing. Lots of people are saying that RIM has handled this case badly and they should have just settled years ago for a few million dollars. I for one congratulate RIM for taking a principled stand against software patents, whether that was from virtue or ineptitude. By making this such a high profile case, they may be single-handedly helping the case to kill software patents in the US.

PS. For more info on Europe's software patent situation see FFII .

I've been doing a lot of build automation lately. Build automation, it's one of those things that other people did, but I never did. Always seemed a bit of a silly waste of time. Well, come back and say that when you have 4 active interdependent projects, which you need to release all on the same day, with cross-dependencies, manuals, you need to automatically generate XHTML and PDF versions of the manuals, you need to actually, you know, test the software to make sure it works each time you make some changes, etc etc etc.

So yeah, build automation is silly until that day when you really, really need it. Which happened to me recently. So now when I go to the right directory and type ant -f src/build.xml dist it goes and cleans every project and builds it and tests it with real, actual tests, not just to make sure that it runs, but actually scans something or generates a tag and if the test fails the whole build fails and all of that. Peace of mind. Big time.

What else is new? Oh I made this tag, do you like it:

I can't believe it took me 18 months or whatever to figure out that I could make these picture-inside-tag things look good if I just put some whitespace and a thick black border around them. Without the border, it looks like crap. With the border it looks great. Go figure.

Oh yeah. Yes, it scans. And yes, you can make your own with whatever picture you want eh? Just don't cover up too many of the square module things or the border of the tag.

I've been messing around with the software section. It's probably not very good right now. But it's got some whiz-bang new icons and stuff. I'm sure you can make an educated guess as to why I'm updating it. I'll give you a big hint. Now, when I type ant -f src/build.xml web-dist I can automatically push all-new versions of all the software onto the website. And then, when I just change one tiny little string on the site I can automatically flip between old and new versions of all the software and the whole software section will change automatically too.

I kind of went nuts with the colours in the icons though. We'll see if that works out.

I may have mentioned this before but if you go to the commercial site you can now order commercial trials of the software (30-day trials, that kind of thing) and the store is also somewhat improved . Actually a lot. It's also got a lot of whiz-bang automation going on there too. Although I haven't got it going with the whole one-button version upgrade thing yet. Have to do that.

Well I do have a nice little to-do list going on. Integrate FOP directly into the tagger. Finally get around to linking to Guido Sohne s truly awesome and amazing semafox , a cool-ass semacode tag creator written entirely in Javascript. Cool eh? Try it!! Also it's based on open source GPL'd code which I can't use in my software because then I couldn't sell it anymore. Oh well. Guido also has a Mac OS X tagger as well. Check it out!

OK, there's also a fully functional Over The Air download page now for semacode java standalone reader ... at semacode.org/ota .. just point your phone browser there and everything should be cool. Thank you very much to Stan and Alex (well, mainly Stan) at Semapedia for constantly badgering me until I made that work and work properly.

Can I also say that their web page is beautiful?

Subversion rocks. I need to switch everything over to SVN.

Also a big thank you to all the people who have been emailing with hardware page updates . Keep them coming! I'll catch up again soon... I hope :)

That's all for now. Sleep time.

The Sharp J-SH010 . Made in Japan:

30 January 2003

Other convenient functions include a bar code reader and composer as well as a mobile light even brighter than those found in previous models.

(See also here )

Or was it the Sharp J-SH09 ?

On keitai-l Ken Chang once wrote that "the first phone that reads QR code is J-Phone J-SH09 more than nine months before that - back in August/September 2002." But Ken doesn't provide any documentary evidence and I can't find any.

Who's right?