[volunteers] Blackberry changes focus

[Alison Chaiken]

Rick writes:
> Yeah, I know:  Joe User isn't going to be willing to reflash his
> smartphone firmware with a community-maintain, 100% open source
> alternative load,

I think we might eventually get there.    I'm astonished that we live
in an era when the average iPhone user considered "rooting" their
phone and that a significant fraction of smartphone users have heard
the term "bootloader."    How many non-technical people downloaded
Apple's SDK and considered writing iPhone apps?   I don't like Apple
any more than you guys, but the transformation in the public's
attitude towards software is positive and remarkable.

Rick alludes to CarrierIQ:
> http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2011-December/006859.html

Yes, I know that MeeGo is dead, but I'd like to point out that I know
that the stock ROM on my N950 and N900 is not running CarrierIQ
because I have ps, cat, more, netstat, emacs . . . on my phones and I
know how to check!

BTW, I would be fascinated to hear a talk about QNX, but since it's
not *nix, I don't think it's right for SVLUG.

Best wishes,
Alison

-- 
Alison Chaiken
(650) 279-5600  (cell)
             http://www.exerciseforthereader.org/
"If all we focus on is scaling, the only progress in society will be
from FarmVille to FarmPlanet."  -- Steve Yegge, paraphrasing