Two weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting up with some of the OpenMoko guys. You've seen me write a little bit about this project, but meeting them and actually getting to play with a device was quite enlightening.
Most foreigners in Taipei take taxis, but not I. My girlfriend gave me a rough estimate how to go to FIC headquarters, yet it was -- rough. I jumped on the right bus, going the right direction, yet didn't really know where to get off. In my broken Chinese I started talking to a group of high school kids, who somewhat pointed me in the right direction. At one point we were coming up to a light and a lady just said: "get off, go down that road." I grabbed my bag and jumped off the bus. The street signs started to resemble the characters I had written down, but I didn't know which direction to go in. I asked a travel agency, and they pointed me in the right direction -- and then it started to rain. I luckily found FIC without getting too wet, and quickly met Sean, the project leader for OpenMoko.
Sean, myself, and several other OpenMoko developers went out to lunch and talked shop. Mickey pulled out a Neo, the hardware platform OpenMoko is going to be based off of. I'll admit, when I saw photos I wasn't really impressed -- but in person, it is pretty sexy. Not too big, but big enough to be functional. In one of my previous posts I mentioned learning C++ back in university, and having basically not touched it since. In a way, I haven't had to, and I've recently found Python, which is just fun. However, I'm so excited about the OpenMoko, I've picked up the K & R bible to read while we are traveling. Not the ideal way to learn a language, but the concepts are somewhat a refresher. I can't wait to play with SIP/IAX on this thing, it will then be my dream phone.
Well, I have one more post to make to get some thoughts off my chest. If you want a postcard, send me an email.