Programming on the desktop is generally a pleasure. OS X comes with it’s own development IDE, Xcode, and a full set of components with complete documentation. For the most part restrictions are not placed on desktop developers. They are able to distribute and license their application as they see fit.

On the other hand, programming on the iPhone is much the opposite experience. The tools and components are still there but if you want to get your program on the device itself you have to jump through hoops. First, you must pay $99 per year to join the program. Then you have to go through this complex process of generating a security certificate (See HC Episode 9) and if you wave your arms around in exactly the right manner you’ll get it to run on your device. If you didn’t wave your arms right you’ll spend the next 30 minutes trying to track down error messages because you missed setting some obscure project setting. Not exactly the pinnacle of user experience I’ve come to expect from Apple products.

Then there’s getting your app in the App Store. I imagine most people have seen the news stories detailing Apple’s confusing and often inconsistent approval process. There’s the one of the app Eucalyptus that was banned from the app store because of its ability to download the Kama Sutra from Project Gutenberg. Which wasn’t resolved until the furor in the media caused Apple to respond. While many people pointed out the fact that Safari is also able to download “offensive” content and neither one have much control over what users search for. What concerns me more though is Apple’s practice of banning apps that “duplicate functionality.” Such as the Google Voice app, GV Mobile. Obviously being an app that allows phone calls and SMS it is duplicating functionality of the iPhone, and it’s easy to imagine why Apple wants to keep such competition off their device.

Now I’m all for fair competition in an open market, but faulting Microsoft for bundling a browser and a media player while allowing Apple and Linux distros to bundle far more software hardly seems like fair market. It’s not as if Microsoft is only including Internet Explorer and then blocking all other browsers from running on Windows. That I would consider to be monopolistic practices, but merely attempting to provide an offering of features equivalent to your competition hardly seems anti-competitive.

Apple, on the other hand, blatantly blocks apps from running on their device that may compete with their own offerings while their process for allowing or denying the distribution of applications is almost completely opaque. I don’t know of a more solid definition of monopolistic practices than intentionally blocking competing applications from running on your platform. Imagine if you couldn’t install Firefox or Camino on your Mac because they duplicated the functionality of Safari.

The argument that it’s okay because Apple has a much smaller market share doesn’t hold much weight with me. I don’t think users consider market share as a part of their purchasing decision, they look at things like price and features. But in antitrust law it seems merely having market share is considered so much of a boon that it requires removing other competitive benefits the company may have.

As mobile platforms like the iPhone become more and more like portable mini-computers, I think a precedent needs to be set that mobile platforms are not so drastically different from the desktop platform where it would be considered absurd to block users from installing whatever they want; good, bad, or otherwise. And it seems to me odd that in this Web 2.0 era where other companies are often criticized for their closed nature, that Apple’s behavior is often tolerated because they produce exceptional products and because they don’t necessarily have the highest market share.

That said, I won’t be getting an iPhone until I’m not forced to switch to AT&T just to get one. Which luckily may be soon.

I voted for Obama. I voted for him because he embodied the spirit and ideals that I wish more people in this country had.

As I was watching the votes come in and Obama was declared the next president, there was at first exhilaration. It was unlike anything I had seen before. All my friends from other countries IMing me, congratulating us. And not congratulating us, Obama supporters, because our nominee won; but congratulating us as a country, as a whole, for pulling off what some thought impossible.

Then McCain’s concession speech. Eloquent, respectful, and inspiring. But at the same time that I was inspired by McCain’s call for unity, I was disheartened by the booing from the audience at the mere mention of Obama. Some may say they were just disappointed. But to me it strikes a deeper chord as a reminder of just how ununited the United States of America is.

A bit sobered by the reaction to McCain’s speech, in the moments before Obama came on it was fear I felt. Fear of what if Obama can’t live up to everybody’s expectations and bring us the new united America I and the world outside of the US wanted to see. What if he doesn’t and we end up looking like fools again to the international community.

Then Obama’s speech. Historic, moving, and yet subdued. Honestly one of the most poignant speeches I’ve ever heard, and I can’t tell you how good it feels to have a president who can speak English after 8 years of “Bushisms.” He spoke to the country as a whole, not as a victor, but as a president, one who cares after the entire country, not just the people who elected him.

Its the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

So despite that everyday I’m still reminded of our divisions, the passing of proposition 8 in California, the bitter reactions of McCain’s supporters. For the first time in a very long time, I have hope for the future of our country. For the first time in a long time, I don’t have to be ashamed of our country in front of my foreign friends. I voted for hope. We mustn’t let this die. I would love nothing more than to see our country finally become the united singular beacon of inspiration that the rest of the world has wanted us to be. I want that future, and that’s why I voted.

• leolaporte - Two speeches that will echo through the years. I have never been so proud to be an American.
• stephenfry - Malagasy people grinning from ear to ear. The world so wants to love America and now they can again
• stephenfry - Oh hurrah! My American friends have just texted me the news!!! Good old America, good old Americans!
• JohnCleese - Huzzah
• glennmc - wow – at a loss for words – crazy night. New hope for the States. Congrats to us all!