One thing leads to another

My Dad used to have an excerpt from a Winston Churchill speech on the home bulletin board when I was younger - don't know the exact context but I'd guess that it was WWII era - and about all I remember now is the theme "Persistence and Determination" is all that matters in the end. Not creativity, etc, but pure doggedness. And so I've gone through a long process of filing a patent application on my "invention" and multiple iterations with the USPTO, and finally obtained a patent in 2007. Nearly 9 years after I filed the original application! Who knew it could take so long.

There were numerous false starts along the way, but since a prototype would necessarily include a programmable digital camera, with a built-in data transceiver, it was not something that could be produced easily or on a low budget. With the help of others we did get a "photo archival" website up and running, that would allow you to upload pictures, and then share them with friends...

So, after the patent finale, I talked a more technically oriented friend into helping build a prototype, finally realizing that mainstream technology had caught up with me. Soon we had our first J2ME mobile app, tested, and even Java Verified for the Motorola Razr V3xx. If you have an unlocked phone, you're welcome to create an account and try the app out (of course, you should probably do that from your mobile phone, in which case you'd just point your mobile browser to fo2go.com/Fo2Go.jad). It was an exciting day when we got the signed, java verified app ready for distribution!!

But, we soon learned that AT&T has several layers if signing, and one of the functions we use, getsnapshot, is for some unknown reason, only available if you have a manufacturer or carrier certificate. Of course we had been testing with a Motorola bound certificate, so it worked fine, but when you try to load on a locked AT&T MotoRazr v3xx, the darn thing won't load! If anyone out there has an unlocked Razr v3xx, and has any luck with the app, please let me know!

Just another lesson along the way... what's that saying from Nemo "just keep swimming" ?