An Android Documentation Bug I Reported Was Fixed

In April of 2014, I reported a very minor bug in some official android documentation.

Four years later, in 2018, the bug was still present. But for some reason Google decided to simply mark it as "won't fix" and close it.

I added a comment to explain that the problem still existed and was still relevant for anyone trying to follow their Java code sample. Google reopened the bug and assigned it to someone else.

Then, in 2019, Google again tried to clear the bug by simply marking it "obsolete." So I provided the line of code that should change and what it should change to. Google reassigned it again, but, when the assignee tried to fix it, some new technical snag blocked it.

Finally, the bug was escalated to the development team. And now, a little more than six years later, someone actually fixed it.

So, yeah, the system works.

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HowFarNow App

UPDATE (February 12, 2019): I have unpublished the HowFarNow app on the Google Play Store because the permission to send SMS messages automatically is no longer available to apps that do not serve as the main SMS Messages app and do not fit into other narrow categories defined by Google. Google changed this policy recently in order to eliminate malware apps that scanned one’s SMS messages looking for sensitive security codes, etc. (My app does not do that and never did, but because permission to send SMS messages is no longer available to apps like mine, the HowFarNow app’s ability to automatically deliver text messages in a hands free manner has, in effect, been removed by Google. I did try to convince Google that my app was using the permission in accordance with one of their predefined categories, but did not succeed. I also tried to convince them to create a new category for apps such as mine, but failed there too. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.)

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Why I Try Not to Implement Parcelable

The short answer is: Parcelable implementations are overly complicated and brittle,  I’m bad at finding and fixing “Unmarshalling unknown type code” errors and I’m tired of being surprised by them.

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CMS50FWLib Test App Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs your use of the software application CMS50FWLib Test App (“Application”) for mobile devices that was created by Albert Braun. The Application is designed to test the CMS50FWLib open source library.

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WifiDLite

WifiDLite is my experimental, alpha-version, open-source Android library which tries to make it easier to do basic WiFi Direct tasks.

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Browzacado – Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs your use of the software application Browzacado (“Application”) for mobile devices that was created by Albert Braun. The Application is designed to provide information about avocado varieties based on user selected criteria.

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Flying Pants

There are those who plan meticulously. There are those who fly by the seat of their pants. And then there are those who fly by the seat of their pants, become airborne, and say, “Let’s see what happens if I take these off…”

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