As of right now, this is just a teaser, but by the time anyone reads this, hopefully I will have the source code up. 

My new project is a craigslist watcher program.  The background is, anytime I want to search on craigslist for something (cheap), I have to refresh the page all day long.  Of course thousands of others could be waiting for the same item, so what happens most of the time is I find the item too late and lose the item.  I have found other watcher programs , but they did not do what I want (I am sure there are some that cost money).  The sample programs I found could either only search for one item, or only searched new items.  I wanted a program where I could put in a bunch of different search terms, and have the program first load what is currently there, then monitor the feed.  I also wanted to be able to remove items that I know I don't want, but not have them show back up in the list.

 I found some source code that was close to what I want.  It had a bunch of failures, such as only searching one item, using its own search algorythm instead of Craigslist, etc. In the end, I ended up modifying most of the code, and then adding all the functionality I wanted. I have to say, I am pretty impressed with myself on this one.  The program is running great thus far.  I have to do a little cleanup before I post the source, but should have that done in the next few days.  Currently it is in C# connecting to an Access DB.  I am going to convert Access to SQLite to make it a little more portable, especially to convert the app to run on Android. 

 To do: 
Run as a service
Text message
Notification on tabs
Convert to Android
Convert DB to SQLite
Email

I generally don't jump onto the new phone bandwagon, but my old phone, the Samsung i-760 was such a piece of garbage that I figured I would go with the Droid.  I do have to confess, I was pretty excited when I first heard and read about the Droid, so I am sure I was destined to switch anyways.  Let me begin by saying, I will not be comparing this to the the Iphone, you can find that elsewhere.  I will however compare some things to Windows Mobile, which is a silly comparison since Windows Mobile is a terrible operating system that looks just as clugy as it did when they had it on the old ipaq pdas. Really Microsoft, get with it. 

The Droid itself looks fantastic.  It is amazing how slim it is with a fold out keyboard.  I have found the keyboard is really nice.  I do like my old keyboard on the Samsun g a little better as far as how it feels when typing, however this new keyboard has a "@" and a "/" key which my old phone did not.  I really like having those keys.

With my old phone, if I was talking to someone, my phone screen would go into power saving mode which meant I had to turn the phone back on to disconnect.  This was really annoying when being on calls where you have to follow instructions and enter in keys.  The Droid, however, does go into power saving mode, but it detects when you move the phone away from you ear and the screen comes back on.  This is actually really nice.   Speaking of dimming, I have noticed the brightness of the screen changes quite frequently from somewhat dim to really bright.  I haven't figured out this problem yet, but will work on it.

 Listening to music has been much better as well.  On my old phone, the headphone jack was the smaller jack so I had to have a converted.  Also, when listening to music with headphones, when someone called me, the music stopped coming through the headphones and started playing through speakerphone, which was annoying when I was on the train.  The Droid, on the other hand, has a standard headphone jack size and I have not had problems listening to music, even when the phone rings.

One of the only problems I have had so far is with the Google Marketplace.  It seems the search is really bad.  For instance, I wanted to search for a Craigslist application, so I typed in a search term of "craigs".  I got 0 search items.  I had to type in  "craigslist", then a bunch of apps came up.  I tried this with a couple other searches and had the same problem.  I even tried going to the Google Apps website in my desktop browser.  From there I found some apps I wanted.  However, when I tried to find them via my phone I could not find them.  I am a little surprised that Google screwed up the marketplace search, but hopefully they will get that fixed.

I am still getting accustomed to everything.  I will be testing the internet connection after work.  My goal is to see if Pandora will play from the point I leave the office to the point that I get home.  My old phone could not do it for more than a minute without breaking up, and I am in downtown Chicago.  I have a feeling the Droid will do much better, but we will see.