Glass Diary

I'm clearly being cynical, but I'll never understand these evil people. As I said, human history is often a repetition of the rise and fall of evil. I just hope that evil corporations like Google, and evil entities like ISIS, go away sooner than later.

Anyways, I am moving on after spending years of my life on Android, Google Glass, and other Google technologies. What an expensive lesson that was.

I've been considering a few alternative directions for my future, and I'm currently leaning toward building Windows Phone apps. Microsoft seems more open than, say, Apple. If I learned anything from my past experience, the appearance can be deceiving. Google advocates open platforms like "the Web", but the evil things they are doing behind the curtain to small Web publishers using their monopolistic position are without parallel in the modern U.S. history. Google ask us to use Android because it is "open", but what they are currently doing with Android and Play Store to solidify their monopoly, to milk as much money as possible, makes you completely speechless. Regardless, I think, I hope, that Microsoft should be "less evil". Nobody can be more evil than Google once you realize how evil they are. (As I said before, evil often thrives through our ignorance.) I think Windows will be a better platform for me, at least, in the long run.

I just started a new blog, Harry's Memo, to chronicle my new journey. I'm starting from scratch. It's not just an expression. I'm literally starting from ground zero. There is so much to learn. If you are interested in developing apps on the Windows platform, then I hope my new blog can be of some use to you.

Now that I can no longer work on Google Glass apps (and, Android apps, for that matter), I’ve decided to close this blog as well. There will be no more posts. I’m somewhat disappointed in the way that Google treats indie and small-shop developers like myself, and as I said, I firmly believe that this type of vicious practice by big corporations needs to be changed in the future. And, they will, if history teaches us anything. Regardless, I do not have ill will toward anybody. I really hope that Google Glass, and Android Watch and TV or whatever, take off in the consumer market and do well commercially.

I’m a big believer in the wearables, and I’ll find a way to contribute in this exciting field even though I can no longer be an active developer on the Android platform.

I wish you all the best! ~Harry, signing off…….

I've tried counting the programming languages I've ever used in my life, and believe it or not, it was 20 (I may have missed one or two). Wow. that’s quite a lot. These are the languages I used for myself or for my employers over the years. Despite this “large” number, Objective C wasn't one of them. I learned the basics several years ago when the original iPhone came out first, but never had a chance to work on real projects. I used mac from time to time (the last personal mac I owned was iBook based on PowerPC architecture before they switched to Intel, and hence it was quite a few years ago), but I never got into development on this platform for some reason. (I never liked Apple’s “closed” ecosystem. Then again, any closed ecosystem might be a hundred times better than Google’s “open” platform built on deception, in hindsight)

Clearly, iOS being Android’s primary competitor in the mobile world, it might be natural for me to start looking into iOS. I don’t know. I can probably learn iOS and Objective C, and probably Swift rather easily. But, I just got burned by a devil. Would I run to another devil? Although I did a lot of name calling specifically toward Google, Apple may be no different. Probably even worse. I don't know. As I said many times throughout this recent set of essays, the evil thrives in the dark. The fact that I don’t know much about Apple does not mean that it is in any way less evil than Google. One thing to note is that, I’m not sure if anybody have seen it but Tim Cook was on Charlie Rose show a few weeks ago (I only watched the first episode), and he emphatically stated that their “one million developers” was one of the most important assets of their iOS ecosystem (or, something to that effect). Although it might just have been a rhetoric, but it’s still comforting to hear the head of the company say that in a public forum. (BTW, Apple makes 100 million dollars every year just from the developers? Wow.)

I literally grew up in the Windows environment. I mostly used Unix (and, hence X-window) at “work” (I started my “career” in academics), but I did a lot of Windows programming (mostly, as a hobby). I was pretty good with MFC and Win32 native API. When .Net came out first, I started learning C# (it was version 1.0). I even built all these “mobile apps” for “Pocket PC” platform. which was years before iPhone. (I had this pretty decent blackjack apps, which teach you card counting :), etc. Unfortunately, there was no good “distribution channel” for Pocket PC apps.) Microsoft changed their mobile strategy a few times, like “Win CE”, etc., and during this chaos, I ultimately lost interest in Microsoft technologies. Subsequently, iPhone came out and then Android. Since then, when I thought about mobile, it was Android. I had been using Java since its very first release (anybody remember Applet? :)), and Android was such a perfect platform for me although iPhone was clearly the “market leader” at the time. (One of the main reasons why I chose Android over iPhone besides my familiarity with Java was precisely because of this. Android was a newcomer and an underdog. I have a tendency, just like many Americans, to root for underdogs. Wow, who would remember this mighty Android was just a new kid in the block one time.) I've dabbled on various Android apps, on and off, for the last several years. ever since I got my first Android phone, the original Motorola Droid. Sadly, no more Android development for me moving forward. This still feels so surreal to me. You are prevented from doing things you like doing because of these evil-minded corporations who have no social conscience. People often say “life is not fair”, but incidents like this is clearly beyond what might be generally called “unfair”. It feels like I cannot use the bridge any more which I used every day for the last, like forever. It’s like I cannot play the violin any more, which I spent my entire life learning.

Anyways, in some sense, “going back” to Windows might be a natural course for me at this point. (Windows phone is currently an absolute underdog with less than 2% smartphone market share, which is an appealing point for me.) I've been away from Windows dev so long, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. As many of you Windows type may know, MSDN (Microsoft's developer program) has this podcast site, “Channel 9”. I found these video clips from this year’s Build (Microsoft’s developer conference), and started watching some of them.

One of the video I watched was about Xamarin: Go Mobile with C# and Xamarin. Apparently, this tool lets you build cross platform applications using C#, that is, for iOS, Android, and Windows, among others. I thought it was a very interesting idea. It does API mapping at build time, and it builds native binaries for all these different platforms. I started watching this video, and about 47~48 minutes into the playback, this presenter (who was wearing Google Glass from the beginning) did a quick demo for the Google Glass app which he built using C#.

“OK, Glass immortalize the moment” :)

It was kind of humorous in the way he presented this. I recommend you watch at least this portion, if you are a Glass enthusiast. He claims that you can even build Android Wear apps using Xamarin and C#.

I think probably that was the last thing I wrote about Google Glass. :)

Anyways, I think I will probably “immortalize” this moment. Feels like I just got mugged by an evil criminal in the city of Gotham.

Bye bye, Google Glass. Bye bye, Android.

Note 1: This is the tenth post on the topic of Google, Evil, and What Not since my Play Store account was unjustly terminated by Google. Yesterday's post: Available Only on Amazon Appstore.

In the current model, where you can publish your apps on either or both Play Store and Appstore, there is really no incentive for indie developers and small developer shops to publish their apps on Appstore. When Play Store is literally hundreds of times bigger, for small developers (e.g., "long tail"), in terms of the app downloads, why would they even bother to publish their apps on Appstore?

On the flip side, the users (with non-Amazon Android devices), in most cases, do not have real incentive to use Appstore either. Everything they can find on Appstore, and a lot more, are available on Play Store. Why would they even bother to install and visit Appstore?

Clearly, this is a catch-22 problem.

The only way to grow Appstore is to give both users and developers certain incentives to use Appstore. One way to accomplish this is, I think, through exclusive Appstore-only apps program. If certain apps can be found only on Appstore, but not on Play Store, then it’ll give the users incentive to visit Appstore more often. As the number of Appstore-only apps grows, there will be more users. The more users come to Appstore, the more app downloads the developers collectively will get, completing the virtuous cycle of growth.

In order for this to work, the developers should get some compensation when they participate in this Appstore-only apps program since they lose certain amount of audience by not publishing their apps on Play Store. Unfortunately, the size disparity between Play Store and Appstore is currently so large that no monetary compensation would justify the loss if you participate in this Appstore-Only program. Hence, the compensation should be more symbolic or in some other ways.

How about a new section/catalog on the Appstore that showcases the apps that are “available only on Appstore”? This can boost the app downloads to the Appstore-only apps, and it can potentially justify the opportunity cost for the developers.

Thanks for listening. ~Harry

PS: BTW, all my apps are available only on Appstore. :)

Note 1: This (hypothetical) open letter to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, is a part of the set of essays I've been writing on Google, Evil, and Everything else. Yesterday's Post: "And You Too, Amazon?".

Another reason why I was reluctant to write about my experience and post it in public was that we have this “blame-the-victim” culture, whether we would like to admit or not.

If someone says “Google terminated my Play Store account”, then for most people, the first reaction is probably “Google must have a good reason to terminate a developer’s account”, "Whatever he did, he probably deserved it," "Or, at least, he did something bad for Google to take such drastic actions", etc. We often have this blind faith on one side because of certain characteristics of that side (or, because of certain characteristics of the other side, or lack thereof). For example, we tend to favor big companies. Without knowing any detail of the story, we almost immediately lean toward entities which are bigger, or which we are more familiar with, or which are better looking, richer, etc. This is a very interesting phenomenon, and I think it’s often just how our brains work. If we hear a news about a guy having allegedly raped a woman, and you see this woman wearing shorts, or tank tops, or whatever, then our first reaction, for many people, would be that she probably provoked it, or she probably deserved it in some way, or she was at least partially responsible for what happened, etc., without even knowing what exactly happened. The “blame-the-victim” culture is really pervasive, whether you may realize or not, and I think these are indications that we are all “evil” to a certain extent, including you and me.

Call me paranoid, but I really didn't want that type of reaction, express or implied. This is especially true when most consumers think Google is a "good" company. I was one of them too. I was almost a "Google fan boy". Alas. You only realize the truth if you look carefully. Who would have known this dark side of our "beloved" innovative corporation, Google? Clearly, it's an uphill battle to fight this perception for small guys like me. I am not sure how many of the readers who have seen the titles of my posts have just dismissed them because I seem to be making outrageous (in their minds) accusations against one of their most favorite companies?

Furthermore, I’m sure there are really people who enjoy other people’s tragedies. It's hard to believe, but I think it's true. I really did not want to give these "evil people" one more thing to be happy about. But, at the end of the day, the benefits seemed to clearly outweigh the downsides (of me spending time and effort writing these long posts). As I stated before, (1) if my essays help even one developer to benefit in some way, then it has been all worthwhile, my hours and days’ investment, and (2) I really feel it important to share this story in public. One small voice like this can ultimately help take down the giant evil, or change their course, if there are enough such voices, I hope...

After my developer account was terminated, and all my apps were removed, from Google Play Store, I tried to upload new versions of these apps to Amazon Appstore. From my past experience, these apps are normally approved within hours, typically, from an hour to a few hours, at most. (Surprisingly quick process, if you haven’t used Amazon Appstore before.) And, these apps are generally all approved with different time delays, implying that these apps are probably “reviewed” by different people (if people are indeed involved in the process). This time, I made very small changes to the apps. I updated the previous week game results for all of my five different Sports apps (NFL football and European soccer leagues), and nothing else. (Obviously, with this Play Store account termination, etc., I wasn't in the mood to work on new features, or anything.)

Now, these new versions of the apps were not being approved for hours. All of them. Could this have been just a coincidence?

Call me paranoid, but I think Amazon may have found out about the news that these apps were removed from Play Store (Play Store product pages are public, and I presume "competitors" might crawl these product pages on a regular basis), and they might have thought, Oh, this guy must have done something wrong since Google removed this guy's apps. I’m not trying to “play victim” here, but in our pervasive “blame-the-victim” culture, I don’t even seem to get the benefit of the doubt. (Well, it was just my paranoid mind talking to myself. Then again, we’ll never know the truth. BTW, if somebody says “Call me paranoid, but...”, then that means that this person is probably really paranoid. :))

I am thinking at this point, “And, you too, Amazon?”

(I hope the readers understand my mental state at this point. I have done nothing wrong, in my mind. I might have committed some minor transgressions. But, I don’t know what they are. I’m innocent. Again, in my mind. Even if I may not be completely innocent (and, who is?), I have done absolutely nothing that warranted this type of absolutely barbaric punishment by Google (again, read, Mexican drug cartel, beheading). The prospect/possibility that Amazon may punish me as well (for whatever reasons) is making me pretty sad at this point.)

Hours pass by...

About 21 hours later since I submitted the new versions for review, one of my sports apps was approved (which, as I said earlier, had really no difference from the previous version, except for the ten new lines of the weekly scores). And, the new version of my NFL Football Time app was finally approved after about 23 hours.

I guess, Amazon is OK with my apps, at least for now.

Note 1: Yesterday's post on Google and Evil: New Evil Empire - Google.

In some sense, they are right. It’s a service provided by a private company. If you don’t like it, then don’t use it. Any private business (at least, in the U.S.) has the right to refuse service to anyone for any or no reason at all. If you don’t follow our real-name policy, then you are out. That’s reasonable. Clearly, this is not illegal.

But big corporations like Google have social responsibilities. I don’t mean donating to charities, etc. by social responsibilities.

Social responsibility, in my view, is like doing things in the way the government would do in some sense, with the lack of better words. The government does not discriminate. The government is generally open to everyone. No government says, if you don’t like our policy, leave the country.

The bigger a company becomes, the more and bigger social responsibilities it has.

For example, a mom and pop shop around the block may be able to refuse service to anyone for any or no reason at all. But, bigger corporations cannot, and should not, do that, in general. Some of the readers may not agree with me on this subject. (BTW, no company/nation can satisfy everybody on everything. Obviously. But, I was talking about the “attitude”.) Let me elaborate.

First of all, in the modern world and in the capitalistic society like the U.S., the line between the “government” and “private sector“ is rather blurry. A lot of things may be done by the government or by the private companies. It’s just a matter of the “current” law, which is bound to change over time. For example, postal service was traditionally in the realm of government’s responsibility. Now, however, there are multiple private companies that provide similar or competing services to the USPS. These private companies’ social responsibilities (beyond their duties to comply with federal and state regulations, etc.) are exactly the same as that of the federal postal service. They cannot just say, we are private companies and hence we can do whatever we want. Even the most “governmental” work like military task is partly privatized these days. (Ever heard of that scary Blackwater?) Recently, as many of you are well aware, the U.S. space program has been privatized. Now, there are multiple space companies in the U.S., like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Orbital Sciences (which had this unfortunate launch accident a few days ago). Can you imagine a space company run by a few sociopaths who know nothing but profits? Social responsibility can mean many different things, but ultimately these big corporations need to be open and inclusive and do not act like a Mafia.

Let’s suppose that a highway network in a certain area, say, Northern California, has been privatized. It’s clearly a hypothetical scenario, but not totally inconceivable considering, for instance, that certain public toll roads in the U.S. are operated by private companies. Let’s suppose that a company called Elgoog runs this highway network. Elgoog institutes a set of rules within the bounds of the applicable law. For example, Elgoog says, if you speed three times on this highway (mind you, I’m not talking about three accidents), then you are out. You can never drive on this highway ever again.

What do you think? Will you ever want to live in a country like this?

Some of you might still want to say, OK, OK, but what happens in Google Play Store is a completely different story.

Why is it different? Because Google built Play Store? Because Google owns Play Store?

First of all, if you think that Google built Play Store by themselves and they “own” it, then you are delusional. Things like this do not happen in vacuum. It was a community effort, and although Google reaps all the financial benefit from this collective effort, Google still has social responsibilities.

Let’s suppose that the government (which really means “the people” in a democratic country) has created a law that states that you can build a bridge anywhere you like, say, along the Colorado river. You can charge as much toll as you like to the vehicles crossing your bridge. Many companies have built many bridges over the years, and one of them, say, built by Elgoog, was pretty popular. Virtually all vehicles crossing the river ended up using this particular bridge. I don’t know why. It could have been the location, or it could have been its price. The toll here was cheaper than other bridges. Or it could have because the public road infrastructure connecting this bridge were better than the others in the area. Or, it could have been because the bridge was built as “open structure” in which anybody can see how the bridge was built and they can even replicate the bridge somewhere else if they wanted. Over time, many of the bridges along the Colorado river closed down since it did not make sense financially. Elgoog had a share of 95% traffic crossing the Colorado river. Unfortunately, Elgoog was run by a group of people who had no social conscience. They created a strict law which they thought would improve the driving experience across the bridge. They believed imposing these rules would increase the traffic and ultimately help increase their bottom line. The rules included,

if your car is white, then you cannot cross the bridge since it reflects too much light.

If your car is yellow, then you cannot use the bridge (whose color was yellow) since it’s barely visible.

If your car’s license plate include number “666” or string “devil”, then you cannot use the bridge since it may scare other drivers.

What’s most interesting about Elgoog's policy is that they have made the rules as broad and as vague as possible so that they can enforce their rules without any protest or resistance. They post their policy at both ends of the bridge.

“No stand-out rule” - Your car should blend in with other cars.

“No intimidation rule” - Your car should promote peace and not hatred.

“In Case of Multiple Violations” - If you repeatedly violate our rules or if your violation is especially serious, then you’ll be permanently prevented from crossing this bridge. This rule applies to all the cars which you or your family own, not just the car in violation. If your transgression is deemed especially heinous, then we will confiscate your car while it is on the bridge, which is our private property, and sell it and take the proceed as a fine for your unthinkable crime.

Elgoog catches seemingly random cars and tells them they are in violation of their rules. Of course, Elgoog does not tell you how you violated their policy. You’ll never know if it was your car’s color or your car’s license plate, or whatever else. Elgoog just lurks below the surface like an evil spirit until you have violated their policy three times and then they take your car and ban you from the bridge for the rest of your life.

What do you think?

Private business (at least in the U.S.) generally has the legal right to refuse service to anyone for any or no reason at all (unless it’s discriminatory). But, you have to understand that the social responsibility transcends the law. The practice by Elgoog in the above hypothetical scenario may not be illegal. But, do you think that’s acceptable? How about that three-speeding-and-you-are-out policy? There is really no bright line here. A corner restaurant can refuse to serve food to anyone. If you are denied a service in this particular restaurant, then you may be upset. But, that’s OK. There are thousands of other Italian restaurants in the area. However, if you are denied access to road or to a bridge (even for reasons the company may think justified), then you’ll be pretty pissed off or even devastated. As I said, the social responsibility is often commensurate with the size of the company and/or the type of service/product they provide, etc.

With greatER power comes greatER responsibility.

Now, please tell me why denying access to Play Store (for users or for developers) are different from denying access to a road or bridge. Again, don’t tell me that they are different because Google is a private company. Their social responsibility (whether the company is for profit or non-profit) is really no different from that of any organization run by the government. The problem seems to be the people at the top of big companies like Google do not seem to understand this.

Telecommunications, Internet, and all these things have the same, if not more, importance as other social infrastructure, like public road or bridges (to varying degrees). The fact that they are run by private companies (through competition) does not necessarily make them less important. In many socialist countries, these types of businesses may be run by the governments or the companies wholy or partially owned by the government. Even if you are a hard-core capitalist, think about those scenarios. If companies like AT&T and Verizon, or Google and Apple, or PG&E, or Comcast, etc. start running their companies like a bunch of Mafia, then what will happen to the society?

Google seems like a Hillbilly. They made so much money so fast over the past couple of decades that they do not know what they are doing. All they know how to do is to make money. Make more money, and make more and more money.

Can you imagine self-driving car service run by evil corporations like Google?

Social responsibility can mean many different things.

Let’s talk about just one more example. Let’s suppose that the CEO of the Elgoog corporation one day decides that he has made enough money from the bridge, and no longer needs the bridge. He orders to shut down the bridge immediately. Can you imagine such a scenario? If not, why not? Likewise, Larry Page, the Google CEO, one day realizes that he is making so much money from Android, and he decides that he no longer needs any more money than he already has. He decides to shut down Play Store and stop working on Android OS effective immediately. Again, things like this will never happen. Why not? There can be thousands of reasons. For one thing, people expect certain “continuity”. It does not matter whether Google “owns” Play Store. They cannot just shut it down. (This is because they do not really “own” it even though they have the right to milk all the profits from Play Store.) There are device manufacturers and Android phone users and developers, etc. etc. in the “ecosystem”. No rational person can go ahead and close down a bridge or Play Store, which is really a part of the “social fabric”. Unless you are a psychopath (or, Kim Jung Un), you would not even think about doing such a thing. This expectation of “continuity” (which does not necessarily mean “forever”) is a very important part of the stable civilization. A social responsibility of an individual or an organization (whether it is for profit or not) often includes ensuring this continuity as much as possible. When Google terminates the developers’ accounts and removes all their apps, what happens to the end users? What happens to the developers? In some cases, apps may have a large number of users. What happens to them? What Google does to these users, as well as to the developers, can only be compared to those done by psychopaths who do not understand this simple rule of social responsibility.

It should also be noted that banning developers to Play Store for life is also very different from banning a patron to a corner restaurant or a grocery store, for instance. Developers who want to use Play Store as their app distribution channel may have spent months or even years to learn and practice Android software development. Dining out is clearly different. It requires little or no preparations in comparison. The Play Store case is more comparable to a student being denied an admission to a school for which the student has studied and worked for years. For example, a student learns and practices the violin for years, and he becomes really good. One day, he applies for the Juilliard school which has been his dream in his entire life. The school denies the admission and does not give the reason. The real reason behind the denial was because of his race or look or whatever. But, the school cannot say it because it’s illegal or they know it’s wrong (e.g., ethically), etc. Instead, the school only says he was immoral (or, they claim that they saw he spit on the ground, or whatever) and he was not fit for the school. The student is devastated. He invested his entire life for this goal, and now his dream is completely shattered with no fault of his own.

I can give many other reasons why Google should not treat Play Store like a small mom-and-pop grocery store, but I think you get the point. Unfortunately, whatever Google is doing is probably not illegal, at least in the current law. We can cry and yell and do whatever, but ultimately if Google does not realize what they are doing is truly evil, there will be no changes (or, unless “the people” start regulating this so that there will be less evil).

In many sci-fi stories, the future is rather bleak. Often they describe the dystopian world where evil corporations rule the world, and disfranchised people live in the underground. There are so many such stories that they are almost cliche. I never understood, however, why people would see/predict this type of future. That is, until recently.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced. Maybe, that’s where we are really heading. If you see what evil corporations like Google are currently doing, then that type of future seems almost inevitable.

Just to be clear, although I, from my recent experience, am almost exclusively using Google as an example in these posts, many big corporations seem to operate more or less in the same way. They do many evil things. (Some do less evil than others.) And, we tend to forgive and forget what they do over time. Often we do not realize what they are doing is an evil thing. Sometimes we do not even know what evil things they do behind the curtain. For example, one day we may hear Walmart does business with evil companies abroad which use child labor. And, we get outraged (at least, most of us who feel empathy). Then, a few days or a few weeks later, we completely forget about it, and then go to Walmart again to shop. One day, we may hear that big corporations like Apple use tax loopholes to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax, and we all feel outraged (at least, some of us who understand how evil, although not illegal, this type of business practice is). Then, the next day, we go to Apple Store to buy iPhone.

I don’t know. Evil thrives through our self-interest and indifference, and above all through our ignorance. All we can do is to expose evil and increase the awareness, and ultimately encourage other people to do the right thing. Who would have known Google was committing such heinous and evil acts to Android app developers in the ongoing basis behind that hypocritical “Don’t Be Evil” persona?

Evil thrives in Darkness.

So, on October 21st, 2014, Google terminated my Play Store developer account.

Now, I do not even have to state how evil and vicious this action was, if the readers agree with me on certain points I've presented so far for the last seven days. Google has built an Android ecosystem including Play Store over the years with the help of numerous small developers and users/early adopters like myself. Now, I’m just one of the millions of developers and one of the billions of users. It seems futile at this point reiterating that Google does not really “own” Play Store, that Google has social responsibility, and that whatever they are doing to Android app developers is vicious and evil. I've used many different “platforms” as a developer for the last few decades, but what Google is currently doing to Android developers is really unprecedented. I've never seen/experienced such a heinous crime in my entire life.

I now have no energy left to further state that the disproportionate and unreasonable “punishment” like banning developers from Play Store for life (in many cases) is so evil or whatever, or that the livelihoods of many developers depend on the fair operation of Play Store, etc. It does not matter. I don’t think I can convince even a single person that what he or she is doing is an evil thing. If whoever at Google does this egregious act thought, even for a second, it was a bad thing, then he/she would not have done in the first place. I can almost see this person (likely a group of people) saying “it’s just business” like a Mafia while hundreds of developers’ lives are being ruined, literally.

The draconian measures like the permanent account termination is many times egregious than just an app removal. Obviously. If your account is terminated, then all your apps under your account are all permanently removed as well, which means it indirectly punishes all the users of these apps as well, as I stated earlier. It may and will affect many people’s lives in the fundamental way. How evil do you have to be to do things like this to human beings, most of who do not deserve such Mexican drug cartel-style punishment. Do you not know? Or, do you not care?

Following the “real life” analogy again, suppose that you go about doing your everyday thing. You may drive on a public road and go to a restaurant which is owned and operated by a private entity, and you may go to this new Santa Clara Stadium to watch 49ers football games. Most of the time, you do not pay attention, and you should not, whether you are going through the public properties or private properties. That’s just life. It’s all intertwined, with all small and large private business entities sharing and providing all these services we all enjoy/utilize, for profit or not.. That’s how our social fabrics are built. As I said, bigger entities tend to carry more social responsibilities, in general. If one day you are denied a service from a restaurant, that’s probably OK, in most cases. If you are denied an access to Santa Clara football stadium, which, although privately operated, is built based on the public support (including the law), and if you are a 49er’s fan, then you’ll be probably devastated, especially when you think you don’t deserve such a drastic action, whatever you have done. If companies like this Stadium or Google think that whatever they have built, or are building, are their own and they can do anything they want, then … the dystopian future is surely awaiting us.

I feel really helpless before this absolute evil. Evil hits you so fast and so hard that you do not even know what hits you. I’m still in shock. I still cannot believe things like this happen in this 21st century world, and especially in the United States of America.

I feel like the person who got killed while resisting the police arrest (with no disrespect to the person who tragically died). Whether I was in the right is almost irrelevant at this point. It happened so quickly, and I am now dead. I wasn't really prepared for vicious evil like this.

Evil seems to always win…..

Note 1: This is my 7th daily post on the subject of Google and “evil” and everything else. Here's the post from yesterday: Evil is What You Do.

What is evil? And, why do people do evil things?

Generally, people do not think they are evil. No sane person will think he or she is evil. This is a very interesting aspect of “evilness”. Few people do evil things while thinking they are doing evil things. This, I think, further spreads the evil. Evil is like Ebola virus, which transmits from person to person and stays dormant for a while before it manifests itself. Most of the time, you do not even know if you have the virus. Once it shows symptoms, you become contagious, and you further spread the evil.

Clearly, there might be “pure evil”. A serial killer who kills other human beings just for pleasure. A gangster who ruthlessly kills innocent people. A drug cartel lord who sells drugs to schoolchildren. A serial rapist who rapes and kills random people. Etc. etc. But, in the vast majority of cases, evil is done by people just like you and me. And, most of the time, they do not think, even for a second, that they are doing evil things. And, that’s the most intriguing part of this whole “evil” business. I don’t think that the people who created, and approved, this Google Play Store policy and the rules for enforcement, for instance, were thinking one day, “Oh, I am going to do evil things today. I am going to take away livelihood of hundreds of developers per day who do not respect our Policy and I am going to teach them real lessons. I am going to show them who is the real boss. Oh. I am going to show them if you cross Google then their life is over as a developer. Oh No. I am really going to show them they are nobody, just one out of millions of developers, who we can afford to treat like vermin.” I’m not sure if anybody actually thinks like this unless he/she is a real sociopath (or, a lawyer :)). But, nonetheless that’s what happens. Evil things are done by you and me who sometimes think that they are doing the right things (in their minds) or at least that their actions are “justified” or "warranted" (in some ways).

I don’t remember all the things that were going on a few weeks ago on the news (and, there were a lot), but I can remember a few things now. For example, the “domestic violence” issue was on the news all the time following the sensational video clips of the Ravens football player Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancee and then dragging her out of the elevator as if she were a sag of garbage. I don’t know much about this player, but you can see how “evil” that action was based on a few second clips. Often it only takes a glimpse to realize how evil a person is. Not all sociopaths go on killing people like Jodi Arias, but the moment you hear her say anything you realize that this could be a truly evil person, right or wrong. (By the way, this woman who was knocked out unconscious actually married Ray Rice after the incidents like this, which I presume was not an isolated incidence. Another interesting thing about evil is that we are actually rather tolerant to evil, for various reasons (including ignorance, indifference, and self-interest, etc.), which provides a fertile ground for evil to thrive. More on this later.)

In any case, the reason why I brought this up is that I thought the “domestic violence” was kind of crime that showed many facets of “evilness”. First of all, it is a crime committed by the stronger to the weaker. It is really a cowardly crime and only an evil person can, and will, do such a thing. It is also a crime that often goes unpunished or even unnoticed, which further encourages cowards to keep committing these crimes. One of the interesting arguments made by many of these perpetrators who batter their spouses is that they did it because their spouses “provoked” them. Clearly, domestic violence is a complicated issue and we may never rid our society of this heinous crime, and I’m not going to pretend that I know what I’m talking about here, But, this particular argument caught my attention. They, the criminals, seem to think that their actions were justified. Of course, if I wasn't provoked then I would never have raised my hand (or, whatever weapons I use normally to hit my wife). Of course I would never hit my wife for no reason at all. Of course, that makes sense. I’m not a bad guy. I don’t know if you see where I’m going with this. Evil is rarely black and white. A lot of times, evil is disguised even as “good intentions”. Evil almost always has good excuses and explanations associated with them. That’s how evil survives and even thrives.

In another news, a policeman (presumably, accidentally) killed a man who resisted arrest in New York a few months ago. This person was a big man (~400 pounds) and he might have had some heart problems, I don’t remember the details. You can google it if you are interested. The video clip of the policeman grabbing him through choke hold and repeatedly hitting his head on the ground got national attention at the time. The death might have been accidental. I don’t know. (I think there is probably a criminal charge filed against this officer who did the choke hold.) But, regardless, the way the whole thing played out really saddened me. This officer clearly, most likely, did not have the intent to kill this person. He was just doing his job. He was just doing the right thing (in his mind). This person resisted arrest, intentionally or due to his health problem (he kept saying “I cannot breathe” in the video), and hence the officer just wanted to show him who was the boss. That’s where the evil is born. The police officer probably was thinking at the time that using excessive force was “justified” under the circumstances. In this particular case, sadly this person was killed. But, regardless, the action itself clearly shows the evilness. We talk about “police brutality”, etc., but think about all the incidents that never get media attention. (BTW, there were a few "high profile" cases involving the police at the time, including the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.) I don’t think these policemen are inherently bad people. Some of them just succumb to this temptation of doing evil things because they think that they have the right to do so. CNN brought in a few “experts” and did some interviews to hear “both sides” regarding the tragic death of this poor man. One person (I think, he was a retired police captain, or something like that) actually said, in so many words, that this person deserved to die because he resisted the police arrest. WHAT? I was absolutely flabbergasted. Do people really think like that? How evil are you? (BTW, using chokehold by the policeman is apparently not permitted in the state of New York. But, that’s just details.) This person on the ground was begging for mercy. He could not breath. These policemen brutally attacked him, and because he was “resisting arrest”, they somehow decided to use more excessive force, which ultimately resulted in his death. Does a policeman think like, “Oh, this big guy is resisting. I should show him who is really the boss. I’m going to pin him down and crush him like a bug”? Really? Again, this is a complex issue and I don’t pretend to know what exactly happened. But, the fact that there are people who think like “He should not have resisted the arrest in the first place. If you do, anything can happen” really bothers me. Unfortunately, I now realize that the world is full such “evil” people. “You should not have broken up with me. Now you have only yourself to blame.” That’s probably what the sociopath Jodi Arias was thinking when she decided to kill her ex-boyfriend, in the most brutal way. But, think about all these “dormant” sociopaths among us. Not all of them go out and kill other people like Jodi Arias. On the contrary, probably a very small fraction of these people manifest any violent behavior (at least, in physical way). Think about it. That coworker of yours sitting right next to you may be actually a sociopath who has a potential to destroy you in some way, if triggered. (Of course, I’m half kidding here, but then again you never know. As I said, I see things in gray scale, more like in the bell curve. It’s a matter of degree. Some people are more evil than others, and vice versa.)

Why is Google’s action of indiscriminately removing apps and terminating developer accounts any different? (Clearly, Google, the corporation, comprises human beings. Google being evil clearly reflects the nature of the people working there, to a large extent.) Google has this Play Store policy. And, some people at Google clearly must think like this: “You should not violate our sacred policy. If you do, and especially if you do more than twice, we are going find you and your friends and family and everybody related to you, and crush all of you like a maggot. It does not matter whether it was a simple mistake or whether you didn't have malicious intent. We do not care. We are going to destroy your lives so viciously that you would never even think about violating our policy even in your wildest dreams. Don’t blame us. We are just doing the right thing. Whatever we do, you clearly deserve it.”

I don’t know. Do people really think like this? How evil do you have to be?

Do people at Google know that what they are doing is almost like killing a person simply because he resisted arrest (whose only fault was he was selling (illegally) a few cigarettes)? The only difference is that the New York police might have killed the man unknowingly, by accident. While Google clearly does this knowingly, and with clear evil intent.

In another news, Tony Stewart, legendary NASCAR driver, killed a fellow driver on the race track. I think it was some time in August. He was later cleared of any wrongdoings. Not in the court system. But, the DA never even filed a charge. This incident really troubled me. You can see this young driver (I just googled and his name was Kevin Ward, Jr.) hit by Tony Stewart during the night race in a video clip. The incident itself, as shown in the clip, does not reveal much. But, was it really an accident? I think not. According to the story, there was some altercation between the two while driving. This young driver stopped the car and got out in the middle of the race, infuriated. It does not matter whether it was a right thing to do. It does not matter whether it was smart of him to get out of the car. In that situation, while you are driving and this “lunatic” gets out of his car and waves at you to stop, what would you do? Pretending to not have seen him and just run him over?

What do you think really happened that night? Nobody will know because we cannot know, ever, what was going on in Tony Stewart’s head at that moment. But, I see evil. Tony Stewart actually wanted to go on the following day’s race despite the fact that he just killed a human being, accidental or intentional. He only decided not to race due to the public pressure. Is Tony Stewart a kind of person who does not feel an empathy or a remorse or guilt? I said it before. Truly evil people get away with murders, literally.

And, often the most evil people are the most “successful” ones in the society.

One of the biggest and saddest things that were happening a few months ago was the war between Israel and Palestine. Even though I say “war, we all know that it wasn't a war. It was a massacre and genocide. I have nothing against Israel or I’m not “on the side of Palestine” or anyone. (So, you do not have to call me “anti-semitic” or whatever. I hate labels. And, I think the people who only use labeling words in every argument like “anti-Israel” or “racist” or “sexist” or “homophobic” or whatever are just morons. OK, there I said it, another labeling word. /-))

I still see a lot happening in the region even at this point (like innocent children being killed on both sides of the border), but the war a few month ago was much more serious, one of the biggest conflicts between Israel and Palestine in many years. If you remember, a few Israel students were kidnapped and killed by Hamas, which caused this war. Israel blocked the Palestine borders and started air strikes. Palestine launched missile attacks. (Don’t know, don’t remember, and don’t care, who started what exactly.) Ultimately, Israel’s ground troops went into Gaza, which lasted a few weeks. At the end of this war, a couple of thousand innocent Palestinians, including women and children, ended up dead. As stated, the word “war” is clearly an euphemism. Israel has overwhelmingly stronger military force. These two side are really no match. Only a few missiles shot by Hamas really landed in Israel. Israel’s casualties and property damages were orders of magnitude less than those in Palestine.

Why does Israel do this?

Throughout this conflict, the spokesman for Benyamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel, was on CNN, and he kept saying the same thing. “Israel has the right to defend itself”. I do not disagree. But, what does that mean, really? Do you have to kill 500, or however many, Palestinian people for each Israelite killed? Regardless, the point is that most people in Israel, if not all, really believe that what they are doing is the right thing. Even taking thousands of innocent lives is “justified” for their existence. As I said, “evil” often means doing the things which you believe are right or justified, or in some way warranted. “Since Hamas attacked first and killed our children, we are going to destroy them with overwhelming power. We will have to really really punish them so that they will never even think about provoking us again for a while.” I don’t know if they really think like that, but as I said, disproportionate response like this is often the hallmark of evil. It does not matter if you think you are the “good guy”. Evil is what you do.

During the war, there was an “interesting PR war”. Israel’s air strikes (presumably targeting missile launchers, or Hamas leaders, etc.) sometimes hit non-military areas including schools and what not. Israel claimed that Hamas was using women and children as “human shield” and their missile launchers were hidden in those residential areas. Israel even produced a photo that showed a missile launching from those areas. However, is killing women and children really justified because “they” used them as human shield? Is doing evil things justified if used for fighting evil? Do “evil people” deserve “evil treatment”? When does the evil stop?

Here’s an interesting question I've been thinking:

Would you rather die than kill?

Suppose that you are driving on a one-lane road along the coast. On the one side, it’s a mountain, and on the other side, it’s a cliff, and if you fall then you’ll fall into the sea.

While you are driving, a woman suddenly appears on the road right in front of you. There is no time to hit the brake. If you keep driving, you’ll hit the woman and she’ll definitely die. On the other hand, if you try to avoid her by steering the wheel, then you’ll fall into the sea and you’ll definitely die from the fall. You have a split second to decide. What would you do?

I presume that most people think they choose to live (even if they have to take another person’s life). I could be wrong though. I sometimes think that I might choose to die than kill under that situation. But, I’m not really sure. The will to live (at any cost) of a human being, or any living animal, is such a strong force.

Now, to complicate things a bit, suppose that if you hit the pedestrian, she may or may not die, say, with X% chance of dying and (100-X)% chance of not dying. Likewise suppose that if you fall into the sea, there is Y% chance of dying and (100-Y)% chance of not dying. If you have answered you’d rather kill than die, then at what point (in terms of X and Y) you’ll consider steering the wheel to avoid hitting the pedestrian? And, vice versa. If you have answered you’d rather die than kill, then at what point you’ll be OK with hitting the woman?

Evil is not just about serial killers or Satan or psychopaths or career criminals. Evil is often disguised as what you see every day and what you do every day. Evil is often disguised as the right thing to do. Evil is often associated with self-righteousness. Evil is often about self-preservation at any cost.

Let’s see one extreme example of the above question. Would you rather die than kill? Let’s suppose that X==100% and Y==0%. That is, if you hit her, she’ll definitely die, and if you swerve to avoid her, then you are really in no danger of getting killed. You may get hurt a bit or your car may be damaged a little bit, but that’s about it. Clearly, this is not a realistic situation. Nobody will know these exact numbers, X and Y, especially in the situation that requires a split second decision. But, let’s assume that is the case. In this example with X==100% and Y==0%, most of the people probably try to avoid hitting her. But, some people may not. I don’t know. Are these people, if such people exist (and, I’m sure there are), are they evil? (Again, think of the situation by gradually changing the numbers. What if X was 95% and Y was 10%? Etc. etc.)

Are they evil? I should like to think so. The act is clearly evil in my view, which in my definition makes the driver evil, at least in this situation. (A drug cartel lord may kill tens of innocent people during the day and he may still be a great father to his children at night like an angel.) Often we will not know if a person has a potential to commit (big) evil acts. Given a trigger, a person may turn to the dark side, so to speak. You may have heard of the school shooting in a high school in the Washington state a few days ago. A lot of his friends and family all say that he was such a normal and nice boy/person. One day, he does evil things with virtually no warnings. As I said, however, there are also truly evil people in the world. Even for such people, committing “big” evil acts are rather rare. I don’t think many of Jodi Arias’s old friends and coworkers knew she had potential to commit such heinous crimes (although she was doing violent things like slashing the tires of her ex-boyfriend’s car, etc. before the murder, which could have been an early warning.) (BTW, if you haven’t seen her trial, you may not know what I’m talking about. She is a cold-blooded psychopath. I’m not just talking about the brutal and premeditated murder. You have to really see her demeanor and how she lies, etc. Someday, we may have to open up her brain (I mean, postmortem), if possible, and see what is really going on in her head.)

Evil is often associated with “power”. The power can be a trigger for evil people to act out. A policeman (who has authority/power) may start doing (small) evil things once he wears the uniform while he may be such a gentle and nice person off duty. Corporations may start doing such unimaginable and ruthless things as they become bigger and more powerful. Or, evil may be innate in these people/corporations. It may be just that only the people/corporations with real power, by definition, can do real damages to other people and wreak havoc to their lives. I don’t know.

The driver, in the above hypothetical scenario, is in the position of power. We can often see how evil this person is, or can be, in situations like this.

Google has grown in the last couple of decades to become one of the biggest and most profitable, and most powerful corporations in the world. Google has done many evil things over the years. (Like, destroying the lives of “web spammers”, etc., justified or not.) Often, those do not affect me or you, and we just move on. And, meanwhile, the evil gets bolder and stronger in darkness and it grows bigger and bigger fueled by our indifference.

Note 1: Yesterday's essay on Evil, Google and Android: "2014 Football Time for NFL" - Not Available on Play Store.

I may have violated copyright law or may have committed this awful “impersonation” and “deceptive behavior” crime as accused by Google. I don’t know. I do not believe so. But, some of the readers might want to know what actually happened (as far as the publicly available information is concerned; obviously we’ll never know what was going on in Google’s evil mind), and hence I (somewhat reluctantly) decided to post the app description here. Remember, the argument I’m making in these essays is not really whether I did or did not violate the Google’s sacred policy (so sacred that they will try and destroy your lives if you even think about violating it). I do not believe I did. I can say with 100% confidence that I did not violate any laws. But, it’s hard to say the same thing against these arbitrary rules (Google’s “policy”) which are extremely broad and vague. As I said, I cannot even defend myself against this absurd and ridiculous “charges” because I don’t even know exactly what I am charged for. Some of the readers might think/say, Oh, you violated this. Oh, this was the problem based on the app description. I don’t know. I do not care at this point (because it’s too late anyway). In any case, the real arguments I’m making here have been posted in the last few days, and some more arguments will be made on later post(s), especially regarding “what evil means” and “why people do evil things”.

BTW, these broad accusations do not even specify whether the violations were in my app’s descriptions or in the actual content of the app. If you are really in an investigative mood, then you can download my app from Amazon Appstore: 2014 Football Time for NFL, that is, if it's still available when you read this (more on this later). The only real visible difference is that the Player Store edition of the app does not mention Amazon Appstore and the Appstore edition does not mention Google Play Store (e.g., in the About page), as mandated by their TOS's. The two editions have some other minor differences, but they are irrelevant for our discussion. As I wrote before on this blog, and as many Android developers know, Android’s new build system based on Gradle allows for building different “build flavors” rather easily. And, that’s how I have maintained these multiple editions since 10/08/14. (That is, until 10/21/14.)

So, here you go, my football companion app description in its entirety. (The numbers in parentheses are the maximum number of characters allowed in those fields.)

Title (30)

2014 Football Time for NFL

Short Description (80)

Football companion/second screen app for NFL 2014 Season.

Full Description (4000)

We are back! Please see the note below.

The wait is finally over! The 2014 NFL football season starts today, September 4th, 2014, with Super Bowl XLIX to be played on February 1st, 2015. We've just launched a new football app just in time for the 2014 NFL season opener. Watch all games of NFL 2014, regular season as well as playoffs and Super Bowl, with this simple and yet powerful companion app. We'll try and update the app for the next 17 weeks or more as the season progresses. Please check it out and let us know if you have any feedback or feature requests.

This app provides NFL game schedules for the 2014 season, and lets you keep track of the game results.

Pick winners and predict game scores. Which teams will be the division winners? Which teams will make it to the playoffs at the end of the season and become the conference champions? The Football Time app helps you to manage your predictions.

"Touchdown! Touchdown!" While watching a game, you can easily share the exciting moments with friends and with the world.

Note 1. From the Game Calendar, click on any day or week to view the regular season game list of the given day/week. Or, you can view the complete list of weekly games from the "Weekly Game Dashboard". Note 2. Try press or "long press". In general, the app heavily uses touch-based interactions (although it's not always obvious at first from the UI). Try press or long press on different parts of a screen. Depending on where you touch, different actions may be triggered, which you will find "intuitive" over time. Note 3. This app does not provide live scores or stream live videos (although we periodically update the app with match results). It is primarily designed to be an interactive companion app which can be most useful during live games (aka "second screen app").

Nominative Use: The football team logos/names, as well as the NFL logo/name, used in this app are solely for the purposes of identifying the respective teams/organizations, and their use does not imply affiliations or endorsements of any kind.

Disclaimer: This app was not created or endorsed by NFL.

Note to the Users of the original "2014 NFL Football Time" app:

For some unfathomable reason, our original NFL football companion app was suspended by Google on 9/18/14 with absolutely no prior warnings, and we were unable to provide any further updates to the original app since then. We sincerely apologize to our early adopters/users and believers of this app and our vision. Unfortunately, the only way for us to continue working on the app was to publish a brand new app (with a different application ID) on Play Store. (We have no way to appeal Google's arbitrary decision, even if that were possible, since they do not provide any specific reasons or explanations for suspension other than broad accusations like "IP violations" or "deceptive behavior", etc., which we categorically deny.) Despite this setback, however, we are committed, more than ever, to providing the best football companion app on Android. We will be looking forward to your continued support!

So, tell me. What god awful crime did I commit to deserve this capital punishment?

I'm reluctant to use big words like "evil" against people/corporations like Google (who do many good things to the society as well) when there are so many evil things (I mean, satanic evil) going on in the world. Child labor, sex trafficking, human slavery, mass murders/genocide, .... But, honestly I don't know how else to call it. What Google does to (some) Android app developers is really evil, in every sense of the word. In some parts of the world, if you are accused of petty theft, or shop lifting, for instance, then they cut off your hands so that you can never shoplift again, ever. If that is not evil, then what is?

Note 1: This is the fifth article on the subject, "Google, Evil, and everything else". Yesterday's post: Riddle: What is Yours, But Others Use it More than You?.

In hindsight, that was the beginning of my demise (as an Android developer), so to speak. NFL, for example, is well known for their absolutely ruthless actions to protect their “brand”, right or wrong. (NFL is also currently pushing their “mobile strategy” according to tech news.) Clearly, I did not stand a chance, again in hindsight. Naive people like me who believes in law and justice would not stand a chance in the real world. Suppose that you are in a dark alley with nobody else around. A mugger with a gun shows up from nowhere and asks for your wallet. What would you do? There is no point of arguing that mugging is not right, or illegal, or that this wallet is mine, etc. Right or wrong, in this situation, does not matter. You just give your wallet and be thankful that you aren't hurt. Sadly, the evil is always on the stronger side. (This is probably because the evil tends to pursue the power.) Google and NFL are vastly, almost infinitely, more powerful than me. The battle was lost even before I put my first foot in the arena (again, in hindsight).

This Google’s accusations of “IP Violations” and “Impersonation and Deceptive Behavior”, I think, probably boils down to the fact that I created an NFL football app in the first place (which potentially competes with apps made by NFL). My app is about “NFL football” game schedules and their results, among other things. I cannot not use “NFL football” for describing my app. There is “college football” and there is “NFL football”, and my app was about “NFL football”. (I could have used “pro football”, in hindsight. But, that’s clearly misleading. My app was not about AFL football or XFL football, or whatever professional football there was. It was specifically about NFL football.)

There is this riddle played by children:

What belongs to you but other people use it more than you do?

I don’t even have to tell you the answer. The “brand identity” is like that. It’s, first and foremost, just a name that we use to refer to a thing or concept, or a person, etc. How do you refer to “Android” without using the word “Android”? Oh, that operating system which runs on my Samsung phone and have these icons on the screen, …. Do you have one of those? Do you see how ridiculous that is? How do you refer to “NFL football” without using the word NFL (or, its equivalent “National Football League”)?

This is generally known as “Nominative Use Doctrine” in the trademark law. (Or, sometimes it's called "fair use" similar to that used in copyright law.) You cannot infringe on trademark when you use it just as a name. I can say “Apple just announced new iPhone 6” without infringing Apple’s trademark. I can even use Apple’s logo for the purposes of referring to Apple. (For example, suppose that I create a stock chart with multiple tech companies. On each row, the companies’ logos are displayed in lieu of the full text names like “Apple Computer, Inc.”, etc.)

The fact that certain companies go so far as to prevent the use of their brand identity is really mind-boggling. You cannot stop other human beings from using names (in general).

In any case, I think these accusations by Google, “impersonation” and “deceptive behavior”, are absolutely ludicrous. Just throwing a few big words and accusing other human beings of these absurd crimes (simply because you think you “own” the platform) is just mind blowing. How evil do you have to be to do things like this? They do not even have the decency to make up real charges. These broad accusations like “deceptive behavior” or “copyright violations” do not mean anything unless they are applied to specific cases. Are you seriously saying that I am charged with "a crime”?

What Google is doing is really laughable.

Although I use the word, “evil”, so many times throughout these posts, I often think that it’s not because these people are evil (although there might be truly evil people, as I stated before). Most of the time, people just do evil things without realizing how evil their actions are. “Evil is what you do,” not who you are.

Note 1: This is the fourth essay which I’m currently writing about Google and “evil” and everything else. Here's the post from yesterday: Does Google Consider Android App Developers Their Enemies?

Read it for yourself, and try to understand it. I’ll explain why I was so frustrated by this absolutely bizarre email:

This is a notification that your application, 2014 NFL Football Time, with package ID ms.airy.football, has been removed from the Google Play Store.

REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information.

Your app and/or elements of its listing on Google Play, including title, description, logo(s), or promotional screenshots must not include unauthorized usage of protected works belonging to a third party. Your app icon and promotional screenshots must not contain images that appear confusingly similar to existing products. This particular app has been disabled as a policy strike. If your developer account is still in good standing, you may revise and upload a policy compliant version of this application as a new package name.

This notification also serves as notice for remaining, unsuspended violations in your catalog, and you may avoid further app suspensions by immediately unpublishing any apps in violation of (but not limited to) the above policy. Once you have resolved any existing violations, you may republish the app(s) at will. Before publishing applications, please ensure your apps’ compliance with the Developer Distribution Agreement and Content Policy.

All violations are tracked. Serious or repeated violations of any nature will result in the termination of your developer account, and investigation and possible termination of related Google accounts. If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and the cost of any associated fees (such as chargebacks and payment transaction fees) from you.

If you feel we have made this determination in error, you can visit the Google Play Help Center article for additional information regarding this removal.

The Google Play Team

First, notice that this form letter does not include any specific information pertinent to my NFL football app (despite the seemingly detailed list of things you must not do). There is simply no way to figure out what exactly caused Google to think that I was violating the Intellectual Property policy (how?) or I was impersonating (who?) or trying to deceive (presumably, the Play Store users?) from this email. The cited help pages include just generic languages.

This kind of intentional vagueness is often used in the adversarial situations.

For example, let’s imagine a situation where a police detective interrogates a person of interest (as seen in TV crime dramas). This person has not been formally arrested for a specific crime. The detective says to the person/suspect, “tell me what you did”. The detective obviously detained him in the suspicion of a certain particular crime, but she does not disclose that. In the adversarial situation like this, the less information you disclose to your “enemy” the more advantage you get in the confrontation. There can be many reasons why this type of tactic is used. First, for this particular example, the criminal obviously knows what he did if he actually committed the crime. Few criminals commit crimes by accident. In most cases, these people break the law with a specific intention of breaking the law (for certain benefits to himself or others, financial or otherwise). So, when this tactic is used, the detective, in her mind, already convicted him of the crime. There is nothing further to investigate. Second, criminals may often commit multiple crimes. It may be in their nature, or it may be just the environments. I don’t know if it’s really true, and if so, to what extent. But, let’s suppose that’s the case. By asking “tell me what you did” type of vague question without disclosing what particular crime is being investigated, the detective may obtain more information (e.g., related to other possible law-breaking activities of this suspect) than what’s just relevant to the crime in question. Third, if the detective is determined to “get him” no matter what crime he committed, this kind of tactic can be useful as well. Through “fishing” she may get lucky and may end up getting some useful (unexpected) confessions.

Of course, this kind of tactic does not work for innocent people, or for true mastermind criminals (as in “evil genius”). I think this will most likely work only for common criminals and street thugs, etc.

Now, look at the app suspension email from Google again. It is clear that, to Google, Android app developers are nothing but common criminals that need to be treated as their worst enemies.

I found it incredibly ridiculous. Is it the logo? Is it the title of the app? Is it something I wrote in the app description? Is it the content I used in my app? What is it? All they have to do is to point out at least few things they deemed violating the policy with reasonable specificity, and tell us look for similar problems in the app(s). Instead, they just take this ridiculous stance. You are the criminal. You know what you did. Fix it. But, fix what??? How??? If we had known we were violating the policy or the relevant law, we would not have done it in the first place. Even if we may have not agreed with Google on specific points, we would have just gone ahead and made necessary changes only if they have told us what it was that needed to be fixed. I’m not sure if the readers understand my frustration with this type of message, which provides no actionable items but mere broad and absurd accusations. “IP violations” and “Impersonation and deceptive behavior” (with a couple of bullet points included in the email). “You are a bad person. You know what you did. Just fix it.” Gimme a break. Please.

Notice, BTW, the broadest possible accusations like "This notification also serves as notice for remaining, unsuspended violations in your catalog...". Meaning, We don't even know what you have violated, but likely all your apps are in violation as well (because you are just a low-life criminal). You have been warned. Just fix them. Seriously?

The fact that Google does not provide any specific reasons for app removal is really “evil” if you think about it. In some app stores, they pre-screen the apps through the approval process before publication. If they think the app is not compliant with their policy, they can reject the app. (I don’t know if they give any specific reasons for denial, but even if they don’t, it is less critical.) Instead, Google lets the app published without approval process, as if it were an indication of “open platform” (talk about real deception), and later they strike it down when least expected, for any reason or no reason at all. Re-publishing process is the same. There is no way to make sure the app is now free of violations (according to their arbitrary rules). Google just lurks in the dark like an evil spirit. Then, they strike it down again. Think about how evil this process is. Instead of letting us know upfront what they think are problems with our apps, Google merely lurks under the surface. And, it attacks you from behind when you least expect it and when you are most vulnerable. If Google were a person, I would have considered it a psychopath. A normal human being would not do such a thing. And, I really mean it. Note also that this app removal can happen any time. Two days after the initial release, or two weeks after, or two months after, or even two years after the initial release. Again, think about how evil this process is. (Imagine people living in absolute tyranny, where you can be arrested and taken your life away, any time.)

As I stated in my previous post, I realized my “relation” with Android was officially over at this point. It was clear to me that I could not build a long term business or build any apps that require long-term support to the users on a platform that act like a psychopath. They could take down my app any time, for any or no reason at all, leaving all existing users high and dry. In the first app suspension, it was just a dumb mistake for a trial app. It’s not an excuse, but I had no ill intention to "commit crime". For the NFL football app, clearly I had a more long-term view with the intention of supporting my users for the span of at least one reason (5 months) and more likely much longer (e.g., years). Most of the assets I used in the app, including the app logo, were just “temporary”. Even the UI (which was far from “fancy” if you had seen my app) were just an initial version. Much of the content used in the app was just place-holders, which will be replaced by better and more appropriate content over time. I was going to improve the app through “iteration”. But, still, when I received this second app suspension notice, I was completely dumbfounded. What the heck, really? What was even worse, there was no way to appeal the app suspension since I did not know what exactly I was violating. (According to what I read later on on the Web, the "name-only" appeal process is really a “joke” anyway.) There was really no way to make the app “compliant with the policy” since I did not know exactly what to fix. It was just one app. What about my next app? And then, the next app? I cannot survive in such a platform where they treat you like criminals and where there is no way to defend yourself or to comply with the rule/policy even if you wanted. I spent some time debating what to do. I thought about all kinds of things. I thought about starting new iOS projects. (I don’t know much about Objective-C/Swift or iOS. But I presume I can always learn given enough time.) I thought about “going back” to Windows. (Do people really use Windows Phone these days?) I thought about moving my apps to Amazon Appstore, I mean solely on Appstore. (As I mentioned, Appstore is not really a viable platform for indie developers or small development shops, however.) I even almost thought about “starting fresh”, e.g., by registering a new account on Play Store, which I actually did, and work on completely different apps. (To be clear, I had no intention of “deception”. I did not really know about “three strike rule” or “imminent” account suspension at the time. I had lost all my existing users, and hence for me there were really no differences. One benefit of using a new account is that you don’t have to see these “suspended” apps on your console, which you could not hide/filter out for some reason. But, more than anything else, doing things like this is psychological. OK, let’s give it one more chance. And, “starting fresh” helps in such a situation.)

As I stated in my earlier post, however, I just ended up merely republishing the app on Play Store. (In some sense, I thought I had nothing more to lose at that point.) When I re-published the app on 10/08, I did not make many changes. I couldn't. Obviously, I could not go ahead and rewrite the whole app without knowing what it was that we were violating. There was absolutely no way to fix the problem since I didn't know what to fix. I made small changes here and there. For instance, I slightly changed the app logo. And, I changed the app title from “2014 NFL Football Time” to “2014 Football Time for NFL”, among other things. Then, I re-published the app with a different package name, as required.

The app was suspended again on 10/21, which caused my Play Store dev account to be terminated through the “three strike rule”. Google’s official communications (the form letters) did not mention specific numbers, but based on what I read on the Web afterward, that seems to be sort of a rule. If you violate the policy three times, then you are out. If that’s the case, then why not just say it? Google, again in the spirit of infinite evilness, does not disclose even simple information like this.

(Why does a person hide, or does not disclose, a certain information (which may be deemed relevant)? There can be many reasons, but none of them are good. A person might hide certain information because it will be easier to lie about certain (same or other related) things later. A person might hide certain information because he/she can change his/her mind easily. A person might hide certain information because he/she is not proud of doing that in the first place. The reason why Google does not tell you exactly what they think you have violated, and why Google in general is trying to be as opaque as possible, is because I think Google sees the indie developers and small developer shops their adversaries rather than their partners. If you play a poker, would you show your hand to your opponents? Probably not. Google’s policy seems to be to make their mortal enemies guess (I mean us). Their reluctance to share information or be straightforward, even when it seems absolutely necessary, is really mind boggling. Evil has no boundaries.)

Now, let’s move on to the next issue in Google’s app suspension notice, namely, the fact that Google does not provide a way to correct errors to the existing apps. Google simply suggests, if you think you have fixed the problem, just re-publish it as a different app (so that we can suspend it again). The app removal by Google is such a vicious and disproportionate punishment. Apps may have a certain number of existing users, or even certain amount of revenues. The apps may have certain reputations and ratings, etc. (through app developer’s own marketing effort with no help from Play Store). Google punishes the policy violators (or, the apps they think are violating their policy using their arbitrary rules) with overwhelming force (probably, as a warning so that the developer would not repeat the same violations). The app’s previous existence is completely wiped out from the face of the earth. It does not matter whether the app had 10 users or 10,000 users. The app is gone for good once the app is suspected of policy violations.

The notice letter further states that “If your account is terminated, payments will cease and Google may recover the proceeds of any past sales and the cost of any associated fees from you” Even the most evil loan shark would not do things like this. Seriously.

This type of disproportionate punishment is generally the hallmark of extreme evilness. Let’s see who does things like this. Oh. there is this Mexican drug cartel, if you read any international news (or, if you have watched an episode from Breaking Bad :)), who behead any people that are in their way and display their heads in public as a warning to other people. Oh, then, there is this terrorist group. Oh, then there is this guy who beats up his wife to pulp because she talks back. Congratulations, Google. You just made the list of extreme evil.

BTW, I did not know about the real possibilities of account termination when I received the app suspension notice. Although the notice clearly included the “threat” of account termination, I did not realize the seriousness. Like all law-abiding citizens, who occasionally make mistakes, I was just naive and did not realize how much evil there was in this world. You always think that if you are a nice person and do the right things, everything will be all right, although you make mistakes from time to time. I’ll talk about the harshness and evilness/viciousness of account termination on a later post (which is order of magnitude more evil than the app removal). But, a little about my emotional state at that point. I just felt like at the moment that I got a ticket for jay-walking, for instance, which I normally never do. I am just walking absent-minded (without fully realizing what I’m doing), and boom, a policeman shows from nowhere and he gives me a ticket. And, when I look at the ticket, I’m flabbergasted. The ticket says the fine is one million dollars. (Or, something like that. :)) Truly evil people get away with murders, literally and figuratively. Whereas people like me are punished with absolute no way of redemption.

The “interesting” thing about this extreme punishment in the form of the permanent app removal is that the end users become the "collateral damage". Obviously, evil corporations like Google, who only worship profits at any cost, do not care about users (I mean, real human beings). I said it many times before even on this very blog. Big tech companies routinely “kill the products”, without even a hint of remorse, simply because the products do not produce enough profits. (BTW, what is the clinical term for a person who does bad things without feeling guilty or who does not feel remorse afterward?) This is clearly a touchy subject. Nobody can support a product forever. And, nobody is obligated to. As in many things, it’s a matter of degree in gray scale. If you have read some of my earlier posts, that’s how I see the world. Even in this series of posts, I never state that Google does not have the right to regulate, or to enforce their policy, on Play Store. My argument is about how it is being done and how harsh the “punishment” is, etc. In the case of “sunsetting” existing products (including betas), the way in which it’s currently being done by these greedy corporations is absolutely horrible. They treat their users like used Kleenex, literally. I don’t know how else to say it. (Some people and companies, small or big, often support the “fail fast” culture, probably without realizing there are always “victims”, real human beings, behind these “experiments”. Clearly, one of the well-known examples is Google’s culture of “moonshot”. They tell us to try this product and that product giving us rosy visions, and then only weeks later the products are gone with no real explanations to the users other than “sorry, you are screwed”.) In the case of Google Play Store, I don’t know if they feel it is so important to punish the “bad” developers with absolutely maximal force that they don’t care about the end users or if they just don’t care about the users at all (who contribute to their bottom line only indirectly, and only in numbers, unlike big publishers like NFL who make Google millions of dollars). But, either way, the users are the real victims here. For many apps, having installed an app on your device once might be sufficient. But, for many other apps, some regular update is crucial. I’m not just talking about bug fixes and new features. Apps like my NFL Football Time app, require constant (or, at least weekly) updates (e.g., for updating scores, etc.). I was willing to spend however many hours every week to update the apps as long as it was necessary besides adding new features per my long term vision. (BTW, these “sports apps” were all free apps, and I had no intention of making money from these particular set of apps.) But, I cannot do that any more at this point. I left all my users, twice. They were loyal users. Many of them started using the apps even when the apps were really terrible. I feel like I've done evil things to them. If you are associated with evil, you become evil, unfortunately.

When I tried to republish the revised apps for the first time since the original app removal, I noticed the new developer TOS acceptance form on the Play Store Developer Console. Regardless of what exactly changed, the message was clear: If you do not accept this new TOS (like, within 30 days), then you cannot access your developer console. Essentially, you lose everything. I am not sure if people realize how vicious and evil this is. When you sign up for a new Developer account, you have a choice. If you don’t like the TOS, then you can just say No and move on to something else. Play Store being the absolute monopoly in Android world, I’m not sure if that’s much of a real choice. But at least, that’s how it works. In the case of this new TOS change, it is different. Suppose that a developer, for instance, signed up based on the old TOS, and built a business with apps used by many people. One day, he sees a new TOS, and he does not agree. He does not want to accept the new changed terms in the middle of the game. However, he does not have much choice because Google holds hostages to all his apps. Although he owns the apps (binaries), they are not where the real values are. He cannot just say, OK, I’ll take my apps elsewhere, (1) because what he built through his sweat and tears is the app on a particular platform, and he cannot just easily take it to other platform, and (2) because there is really no “elsewhere” when it comes to Android apps.

Google, with the help of many small developers like myself over the years, has built this absolute monopoly around Android ecosystem (which was supposed to be "open"). Now, I realize we've created an evil monster. What “evil Microsoft” did in the old days seem like child’s play when it is compared to what Google is currently doing.

Note 1: This is a part of the series of essays I'm currently writing on Google/Android and "evil" and what not. Yesterday's story: "You Are Charged with a Crime".

The DA kindly explains, raising a huge book on his hand, “Did you read the nation’s criminal code?”

You respond, “Yes, but….”

He kindly reads a paragraph from the Criminal Code: “A citizen of this nation shall not commit a crime.”

The DA then reads his charges again, “You are charged with a crime”.

Now, you have no words...

The judge then announces her sentence. “You are now hereby sentenced to Life without parole.” “You can appeal this decision to this same court.”

“But, but, ….” You protest one last time.

“I don’t know what crime I committed.”

You may find it funny. But, this is not a fiction. This is a real story.

Things like this happen every day all around the world. Many people live under the dictatorship and absolute tyrannies. People fight, and risk their lives, for the basic human rights.

Believe it or not, unimaginable things like this also happen even in the United States of America. I just didn't know it until it happened to me. It happens every day to many Android app developers in the land of Evil Empire.

If you thought this story was a fiction, think again.

Note 1: This is the second installment from the series of essays I’m currently writing about Google and “evil” and everything else. The first essay was posted yesterday, My Google Play Store developer account was terminated.

This means that I’m banned from the only real viable distribution channel for Android apps for life. (Google does not officially say this, but that’s what I read from the Web. It’s essentially a lifetime ban.)

This, therefore, means that

No Google Glassware development for me.

No development for Android Wear, and Android TV apps.

No more Android app development even on phones or tablets.

Developing apps with no distribution channels would make no sense at all (for most people).

I've been a bit hesitant to write about this since whatever I write on this subject may appear a bit vindictive or resentful. Besides, I do not want (silent) reactions like “you deserved it”, etc. I’m not really in the mood for criticism or judgement (or, even sympathy) at the moment. Events like this is not something you want to announce in public, or share with “strangers”, even when you believe you have done nothing wrong or you do not agree with Google’s (arbitrary) decisions, etc.

But, after having given some thoughts, I have decided to write about it for the sake of openness and sharing. Hopefully, my experience will help other Android developers avoid the costly mistakes. Furthermore, I've been recently thinking about what “evil” really means, etc. I've always wanted to write about “evil corporations” and what not as well (even if it’s just a cliche).

I will say this from the outset.

What Google does to developers, and how they do it to developers, is really vicious and evil. I am not just saying this because I’m now banned from Play Store. Obviously I did not know until recently about such egregious acts committed by Google. The only reason I came to learn about this was because I was involved. The purpose of my essays is to shed light on this vicious practice done by one of the biggest corporations in the U.S. We should keep in mind that the evil thrives in darkness.

In case you haven’t heard about it, it’s not that uncommon that apps are suspended and the developer accounts are terminated. You can google it and see a lot of “sad stories”. (Many indie developers’ livelihood depends on the revenue coming from their apps on Play Store.) I’ll post a series of articles for the next few days or weeks, whenever I have time. My story is not about the particular case of my account being terminated, however, although I’ll use my specific case as an example. Likewise, it’s not specifically about Google being an “evil” corporation although I’ll use Google as an example. Also, as I mentioned, I do not need your judgement as to whether I was right or Google was right, and what not. Although my story (told by me) will claim that I was on the right (and I’ll be open to objective debate if any of the readers are so inclined), the real story is not about who’s right or wrong, or whether the drastic actions like account termination were called for, etc. The point of my story is more than just complaints or excuses, which I hope to convey to the readers through my writings.

In any case, some background.

The first (beta-quality) version of this particular “NFL Football Time” app was released mid or late August along with English Premier League Football app, which was released first just in time for the Premier League opening matches. The initial version of the NFL football app contained the NFL pre-season game schedules, among other things. Initially, there was virtually no users. About roughly 10 days later, however, it started getting some steady stream of downloads. And then, about another 10 days later, the average daily download counts increased a bit. (The NFL regular season started on 9/04/14.). As of 9/18, I had over 200 downloads and a bit less than 100 “active users”. Not a huge number, but still an encouraging number. (Note that I was doing “poor man’s marketing” for this app, day and night.) What I wanted to do with these sports apps required a certain (large) number of users. I did not know what that number would be exactly. But, say, if it’s one million, then in my calculation based on the current rate of new app users, it’ll take over one thousand years for my NFL football app to reach that number. :) In reality, the prospect was pretty bleak, but I was still very optimistic. I always believed that if you build a good app, there will be users. I spent literally 24 hours on these sports apps every day. On 9/18, after releasing a new version of the NFL Football app after fixing some critical bugs, I updated the product description just a bit. (I don’t remember what I exactly did.) Just a bit later, I received an email from Google stating that my app (the NFL Football Time app) was suspend and it was removed from Play Store. The email claimed that I violated their “IP” and “Impersonation and Deceptive Behavior” policy without giving any further specifics. I tried my best trying to understand what it meant. I read all the “help” docs cited by the email. But, I had absolutely no clue as to what caused Google to think that I committed this egregious “IP violations” and “impersonation” and “deceptive behavior” crime.

That’s when I realized that my life as Android developer was over. I genuinely thought this (form) letter was written by some kind of psychopath. And, I’m not joking here. I’ll talk about this in more detail in a later post(s), but my first reaction was “Does Google consider Android app developers their enemies?”

There was no way I’ll continue working on my apps with the fear that my apps can/will be removed again with no prior warnings or explanations of any kind, or ways to correct alleged errors. (I did not know about this “three strike law” at the time.) There was no way that I would live “in fear”. Google Play Store was clearly run by sociopaths (and, again I’m not joking here; see my later posts), and I could not survive in such a platform.

Against my better judgement, however, I've decided to give it another try. I have used Google technologies for so long, including Android, I have so much dependency on them. Especially, all my recent projects have been evolving around Android, mobile or wearables. I spent the last six months on this Sports App projects. Before then, I almost exclusively worked on Google Glass (Mirror API or GDK) building the framework for my future Glassware. Sadly, there was literally nothing else I could do if I moved away from the Android platform at this point.

About 2~3 weeks later after the initial suspension (I think, it was 10/08), I released the new version, which I thought fixed the “IP violation” and “impersonation and deceptive behavior” problem based on my “guesses” as to what caused the first suspension. I also released this revised app (and all other “sports” apps) to Amazon Appstore as well just to test the water. But, I did not have high expectations. Amazon Appstore is much much smaller channel and it is not really for indie developers or small developer shops (more on this later).

Note that the only way to release a new version of a suspended app is actually to release a brand new app (with a different package name). All users of the old app have no way to access, or even know about, this new app since Google completely removed the old app including its product info page. As of 10/21, I had close to new 100 downloads for this particular app. I started to be more optimistic again. On that day, I had just updated the product page after uploading a new version which fixed a hard-to-track-down bug, and I had headed home feeling the sense of accomplishment. (If you are a developer, you know what I mean. Fixing a hard bug, or completing a difficult feature, gives you a certain sense of “high”.) On the way home, while driving, I noticed a notification message on my Moto X home screen indicating that I have an email. (In case you do not know, Motorola Moto X has a very interesting feature. Small notification icons show up on the home lock screen, and hence you do not even need to unlock the phone to see quick messages. This is sort of a precursor to Wearable notifications.) The message title was “Notification from Google Play”, and I immediately realized it was probably a bad news. Only minutes later, while I was still driving, I got another email notification, titled “Notification of Google Play Developer Account Suspension”

Here’s the (form email) message in its entirety:

This is a notification that your Google Play Publisher account has been terminated.

REASON FOR TERMINATION: Multiple violations of the Content Policy and Developer Distribution Agreement as outlined in previous emails sent to the registered email address of your Publisher account.

Please note that Google Play Publisher terminations are associated with developers, and may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. If you feel we have made an error, you can visit the Google Play Help Center article for additional information regarding this termination.

Please do not attempt to register a new developer account. We will not be restoring your account at this time.

The Google Play Team

Note first that the email title says my dev account has been suspended, but the message says it is actually “terminated”. Also, note that the phrase “at this time” at the end of the message. If you google it, however, then it is really a “lifetime” ban. Even if there is a possibility of “reinstatement”, it’s probably meaningless with no specific date or time frame for reinstatement. Most developers will move on to something else after a little while. Hence, any ban other than those spanning a short duration of time is equivalent to “lifetime” ban.

My first reaction was just stop the car and take a breath. I found a close-by Starbucks and wrote an appeal. You can appeal the app suspension or account suspension. But both are formalities (at least in my case) and really meaningless. In case of the alleged policy violations like mine, “IP violation” and “Impersonation and deceptive behavior”, you cannot really appeal the app suspension since you do not know what exactly you are accused of. (Even if you know what they are, you cannot appeal them because it’s Google’s decision. It’s not like you can appeal them to independent judicial system.) You cannot appeal the account suspension due to the “multiple violation” provision either because the only way you can successfully appeal your account suspension is by successfully appealing the previous app suspensions, which I just stated was not possible (at least, in my case, and I suspect it applies to many other cases).

In any case, I wrote the following with the most gentle language I can think of despite Google’s unreasonable actions:

Whatever violations we made, we made them in honest mistakes with no malicious intent. We believe the termination of the dev acct is too harsh and unreasonable, and we respectfully request reconsideration.

We received app suspension notices 3 times (for 2 different apps) for "IP violations" and "Impersonation & deceptive behavior". Unfortunately, without any specific reasons given, we had no real way to correct the alleged violations. We tried our best to comply with the policy given the broad accusations, but apparently the last attempt to correct the errors did not appear to have made the app fully compliant despite our genuine effort. Again, we submit that whatever violations we made, they were honest and unintentional mistakes. We cannot correct errors if we don't know what they are.

We have no intention of knowingly violating the law or Play Store policy. We can only promise to educate ourselves further so that we don't repeat the mistakes. We respectfully request reinstatement.

The appeal form had 1000 character limit, and my appeal actually was 1000 characters long. Note that I wrote this in haste. Note also the vague nature of the appeal. You cannot defend yourself if you do not know what you are accused of. Are we living in North Korea? (I’ll further explain why I think this whole suspension business by Google is so “evil” in later posts.) Note also the general tone of my appeal. If I had even a small modicum of hope that my account might be reinstated, I probably have used different languages. But, based on the first app suspension message I received for the football app, I knew there was no way that this appeal process was “real” (as in the U.S. judicial system).

I filled out this appeal form at around 7~7:30PM 10/21 PDT. (I received the account suspension email at 6:05PM.) At 1:05AM on 10/22, I received the following automated reply:

Hi,

Thank you for your note. After reviewing your appeal, we have confirmed our initial decision and will not be reinstating your developer account.

Your Google Play Developer account has been terminated due to multiple policy violations by this or associated accounts. For more information on the app removals that lead to this termination please refer to the REASON FOR REMOVAL section(s) of notification emails sent to the registered address(es) of your developer account(s). You may also review the Content Policy and the Developer Distribution Agreement.

Note that Google Play Developer Console terminations are associated with developers, and may span multiple account registrations and related Google services. Do not attempt to register a new developer account. Any subsequent registrations will be closed and your developer registration fee will not be refunded.

We are unable to provide further details and will not respond to additional inquiries. We recommend that you utilize an alternative method for distributing your apps in the future.

Regards, The Google Play Team

Note the sinister language, “We recommend that you utilize an alternative method for distributing your apps in the future”. There is really no viable alternative to Play Store for developers like myself, which is the de facto monopoly when it comes to Android apps, and Google (or, whoever wrote that form letter) obviously knows it.

A few hours later on that day I received another email from Google stating that my Google Wallet account was suspended “due to suspicious activity”. I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence or if it’s Google’s pre-emptive action to prevent me from re-registering Play Store developer account. (The last time I used, or even just logged on to, Google Wallet was when I opened my Play Store developer account. I think.)

In any case, I wasn’t going to re-register. Despite the fact that Google treats developers like common criminals, I (like most developers, if not all) am not a person who intentionally breaks the rules or the laws. I found this really interesting. Again, it could have been just a coincidence (very unlikely though considering the timing). If not, I really don’t know what else to say. Evil sees only evil. If you are a bad person, you will consider other people as bad people as well. If you are a lier, you will see lies in everything you hear. If you are an evil-doer, you will only see evil in other people. (I’m not just saying this in the face of Google’s evil doing. I’ve always wondered about this phenomena. For example, if you don’t know how to lie or you are a “more honest” person, then you are likely more gullible to other people’s deceptions. Think about why. I find it very interesting.)

I’ll try to post a few more essays on this topic for the next few days or weeks, and they will be my last posts on Glass Diary since I won’t be developing Google Glass apps in the foreseeable future, or maybe never.

Note on the language: Often the use of the strong words and phrases like “evil”, “vicious”, or “psychopath”, etc. implies certain emotional state of the person who uses them and it sometimes reduces the effectiveness of the communication. However, I have not found any alternative ways to convey the same ideas without using these words/phrases. Please substitute these with whatever you feel more appropriate, for example, “evil” with “bad”, etc. Just for the record, I’m not mad or anything at this point although clearly I’m disappointed (because I had so many ideas I was planning to implement as Android/Glass/Wear apps and I was just starting after long “preparations”). Rather, I’m more in shock and in disbelief that this has really happened. Wow. Things like this can really happen in the modern society, in the civilized world. Are we living in the third-world country? I was a bit frustrated, to be honest, when my NFL app was suspended for the first time. It was not because it happened to me but because public companies like Google were doing such outrageous things. I simply could not believe it. Evil has no limits.

I haven't done much Android programming for the past few weeks due to some personal reasons. (I'm still looking for my next Android project idea though.) Meanwhile, I just thought I was just gonna try out some new features in the Android L preview release (which was already over a month old at this point) like the new Android Wear stuff and the CardView widget, etc.

I just updated the Android SDK using the SDK manager. The last major API update seems to have been around the I/O time some weeks ago, when they announced the Android L preview API. I normally update my SDK rather frequently, but for some reason (most likely since I haven't done much Android development for the last few weeks upon "completion" of my World Cup Buddy app), my SDK versions were somewhat outdated.

After the SDK upgrade, I quickly tried building my existing projects (whose target SDK levels were set to 19). Everything seemed to be working fine. Next, I thought I would try out the new Preview version of Android L (API Level 20) in one of my projects (just by changing the build target SDK to 20, and nothing more). I got some errors stating that the current minSDKLevel (as specified in the Gradle build file) is incompatible with Android L, in effect. I thought, No big deal. I don't really need Android L for now. Maybe, I'll do this later. I changed the targetSDKLevel in the build script back to 19, which is the latest release of KitKat.

Now, the problem is, the error did not go away. I kept getting this error no matter what I did:

:myappname:processDebugManifest /myprojectdir/myappname/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:0:0 Error: uses-sdk:minSdkVersion 16 cannot be smaller than version L declared in library com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.0-rc1 :myappname:processDebugManifest FAILED

The interesting thing is, the error occurred even for the projects which I did not touch. The error was across all my projects in the same dev machine.

You can quickly google this, and you will find tons of posts and answers related to this problem. It seems "easy" to fix. If you are having this problem, you can easily find what the best solution would be for you.

But, there is something fundamentally wrong with this somewhat bizarre error.

Why are you getting this error?

If you have read some of my old posts, I've always been a big proponent for supporting backward compatibility in software development. It is really puzzling to me, but many developers, I would even say most developers, do not understand how important the backward compatibility is, or even what backward compatibility really means.

I've been a bit "critical" about certain aspects of Google's business and other development practices, but these are really, in my view, constructive criticism. I only express criticisms (in "public diary") because I believe/hope my voice, in some small way, can affect the future.

Every time the Android team makes a "mistake", it affects hundreds of thousands of developers.

"With great power, comes great responsibility."

So, what does this problem have anything to do with the backward compatibility?

First, in case you are not an Android developer, or if you have not updated your Android SDK for the last few weeks, what is the problem?

As far as I can tell, an error occurs when you install the Android L Preview SDK (API Level 20) on your dev machine, and try building at least once with target SDK Level 20. With this (special) API, your min SDK setting can only be 20. So, if your project has min SDK 19 or less, the build will fail. That's probably OK (although kind of unusual/inconvenient, it's "preview" release after all). The real problem occurs when you switch back the target SDK to below 20. There seem to be two factors in play. In many cases we use the "+" symbol (e.g., open-ended max version) when specifying the dependent library versions (e.g., in the Gradle build script). What is the precise semantics of this "+"? Second, Maven (which sits below Gradle and handles the lib dependency resolution, etc.) seems to be using some kind of cache, and it does not behave well when we lower the version (e.g., from 20 to 19). Actually, I don't know precisely what is going on. All I know is this kind of error should never have happened (possibly, to tens of thousands of developers, wasting their dev time).

For me, anything that requires me to go back and change my existing projects, or anything that changes my app's behavior without my explicit consent, is breaking the backward compatibility. In this case, just trying out the new (preview) SDK altered/broke all my projects. There was no way for me to "go back" to the original state. (Although there seemed to be a workaround by changing the Maven cache setting, etc., that's not really a workaround for me. I'll need to use the L preview at some point in the future, at least in some of my projects.) The worst part of this problem was that since it affected the "dependency semantics" it was very messy for me to fix this problem. I have a large number of projects, and more importantly, library projects. (Many of which are "inactive", but I still maintain them once in a while.) I had to go through all my projects one by one and change the version strings of many libraries in each project's build files. Dependencies are often "transitive", meaning that a library can depend on another library, which in turn can depend on another library, etc. One thing I learned by googling this problem is that, you can temporarily disable this transitive behavior by using the exclude directive in your Gradle build file. For example,

compile 'com.android.support:support-v13:20.+' compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:20.+' compile ('my.lib:my-core-lib:+') { exclude group: 'com.android.support', module:'support-v4' exclude group: 'com.android.support', module:'support-v13' exclude group: 'com.android.support', module:'appcompat-v7' }

Messy, messy, messy. ...

So, what is Android TV?

It is Google's "new" smart TV platform based on Android. Regardless of what the marketing slogan says, it is somewhat different from Android for phones or tablets. TV is a very special platform. First and foremost, it is not a computer. A smart phone might be viewed, to a certain extent, as a small version of a personal computer. However, TV is not a computer. If Google approaches Smart TV with this "Just Android" mentality, then my guess is that it will (silently) fail again.

Based on what I've read on news/tech blogs so far, however, Android TV does not seem to be a TV version of Android (although it is Android in terms of APIs and what not). I can presume that Android TV has two strategic goals, which you can also clearly see from their marketing page:

Content, and

Game.

The early attempt, Google TV, "failed" largely because of the lack of cooperation from content providers. Many content providers and distributors (like big cable companies) saw Google TV as direct threats. Many content providers refused to provide content on Google TV. (There was suggestion that Google should buy companies like Netflix to overcome this huddle.) Obviously, Google wants to do it better this time around. We will see how this will turn out.

The second major part of Android TV seems to be "games". Google has this Microsoft Envy, whether they will admit it or not. Google has been expanding in many areas (and, quite successfully) where traditionally Microsoft have strongholds, OS, Office apps, Web browser, ... you name it. One area Google hasn't been doing much is the console market. Microsoft has been building one of their biggest businesses outside Windows and Office around the XBox console and games. Obviously, Google wants a piece of pie in this market as well, so to speak. Even though they haven't explicitly announced anything related to "Android console" or things like that, this "Android TV" can be a Trojan Horse to the game console market.

I'm not sure if they will have a new line of products, "Android Box", but it is definitely coming, maybe, as part of your Android TV set.

Android is such a versatile platform (e.g., compared to more traditional desktop-based OS). One can imagine "Android XXX" for just about anything. Google just announced these trio: Android Wear, Android Auto, and Android TV.

Obviously, Google does not need an explanation. But, this makes me really curious. Google "recruited" literally tens of thousands of early adopters by selling their "vision". Or, was it just a big corporation's marketing tactic? I don't want to read into this too much, but Glass has been, even for non-techie people, one of the most visible products by Google. The fact that Google, most likely deliberately, decided not to bring up Glass at all in their biggest developer conference keynote is really puzzling.

I've seen this many times before. Not just Google, but from many big corporations. But, Google, who promotes "moonshots" and fast-fails at the expense of the users/believers, seems to be getting "better" at this. In recent memory, Google TV was one of the prime examples. All hype and fanfare. And, suddenly, it just "disappeared". As if nothing happened.

In this year's I/O, they announced "Android TV." What is Android TV? How is it different from Google TV? Is Android TV a Google TV version 2.0? Or, is it just a rebranded Google TV? Or, is Android TV a completely new thing? But. how? What differentiates Android TV from Google TV? Are you going to support both Google TV and Android TV moving forward? What's the future of Google TV?

I think the fact that they do not provide any explanation regarding the relationship between Google TV and Android TV almost rises to the level of corporate deception. There is no two way about it. Why is it so difficult to provide a simple explanation even if that is a just a talking point like "Android TV is just a rebranded Google TV", or "Google TV failed because this and this, We are building a better smart TV". or, whatever. "Let's not talk about it and just hide it under the rug" is a really interesting strategy (albeit common, mind you).

Now, if we can learn from history at all, the "downplay" of Glass by Google seems to be a harbinger of what's to come next. That is, killing the current Google Glass project and starting a new one by the time people start to forget about Google Glass. The next Glass project in 2015 will be called, I think.

Android Glass

I am clearly being a bit overly dramatic here, but in all earnest, I am not really sure what to make of it. Google has been a Pied Piper for many of us "early believers". I think they have moral obligations, if nothing else, to share their future direction with us.

Are you abandoning Google Glass?

Incidentally, I saw this article last week, written after I/O, in case you missed it: Android Wear smartwatches make Google Glass obsolete The same article re-published on Wired with a slightly different title: Google Glass rendered irrelevant by Android Wear "Obsolete" vs "Irrelevant", which is worse? :)

And, some of the "copycat" articles:

Does Android Wear make Google Glass obsolete?

Android Wear v. Google Glass: A battle of present and future computing

Is Android Wear a threat to Google Glass?

Android Wear and Google Glass are flawed concepts aimed at the future

Many people think that it wasn't really intentional, but I beg to differ. Not many soccer players are "kneed" by a flying player during a match. Unfortunately, this was caused by the overzealous player who wanted to get some edge by "roughing" the opponent team's players. Although he may not have intended to cause physical damage like this, if you go beyond what is generally acceptable in a sports, you always risk harming other people or yourself.

It was an accident to a large extent, but nonetheless it made me sad. We tend to admire people who excel in certain things no matter what they are. Brazil, for instance, had many phenomenal soccer players, starting from Pele, to Ronaldo and Ronaldino, etc. We all wanted to see another Pele in this World Cup. Unfortunately, that dream has been cut short. We will see how Brazil plays without Neymar against strong teams like Germany, Netherlands, and Argentina.

Just a few more matches, and then the World Cup is over. We'll have to wait another four years to see events like this. :)

Anyways, it's time for me to close a chapter as well.

I released this Android app, World Cup Buddy, on the day of the opening match, June 12th. That's over three weeks ago, and sadly I've had ten users (yes, 10 users :)) in that three week period. Well, I wasn't really surprised because it was more or less expected. As I mentioned before, Google Play store is completely broken for a vast majority of app developers. Unless you have marketing budget or otherwise can afford a different distribution channel, developing an app is a dead end on Play store. Google Play store provides merely a place where you can store an app file and let other people download it. No more than that. In the early days, places like Apple App Store (for iPhone apps) was the distribution channel for small app developers. Those days are over now. One thing to think about is that the fact that my app had 10 users had nothing to do with its quality. Whether an app is good or bad has nothing to do with how many times it is downloaded or tried, for the vast majority of small apps, at least in a time scale of weeks or months. They are simply not "visible" to the potential users. (Over much longer time frame, clearly, good apps will rise in ranking and get more exposure. I suppose.)

The Play Store developer console does not tell you how many times the app page has been viewed, but my guess is that it's probably around 10 in the case of my app. The fact of the matter is that a large portion, if not all, of Play Store revenue for Google comes from a small number of large publishers (app or content). Google's interest does not align with the small app developers (other than giving them the boasting right, e.g., "we have a million apps on google play store" as if that were a good thing).

The real challenge for us is not to develop fantastic/ground-breaking apps but to discover a better distribution channel (which is normally considered the role/responsibility of the platform provider). We will also have to take a hard look at whether Android is a viable platform for developers like myself.

In any case, it was a good learning experience for me. I learned many things besides the distribution channel problem. Most of them are really "small" and almost trivial. For example, what happens if you change your launcher activity after releasing the app. Not many developers care about it, and that's probably why you cannot find the answers to "small" issues like this on the Web, in general. I'll try to write up some of my experience in the future, that is, if I have time.

Now, I'm looking for the next project.

I still have a hope for "real time sports app". I thought about creating Tour de France companion app (being an avid cyclist, or at least so in the past), but it's (again) already too late. But, other events are coming up. Like the U.S. Open tennis, and many PGA tournaments, etc., and ultimately, my favorite, NFL season starts in September. The "sports app" (the kind I'm thinking about) is a very interesting category.

There are many downsides. For example, the apps are all short-lived, in general. I (along with nine others :)) used my World Cup app for a few weeks, and that's it. The app (regardless of how much effort a developer puts in) has no use after certain time (although it can be "cyclic", like being useful for a few weeks every year). Another major downside is that many popular sports events have "official" apps. FIFA has an app. The U.S. Open Tennis has an official app. NFL has an official app. This creates a unique challenge. Your app competes (for the audience) with big players with authorities/credentials as well as with many small players in the category.

On the other hand, there are many upsides as well when developing apps in this category. There are literally thousands of sports events all year round, domestically and internationally. You'll have virtually unlimited choices as to which sports event apps you want to develop. Also, (I presume that) many events are rather similar, at a high level, and you can re-use your code for multiple apps. Tour de France might not be similar to FIFA World Cup, but many ideas I thought about for World Cup can be used for NFL football, for instance. Many tennis events, Wimbledon or U.S. Open, etc., have very similar, almost identical, formats.

I have certain good ideas (or, "vision") which I would like to implement, but there are many problems as well. For example, as I mentioned at the very beginning while starting the World Cup app project, getting (affordable) "real time sports data" is a big challenge. I couldn't still come up with a solution although I have a few ideas to explore in the future.

I've been thinking about other potential projects as well. They all look good on paper. But, very few (or, none) of these ideas will actually "work". The challenge for me, right now, is to figure out which projects are more promising. At this point, I'm limiting myself to the ideas that can be implemented on smart phones/tablets as well as Google Glass and Android Wear/watch. Android TV is optional, but it might be nice (as a learning exercise, if nothing else) if I can develop an app that runs on all these new platforms.

This is actually quite a challenge, if you think about it. Certain types of apps simply do not make sense in certain platforms. For example, let's suppose that you want to develop a simple "fifteen puzzle" app. It can potentially be a decent app on a smart phone or tablet (and there are quite a few already, if you look at the Play Store listing). But, does this app make sense on Google Glass? How would you play Fifteen puzzle on Glass? How about a smart watch? How about smart TV? It may not be impossible. But, it poses a difficult and new challenge for the developers. How do you control the tile/block on TV which do not have touch screen? Etc.

Semi finals are coming up in a few days. And then the grand finale of World Cup 2014. I'll think of something meanwhile, and hopefully, I'll get better "result" with the next project. By the way, despite the lack of users, I supported my app for the last three weeks. One thing I'm proud of, if that matters, is that I released the app updates every day for the last three weeks. This is partially due to the fact that I did not have a way to provide real-time data to the users. But, it's also due to the peculiarity of the sports apps, in general, whose UI may need to change over time. (e.g., From group stage to Round of 16, to quarter finals, etc.) I may have set a record in this regards. :) (Not sure how many apps, out of a million, have been updating every day for a few weeks.)

Last but not least, my thanks to all (nine) users who have tried my app. I appreciate it. I'd be grateful even further if you could take a bit of time to provide some short feedback, like how you stumbled upon my app, how often you used it, what you liked or disliked about the app, etc. etc. Or, just any short comment. You can find my "official email" on Google Play store page. I cannot promise you anything concrete in return at this point, but everyone who provides a feedback will get "VIP status" in all my future apps. :)

Since I didn't go to the I/O this year, I watched a couple of live stream sessions, including the Wearable session. The presenter, Timothy Jordan, seemed to be deliberately vague regarding the future direction of Google Glass and Android Wear, and their relationship. For example, is Mirror API (which is specific to Glass) going to go away in favor of Wear notifications in the future? Maybe, or maybe not.

The session discusses the "distributed" version of MVC paradigm to support multiple types of devices when building an app. If you think about "the problem", not as of now, but as of tomorrow, next year, etc., where we have hundreds of different types of devices (some of which we may not even be able to conceive today), then eventually we cannot have special versions of APIs for different devices. That's simply not "scalable" for both Google and app developers. I'm already having difficulty supporting a few types of devices, phone/tablet and Glass (and, Android TV?). We need a fundamentally different way of approaching this problem.

The notable absence of Google Glass in today's keynote (which I didn't watch the whole segment yet, btw) indicates that Google is downplaying the importance of Glass (if not their commitment), and it is clearly moving toward the one unified Android Wear platform, possibly with Glass being just one of many devices. Many people have been speculating that Google Glass is dead before it is even born. It is losing the war in the market acceptance, again according to speculations (since Google never shares any real data).

BTW, the biggest news from today's I/O is, I think, the "Android One" platform not Android TV or Android Auto. This is such a revolutionary concept, which goes beyond the traditional OEM model, in a very subtle yet important way. Google is now a new Microsoft, and even more.

Anyways, it's a good thing that I didn't spend too much time building the "notification framework" for the (never materialized) Google Glass version of my World Cup Buddy app. ;) I guess it's time for me to learn more about the Android Wear SDK now.