Android how-to (for Motorola Droid)…

Note – these are only applicable to Motorola Droid (A855)

1) Root your droid – use the Droid Rootkit from AGreen BHM (link here). It only works on Windows (not Mac or Linux) — and uses the ADB (Android API’s Debug Bridge). It walks you through the fairly arduous process of wiping your phone, reverting back to an outdated rooted ROM, updating the baseband, installing a new rom, etc.. There are tons of links out there explaining why you should root, but very few explaining how. I still hope to take the time to learn the mechanics of this at some point, but for now will just use other people’s rooted ROMs.

2) Install ROM Manager – this lets you backup your phone’s image (through its ‘nandroid’ program) and also install anyone’s ROM to your phone. Requires root access, but is free through the marketplace. There’s a paid version which provides access to ROM’s as well.

3) View log output from your droid – connect usb to your computer, enable usb debugging (settings -> applications -> development). On your computer (Windows), run adb.exe (from step 1) passing logcat as arg (adb logcat). Now all output from your Android will appear in your console.

4) Fix that problem that when you try to install an app, the entire phone reboots during the install process. If you enable debugging, you may see this error: java.lang.SecurityException: Requires android.permission.ASEC_CREATE permission — it turned out the problem (for me) was that it was trying to install the app to my SDCard, but for some reason failed. Therefore, I unmounted my SDCard, re-installed the app, and then re-mounted my SDCard — worked fine.

5) Restart your phone into bootloader. There are at least two ways to do this:

• Start with phone powered off. Press and hold both the directional keypad “up” (pointing toward screen) and the power button until the screen lights up. Then let go
• Start with phone powered on. Connect via USB with usb debugging enabled. At a command prompt on your PC, invoke adb.exe with commands “reboot-bootloader’ (e.g., “adb reboot-bootloader”).

6) Restart your phone into recovery. There are at least two ways to do this:

• Start with phone powered off. Press and hold both the x button on the pullout keyboard and the power button until you get the Motorola logo — at which point you must continue to hold the ‘x’ key, but can let go of the power button.
• Start with phone powered on. Connect via USB with usb debugging enabled. At a command prompt on your PC, invoke adb.exe with commands “reboot recovery”) (e.g., “adb reboot recovery”).

You will then see the recovery screen. The directional keypad moves you around, and the power button is equivalent to “back.” Ideal if you have clockwork recovery (which comes with ROM Manager) installed.

Entertainment center – processing power

The goal is to run Netflix streaming, Amazon streaming, Hulu streaming and DVD’s to a HD TV, which requires 1920×1080 resolution via HDMI interface. Note – the TV does not have a VGA input (only HDMI, S-Video, RCA and Coax), and will not support any other resolution.

I had an old Dell PowerEdge 400SC (P4 2.8ghz 2GB ram). It could do everything at a resolution of 1024×768 pretty well, but even with a high-end video card, it couldn’t handle the processing power needed for the videos at full screen (lots of choppiness). Needed something stronger.

A few lessons learned:

1) HDMI requires a wide pipe, so trying to force-fit it to use a PCI or AGP video card slot won’t work very well.

2) I tried an HDMI-to-VGA adapter (Aluratek). It worked ok, but you don’t get true quality through it (VGA signal converted to something HDMI can work with)

3) A lot of newer computers are beefing up their L3 cache offerings, and providing lower L2 cache offerings. From what I can tell, this will likely not make a difference.

I ended up getting a Gateway SX2850 (MSRP $550): Intel Core i3 540 with 4MB L3 cache and 4GB Ram, running on Win 7. The built-in video card is an Intel HD Graphics (not much info out there on the specs for this).

The system works really well for what I need. Highly recommend for this purpose.

Although the i3 doesn’t have turbo mode enabled, it seems to scream in comparison to the i5.

Resources:

• CPU Benchmarks
• i3 vs. i5 review
• i3 540 (and 530) review

Skype – Adding Phone (Skype-Out) Contacts (ver 4.x)

Sucks. I’m completely baffled by their totally inadequate contact management. They make money each time we use skype to call non-skype phones, so why not make it super easy for us to import our contacts with phone numbers? Why not let us have multiple phone numbers per contact?

You can buy plug-ins that do this for you, albeit not wonderfully, or you can do it yourself, if you’re fairly comfortable with any scripting language. Just go to Contacts -> Advanced -> Backup Contacts to File. Make a copy and insert your own VCARD entries for each contact you have with a phone. Then Contacts -> Advanced -> Restore Contacts from File (give it your updated file).

I’m not sure why they haven’t made this process easier…

Blackberry for the Tech-Savvy

Wanted to document some important points I learned about the BB. In my case it was the Bold (9000) from AT&T. If you’re comparing BB’s either within a certain carrier or among carriers, you should have a look at RIM’s own comparison tool.

Memory
This is probably the most annoying thing (to techies) about the Blackberry. First of all, the OS is written in Java, so memory management isn’t well controlled (by the app writers anyway). I have two huge problems with the architecture here:

1. At the time of this writing, there is only 128MB non-expandable, on-board RAM. Further, it is used not only to run the phone and all the apps, but it is used to store all of your apps. As in storage (disk space) on the device. Even if you install a 32GB micro-SD card, you CANNOT put applications on it. Applications can only reside in the space used by RAM. The OS and core functions (phone, messages, browser, etc.) tend to eat up about 100MB or so, leaving you about 30MB for apps and others. Once again, non-expandable.
2. Memory leaks are accepted by BB users as the norm. In fact, there are tons of BB user groups and forums that will advise you to do a hard reset (remove the battery) once a week to reset the system (freeing up memory). Sadly, it works. My device showed that I had 5MB memory available. I pulled the battery and rebooted, and then I had 30MB available. Wow.

There’s a pretty good forum posting here which explains the types of memory.

Managing Two Lives: Work and Personal
The current BB OS is not designed for users who wish to manage multiple contacts, emails, and calendars. In the real world, you have your personal email (maybe Gmail), your personal contacts (friends, family), and your personal calendar (birthdays, etc.). You want these to exist separately from your work equivalents within your BB.

1. Email: If you use BES (enterprise for work), and BIS (for personal), then the default messages app will show both everytime you get an email to either. It doesn’t have a way to show just the work emails. There’s an app that you can buy which claims to manage this for you. If you happen to use Gmail, your best bet is to use the BB Gmail app. You won’t get rapid “push” notification or anything, but at least you won’t wonder which emails are which.
2. Calendar: There is only one calendar. If you have two or more sources of calendar events, the BB can color-code the events by source. However, you cannot wirelessly sync more than one. So, if work gives you a calendar that auto-updates your BB, then you’ll have no way to auto-update your personal one. If you happen to use Google for calendaring in your personal life, you can download the Google Sync app for BB, but be aware that your personal calendar events will appear on your work calendar (for your employer to see if they want).
3. Contacts: Only one address book. Period. Through work, I can connect to the BES service and lookup contacts, so I don’t have to have everyone in my company in my local BB address book. If you use Gmail, you can use Google Sync to sync up your contacts with Gmail, but again — these can sync to your work server. Another option is through Desktop Manager (the software companion to BB). You can put all your contacts in Outlook and tell it to sync with your BB when you plug your BB into your desktop. It requires manual syncing, but for now seems like the best option.

BES = Big Brother
If you connect to work via the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), then you should be aware that you have no privacy. Your SMS/text messages, your phone log, your contacts, your calendar, every web site you visit, every app you install — all available for your IT department to review anytime they want. Further, they can set policies which will restrict your ability to install certain apps, enforce password restrictions, etc.. There’s a pretty thorough write-up here.

Sleep Mode — so you can keep it in your pocket
Holsters are nerdy unless you’re a carpenter or super hero. They’re popular with BB people because the BB used to be too big to keep in your pocket. iPhone users and “simple” phone users keep their phones in their pockets. BB users don’t because if you accidentally hit any buttons, the keyboard will light up and waste battery life. If you don’t keep your unit locked, then it might even auto-dial someone or launch an app or something. To address this, BB has a sleep mode which will still let you receive phone calls and text messages (and emails), but won’t respond to keyboard activity unless you wake it up. Two subtleties about this:

1. Holsters put BB to sleep. There is a magnetic bar inside the holster (if the holster is really a BB holster anyway) which puts the BB to sleep. Yes, if you hold a magnet to a BB, it will go to sleep. So, once holstered, lights are out. You’ll even see a “Holster mode” setting in the customization options (see next paragraph).
2. The mute button on the top of the unit — press and hold for 2 secs and it will put the BB to sleep. No holster required.

Customization
One nice thing about the BB is how customizable it is. In terms of ring volume, vibrate settings, notifications, etc., there are TONS of options to configure. You can even add your own profiles quite easily. You can set what happens when you click on the side buttons, you can add themes, you can hide or move any icons. I was really impressed with how personalized they made this device. You don’t usually see this type of customization in many software applications anymore. Very pleasantly surprised.

Security
That 128MB of on-board memory I mentioned earlier — entirely secure. It’s encrypted, and this is one reason why the BB has such a strong reputation with security. This is also why (they say) they force applications to live in the secured memory space. Emails sent through the BES system are also encrypted, at least between your BB and your BES. When you install a micro SD card, you can choose whether to encrypt it or not.

Final Note: Carriers
Generally speaking, carriers restrict features unless you pay them extra for their “services.” In some cases, they don’t even offer the service at all. For example tethering. This is the ability to use your BB as a modem for your laptop. It is available to AT&T subscribers for a fee, but not available at all to Verizon subscribers. The Bold (AT&T only) supports wi-fi, but the Verizon equivalent (Tour) does not. In NYC, AT&T has mediocre reception and call quality, while Verizon is quite strong. In the SF Bay Area, AT&T users are quire happy (as are Verizon users). You should probably choose your carrier based on their service in your area, and whom you’ll be calling the most (in-network calls are free).

Getting a cell phone through Amazon

This seems to be a bit of a black box–prior to placing my order, I couldn’t find much information out there. Amazon does provide a telephone operator to answer any questions, but (of course), they don’t necessarily provide correct or helpful answers.

Why Amazon
I purchased an AT&T Blackberry from Amazon because it was $200 less than buying directly through AT&T. It required a 2 year contract, but Amazon only sticks around for the first 6 months of the contract. This is important: if you terminate during the first 6 months, you’ll pay the standard AT&T early termination fee ($175 minus $5/mo) and a $250 Amazon termination fee. After 6 months, it’s just the AT&T fee ($175 minus $5/mo).

Important: Changing Plans
In fact, during this 6 month “Amazon-iron-curtain” period, you are also forbidden to downgrade any of your monthly service features. For example, you cannot reduce your voice or data plan during the first 6 months, or else you pay the $250 Amazon fee. You are allowed to upgrade without penalty, but downgrading is a no-no. This applies to voice, data, SMS and just about any other feature you initially ordered through Amazon.

Insurance
Get it. It’s $4.99/mo. It can only be purchased from AT&T (not Amazon), and must be during the first 30 days. It’s got a $125 deductible, but it’s the only choice, so you should get it.

Buyers-Remorse Period
There is a period during which you can return the phone for just about any reason (assuming it’s not damaged) without any penalty or fee. This period only lasts 30 days and begins when your phone is first activated. For some reason, Amazon told me that this period is 14 days, but that’s not true. So, here’s a problem: when you place the order, Amazon activates the phone -BEFORE- they ship it. Your “buyer’s-remorse” period begins from the date of activation. So, make sure you get expedited shipping, since the time it takes to ship uses up your buyer’s-remorse period. Also, and this is a little ugly, to return it during this period, you have to return the phone to Amazon, and then they have to send an electronic record (email?) to AT&T confirming the return. Only after AT&T receives confirmation from Amazon will they terminate your contract. All this has to happen before day #30.

iTunes Error: the required folder cannot be found.

iTunes 8.2.1.6, XP Pro

Problem: When I would refresh my podcast subscriptions (to get the updated episodes), iTunes would recognize that updates were available, but would not download them with the cryptic error message attached. This particular error was for my NPR Marketplace podcast show.

Solution: Go to the folder where your podcasts are cached/stored. For me, it’s D:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music, and delete everything in that folder.

I tried reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime and deleting and renewing all my subscriptions. Nothing worked.

I’ve seen several threads on Apple’s support site about this, but none with answers. Weird that a re-install wouldn’t find and fix issues like this. Obviously one of my app files was corrupt(ed).

Minor Windows Annoyance: IE 8 start page reverts to msn.com

On XP Pro.

I tried Tools->Options->Use Current (from google.com) and use blank, but then when IE would restart, it would just go back to msn.com.

I googled around and used regedit: HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main -> Start Page. Mine didn’t have a registry key called ‘Start Page,’ and regedit wouldn’t let me create and edit one for some reason.

The fix: go to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main and DELETE the Start Page entry. Wow, really guys? Yes.

Bypass web filter with SSH

I’m waiting at the VW dealer for my car to get its 60K mile service. They provide wireless (thank you), but they use websense to prevent me from visiting such benign sites as Twitter and Craigslist. No, they’re not run by Ahmadinejad.

They do allow me to open an SSH connection to my Linux server, so I now have everything I need to use their wireless and bypass their filter. Any *nix server you have SSH access to will do.

I was about to write up the step-by-step, but I see that Chad Perrin did a fine job of doing exactly that. Thanks Chad!

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=421

Free Poker Software (Texas Hold 'Em)

http://pokerth.net

This is a peer-to-peer or client-server model Poker game which requires NO registration, NO fees, and has NO pop-ups, ads or other bs. In the client-server model (“internet game”), you can use their server to host or simply join someone else’s game. You can assign a password to your table so that only your friends can join.

In peer-to-peer mode, you can effectively use your client AS the server and let your friends connect directly to you.

In both capacities, you can have computer players fill as many seats as you  like (either exclusively robot or just to complement humans), you can set blinds both in terms of amount and timing, you can force a timeout period for people to decide what to do (automatically folds or checks if they run out of time), you can use your own custom avatar, and hey there are even skins available.

As a software guy, I’m particularly impressed that it’s available for 3 platforms (for free), and if you don’t want to run an installer (or a pkg/rpm), then you can just download the zip file and run the executable directly from there–nice!

The software is simple, intuitive, and very user-friendly.

Only downside is that you can’t buy-in again, as you might do at friendly poker games.

lsass.exe eating CPU at startup

Win XP Pro, all patched, no viruses, no spyware.

Upon startup/login, lsass.exe would eat up about 70% of the CPU for about 10 minutes. I tried using Process Explorer to see what was going on, I tried scouring Google for answers, all to no avail.

The trick (at your own risk): go to c:\documents and settings\[you]\application data\microsoft\protect, and delete all the folders in there. One of them had 16,000 files which apparently caused lsass.exe to spin forever doing god knows what/why.

This fixed my problem, and it hasn’t used more than 1% CPU since.

Edit: On another machine, this directory had over 900,000 files in it. That took a LONG time to identify, much less delete. I did some research and found that it’s related to SQL Server.