Robot.Floss

While reorganizing my MP3 collection, a large number of files were incorrectly renamed. Instead of having an extension of mp3, such as “SomeSong.mp3″, they’re now “SomesongMp3.mp3.” I decided to correct the problem. First, I needed a list of all files with the phrase “mp3″ before the extension in the filename. So I fired up search and looked for: “*mp3.*”

That should result in a list of all files with the phrase “mp3″ in the filename before the extension to be displayed. However, in Windows 7 it now means “Show me everything with the phrase ‘mp3′ anywhere in the filename.” Also, the asterisk and question mark now mean the same thing - this is most likely a side effect of the new, crappy implementation.

The asterisk should mean “any number of characters”, and the question mark should mean “a single character”. For example, “*.mp3″ should show list all files with an mp3 extension. And “?.mp3″ should only show all mp3 files that have a filename that is 1 character in length. Its always worked this way, and it should stay this way. Otherwise it is too hard to limit the search results to a more specific range.

I thought that it might be a UI option for ease of use, so I dropped to the command line. The result was the same. I’m not sure why Microsoft, in blissful idiocracy, has changed the way the wildcards work when searching in Windows 7, but it is a massive inconvneince, especially if you’re working with files in the command line.

You can still do it from the command prompt, but now you have to do something along the lines of this - which still isn’t a perfect cure:

for %a in (*.*) do @echo %~na

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is decent, but it presents too many security problems. If you love Firefox, and you should, then I recommend eliminating the threat of IE. Whether it is the built in Windows firewall or from another vendor, block all of IEs access to the internet and don’t let up.

I’ve made this a standard practice for years. And when I really need to use IE, I’ll tweak the firewall, take care of business, and then return everything back to its locked down state. A few months back I let the rule slide. Like clockwork, a few days later my girlfriend was surfing around on IE, hit a malicious website, and my computer went to shit. I then spent the rest of the weekend formatting and reinstalling.

Be smart. Stop IE.

Don’t chance it. Ban IE. I promise your life will be happier and your computer safer.

Do you want the US version of Cupcake and you want it now? Mine got pushed to me on the 23rd, and here it is for you.

Crown me a saint.

WARNING: Make sure your phone has a full battery or is charged. You don’t want it to die during this process.

Instructions

1. Download the US Cupcake 1.5 (this is hosted here, not elsewhere, so it will work)
2. Rename the file “update.zip”
3. Copy update.zip to the root of your SD card
4. Turn off your phone
5. Turn it on while holding the home key
6. When you see the triangle + exclamation mark icon, press alt + L
7. Then press alt + s
8. The update will apply
9. Then press home + back to reset at which point the radio update will be applied
10. Viola! Cupcake!

There isn’t a dire need for me to post blogs from my G1. On the other hand, the geek in my requires it. This morning I downloaded wpToGo and PostBot from the Android market to do a comparison.

Screen shots would do a better job at justifying my final choice, but this is a Saturday morning, and I’m too lazy for that at the moment.

Setup - Winner: wpToGo
Both programs are easy to setup and support multiple accounts. This is great because you can log in as different users (ex: admin vs your normal account) on the same blog or log in to different blogs completely. Excellent.

wpToGo has a cleaner user interface in general, and for that it wins the setup round. Although, I think the publisher could do well by removing the post options that are not related to setting up the blog. When you setup a blog you’ll be asked to choose how to place images, what size images should be, how they should be aligned, and what resolution they will be displayed. This should be removed from the setup screen and accessed elsewhere instead.

Posting - Winner: wpToGo
Once again the wpToGo UI dominates PostBot. Not only that, but when you first log in wpToGo pulls a list of the most recent posts. In my case it pulled every post back to the start of the blog. PostBot failed to do this. From this screen you can long press on a post to preview, edit the post, or edit the comments. That is the sole reason PostBot lost this round.

Both editors give you the options to add pictures, categories, and publish or save as a draft. wpToGo goes an extra step and gives buttons for bold, italics, links, block quotes, and for tags. And wpToGo could do well by removing some of the options, such as adding a picture, from the main layout and moving them to under the menu button.

wpToGo also has UI buttons for bold, italics, links, block quotes, add pictures, tags, categories, publish vs draft while PostBot does not. You should know that both editors are pure HTML, so if you’re wanting to use tags just go for it. My only criticism with wpToGo is that they could have a cleaner editing interface if they followed the PostBot route and moved some of the options, such as publish or attaching a picture, under the menu button.

Final verdict: wpToGo wins by a long shot, but its editing screen can take some lessons from PostBot.

Engadget is reporting that the US version of Cupcake is being rolled out OTA. However, it is only hitting those of us who applied the UK version of Cupcake.

I can confirm this. My UK-cupcaked phone received the US Cupcake last night, but something went haywire and the update was a fail. I had to revert back to RC29 and move myself all the way backup again.

Also, on this round, I found that after getting back to RC33 for some reason I can no longer install my favorite application, which is the Advanced Application Manager.

Ho-hum. I’ll just sit pretty at RC33 and wait for the push.

I love my G1 and I abuse it to no end. For instance, I’ve easily tried 250+ (if not 350+) apps on it. That much installing and uninstalling can lead to problems. And I finally decided I needed to hard reset my phone, because it would easily become sluggish and unresponsive during simple tasks.

Before I did the hard reset, I downloaded the UK version of Cupcake, because I have no patience and the US version has not been pushed out OTA (over the air) yet. I’ve used it for a few days, and I think it is finally pointing Android in the correct direction. But when the US version rolls out (the UK Cupcake is missing Amazon MP3, IMing aside from gChat, no voice search, and a few other things), I’ll need to downgrade and upgrade back to RC33 and then grab the US Cupcake OTA.

I hard reset my phone, and then it took me a frustrating amount of time to find the proper downgrade and upgrade files. To save other people some time and frustration here are the files - these are the official, OTA, and properly signed files. Also, if you’re not aware each update to Android has a radio update too. Radio updates are included in the update packages, so there is no need to go hunting for those.

Warnings:

1. Do not trust your battery during an downgrade or upgrade. Plug in to a wall.
2. Do not interupt your phone during these procedures - let the G1 finish its business. It will often reset, then continue the update, or will apply the radio update on reboot - so follow the on-screen prompts carefully and be patient.
3. I will help to a degree with questions pertaining to this. Anything else should be directed to a G1 forum.
4. I am not responsible if you fuck up your phone.

DO NOT DIRECT LINK TO THESE DOWNLOADS OR I WILL TAKE THEM OFFLINE IMMEDIATELY. BE KIND TO MY BANDWIDTH!

Note: These are the OTA, signed files. You cannot use these to root your phone.

G1 - RC29

1. Download and unzip the RC29 file
2. Format your SD card to FAT32 and place
3. Place the DREAIMG.NBH file on the SD card (do not place it in a subfolder)
4. Turn on the phone while while holding the home key
5. When you see the triangle icon, hit ALT+L
6. Now press ALT+W to wipe the phone
7. Turn the phone off
8. Power the phone in to bootloader (power it on while holding the camera key)
9. The G1 will detect the RC29 image and it will proceed from there
10. Follow any on-screen prompts

G1 - RC30

1. Download and unzip the RC30 file - what you want is to have a file that is called “update.zip”
2. DO NOT unzip “update.zip” - leave it the way it is
3. Copy update.zip to the root of your SD card
4. Turn on the while while holding the home key
5. When you see the triangle icon, hit ALT+L
6. Press ALT+S at the menu
7. When prompted, press the home and back buttons
8. It should reboot and now update the radio
9. Finally it will reboot to the normal Android screen
10. Viola, you’re done.

G1 - RC30 to RC33

1. Download and unzip the RC30 to RC33 file - what you want is to have a file that is called “update.zip”
2. DO NOT unzip “update.zip” - leave it the way it is
3. Copy update.zip to the root of your SD card
4. Turn on the while while holding the home key
5. When you see the triangle icon, hit ALT+L
6. Press ALT+S at the menu
7. When prompted, press the home and back buttons
8. It should reboot and now update the radio
9. Finally it will reboot to the normal Android screen
10. Viola, you’re done.

G1 - RC33 to UK Cupcake

1. Download and unzip the UK Cupcake file - what you want is to have a file that is called “update.zip”
2. DO NOT unzip “update.zip” - leave it the way it is
3. Copy update.zip to the root of your SD card
4. Turn on the while while holding the home key
5. When you see the triangle icon, hit ALT+L
6. Press ALT+S at the menu
7. When prompted, press the home and back buttons
8. It should reboot and now update the radio
9. It may reboot a time or two, and then it should go to the classic “Android” boot screen.
10. Viola, you’re done.

When I say I have nine D630s, I’m not trying to boast. Rather, I’m trying to gain some sympathy. I’ve worked in IT for years, and I’ve always had a great Dell experience. And I encourage people I know to purcahse Dells as well. Not because the machines are necessarily better than others, but because the tech support is incredible. They once sent a tech to rural Oklahoma on Christmas Eve for me.

The only problem with having nine identical laptops is if a manufacturer defect exists, your odds of being affected are massively increased. And the D630 has an almost 100% failure rate for its graphics card.

In fact, the issue was so bad that Dell went back to Nvidia and said “We need to replace these graphics cards due to a defect” and Nvidia said “Well, we don’t make them any more.” Dell must have wielded a bat in the form of a legal threat, because Nvidia quickly started the line back up. (This was relayed to me via a Dell rep with decent knowledge on the situation)

I can understand the situation from Dell’s perspective. But here is my problem - the replacement graphics cards are as bad as the originals. I’m having replacement cards getting replaced. Since the graphics card is tied to the motherboard, this means that both are being replaced. And the systems never behave correctly with the new motherboard, so you have to reinstall Windows. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do then waiting for Dell techs to replace parts, then reinstall Windows (even if I’m doing it from an image, it still eats up time).

Of the nine D630s I have:

• Four have had the graphics card replaced.
• Three more of my machines are showing signs of the graphics cards going out.
• Of those three, one or two of them have had the card replaced before.
• Three I’ve had to order new batteries for (these die almost perfectly a month after their warranty)

And I’d like to point out that batteries are not covered by the 3 year extended service warranty you paid extra money for. But that is only listed in the small print. You don’t get to find this out until the batteries start dying and Dell makes you cough up $169 for a new one. Also, don’t get me started on how fragile the AC adapter is - barely kink that cord once and you’ll be buying a new AC adapter.

Basically:

• The graphics cards have a 100% failure rate (verified by a rep and a field rep)
• The replacement graphics cards have almost the same failure rate (from my experience)
• The batteries have a short life span, terrible reviews, and are expensive to replace
• The details of the battery warranty aren’t as apparent as they should be
• The power adapters die with ease

The bottom line:

If you need to purchase a D630, just purchase a cute puppy and shoot it in the head. It is about an equally worthwhile investment and is just as painstaking.

I’m tired of dealing with Dell and with this issue. As someone who makes a lot of purchases and has always been a major Dell supporter, I have to say that I’m quickly becoming burnt out with them. Hell, at this point I know more about the situation than the Dell reps. It reminds me of the capacitor fiasco with the GX270s, and it seems like Dell is just praying that no one gets organizes enough to bring up a class-action lawsuit.

And if you’d like to see what a failed graphics card looks like on the monitor, here are a few of the images from my sample library:

Don’t eat them.  They are bad for you.  Or if you subscribe to Morgan Spurlock’s findings, go on and eat them, but don’t eat the fries.

Serioiusly, though, I wanted to reproduce some advice that I found online recently because it has been a problem that has plagued me from the day I started using OSX.  Firefox is a gem, but there is a complaint that I have that I was blaming on Firefox - I can’t tab to a drop down menu when filling out a form.  This is such a trivial thing that I take for granted so often that it is a 6′ thorn in my side when I’m reminded of it.

Here is the simple solution that Apple had for me all along:

Rip over to System Prefs -> Keyboard/Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts.  You’ll see at the bottom of the window the option to use Tab for “All Controls.”

Just enable it, and voila.  I can’t take credit for this, so head over to How-to-Geek and show some love.

So, maybe not “religious,” but anyone who has used Firefox for more than a week and has a mouse with a scroll wheel middle button may attest to the convenience of closing a tab with a single click anywhere on the entire tab.  Since I have found it, I have been inadvertently middle clicking just about everything in my OS trying to close, delete, end, and any other stop-action you can think of.  Of course, this has been widely unanticipated by my OS and thus, quite in vain.

What I’m trying to get at is wouldn’t it be nice if we could at least translate some of that middle click to close goodness into our OS just a little bit?  YES!  I have found a great solution this week that I’d like to share.  Keep in mind who is writing this - someone who can’t yet use OSX (for whatever reason).  I am writing you from my Lenovo x61 tablet PC, and I will most likely be perusing the final edit on a Vista machine in my home office.  As such, this tool is available for Windows only.  The good thing is that Windows has the most obvious application and visually translatable functionality compared to FF - the taskbar.

The taskbar (when it’s full of open software buttons) has a curious resemblance to a nice band of tabs.  If you don’t believe me, throw your windows taskbar up to the top of your screen, open Firefox, and tell me you don’t want to middle click to close those open windows.

I’ll get on with it, then.  The software is called Taskbar Shuffle.  When installed, you immediately have the ability to

• rearrange your taskbar’s open program buttons by simply left-clicking and dragging
• auto arrange those buttons by type and age (ordering common buttons from longest to shortest time open)
• the coveted middle-click to close

You can find the software here:

http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/

I am currently using it on both Vista and XP and have added to my personal library as a “must have” for every install.

Today I’m headed from Oklahoma City back to San Francisco. Before I arrived at the airport, I downloaded the User Agent Switcher for FireFox and added a profile for the iPhone. A lot of airports allow free wifi access for iPhones, and the User Agent will allow you to pretend that your computer is a iPhone. And it works perfectly.

I tried connecting to the airport’s wifi without the User Agent addon enabled, and I was promptly asked to pay for access. I turned on User Agent, selected the iPhone profile, and viola! Free wifi. After 15 minutes I’m asked to watch a 15 second add, and then access continues.

Knowledge is glorious.

Here are the iPhone Agent settings you need to use once you’ve downloaded the User Agent addon:

• Description: iPhone
• User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en)
• App Name: AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko)
• App Version: Version/3.0
• Platform: Mobile/1A542a Safari/419.3