Robot.Floss

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.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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.

Popularity: 29% [?]

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:

Popularity: 10% [?]

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

Popularity: 3% [?]

Update (Feb 26th, 2009): The current version of the Xanga Importer is version 3. The code and instructions have been updated for WordPress 2.9.2. If you experience problems please let me know and be sure to indicate which version of WordPress you’re using!

Note: For those of you looking for a way to import Xanga posts in to WordPress without reading techno mumbo-jumbo, then scroll down until you see the heading “Downloading and Using”.

Fixing the Xanga Archive Importer

I’ve used Xanga since April 2003, so when I started up www.popeonabomb.com as a mirror to the blog, I of course wanted to import Xanga posts in to wordpress. I looked around for solutions, and eventually I discovered the Xanga Archives Importer (list at the WordPress).

I imported my posts, and I noticed that the Importer failed to properly handle some comments. Specifically, it decided that the majority of comments were Anonymous. I started poking around, and I discovered the problem only existed for posts from mid-June of 2005 and newer. The import code determines the author of a comment by the URL embedded in the comment. During June of 2005, Xanga changed the way they linked to a commenter’s blog.

Prior to mid-June of 2005, the URL had the format: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=the_users_name

After mid-June of 2005, the URL has the format: http://www.xanga.com/the_users_name

The import code hasn’t been maintained in a while, and when it encounters a comment with the new URL format, it fails to distinguish the name of the commenter. The name isn’t found so the import decides the comment is anonymous.

I am not sure why this bug had never been addressed. I found 5 versions of the original code (with the last update occurring to the original on May 13th, 2007) and each contains this error. And the error has been around since 2005.

Either way, I updated the code. Now if a comment is found to be anonymous, the code will attempt to process the author’s code using the post-June of 2005 URL format. Since Xanga does allow anonymous comment, if the author is still found to be anonymous, it is presumed to be an accurate result.

Downloading and Using:

Note: The importer requires that you have a premium Xanga account. If you do, then download an archive of your blog. (When logged in to Xanga, go to the private view of your site, and from the settings menu choose “Webblog Archives”)

1. Download my latest version of the importer here (Verison 3).
   If you need, you can download my original update to the importer here.)
2. Extract the PHP file, and upload it in to the /wp-admin/import directory.
3. Your Xanga archive comes in a zip file, extract the contents to a folder on your desktop
   Note: You cannot upload the zip file itself, so be sure to extract the contents!
4. In WordPress go to Tools -> Import -> and from the list choose “Xanga”
   Earlier versions of WordPress may find the option under Manage -> Import -> and select “Xanga”.
5. Click the “Browse…” button and select a Xanga archive .HTML file to upload
6. Click “Upload and Import”
7. The posts will be imported and you’ll be told how many posts and comments were imported.
   Note 1: If you accidentally upload the same file twice, don’t worry – it won’t upload duplicates
   Note 2: It does not currently upload the title of the post – the post will be titled with the date. I hope to update this soon.

Viola.

Popularity: 72% [?]

Today a co-worker summoned me to fix a Microsoft Office problem. She had opened a PowerPoint 2007 .docx file and needed to save it as an earlier PowerPoint file format, but when she received the following error:

“You are attempting to save a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting,”

I won’t go in to the details behind the error, because Microsoft already has, but it can happen to any Office 2003 or Office 2007 program that is trying to open or save documents made in the opposing version. (I consider Office 2003 and Office 2008 opposites, because the programs are filled with compatibility issues).

Microsoft gives the following solution:

In PowerPoint 2003, there are no trusted locations. You can create an exempt location to override the registry policy settings. To create an exempt location, follow these steps:
1. Exit PowerPoint 2003.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
5. Type OICEExemptions for the name for the key.
6. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
7. Type a string name, and then press ENTER. For example, type ExemptDirectory.
8. Right-click the string name that you typed in step 7, and then click Modify.
9. In the Value data box, type the path of the directory that contains the file, and then click OK. For example, if your document is in the C:\My Documents folder, type C:\My Documents in the Value data box.
Note You must create the folder. Any subfolders are not automatically exempted. For any additional folders that you would like to make exempt, repeat steps 6 to 9 by creating string values such as “ExemptDirectory1″ and “ExemptDirectory2.”
10. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Popularity: 17% [?]

At work I converted a Toshiba Satellite A135-S2386 from Vista to Windows XP. Initially, the A135 didn’t run Vista at an amazing speed, but after I took the time to remove the excess of startup programs, 3rd party vendor software, and all the other useless bells and whistles that came pre-installed, the machine ran Vista to my satisfaction. (Though heavy multi-tasking might have pushed the system had I tried it).

The only problem with switching from Vista to XP on the A135 is that the Toshiba never offered it as an XP machine. Therefore, the only drivers offered on the official product support page are Vista drivers. I went through countless forums and hundreds of dead links to XP drivers before I managed to get a working set together. So, in an effort to save other people time, here is a driver set that won’t be disappearing any time soon.

If you have problems with the set, please let me know. The installation order is marked in the file names.

Important Note About the Graphics Driver: In order to get the video driver to work, extract the drivers to a folder. Then you need to install the driver manually – do not use the setup.exe! Do this through the Windows Device Manager. When prompted, select to add a new driver, select to choose the driver location, and then manually select the driver from the extracted driver folder. If I remember correctly, there are several driver files, and you might have to try this a few times. (It has been a while since I did this, but I do remember the video driver installer not working properly, so you have to install it manually).

Download the drivers.

Note: A few of the comments ask about the password on the .ZIP file. I find this puzzling, seeing as there is no password on the file. If you’re prompted for the file, you’ve either downloaded the wrong file or you need to download a more up-to-date ZIP utility.

Popularity: 100% [?]

I hated to leave behind my OSx86 machines as I headed to San Francisco. On the other hand, my new employers have provided me with a MacBook Pro. I will miss dabbling in OSx86 (and nothing trumps hands-on, under-the-hood experience. On the other hand, I love OS-X in its true, brilliant glory.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In my Prescott v Northwood run down of OSx86, I tried almost every distribution except for iAtkos. At the suggestion of a reader, I obtained a copy, and viola – the installer and the OS worked. Of course, Murphy’s law dictates that of course iAtkos would work, because it was the only flavor I didn’t try an installing. However, I’m a bit disappointed in the outcome. Whereas I managed to get Kalyway to recognize all of the hardware with perfection, iAtkos looked at the same hardware and turned in to a snob.

iAtkos didn’t recognize the on-board sound, the built in LAN, the WiFi card, or my graphics card. It did recognize that my machine has USB ports, but that didn’t begin to make amends in our relationship. The WiFi and graphics card epic failures resulted because iAtkos made an executive decision and decided that the machine didn’t have any PCI slots. Needless to say, I didn’t have time to fight a bitter battle with iAtkos before I headed to SF, and I had to leave the lovely but crippled OS-X installation, in my home state until a later date.

Though I’m pleased that iAtkos worked (to a degree), it left much to be desired. On the other hand, each distribution can’t please all of the computers all of the time.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Recently, my parents started to suffer the following error any time they tried to view an image in Firefox (note: not an embedded image, rather just the image by itself):
“The image cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.” Turns out, the nasty little error is caused by Skype’s Firefox extension (my parents had recently installed it). The solution is to disable the Skype extension for Firefox under: Tools -> Add-ons

Popularity: 2% [?]