Audiobook 2011.10.28 - iCon: Steve Jobs

Full title is iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Act in the History of Business. The unauthorized biography written by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon tracks his rise from making and selling blueboxes with Wozniak to founding Apple Computer, to getting booted out of Apple, to founding NeXT Inc., to buying Pixar from Lucas, and back to heading Apple and unleashing iPod into the world.

Main takeaway from the audiobook is that all you need is one hit, and everything is forgiven. You can produce flops like the Macintosh, the NeXT Computer, the NeXTcube, the Pixar Image Computer, etc. As long as you have the iPod to save the day, then it's all good.

JVP to JVT

Firmware releases for the SGS is becoming less and less. I feel JVT is going to be one of the last. Instead of waiting for ICS, I bit the bullet and flashed (again) my SGS to JVT.

Same procedure as before:

1. flash stock JVT ROM from sammobile
2. flash CWM-enabled kernel (I chose Semaphore)
3. do a couple of wipes, do a couple of formats
4. flash the Romkitchen ROM

Phone is much faster and responsive than before. Only issue is that the Gingerbread keyboard goes FC every time it's called, and I get restarts once in a while.

Movie 2011.10.23 - Hannibal Rising

I can't imagine Hannibal Lecter as a sword-wielding teenager traveling from country to country hunting down his enemies. And a Japanese aunt in France from a samurai clan? That's a bit of a stretch.

Movie is a bit boring as we know nothing bad is going to happen to Hannibal. The SS guards are not going to eat him up, so obviously we know it's the little sister who gets sacrificed. Police inspector Popil is not going to put him behind bars. The baddies are not going to shoot him by stealth as he works at the autopsy room. He gets shot from behind in the spine by Grutas, but we all know he's got a wakizashi hidden in the back, which he uses to mutilate his archenemy.

Movie 2011.10.21 - Get Smart

The movie plot is not that smart, but I have to admit there are times when I laughed out loud. Steve Carrell is funny because he's such a clueless guy. Dwayne Johnson is funny because of his deadpan lines. Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are funny because their acting is over the top.

Heck, I can't even remember the plot, but I remember the part where Max was on a plane and he gets some matches to burn off the gum on his shoes, and he gets attacked by the air marshall. In the toilet, he tries to cut the tiewrap on his wrists by using the mini-crossbow on his Swiss army knife and proceeds to shoot arrows into himself. Another arrow hits the eject button and away he goes without a parachute. The ballroom dance sequence is also quite entertaining, although not really necessary.

Audiobook 2011.10.14 - Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

With classical music, I tend to listen to the parts I like (the familiar ones), and skip through the slow, boring, unfamiliar ones. With this audiobook playing in the car, I'm forced to listen through all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas.

The audiobook is an extensive academic discourse by Professor Robert Greenberg on each of Beethoven's piano sonatas. More than that, the lecturer goes beyond the music and expounds on the life and times of Beethoven, how the music came about, how it works, some funny anecdotes and metaphors here and there, etc.

By the end of the course, my head is full of movements, cadence material, modulating bridge, coda, tarantella, gigue, fugue, adagio, allegro, pianissimo, bel canto, open cadence, theme and variation, trills, major/minor keys and chords, etc.

Din Tai Fung at The Star

Went to the city to look at QVB's new light show projected on the central dome. Had a bit of time to kill, so ended up at The Star. Didn't know the renovation work on the facade is already completed. Mighty impressed with the clean open design. Some of the boutiques like Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Salvatore Ferragamo are not yet open, but you can still window-shop at Chanel, G-Star RAW, and CK Jeans. Food court open, too. There's Flying Fish and Chips, Kampung, Messina Gelato, and Din Tai Fung. Adriano Zumbo's Patissier is also supposed to be around, but I don't see it.

Upgrading the Huawei U8300

This little beauty running on Eclair is just begging to be upgraded. Out of the box, it came with build U8300 V100R001AUS C34B257SP01. Latest official build available is U8300 V100R001AUS C34B271. Interestingly, Huawei's pulled it off their website. Good thing someone made a copy and is hosting it.

To install the firmware:

1. create dload directory on SD card
2. extract UPDATA.APP from the ZIP archive and copy to dload folder
3. go to Settings --> SD card and phone storage --> Software upgrade --> SD card upgrade --> Confirm

If you're still not happy with that, you can go all the way and install a custom ROM like Adrenalin 2.3.5.

1. Root the device with z4root. It's not in the Market anymore, but Google can help you find the apk. Root process takes a while to complete.
2. Install ROM Manager and flash CM Recovery. When asked, choose Huawei Ascend.
3. Copy Adrenalin RC1 and updates to SD card.
4. Reboot into recovery mode, and do a full backup of your current ROM in case something goes wrong.
5. Do a wipe data/factory reset.
6. Install Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1, then fix permissions.
7. Reboot the device.
8. Reboot into recovery mode, and flash Adrenalin 2.3.5 RC1 Update2, then fix permissions.
9. Reboot the device.
10. Reboot into recovery mode, and flash kernel patch (optional).
11. Clear Dalvik cache.

The only thing not working for me after the above procedure is the WiFi. Workaround is to flash back to the original firmware, then do the upgrade again. This time, RC1 , then Update1, then Update2, and it works perfectly. I guess some stuff were in Update1 that were left out in Update2.

First impressions. Screen is a bit small compared to SGS, but everything works as expected. Images and text are crisp and clear, better than I expected. System a bit sluggish, so I overclocked it to 710MHz, which seems to help a bit. Quite hard to pull down the notification area. Phone's default orientation is landscape, so apps that work in portrait mode are rotated the wrong way. Built-in camera app also has this 90-degree bug. More testing to come.

Huawei U8300

What do you expect to pay for an Android smartphone that has the ff. features:

• Android 2.1 (Eclair)
• 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor
• 256MB RAM, 512MB Flash
• 320x240 pixel QVGA, 2.6-in resistive touchscreen with 256k colours
• 3.2MP camera with LED flash
• gravity sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
• dedicated torch key and trackball
• GPS
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• microUSB 2.0
• 3.5mm jack
• QWERTY keyboard

Thanks to OzBargain and Optus/Boost, I managed to snag a Huawei u8300 for a measly $50 (RRP $150). All it needs now is a bit of hacking to bring it up to Gingerbread.

Whole-Day Sunshine

Customer tried to do a remote upgrade and failed. Now the system is in a funny state, and the only way out I can see is a clean install. Bootloader-based FTP install doesn't work possible due to VLAN issues. What do to? Tried calling my colleague down in Melbourne. No answer. Boss says worst case I have to fly down first thing in the morning. After having only three hours of sleep during the night?! Sure!

So there I was at the domestic airport waiting for the last possible moment to check in. Final call to Melbourne colleague - no answer. Sunshine, here I come. Just before I turned off my mobile inside the plane, I get the call. See you soon, dude.

Spent the rest of the day doing backups and clean installs and restores. Customer finished their checks by 3:30pm. Got back to Sydney by 8pm.

Churros at the Baby and Toddler Show

It's a day of discounts. Went down to the city for the Baby & Toddler Show at Sydney Exhibition Centre. Parked at the newly opened Wilson Parking at Darling Quarter for $9 flat-rate. Entrance to the show was free as we got complimentary tickets from Coles.

On our way out, we were offered complimentary tickets to MasterChef Live. Went to the nearby St. Moritz at Harbourside for $5 churros and hot chocolate for two - courtesy of Groupon.