Fedora Boot Order

After installing the Sugar Learning Platform on my Windows 7 laptop, it now has GRUB bootloader with the following boot entries:

• Fedora 17
• Advanced configuration
• Microsoft Windows 7

And by default it goes to the first entry, which is Fedora.

Now that's a bit inconvenient, as I use Windows most of the time. Here's how to make the default boot switch to Windows 7:

1. As su, grep menuentry /boot/grub2/grub.cfg to show the boot entries
2. vi /etc/default/grub By default, it'll say GRUB_DEFAULT=saved. If you run grub2-editenv list, it'll show you Fedora 17 as the default option.
3. grub2-set-default "Microsoft Windows 7" to change the default.
4. grub2-editenv list to confirm that the configuration change was committed.

Another option is to manually make the change:

1. vi /etc/default/grub
2. GRUB_DEFAULT="Microsoft Windows 7"
3. grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg to save.

Sugar on a Stick on an HDD

Just from the name itself, Sugar on a Stick is supposed to be installed on a USB stick, but you can actually install it permanently on a hard disk.

First, download the Fedora Live USB Creator. Then, download the latest SoaS iso image and install it on the USB drive. Boot up the PC from the USB drive. Go through the initial setup. Once on the Sugar homescreen, open up the Terminal activity. Select the Become Root option. If it's not there, just run su. Type 'liveinst' without the quotes. This brings up anaconda, which will assist you in installing the SoaS onto the hard disk.

In my case, I was using the latest Fedora-Live-SoaS-20 image, and the partition manager keeps dying on me, and sending me back to the prompt. Had to downgrade to Fedora 17 before it worked. Shrank the current Windows partition and used the resulting free space for Sugar.

More complete installation instructions here:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Tutorials/Installation/Install_with_liveinst

PCA, CDC, OC

Received the PCA, CDC, and OC forms, which I need to sign and email back. Dunno what is the rush about, as the land is not yet registered. And I still need to do the following appointments:

• external finishes
• colours and inclusions selection
• kitchen
• electrical

before the forms can be submitted to council.

Lost Partition on External HDD

Strange case of a known working external hard disk not being accessible anymore. Upon connection to a PC, Windows reports that "You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?" chkdsk /f looks promising as it seems to be able to "see" the files, but didn't restore the lost partitions even after a full day and night of fixing errors. Windows 7 Disk Management is reporting the HDD as RAW, healthy. No valid partitions anywhere.

Looks like the partition got corrupted. Thought of booting a Linux live CD and using some parition manager like Parted Magic, but too time-consuming. Apparently, a lot of people have been experiencing this problem.

First software I tried is EaseUS' Partition Recovery. The software didn't work for me. Seems to require a similar-sized "free" partition as the missing partition to work, though it doesn't say so in the instructions. Next one I tried is Partition Find and Mount. It didn't find any deleted or missing partitions after the Smart Scan. Tried the Normal and Thorough Scan, but didn't do anything.

The one which finally did the trick is GetDataBack for NTFS. According to the blurb, "GetDataBack will recover your data if the hard drive's partition table, boot record, FAT/MFT or root directory

are lost or damaged, data was lost due to a virus attack, the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted. GetDataBack can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by Windows. It can likewise be used even if all directory information - not just the root directory- is missing." You tell GetDataBack which drive and partition to work on, and it does the rest. Found all the missing directories and files. It's just a matter of copying them over to another hard disk. Software costs US$79.

Bricking the iRiver X20

Bricking the iRiver X20 is fairly easy.

So lately I've starting playing with my iRiver X20 again. The iPod Classic has much bigger storage and better ease of use, but it doesn't do OGG natively. I noticed that the song selection on the X20 is a bit dated already, so I deleted some songs, and gave it a refresh. Upon disconnection from the PC, it starts to rebuild the library, and promptly hangs. At first I thought that maybe the rebuild is very CPU-intensive, which caused the screen to hang. I was hoping that it's actually doing something behind the scenes. Nope. Took out the battery, powered on, same thing. Plugging it to the PC via USB didn't help because as soon as the device powers up, it tries to build the library.

I'm guessing the culprit here is some non-conforming audio file. Either aac, or an m3u file, or a filename or tags with "bad" characters. Easiest way to recover is to wipe out the internal flash, but the owner's manual is of no help. I found one promising forum post, which recommends holding the menu button down while powering up the device. Worked for others, didn't work for me. So it's looking like this one is truly bricked. I've taken off the battery for now and waiting to see if it'll reset itself after a few days, but I'm not holding my breath.

Back to eBay for another iRiver. Bummer.

Movie 2013.11.23 - Man of Steel

So many superhero movies nowadays. I liked the first part of the movie, where it explained the backstory of Krypton and why/how Kal-El was sent to Earth. Once Clark Kent came out and became Superman, it's all fight, fight, fight. There were so many extended fight sequences. In the end, Superman breaks General Zod's neck, and that's it.

I still think the S on his chest stands for Superman, regardless of what Jor-El says.

Movie 2013.11.19 - Thor: The Dark World

Definitely preferred the first Thor over this sequel. There's a lot of unanswered questions and vague concepts. Not sure whether the plot points were really complicated, or the writers were just too lazy to tighten up the script.

If the Aether is so dangerous, why not destroy it, instead of leaving it around inside a stone column? Why was Dr. Selvig running around the Stonehenge naked? How do you explain the levitating cars, in conjunction to smaller items that simply fall through space (and materialize back)? How did Jane's phone get cellular reception in Svartalfheim? How do those teleportation devices work? How do those handheld blackhole generators work? What actually happened when the nine realms aligned? Whole city blocks transported to Jotunheim or Valaheim? How did Loki escape certain death, and what happened to Odin?

There are a few funny moments here and there, and a few cameos. We stayed around for the teaser during mid-credits, then left. Didn't know there's actually more after the final end-credits.

Upgrading the N9

The N9 I got is the black 16GB Optus variant. Currently running PR1.2 (10.2011.34-1.248.1_PR_248). Instead of letting it get PR1.3 via OTA, I've a mind to flash a stock image manually to remove some Yes Optus stuff (Music Shop, Games, TV Video, and News). Yeah, I know it's only 4 apps (one row), but since I'm upgrading, might as well clean it up. Note that flashing a clean image simply removes carrier branding. If the phone is SIM-locked or network-locked, it remains that way.


Get the latest firmware using NaviFirm+
http://www.symbian-toys.com/navifirm.aspx
Or if NaviFirm+ stops working in the future, go here:
http://www.mrcrab.net/nokia/Nokia_N9.html?productID=4823499691&productType=RM-696
Both link directly to Nokia's firmware servers anyway.

Firmware download takes a long, long time. For the two bin images, prepare to have your download session running for 10-12 hours. I tried using NaviFirm+ and browser HTTP download. Same slow speed. And I ended up with two batches of files with different filesizes. No mdsum provided, so I can't say which one is the correct one. The files from the browser download comes with CRC appended, but doesn't tell you how to generate the CRC code. Personally, I would trust NaviFirm+ over the browser, as it supports pause and resume.

Get the product code from the sticker underneath the SIM tray, or from these links:
http://mobilelivingroom.de/Nokia-N9-product-codes
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/10/03/nokia-n9-product-code-and-variants-shows-uk-ireland-model/
http://www.mrcrab.net/NokiaProductCode/Nokia_N9.html?productType=RM-696

Mine is 059L3N7 for Optus, but I'm thinking of flashing the 059L698 version.

Maemo Flasher here:
http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-dev-env-downloads.php
Flasher documentation here:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher

Complete flashing instructions here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=82693

Actual upgrade was easier than I thought. Couple of things to take note of:
 - command prompt must be run as administrator
 - copy the bin images to the same directory as where the flasher executable is
 - Make sure phone is powered off when connecting it to the PC via USB
Whole procedure took only like 5 minutes.

c:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher> flasher -i
flasher 3.12.1 (Oct  6 2011) Harmattan
WARNING: This tool is intended for professional use only. Using it may result
in permanently damaging your device or losing the warranty.

Suitable USB interface (bootloader/phonet) not found, waiting...
Found device RM-696, hardware revision 1603
NOLO version 2.0.49
Version of 'sw-release': DFL61_HARMATTAN_10.2011.34-1.248.1_PR_248
Success

c:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher> flasher -f -F main.bin
flasher 3.12.1 (Oct  6 2011) Harmattan
WARNING: This tool is intended for professional use only. Using it may result
in permanently damaging your device or losing the warranty.

Found device RM-696, hardware revision 1603
NOLO version 2.0.49
Version of 'sw-release': DFL61_HARMATTAN_10.2011.34-1.248.1_PR_248
Sending ape-algo image (7103 kB)...
100% (7103 of 7103 kB, avg. 17282 kB/s)
Suitable USB interface (phonet) not found, waiting...
Ping attempt 1 (250 ms)
Server application: 1.7.2
Found product RM-696 rev. 1603
Server implements softupd protocol version 1.8
Image SW version DFL61_HARMATTAN_40.2012.21-3.299.1_PR_299
Image moslo not present
Image mmc not present
Image tar skipped
Image config skipped

Battery level 93 %, continuing.

    image        [state    progress         transfer     flash speed]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[x] cert-sw      [finished   100 %       1 /       1 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-2nd      [finished   100 %      95 /      95 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-algo     [finished   100 %     789 /     789 kB      NA     ]
[x] cmt-mcusw    [finished   100 %    6050 /    6050 kB    3159 kB/s]
[x] xloader      [finished   100 %      23 /      23 kB      NA     ]
[x] secondary    [finished   100 %      94 /      94 kB      NA     ]
[x] kernel       [finished   100 %    2714 /    2714 kB    2446 kB/s]
[x] rootfs       [finished   100 % 1170333 / 1170333 kB   10097 kB/s]
Updating SW release
Success

c:\Program Files\Nokia\Flasher> flasher -f -F main.bin -F emmc.bin --flash-only=m
mc
flasher 3.12.1 (Oct  6 2011) Harmattan
WARNING: This tool is intended for professional use only. Using it may result
in permanently damaging your device or losing the warranty.

Ping attempt 1 (250 ms)
Server application: 1.7.2
Found product RM-696 rev. 1603
Server implements softupd protocol version 1.8
Image SW version DFL61_HARMATTAN_40.2012.21-3.299.1_PR_299
Image cmt-2nd skipped
Image cmt-algo skipped
Image cmt-mcusw skipped
Image xloader skipped
Image secondary skipped
Image kernel skipped
Image moslo skipped
Image rootfs skipped
Image tar skipped
Image config skipped

Battery level 94 %, continuing.

    image        [state    progress         transfer     flash speed]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[x] cert-sw      [finished   100 %       1 /       1 kB      NA     ]
[x] mmc          [finished   100 % 1946679 / 1946679 kB   12860 kB/s]
Success

More tips and tricks
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1788707
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a85BouTEB_Cr-K4StgDspSXUeWps-MwsA9gEyYtfrDI/edit?hl=en_US
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=78598

KitKat on Nexus 7

Got tired of the KitKat update coming over OTA, so I flashed the KRT160 update manually.

Followed the instructions provided by Android Police. Process is pretty straightforward as I already have a customer recovery installed. Simply download the update zip (either directly from the tablet or from a PC, then copy over to internal storage). Reboot to customer recovery, and flash.

More people think it made their tables more responsive, but the only difference I noticed is the inclusion of Quickoffice.

Movie 2013.11.17 - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

One of the stranger movies I've seen. Written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Costume design by Jean Paul Gaultier. Scored by Michael Nyman. Starring Richard Bohringer as The Cook, Michael Gambon as The Thief, Helen Mirren as The Wife, and Alan Howard as Her Lover.

Uncouth British gangster crime boss Albert holds court at the high-class French restaurant Le Hollandais Restaurant run by French chef Richard. Out of boredom and spite, his wife Georgina has an affair with restaurant regular bookstore owner Michael right under his nose. As expected, Albert gets wind of the affair and goes on a rampage. He tortures young Pup to find out their secret hideaway. While Georgina is at the hospital visiting Pup, he descends on the bookstore with his posse and tortures Michael to death, force-feeding him pages from his favourite books. Georgina implores Richard to make a meal out of Michael's body. She forces Albert to eat the human dish, and shoots him in the head.

N9 Developer Mode

First thing you wanna do after getting the N9 is enable developer mode (found under Settings > Security menu). Once activated, the phone downloads a 1.2MB developer mode bundle package, and restarts. After reboot, you'll now have a Terminal app and an SDK Connectivity app.

It's a bit difficult to type on the Terminal's on-screen keyboard. Good thing the SDK Connectivity app comes with a VNC server for you to remote access in.

You can also download more developer tools. For me, all I need are Networking (tcpdump) and Utilities (wget, nano, and x11-utils).

Getting root
Run the Terminal app.
Type devel-su
Default password is rootme

Enabling VNC
Can be enabled on the SDK Connectivity app.
Or download Nokia's NetView app. Does the same thing.

Enabling ssh/scp
Log in to root account
passwd user
Give a new password to user user
ssh user@localhost
Enter password
Run SDK Connectivity to get the WLAN IP address
Connect to phone via WinSCP/putty

Where to get MeeGo apps
n9-apps.com
store.ovi.com
my-meego.com

Installation files have the *.deb file extension.

Generic install instructions:
 - copy deb file to N9
 - install using "dpkg -i *.deb" command
 - most often than not, you'll get some warnings
 - to fix, run the ff. commands:
apt-get update
apt-get -f install
 - if it specifically mentions some missing package(s), download using apt-get and install:
apt-get install
apt-get -f install

Built-in video player is very picky about the files it plays. For the record, the phone came with these video files:

Dolby Soundscapes
2:35 71.3MB
864x486 h264 @3486k
E-AC3 @ 384k

Nokia Pure
2:53 76.8M
854x480 h264 @ 3349k
E-AC3 @ 384k

Couple of alternative players out there are VLC and the kmplayer/mplayer combo.

Get the VLC installer here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dyd7mp6os9fm0ty
A few website will mention http://www.irunvlc.me/, but that domain's already obsolete.
An older version of the VLC packages can be found here:
http://maemo-archive.wedrop.it/download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/maemo/vlc/
If the installation process spews out some error messages, run these additional commands:
apt-get update
apt-get -f install
Running the VLC app gave me a desktop UI. Hangs a lot and didn't play any of the videos.

Get the kmplayer and mplayer installer here:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=42
A little bit better than VLC, but not much.

Installing Firefox
Installer files here:
http://romaxa.info/fennec/mozilla-central/
Browser doesn't work at all (for me). 20MB download, too.

Awesome little phone, but the lack of proper working apps is killing it. Personally, I doubt if Sailfish or a fully-working Android port will ever come and save Lankku.

Nokia N9 and Lumia 520

Company is having a mobile phone sale. Mostly Nokia Nseries and first-generation Lumias. Some old, some new.

Sale was supposed to start at 12 noon. I showed up at 11:45am, and there's already a long queue. I knew I should've came up earlier. I was surprised they didn't go an auction instead. That way, there's no need to queue, and the company can maximize profits.


At noon, the floodgates were opened, and people rushed in. Stacks of boxes grouped according to model and price. There were so many people about, I can't find the Lumia x20 phones that I had in mind. In a split-second, almost all the phones are gone from the tables. "Two per person!" shouted the staff. I grabbed the nearest ones I can find, and ended up with a used 16GB black N9 and a brand new yellow Lumia 520. Not bad for less than $200.

I pity the fools who showed up at exactly 12 noon.

Rooting the Nexus 7

Rooting the Nexus 7 should be a trivial matter as there is a one-click root tool already out. The Nexus Root Toolkit can also do backup/restore, unlock bootloader, flash custom recovery, etc.

The difficult part is to get the laptop to detect the Nexus 7. With the USB drivers I downloaded via the SDK Manager, fastboot works, but not adb. To push images to the device for rooting, adb is what we need. The recommended universal drivers didn't work. After some trial and error, manual selection of the raw Google drivers under WugFresh Development\data\Drivers\RAW_Drivers\Google_Drivers worked.

The rooting process went fine, but SuperSU complaining that it can't find any su binaries. Repeated the root process, and now I have root.

Google Nexus 7 (2012)

First impressions on the Google Nexus 7. Feels hefty and solidly-built. I'm liking the rubberized, pimpled back. Screen is sharp, bright, and colors vivid. Very smooth and responsive. The only part I didn't like is the thick bezel around the screen.

Ten minutes into powering up the Nexus 7, a notification came up saying 4.3 upgrade ready to be installed. Sure, the latest is always the best. The device booted up, and the multi-coloured X icon came up. Five minutes went by, and the X icon is still there. Long press on the power button to turn off the device.

The tablet simply reboots and gets stuck on the X screen. Time to hit the forums. Apparently, quite a few people have encountered this problem, and the general consensus is that a reflash is required.

First, a few prerequisites:
 - You'll need USB drivers, so that the PC/laptop can talk to the device.You can download the drivers directly from here.
 - You'll need to download the Android SDK to get the adb and fastboot platform tools. Some devs might provide a stripped-down package, but best to get the tools straight from source.
 - Then, you'll also need the stock 4.3 ROM image for the device here.

Full instructions for the restore is available here. Quick instructions below:
 - Reboot into the bootloader using Power + VolDown
 - "fastboot oem unlock" to unlock bootloader. Note that this will wipe your data.
 - Unpack the ROM image, which is in tgz format. Best to unzip it in the same folder as the platform tools
 - Again, reboot into the bootloader.
 - Run flash-all.bat

Swatch Metal Bracelet Adjustment

To adjust the length of a Swatch metal bracelet, all you need is an ice pick and a long-nose pliers.

Identify the metal link you want to remove. Note the arrow marking on the underside of the link. Use the ice pick to push out the split pin in the direction of the arrow. Pull out the split pin from the other side using the pliers. If required, remove more links using the same procedure.

Once done, put the bracelet back together, and push the split pin back in the opposite direction of the arrow. These split pins are quite flimsy - usually breaking into two. If you need spares, you can go here or here.

Preliminary Drawings and More Deposit

Received 9 pages of preliminary architectural drawings (done by Marretta Design) on Sept. 27.

Lucia of Fowler had been asking for the remaining 4.9% of the deposit.

Tried to delay payment for as long as I can, but looks like today's the day. Again, paid for by my credit card.

Samsung Galasy S4 Mini (GT-i9195T)

The wife finally got herself a proper decent phone, instead of using my hand-me-downs. Got a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini 4G from Vodafone. We had a choice between this, the HTC One mini 4G, and the SGS3 4G. I would've liked the HTC One mini for its premium industrial design and the BoomSound stereo speakers and UltraPixel BSI camera, but the lack of a user-replaceable battery and microSD slot are dealbreakers for me. Between the two remaining Samsungs, the S3 has a bigger screen and higher resolution and bigger storage (16GB vs 8GB). However, the S4 Mini has more RAM (1.5GB vs 1GB) and faster performance and newer software. Given that my wife has small hands, S4 Mini it is.

Resetting Swatch Chrono

So you've bought a Swatch Chrono, or you've just put in a new battery. This is how you reset all the dials.

Pull out the crown one stop. Long/Short press the upper button until the hand of the 1/10 seconds counter (right dial) is at the 12h position.

Long/Short press the lower button until the main seconds hand is at the 12h position.

Pull out the crown another stop. Long/Short press the upper button until the hand of the minutes counter (left dial) is at the 12h position.

Press the crown back to the default position. All done.

Newer House Tender

Apparently, there was some miscalculation somewhere, so I was given a new tender. New house tender price was reduced by around $2,000. Sounds good to me.

New House Tender

Received the new home tender from Lucia on August 24, which includes the $7000 for the extended price freeze.

Paid another deposit of $5000 to cover the costs of preparing the architectural drawings, engineering details, CDC lodgement and approvals, etc. Thank you, credit card.

Final Update for Huawei U8300

After more than two years of on-and-off use, I've decided to sell my Huawei IDEOS U8300. Have only used it to play baby music to lull the baby to sleep and to entertain him with kiddie videos, so it's practically new.

Did a factory reset to wipe the linked Google account and clear all personal data. Bad move, as the device started bootlooping. Checked out the XDA page for Adrenalin ROM and there's an Update3 already. I guess the U8300 is getting its final update.

First off, copy the ROM and latest patch to the external microSD card. Boot into recovery by holding down VolUp, Call, and Power buttons simultaneously. Flash the ROM, then reboot. After first boot, go into recovery again. This time, you may want to use ROM Manager. Flash the patch, fix permissions under the advanced submenu, then reboot.

Cracking WEP

NOTE: This tutorial is only for research/educational/proof-of-concept purpose only. Do not go around cracking your neighbour's WiFi, okay?

Ever since I installed WiFi in my home, I've always used WEP as that's the default option. Lately, I've noticed that my broadband quota is always being used up. Maybe someone has hacked my password, and sharing my bandwidth. That's when I thought of checking how easy it is to crack WEP.

First, download the latest Beini ISO. AFAIK, it's not being developed anymore, but it should be more than enough to crack WEP. If you want bleeding edge, you should try Xiaopan or BackTrack. Second, download UNetbootin. Format your USB stick to FAT32. Use UNetbootin to install the ISO and make the stick bootable.

Once Beini has booted up, go to /bin/feedingbottle and run it. Choose your WiFi card and start scanning. Select an SSID with at least one client on it. The more clients, the better. Use the default attack parameters of "ARP Replay Attack" at 600pps. You have the option of setting "Fake Auth" on or off (default). Click Start, and the tool starts collecting IVs. Now it's just a matter of time. Once it has collected enough IVs, the tool will stop and present the cracked WEP key.

My one took only a few minutes to crack, so I've since switched over to WPA2-PSK. For that, you'll need minidwep-gtk or Reaver.

Second Visit to OPT

Back at the Fowler office with my brother to have a more thorough discussion about the house and land package, and to sign some paperwork. For the facade, I chose the Essence.

On paper, the Fowler package looks better than the Clarendon one, even though the latter is more popular. For one, I get a landscape pack to the value of $5000 to be used towards the cost of landscaping, fencing, letterbox, clothesline, and retaining walls. Alfresco and driveway are included, which are optional with Clarendon. Deluxe Sale for $3,990 gets me the following extras:

• upgraded brick selection
• remote control to garage door
• improved internal finishes
• Hills Reliance 8 alarm package
• upgraded door and lock selection
• improved kitchen finishes
• improved wet area finishes
• upgraded European stainless steel appliance selection

But wait, there's more! An extra Breakthrough Sale, which gives me:

• free 40mm Caesarstone edge to kitchen benchtop
• free WFA 6 starter water filtering system to kitchen
• free 150mm dropped ceiling over kitchen area
• free 2-lamp heater/fan to ensuite and main bathroom

AND

• free 2590mm high ceiling level to ground floor in lieu of 2440mm
• free 20mm Caesar stone benchtop to vanities throughout in lieu of standard
• 50% off ducted air-conditioning

The only other important thing we talked about is the price guarantee. The standard package give a price freeze of 9 months for unregistered land. In my case, the land is expected to be released July 2014, which is 2 months beyond the deadline. As such, I have to pay an extra $7000 to extend the price freeze till 30th December 2014. Should construction start by 11 May 2014, then I'll be credited back the $7000. (Not sure if this will be pro-rated or not.)

In the end, my brother is the better negotiator. He managed to get Clarendon to build a Killara 23 on the same-size land, instead of the standard Soho 15. And he still got a discount for it.

Picasa Name Tags

By default, Picasa doesn't modify your photos. All album organization, unsaved edits, thumbnail previews are saved on an internal database. That said, I know for a fact that captions are stored in the IPTC block, while GPS locations are stored in EXIF.

What about name tags? By default, name tags are stored in picasa.ini files located along with the photos. There is an option to write these name tags directly within the photo itself. Feature can be enabled under Tools > Options > Name tags > "Store name tags in photos". I believe this information is written in the EXIF block. Do note that this will only work for photos that have been tagged after enabling this feature.

With newer versions of Picasa, you can find an experimental feature that write these tags to XMP. Feature can be enabled under Tools > Experimental > "Write faces to XMP". You have the option to write face tags for selected photos, all photos that have face tags, or all photos regardless.

SlimBean 4.2.2 Build 8 for SGS

So we've got the final build of 4.2.2 for SlimBean before we eventually move up to 4.3. Due to the maturity of the ROM, upgrade from an older build is a cinch.

1. Copy the ROM and gapps to the phone (or to the external SD card)
2. Boot to recovery using VolUp + Home + Power.
3. Wipe cache partition
4. Wipe Dalvik cache
5. Flash ROM
6. Flash gapps
7. Reboot
8. Done

Holding Deposit

Called Fowler Homes HQ to reserve lot 5281 on Skaife Street. Actually, I've been trying to call Lucia at the Oran Park office since yesterday, but no one is answering. Quite suspenseful, as the lot could've been picked up by somebody else during that time. Anyway, managed to get hold of Melinda. After putting me on hold for a couple of minutes to check with the sales guys, she confirmed that lot 5281 is still on the market. A holding deposit of $1000, and it's mine! Talk about impulse buying. I'm not even sure if I can afford the extra mortgage, but that's something to worry about on another day.

Home design is the Orans MKII 20; hence the blog name. Official description is "4 bedroom, double garage, single storey home, 20.0 squares - New Start Standard Inclusions." Land area is 375 sqm. House area is 186 sqm. More details to come.

TomTom Map Upgrade

Time to upgrade the maps on my TomTom PNDs.

As usual, get your maps from Mobilism and your safety cams from NaviTotal. Installation is as easy as extracting the maps to a folder on your PND or SD card, then running FastActivate to "enable" the maps. The tricky part here is to get FastActivate to recognize your new maps. With my version of FastActivate, it insists on using its own copy of meta.txt from 2011; even overwriting the newer version I copied in. The trick here is to find the temporary folder that FastActivate works in, and update the meta.txt there, instead of the one on the PND.

Oran Park Town Visit

Went to Oran Park Town to have a look at the display homes. Looks like the whole area is under development. Heard about OPT from my brother, who bought a house and land package from Clarendon a week ago. He heard about the development from a couple of his colleagues, who have already invested in the place. Before this, I have never heard of Oran Park before. Those interested can read about its history here.

At the moment, it's just the sales office, the display home area, and a mini playground. Stage 5C has lots ranging from 375 sq.m. to 715.1 sq.m. As this is purely for investment, I'm only looking at the smallest size. As of today, only two 375 sq.m. lots are available - one from Fowler Homes, the other from Wisdom Homes. I believe my brother snagged the last one from Clarendon Homes. Next available lot from Clarendon is 485 sq.m.

Spent the afternoon visiting the display homes that are still open, and collecting brochures here and there. Between Wisdom and Fowler, the latter gave me a better impression overall.

Movie 2013.07.31 - The Wolverine

Movie should've been titled "The Wolverine Goes to Tokyo" because that's basically what it is.

So Logan is in his usual grouchy mood when a Japanese girl drops by and invites him for a day in Tokyo. Just to say goodbye to an old friend - a Japanese officer he saved during the bombing of Nagasaki. Turns out Yashida did pretty well, and is now one of the most powerful men in Japan. Only one problem - he's dying. He offers to make Logan mortal again. In exchange, he doesn't mind taking over Logan's curse. Win-win, right? Logan doesn't seem to think so.

So Master Yashida passes away, and his granddaughter Mariko is to be his successor. This didn't go down well with his son Shingen, who had the Yakuza kidnap her. Logan takes on the Yakuza, and gets severely wounded. Unknown to him, Viper has injected a micro-robot into his body, which is repressing his skillz. While hiding out in Yashida's hometown, Mariko is kidnapped again by the Yakuza, and then by Harada and his gang of black ninjas. Logan knows he needs to be at his 100%, so he opens up his chest and removes the micro-robot. Easy. And off he goes to rescue his lady love.

At the village, Harada brings down Wolverine with poison-tipped arrows and the Silver Samurai proceeds to drain his life force through his chopped-off claws. Turns out Master Yashida faked his death, and is using the Silver Samurai as an exoskeleton for his weak body. While all this is going on, Harada had a change of heart and helps Logan fight the Silver Samurai. Yukio arrives at the scene and killed off Viper. Mariko picks up Wolverine's severed adamantium claws and uses them to kill her grandfather. With all the bad guys dead, Mariko takes over the Yashida empire, and Logan flies off with his new bodyguard Yukio.

Book 2013.07.18 - Inferno

I've read all of Dan Brown's books. While interesting, I've never really like them. Inferno is no exception. He has stuck with his style of writing, which seems popular with the masses. I find it distracting and incredible.

I mean, Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks are running for their lives, yet he still has time to flirt with the girl, explain the intricacies of Botticelli's painting, Dante's epic poem, and Florentine history and architecture. "Lira for your thoughts?" Puh-lease.

But you gotta give it to the guy - he really did some research for his books. That's a lot of Google searching, Wikipedia reading, and Street View navigation. All the places that Langdon visited are described in excruciating detail, it's as if you're there. Heck, the book reads more like a travel guide. So many details that are not even relevant to the story. Does it matter if Langdon was wearing a Harris Tweed jacket and not something else? Does it matter if the USB stick holding the doomsday video is red? Does it matter if the Turkish man was driving a Bently and not a Toyota?

It's as if Dan Brown came up with so much researched materials, that it's a waste if they're not mentioned in the book. So his characters end up being mouthpieces spouting all these facts and figures and trivia and scientific theories that they all start sounding alike.

Dan Brown always prides himself that almost everything presented in his books are true. While certain things are factual, I would say their relevance is sometimes exaggerated for dramatic effect. And the plot twist at the end? Not cool. The spiky-haired girl that was hunting down Langdon? She was just shadowing him. The doctor in the hospital that was shot in cold blood? Blanks. And the doctor was one of their guys, too. Sienna Brooks? Zobrist's lover and confidant. So why did she tag along with Langdon in 90% of the book then? The deadly plague that's supposed to kill everyone? Just a infertility virus that has a 1-in-3 chance of success. Great, a virus that can do maths.

All these would've been okay if there is a strong plot and convincing storyline. Nope.

DVD Backup

For all your DVD backup needs, use either DVD Shrink or DVD Decrypter. IIRC, both can bypass the copy protection mechanisms. DVD Decrypter rips the DVD into individual files or into an ISO image. DVD Shrink can only do the former. However, it can decode/encode/compress the movie to fit the target media.

If the DVD is single-sided, you can simply rip the DVD without using any compression. To burn the VOB files and create a functional DVD, use ImgBurn. For ISO images, you can use CDBurnerXP, ImgBurn, BurnCDCC, or DVD Decrypter itself.

Movie 2013.07.10 - Beautiful Creatures

Not a fan of romantic movies, but Beautiful Creatures is different enough to warrant a viewing.

Boy falls in love with caster-girl, who is cursed to be claimed to the dark side on her 16th birthday. To save him, caster-girl casts a spell to make him forget all about her. To make doubly-sure that caster-girl turns bad, her mom and cousin conspires to have the boy killed during a Civil War reenactment. The uncle disguises himself as the boy, and is shot through the heart. With his death, the curse is finally broken.

In the last scene, the boy is about to leave town for a road trip to NYU when he bumps into caster-girl in the library. They have a little chat, and off he goes. Right at the town border, he suddenly remembers who caster-girl really is

Rooting the Bauhn AMID-971R

A quick search on the XDA Developers forums tells me this is actually possible.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1742136

The "android emulator" rooting method is for the Sony Xperia, but it also works for the Bauhn. According to the actual post, you simply download DooMLoRD's rooting toolkit, connect your device to the PC, and run the batch file. I did just that - the daemon ran fine, but can't seem to detect the tablet. Wait, maybe I don't have the right USB/ADB drivers. So I download DooMLoRD's Flashtool-drivers.exe, which comes with a bunch of drivers for Sony Xperia devices. Nah, still not detected.

I begin to suspect that maybe it's Windows 7 that is messing things up. Fired up my old XP laptop and connected the tablet. Windows detected an Android device and began searching for drivers online. Came back with drivers for "Acer ADB". Ah, whatever. Ran the rooting tool again, and surprisingly the device was detected, and the toolkit did it's magic.

Using Root App Delete, I uninstalled Facebook and replaced it with Flipster. Also uninstalled the old stock YouTube app and installed the latest one from Google Play. Bad move. Won't even start up. Trawled the web for YouTube APKs until I found one that worked. Whew.

Ultima 9.7" Android Tablet

Would you believe it. Ultima 9.7" Android 4.0 tablet for $80 shipped. Well, they're not fooling anyone. It's basically a refurbished Bauhn AMID-971R. Technical specs below:

• 9.7in IPS display (1024 x 768 resolution)
• 16GB of internal memory
• 2-megapixel rear-facing camera
• 1GHz single-core Amlogic Cortex A9 8726M3 processor
• 1GB of DDR3 RAM
• MicroSD card slot
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
• VGA front-facing camera for video calls
• A mini-USB, mini-HDMI, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack

Came with Android 4.0.3 with build 20120829. Did a quick search and apparently there's a newer build dated 20120907. Followed the upgrade instructions from Tempo Australia, but IP address of the server hosting the firmware not accessible anymore. Another round of searching gave me a working server address (http://public.tempoaustralia.com/fw/). Firmware location present, but folder is empty. The newer dual-core 1.2GHz version (AMID-xxx) is still being updated though.

Came with apps like Twitter and Facebook which I don't need. YouTube is there, but no upgradable. Next thing to do is to root it, so I can remove these stock apps.

Full RSS Feeds

Tired of media outlets truncating their RSS feeds? Tired of reading teasers and having to click on links in order to read the full articles?

Fight back with the Full Text RSS Feed Builder!

A Night in the City

After attending a garden (park) wedding and a (church) reception at Pyrmont, I took the bus to Maritime Museum for the Vivid Aquatique light show at Darling Harbour. It's half an hour before the 6pm show, but we thought might as well go there early and look for a good spot. Bad idea. It's raining and the wind is blowing hard. We were huddled under the overpass, and yet we're still getting drenched. The show is basically some dance video projected on a water curtain with some water jets spraying here and there. To be honest, the water jet show at Bellagio, or even the laser light show at Suntec City or Sentosa are much better.

Cold and hungry, we went to Harbourside for dinner. Most of the restaurants are either fully booked or have long queues. We ended up at Harbourside Thai which is relatively less busy. For good reason. Almost all of the dishes we ordered, like BBQ pork or BBQ chicken or deep-fried chicken, were "not available". Had to settle for stir-fried noodles and microwaved skewers. Would've been nice to see the 8:30pm fireworks, but the rain is not letting up. Of course, by the time we hit the road, the winds stopped and the rains became a light drizzle. Enjoyed the fireworks from my rear-view mirror.

At the carpark near our hotel, we were going up and down the 4 levels, looking for a spot. There are a few cars about, and everyone is following everyone else hoping to get lucky. We eventually got lucky after half an hour. In comparison, checking into the Vibe Hotel took all of 5 minutes.

Ainol CM10 to CM10.1

The Ainol Aurora II has been running fine on CM10 (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean) for a while. But with nothing much to do, I've decided to upgrade to CM10.1 (Android 4.2) given that a stable release from Christian Troy is out.

For the upgrade, you'll need:
 - a new TWRP recovery
 - the actual ROM
 - latest gapps
 - compatibility zip for Aurora II

Now, with Android 4.2, you get a multi-user functionality where the tablet may be shared among different users with their own settings, apps, accounts, etc. For that, you'll need to flash a multi-user compatibility zip and a multi-user zip.

So first, copy the TWRP binary and the required zips to the external microSD card. Power on the tablet with Vol- button pressed. The tablet should boot into TWRP.

Format the /system, /data, and /cache partitions. If you're lazy, just select the "factory reset" option. Then, flash the ROM, the gapps, the compatibility zip, and the multiuser zip. Reboot afterwards.

In my case, the tablet didn't come back properly. All I get is a black screen. Turns out you can only use the multi-user feature if the filesystem is ext4. I believe my one is still the stock UBIFS. Another round of factory reset. This time I flashed the ROM, gapps, and the normal compatibility zip for Aurora II. This time the tablet came up properly.

Full Clean Wipe

When upgrading Android devices from one ROM to another ROM, or from one version to another (e.g. Ice Cream Sandwich to Jelly Bean), it's best to do a full wipe. Me, I always do a full wipe just the same to be sure that the new ROM works well with no artifacts from the previous ROM.

For of all, do a backup from the recovery. Obviously, make sure you have enough disk space (and battery power) to complete the operation.

1. Under Mount & format, do a format system.
2. Then format data.
3. Then format cache.
4. Go back to the main menu, then wipe data/restore.
5. Then wipe cache partition.
6. Go to Advanced, then wipe Dalvik cache.
7. At this stage, you can proceed to flash your new ROM.
8. Reboot, then proceed to flash gapps and other zips you want.
9. Reboot again.

CJK Character Support on Kobo Mini

Extending the Kobo Mini to support CJK characters is as easy as installing the correct CJK fonts. Simply create a folder called fonts in the root directory of the Kobo, then copy in the CJK fonts from Windows. Heck, go crazy and copy in as many TrueType fonts as you want (don't forget Comic Sans) to extend the built-in library of eight fonts. With this trick, I'm now able to read my Chinese epubs.

Expiring Skywards Miles

So Google Calendar tells that I have 7,000 Emirates Skywards miles expiring today. Not really a big deal for me, as 7,000 miles is not much. Either get some crappy stuff, or just let it go.

Much to my surprise when I logged on, I actually have 16,000 miles expiring. And what can I get for that from the Emirates High Street Collection? Mostly A3 photographic prints, no-name watches, perfume, and $50 gift cards. The best match I can find are some small Swarovski earrings or pendant.

The Woven Heart pendant at 15,600 miles we already have. So it's a toss-up between the Bella earrings at 15,888 miles or the Solitaire earrings at 14,200 miles. Either way, I'll have to fork out an extra $19 shipping. You can use the remaining miles to pay for shipping, but 100 miles saves only around around $0.50. Not really worth it.

Kobo Mini

Another day, another gadget. I can have Kindle and Kobo and hundreds of other e-reader apps running on my Android phone and tablets, but I just have to try how a physical e-book reader feels like.

JB Hi-Fi was selling these for $99, but got one for half-price. Smallest Kobo ever at 5". Touchscreen, 2GB memory, 1000mAh built-in battery, 800MHz processor, and WiFi. First off, a bit smaller than I expected. Screen resolution is very good. It's very light, which is a very important factor if you're going to be holding it for extended periods of time. Page-turning is a bit slow, and the WiFi is unstable. Tried to do an OTA firmware upgrade and got stuck at 4%. Had to complete the upgrade and registration process via a PC using kobosetup.com. Not too many free, quality ebooks from the bookstore, but I guess it's not a problem if you know where to get your ebooks.

For some reason, sideloading ebooks via drag-and-drop doesn't work. The epub files are physically on the internal storage, but not showing up on the book list. Had to use Calibre for the job.

iPod Audiobook

What I've noticed is that when I import my audiobook mp3 files into the iPod, they are filed under Songs, instead of Books. To get the iPod/iTunes to recognize the files as audiobooks, you have to select the files, right-click, and select Get Info. Click on the Options tab and under Media Type, select Audiobook.

So why the extra step? The advantage is that audiobooks (and podcasts) are not included in the playlist when you shuffle songs. Also, with audiobooks, you can set the playback speed under iPod Settings.

Movie 2013.04.05 - Life of Pi

As with most movie adaptations, I'm guessing the book is probably better and more in-depth. But with no time to actually sit down and read, I went for the movie option.

Apart from the special effects CGI, the movie is mildly interesting. The Writer meets Pi's mama-ji (honorary uncle), who sent him to Pi's way, as Pi has a wonderful story that will make him believe in God. Pi starts of narrating how he got his interesting name. Nothing to do with math. He continues on as to how he met Richard Parker. Pi's Dad runs a zoo right in the middle of town, and Richard Parket is a Bengal tiger. There's another sub-story as to how a tiger got a human name.

Anyway, the city council is not supporting the zoo anymore, so Pi's Dad decides to relocate the family and the zoo to Canada. The Japanese cargo ship that they're on capsizes during a night of heavy thunderstorm, and all that's left is Pi on a life raft with an injured zebra, an orangutan, an hyena, and Richard Parker. The hyena start the ball rolling by killing the zebra as Pi watches on helplessly. Then, the hyena turns on Pi, but is thwarted by the orangutan. It kills the orangutan instead. Richard Parker steps in and devours the hyena. Over the next few days, the tiger consumes the zebra and the orangutan. Knowing he's next, Pi spends some time conditioning and training the tiger, so that they can co-exist on the raft.

They eventually end up on an inhabited island (by humans) with lots of meerkats and vegetation, but it turns out the island is awash with carnivorous algae that turns the ground acidic at night. The pair moves on and after a total of 227 days out on the sea, they wash up on the shores of Mexico.

So, was that all true, or just Pi's mental imagery to keep him sane? You decide.

Book 2013.03.28 - Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

The novel by John Berendt reads like a history of Savannah and its myriad inhabitants. Central narrative revolves around antiques dealer Jim Williams and his alleged murder of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute. After four trials spanning almost a decade, Jim was finally acquitted. A few months later, he died of heart attack.

What's remarkable about the book is that it's supposed to be non-fiction. The characters and stories are based on real people and events in Savannah, although the sequence have been altered a bit. Still, it makes for compelling reading. Heard that the movie adaptation didn't perform well at the box office.

Goodbye, Google Reader

Very, very surprised to find out that Google is killing off Reader after July 1, 2013 in another round of spring-cleaning. I mean, out of Google's many offering, Reader is the one I use the most. Even more than Gmail and Search. And that's saying something. It's the only way I go through my hourly fix of tech news, product reviews, blog posts, and online bargains. Without Google Reader, I'll probably have to spend literally hours visiting each and every website on my subscription list. Or not.

And it's not just me, I guess. I started looking for alternative RSS readers. Don't even mention Flipboard or Google Currents. I want a real down-to-earth RSS reader. The Old Reader, Feedly, and NewsBlur are supposedly good contenders for the throne, but they're getting hammered bad at the moment. "Declining usage"? Right.

I've checked my stats just now: "Since April 2, 2006 you have read a total of 203,721 items." I'm gonna miss you, Google Reader.