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.