Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ten Android applications I can't live without.

1. Robert.Developer's RMaps
Shows maps from different sources, and what most important, from loaded images you create using your desktop PC and are stored in sql db. Does not support tracking (yet!).

2. LYSESOFT's AndExplorer and AndFTP
Best file manager. Still missed many features, but it's a very high quality application. And an FTP client. I wonder, why they are not in a single application, but in my chart they share the same row.

3. egg 'n stone's CalWidget
It's a widget to show your current agenda from the calendar on the home screen.

4. Mike DG's dg QuickCut
It makes short cut to the dug activities of other applications. Thank to this shortcut creator you don't need anymore applications made just to replace already integrated functionality, such as WiFi on/off, Battery status.

5. Fognl's Greed (Lite)
Best RSS reader I found. It kinda slow, but allows me read the feeds I have collected in my Google Reader account.

6. EStrongs File Explorer
It lets you to transfer files to and fro the computers on your local network using the SMB (NetBIOS) protocol.

7. Meebo IM
Multiprotocol IM client. It not perfect, but it works fine.

8. zx128's AppManager
Allows you quickly uninstall an application. Feature I miss - add my application rating to the Android Market.

9. Kenny Root and Jeffrey Sharkey's ConnectBot
Excellent Local/Telnet/SSH terminal emulator.

10. farproc's Wifi Analyzer
Not for everyday use, but it allows you to choose a best channel for your access point.

There are some more applications I use everyday, but they have more defects and problems, so I'm still loking to something better to replace them.

Telnet to Android

Seems newest version of Android system allows to connect to it from outside via WiFi. I tried before and did not succeed.
Now I ran a telnet daemon at my phone and connected to it from my PC using putty.
Practically it can not be used because it slow as hell. Don't know why.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Windows Device Manger extension

To see all old forgotten drivers in windows Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), set the following environment variable prior to run:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

then run devmgmt.msc and select "Show hidden devices" in the menu.


Useful site http://www.nirsoft.net/, in particular it has an utility to view USB drivers and devices.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Android, latest report

Thanks to the great job the guys at xda-development, the latest build (last time it was September 19) works stable.
The change I made in rootfs.img is not necessary anymore - swap file is created in ramzsswap.
Two serious problems still exist:
1. An attempt to turn off the WiFi after it actively used (and probably when the swap file is in use) leads to total system hang.
2. Sometimes, there is no audio in phone calls.

Did not mention, the camera and bluetooth do not work at all. Hopefully they will fix that as well.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Samba server setup

Micro HOWTO.

1. Install package "samba"
2. Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf
3. In [global] add "security = share" if you want access to everyone
4. Add a section for each share by an example in the file
5. Section [homes] for autocreation a share by username if it exist in the system
6. smbpasswd creates a copy of user password. The new password must be entered and be the same as the system password.
7. Restart daemon /etc/init.d restart
8. Use testparm to monitor effective parameters

Crapy piece of circuit

Great f@^!~& DELL notebook become completely dead on 10th day of its life.
A rule - don't buy branded stuff, you'll be punished.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

OpenVPN

After a while (some time of not using), the OpenVPN server broke down.
The secured connection istablishes, but IP does not go.

I guess, the problem in the IP routing. I don't know what I did, but after server rebooted, the connection start working.

The routing table on the server looks as below:

C:>route print 10.8*

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 ff 3d 7b 61 e5 ...... TAP-Win32 Adapter V8
0x10004 ...00 13 72 69 2d 0c ...... Broadcom BCM5708C NetXtreme II GigE (NDIS VBD Client)
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
10.8.0.0 255.255.255.252 10.8.0.1 10.8.0.1 30
10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0 10.8.0.2 10.8.0.1 1
10.8.0.1 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 30
Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None


There are still questions for me. Why routing to 10.8.0.0 via two gateways - 10.8.0.1 and 10.8.0.2 ?
10.8.0.1 - is the address of the TAP IP interface, but what is 10.8.0.2 then?
The address of the "modem pool"?

Same way, on the client the interface address 10.8.0.6, but 10.8.0.5 - P-t-P - what's that?

Good instructions about setting OpenVPN up are located here:
http://www.runpcrun.com/howtoopenvpn


And don't forget, when you want to connect a machine behind the server it has to have route to the 10.8.0.0 network as well.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Android

this drives me crazy. new build does not work and so unstable.
even worse, the old version works bad after i restore it back

Monday, September 7, 2009

Output jack slim

Put a new build of Android, connected headphones - audio output works.
Apparently it worked before.
But I did not know the difference: the output starts not instantly when you put the jack in, but when the media process starts to play a new song. It checks the connector in the begining of the playback.