Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Capacitive solution

Got a package directly from HongKong ordered at cellphoneshop.net
This store is good, selling cheap accessories and ships it right from Asia shores.
So, now I have a capacitive stylus and a protective screen for my new Nexus One.
The stylus is very weird, its rubber tip is not sharp ended at all and you need apply it strictly perpendicular to the screen surface, or else it won't work. At least it allow type more easily taping the screen, but almost impossible to use it to drag something.
The protective screen package's instruction is just four tiny not discernible pictures, so I did not understand their meaning and did something wrong left some areas not firmly attached and also I scratched the screen a little trying to use the special included little card which I assumed supposed to smooth out bubbles.
The protective screen has not protected itself from scratches...
But! The new surface feels so good! I like touch it and no more greasy traces!!!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

unit replaced

Received replaced "Nexus One" from HTC. Gosh, that was swift! They used an overnight FedEx in both ways, and I got a working phone back in two(!) business days.
HTC customer service is outstanding!!!
Thank you HTC and thank you Google!

SeaMonkey 2

Google docs site stopped working with old version (1.x) of SeaMonkey browser, but newer version (2.x) is not compatible with the theme pack I made. The default one looks ugly. So I postponed the upgrade.
But recently I found out there is quite pretty theme for the new SeaMonkey available.
So, now I'm with 2.0
One major difference is discovered - it does not keep a process in the memory anymore, loading each time fresh. It loads pretty fast, though.
Another problem - they have reversed the mouse wheel direction and have not provided any option. What a stupid decision! I scroll the wheel toward myself because I want see the page context closely, but in this version the content becomes smaller. Another case when stupid majority overruled a common sense.

Upd: In this case I was stupid. I've found how to change the direction and it's exactly how it was suggested. The only difference, I should do it using the UI dialog, not by the about:config preferences.
So, to reverse the zoom direction need to uncheck the "Use system default" checkbox and enter the "-1" value to the "Scroll the document by" input field. That's it.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Beware - Nexus One!

If you don't have unlimited wireless internet access, - BEWARE!
Nexus One's default installed widgets download more the 8Mb of data right after you turn the device on.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The good news and the bad news.

I got my free Nexus One from Google delivered today!!!
Thank you Google!
It'd be more great if it worked, but it reboots each time I'm trying to turn on the Wi-Fi. :(

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Titans fight review

Recently I switched the provider from Comcast to Verizon. Here are some Pros and Cons:

  1. +/- Verizon promotion seems cheaper, but in reality, it's actually not. With all those fees and charges and losts, there is not much you can save.
  2. + Only for 5 bucks more you have a service which let you watch a recorded on any device in your home.
  3. +/- Verizon gives you a new router, it probably more powerful than your old one, but you need do all the settings again. And many things just impossible to do, such as to bind a MAC to an IP.
  4. + The router box is a 64 bit Linux machine. :)
  5. - The Fiberoptic network terminal takes some extra Ampers from your's home electricity.
  6. + The phone local network is connected to the terminal, no need a separate wire from the cable modem to a phone socket.
  7. - TV boxes rely on the Internet access. I f you turn off the router, the TV probably won't work.
  8. + TV menu is more convenient (but still not perfect)
  9. + CC can be turned on just from the remote. Don't need to turn off the box to enable or disable it.
  10. + The remote looks and feels better.
  11. --- You can not just switch tuners, you need to put one program to record and then switch to another one.
  12. + You can browse and record programs from any internet-connected computer or a cell phone.
  13. - Some good base package channels just do not exist in the Verizon even extreme package.
  14. - You can't (not recommended) to choose a local IP network address as you wish. It should be 192.168.1.0
  15. - The remote control does not let you turn on or of the box and the TV set separately.
  16. - Verizon claims the speed should be 25Mb/s, but actually, it just 5Mb/s, slower, then Comcast, which gave 7Mb/s.
  17. http://www.verizon.net site is made bad.

Get rid of Symantec

To uninstall a Symantec product (if it can't be uninstall by regular Add/Remove Programs procedure), try download Symantec uninstaller.

Office Cure

If M$ Office's Word does not start or starts too slowly, check how fast it starts with the "/a" option, like:
winword /a
In this mode all the add-ins and the templates do not apply.
If that's true (fast start with the /a), then:
Try to rename ~\Application Data\Microsoft\Template\Normal.dot (and probably the similar in that folder).
Go to Word's options dialog->add-ins, and try to disable all suspicious active add-inns.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Good bye windows!

I've decided to install Android in NAND. Anyway, if I need GPS I have a dedicated Garmin.
And probably, it's not a problem to flash windows back if I need it.
To do the move without (lost the current system) did the following:
1. Store both system and data in androidinstall.tar and placed it to /sdcard/andboot
2. Download a correct nbh (for AT&T Tilt (KAIS100) suits kaisimg-panel2-428-tilt-12-03-10.nbh). I used panel=0 in the default.txt, but there is no panel0 file. (Panel1 is not correct, it gaves me bad image). Renamed file to /sdcard/kaisimg.nbh
3. A hard reset: erased windows data first (Settings/System), then by holding the both soft buttons and pin the reset hole, then agreed with the question to do it.
4. Flash the nbh: holding the camera button, pin the reset
5. Remove the battery and reboot to the flashed Linux kernel and the init script.
6. Press the Dpad center key to enter the installer. Select "Install"
7. The /sdcard/andboot/androidinstall.tar is unpacked to /, populating mounted /system and /data
That's it.
Problems:
1. NAND gives me only 128Mb of free space compare to 256Mb partition I had on my SD card.
2. Some programs refused to work on the new place and I had to reinstall them. I assume that because some data was lost because of few free space during the unpacking.
3. I need to remove the battery each time I reboot, or it does not boot and there are lots of messages like "IRQ but nothing to do".
4. I still don't know did I do right, placing the data partiton in NAND. It supposed to be faster, isn't it? But actually I don't see any differences.
5. I still can't mount the device on my PC as an external drive nor mount SD card back if I removed it.

Need to find out how to make it use the data partition back on the SD card.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Android life cycle

There is a difference between v1.5 and v2.0
When an application goes to the background and returns back onSaveInstanceState()/onRestoreInstanceState() are not called on v1.5

But on a screen rotation they are both called.
onPause()/onStart() are called in all the cases, always.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

I got the confirmation!

I've just got an email from Google, they have verified my application an promised to ship a free Android phone in 2-4 weeks.
COOOOL!!!!!!!!