The Age of The Geek

JellyBean 4.2.2

blackhammer — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:26:18 +0000

I am running Carbon ROM on my Galaxy Nexus. Smooth as butter. I really haven’t noticed a big difference from my other Roms. Maybe cause I am still running Franco’s kernel updater. We will see.

FOLLOWUP: I was drawn to this ROM because it was made from the Developers from Liquid Rom. A very respectable Rom and it also had other well known devs such as Kejar. But my Google Now would slowly pop up on the right side of the screen. Then I would never see the Google Now Cards. It was frustrating. I also experienced some occations of freezing while on Google Plus. So I went to Rootzwiki and downloaded TODAY’s update to Xenon HD rom. Much faster and no freezing. Google Now works like a charm.

Welcome Back Xenon HD

Droid Nation, Tech Frustration

blackhammer — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:41:04 +0000

Hello Friends

Well we just recorded Droid Nation 53. We have been moving on recording shows, even with extreme technical difficulties publishing them.

Our current status is awaiting our Hosting Provider to do some “Black Magic” and get the site back connected properly with our account. I was just told that it will be done soon. But it means a tremendous amount of work. All of us have been beset by “Tech Frustration” over this.

On the other hand, we are looking a developing a new and innovative (for us anyway) media offering. This one has born fruit in the last 24 hours. A lot of this will depend on the DN team to get it done. But it will be done.

Keep the faith. We are.

Droid Nation 50

blackhammer — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:30:49 +0000

Last night we recorded Droid Nation 50. Due to some technical difficulties with our website, we have to make other arrangements to fix publishing the podcasts we have ready to go. My goal on the show, is to wear the “Steve Cherubino” shoes. I may not always bring the goods, but I will keep us on track and add to the discussion when necessary. Sometimes, like last night, you have small disasters where one co-host’s PC is rebooted during the show and you have to work around his part of speaking. That is the kind of activity that keeps me on my toes and makes Podcasting so much fun. Speaking of Steve Cherubino, I want to give thanks to him for helping me pick out a new microphone and headset. I am using the Samson Q2U usb condenser mike with the stand. I think it has improved my sound 100%. Stay tuned, as we will get it fixed and up and running soon.

Feedback from a disgruntled AT&T Android User

blackhammer — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:59:45 +0000

I was talking last week to an Android user on the AT&T system. He and his wife both use the Motorola Atrix phones. They have had them since summer 2011. Both of them purchased Otter Box cases. He is an avid Deer Hunter and wants a phone to take into the tree stand with him. She is a stay at home Mom with 2 young kids. Her phone will get more abuse than his I would say. So, as it went, he dropped his phone into a deer carcase in the process of being butchered for the freezer. He pulled it out, wiped off the case and it was fine. A week or so later, she dropped her phone. The Otter Box shattered. They contacted their AT&T store to claim their lifetime warranty. The store associates, complete in their state of amnesia, fully claimed that the Otter Box is only warrantied for a year. After prolonged discussion, and contacting Otter Box, they were able to get a replacement case for half price. A few days after this, her phone just stopped working. No charge, no lights, no activity. They took it back to the store and experienced “You have to contact the Insurance company for a replacement” speech. They paid their $100 deductible and received a refurbished phone with a box to send back the old one. It lasted about a week when they noticed that it would not keep a charge. They called AT&T and were told again, to contact the Insurance company. The Insurance company told them on Friday, that they would receive a phone on Tuesday, or so. As this was their only way to communicate in the home for the wife, and they were not guaranteed that the phone would work or arrive Tuesday, the debate went on. The couple were able to terminate their contract with AT&T early. Next step was replacing their phones with the Galaxy S3 for her and the Droid Razr M for him. I got a few minutes with the Razr M. 4.3″ Super Amoled screen with 8 gb ram and a Dual Core 1.5 ghz Snapdragon processor. The owner could not believe the increased speed and response over his Atrix. The shape and size of the phone fit very nicely into my large palm. I was most impressed with this phone. 8 gb would be too small for me, but not for this user.

I just told him to try not to drop his in the deer next time….

Time for an update

blackhammer — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:42:59 +0000

Well as it has turned from mid 50 degree weather to the teens, I decided for a change too. The logo on top is a mirror image of the early Blackhammer emblem. It is a combined War Axe with a Sledge Hammer head on the back. Great for hacking, smashing or a party conversation piece. Later on, the story of where the Blackhammer came from..

I am back

blackhammer — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:28:36 +0000

It’s time to get back into the blog. I have now been active with the Droid Nation podcast. My gadgets have changed. I now am using the Galaxy Nexus (Verizon), Nexus 7 and sometimes my HP Touchpad. With my job purchasing an iPad for me, the HP Touchpad will soon be on its way to Swappa.

2012 Indiana Linux Fest

blackhammer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:33:36 +0000

I went with my son to the Indiana Linux Fest 2012. They have a nice location with plenty of parking. There were 4 main tracks this year, with subjects that varied from the legal views on open source, Linux for Network Admins and Python for Women. I thought that it was funny that you could only go into that one if you were a woman or escorted by one.

The Hackerspace was smaller this year, with multiple examples of locks to pick and circuitry projects. Drupal camp went on all Saturday morning and Friday (which I missed because of work) had all day Klaatu sessions. How can you go wrong with Klaatu?

Overall, it seem a wider variety of sessions offered than last year. I spent a lot of time with Don Vosberg of Suse. He gave a well organized session on how to set up your partition for multiple booting. As a proud owner of a new laptop, I now have mine set up fro 5 OS booting (quint booting?) It will be Win 7 and a few stable distros and many testing ones. But that is for another blog.

The crowd seemed smaller than last year. It also seemed to be a much younger crowd than I remember. The vendors were also fewer than before. As it was pouring down rain outside, it did not encourage attendance. I heard Matt Williams (Lord D) say on Hacker Public Radio that they had 250 in attendance last year. Then I would say I saw about 150 people when I counted Saturday afternoon. It also seemed that there were less volunteers to help. Still the viking-like Lord D was everywhere. Checking with presenters, greeting visitors and carrying around his 1 year older daughter.

Different than last year, but still a great time.

Biggest complaint- I missed where the afterparty was going to be.

On Linux for the Rest Of Us

blackhammer — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:23:07 +0000

Hey, if you are looking on it, I am on Linux for the Rest of Us now. Talking about Indiana Linux Fest

Apple Macbook leaves me sad

blackhammer — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:27:45 +0000

I recently picked up a 2009 Macbook. I have been trying out the software and trying to learn about the operating system. It has iLive on it with GarageBand and movie making software. I was looking on it for a word processor, but no luck.

So I installed LibreOffice. It works like a charm on this Mac. I could open my work Office documents with no issues.

Saturday, I tried to help my son edit a hundred or so entries on a website he maintains. It took about 3 minutes to decide that Safari also was lacking. I installed both Opera and Firefox. Unfortunately, Opera crashed, but Firefox held up fine for 3 or 4 hours of editing files.

At one point, I got so frustrated with the Macbook, that I installed VirtualBox and Podbuntu. I was able to get more work done using the built in tools of Podbuntu.

This made me so happy, that I am now looking into modifying Podbuntu with a few more additions that I would like.

The Macbook really, really made me long for my Samsung netbook at home. I felt like I could get more done using the Linux Mint installation on the netbook, than I did with the Mac.

How to get S-Off and Unlock the Bootloader your Flyer

blackhammer — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:38:38 +0000

Editors Note: The title for this post was inadvertently published yesterday. This has been corrected.

After I bricked my Flyer by downgrading from Honeycomb to Gingerbread, I needed to gain S-Off and root my Flyer. I did not like the idea that Honeycomb did not use the built in softkeys that came with the Flyer. So I downgraded my recent Honeycomb installation to Gingerbread.

STEPS TO ROOT:

1. Download the HTC fastboot drivers. I found them here: http://goo.gl/v75PR and install them on your PC.

2. If HTC Sync is installed, then uninstall it from your computer.

3. After that, connect your Flyer to the computer, enable USB debugging by launching Settings > Applications > Development > Enable USB Debugging.

4. Now go to the Revolutionary.IO portal, http://www.Revolutionary.io. I recommend that you read through the documentation, and click on “Download For Windows”.

5. By doing that download, the download should start immediately and a form with different fields will open.

6. IMPORTANT: Do not close the webpage. Wait for the download to complete.

7. Once the download is complete, extract the archive and double click on Revolutionary.exe.

8. You will get a serial number which needs to be entered in the web form along with other device specs required. You will then be given a beta key which you need to copy.

9. The next step is you need to paste the beta key in Revolutionary console window and follow onscreen instructions to unlock bootloader.

10. In the end you will see the message “SUCCESS – Life gave us lemons, we didn’t make lemonade!”.

You have done it! If you follow the instruction correctly then now your HTC Flyer device should be successfully unlocked with S-OFF.

If you follow the instructions, it will ask you if you want to install Clockwork. I strongly advise that you do this. What you get is a REVOLUTIONARY branded version.

That’s OK,

To test this, power off your Flyer. Press the Volume Down button and Power button at the same time. You will boot into HBoot.

For more details, and How to get Root, go to Roming My Droid