Short: Easier Free File Hosting
by Micah Hastings on Jan.28, 2010, under Computers
Just a quick little post about a free file hosting service. I was recently told about a free file hosting service called iFile.IT. Normally these free file hosting service make you wait in very long lines, or not get access at all. And even if you do get access, you must wade through tons of bull and advertising in order to find the “free” download link. Hope this helps everyone.
Piracy and a new way of thinking…
by Micah Hastings on Jan.20, 2010, under Advice, Electronics
I know this is a sensitive subject, but I’d like to talk about piracy. As a software programmer I understand the need, or at least the purpose, of things like DRM, software activation, and serial keys, however I also understand the other side of the fence. I’m not here to debate the morals of software piracy, but rather to discuss the business model of software piracy. As I’ve started researching items for my phone (Motorola Droid A855) I ran across a Google groups discussion involving several developers that are mad as heck because of people rooting their droid phones. If you don’t know what rooting is, it is the process of gaining SuperUser permissions on the phone itself, kind of like having administrator access for a Windows computer. This allows users to copy copy-protected software (paid apps) in order to distribute across piracy sites like Bittorrent, P2P, etc… They are upset and putting the blame on Google for allowing this to happen. So this got me thinking….
Why blame Google because people are pirating Android software? Don’t these people realize that if a company could prevent piracy then the RIAA wouldn’t be suing people left and right, the MPAA wouldn’t be suing people, Microsoft would not have 32% illegal Windows copies. And by far, the iPhone wouldn’t be allowed to be jailbroken. If Google found a way to prevent piracy on paid apps from the Android market, the community would just find another way. Think about it, the community always prevails. No matter what Microsoft comes up with, Apple comes up with, Adobe comes up with, the community always finds a way to hack programs. Period. It goes back to the military. Someone buys gun, enemy buys bigger gun. Someone buys missile, enemy buys anti-missile defense systems.
Microsoft, Google and other companies spend millions and millions trying to combat software piracy with lawsuits and different software techniques all ending with the same result. You can still pirate Windows, you can still pirate Adobe Creative Suite 4, you can still pirate Nero Burning Rom 9. So in my mind, what’s the point? Here’s where the business model fits in. Why spend millions and millions of dollars on lawyers, lawsuits, development time of sophisticated anti-piracy software techniques when in my mind it should be built into your business model.
I get it, Microsoft, Apple, RIAA, and MPAA were founded back in the day where piracy was limited compared to where it is now and they spend their millions thinking that someday piracy will die back down to where it once was. I think that this kind of mindset is a complete dream. I propose that they develop a new business model where you still have basic software authentication (like let’s say Microsoft Office), but cut out the lawsuits and cut out the sophisticated high price development time. Especially the RIAA and MPAA. No matter what you do, the people who want free software and free movies and free music are going to get it. Period. I sure hope that these companies and organizations have definitely gotten that message. Likewise, the people who are paying for software are going to pay for it because they believe in paying for intellectual property and supporting development costs.
Once more let’s go back in time, shut down Napster, more programs like eDonkey, eMule, Kazaa, Bearshare, Limwire, etc… open up. Try to shut them down by suing and what happens? Even more networks open up like DirectConnect, Bittorrent. Which brings up another can of worms in itself. Let’s take bittorrent, for example, the major site back in the days of 2002 was Suprnova.org. The site did not actually host the illegal files, but rather pointed to where to get them (so to speak). Legal warnings and other problems forced that site to close, and look what happened. It spurred dozens of other sites to pop up like thepiratebay.org, btjunkie.org, btcom, isohunt, meganova, demonoid, mininova, torrentz, and so on… All operating very secretly and in countries where you cannot sue or where it’s legal to pirate software.
I think you get the point, hackers will steal and get what they want no matter what you spend on lawsuits and software techniques. Build this “loss” into your business model and move on. I hate to say this being a developer who wants to be paid for his work, but history tells us that software piracy is here to stay and if anything only gets bigger the more you pee it off. So to the guys and girls in the Google Groups discussion I say to you, stop whining. Part of being a developer is having your software stolen. It is not a good thing, nor legal, nor acceptable, but nonetheless join the club of every developer in the world. It is not Google’s fault that the Motorola Droid was rooted. You even talked about giving up on Google and developing for the iPhone. Well I tell you that it doesn’t get better over there because magically it’s Apple. Apps get stolen on iPhone’s too. Apple is the king of locking down software and only letting it do what they want you to and it still gets pirated.
On a different note, I’m trying to keep my GTalk on when I’m on my computer so hit me up at Mhastings@thecleverengineer.com if you’d like to talk. I’m always up for a intellectual conversation. I’ll be the first one to say that I’m not always correct.
Verizon vs. AT&T
by Micah Hastings on Jan.08, 2010, under Electronics
Lately there has been a slew of commercials regarding who is better, ATT or Verizon? Well let’s look at a few key points here. Verizon started the feud that I’m aware of by putting out the “There’s a MAP for that” ads. Here’s a look at the MAP that completely ticked AT&T off.
As you can see from this map, Verizon has significantly more coverage on 3G service. AT&T has never disputed this fact even to today in it’s commercials. Now let’s look at another map of wireless coverage.
Verizon: AT&T:
The reason why at&t was so upset was because they believed Verizon was saying at&t didn’t have wireless coverage on most of the country. Verizon was really trying to say that at&t didn’t have 3G coverage on most of the country. This should have been evident in my opinion because since the 1st map clearly shows, “5X more 3g Coverage”. Not wireless coverage, but 3G coverage. Technically speaking, you can get a data connection on any part of the at&t wireless coverage map, you just cannot get 3G speeds, which is really where it’s at. Regular data connections, known as GPRS are very slow and if you have ever used this kind of connection you would know exactly what I’m talking about. Browsing the internet on an iPhone with a GPRS connection is next to impossible. 3G is pretty much mandatory for a such a task in my opinion.
Both companies went to suing each other with multiple lawsuits, but all lawsuits that I know of at the moment have been dropped, but both are still throwing commercials in each other’s face. Both saying that they have the best coverage and best service.
There are many different research companies that have done studies on AT&T satisfaction ratings and all pretty much say that AT&T needs some work. This is possibly due to the fact that since AT&T has ALL of the iPhones, they carry much of the data burden. This is probably due to the iPhone making browsing the web so easy. Well, to AT&T I say, stop pursuing your commercials of “Best 3G coverage, Best Service”. It makes me think that you don’t even realize how not good your service is. I’m not saying the service is bad, but due to the many surveys it definitely needs some work. If you don’t realize your service has problems, it makes me think that you have no plans to upgrade and fix some of the problems that plague your service.
I’m sure that I will write more about this, but for now I’ll just say that I think the iPhone is a great device which was 3 years ahead of its time. I can say this because it’s taken 3 years for anyone to have a comparable product. I do however believe that if AT&T lost it’s contract with Apple and Verizon got to pick up the iPhone as well; I’m willing to bet most people would take their iPhone over to Verizon service. Even if it meant having to buy a new iPhone in order to work with the CDMA service.
HDMI Cables…What a Rip-Off
by Micah Hastings on Dec.31, 2009, under Electronics
Lately, I suppose because of Christmas, I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding HDMI cables and where people should buy them. When I tell them that they can buy HDMI cables at Amazon.com for around $6 (with shipping included). Their jaw hits the floor and they are completely speechless. This is the reason why I’m writing about this. My hopes is that Google picks up this thread while people search about HDMI cables, and then they can learn what I’m been trying to share with people who ask me.
You see Retail Stores make their money off accessories and not the actual electronic device. Apply this theory to anything in a retail store. ANYTHING. Cell Phones, TV’s, Computers, Ipod’s, Surround Sound systems, and the list goes on and on…
So in other words, buy a Computer and places like Best Buy want you to buy the Battery Backup, the Extended Warranty (which is 99.9% of the time a waste of money), the “GOLD” plated printer cable, the printer, extra print cartridges, and before you know it you can walk out with 3 times the price of the computer.
So let’s take this cable for example,
This cable costs $1000. Why? Because it’s made out of platinum. This seems ludicrous that someone would pay this much. But this is the same principle when someone spends $30, $50, even $80 on an HDMI cable. For that fact, let’s lump all those expensive cables in this article. Optical Cables, HDMI cables, Printer Cables, and so on, but here’s the catch. This only applies to digital cables. That means cables that carry a digital signal instead of an analog signal. So cables like component cables, rca cables, headphone cables, and speaker wire are not included with this article.
I digress. So with digital cables like HDMI, this is the whole point of digital. Digital means that the signal either gets there or it doesn’t. People with Satellite know what I’m talking about here. Ever see your sattelite give you a fuzzy picture? NO. You either have a picture or you don’t. That’s the point of digital. Apply the same logic to HDMI and there you have it.
It is a proven fact (through testing and basic knowledge of digital electronics) that your picture or sound is no better with $50 cable than it is from a $3 cable.
For example, here is a 6-foot HDMI cable for $3.09 at the time of this posting Click Here
In case Amazon gets rid of that particular product, here are the search results for HDMI over at Amazon. Click Here
Rooted Android with WiFi tethering
by Micah Hastings on Dec.30, 2009, under Android
Edit 02/08/2010: I Have now started my own business called TheNerdFix! It is a PC remote support site geared towards fixing people’s computers remotely. Viruses, Trojans, Spyware, etc… it can be fixed remotely without having to take your computer in somewhere! You can find it at thenerdfix.com. The reason I posted this here is that I can help you root your android phone with personalized help for a fee of course. But go ahead and check out my new help site thenerdfix.com and spread the word! Thanks!
EDIT 1/7/2009: There has been some discussion about where is the wireless tethering part in this article. Well, if you follow these instructions exactly and use the nandroid backup provided, you will now have an application on your desktop called “Wireless Tether”. This application provides you access to start or stop the wireless tethering. It will also provide you with access control (MAC filtering) and Wireless Security options like WEP. If you have followed another article or used another nandroid backup than you may or may not have this app. If you do not have this app, you will have to use a terminal emulator and execute superuser commands to order to achieve this (I think; this really is out of my expertise level.)
Now with all of the technical jargon out of the way, onto the original thread:
After browsing the online articles about how to get Wifi tethering to work on my Motorola Droid, I finally put information together from multiple different websites. Even websites claiming that their version was “simple” was not simple. For us newbies on the droid, when you say things like “restore the image to your phone after you’ve done a backup and installed the recovery image” is yes a simple phrase, but not a simple process. We need simple step by step process things like “Move Here, Click on that”. So that is what I’ll attempt to do here.
I did have this next part at the bottom of the page, but I’m copying it to the top so that everyone knows that they need to backup their paid apps and settings.
BE SURE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING BACKUP LIKE PAID APPS. This is because this process will delete everything off your phone as if you just got it from the store. I cannot help you with the backing up part since I did not have any paid apps yet I just accepted the program loss. After getting my phone to work I just downloaded and configured all of my free apps again.
First this article will complete two things for us. It will:
1) Root our Motorola Droid (Essentially what this means to us Windows users is that we will have Administrative rights to our Motorola Droid) You see, Motorola and Verizon put special block in place to make sure us dumb consumers will not brick our phone.)
2) Enable WiFi tethering
Okay, let’s first start out with some acknowledgments. Please keep in mind that I’m just writing instructions and that I did not come up with the code, the files, nor the process. I take no credit for getting this done. ALL credit goes to its respected owners and creators.
Most of my process came from the great people over at DroidForums.net. The link to the page I used is: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-hacks/10219-tether-capability-android-wifi-tether-wireless-tether-root-users.html
My next resource for information was the following website: http://theunlockr.com/2009/12/09/how-to-root-the-motorola-droid-adb-root/
Many other resources were used for this writing like Alldroid.org and some others.
So let’s get started:
1) We need to download some files first:
a) SuperUser Update File: http://www.filefactory.com/file/a1883h1/n/droid-superuser_update.zip
b) Droid Rooting Tools: http://www.filefactory.com/file/a176c22/n/droid_root_helper.zip
c) Restore Image: http://drop.io/tbzq4oj/asset/bcdmrs-20091226-2109-zip
2) Now you need to connect your phone to your computer using the included USB cable. Then pull down the notification screen and click “Mount”. The SD card should now show up like another hard drive in your My Computer screen.Now put the droid-superuser_update.zip file onto the root of your SD card for the phone. Then rename it to “update.zip”
3) Restart your phone into Recovery mode . This is done by holding down your power button and then turning off your phone (if it’s on). Once it is all the way powered off, then hold down the power button and the X key on the physical keyboard at the same time until your see the Motorola symbol come up. Once you see the caution symbol, then hold down the camera button (lower right corner of phone) and also the Volume up button (upper right corner of phone) together. You will then see the Recovery console.
4) Click on Apply update.zip
5) Once done, reboot your phone into normal mode.
6) Now we need to get a certain app from the market called ApkInstaller. So head on over to the marketplace and search for “Apk”. Then click to install Apkinstaller once you find it.
7) From 1b, you should have downloaded a file called droid-root-helper. Unzip this file to the phone’s SD card using the same process as the super user file that we put on there. So on your phone’s SD root directory you should have a file called DroidRootHelper.apk and also a folder named Tools. This is crucial to the steps following this one.
Once this is on your phone unplug the USB cord from your phone. This is because APKinstaller errors out when connected to your computer. Regardless, load up APKinstaller that you got from the marketplace and then install DroidRootHelper.apk. Sorry, one more thing, you must allow third party applications from Settings->Applications and then check “unknown sources”.
9)Once DroidRootHelper is installed, open up the program click on the following buttons in order:
Mount System 3
Mount System4
Rename Recovery
Install Busybox
Install Flash Image
Flash SirPsycoS’s recovery
Reboot Recovery
10) Once your phone as been rebooted to the recovery mode (this should be done by clicking “Reboot Recovery”) . Select the Nandroid submenu, and choose the “Default Nandroid Backup” option. This will create a folder name something like “BCDMRS-20091230-2116″ inside the nandroid folder on the root of your SD card.
10a) This backup folder needs to be copied off of the SD card onto your computer. Save this folder as that is the backup of your system. DO NOT DELETE THIS FOLDER. Just MOVE it to your computer. Make sure you get it off the SD card.
11) Next take the zip file from 1c and unzip it. Please the resulting folder “bcdmrs-20091226-2109″ inside of the NANDROID folder on the SD card. So in other words it should be: SD Card\Nandroid\bcdmrs-20091226-2109
12) Now reboot into recovery mode again.
13) Click on Backup/Restore. Then click on Simple Nandroid restore (latest).
BE SURE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING BACKUP LIKE PAID APPS. This is because this restore will delete everything off your phone as if you just got it from the store. I cannot help you with the backing up part since I did not have any paid apps yet I just accepted the program loss. After getting my phone to work I just downloaded and configured all of my free apps again.
I hope this article has helped and has cleared up some confusion.
Motorola DROID Work E-mail
by Micah Hastings on Dec.29, 2009, under Android
My Wife got me a Motorola DROID for Christmas and that thing is freakin awesome! It runs the new Android 2.0 from Google which I am a huge fan of.
I could not figure out the difference between the $30 and $45 Verizon data plans while at the store though. The huge difference that I have found out so far is “push” e-mail. The $45 plan will let you have push e-mail from Google and Exchange while the $30 plan limits you to “checking” your e-mail every so many minutes.
CORRECTION: According to Ron in the comments section of this post here is the real difference between the two data plans.
The $30 plan works fine for push. The $45 plan is for business/corporate users. With Android, there really isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two plans…actually, none! The $45 plan is required for BES on Blackberries, which allows said Blackberry to connect to a corporate/another Blackberry server than the one Verizon runs. The $30 is limited to just the Verizon server.
So as it turns out I was way off and completely wrong. Thank you Ron for correcting me.
My company has a strong corporate IT policy which disables mobile e-mail completely. We do, however, have access to our webmail site which is Outlook Web Access. Knowing this I started searching for an app which would pull my e-mail directly from the OWA address. This app was NitroDesk Touchdown which not only checks my e-mail from the OWA address, but it also syncs my contacts, syncs my calender, and lets me lookup users from the GAL. (Global Address List <–this is your Exchange Active Directory basically). Also while the native e-mail client on the Android phone can only sync at a minimum internal of 5 minutes, the Nitrodesk Touchdown client can go down to 1 minute. This essentially circumvents not having “push” e-mail.
Here is a link to the app homepage: http://www.nitrodesk.com/dk_touchdownFeatures.aspx
There is only one negative thing about the Motorola Droid and that is the battery life. I guess with a mobile phone that’s this powerful what are you to expect? With heavy usage, it lasts about 16 hours and so far I haven’t tested the “light” usage out. I’ve pretty much been using it straight since I got it.
The Inaugural Post
by Micah Hastings on Dec.29, 2009, under Site News
Hello and welcome to the first post of TheCleverEngineer.com. This blog was started by Micah Hastings on 12/28/2009 in order to share electronic howto’s, house remodeling howto’s, and lots of other things from advice to product reviews.
