I have slowly been working on some new paintings. I have been somewhat inspired by a slew of new clients that have all been illustrators. So much great use of shape and color with simple line work. It relieves the pressure.
Anything about everything and somethings about nothing. If it doesn’t have it’s own category it’s going to be here.
Phone food
I’ve had this phone for a while so here it goes.
Samsung Vibrant x Team Whiskey Bionix NextGen V1
Well when I went to write this I realized I had an old draft of a post I meant to post after first flashing Bionix 1.2. Just a general bragging and celebrating of the goodness that was that is the Bionix. If you find yourself wondering “What the F is a ROM?” this post might not be for you but it’s nothing a little google wont fix. Anyways…
So after being on Bionix 1.2 (and loving it) for a while. I started noticing my media app kept dying so I decided since it had been a while and Team Whiskey had released a few ROMs that I would look into what these new ROMs had to offer. Out of the three current ROMs I chose NextGen V1 (there is now a NextGen V2)
Functional Stuffs
Well for starters I learned a lot with this ROM. This is the first time I ever replaced the phone.apk to get rid of the three second fade in “feature,” I added a fix to get rid of all the text messages in the call log and applied a framework fix by OldeCrow from XDA to fix a misalignment in the search button.
It is also quite snappy and has nice animations like my ubuntu netbook does. Screen transitions and all that good stuff. I thought this would cause more drain in the battery department but once I re-conditioned it I am averaging 24+ hours per charge with average use!! I have never had such good battery life. I still experience the occasional dying of the media.app but it rarely occurs so I don’t mind having to reboot the phone every now and then. With Bionix 1.2 I had to reboot daily to get any audio or video to work. I’ve also read that flashing certain kernels fixes the media.app force close problem but have yet to venture into kernel flashing.
On a not so great note my GPS is pretty shitty. Sometimes is just loses the signal and never comes back, other times it just re-routes me onto roads that are beside the road I am supposed to be on. It has overall just been pretty crappy.
Base Theme
Well it’s pretty blue. I don’t really mind and feel it’s a nice change. There are also some cool themes out there if you just can’t stand it. It comes with a themed market too which is also very blue. The only thing I don’t like is the actual launcher. It is black with a blue outline and the web icon has a lil pixel chew going on around it. I would’ve preferred it be slightly transparent like on Bionix 1.2 but beggars can’t be choosers. It also has a nice battery notification icon.
General Feelings
It is pretty friggin hot. I was skeptical because so many people post with bizarre horror stories but all in all I am much happier with Next Gen V1 than I was with Bionix 1.2. I find it is faster and gives me much better battery life. I wish the GPS worked a little better but I rarely use it so I think it’s a fair trade. I really have only tried Team Whiskey ROMs and both have been much better than the stock phone.
Links
Bionix NextGen V1 (gotta join the forums to view posts)
no fade ringer phone.apk
call log fix
framework fix for search
Alley Gold
The local alley rats strike again Friday morning. Pulled in after work like “ACK!” This time a majestic work spanning across three garage doors. Asswhole, <————– <————- Dick, Bitch. HaHaHa!
Ubuntu 11.04 – the Natty Narwhal
So I finally grew a pair and did the upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04. All went smoothly but it took like damn near four hours for everything to be done. The new unity interface is still kinda lame (I used netbook edition of 10.10 and hated the sidebar launcher) and I still don’t dig the sidebar launcher thing even though it doesn’t take up the screen space like it used to since the windows now cover it. I immediately went right back to the desktop edition which they now call “classic.” My boot time is now more like 30+ seconds, which isn’t too bad since my first install of 10.10 had some missing file error that caused it to be around 20 seconds instead of the famous 10 second boot so I never had a chance to be spoiled by a quick boot. I also had to re-configure a few things to get everything back to how it was.
First thing I had to do was install CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) from the Ubuntu Software Center. I believe they got rid of whatever handled the effects in 10.10 and this is what you use now to manage all the effects. Although it doesn’t seem to apply the settings in some instances (?) The drop shadows on the windows look like crap and have a massive x-offset.
Second thing I had to do was the re-install the NotifyOSD Configuration since the previous version was just for 10.10. Simple instructions to do that are here. They also added the ability to turn the fade off on hover and to be able to click on the notification to close it. However it might be worth mentioning that “once you run NotifyOSD Config tool, these two last options (to prevent fading and to close the notification bubbles on click) will be removed from the ~/.nofiy-osd file so use NotifyOSD Config firstly and then tweak this or remember to add these options back to the file if you use the config tool later on.” In other words it might be easier to just edit the settings via the command line w/ gedit. If not you will find that every time you edit the file, kill the process and open the Notify config you will have the settings replaced by some odd default settings. I am not sure why this doesn’t come packaged with ubuntu in the first place but all in all it was a quick fix. Link: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/configurable-notifyosd-bubbles-for.html
I sort of wish I hadn’t upgraded as everything seemed a bit snappier and was less buggy in 10.10 but I’ll give natty a little time to grow on me.
once you run NotifyOSD Config tool, these two last options (to prevent fading and to close the notification bubbles on click) will be removed from the ~/.nofiy-osd file so use NotifyOSD Config firstly and then tweak this or remember to add these options back to the file if you use the config tool later on.
Battle Groundz @MAAC Center in Chula Vista
Lots of good giant sized letters. Crazy color combos, some KOG boys, Zodak and a bunch more talented people who I did not know of. It was pretty awesome to watch. Pics at flickr. I tried to get each complete wall. Follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ionz149/sets/72157626551037307/ or click the photo below.
Oh snaps!
Ubuntu 11.4 was released today. I’m think I’m going to wait a little before updating my netbook but I am eager to give it a go.
Earth Day
– jesus freaks need to chill the funk out (mad props if we do die in a massive earthquake on may 22, 2011 tho)
– it’s earth day, stop handing me pieces of paper!!
– giant pictures of mutilated aborted fetuses are pretty metal
– hare krishnas make beautiful sounds and smile beautiful smiles
– god hates everyone except people who show their faith in him with hateful signs and banners and privately hired security
– I am all for population control
Happy Birthday Dock Boggs!
The man, if you don’t know get started here. Country Blues and Sugar Baby are prolly his most popular tunes but I also love Sammie. He had an odd choppy, clunky, somewhat staggered sound to his playing which is what initially attracted me to his music. Even though it sounds like hill billy music it possesses an otherworldly quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oACJ3VOHmhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KlMOZOH7m4
and a lil later in the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2hvdqQ7qfs
Must Have Android Apps
So it’s been a while since I got my samsung vibrant android phone and I have come to rely on a bunch of really cool apps that make the phone even better.
For starters all the social networking apps are all pretty good. I also noticed all the companies seem to have their own apps ie: twitter app is by twitter, facebook app is by facebook, etc. All the Google apps are great too: Calendars, Gmail, Maps, Navigation, Reader, Talk (there’s many more!).
Barnacle
Barnacle is an easy way to get your wifi tether on. It turns your phone’s 3g signal into a wifi hotspot so you can mooch off of it with your laptop. There are other alternatives out there that claim to do the job better. Some are more advanced and require a lil bit more know how but this was easy as shit and worked as advertised upon installation.
DoubleTwist
It is itunes for android users. It is available for mac and pc but not linux (luhaaaaaaaame) It isn’t as nice but you’ll be fine. Install doubletwist on your machine and then download the app from the android market. Use as you would itunes. Done.
Dropbox
If you don’t use dropbox already shame on you! It is nice having a lil mini cloud with your shit on it accessible from everywhere. You can access dropbox from any browser. They also have an application for your computer so you can do everything you can do on the website but by just dropping files in folders, very nice. The android app simply adds the same function to the phone. With the app you can access all your files and download or upload to your dropbox.
ProfileChanger
ProfileChanger lets you set up schedules for your phones ringer profiles. For example I created a profile called “work” which I have set the phone to vibrate mode at 8:30 am M-F. Then I created one called “play” which I have set the phone back to normal mode at 5:00 pm M-F. This avoids me being in the office and having to not laugh when my phone goes “beeee beeeee ~ mail muthafucka!” Be sure to use the apps exit button to avoid turning off the app (it needs to run in the background)
Ringdroid
Very awesome, simple app. It’s a very basic editing app but it gets the job done. You can just use the first 5 seconds of a song rather than the whole song and save that as a mp3 and use it as a ring tone. Super handy if you have a bunch of music on your phone.
Titanium Backup
Use this to create backups and delete bloatware. Must be rooted though (go here if you aren’t rooted yet). I also believe if you purchased the paid version you can set your updates to automatically upload to your dropbox (Woot!)
I use plenty of other random apps too but these are the ones that I like most. Once I work up the balls to play with roms I will be attacking clockwork mod. Any cool apps you use? Sound off in the comments.
Samsung NC10 Net Book X Ubuntu 10.10
Well where to start? I guess I got the Samsung NC10 because it was on craigslist and it was affordable. I researched it and it was fairly compatible with linux. It was also a nice net book on it’s own when it came out a year or so ago. I also recently purchased a Samsung Vibrant and it is a nice chunk of phone and runs android smoothly. Seeing as android is somewhat based on linux I figured Samsung would be a nice option. I also looked into a few other Acer and Samsung net books but just figured I’d get more bang for my buck from the NC10.
I found a few good resources on the Samsung NC10:
- https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10
- https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks#Samsung%20NC10
- http://nc10ubuntu.wordpress.com/
As far as my linux flavor I originally intended to run Fedora but did not find as much information about it in regards to the NC10 net book. So after looking around it seemed people were having more success and ease using ubuntu. Plus I am a total linux noob and ubuntu for some reason just felt more user friendly and like I would have less of hassle converting over as a windows user who uses a mac at work.
Preparation
I read about a few instances of some of the function keys not working on the NC10 once ubuntu was installed. The people who didn’t have this problem were on a later BIOS (11CA). I looked into flashing the BIOS. Some people did it some people said not to. I went ahead and upgraded the BIOS before testing out ubuntu as I didn’t want to have to deal with figuring out how to get regular stuff like the functions keys working upon switching operating systems. Everything worked fine. Get BIOS here: http://www.samsungpc.com/08/products/nc10/firmware.html#firmware (you’ll want 11CA) Folks who were against upgrading the BIOS preferred connecting to voRia’s repository via ubuntu’s update manager, link for that here: http://www.voria.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=296 Note: Do this after you install ubuntu.
Installing Ubuntu
After that I followed the online guide to making the usb launcher http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download#column-8. This is pretty cool and allows you to run your net book on ubuntu when you have the usb drive plugged in. However upon restarting the net book with the usb plugged in it didn’t restart into ubuntu. I tried it a few times and could not get it to work. I looked online and found out I had to move the usb drive above the C drive in the BIOS mode. You get into BIOS by pressing F2 when the samsung logo displays (right when you turn on the comp, don’t blink or you might miss it) Once in there be careful and look for the tab that says “Boot”. When you are on the boot page select the first item “Boot Device Priority”. Follow the directions on the page for rearranging the boot order. Save and re-boot and it should read the usb drive before the hard drive.
Once I got that all sorted out I gave ubuntu a try and everything seemed to work just like it did in windows. My wireless connected up, webcam worked, function keys worked and firefox worked. I went with ubuntu netbook 10.10 and after testing out I installed it. A few minutes later I was running ubuntu on my Samsung NC10. I opted to go for a complete hard drive wipe but ubuntu also offers the option to dual boot so when you start your netbook you can choose if you would like to boot in ubuntu or windows. You can also partition your drives when you are installing if you are into that sort of thing.
Once everything was installed and running I unplugged the usb and began figuring stuff out. The netbook version of ubuntu lets you choose from a few different versions of ubuntu when you’re on the log in page. This came in handy later as I was not digging the netbook version sidebar. It has no options to be hidden or moved around at all. It did look really nice though and it kept me happy for about two days. Then I noticed I could log in to different versions of ubuntu and I have been using the desktop version since. The desktop version allowed me to maximize the space in ways the netbook version wouldn’t. However the netbook version offered a really simple interface that made it operate more like a giant ipod touch or something like that. Whereas the desktop version is much more like what you’d expect if you were coming from windows/mac.
Post Installation
I set up the desktop just how I like it once I became familiar with how the panels work (so awesome!) and I got all the programs I need to build a solid website (except for photoshop but I got GIMP). It also has workspaces, a growl style notification system, easy way to make launcher icons (shortcuts), compiz effects and all sorts of expected stuff (mail/chat/social clients, rhythmbox (itunes like music app), open office, photo manager, software center).
Some helpful links for getting things right:
- http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/tweak-notifyosd-notifications-in-ubuntu.html
- http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10229948#post10229948
- http://cloudliving.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/making-ubuntu-look-nicer-on-samsung-nc10/ (I only used this to install simple compizconfig settings manager)
- http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/customizing-ubuntu-10-10-with-a-dock-new-icon-theme-effects-global-menu-and-more/
Gripes
Not many but still a few. First, when you start up the machine there is some scary bug that throws the following error message “modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.35-generic/modules.deb, no such file or directory” it appears to be harmless and just something that was overlooked (?) I haven’t really looked into fixing it after finding out it wasn’t anything to be worried about. Second, Evolution mail is turds and I cannot get it to connect to my gmail contacts for the life of me. But to be fair I haven’t really looked into that too much either since I usually just use my gmail in firefox. Gwibber appends the word “is” to facebook posts and in general I found the unity one interface to still need a little bit of work, mainly the sidebar needs get out of the way as it eats up a bit of precious screen space. But that’s it! Anything else was too minor to remember or I can live with.
Final Thoughts
Ubuntu rocks! Use terminal, it is your friend. Don’t be scared, the water’s fine.
<object width=”480″ height=”385″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/BdHPk9tlfkk?fs=1&hl=en_US”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/BdHPk9tlfkk?fs=1&hl=en_US” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”480″ height=”385″></embed></object>
Say Hello to Wade
Yeah, you (should) remember Wade from Garfield and Friends. I seen this shirt and flipped (sideways). It is an absolute must have shirt! Wade yo!! Wiki knowledge bomb in case you grew up in a paper bag:
Wade Duck (voiced by the late Howard Morris): Wade is the “cowardly craven duck” of the farm. His good nature is sometimes shadowed by his overwhelming hypochondria and phobia of everything. He constantly wears a kiddie pool inner tube (which, as a recurring joke, has a head like his on the front that always imitates his facial expression and what direction he’s looking to match his own).
A tip of the hat to the Hundreds for joining forces with Jim Davis on some ill, nerdy shit. Peep now! Many thanks to Ivan Ives for rollin out to the shop in LA and pickin it up for me!
