Android Dev Community

As many of you know, I am an avid Android-aholic.  I just have to say one thing about Android:

ANDROID ROCKS!

Ever since I rooted my tablet last November, I have not been able to stop flashing different ROMs to try out new things.  Pushing the limits is not something new to me, I have been overclocking PC's since I built my first one around 10 years ago, but even before that I have been tweaking registries and so fourth.  My LinkSys router is not running stock firmware, it is running DD-WRT firmware.  Why? To allow me to do more with my router than one normally could (like the ability to track my bandwidth usage, VPN to my home network from anywhere, set up an FTP server on a NAS device, etc).

I am never happy with things the way that they came.  I want to make it bigger, better faster and stronger.

I have to say the only thing better than Android is the Android Dev community.  For the most part they all work together to make it better.  Even devs of competing ROM's are able to share bits with each other to make both their ROMs better for all who like to use them.  

Google announced Android OS version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) for its neXus⁷ tablet late in June.  By mid July, many tablets (Xoom, Transformer, Transformer Prime,and some others) were getting some Jelly Bean love courtesy of AOSP builds as well as the CYANOGEN(mod) crew.  More tablets are getting these every day.

Now, these are not official updates the average Android user can get (unless they root), but it is nice to see the updates well ahead of the OEM's timelines of months to wait for the new OS.

I have to say one thing for Jelly Bean:  It is SMOOTH!  It is what Honeycomb should have been, but better late than never.  The Google Now search is pretty nice and works well in my experience. 

Just about every other day most of the devs update their ROMs with more tweaks and bug fixes.  The first JB ROM I ran had no sound, no GPS and because of the lack of sound, it was pretty rough to use.  Now, those are fixed and it is mostly just polishing that needs to be done and adding some features like getting some of the device specific tweaks implemented as well as some of the hardware (like the TF101 dock) to work 100%.

Is it stable enough for a daily driver at this point?  For me, yes.  For the average user?  Probably not, but they should not be flashing nightly builds if they are worried about stability.

I cannot comment on how the Android dev community is compared to iOS or any other platform because I have never gotten involved (mostly because I cannot jailbreak my iPhone).  I am sure they have some good dev support there, but I know that the Android community is just phenominal.

So, to my Android Devs out there, keep on rockin!

The Phone Age

tel·e·phone - /ˈteləˌfōn/
noun

1. A system that converts acoustic vibrations to electrical signals in order to transmit sound, typically voices, over a distance using wire or radio
2. An instrument used as part of such a system, typically a single unit including a handset with a transmitting microphone and a set of numbered buttons by which a connection can be made to another such instrument

Remember back in the day when we used a phone ONLY to make phone calls? I know I do, but some folks who cannot legally drink may not know about that.

When I was knee high to a tadpole, my parents had one phone in the house. It was a rotary phone. Pulse dialing. But, this was way ahead of some neighbors who still had a party line. One phone number for multiple houses. Now a days we have multiple numbers per house! There are 6 different numbers that you could call right now and a phone in my house would ring.

It still boggles my mind what has changed in the last 4 decades, and where we will be in 4 decades from now. As it stands now we can stream HD content to a phone (and watch it in 720p) whilst waiting in line at airport. I have 4G on my MiFi and I get 26 Mbps download right now. Some places can get upwards of 60 Mbps! I remember when we got Dial-up at a screaming 14.4 Kbps. Then I figured out how to split it between multiple computers so I could be online at the same time as my sister. I played Rise Of The Triad on that phone line against one of my friends on my 486 PC. It was laggy as hell, but it was better than playing by yourself.

Then there was the PS2 that my wife bought me for Christmas in 2002 so I could play Grand Theft Auto III. Now, I have a tablet that I can play it on in the palm of my hands for about 15 straight hours without running out of battery.

My first cellular phone was a Samsung back in 2000. It was simply a phone. No SMS, no data, no facebook, no twitter. It was just a phone. I got lots of enjoyment calling my friends during college classes to see who left their ringer on. Through various upgrades over the years, I am now rockin out an iPhone 4 courtesy of my employer. Since I am a cheap skate, if my employer did not pay for a phone, I would have a simple feature phone (and maybe even a pre-paid plan). These smart phones are an amazing technology. I think that the iPhone has more computing power than the first 5 computers put together (none of which can play Angry Birds). Instant access to social media, friends, games, etc. It is sometimes overwhelming when you think about it.

One of my favorite activities is to harass folks with an iPhone about how much better Android is. At the same time I am also razzing anyone with an Android that they need to get an iPhone. Which is better? Well, I can definitely tell you that BlackBerry is the worst between Windows Phones, iOS and Android. I just like harassing people to get involved in a discussion with them. For many, Android is better. For others, iOS. And for a select few hard headed individuals who I have given up arguing with, Blackberry is for them.

No matter what your preference is, they are all much more capable than what we had a decade ago, or even 5 years ago. You cannot appreciate Pepsi without Coke, Pizza Hut without Dominoes, or....well, you get the picture.

All I can say is to embrace technology and look forward to where it is taking us but do not forget to remember where we came from. We may end up back there sometime in our lifetime if something catastrophic were to happen.

In the beginning...

I was hatched into this world just before the computer got personal.  I remember the first computer I ever used (as do most of us) in the mid 80's.  It was a Commodore 64 complete with a tape drive and a color monitor.  My sisters and I had hours of fun playing games on there.  Eventually we upgraded to a 5.25" floppy drive.
Then tragedy hit in the form of lightning.  It was replaced by a newer Commodore 128.  It keeps getting better!

Over the years I have had many tech devices, and worked on 10 times more for friends and family.  Countless hours playing Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe,  Using DOS on an IBM XT with TWO hard drives, one was 20 MB the other was 40 MB.  NO MORE FLOPPYS TO BOOT!  From there I moved to a Gateway 2000 486 running Windows 3.1 as I started college.  I upgraded it to a Pentium, installed Windows 95 and added an ethernet card to get high speed internet.

I remember working on computers from my neighbors in the dorms.  I quickly realized the difference between computer manufacturers based on what hardware would and would not work with some devices.  Many of my friends thought I should go into computers rather than mechanical engineering because I was good at it.  But, I never did.  I may be good at fixing computers, but I do not want to do it every day of the week for a job.

In college I also got a lot of Linux experience as all of the computers around campus were Sun Microsations running UNIX.  I was constantly trying to learn how to do new things (some of questionalbe legality) on these systems.

I soon upgraded to a Pentium II 333 unit with Windows 98.  This thing was screaming, but it had hardware issues between the Motherboard, video card and memory.  After 3 or 4 trips to the Gateway service center it was finally replaced with a brand new unit.  I sold the new PII333 to my sister as her aging 386 was not cutting it.  My new computer was a Pentium II 450.  I also bought a Toshiba Laptop that had a Pentium II 266 processor and a whopping 32 MB of RAM to use around campus. 

Windows 2000 came out and I had to check it out.  It was pretty good, but my P II 450 had a graphics card that did not like gaming in Windows 2000 since it was based on NT.  I set up so I could dual boot Windows 2000 and Windows 98.  Windows 2000 was stable and would run for 4-5 days without needing a reboot.  Windows 98 need a reboot at least once per day!

I nursed these computers for a while.  In 2005 a friend donated some computer parts to me and I built my first computer, an AMD Athlon 2.2 GHz machine.  Ran great, still runs great to this day.

I have also had two 17" Sony VAIO computers (both of which were replaced under warranty) and the 2nd one ended up getting me a 15" MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo from Best Buy for free.

I fell in love with the Mac OS.  It was simple, yet fully customizable.  I liked it so much, I tried installing OS X on my Dell D610 laptop that I had for work (used a second hard drive).  I learned a lot about drivers and hardware through that experience.  I had a triple boot on my D610 for Windows XP, OS X and Ubuntu.  Most of my techy friends would pretty much have a nerd-gasm on the spot when I showed it to them.

Then came the decision to build a Media Center PC.  I put one together for about $1000 and installed Windows Vista on it (UGH!).  Had a blast building it.  It has been rock solid except for the budget video card that blew half of its capacitors.   I upgraded the video card, and recently the CPU.  This computer can run with the best of them.  I started running Windows 7 on one of the first Beta builds.  It was 10x better than Vista ever could be.

My current computers that I still have (and that still work):
Toshiba Satellite (Pentium II 266 GHz, 96 MB RAM, 4 GB HDD, Win 2k)
1st Build (AMD Pentium 2.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB HDD, Win 7)
MacBook Pro (Core2Duo 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, OS X Lion)
2nd Build (AMD Athlon X4 2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 6 TB HDD, Win 7)
Work Laptop (Core2Duo 2.66 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, Win 8 Consumer Preview)

Well, that should tell you about my beginnings.  I will expand on this and continue.  Stay tuned if you want to read more about it!

My New Blog

Someone wondered if I would start a blog highlighting my technology exploits.  I figured, hey, what the hell.  So, here it is!

A little background info on me.  This picture on the right is a self portrait I took of myself when I was sitting in the hotel lobby at the Hyatt Regency in Incheon, South Korea.  It reminds me of one of my favorite Simpson quotes when Marge says to Homer:

"I'm looking up your nose, but I feel like I'm staring into your soul."

I grew up in a farming community in the northeastern part of the US.  My father was an engineer by trade, and I always knew I would follow in his footsteps because when I was 5 I got a R/C truck for Christmas.  I played with it until the batteries died.  Then I found a screwdriver and took it apart.  I almost got it back together, but had a few spare parts.



 DAD!  CAN YOU HELP ME?

I have never been satisfied with something how it is.  I am always tweaking something.  I must open the registry editor at least once a week on my windows PCs and I am always using Terminal on my Mac's to tweak something.

I am always playing with the latest and greatest that I can find.  I have been into dual booting computers since Windows 2000 came out.  I have even done a triple boot on a Dell Laptop for Win XP, OS X and Ubuntu.  Why?  Just to see if I could.

I started using Windows Vista and Windows 7 the first Beta I could get my hands on.

One advantage to having multiple devices, I can install these on a computer and test stuff out but still use another that has a more stable OS.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released. About 30 minutes after the event started, I had the files downloaded and ready to install on my PC. I am currently running Windows 8 on my personal HDD on my work PC, as well as in a Virtual Machine on my Media PC.

In the past 6 months I have gotten fairly active in the Android Tablet communities as a fun thing to do. 

Stay tuned for exploits on my latest endeavors.