Hmm, so far operations with Andrea are moving fairly smoothly. Today, i spent a little time using Eclipse to try and prototype an idea, but soon gave up. Eclipse is a reasonable enough IDE but for Android work, the extra editors and crap are just not as useful as opening the file in the text editor, and if I may as well, then I will use VIM and execute the Android tools directly in a shell. Piss off.

I’ve been exploring the Android market more of late, because Andrea has so much more storage. My phone has limited internal storage so I rarely will use an app unless it offers something I find practical, like Dropbox & Opera. Rooting it helps since more stuff can be moved to the MicroSD card. Andrea on the other hand, has a lot more storage capacity: about 28GB user accessible from a market value of “32GB”. I’m still principally interested in apps that get work done. Two that I’ve been playing with today, are TextTab which is pretty much using your phones SMS from your tablet via Bluetooth.It’s awesome, it works, it does exactly what I want, and I can’t say the say about the Bluetooth SMS app that I tried during yesterdays shopping expideition. Something else that I tried, is a TeamSpeak 3 client. From the look of the write up, they likely intend to charge for it once it exits beta but it works as an OK client. Not enough for admin work or anything but fine for the core use: VoIP.

Alice has also been setup as a server, as part of cleaning my room. It will likely operate similar to the development server at work but for my personal projects, I’ve also exported some parts of my $HOME to the network. Eventually most of that will likely become stored on Andrea but for now I’m more interested in having it available. Andrea the tablet-book definitely brings my routine closer to the cloud than Alice the netbook but so far I am liking it.

Using a netbook as a mixture of development server and network attached storage may seem very weird. To me, it also has the added benifit that while I may lose my connection as the router goes offline – in a power outage, my session state in tmux can be saved for as long as the battery runs. Plus I could reattach locally  and have the same keyboard as the system I was working on. Muahuahauahuaa!!!!!!

Using my phone as a bridge between wireless networks because the in-store WiFi doesn’t cover enough stomach my other’s shopping. I will also admit that while I prefer Andrea to my phone, I still *hate* shopping!!!

Not how I like spending my time off work by far.

Day two and I almost kilt her but now I has root

After setting up my Eee Pad Transformer over night and lunch, I went about trying to root her after getting home from work. Flashing Andrea seemed to work fine, give or take that I normally have reservations about flashing stuff I haven’t personally proofed. It was marked as being appropriate for my SKU and release but left Andrea booting into a garbled multi-colour screen….a small fortune in paper weights.

I quickly rebooted Andrea into APX mode and searched Google for a way to unroot back to a stock ROM, even if that meant the original version. That soon lead me to Roach’s Prime v1.4 ROM, which I flashed to recover to a blank, usable, and rooted state. You can’t upgrade from Prime v1.4/Honeycomb 3.1 via ASUS updates, so I hit the web again to see if he had released a newer version of the ROM, sure enough, he has gotten up to v1.9! A quick look about showed me Prime v1.7/Honeycomb 3.2 stable and a 1.8 version in beta. So I tried to install the Prime v1.7 ROM as an update. Now that isn’t so hard, you basically save the ZIP archive and install it using ClockWorkMod via a recovery boot. The problemo is the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer sticks the internal storage at /mnt/sdcard with a link to /sdcard. Using a real memory card or USB device will go in /Removeable/WhatEver. So CWM couldn’t use the update, ‘cuz it couldn’t mount /sdcard.

Having missplaced my USB stick some time between work and vacation prep, I gave it no attempt to try that option and instead went looking for memory cards. I had purchased a pair of SD cards when I had bought a digitial camera a couple years ago, as it hadn’t lasted very long, my mother inherited them for her Dell Streak 7″. She had no idea where they went, so I checked her streak and found one – loaded the archive, stuck the card in the docks slot and bingo, same problem. So I removed the file, stuck that back in my mother’s tablet, and ripped the MicroSD card out of my phone. Sure enough that worked and in a few minutes was greated by a Honeycomb 3.2 versiion of Prime :-).

So now Andrea is alive, functional, and rooted. I just had to trade ASUS support for the brillance of Roach (that ROM saved my pad), and had to reinstall everything because I didn’t do a proper backup first. But that was a simple fix of redownload stuff off the Android Market via the website. I ain’t stupid, lol. When I get home, I will probably try to update to the v1.9 if it seems stable enough, but by the time I can get around to that, I will want to backup my stuff first.

After getting everything settled, I finally decided that it would be a good idea to register on xda-developers, since their forum is like most important place on the web for stuff like this. They have the most awesome forum registeration process ever, including a video. It’s worth it lol. Poking around the forums for my devices, it seems that it may be possible to flash a stock ROM after all but I would rather stick with Prime at this point. I’m also interested in seeing what gets cranked out but will need to aquire a suitable memory card before I can likely do much serious backing up.

I’m really thankful that Roach and cie made that available…lol

Enjoying the Android platform

It’s about 13:37 here and about half way through the work day. Normally I use a mixture of my workstation, Alice, and my phone; lately I have been using Alice quite heavily. I guess there is enough crap going through the wires that sometimes it is better to offload some of the heavy network traffic, plus it is rather handy that if I need to get up and walk around to do something, I can bring my /entire/ session along with me. So my workstation isn’t Mission Critical to doing my job. In fact, it is pretty much a heavy weight client doing what a humble X terminal could do really.

The important things to getting work done around here, in regards to all that, is a terminal, SSH client, and a web browser. Last night I setup the free Android Terminal Emulator app that I have on my phone, only to find that it seems to be crash happy on Andrea :'(. Likewise I setup ConnectBot for SSH access, only to find that it doesn’t support real modifier keys. So I can’t use it with my docks actual Control, Tab, Alt, etc. ConnectBot does work great on  my touch screen phone though. How did I solve these problems? After spending for the tablet and dock, I can’t bitch about paying another $4 for Better Terminal Emulator Pro (BTEP). Not only is it stable, it includes ash (probably dash but I haven’t checked), bash and busybox in its toolset. Dropbear is even slipped in for SSH, which while not something I like, will do fine for at work needs.

I can SSH into the development server at work, use tmux & vim, and go about doing stuff. Heck on a good signal day, I could stand next to the Microwave with the tablet portion and keep coding! I can do that with my phone too but practical issues like screen size/virtual keyboard, mean going from vim to ed. Emacs should even work but I don’t use it. All that is missing is a native X Server, and I could fix that with some rooting and VNC stuff, or maybe try to write one, idk. My workstation can deal with that slice of stuff easily.

To top it off, 94.9 has always been a bug to keep playing since they moved to a Flash based web player. The iHeartRadio app on my phone works but ahem, sound quality blows. The app doesn’t support Honeycomb tablets but I was able to download and install it manually, then setup the radio station to play using portrait orientation: the app doesn’t do landscape. So now I can finally work and listen to music without having to periodically stop to kick the radio stream into working 🙂 🙂 :-).

I is satisified so far!

Hello Andrea :-)

Today, I went out and bought an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer from the local Microcenter. It is very much like the ASUS EeePC, or at least the 1015PE I have been using since retiring Dixie. In point of fact, I am typing this up on my new Transformer! It took quite a while to charge up enough to get to the updating but it was a very simple, quick, and easy process to update from Android 3.0 to 3.2; one of the things to attract me to this device, has been that ASUS seems to be supporting it much better than most companies have been supporting their mobile phones.

Being so much like Alice, which is also an ASUS product, I have named this Android “Andrea”. The Transformer has interested me since I learned of it’s existence, but I didn’t quite think I would be purchasing one so soon lol. I will admit, that the differences between an Atom N450 and a Tegra 2 interest me. As does the notion of pushing Android harder to its limits. What really makes it worth while how ever, is between the dock and the tablet, the battery life should be insane.

Compared to the EeePC 1015PE, it is very similar: most external differences are more cosmetic or a reflection of the change in internals; like the ports involved. Andrea has basically the same keyboard as Alice. Except the left Windows and Alt keyshave ben replaced by “Home” and “Search keys”. Android doesn’t understand function keys, so rather tha being Fn+F* combos, various operations are instead directly accessible via the top most row of keys. There is also no numpad to enable via Fn+F* key, not that I have ever used this on a mobile. Oddly, delete has been replaced with lock where as appropriately, escape was replaced with “Back”. While docked the keyboard operates as you would expect, there are only a few noticable irregularities when coming from a PC. Mostly things like Control+Arrow-key or Control+Backspace are not working, although Control+A, Control+C, Control+X, Control+V combos working. Fair enough on a touch screen oriented OS I guess. Alt+Tab even works, more or less like long-pressing the home button on an Android 2.x phone. Using the cursor/tab keys to move around does not generally work as good as a PC user is used to, although such PC users are probably a dying breed. The touch pad however is very nice and useful. Very enjoyably you use left click/tap as on a phone and right click as an alias for the back button. Context menu is usually a soft button on the bottom or top side of the screen.

As a tablet, I personally would prefer a smaller screen like my mother’s 7″ Dell Streak. It just feels more managable in my hands. As Andrea is meant to be docked, I am quite happy to have a full 10.1″ screen. The resolution is also one up from what Alice supports, which makes for an interesting experience! It is so much easier to use Android on a 10.1″ at this resolution then my phones lowly ~3.2″ HVGA display. Changes to apps like GMail and the like, generally seem to be improvements for having a tablet sized screen in Honeycomb; I am somewhat interested to see what happens in Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

I have the TF101-B1 version, so 32GB is a lot. Most stuff on my phone is on the MicroSD card, and I only maintain 35-50MB of space. Andrea came loaded with something like 200MB of space in use out of 28GB accessible, a pretty good deal. Especially since unlike my phone, it isn’t loaded down with applications, even if the updates to 3.2 added more. Alice is only 11-13GB with a bunch of software installed on GNU/Linux, less than 4GB of which amounts to my home directory. So I am pretty sure that I don’t need to wory much here! I can also use memory cards and USB devices for more stuff. ASUS preloads it with a bit of My* apps, including a form of ASUS Web Storage. I have tried it under Froyo and Windows XP, Dropbox is better, and has the advantage (unlike ASUS Web Sotrage) of being able to access stuff in app when you are disconnected. Android client is OK other than requiring Network access (or side stepping out of app) but the Window PC version just sucks, period. FWIW though the integration into MyCloud and the procing is very nice—but I will stick with Dropbox.

Honeycombs UI is very enjoyable for me, and I am kind of impressed by the bundled office app: Polaris Office. Haven’t used it very much (just for documents) but it is nice. Something that really aces it for me, the Browser app is much more like Google Chrome than the Froyo version. Running off a 1Ghz dual core instead of a little 600Mhz single cored ARM, it is also fast enough that I don’t need to reach for Opera Mobile.

So far, I’m lovin’ it. Really the main lossage is a native X server. I would have to root Andrea and set things up using X/VNC. Except for a few things I do at work, I don’t need X, as a decent shell environment or a SSH client to one, does most of what I need. Hehe. My only real complaint is that while Alice has a _long_ charging cord/adaptor, Andrea has a short one :-/.

Where is the money going?

Over a period of 8 1/2 months, I have made a bit over $18,000 net. I don’t record my gross, only my net, but a guesstimate based on my pay stubs would say my gross so far is over $22,000.

So far I have spent close to $3,000 on my mother, this includes groceries, bill overages, being dragged off so she can have a whopper, etc; but excludes stuff like gifts and bribes. That is excluding whatever $$$ she gets for this month (originally slated to be +$500).

By the time I refuel Noëlle, I will have spent almost $1,000 on petrol. Moving has really helped this a lot, even with higher gas prices and my mother’s overages sometimes pulling into my petrol budget; I will gladly take $50 x 2 weeks over $35 x 1.5 days any day! For the mathematically challenged, that means I spend at most 2/3 what I used to, even with gas having gone up $1~$1.20+ per gallon!!!

So far I’ve spent almost $550 on games, that divides into about $150 on myself and about $400 in gifts. Yeah, I can be kind of generous. Also I tend to buy several copies of major games (like pre-ordering the 4-pack of Dead Island) when we get into things, and when playing related games (e.g. L4D/L4D2), I’ll often ‘balance the equation’, so that we can all play together without having to lose people because of the lowest common denominator in our inventories.

Consumables such as snack foods and eating out has been $150, excluding the times my mother demanded we eat out (which is therefore calculated as how much I’ve spent on her). Some of this is from having to buy lunch after the move but most of it is just splurging on my stomach. My $2 limit on impulse snacking doesn’t work if I already decided on it…:'(. I needs to work on trimming back on this a lot.

I’ve paid $1750 in car payments and over $1800 in car insurance. (Yes, I am getting seriously rapid for not having my license since 18.) If you combine that with petrol costs, I’ve paid out like $4,500 in automotive expenses thus far.

Technology has consumed approximately $600, which amounts to stuff like my monitor and Alice. Both were major upgrades over what they replaced, and actually, significantly cheaper in the end sum. Never mind that most of my technology tends to last years longer than a lot of other peoples crap.

Clothing has racked up less than $80, you can tell I’m more an engineer than a fashion mogule there.

Paying for the move from Newnan to Duluth, and a vacation to Canada, have rather raped most of my savings but both were well worth it.

After spending at least 45 minutes pacing the halls here, courtesy of a power outage, I must admit, I see another perk for upgrading from my netbook to that ransformer: the battery charge is enough to supplement my work station!

Most of what I need to do off my work station, can either be done using Android or done on Android, as long as things are properly setup. So me thinks it is worth a shot. Not to mention the extra charge would also be really nice when travelling.

So, tonight my mother got yet another Blood Glucose Meter, because the one she got from this one company was to inacurrate, and of course the replacement is to. So she has seen it setup a couple of weeks ago plus already has been shown how to use it. My mother must have at least eight different meters by now, six minimal, and they all are programmed and operated the same.

I obliged her by putting the battery in and telling her to do the rest, as she already knows how to use it. But oh wait, the date is wrong. Never mind that AFAIK she doesn’t actually use (let along know how to) the meters memory to record her stuff, in place of paper (oi). I told her to RTFM.

Now not everyone who is not diabetic, or been around those that have (I have for most of my life), setting up the meter is as complex as setting the time on a wrist watch. You push one thing to set/toggle what is highlighted and another to change the current one forward. Easy, simple, universal, and oh so clearly documented in the manual. It is not hard. Maybe wrist watches have gotten harder between when I last bought one eons ago and when cell phones took over but still, it is not that complicated. Seriously, it’s so easy s child doesn’t even need the manual for something like that. Either that or I must have been Really Smart as a small child.

After an endless stream of being used as a substitute for her having to do anything, be it this or other things, I drew the line: either figure it our yourself or I’m charging you all the money you owe me as punishment. Because if you’re not learning to fish by being given the “Nice” treatment, it’s time for to terminate the politeness.

So obliviously, because I don’t think my mother should be allowed to use her lack of ability to use grey matter, and her diabetes as an excuse to have me do everything for her without her learning how to fend for her self even as much as a child can, I am the most rotten bastard one earth? Wow. People need to learn how to fish for themselves.

By now, on the  metres alone, it’s a picture to me that is more or less like a young parent asking an old mother how to diaper a child: sure, I’ll show you but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to diaper your own kids ass.

When my website takes a more proper shape, I will likely hack at my blogs styling to match it.

I’ve been thinking a bit about what to do with spidey01.com, mostly about the implementation; I think usage is perhaps deserving of another entry, so as to keep this quickly written.

My host like many, focuses on PHP. Unless you specifically go somewhere that specializes in language xyz (such as a Engine Yard), every host does PHP—because that is what most ass clowns want. Now me, I know enough about PHP, that I have no desire to utilize it beyond running canned web apps written in it, such as stuff like Mantis or MediaWiki. In fact, I prefer to avoid even PHP powered web apps unless it is best of breed (Mantis yes, phpBB no, MediaWiki maybe). You can say there are three languages I don’t like the taste of: PHP, English, and Java; probably in that order. I have my reasons for each but that’s not the subject here.

Now, I am rather fortunate spider because my host provides a lot more than just PHP :-). I can’t say that I particularly care for the heavy weight frameworks some people use: Ruby on Rails, Pythons Jango, ASP.NET, or Java land in general. Something smaller like CherryPy is more my speed but I really don’t want to deal with that right now. In all probability I will likely try using Perl or C++. Why Perl, because I love it, or C++? Because I use it.

On the subject of Perl, most people will likely look at something like Catalyst or rely on the built in CGI module. Me, I would prefer something more like Dancer. Which is exactly the kind of web frame work that I like: small, concise, powerful. One that lets me focus on what the fuck I am doing and not how the framework decides things are stitched. Ever since I first bumped into Dancer, I have always wanted to try it but never had the website or the cause, hehe. Dancer+Moose sounds like a very good idea to power my website. I cannot think of a framework that would make me happier than something like Dancer, unless there is one that mind maps thoughts to implementation code, and then just makes it magically ‘go’ at deployment time.

I must be insane to be thinking of doing web development in C++ in 2011, but hey, why not? I assume that statically linking the (C/C++, and compiler) runtime libraries and any associated dependencies I may wish to link with, should be sufficient to deploy as a CGI program. This blog page suggests that it is more or less possible to do it easily enough, and the GCC manual suggests it should be O.K. for my deployment targets.

A little test on a Linux box:

    $ cat > s.cpp
int
main()
{
return 0;
}

$ g++ s.cpp -o shared-s
$ ldd shared-s
linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff4a9de000)
libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f61fdead000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f61fdc28000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f61fda11000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f61fd67d000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f61fe1da000)
$ g++ g++ -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ s.cpp -o static-s
$ ldd static-s
not a dynamic executable
$

Never really have tried it for an experiment like this before but I assume that I can have the web server rewrite URLs in such a way that it passes them to my program or a script, which then processes them accordingly to a configuration file. The utility of dynamic languages is great but the usefulness of more staticly typed languages is not out weigh-able.

O.K. now back to getting crap done.