I have a HTC Droid Incredible running the custom ROM CyanogenMod 7.1.x. For the most part it runs great, but there are moments when it feels like the Armageddon of 2012 is happening to my phone. No matter what application I open it will frustratingly crash in mere moments. What I’ve noticed is the catalyst to this crash-o-thon starts with some sort of “google framework” crash. Makes sense, break the framework and everything else should be coming down with it. Once that happens I will start to feel the instability of my rooted device.

The simple solution, yet temporary, is to clear the cache. I’m guessing there is some executed code or data that got corrupted, which in turn causes the apps to crash. The two types of cache that I clear are:

• cache partition
• Dalvik cache – a decent explanation of what this cache is can be found in the reference section below.

Assumptions

I’m constantly making assumptions about things — it’s become quite a skill. And I will continue my assumptions by stating that this process is for rooted users. I’m going to assume that since your device is rooted, it’s most likely that you have a custom ROM, which also means you have ROM Manager installed. The recovery section of this post is based on ClockworkMod (it’s a part of ROM Manager).

Cache-clearing Process

1. Hold down the power button of your device to get the “phone options” prompt.
2. Click “Reboot”, then choose “Recovery”. Click “OK”.
3. Your phone will reboot and you will soon be in the recovery screen.
4. Choose the option “wipe cache partition”. If that option isn’t there then head to “mounts and storage” and choose “format /cache.”
5. Next choose “advanced” (from the main screen) and then click “Wipe Dalvik Cache”.
6. Once that’s finished you can reboot the device.

I’ve noticed that once I reboot the device it seems to get stuck at the point where its trying to load the custom ROM. I would give it about 5 minutes. If nothing changes, remove the battery and boot the device again. Whatever the device tried to initialize the first time should be there and the device will boot just fine.

I mentioned earlier that this is a temporary solution. I don’t know the cause of the framework crash; it may be a combination of things, but at least you have a way out now.

Let me know if this process works for you OR if you have a better process. At this point I’m just a tinkerer of Android so I might be talking crap about the whole cache and corruption. I’d love to know.

References

1. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3844295&postcount=5
2. http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/76110-what-dalvik-cache.html#post710236
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software)

I was sorely disappointed with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra when it first released. I said to myself, “If they ever make G.I. Joe movie, it BETTER be good.” I wanted to slit my wrist the day I witness that movie [don't worry, I didn't]. Skimming Google Trends I saw “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and clicked on it. To my surprise this movie trailer is pretty good. I really loved the music, the costumes look revamped, and the action scenes look pretty decent. Then again; it is a movie trailer… I’m a little liery of Bruce Willis, but whatever man. I’ll give this movie another chance — one last chance!

I always struggle with quickly enabling MP3 playback on a fresh install of Fedora. There are legal reasons (which I’m not interested in) as to why Fedora doesn’t ship with MP3 support right out of the box. So; that’s what third-party repositories are for. Simply install the RPM Fusion repository and then install the “Ugly” GStreamer Plugin.

# yum localinstall –nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

# yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly

If you need other support you can always install all the plugins for GStreamer…

# yum install gstreamer-plugins-*

Another method is simply installing VLC. This media player is bursting at its seams with codex goodness.

# yum install vlc

You’re welcome!

Can a man’s love for the command line blossom like a rose or age like good wine? I do believe the answer to my rhetorical question is a resounding YES! Recently I’ve found myself choosing gnome-terminal to execute things rather than clicking in a series of menus on my desktop. Don’t get me wrong; a GUI is nice thing to have, but the efficency of the CLI is unmatched. Through a series of unfortunate events I’ve setup my Linux environment for Android development (aka how trying to fix a bricked phone). I’m working with a fresh install from Fedora 16 Live. What that means is A LOT of packages/libraries are not installed. Just the bare minimum to get me going.

Here’s a general overview of the process I took:

1. Download and extracted the Android Software Development Kit.
2. Installed the Eclipse IDE (roughly 68 packages).
3. Installed ADT plugins for Eclipse.
4. Ran ./android command from SDK “tools” directory.
5. It started the “Android SDK Manager”. I then installed:
   1. Android SDK Platform-tools
   2. The covented “Android 4.0″ platform
   3. 3.2, 2.3.3, and 2.2 platforms (just to show that I can be verstile)

WGET the Android SDK

I’m really enjoy the simplicity of the WGET command. While viewing the SDK page in Firefox I simply copied the link for the SDK file and pasted it into the terminal:

$ wget http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r15-linux.tgz

Yummy, Eclipse

I then used YUM to grab the Eclipse IDE and all its relevant components. Again; since this OS installation was pretty light I ended up installing 68 packages, such as: Eclipse, Java, etc.

# yum install eclipse

Once that was done I then installed the ADT plugin.

1. I opened the Eclipse IDE.
2. Clicked on Help > Install Software.
3. Added the following repository: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
4. Clicked “Select All” and went to town! It was odd, but I noticed I had to try a couple times. It was claiming to have dependency issues. So; I started clicking one-by-one. Eventually I was able to get all 4 packages installed.

Running Android

This following set is unnecessary since you can access the Android SDK Manager from within Eclipse (thanks to the ADT plugin). Originally;  skipped the ADT plugin step.

Now that Java is installed I can run the “android” command. It’s located in the “tools” directory of your freshly extracted tarball file “android-sdk_r15-linux.tgz”.

$ ./android

SDK Managment

The Android SDK Manager popped up with some packages to install. I chose what I thought were appropriate and wrote this blog post while I waited for the files to be downloaded and installed.

So; that’s pretty much it. At this point you’re ready to jump into the wonderment, which is Android development. Enjoy!

References

1. http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Howto:_Install_the_Android_SDK
2. http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html

Well; not really kick start, but keep it going. The e-book series titled Fergyville is on its third installment. Support my wife’s project as she budgets for a kick-ass editor for this well-received series. You can find out more on the kickstarter web site.

Android enthusiasts know exactly what the title of this article is referencing. I’m hearing a lot about Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. I remember when I first got my Android 2.1 phone (Motorola Droid), I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I knew 800MHz of processing power was too low, but I had to get my hands on one. And yes the phone was already out 6+ months — I had to get my hands on one! Cellular carriers were launching new Android phones left and right. At one point I was looking into getting the Samsung Galaxy Ace.

So many choices, but I’ve learned to be patient. I’ve gotten the Android-gitters out of my system so now I can wait for the right phone. I’m going to wait for Android 4.0 to be released before I even consider getting a new phone. It’s too close to choose anything else.

I learned something about myself today. I’m not sure what the full meaning of this revelation is, but on one hand it makes me look like a cool up-on-the-tech tech-guy. On the other hand it makes me look like a delusional technological nerf herder unable to interface with something the general public refers to as “common sense.” What is this discovery that I’ve made? I’ve learned how to communicate with my children through the process of toying with a voice-recognition software. :-/

Hardware

The voice-recognition software I’m referring to, purposefully miscategoriezed as “hardware” to fit my title, is an Android application called Speaktoit Assistant. I heard about it while driving home from work listening to TWiT’s All About Android podcast. The hosts fail whaled a demo of the Assistant application. Even though it bombed I was intrigued enough to install and try it for myself. At first I didn’t know  exactly what I was I supposed to be asking this piece of software. I pushed the voice input button and kind of gave my phone a blank stare. After gathering my thoughts I then tried some simple commands, after all, I didn’t expect this thing to really interface with me like I’ve seen in the movies. So; I said “Hi” and a mono-computerized female voice replied, “Hi there, friend!” I thought, “Oh really!? This is the first time we’re communicating and I’m already your friend.” I remembered in the demo that Assistant called the user by name so I asked, “What’s your name?” It replied, “My name is Sam.”

Wetware

I continued to speak commands at this program to see what the results would be. A nice thing about the interface is the visual feedback. In the lower-left corner you’ll see what the program thought you said after analysing the input. It wasn’t too accurate, but understandable; I was in my car so it’s probably picking up background noise. I played with it some more, each time adjusting my output to guarantee a more accurate input. I made a mental note that I couldn’t flat-out have a dialogue with Sam. I had to give her short commands. I recalled from the podcast that in their demo Sam updated the user’s Facebook status. So; I tried it. “Update Facebook status.” She then prompted with “What should I change your Facebook status to?” I paused, not knowing what to really have this program post for me. My mouth stumbled out some words, but it wasn’t recognizable enough for her to make any real sense of it. Sam confirmed if I wanted that poorly constructed message to be posted. I quickly said, “No, no.”

I tried it again; this time with more clarity and purpose. Success; Sam changed my Facebook status. In a small way — that  accomplished task — felt exhilarating. I was able to communicate outside of my car without typing anything. I know, this isn’t super rare, but my brain made a big deal about it. I then tried another popular service, Twitter. Again; successful post. I was really warming up to this concept of having a digital personal assistant.

Interface

I got into the house and laid down on the couch. My son finished his dinner and saw me playing with the phone. Not just touching the screen, but speaking directly to it. He kept starting his queries with “Hi…” or “Hey…” I told him that it would keep saying “Hi” back. I instructed him to make direct commands. He eventually adjusted, but it was very interesting for me to see my six-year-old son interface with Sam. It sparked something inside me. I’m not certain what’s going on, but I like the change in the wind.

I then had to convince my four-year old to finish eating her food and my two-year old to stop playing and eat her food. I noticed that I wasn’t my Oscar-the-grouchy self. I spoke in a calm fashion, being deliberate with my commands and not distorting my request by expressing my frustration. As I continued to communicate with my daughters I realized that they were actually doing what I wanted them to. It wasn’t a smooth process by any stretch of the imagination, but the progress was certainly more tangible than any of my previous attempts.

Before this experiment of testing the Speaktoit Assistant application I was very sceptical to voice-recognition software on a smart phone. I didn’t see the purpose. I occasionally use the voice-to-text function of my Android phone to post a status update or IM while in my car, but that was the peak of my interest. With this connection I’ve made, my interest in this type of technology is really taking root. I can imagine talking to my phone in order to hear what my schedule is, what tasks I have to accomplish and updating my social media platforms. Assistant certainly has a long way to go, but I like what I’ve experienced in its beta form. Check out Speaktoit‘s web site. They are doing a Kickstarter in order to gain more capital. I wish them success and you count on me evangelising their efforts.

How to See the Playlist

Use your mouse to rollover the bottom of the Flash object. Click on that white box to see the remaining videos.

This post was originally intended to be my transformation story of a guy 5’11″ weighing 240 lbs to slimming down to the low 200′s. NOPE! “No soup for you!” This post has now been repurposed into showing you just how hard and how committed you really need to be in order to complete the P90X workout system. The main challenge is that this system requires you to switch gears and work out every day for 90 days. I don’t know about you, but going from the status of not active sitting on my butt playing Xbox to training for a triathlon is insane.

Besides the workout system (which is damn good), the nutritional portion of this system is well laid out, but hard to follow if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. I’m running a struggling business, I have three kids, a wife, and a full-time job. I’m grateful that they put so much thought into the nutritional manual, but a lot of those required you to make sauces and supplemental things from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about things from scratch, but I nor my wife had the time to prepare them.

What that means is that when I do start it up again; I’ll need to really put a game plan together for eating properly. I noticed that if I eat every three hours and drink lots of water then my body is regulated. Changing your mindset to eat the right portion size is a killer as well, but we that diet know about all this stuff. Read my failed attempt below. One thing you’ll notice is the gap in days as I continue through the program.

Day 1

Monday, March 28, 2011 – Since this was my second attempt at the P90X system I knew what was in store. It felt nice being able to do most of the moves, but I was still far from doing them with the same intensity. My plan at this point is to simply learn the form and pace myself. I’m guessing that as I continue to get my body back into the routine of being active I can then keep up with the workouts. Just like many folks we didn’t fully prepare for the system. With that said; my diet has changed a little. I did have an eight egg white omelet for breakfast. Wow; I didn’t realize that egg whites could make a decent omelet. I normally have about two or four egg whites and I’m laughing at how dismal it looks, but eight was MORE than enough.

Day 2

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 – The workout went pretty well. Some of the moves that we did yesterday weren’t as hard to execute this time. I did feel some strain in my lower back when doing the Banana. The Wife and I were a little cautious of the time, at first, and was thoroughly relieved when we saw that we only had three minutes left.

Day 3

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 – I started out very sore, but it wasn’t as bad as yesterday trying to get out of bed. We were rushing to get out of the house so I couldn’t make a protein-filled breakfast. I ate some raisin brand cereal with 2% milk. It got bad when I got to work, I was really hungry and ended up eating a Hershey’s bar someone gave me the day before.

The Workout

So; the Wife and I haven’t done much research, which means minutes before we workout we read what type of workout we’re going to do. To our surprise Day 3 called for two workouts. When we put in the first DVD our mouths dropped to the floor when we saw that it was roughly 50 minutes long. We thought, “How long is the other one then!?” In the end; we had a great time. Some of the moves were easier to do than the first day, the Ab video was only 15 minutes, but very intense.

Day 4

Thursday, March 31, 2011 – I ended up going to bed around 1:30 AM, which doesn’t help me when I have to wake up for 5:00 AM.

Day 5 – Yoga X

Friday, April 1, 2011 – OMG; the Wife and I nearly died doing yoga. Who would have thought!? I think we did the first 20 or 30 minutes of the hour and a half minute routine. I was simply amazed with how long they were holding the positions. We both opt’d out.

Day 6 – Kenpo

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 – Unfortunately; we took a couple days off from the workout routine. Yoga nearly killed us and life was a little rough over the weekend and Monday. So; it was nice to get a break and let our bodies heal, but it was a little scary to know that we might not be ready for the next video.

The Diet

At this point I’ve decided that I’m probably not going to be able to follow the diet plan as instructed so I’ll try to eat more protein and less carbs and only snack twice a day. That roughly means that I’ll eat every three hours or so.

The Workout

We normally start the workout around 20:30. Lucky for us the kids went to bed on time so I was able to play a little Full House Poker on my Xbox while dinner settled. Around 20:30 it was time to put down the games and get into the workout routine. I looked at the P90X manual and saw “Kenpo”. My mind immediately flashed back to one of the previous videos I didn’t like. I thought to myself that this wasn’t going to be fun. To my surprise I really enjoyed it. It was certainly fast-paced and I worked up a good amount of sweat.

I was truly happy to see the results. I was able to bounce around without feeling so heavy and in the middle of the workout I was able to sort of play with the kenpo moves jokingly. THAT was extra energy I didn’t know I had. I’m very excited.

Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch

Sunday, April 10, 2011 – I was pretty determined to get back on the P90X wagon. I felt like crap all weekend and I was really upset with myself for skipping so many days. It’s the same cycle, you feel tired because of a busy day and you don’t want to do the exercise. Yet keeping your body active helps to give you energy. It’s a “chicken or the egg” kind of thing and I keep roasting the chicken and boiling the eggs.

Day 8 – Core Synergenics

Tuesday, April 12, 2011 – Yes; this is getting ridiculous. I ate too much that day because I was hungry and didn’t care about the results. Yet again I realized that food is a comfort mechanism for me and I have to get it under control. We did the workout, but I barely finished or did it with as much intensity as the first time. The food was gurgling in my throat and I could feel that I was over exerting myself. So; I stopped.

Day 9 -

[I don't remember what happened on this day.]

Day 10 – Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X

Monday, April 25, 2011 – Again; this is not how the program is supposed to be followed. There were a couple of times where I tried to get going, but I was beat down by the day or my neck and shoulders hurt. Whenever my neck and shoulders hurt a throbbing pain in my temple is sure to follow. Ironically; working out (or being active) is what my body needs so that my shoulders aren’t so stiff yet I was having a hard time “being active.” After days of failed attempts to start up the P90X routine I finally dug deep and knocked one out.

I’m not sure why it surprises me each time, but the workout wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. This particular video the music was dubbed much louder than Tony’s microphone so I did the routine without music. To be honest I liked it a lot better. It felt more like a private session than a workout video. I was able to stay focused because I was a little more familiar with the routine so that helped a lot. I still don’t have any weights or resistance bands so I’m still working on form.

Even without using weights I could feel the skin wrapped around my arms tighten and my shoulders were indeed worked out, but my form felt loose. I had a great time and I look forward to tonight’s session. I had a great night sleep and it felt good to wake up at 5:15 AM instead of crawling out of bed after 6:30 AM.

Day 11 – Yoga X

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – I hate yoga, I hate it I hate it I simply hate it! Why do I hate it!? It’s because of its sloth-like speed and difficulty. When we were teens my brother showed me that if I do a very slow push-up that it’s a lot harder than the regular super fast push-ups we were doing. In disbelief I tried it and I only did a quarter of my normal reps. Ever since then I knew slower was better, but a lot harder.

April 27, 2011 I stopped working out. I tried again a month or so later. I tried to adjust it to my schedule which was three times a week. I got through the first two videos and didn’t go back. It’s now July 2011 and I’m inspired to try this again. For pete’s sake I did buy this product, I need to use it. I’ll need to setup my eating pattern to support this change in activity. We’ll see how it goes.

I will say that when I was active, I felt a big difference in my body. I could sleep in my bed without having shoulder problems. My legs wouldn’t be so stiff and achy while sitting at my desk at work, and I had far less headaches than normal. This knowledge is very important to me. I got a glimpse of what it is like to be healthy again. It’s pretty sweet and this knowledge is what’s motivating me to keep trying until I get it right.

I know I’m not the only one that’s crashed and burned the P90X system. Add a comment so we can all have a big laugh… or comfort one another, which ever floats your boat!

Good ol’ Secure Shell or SSH — who would want to live without them!? To give you a text-book definition; SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let get down to business. You’ve got a fresh install of Fedora 15, with that wonky GNOME 3 desktop, and need to figure out how to enable SSH. This article is simply a barebones way of getting started. There’s a better method to make the SSH session more secure, but I haven’t researched that yet.In order to run some of the commands you’ll need to have the root account’s password.

Enable SSH Daemon

First things first, let’s make sure that the ssh daemon is running. Without that we’re not using this service at all. Open gnome-terminal and type:

$ su -
Password:
# systemctl start sshd.service

Now that it’s started you’ll need to keep it going in case you reboot your machine. Run the following command to have it start on-boot:

# systemctl enable sshd.service

After executing that command I received the message below. Tomasz Torcz was kind of enough let me know that the above command will redirect to chkconfig until systemd unit file is shipped with sshd.

sshd.service is not a native service, redirecting to /sbin/chkconfig.
Executing /sbin/chkconfig sshd on

Verify Firewall Setting

By default port 22 is open in the firewall, but it’s good to double check. Open system-config-firewall. You can either type in that name or navigate to Activities | Applications | Firewall.

Test the Connection

The easiest way to test is run the ssh command in your terminal. Another method is installing an SSH client on your Android device (ConnectBot) or installing PuTTY on your Windows machine. If you’re going to test the connection on the same machine, simply open gnome-terminal and type:

$ ssh user@hostname

For instance my username is “marc” and my computer is 10.0.0.2 (I could never figure out how to configure my hostname properly). So; I type in ssh marc@10.0.0.2. I’d get a warning message saying:

The authenticity of host ’10.0.0.2 (10.0.0.2)’ can’t be established.
RSA key fingerprint is [some long identification number in 2-digit sequence]
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Once I typed in “yes”, I was then able to type in my password for “marc” and continue on. That’s it. Have fun SSHin’ into your machine from remote places.