Written Discourse
One step inside doesn’t mean you understand
fix_permissions fix for ICS
0RECOVERY FLASHABLE ZIP for FIXING PERMISSIONS
I took Real_Pariah’s work and incorporated it into a flashable zip that you can use in recovery, which simplifies the process. I also re-added logging into it since that doesn’t seem to affect anything.
EDIFY SCRIPT:
ui_print(“Fix Permissions Workaround”);
ui_print(“by Minotauri. Thanks to Real_Pariah”);
ui_print(“Mounting Filesystem.”);
mount(“ext4″,”EMMC”,”/dev/block/mmcblk0p24″,”/system”);
mount(“ext4″,”EMMC”,”/dev/block/mmcblk0p25″,”/data”);
mount(“ext4″, “EMMC”, “/dev/block/mmcblk0p26″,”/cache”);
ui_print(“Extracting Script.”);
package_extract_dir(“script”,”/tmp/”);
set_perm_recursive(0,0,0755,0755,”/tmp/”);
ui_print(“Fixing Permissions…”);
run_program(“/tmp/fix_permissions.sh”);
ui_print(“Completed!”);
FIX_PERMISSIONS.SH:
#!/sbin/sh
sh /sbin/fix_permissions -r
/sbin/umount /system
/sbin/umount /data
/sbin/umount /cache
sync
Download the file, place it on your internal or external storage, and then reboot into recovery and flash the zip. You will need to flash the zip each time you want to fix permissions. This is a workaround for it, not a fix for recovery/rom manager.
Apple TV 3rd Gen – Impressions
0I just bought (potentially trying out) the Apple TV 3rd Gen. I already have a Roku XS (1st gen roku) which is its primary and leading competitor. They are both currently in my bedroom where I dont have cable installed and primarily use for netflix, amazon video, and music.
The Apple TV, while cheap, is more expensive than the Roku and on the surface does a lot less. I’m a bit puzzled by the lack of apps on the AppleTV versus how many are on Roku, Boxxee, and GoogleTV. AppleTV only has native Netflix support, and a host of paid subscription sports channels (NHL, MLB, and NBA TV) along with YouTube, iTunes/iCloud support. This is really lame, coming from a Roku which has Amazon Video, Crackle, Netflix, Hulu, CNN, and a few hundred other channels (many useful).
It also can’t stream via DNLA (i.e. if you have files on an Network Storage or on another computer, it doesnt work). You need to have files loaded into iTunes, as it only does iTunes sharing… Pretty lame since my network storage is running unix and has no capability of iTunes sharing.
The shining star and saving grace for Apple TV though, is its Airplay Mirroring system, which is good if and only if you own iOS or OS X devices. For me, I am able to mirror my iPad and (with the developer preview version of) Mountain Lion running MacBook Air. This at least allows me to watch Amazon, HBO Go, Crackle, Hulu, etc, although you have to have it running on two devices at once.
I tried streaming ABC app (Modern Family) via iPad to the ATV and it worked kinda well but it had microstutters every minute or so, where the video paused for a split second which got a bit annoying. Streaming the ABC website via the MacBook Air worked much better and no stutters. I don’t really know why this happened on iPad vs MacBook Air since they both stream it fine natively on the devices but it was annoying.
HBO Go app doesnt allow mirroring from iOS to Apple TV, but you can use the Xfinity app to do the same thing if you’re on comcast, or use OS X and do it too.
So I guess, I havent really decided if I like it or not. I already have massive redundancy in my bedroom with my Squeezebox (music), Roku (video and some music) and now Apple TV (music and video).
iPad 3rd Generation – Impressions
0I hesistantly purchased the latest iPad, the “new ipad,” the other day after using the Acer Iconia A500 tablet with Ice Cream Sandwich installed for the past few months and I thought I’d share some of my initial impressions of it.
The new iPad’s retina display is absolutely fantastic and beautiful. It’s so much easier on the eyes and color is vibrant. The iPad is a tad heavy, though similar in weight to the A500, and build quality is on par or better.
I am impressed with the speed and fluidity of the latest iOS and the A5X CPU in the iPad. It’s definitely smoother than ICS with the dual-core 1ghz Tegra 2 in the A500, however there are quite a number of things I do miss about Android. The first and primary one is the COST OF APPS in the Apple App Store. There are a number of free games and apps on Android that cost anywhere from $1.99 to $9.99 for the iPad! What’s up with that?
I miss widgets, and I miss easy menu access via holding down on the home screen. I miss having more than 1 button and I miss a number of app stores. Most of all, I miss CUSTOMIZATIONS.
That said, I am quite content with the iPad and I must say that the apps and games on iOS are typically more robust and feature-rich compared to its Android counter-part. I wish there was some good middle ground between the two competing devices but for now, I’m happy with the iPad. I can actually play Football Manager 2012 now 
Top Records of the 2000s [#91-101]
0Here’s my well overdue list of my favorite 101 records of the 2000s.
Today’s batch is #91 to 101.
101. MIA – Arular [dance/hip hop]
This album is top of the charts for crazy dance beats! This is the album prior to the smash hit “Airplanes” and pushes the edge of drum-n-bass style dance music.
100. Feist – Let it Die [indie-singer/songwriter-jazz/folk]
Leslie Feist has one of the voices that grows on you. I didn’t really get into her music until I saw her live opening up for her alter-ego band Broken Social Scene. Her voice electrified the crowd, and changed the way I thought of her music dramatically. Her two albums are fantastic and it was tough to only have one on the count down.
99. Tool – 10,000 Days [rock/prog/metal]
This album was a long time coming especially after some really (in my opinion) poor records from A Perfect Circle. This is Tool and it rocks. Vicarious, the opening track, is one of the best leading tracks of the decade.
98. Get Up Kids – On a Wire [indie/folk/emo]
I am so happy this band is back together and touring again. I really miss these guys for a while when they broke up because of music like this. Sure, call it emo if you want, but hey, the music is great. This album leans heavily on indie/folk and shows quite a more mature sound then their previous records.
97. Death Cab for Cutie – We Have the Facts, and We’re Voting Yes. [indie/pop]
It’s a debate as to which DCFC album is my favorite, but this is usually #1 or #2. In this case, I place it at #2 because their “other” album is more well-rounded. That said, tracks like “405″, “Company Calls” and the “Title Track” are standouts on this slow-moving indie pop album.
96. The Blue Scholars – The Blue Scholars [rap/hip-hop]
By now, everyone in the Seattle area has heard of this duo. Little did I know, that their DJ, (Sabzi) was one of my classmates in 4th/5th grade (the same class also featured the singer of Blood Brothers). Anyway, this is just a fantastic rap album with intelligent lyrics, and crazy-good samples, beats, and very well produced.
95. The Fire Theft – The Fire Theft [indie]
The third local band in a row on my list, The Fire Theft, came to be from the ashes of Sunny Day Real Estate. Although I still wish Dan Hoerner was with them for this record, it still rocks. The voice of Jeremy Egnik is better than ever, and the backings of Foo Fighter bassist Nate Mendell and former Foo drummer William Goldstein really make this album great. In happier news, Sunny Day Real Estate reunited at the end of the decade, and they were FANTASTIC live. Can’t wait to see new material from them.
94. Sparta – Wire Tap Scars [rock]
Another band to rise from the ashes of another band — Sparta continues the sound of At the Drive-In (from which split apart to become Sparta and Mars Volta) — almost too much to dislike them. But, it’s undeniable that this album is a more polished, slightly more mature form of the prior band. It’s not all about the vocal screaming and edgy guitars, those being sometimes replaced rock ballads and arena grandieur.
93. The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightning, Strike! [dance/mash-ups]
I don’t know where to start in describing this out of nowhere album. The Avalanches did the same thing previously in 2000, but The GO! Team give us something more. Sure they just took a million or so samples from every record they could find and mixed the heck out of them, but it’s somehow coherent and sounds fun. It really does make you want to Go. Please try it out if you’re a fan of 70s sitcoms. Hawaii Five-O anyone?
92. Finch – What It Is to Burn [rock/emo/punk]
While Finch on paper sort of sounds like a generic rock band that is a carbon copy of Green Day, Linkin Park, and Jimmy Eat World in one mixed bag, they somehow continue to get listens from me. Maybe it’s because their lyrics are quite strong, or that they don’t over do anything. Ok they may scream alot, but its blended with crazy addicting pop catches. Oh and their Ender track is amazing. And so is their bonus album-title track. Ya. Can’t explain it, but love it.
91. Common Market – Common Market [rap/hiphop]
Another record from Sabzi, but this time replacing mc Geologic, with the bearded Ra Scion. The message is similar, but the approach is more fun. It takes the fun sounds of late 80′s, and early 90′s hip hop (sorta like Fresh Prince style) and dumps it with some modern beats. I like it.
OK. More to come tomorrow… including an old dude from England, a band that unfortunately just played their final show, a couple tall danes, some letters and numbers, and 80′s cartoon superstar, and some people in my line of work.
HTC G1 Dream survives extreme environmental cycling
0698 days
So on March 13, 2009, my friend Jake and I went snowboarding up at Alpental. We were doing the runs on Chair 2, which reaches the summit of the mountain at over 5400 feet elevation and quite steep. We had been doing runs on Upper International and dropping over to Snake Dance and into the Elevator backcountry gate all day. At some point, I must have unzipped my jacket to grab a camera or something and forgot to re-zip it and my phone dropped out.
After going back to the lodge and reporting it missing and hearing that no one had returned any phones that fit my description, I basically just gave up. I mean, who would have found my phone in any of the places that I would have gone that day. My friend and I don’t typically stay on groomed trails for that long, and those areas aren’t exactly groomers – all double black diamond runs. So I just got home, went to the store, and purchased a replacement G1, which I still use today.
Out of the blue, on Monday (June 21, 2010), I got an instant message from a man who happens to work at Boeing like I do. He said he found a phone and he thinks it could be mine. At first I thought, I didn’t lose any work-cell phone, and not even thinking it could be my G1 I lost a while back. And then he said, it was a T-Mobile phone, and I was like… “i did lose a personal phone a year ago. But it was while snowboarding at Alpental.” He then said something along the lines of “ya this must be yours. I found it while hiking in the mountains. It was on the Upper International trail!”
All I had to say was “wow.”
I had no idea that this phone would be found, and even if it was found, that it could be turned on and usable! He said he would send me the phone back if I told him how to play Alien Blood Bath, one of the first games for Android.
I got the phone back today, and to my surprise, it was barely scratched. In fact, it looks in much better condition, externally, than the G1 I am using now. The screen has a single small barely visible scratch on it, and there’s a minimal amount of pits in the soft rubberized casing, which may have been there before the day it was lost.
My co-worker and I turned the phone on and it booted up just like normal! We did notice that there was water damage to the LCD screen with some streaking and watermarks that are visible with white background, shown in the photo below. However, in colored backgrounds, its barely noticeable. Pretty amazing!
The touch screen is fully working, and it seems like the only other thing that doesnt work is external speaker — so no speaker phone or using my phone as a jambox. Using a headset or headphones works just fine. The handset still can make and receive calls, and it was running Android 1.1 pre-Cupcake at the time! Phone runs faster and smoother than my rooted, overclocked, eclair 2.1 rom.
I’m quite impressed how the phone survived this conditioning. Think about it, I lost in March 2009 at Alpental. It was DUMPING snow that month — I have a lot of videos of us snowboarding as reminder. It was probably stuck, buried in snow, and then had to go through a melt cycle, where it was sitting in running water and then buried in mud. In the late Spring and Summer it would have been subjected to very hot temperatures at that elevation and then rained upon in the fall and again snowed and frozen in the winter, and with the winter we saw in Seattle, it would have been rained upon heavily and then frozen at night over and over until being melted and buried in mud again, until being subjected to sun and warmth and to be found by a random stranger…. crazy.
update: so my last text message sent was to my buddy Bjorn: “Meeting at eidelweiss around noon!” (as you may know, eidelweiss is the name of Chair 2)
The lost and found G1 is the one on the left in the photo of 3 phones. The middle is my current phone.
Another gloomy sports weekend in Seattle.
0I posted this to an email thread with my buddies on sports, and since it’s so long, I’m just going to re-post it here. I am very, very upset over our losses this weekend to my two favorite sports teams and it really bothers me. The first is on UW Huskies Football and the second on Seahawks, obviously. At least…. the Sounders won and made it into the MLS Playoffs.
—
i said i wanted 4 in the off-season and that 6 wouldnt be too far off after the LSU game…. so that’s what im shooting for.
either way, im happy with this year’s progress. i know that’s not exactly the best thing in the world, because as a life time dawgs fan since the james era, you expect the take on the world, but man, i love the rekindled enthusiasm and quality play and efforts of the sark team.
its great to be in every game, minus stanford.
- – - -
as for the hawks. all this talk about blowing up the team. i dont know if you can really do that. our biggest and most obvious deficiency is the offensive line. you just cant win if you’re starting practice squaders and guys who just sat on the couch a week before and expect to win.
while i’m not going to say our drafts in the past have been great or have been terrible (they’ve been about what other teams, minus the patriots, have done some good (trufant, curry) and some bad (spencer, jennings, tubbs only cause hes always hurt), they did a pretty awful job of evaluating OL. I think they did well with Unger pick and Sims has shown some signs of being solid, but they havent draft a good lineman since Locklear and Hutch… and thats a long stretch… very long.
I think the defense played alright on Sunday. The one thing that I thought was really poor on defense was the pass pressure. They also didnt have the best field position to deal with. Our defense is so dependent on the quality of our offense on any given sunday.
I thought the secondary played alright. I thought they covered the 3 WRs as well as you could expect them to. They were all over the ball on almost every man-to-man situation but Fitz is just sooooo good. Its tough. Breaston made an amazing catch in the end zone too. The problem is Warner had all the time in the world. That sucks. He’ll kill you if he has that time and with receivers where you can just throw the ball in the general area and they’ll make the play… its tough.
I thought the interior line did alright too. They didnt give up much on the run. But its all moot, when you can’t pass rush. It also isn’t going to help that Lofa is out and he’s a big cog for our rush defense. Getting Hill back may help. I hope they use Curry in pass rush situations more and more. That was his specialty in college…. and that would help Tapp and Lo-Jack out.
Ugh. The offense was so anemic… it just boggles my mind how we played so well vs Jacksonville and so bad against Arizona. One of the worst displays of offensive misery since 1992, I bet.
The end of the world. At least for a couple hours.
0991 days
I found it hilarious that when Gmail.com went down earlier today, everyone went crazy. I checked facebook and the feed was going insane with people confused as what to do without gmail, and then there was the twitter madness.
If you had done a twitter search for “gmail” and opened it up you would have found thousands of twitterers posting about gmail is down, in several different languages! Even more funny, if you waited 10 seconds for the page to collect the latest tweets, it would have displayed literally over 1500 more tweets every 10 seconds. Awesome.
So what’s this mean? Has Google and gmail taken us over, where we can’t live without it?
I know I cant… 
Ten Songs of a Decade
0The other day, I was driving to work, early in the morning, and I was listening to some music and one after the other, on my mp3 CD I made, were just great song after great songs of music from this decade. I thought, why not just try to write down the first 10 songs that come to mind that I really, really appreciated from the 2000s.
This list may not be my Top 10 songs of this decade, but the first few that come to mind and are not in any specific order really… but here it is:
1. The Notwist – Consequence
…because this is my favorite song of the decade and it’s on repeat all the time for me. Before there was The Postal Service, there was The Notwist. This is electropop at its finest. This song is rather depressing though, but I love it so, so much.
2. Phoenix – Too Young
Another moody track from the nearly perfect Lost in Translation soundtrack, and from their debut 2001 album. Where most of the Lost in Translation soundtrack is atmospheric, this album is straight up pop, but captures not only the theme of the movie so well, but is about as catchy and wonderful as can be. It reminds me of Japan and my fun time there.
3. Radiohead – Idioteque
This was THE new direction for Radiohead. Straight up electronic. They never really did that, but this song had one of the most amazing beat and its simplicity was hiding layers upon layers of sounds.
4. Sigur Ros – Hljomalind
Picking a song from the stellar selection of one of my favorite bands is really hard, but Hljomalind, aka “The Rock Song”, makes the choice a little bit easier, as it is easily the most radio-friendly song that really captures the song, essence, and what makes this band from Iceland so special. It’s full of great earthy sonic noise, build-ups, out of this world vocals, and steady drum beat and bass line.
5. Muse – Newborn
Muse is the premiere arena rock band of this decade, and possibly this generation, and I am so glad I got to see them play at the small Neumo’s venue back in the day, after waiting years to see them. This song is on the list because it’s the first Muse track I heard, and it was a electronic remix, back when I was head deep in trance, dnb, house, and the like. This band blew me away, and brought me back to really liking solid rock and roll. I imported their albums, and paid a ridiculous amount of money for the Hungarian version of their Hulabaloo live DVD, which is probably my most favorite DVD I own to this day. And finally, after many years of waiting, they reached America… but Newborn was what started it out for me personally, even if it’s not really my favorite Muse track.
6. The Roots – Seed 2.0
Quite easily my favorite hip hop/rap group, ever. Seed 2.0 was something just a little bit different, and it worked amazingly well. Not only that, but its just one of the standout tracks on one of my favorite albums of this decade, Phrenology.
7. The Arcade Fire – Laika
There was alot of hype surrounding this band’s first album, and they blew that hype out of the water. This band went from indie kids to superstars in a matter of days thanks to constant promotion from the likes of David Bowie. Laika, my favorite track from Funeral, has all the fixin’s of an Arcade Fire track, with powerful vocals, heavy guitars, a blasting drum beat, some catchy keyboards, and just a fun dancey good time.
8. Broken Social Scene – Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
BSS came along with easily one of the most full featured and eclectic indie rock albums of the decade in 2002 with their Juno Award winning You Forgot it in People. The album was a clash of all sorts of songs, from thrashing guitars, to downtempo summer chill out tracks, to fast-paced rock songs, to an overly simplistic, heavily vocodized, electropop track like this one, which is rather simple in sound, yet powerful in listening.
9. Peter, Bjorn, and John – Up Against the Wall
This song reminds me of my times in Europe. I want to go back, and when I do, I’m sure this song, and this album will be with me. I really hope this band isn’t only known for “the whistling song” (Young Folks) because they have a ton of other great tracks, like this post-punk, inspired song.
10. Interpol – NYC
And finally, post-punk. One of the coolest, short-lived genres around, and it came back with a vengeance in the 2000s, thanks to bands like Interpol (see also The Editors), who were one of the first to bring it back to the mainstream, and they did it nearly perfectly on their Turn on the Bright Lights album in 2003. NYC captures the atmospheric, darkness of that genre, and while may not be as reminiscent of older Joy Division works as some of their other songs, it’s one of the few tracks that really pushed the genre to a whole new plane.
The Tragedy is Back
0I’ve been meaning for the longest time to “create” some music, and was motivated, then wasn’t, then was again, and then wasn’t… and this cycle kept going back and forth for a few years and I’ve finally sat down, and learned how to use Ableton Live in combination with my midi keyboard and started just fooling around with making loops, beats, and some melodies. I re-opened the somewhat fictitious website, TragicPenguin.com again, which is my “band” site with my friend Scott. He plays guitar, and I do the electronics, keyboard, drums, etc. I’ve already made a demo of sorts, which right now is just the foundation of beats, basic verses and bridge “noise”. I either have to write lyrics, sing, find a vocalist, or lay down a real keyboard melody or have Scott, or someone, record a guitar part to accompany what I got now…
AFK and SJC, among other things.
0I’m currently reading Haruki Murakami’s memoir, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” and there’s a quote in there that clearly explains a good point I’d like to share:
Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive, than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits…
It’s been a hectic summer thus far. I haven’t had much time to spend at home and just relax. Every night of the week, it seems, I’ve tied myself up with something and I’ve lacked the sleep I wish I could get. But you know what, it’s worth it. I’ve gotten to have a lot of fun, and spend time with many people, getting to know newer faces and getting closer to older ones. I guess I would say, I wouldn’t trade my experiences, relationships, and feelings for an extra hour or three of sleep.
But it’s catching up on me. It really took a bite out of me last night, when, on Wednesday I had a movie night at my friend’s place in Belltown and then got home and stayed up a little late to do some random things around the house and “chit-chat” with people online, and then had to get up 3.5 hours later to drive to Portland. That was brutal. I had to work down there at a supplier facility, and then made the trek up in rush hour traffic to meet up with my friends at the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville. They have a moonlight movie night every Thursday in the summer, and yesterday, they were showing Tropic Thunder. Was it worth it? Tough to say: I have the film already and have seen it twice in the past year, plus I was practically dead tired, and had to pay $10 for parking and $5 to see the movie, but… you know what? To be able to sit down with your friends outside and relax is priceless. It also my last chance to see someone who’s moving away for a little while, and that in itself was worth all of that and more.
Anyway, that’s a ramble. I’m currently in San Jose, CA now. Three states in two days for separate things! Had a fun time with Dean, who traveled with me from Seattle, my cousin Lan, and one of my best buds Neil, who both live down here now. Tomorrow, I hope to meet up with others for Alcatraz and other things in San Francisco! And then… its the Sounders match in Santa Clara on Sunday!
I’m getting old. Turn 27 in a few weeks. I have to try to be young while I still can. Live life to the fullest!