Agave Mountain

This happened to me today. 

I bricked my BlackBerry by applying a recommended firmware update, when I followed the installation instructions.  The blackberry update utility failed with an error, and the Curve wouldn't show any signs of life except for a periodic red LED flashing.  Further, the BlackBerry software will not recognize the BlackBerry.

Obviously, I'm not the only one who has suffered at the hands of bad software.  The NVRAM boot code is still there, but you will have to re-flash the device over USB.  The problem is, the BlackBerry manager doesn't have a way for you to do this easily. 

To recover:

• Unplug your BlackBerry.  Pull the battery for good measure.
• Download and install the latest BlackBerry Manager software
• Download and install the latest firmware from your phone provider.   T-Mobile is HERE.
• Install the battery and plug in your BlackBerry with the USB cable. 

At this point you will be tempted to follow the instructions again.  Go ahead and try.  When you get tired, run a console (cmd.exe) and type the following to bring up the loader manually.

cd "\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader"
loader.exe /nojvm

Now you should run the wizard.  Check off the software you want to install no the device and you shouldn't have anymore problems.  Of course, I did.  I received the following error:

Unable to complete the loading operation: Unable to reconnect to the device during a multi-stage load operation.

Awesome. 

A search of the Internet showed that there is a utility that will allow you to wipe the BlackBerry, namely,  JL_Cmdr.  Use this utility to wipe the device.   Unplug, take out and reinstall the battery, and plug the device back in.  At this point, the USB driver should install/detect.  Next, manually run the loader (see above) and the device will be erased, flashed, and the updated software will be installed.

NOTE: Do not select any additional packages when running the application loader the first time.  I had to go through this process several times before I was successful.  The first the device kept spinning for over two hours on one of the files.  I interrupted it and restarted without checking any extra packages and the installation went fine. 

Labels: Gadgets, Nerdy, Tech

Posted by Joe Turner at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

With some overseas travel planned, I started looking at universal chargers to replace a tangled mass of chargers for my Palm, BlackBerry, MBP, iPod, and rechargeable batteries.  After some consideration I decided to leverage my MBP as a universal charger -- and use USB as the conduit to charge everything -- at home, at the office, on the road and in the air.

The thought of lugging several travel chargers and a tangle of cables across the world wasn't appealing to me, so I started to investigate my options for consolidating my power needs on to a universal charging solution.  Previously, I had owned an iGo Everywhere that worked flawlessly with my old laptop and faithfully charged my portable devices.  Unfortunately, it died long ago.

First off all, there are no universal power chargers that offer a MagSafe tip to charge a MacBook or MacBook Pro.  Apple has forbidden any third party from manufacturing or selling the patented the MagSafe tip, due to the extraordinary markup on the chargers.  The workarounds are:

1. use a power inverter (which is inefficient and bulky) with your Apple charger; or
2. purchase an Apple charger cable and make your own tip (instructions HERE and HERE); or
3. purchase a MagSafe tip from someone who has butchered an Apple charging cable for you. 

I was ready to build my own, but to be honest, I'm simply too cheap to do it. 

An iGo Everywhere130 is roughly $150.  Add to that the cost of a new Apple charger is another $80.  On top of that, I would need to purchase tips for various devices for about $10 each.  After the expense and effort, I would end up with a solution that was far more expensive, heavier, and with more cables and parts to keep up with.  That just doesn't make sense for me.

Clearly, there has to be a better way.  There is -- forget the charging bricks and standardize on USB as a charging platform.  As a bonus, you can use auto or wall adapters to charge your USB devices.

Charging Batteries over USB

I have switched over entirely to rechargeable batteries.  While I'm not sure that purchasing rechargeable batteries is entirely cost effective for most people (including me), my Bose noise canceling headset eats enough AAA batteries (1 or 2 per week) to makes it seem worthwhile for me.  Better yet, I no longer have to make trips to the store or search for batteries -- I simply pop the drained batteries into the charger for a few hours and back into the device.

The only problem with this strategy is that most battery chargers tend to be bulky and take a long time charge.  Additionally, they usually come with their own power bricks and most don't work in the car without a power inverter. 

I have found one solution -- the Energizer Duo USB Charger.  The $14 device comes with two energizer AAA batteries, the charger, and an AC USB adapter.  Also -- you can use AC USB charger to power other USB devices straight from the AC outlet (USB wall chargers tend to be around $14 by themselves).  Likewise, if you have an auto USB adapter, you can charge your AA and AAA batteries in the car.

Cutting Clutter with Retractable Cables

My BlackBerry Curve, camera, and a few other devices use a mini USB connector.  For less than $15, I purchased a retractable USB to mini USB cable that is wound around a spring-tensioned spool.  The cable retracts to put an end to the clutter.  This covers my BlackBerry Curve, Camera, and USB disk drive.  I was also able to find a retractable USB charging/synch cable for my trusty Palm E2 for $9 plus shipping.

At a fraction of the cost, size, and weight this seems like a much better way to go over a universal power brick.

Labels: business travel, Nerdy, Tech, Travel Gear

Posted by Joe Turner at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments

Let me tell you when this suddenly happened to me, it was unnerving.  In my case, I accidentally must have pushed the secret hotkey combination to rotate the display 270 degrees.

The fix: Right click on the desktop, select Display.  On the settings dialog, go to advanced and navigate through the tabs to find a rotate display option.  This card may be on a tap inserted by the graphics card driver that you have installed.  The option will allow you to rotate the screen back to normal. 

On mine, I simply disabled it. 

Labels: Nerdy

Posted by Joe Turner at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

Right now I am compiling KDE under Gentoo (Linux), listening to iTunes (on Mac OS X), while writing this on Microsoft Live Writer (under Windows Vista SP1)... simultaneously on my MacBook Pro.

I achieved a software development trifecta -- I now have a laptop where I can simultaneously develop applications (without rebooting) for Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux, which can also compile code for Palm, BlackBerry, iPod/iPhone, Microsoft Mobile, and Linux (PC, PPC, arm, and MIPS) targets.

I have finally retired my monstrous, heavy 17" desktop replacement laptop; it was far too big for most laptop bags (even the 17" bags), and impossible to use when seated in a coach airline seat.  The notebook also weighed in at nearly ten (10) pounds, not counting the weight of the power brick.

After several years, I had enough and started slowly looking for a replacement that would be my primary development system that I would take with me from home, to work, and on the road.  That being said, when I figured out how much I anticipated using the system, budget became less of a factor than features and capabilities. 

Which led to the question: what should I get and how should I use it? 

• Which host operating system?  First of all, the laptop had to be capable of supporting a host operating system and multiple guest operating systems.  While I prefer Linux, I've been forced to give spontaneous presentations, and found that getting the LCD panel and external monitor working at the same time on various laptops/projectors can be problematic.  I never gave this much thought until I stood in front of a room full of people fiddling with my laptop and X Windows configuration files.  Guest operating system has to be Windows or Mac OS X. 
• Distributed Builds.  Most of the time I'm chained to my dual Xeon, which is situated in a room that lacks an air conditioner.  It would be fantastic to use laptop and wireless to program from the comfort of another room, and by using X Windows and distcc-- I could push most of the work of compilation onto the faster machines.  I would be more comfortable and my work would be completed faster.  Likewise, any new Core 2 Duo laptop I would purchase now would put the decrepit Dell Pentium D desktops to shame (that seem to be so common in the corporate environment).  I could install distcc, on the Linux box at work, and could push some of the work of compilation onto the networked machines, and probably cut compilation time in half, if not slightly more.
• Automatic Backups @ Home. When I connect to the wireless network at home, I want the laptop to automatically backup to the server on a daily, if not hourly basis.  The server is RAID-1 and already backed up on an hourly basis to a 1TB drive.
• Travel size.  It had to be small enough to use on an airplane, and relatively lightweight.  17 " is simply to large for travel.  15" is the maximum usable size on an airline, and even that is cutting it close.
• Large Disk.  Since I planned to be developing with virtual machines (VMs), it had to have a minimum 200GB drive.
• Built in Wireless and Bluetooth.  I don't like carrying around USB gadgets and don't want to be tethered to a specific place.

After looking at the specs for various laptop models, I ended purchasing a MacBook Pro (MBP) at the local Apple store.  The 14 day return policy closed the deal, and so far I've had the laptop for one week.

The first night was taken up by installing VMWare Fusion, Office, QuickBooks, Firefox, Skype, Eclipse, XCode, and otherwise tweaking the setup.  Next, I installed Vista SP1, expecting to be disgusted.  Surprisingly, I found that even operating in a virtual machine that Vista SP1 has been much improved and it is actually usable.  Next was Office, Visio, Live Writer, Visual Studio 2008, and VMWare tools. 

I now hit CTRL-<RIGHT ARROW> and open up VMWare and run Vista in full screen mode on that "space."  I can now hit CTRL combined with the right or left arrow keys to jump between Vista and Mac OS X. 

I then started working on setting up and installing Gentoo Linux.  I started with a minimal install, then emerged fluxbox.  After getting that to work, I started to emerge KDE and some of my favorite development packages.

Hammering the drive, installing three different operating systems under VMWare Fusion, Office, the system was responsive.  The only flaw I have found is that the MBP gets hot-- when hammering the drive (compiling qt and KDE takes a while), and flipping between VMs, the laptop gets hot enough to make me uncomfortable.  The can be solved with installing a utility like SMC Fan Control to turn the minimum fan speed up.

Labels: business travel, Nerdy, Tech

Posted by Joe Turner at 1:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

Labels: Nerdy

Posted by Joe Turner at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments

Labels: Nerdy

Posted by Joe Turner at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments