Gmail taught me how to recycle today!
Check this out. So I was emptying out my trash bin at, all of a sudden, I see the following quote at the top of the page:
“You can make a lovely hat out of previously-used aluminum foil.”
Thanks for the tip, Google!
gb
How to access database inside an Android Emulator
Hey everybody,
So I was stuck trying to debug a problem with a missing table in an Android app. I knew the table was in the original database, but I had to be sure it was in the actual database the emulator was using. The easiest way to check this is as follows:
1. Run the adb program. Use “adb shell” to create a shell in which you can access the emulator.
2. Switch to the directory where the database is located. The “cd data/data/<application package name>/databases should do it.
3. Execute sqlite3 <database name>
4. Run whatever SQL commands you need to do in order to prove your sanity.
Big ups go out to Chris Kopec for his excellent tutorial located here.
gb
How to Protect Your Internet Privacy
The police are watching you. The government is watching you. Your boss is watching you. Even your own mom is watching you. It’s like that old Rockwell song; someone is, indeed, always watching you. Is there any privacy anymore? It seems with the advent of the Internet that personal privacy has completely disappeared, with every spammer, website, and government agency tracking and recording your every online move.
Is there any way to avoid spilling your life’s every intimate detail while surfing the Web? The simple answer is “yes.” It’s quite easy, actually. Encrypt your emails. Use SSL when transmitting financial details and other sensitive personal info. Don’t do stupid things like post photos of you vomiting rum and coke all over naked strippers at a night club (you’d be surprised how the obvious things can escape peoples’ common sense).
Aside from the above advice, one of the most important and effective strategies to maintaining your online privacy is the make use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN acts as a secure tunnel through which your data can safely burrow its way from your computer to its destination. Originally designed for large corporations as a way to protect its communications with remote workers, this advanced technology is now available to normal mortals like you and I.
To make using VPN technology easy, I highly recommend using a VPN service like iVPN.net. These guys totally rock, with fast connections, reliable servers, and customer service that is second to none. I was surprised at just how well even bandwidth consuming applications like Skype and YouTube performed through their VPN service. When you use a VPN service like iVPN.net, you protect yourself from hackers and other bozos trying to sniff your data off the local wifi hotspot. You’d be surprised how many websites don’t encrypt your data. When data gets sent unencrypted, it is vulnerable to attack. It has been shown in the past that hackers lurking in wifi cafes were able to gain control of Facebook accounts just by using simple tools that intercepted Facebook cookies from unknowing victims.
The easiest way to protect yourself is by using a VPN service like iVPN.net. So peep them out at the following URL:
If you want more details about how a VPN service works just shoot me back a comment or three and I’ll post a few more articles for more details.
gb
tumbleweed badge…yay!
I meant to update this a long time ago. So I just started becoming moderately active on stackoverflow.com. I must say, that it is a tremendous help with regards to iOS and Android mobile app development! I asked a question there that received no answers and got a tumbleweed badge! Yay! Anyone else get one?
If you wanna check it out, try viewing one of my questions for starters:
sample stackoverflow.com question
gb
Need a Go Daddy promo code that works on renewals?
I just tried gdz1112a. Worked great! Saved me some cashola today! Just go to http://livecodes.blogspot.com and check out the rest of their promo codes. Many of them did not work for me though.
the dangers of triclosan
http://www.helium.com/items/2050545-new-research-reveals-your-hand-soap-could-kill-you
How to unlock a Blackberry 8310
Unlock my Blackberry!
So my parents decided to desert their Blackberry 8310 devices. Unfortunately, I don’t want to stick with their carrier. So after seeking the unlock codes online I had to figure out how to unlock them. Here’s how to do it:
1. With battery and SIM card installed, turn on the device.
2. From the main screen, navigate to Settings and select it with the trackball.
3. Navigate to Options and select it.
4. Navigate to Advanced Options and select it.
5. Navigate to SIM Card and select it. You should see information about your SIM card.
6. Enter MEPD (all upper-case). You should see extended information about your SIM card. You will not see any of the text you enter appear on the screen.
7. Type MEP (all upper-case). Then ALT-key and the number 2 key on the keypad. You will not see any of the text you enter appear on the screen.
8. You will be presented with the prompt Enter Network MEP Code. Type in the unlock code and press in the trackball/trackpad when finished. Be sure to enter it correctly as you only get a limited amount of tries to enter it in successfully.
6. The Network attribute should now be set to Disabled. Your phone should now be unlocked.
gb
How to unlock Blackberry 8700c
Okay, so I scored a Blackberry 8700c on ebay for a mere pittance, but it is locked to a single carrier. My goal was to get it to work with any SIM card I want to use. It is ridiculously easy when compared to other phones:
1. With a SIM card and battery already installed, turn your phone on. You may be able to get this to work without a SIM card but I did it with a non-working SIM installed.
2. Navigate to the Settings icon and select it.
3. Navigate to the Options icon and select it.
4. Choose Advanced Options from the menu.
5. Choose SIM Card from the menu. You should now see your SIM card’s ID and phone number.
6. Type MEPD on the phone’s keypad. You will not see what you are typing on the screen. This entry is not case-sensitive. You will see a lot more data about your SIM card.
7. Look for the Network attribute listed under the Personalization category. If its value is set to Active that means your phone is locked and that you should continue with the rest of these instructions. If it is set to Disabled that means your phone is already unlocked and the rest of these steps are unnecessary.
7. Hold down the ALT Key and type MEPE. You will not see this text on the screen. This entry is not case-sensitive.
8. You should now see a prompt that says Enter Network MEP Code. Enter the unlock code and press in the jog dial when finished.
9. You phone will now be unlocked. If you enter the wrong code you will be notified of such and will have to re-enter it. You only get 10 tries to enter the code in successfully.
Have fun with your phone’s newly-found freedom!
gb
How to fix no sound in Windows XP under VMWare Fusion on Mac OS
I haven’t been using my Windows XP VM lately, but I had to install a game to review and was having trouble getting the sound to work for some reason. Maybe it never worked before. I don’t know because I don’t really use anything in my XP VM that requires it.
But this game needed it, so here’s how I fixed it:
1. Activate your Mac’s root user account:
From the Apple menu choose System Preferences….
From the View menu choose Accounts.
Click on the lock and authenticate with an administrator account.
Click Login Options….
Click the “Edit…” or “Join…” button at the bottom right.
Click the “Open Directory Utility…” button.
Click the lock in the Directory Utility window.
Enter an administrator account name and password, then click OK.
Choose Enable Root User from the Edit menu.
Enter the root password you wish to use in both the Password and Verify fields, then click OK.
2. Once you have finished enabling the root account, log out from your own account and then log back in with root user (the username is “root” just in case you didn’t know).
3. Goto System Preferences, open the Sound control panel, and specify the correct sound output settings for your particular setup. For me, I chose “Built-in line output” for my MacBook.
4. Log out of the root user account.
5. Log back in with your own user ID and disable the root user. This basically entails undoing what you did in step 1.
6. Launch VMware Fusion and check for sound in your virtual machine.
Mad props to these two sites for helping me figure this out:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/134438
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528?viewlocale=en_US
gb
Android – How to add a progress dialog to your app
This site was totally helpful when it came to explaining how to add a progress dialog. Using threads and handlers is totally the way to go:
http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/using-threads-and-progressdialog
But I had a problem because, like this other guy, I am an idiot, too:
http://www.anddev.org/override_handlerhandlemessage_-t8782.html
I was relying too much on Eclipse when I had this error. I tried to use the code from the first website but kept getting an error about not being able to override handleMessage(). It kept telling me to remove the @Override clause. But doing that causes the progress dialog to never go away because the handler method never gets called. I had to import the “Message” library just like this other dude did. I was relying too much on Eclipse.
gb