Tony LaRussa hangs up his mitre…

After leading the Cardinals to another World Series title, Tony LaRussa has announced his retirement. One of the very managers to go out while at the very top. Usually when I see a manager go, it has been due to a mid-season shit-canning (usually well-deserved). On occaision, I’ll see news of one retiring, but it’s usually after one losing season too many in The New World Order (Mind-Control Division), I just want to know, since he’s a Cardinal, if he’ll be allowed to wear a mitre and take part in the next concave…

Patience, Roger, Patience

Ok, since I have Apps2sd on my phone, when I uprgraded my memory card, I had to reinstall everything on my phone (my apps are installed onto a hidden partition on my memory card). My first attempt at this was a dud, since I set the second partition at 4 Gb (I have a 32 Gb card now, so space isn’t an issue). When xda-developers says to use 2 Gb at the most for your ext3 partition, there is usually a good reason for it. So after repartitioning, reformatting, and re-copying everything to my card again, I had to re-flash my ROM again. I thought seriously about giving Gingerbread anither try, but I decided to go with my highly modified CMYLXGO ROM. Yes it’s Froyo, but it’s stable, and it does the job. At this point, I don’t think there’ll ever be a reasonably stable Gingerbread ROM for the HD2.

Anyway, long story short:

• When you first flash a ROM, set the phone down and walk away. It’ll take a while for it to actually be ready. The same goes when you initially put your acounts in. Especially since my phone doesn’t have that much RAM compared to other Desire HD based phones.
• If you can, try to use wi-fi to download your apps. For some reason, my 3g service has been rather spotty. And when my internet cuts out, it usually means my phone freezes, and only a reboot will fix things. Probably I should have a chat with T-Mobile. Fortunately, one of the local employees also uses and Android Powered HD2, so I might be able to get somewhere with it…
• Root Explorer is definitely worth the $3.99 I paid for it (through the Spamazon app store).

Today’s lesson is patience. If you don’t let your ROM settle after you install it, you’re going to have issues…

So, the Sounders lost tonight.

So the Sounders FC lost 3-0 tonight. They can still pull it out. They have one more chance when Real Salt Lake come to town. It’s difficult, but it’ll be possible….

OTOH, I got to see the Huskies game tonight. Defense needs some serious work. And there were a couple of questionable calls by the officials. But they got the job done, with timely turnover and a lot of touchdowns…

Full 90 time, playoff edition

Sounders FC vs. Real Salt Lake. In Salt Lake City. I like the MLS playoff structure, where each they play a game in each team’s stadium, with the winner decided by cumulative goals. This way, every team is guaranteed at least one home game in the playoffs. On like some other professional sports promotions, MLS knows what side the bread is buttered on, and that without the fans, they’re fucked. The NHL is still recovering from it’s last labor dispute where they lost an entire season. The NFL almost lost the season, but cooler heads prevailed in the nick of time. The NBA is going to find out really quick that loyalty is a two-way street. If they don’t show loyalty to their fans, then the fans won’t show up. They won’t buy tickets, and they won’t buy the merchandise. Lose the ego, people. Your fans won’t take it lying down…

A few more misadventures on the internet…

Day off today. Normally, I’d sleep in (especially since I have to be at work überearly tomorrow morning). But I had to get up early today, and keep watch at the door. Last week, I ordered some probably useless crap from Worst Buy, and both items were supposed to arrived today.

First item to arrive was the wi-fi card. I like the Netgear WG-311v3, but the driver installation can be a bit tricky. And it’s darn near the only wi-fi card that I can find that has a Win9x driver for it (come to think, I’m probably going to end up just parting out the other tower I have, but in the rare possibility that I use it, I’d like to have a compatible card for it). Looking around, I noticed that Worst Buy is going from pci Wi0Fi adapters to usb (which I don’t like, as components like this sometimes tend to throw you rude comments when you pull them from one port, like during system maintenance, and then put them in a different port. Besides I have enough of a cable jungle as it is…). On the website, they had a deal for a factory refurbished Linksys WMP600N, so I went for it. A glance at google shows the possibility of Linux dirvers for it too (though that is not a high priority now).

The second item was a microsd card for my phone. A 32 Gb one. Meaning I can sync my entire music library over, and still have plenty of space for my hidden data partition, and several ROMs at once. And it’s a class 4 (might not be workth bragging about, but it is replacing a class 2…).

A little moving….

Nothing much. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just moving my cell phone’s files (basically the ‘kitchen’ where I cook my ROMs) from the laptop to the tower. While I like the laptop for it’s portabiltiy and (mainly) the fact I can surf and tinker around from the easy chair in front of the tv in my room, I do appreciate the dual-monitor display that the tower offers, which make’s it far easier to manage windows.

I really don’t cook ROMs. I just drag and drop files. Most of the Android ROMs for the HD2 are Clockwork Mod recovery type. Meaning that they’re .zip files. If you unzip them, you can then delete the files you don’t need, and add some of the programs and/or other files, that you have to have (I do have quite a few ringtones that I use). Just rezip and you can then flash your ROM, with your ‘tweaks’ cooked in…

I explained this to my boss when he had me root his LG G2x, and then he started downloading new ROMs for it. After a phone call to me (which I reminded him to be in the T-Mobile forum, lest he get a $500.00 battery charger. BTW, it’s easy to flash a clockwork ROM on a LG G2x. I should know. My boss can do it. BTW, he now has the latest Samsung Galaxy S II, and the LG is now for sale. Given his modus operandi, the new phone will be for sale in about three months. Not that I have anything against it. That’s how I got my first T-Mobile Shadow, and my HD2 (which I still use).

Sic semper tyrannis

Hello, it’s been a while. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t forgotten to write. I’ve just had other things that, in hindisight, probably don’t mean much, but they had to be taken care of…

• They got Gadaffi. We will probably never know how he died (aside from the gunshot to the head), be it he was shot by a rebel intentionally, or caught in the crossfire between the rebels on the loyalists, we may never know. But he was a tyrant who ruled with an iron fist. And eventually, his own people got the point where they weren’t going to take in anymore. He almost immediately threw out the country's constitution (and the rights that went along with it) while seizing power. And then there was the theft. If perhaps he’d put the profits from the Libya’s oil revenues back into his country (instead of keeping it to himself and his cronies), perhaps… Well, I’m not going to speculate on that.

Gadaffi is dead. I’m not rejoicing in and of itself over his death, like I didn’t rejoice over Osama Bin Laden’s death. We should remember that violence only begets violence. But at the very least, he is out of power, and there is hope for the nation….

One of the many reasons I’m grateful for being an American is the opportunity to change regime every four years peacefully.

They still rock….

So I’m about to retire for the night, and I’ve got Late Nite with Jimmy Fallon on. And tonight, The Moody Blues are performing. To be honest, this is a band I haven’t really followed. Ever. But they sounded good (I remember Nights In White Satin on oldie’s station growing up) and what I heard on Jimmy Fallon sounded similar. But what matter most is that they sounded good….

Ok, who wants to see Paul Stanley in drag?

Ok, everybody should know by now that in the ‘80s, KISS ditched the make-up, and became yet another hair-band for the most part. With the execption of Revenge (which is the best KISS album. Period). Case in point:

Perhaps the Star Child should’ve been seeing a therapist…

No, I don’t consider myself a fan of KISS anymore. Sorry guys, but The Boulder Pledge has been invoked. You chose to spam me, and I realized that with the aforementioned excetion of Revenge, you’re nothing more than overly-merchandised clowns. And for the most part, not really good…

I know this one is late, but….

I just have to say that Jay Cutler chose the wrong week to become a Christian. Who would’ve figured that the Detroit Lions would now be 5-0? And the Seahawks beat Eli Manning. In New York. Not too shabby…

Eventually, I’ll get it right….

I’ve been trying to get my Android Powered HD2 to run Gingerbread. Everytime I think I solved the problems, another one comes up, and I decide to go back to Froyo. It’s olders, but it still works. I’ve swtched from Rafdriod back to Cmylxgo, with some modifications:

• I’m using the apps2sd. I’ve given 2 Gb’s on my memory card for a separate paritition. Even though my phone has a full Gb onboard, I’m still running out of space on my phone. This means I don’t have to worry about running out of space, and I use a larger system directory (which means I can cook even more stuff into my ROM).
• I’ve also cooked in the Topia and the Color transformation packs. And I shamelessly cooked in the start-up animation from the Bluetopia transformation pack. I tried using the color transformation pack in Rafdroid, but Rafdroid uses a diferent sized font, and the results didn’t come out looking quite right (It functioned just fine).

My boss has a T-Mobile G2x, and he’s been trying to sell it. I rooted it for him when he was running Froyo, and I upgraded it to Gingerbread. He asked me to root it for him (which is basically install Clockwork recovery and then flash a copy of the stock Gingerbread Rom that had been rooted). Now he’s asking me to cook a special ROM for him….

I now officially have three computers in my room: my XP tower, my laptop (that this is being written on), and a Win98 tower. I finally have all the necessary power cords, network cables, and even a surge protector for it. I just need to get a monitor for it (my XP tower has a dual display, and I can easily pull one monitor off for the other tower, but I like my twin-headed display too much). With all three of them going, I don’t think I’ll need to use the heater too much this winter (and this is going to be a La Niña winter, too).

So long, Steve Jobs

Steve jobs had passed away. I’m not going to bother with linking to any story on this blog entry (if you want the whole truth, just google it…). Some of things companies brought us under his leadership:

• The iPhone: about four years ago, my boss’s wife got him a T-Mobile Shadow for Christmas. He was impressed with it, almost happy. Then he discovered you could jailbreak an iPhone and it’ll work on the T-Mobile network. And that shadow was my very first smartphone when he sold it to me. A few years later, his wife got him an HD2. I’m still using it… The iPhone brought us the app store (before the android market and the spamazon app store).
• The iPod. Essentially the original iPod was an mp3 player with a hard drive. It’s gone through many evolutions, but you can still get an mp3 player with a hard drive.
• OS X. I’ve never had a mac, so I can offer no opinion on this.
• The iPad. The very first tablet to have anything resembling success, though IMHO some of the current Android powered offerings are better…..
• Itunes. It revolutionized the way we buy music. When it first came out, I was semi-impressed with it (I’m a windows user). For the first time, you could legally purchase music and download it (instead of pirating it or ripping your cds). Not only that, but you could also buy induvidual tracks (later came the option to buy entire albums). I didn’t like it because it didn’t support .wma playback, and to convert .wma files to something itunes compatible took forever and a day. I just stuck with musicmatch jukebox and/or windows media player (when windows media player 10 came out, it finally came with the ability to natively rip .mp3 files, so I’ve used wmp exclusively since then).

I know this isn’t a complete list of his achievements, and there were some things he did that even I regret, you can’t deny his influences. Remember this even when you turn your pc on (remember the original MacIntosh had the very gui for a computer)…

What when down this week….

I got a second monitor again for my computer. But I’m still drawn more to my laptop. There have been a couple of things that I’ve wanted to blog about this week, but I’ve also been mastering the art of putting things off. And that is a skill that you need to constantly practice…

Anyway, some if the pointless (and some not-so-pointless) stuff that has happened recently:

• Fall has arrived. I can tell this from the rain. On my day off. Like this afternoon, I guess off form from work, and I couldn’t help but notice the droplets falling on the pavement around me as I walked home form the bus stop. And it really picked up when I got home. Like cow pissing on a rock.
• It’s over for the Mariners. Another season of losing. There were a couple of streaks, and iirc we went a week before the first w. But we only needed The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) for a few weeks this year… Because then we have Association Football (that’s soccer, idiots)…
• The Sounders FC have clinched a play-off spot. And the Cascadia Cup. And a return to next season in the Concacaf Champions League. Three winning seasons, and three playoff appearances. Though the Seahawks have demonstrated that you don’t necessarily need the former to have a latter… Though I hope they can repeat next year, as Kasey Keller is retiring at the end of this season (hats off to Keller, though. In MLS, it’s usually Latinos and Europeans who are the stars. Keller, an American was a star in Europe before coming to Seattle.
• The Seahawks aren’t too hot (as usual) Jackson ain’t getting the job done, and Caroll needs to get Whitehurst in there, or he needs to go back to the NCAA….
• The Detroit Lions are *team* to be reckoned with this year. 4-0 (that’s right, undefeated), not 0-4. They’ve defeated the Vikings (in Minneapolis, a feat that’s not supposed to happen). And they went into the fourth quarter with Dallas down by 14 points. Then Tony Romo decided to embrace Christianity. And we all know what Lions do to Christians…
• Tonight’s Sunday Night Football match had all the features. Lots of touchdowns, like you’d expect in a good professional game. It’s just none of the touchdowns came from the offense. They all came from the teams’ defenses or special teams. And this wasn’t a low-scoring affair. It has been said that offense sells the tickets, but it’s actually the defence that wins the games. Tonight was no exception.