The following is an open letter that I've sent to brando, my correspondence with them so far has been sub-par, primarily with people who don't seem to have a concept of the English language, never mind any idea how USB charging works, or the nuances with the differences in voltages.
Dear Brando,
I purchased your USB Wrist Band battery pack, upon receiving it, I was thoroughly impressed with the overall design, and comfort of the device, after charging I was eager to start using it.
Turns out, that the unit you sold and shipped me was defective, only outputting 4.0 of the rated 5.5V (according to your webpage).
I will not be returning this product for a refund, since shipping costs would far exceed the original cost of the product (35 USD), and I will thoroughly ensure that noone I know, or have any contact with, ever buys anything you sell, since, so far, the only responses I've gotten from your customer service department have been bullshit.
So you know, the 4.0V output doesn't even push any of my USB devices into recognising that a power supply is attached, nevermind charge anything.
Thanks for nothing.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Women in Technical Fields
This article was posted both on Twitter and on Facebook by the lovely and talented Felicia Day, who, a friend of mine had the recent opportunity to meet at FanExpo, which I wasn't even aware was happening... Next year... Next year.
Aside from all that jealousy about what my friend was able to see/do at FanExpo without me, Felicia, interestingly enough, is making quite the point. If you read the article (and admittedly, I was agreeing with the article so much I never quite made it to the end), it's describing a situation where we're almost forcing women into technical fields. I've always felt forcing an issue is wrong, especially of this nature.
This actually reminds me of an episode of the show "rescue me" that I recently re-watched where the lead character "Tommy" (Denis Leary) goes on a rant regarding racial equality in the FDNY; he makes the very important point that maybe it isn't the FDNY that's not hiring the blacks, jews or whatever into the department, but rather that it's the blacks, jews or what-have-you that simply don't want the damn job.
I would apply that logic here, while I agree with this article. While there's an opportunity here to promote women in the workplace, and certainly there are many women who have the physical capability of working in IT/Tech, as well as the brain power to do it as well (if given proper motivation, interest, etc.), however, just simply do not take enough interest in HOW the Internet works, to actually get into the inner-workings of the field. If these people, regardless of their gender, do not have the interest in the job, then are they really the right people for the job? Why should we, or anyone for that matter, be putting them into a position where they are, perhaps, doing something they may not enjoy?
To be totally blunt, I've always had the mindset that, I don't care if you're black, white, Jewish, Spanish, Mexican, Egyptian, Chinese, Cuban or Hungarian; if you can do the job, and do it well, then you should be doing the job. It's all about the right person for the right job, and getting the job done; It's never been WHO does the job, not to me. And that goes for every profession. Everything from Firefighters, to IT and beyond. If you want the job, and you can do it, then go for it.
I don't see why anyone would want anything different from that.
Aside from all that jealousy about what my friend was able to see/do at FanExpo without me, Felicia, interestingly enough, is making quite the point. If you read the article (and admittedly, I was agreeing with the article so much I never quite made it to the end), it's describing a situation where we're almost forcing women into technical fields. I've always felt forcing an issue is wrong, especially of this nature.
This actually reminds me of an episode of the show "rescue me" that I recently re-watched where the lead character "Tommy" (Denis Leary) goes on a rant regarding racial equality in the FDNY; he makes the very important point that maybe it isn't the FDNY that's not hiring the blacks, jews or whatever into the department, but rather that it's the blacks, jews or what-have-you that simply don't want the damn job.
I would apply that logic here, while I agree with this article. While there's an opportunity here to promote women in the workplace, and certainly there are many women who have the physical capability of working in IT/Tech, as well as the brain power to do it as well (if given proper motivation, interest, etc.), however, just simply do not take enough interest in HOW the Internet works, to actually get into the inner-workings of the field. If these people, regardless of their gender, do not have the interest in the job, then are they really the right people for the job? Why should we, or anyone for that matter, be putting them into a position where they are, perhaps, doing something they may not enjoy?
To be totally blunt, I've always had the mindset that, I don't care if you're black, white, Jewish, Spanish, Mexican, Egyptian, Chinese, Cuban or Hungarian; if you can do the job, and do it well, then you should be doing the job. It's all about the right person for the right job, and getting the job done; It's never been WHO does the job, not to me. And that goes for every profession. Everything from Firefighters, to IT and beyond. If you want the job, and you can do it, then go for it.
I don't see why anyone would want anything different from that.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Telus Milestone rooting/flashing
I don't want to post much about personal stuff but this is far too interesting/helpful than to keep quiet about. So here goes.
As many will know, I purchased a Motorola Milestone from Telus a while back. When I got it, it was stock updated to Android 2.1 (originally released with 2.0.1), and since then, there was an update to 2.1, done OTA from Telus to correct call quality issues.
I started, very happy with the phone, but after dealing with the brief (but noticable) slow downs and delays, plus the possibility of never being updated to 2.2, plus the possibility of never having the Flash player or any of the 2.2 official updates, I started looking around.
To be clear, the Milestone here in Canada is supposed to be getting 2.2 (Froyo) in Q1 2011, still quite a ways away, I'm impatient.
When I started, I began by 'rooting' my phone... This process was easy, using a paid, but very easy to obtain rooting software "Universal Androot" from the market... After using this, I unsuccessfully attempted to use ROM Manager to swap ROMs, which resulted in paying for software that doesn't actually work on the Milestone. I don't mind, I'll support good developers, regardless.
The best way to root, and set up a Milestone, running the newest Telus ROM, in preparation to reflash it, is to use RSD Lite (available almost everywhere) and get the milestone "vulnerable recovery" SBF file. The installation of this SBF will allow your milestone to boot an update.zip that is not signed by a certified authority (AKA Motorola). After you have that basic file and app prepared, before flashing you need to setup an Update.zip and nandroid on your SD card on the device. I used Open Recovery on this.
In theory, you could use many of the various options for Recovery software... Open Recovery was my choice and I feel it's been a good one.
once open recovery is situated with the update.zip file on your SD card, you're free to apply the vulnerable recovery sbf to your phone using RSD Lite. this process is highly automatic, and only requires you to have the specific files, as well as your phone connected to the system via USB.
but hold on, don't let that phone start back up. Everytime the phone starts, with the Telus ROM, it checks that bootloader's checksum. if the checksum does not match the checksum on file, it reflashes the bootloader to spec. Before this happens, you'll need to boot into open recovery to make a change.
After the phone restarts after applying the vulnerable recovery patch (it will say update OK, then shutdown for a restart), you want to hold your phone's camera button as it's starting, you'll get to the phone with the exclamation point screen (you'll know it when you see it), at that point, hold volume UP, and press the camera button again, you'll get a menu.
Using your d-pad, select "apply update.zip" (a process you'll have to repeat to get into open recovery, all the time).
Open Recovery loads. browse over to console. At the console run the following command:
rm -f /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
this should delete the specific file that will reflash the bootloader/recovery and prevent you from getting back to the nandroid/open recovery.
after that, you're rooted with recovery, leave update.zip, nandroid, and open recovery on your SD card for future reference, and download a ROM of your choice. it may be a good idea to use nandroid to do a back up of your current ROM before deciding to wipe and flash a new one.
Whenever flashing a new ROM delete all user data, dalvik and cache. This should put the phone into a very RAW/Fresh state for the new ROM and prevent a lot of problems you may run into.
Enjoy, happy flashing.
As many will know, I purchased a Motorola Milestone from Telus a while back. When I got it, it was stock updated to Android 2.1 (originally released with 2.0.1), and since then, there was an update to 2.1, done OTA from Telus to correct call quality issues.
I started, very happy with the phone, but after dealing with the brief (but noticable) slow downs and delays, plus the possibility of never being updated to 2.2, plus the possibility of never having the Flash player or any of the 2.2 official updates, I started looking around.
To be clear, the Milestone here in Canada is supposed to be getting 2.2 (Froyo) in Q1 2011, still quite a ways away, I'm impatient.
When I started, I began by 'rooting' my phone... This process was easy, using a paid, but very easy to obtain rooting software "Universal Androot" from the market... After using this, I unsuccessfully attempted to use ROM Manager to swap ROMs, which resulted in paying for software that doesn't actually work on the Milestone. I don't mind, I'll support good developers, regardless.
The best way to root, and set up a Milestone, running the newest Telus ROM, in preparation to reflash it, is to use RSD Lite (available almost everywhere) and get the milestone "vulnerable recovery" SBF file. The installation of this SBF will allow your milestone to boot an update.zip that is not signed by a certified authority (AKA Motorola). After you have that basic file and app prepared, before flashing you need to setup an Update.zip and nandroid on your SD card on the device. I used Open Recovery on this.
In theory, you could use many of the various options for Recovery software... Open Recovery was my choice and I feel it's been a good one.
once open recovery is situated with the update.zip file on your SD card, you're free to apply the vulnerable recovery sbf to your phone using RSD Lite. this process is highly automatic, and only requires you to have the specific files, as well as your phone connected to the system via USB.
but hold on, don't let that phone start back up. Everytime the phone starts, with the Telus ROM, it checks that bootloader's checksum. if the checksum does not match the checksum on file, it reflashes the bootloader to spec. Before this happens, you'll need to boot into open recovery to make a change.
After the phone restarts after applying the vulnerable recovery patch (it will say update OK, then shutdown for a restart), you want to hold your phone's camera button as it's starting, you'll get to the phone with the exclamation point screen (you'll know it when you see it), at that point, hold volume UP, and press the camera button again, you'll get a menu.
Using your d-pad, select "apply update.zip" (a process you'll have to repeat to get into open recovery, all the time).
Open Recovery loads. browse over to console. At the console run the following command:
rm -f /system/etc/install-recovery.sh
this should delete the specific file that will reflash the bootloader/recovery and prevent you from getting back to the nandroid/open recovery.
after that, you're rooted with recovery, leave update.zip, nandroid, and open recovery on your SD card for future reference, and download a ROM of your choice. it may be a good idea to use nandroid to do a back up of your current ROM before deciding to wipe and flash a new one.
Whenever flashing a new ROM delete all user data, dalvik and cache. This should put the phone into a very RAW/Fresh state for the new ROM and prevent a lot of problems you may run into.
Enjoy, happy flashing.
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