From Kindle Fire to Android Tablet in thirty minutes

Or: When is a Kindle not a Kindle?

Yesterday, I purchased a Kindle Fire from a chap selling it on Craigslist.

That is not remarkable. This is.

That’s right, it is now an Android Tablet, thanks to a wonderful hack that I recently discovered. Some very bright people discovered that it is possible to Install Android 4.2.1 — known to aficionados as “Jelly Bean” — on the Kindle Fire.

This is totally legal – the Android operating system is Open Source, though I am sure that Amazon does not like it at all. You see, the Kindle Fire was sold at a loss to entice folks to buy all their stuff through Amazon. So Amazon installed put a customized version of Android on it, to make it difficult for you to go anywhere else.

This hack only applies to the Mark 1 model, released in September 2011, and sold until September 2012. It does not work on the Mark 2 version, which has a faster processor and more memory. The process took about an hour, but half of that was reading, downloading files and installing drivers

It’s a three-step process.

• First you replace the Bootloader. This is a bootstrap program that starts the machine, similar to your PC’s BIOS.
• The second stage is “flashing recovery”. the Recovery Partition – this is a special program that allows you to recover from problems without booting the full OS.
• Finally you replace the operating system itself.

Sources:

• Jelly Bean for Kindle Fire
• Kindle Fire Utility (KFU)

Preparation:

1. Download The new ROM and Google Apps (GAPPS) and copy them to Kindle Fire External Partition.
2. Download Kindle Fire Utility (KFU)
3. Unzip KFU, install KF drivers,
4. Plug in your Kindle Fire (KF). It should show up as an external drive. Copy ROM and GAPPS that Drive
5. Run KFU
6. Install FireFireFire bootloader. KF will Reboot.
7. Install Recovery partition (I used TWRP). KF will Reboot
8. Backup Recovery/Reboot into TWRP
9. Backup Old system (optional, but it gives you a way back if you ever want it)
10. WIPE/Factory Reset
11. “Install”. You have the option to “queue” installs. I added both – ROM first and GAPPS second, then “Flash”
12. Reboot System. First-time bootup takes about five minutes, as it has a lot to think about. Subsequent reboots are much quicker.

First impressions are that this thing is fast, smooth and stable — a poor man’s Nexus 7. Of course the N7 more memory, has twice as much storage, two extra processor cores, slightly higher resolution, Bluetooth, camera etc, but this has most of the functionality at less than half the price, which makes it almost disposable.

Me likey!

Fighting fire with fire

This just in: The “Tinley Park Five” have been sentenced to up to seven years in jail  (more information here and here).

These five were part of a gang of up to 18 people who, armed with hammers and clubs, descended on the Ashford House Restaurant in Tinley Park, Illinois, on 5/19/2012 and basically trashed the place. They were part of an Anti-Nazi group, and had been informed that a bunch of White Supremacists were meeting at the restaurant. Afterwards, they fled the scene in several vehicles.

One car, carrying five of them, was stopped by an off-duty cop. They were detained and charged. Finally, they pled guilty (against the advice of their lawyers) in exchange for leniency.

It is true that a gathering of white men, claiming to be an Irish Heritage group, were eating there at the time. But they were not troubling anyone at the time. To make matters worse, the marauders also assaulted others, including the owner of the restaurant and several other patrons.

These bozos have done something I never thought possible; they actually made white supremacists look good. Their claim to being “Anti-Nazis” is belied by the fact that they also attacked three other patrons of the restaurant who had nothing to do with the white supremacists/Irish Heritage group, along with the owner of the restaurant.

So why is this important to me? My wife was having lunch in the restaurant at the time. But for the courageous action of a cousin, she would probably been injured, if not killed.

As my mother once said: When you fight fire with fire, you just end up with a bigger blaze“

As America Mourns

A week has gone by since the terrible news came in from Connecticut. One week on, small bodies are being buried, and parents are saying goodbye, burying their hopes along dreams along with small coffins containing the remains of their little ones. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

No, it’s not “ok”. This is not fair, and it’s not right. And it is NOT God’s will, of that I am certain.

And after the tears comes the anger. And with it the anguished questions: Why did this happen? How could this happen? How do we protect these little ones?

The Dads of America — and real men everywhere — will wish that they could have been there. Maybe they could have done something. Perhaps they could have taken down the shooter, or taken a bullet meant for someone else, and thereby saved at least one young life.

The “Mommies” of America will want to take all of the guns out of the hands of the villains. They will repeat their call, more shrilly than ever, to ban all guns. This is understandable, particularly with assault and automatic weapons.

But it is not reasonable, for the simple reason that villains cannot be counted on to obey laws. The perpetrators of this evil deed, and others like it, broke so many laws that a ban on guns would only have been one more trivial hurdle to surmount. I’ll say that again. A complete ban on guns would only serve to take guns out of the hands of the law-abiding.

I do not own a gun. I have no wish or need to buy one. But if someone was breaking into my house by night, I would rather have a loaded gun at my side than a cop on the phone. While I respect the police, I do not cannot bring myself to them with my life.

Self-reliance is a quintessential American value.

I stumbled across a couple of definitions of Gun Control that bear repeating:

• “The theory that people who are willing to ignore laws against rape, torture, kidnapping, theft and murder will obey a law which prohibits them from owning a firearm.”

• “The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.” — L. Neil Smith

And here’s mine: “The theory that you can trust the Government to protect you more effectively than you can protect yourself.”

Get out and Vote!

Thought for the day…

Sorry, but I couldn’t resist…

Goodbye Neil

A hero passed died today.

He would never call himself a hero; that was not his way.

But he was one of only a dozen men who can say “I have walked on the sands of another world”; more than that, he was the first.

We shall not see his like again.

Godspeed.

DNS Changer explained

Once upon a time…

About a year ago, a piece of malware was released. One of the things that this did was to change your computer’s DNS settings.

All computers on the Internet have a numeric address (known as its IP address). But humans are not good at remembering numbers, so the DNS system was designed to convert human-readable characters (like “www.google.com”) into the number that your computer can understand. This is done by a dedicated computer called a DNS server. Your computer’s DNS server is usually provided by your ISP. Actually, there are two – a primary and secondary DNS server, just in case. Think of a DNS server a a giant phone-book. You can change it if you wish, and that is what this malware did.

Why would it do this? One reason might be to send you to “drive-by download” sites that try to load more malware onto your computer. Another would be to misdirect you to bogus sites that pretend to be your bank, steal your passwords and empty your account. But in and of itself, DNS changer does not do any major harm.

What the media failed to tell people us that most anti-malware programs have been able to detect and remove this malware for many months.

Anyway, the FBI was able to catch the folks behind this and roll up their operation. They were also able to get hold of the DNS servers. But simply pulling the plug would have left those with infected computers without internet, as they would have been looking for servers that weren’t there. So instead they decided to take the most painless option – they turned these “evil” DNS servers into “good” ones.

They needed a court order to do this, and the court order ran out last Monday. They had to shut the machine down. That’s a little different than the “your internet access can be turned off on Monday by the government!!!” crap that is being circulated by the Newsies.

In spite of the screaming hysteria from the Media, very few people have been affected. Some 277,000 computers worldwide are still infected, including a trifling 64,000 in the US. “DNS Changer is last year’s malware… Only about 0.01% of Internet users are affected by it.”

The moral of this story? Don’t tech tech advice from talking heads on TV.

Verizon does a Netflix

For about a month I have been following rumors that Verizon was going to introduce Family Shared Data Plans and use them as an excuse to get rid of grandfathered unlimited data customers like me. Today the official news hit the interwebz. The rumors were true, and the changes are worse than we could have imagined.

• The good: They are introducing unlimited-talk unlimited text plans.
• The bad: Talk may be cheap, but data is horribly expensive – starting at $50 for 1GB, going up to $100 for 10GB, with nothing beyond that.
• The Ugly: Upgrading to a subsidized (i.e. cheap) phone will rip you out of your grandfathered unlimited data plan.

On their website they say “you have a choice”… but the choice that they give you is “pay full price for your phone or lose your unlimited plan“. Some choice.

When I upgraded to a Smartphone last year, I was offered an “Unlimited” Data plan. Six weeks later, they discontinued the unlimited plan. I was informed that I was “grandfathered in”, meaning that as long as I did not change my plan, I would keep unlimited data, even if I upgraded my phone.

Most months I have used 1-2GB of data, though one month, when I was streaming with Netflix, I believe that I passed 5GB, but that was an outlier. So I am hardly a “data hog” – Verizon’s main reason for killing unlimited data.

In addition to my phone, our plan has two non-smart-phones (Verizon calls them “Basic Phones”, but to almost everyone else they are “Dumbphones”), partly because $30 a month is a lot to pay for data that you don’t really need, and partly because Her Ladyship has a tendency to drop things. While I initially balked at the price, the value of the data has been worth the dollar-a-day cost. Our total monthly bill comes to just over $120. The new plan will cost about $150 (180-25%+taxes, fees and insurance), assuming I use only 2GB per month. If I use more then the cost goes up dramatically.

Ever since Verizon discontinued the Unlimited Plan, they have been trying to get people off it. The latest announcement – apparently an off-the-cuff remark by the CFO – has revealed their latest scheme: if you upgrade to a discounted phone, you lose Unlimited Data. This is particularly irksome to me; the one weakness of the Droid X2 is that it is a 3G phone – one of the last ones released. I had hoped to upgrade to a 4G phone and keep my unlimited data, now it feels like they are snatching out the rug from under me.

*Sigh* First “upgrade fees”, now this…

I understand that Unlimited Data Plans are a monkey on a Cellco’s back – but if they can’t handle the traffic, they should not offer the plans. I also understand that some users who, in their zeal to “get their moneys-worth”, use exorbitant amounts of data, need to be throttled. But there are other ways to crack that nut; just identify the persistent data hogs and deal with them individually. The aggressiveness of this move smacks of Verizon’s having made promises with every intention of reneging on them later.

This sort of brain-dead corporate maneuver is nothing new: late last summer, Netflix decided to raise their prices by 60%. At the time, I commented about what a bad idea that was, but Netflix management thought that the impact would be minimal. Events proved me right; they had a disastrous Q3 and Q4, with a crash in the share price and a net loss of over 800,000 customers. And that didn’t include many more people like me, who stayed but cut back their service. Having seen the comments about Verizon’s proposed change, I am of the opinion that this move is every bit as bone-headed as what Netflix did last summer.

While Shared Data Plans are a good thing, in principle, customers should have the choice to keep the deal that they signed up for if they prefer. Trying to force your customers to do business on your terms is rarely a good long-term strategy.

So… if I want to remain “unlimited”, my options are now:

• Upgrade my phone to a 4G one before the change comes into effect. This would be a lot of hassle, but is doable.
• Wait until after the change comes into effect, then purchase a new or used 4G phone.
• Leave Verizon when my contract is up.

In conclusion, I cannot help the feeling that this is Verizon’s way of trying to get more money out of me while offering me less in return. There is absolutely no reason why this should be an “either-or” situation. They should honor their loyal customers, offering both options and let them decide which option is best…

…instead of trying to force the decision upon them.

Silver

Today Her Ladyship and I celebrate twenty-five years of marriage.

I have no illusions that this awesome achievement is due to any particular skill or quality of mine. So this is a good time to write down ten things I love about my wife.

1. She is the consummate optimist; she sees the best in everything and everyone.
2. She never makes me feel that I am not good enough.
3. She always appreciates my efforts.
4. She is a better judge of character than I will ever be.
5. She knows the difference between reminding and nagging.
6. She knows when my spirits need lifting, and knows when I need to be left alone.
7. She understands my need to have the last word, even if it is “Yes, Milady”.
8. She’s the best listener I know.
9. She cares about the things I don’t.
10. She puts up with my crap like no-one else would.

Thank you, My Love. Here’s to the next Twenty-Five

Happy All Hallows!

Today, November the first, is All Hallows, also known as All Hallowmass or All Saints’ Day. It is celebrated in some quarters as “The Day of the Dead”

It is a holiday(“Holy Day”) in the Christian Calendar.

Yesterday was not.

This has been a public service announcement. Thank you for your time.

Jobsless

It has been two weeks since Steve Jobs passed away.

In that time, I have seen the full spectrum of coverage, ranging all the way from the sycophantic (“steve-jobs-is-god-however-will-we-live-without-him?”) to the cynical (“steve-jobs-was-a-robber-baron-who-got-rich-by-exploiting-the-poor-and-I’m-glad-he’s-dead”).

The truth, as always, lies in between. As the heart and soul of Apple, he embodied the best and worst of the country.

• He co-founded a company that went on to become a major player in the computer industry. Then he was thrown out by the very managers he bought aboard to mind the store.
• But he didn’t stay down. During his twelve years in the wilderness, he nurtured two small companies. He then staged one of the the greatest comebacks in business history; Apple was in such poor shape that Michael Dell advised him to shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders. Steve did not, and the rest, as they say, is history.
• Remember those two small companies that I mentioned earlier? They were called NeXT and Pixar. NeXT went on to become the basis of a new generation of Apple products, while the sale of Pixar to Disney made Steve the biggest single shareholders of the Walt Disney Company — and one of the richest men on the planet.
• As some have pointed out, he did not believe in corporate charity, preferring to leave that decision to the individual. I agree with him — giving away the company’s (shareholders’) profits is neither good stewardship nor good business. Let people give to the causes that they are passionate about.
• He was a fan of the Beatles, saying “They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person, they are done by a team of people.” And yet he lived has life as first among equals, wanting things done his way.
• And he was not above pissing his idols off: first he created a company shared it name with the Fab Four’s music company. Then he pacified them by agreeing to stay out of the music business. Then he went back on his word, which is why their music was not available on iTunes until late 2010.
• Apple was noteworthy for designing products here (in Cupertino), but manufacturing thm overseas under less-than-humane conditions. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that a US-made iPad would cost over a thousand dollars.
• At his heart, Steve was a visionary; good at spotting trends (for years he refused to allow Apple to make a tablet until the technology and usability were good enough for him), he set the direction for a company that makes beautiful, functional devices that… just… work.
• And he marketed them to those who were willing to pay a heavy premium for usability, pose value and fashion.
• And he kept them on an upgrade treadmill by releasing newer version once or twice a year.
• Which made Apple a fabulously profitable company.

In the end, all his money could not add another day to his life, and he died at the age of 56.

In my opinion, he is gone too soon.