Let’s root my slide!

That’s right I finally got it to work. Here’s how I did it and what you might expect if you’re trying to root a myTouch Slide 3G from the fiends at T-Mobile (and HTC).

Why I did it:

1) I HATE THE BOOT SCREEN

2) regardless of battery consumption i wanted live backgrounds

3) that itch in the back of my mind that says: you don’t have full control of your phone

4) get rid of crapware from tmobile

5) get rid of the crapware from htc

6) froyo and apps to sd

My first attempts were using the “eugene” method. This seemed to brute force the phone and I could just never get the timing right. I found several .bat files that tried to automate this process, but they just never panned out.

I gave up for a few weeks until T-Mobile released an OTA update. I had to do the update manually because T-Mobile is a bunch of jerks and took forever to send it my way, but it worked out ok. I set out to attempt to gain root again when I stumbled on a root method specifically for that update. I tried it, and it worked – sort of. For some reason when I downloaded the rom from rom manager (after I had gotten root) it wouldn’t or couldn’t reboot itself. I ended up following the directions for the manual update and successfully installed the Cyanogen 6 stable.

Oops! I forgot to backup ANY of my apps. That was a long and arduous process. In addition, SWYPE (the reason that the sliding keyboard is only good for Emulator Games) was removed and irretrievable. I ended up purchasing Ultra Keyboard to replace it. I’m very happy with it to. My one major complaint is adding words to the user dictionary is clunky compared to swype’s sleek and unobtrusive suggestions.

Once I got all that back on, I was happily using my phone when I stumbled on a not-very-family-friendly picture in the cyanogen wallpaper library. So I had to dig into the forums again to figure out how to get that out. I found a good starting point and ended up having to add my own set of directions. The rooting and cyanogen ROM has been great so far. There’s two specific things I’m still trying to do: 1) While there is a new boot animation I still get the crappy myTouch splash screen. I’m trying to get rid of it still. 2) I had a good second thing, but I forgot it. Sorry.

Hello September!

Today Apple is having a big surprise ‘thing’, so no doubt there will be some kind of shiny new technology for everyone to coo over. I’m hoping they resurrect Lala and get rid of that Genius crap. I never bought a single thing on iTunes because of genius. Whereas on Lala my web (and some mp3s) library was up to date with the latest in what I was listening and what was in my library. I’ve never gotten relevant or interesting recommendations for purchase on iTunes. So mostly I just torrent mp3s. On top of that I’ve been floundering around trying to get my library streaming on the web. The replacement services never really matched up to lala’s awesomeness so I dabbled in home media servers. First I tried Sockso, and that was sufficient for awhile. The playlist and flash player system was functional, but mostly annoying and it was only for audio. It did a good job letting me share my library in a user by user way, but had no social plugins. Then I needed to share video with my xbox, so I tried out TVersity. That definitely worked when I needed to stream P90X from computer to home gym, but listening to music at work has been so bad I’ve ditched it almost entirely, returning with tail tucked in to Pandora. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pandora, but sometimes I like to dig into the recesses of my own library, and no ADS please. So there it is, my only wishlist item for Apple: bring back lala…. please….

Ok, I’ve been a blog slacker, but since my wife is making me post at our new family site : Talk Is Sheep, I’ve been more apt to write interesting things.

I’ve started using some new fun software that I thought I’d fill you in on.

Digsby – Multi chat client that also logs into social services like facebook and twitter, putting all that stuff in one fun place. Also has a nice proxy and account setup system which makes it great for going from my work computer to my home computer.

Songbird – they say it’s an iTunes killer, but I’m holding my breath. Mostly because I’ve moved my media to the cloud using Lala, and I get my music recommendations from Pandora (despite the ads, its still my favorite for music discovery).

Dropbox – this thing is a life saver. Its software that syncs a file on your computer (up to 2GB) over the web. You can install it on multiple computers and if you can’t install it, you can grab your files over the web. I’ve also heard rumor of a portable version that would allow you to have a thumb drive that synced with dropbox. I need to get a big enough thumb drive, but don’t worry, I’ll get there. Currently, I’m using it to keep my working files in a convenient location.

Wired has a great article about what really makes GTA IV a great game. I have been staving off my temptations to get the game because of the many freelance jobs I picked up earlier in the year that I must focus on and finish by the summer. Also, I’m planning a wedding, and that always trumps video games. Besides, Bully is still really entertaining to me. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the day that I can play GTA IV uninterrupted and explore the sprawling landscape of Liberty City. …sigh… Though I’m not sure how long sandbox genre games can survive without being MMO in scope. Just a predictive tidbit.

Freeware genius just put out a little ditty on a piece of software I’m planning on trying out called Xneat. I’ll let you, my faithful reader know how it goes. Its supposed to help manage your windows. We’ll see about that.

Finally, a web2.0 grammar checking site called gramlee. I’m gonna put this post through its engine to see what kind of filth it spits out. I’ll get back to you on that as well.

*edit* BUT WHOA! for gramlee it appears that you have to pay per word. Apparently real people are editing these. To that I say:

1. That’s not web2.0
2. People are so out, computer programs are so in. Get with it.
3. Also, pay-for services are lame.

***Here’s what gramlee thinks of my first 100 words***

There’s some news about neat software and games today. Politics are stupid
and boring.

Wired Magazine has a great article about what really makes GTA IV a great
game. I have been staving off my temptations to get the game because of the
many freelance jobs I picked up earlier in the year. My deadline for the
deliverables for these various jobs is this summer. Also, I’m planning a
wedding, and that always trumps video games. Besides, Bully still entertains
me. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the day I can play GTA IV
uninterrupted and explore the sprawling landscape of Liberty City.

***Funny right? I think so***

If you’re going to get a new cellphone, you may want to check out exPhone to find good directions on how to donate or recycle your old cellphone.

Also in the cellphone sphere of the webernet, check out cellswaper. You can sign-on and swap around your annoying contract to either get a shorter one or get rid of your old one.

Freak out about oil? Freak out about water? Just freak out because humans will destroy the earth? I dunno, but here’s a couple articles about 1) running out of water and 2) stop drinking bottled water.

A really boring article about yawning.

Hilarious blog entry about Iranian news reporting that 1)the US (implied) is using squirrels to spy on Iran and 2) that

Maybe, Imam will use UFOs to attack his enemies.

Now, I’m not saying this is a valid source (note the massive attack of popup ads), but it is at least entertaining.

I’ve probably blogged about this before but, the open sourced cellphone has begun selling developer editions for 300$ or so. I’ll be keeping my eye on this over the next couple of years. I’m not sure but as far as I know this is the first example of a commercially available opensourced hardware/software object.

while i’m still skeptical about carbon output issues, makemesustainable is a neat take on social webbing that let’s you calculate your carbon footprint and take practical steps to reduce it.

And I’ve got a bit of a triple play with lifehacker and desk oriented goodness today, so I’ll submit to you this article on desk organization. Not that I need it. I’m desk OCD.

I’ve been following some really neat articles on one of my “geeky” subscriptions (probably lifehacker again, but i can’t tell) about eliminating wallet size, and came across a great carabeaner (sp?) wallet. As soon as I find out about the local legality of ID hole punching, I’m on my way!

Totally insane! Change the channels and the volume while having a pillowfight! KIYA!

I haven’t tested this yet, but there’s a neat-looking Real-Costs firefox plugin that purports to show carbon offsets when setting up flights online. It seems they also have a google maps driving version in the works as well. Note: I’m not totally convinced about the whole carbon offset stuff, I’m just interested in alternative resources.

Big news in the drugs and miscellaneous abusables department – Absinthe will be available soon in the US. For those of you wondering, it is illegal to sell and import absinthe, but not really illegal to consume it. At one time or another I have considered having some smuggled/air mailed to me, but without much fruit to the idea.

Dell announced this morning that it will begin selling pcs installed with ubuntu. Based on my experience, I just hope it works with the video card and two monitors.

Interesting, common sense blog article on Free and Open Sourced Software (FOSS). While this article is probably a little oversimplified, I’m always interested in the benefits/drawback of free software that you can reprogram yourself (if you’ve got the programming resources).

A new virus was discovered in Australia after three patients received transplants and subsequently died. Their organs were from the same donor. Somewhat gruesome, but the doctors seem upbeat simply on the fact that they were able to detect and will be able to test it further.

Mac’s are hack-proof… sort of. I didn’t see any specifics on the rules that were laxed to make this possible. I find it interesting that he spent 9 hours programming the site to exploit the security hole. Intense.

I’m not totally versed in N. Korean culture. But this UK Times article about a man not selling them anymore giant rabbits for consumption is just cool. (That they are using rabbits as food, not that he’s not selling to N. Korea anymore). Because rabbits reproduce so quickly, this seems like a great way to relieve some food shortage issues.

The Twinky vs. the Carrot? A great article on obesity, caloric pricing, the Farm Bill and politics. Via Megnut.

Some phenomenal hand-made electronica instruments. I really need to try my hand at some of this. Sigh. Via Made.

A free and open sourced bass synth modeled after the Roland TB-303. (NOT A CLONE, mind you). Another musical project endeavor. Sigh, sigh.

Article from BBC on sleep and how much you should be getting. 8 hours isn’t really standard, the article says about 7.25 is OK. I think I need like 9, because I’m always tired at work. There’s just not enough time in the day for sleep.

The leader, Boris Yeltsin, is dead. His career seems to be marked with varying highs and lows. He seemingly ushered both democracy and economic decline into Russia.

Japanese like the wii so much they’re making cell phones with motion-based games. I just wish that instead of having their own games, they could connect to the wii and be used to some capacity. A NINE+ BUTTON CONTROLLER WITH MOTION! overkill? nahhh