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.

And second, as I read this brief article, I found myself somewhat wishing to be this kid.

Even if he gets deported, at least he picked a good country to get deported to.

GM is officially on it’s way to bankruptcy. I remember hearing stories about exactly how long it could survive a strike before it went kaput, but that was all hearsay. At any rate, UAW went on strike at 11am after GM and the UAW failed to reach an agreement. GM has about a one month supply of cars in stock, so we’ll wait and see what happens. If the car industry is an indication of the national economy, I hope this doesn’t go as poorly as it could.

Remember that Sci-fi Sliders? Yeah they’ve proved that there could be an infinite number of parallel universes mathematically. Duh duh duhhhhnnnn. Maybe I’ll wake up and women are ruling a world where we’ve taught apes to talk and they tell us that they want to eat dolphins.

No cheap, urban wifi? Say it ain’t so. But not like you didn’t see this coming.

I will be using this tool to setup my upcoming new desk space in my new apartment. I also recommend anyone to use this who really hates sitting at their desk because it’s so damn uncomfortable.

I first learned about Jobs and Wozniak when I did a research paper called something like, “The history of hacking: an introduction to monopolies, politics, and phreaking.” (or something like that… it was awhile ago). I found this historical article through Fake Steve Jobs (I’m too lazy to link, just google it). They were hackers before Jobs, Woz and Gates turned evil. (Gates went first, and probably the farthest into user-rights-hell, Woz just got completely lost, and Jobs probably just figured everything was too ugly for him and then realized he could make everything pretty once again and came back… evil).

What I hope will be the ugly-evite-killer. Complete with party to-do lists.

Next up on the DIY massacre are SLAP BRACELETS. That’s right those insane pieces of metal that they banned from elementary school because of rumors of slit wrists. Oh man, do I love/hate the 80′s. Also, dear brother, notice that the name of the article submitter is the name of one of your favorite 80′s songs.

And finally for the audiophile/yard sale addict in us all – the speaker/headset in an old phone receiver. a must for any dj or musician that’s bored with typical instruments… or just likes to goof around.

Next up is a great entry on Belorussian movie posters. I love Belarus. Nuff said.

A new translation of the bible! IN LEGOS! (Ok so not really a translation, but you know, whatever) Actually I think I saw this some time ago floating out there in space, but I just recently clicked through to it on some blog or another, so I thought I might share it with the crew. Now study up!

And from the factoid department comes the coldest place in north america. Along with a really spiffy picture of a guy and his frozen beard/companion

I forget where I stumbled on this, but here it is: a nautical map of internet communities. This reminds me of the software war map, but I forget where I saw that. Oh well, moving on.

Next up are a series of make goodies I found particularly interesting for various reasons. The first two are guitar hero hacks! I’ve always wanted to turn my old fender into a guitar hero controller. Chalk one more up to the diy project list. The second looks like a piece of software that turns your guitar hero controller into a sampler. I’ll have to combine that with some kind of midi hack for my reason/ableton setup.

The last make tidbit is a write up about the new WORLD OF WARCRAFT REWARDS VISA CARD. Oh holy crap. I’d get this but I don’t play anymore. Maybe if they came out with an LOTR card, and I actually got LOTR, and played LOTR. But I’m too busy playing Gears of War and Saints Row right now.

Stumbled onto this cool site that documents speed traps (apparently truckers call highway cops “bears”), new little factoid for me. Unfortunately I didn’t find it too useful for the Philly area mostly because if there is a trap listed they try and get you to buy some book or something first. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just file this under “one of those great ideas that is ruined by commercialism.” But see for yourself.

Really neat artist site. Of particular interest were the dress tents. A visually fun stop on in the vast infinity of the internet.

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