Keiron’s daily take on life, the internet and the world around us!

Two posts on the same day and both techie – don’t be put off, normal ranty service may well be resumed soon…

I’ve used my Windows Mobile in the past as a tethered modem for me eee pc when out and about without WiFi, it’s not always been easy but has been handy to have around!

I reinstalled my eee today, and was looking around for how I’m going to achieve this same functionality with the Milestone on Android, almost everything screamed “root your device” at me. I’m not a fan of rooting it for a lot of reasons the biggest being I don’t want to brick the device – so that’s a non-starter.

Then I spotted a handy guide from linux magazine on Tethering Android, it didn’t work straight off which was a little disappointing. So a little more digging on the Android forums, produced some additional instructions. I’m producing them here for my own benefit as well as yours – as I’m bound to forget.

1. Install “Proxoid” app from Marketplace.
   
   
2. Turn on USB debugging mode on your phone:
   
   Settings – > Application -> Development -> Enable USB Debugging
   
   
3. On your Ubuntu machine create a 90-android.rules file:
   
   gksudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/90-android.rules
   
   
4. Add the following to it (note this is the difference from the linux magazine tutorial):
   
   
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct} =="0c01", MODE="0666", OWNER="*insertyourusername"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", ATTRS{idProduct} =="0c02", MODE="0666", OWNER="*insertyourusername"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="22b8", ATTRS{idProduct} =="41db", MODE="0666", OWNER="*insertyourusername"

   * insert your username as appropriate!
   
   
5. Download and unpack the latest release of the Android SDK: http://developer.android.com/sdk/
   
   
6. Connect the phone to the Ubuntu machine with your USB cable and start Proxoid on the phone.
   
   
7. Open a Terminal, navigate to the tools directory in the Android SDK folder and run the following command:
   ./adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080
   
   

The proxy server should now be running, but to be able to use it with Firefox, you have to modify the browser’s proxy settings:

1. In Firefox, choose Edit -> Preferences and switch to the Advanced -> Network section.
   
   
2. Press the Settings button in the Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet group.
   
   
3. Select the Manual proxy configuration option, then enter localhost in the HTTP Proxy field and 8080 in the Port field. Press OK to save the settings and close the window.
   
   

Now you can browse the Web using the created connection.

Given that I’ll need to remember how to do this, when I don’t have a connection. Here’s a handy PDF with the above guide to tethering android to put on your android device!!

I know I haven’t posted in a while – but I’ve had lots going on…. Then my first post back is a techie one, I apologise (well for some of you I do anyway!).

I want a backup battery for my Motorola Droid/Milestone, I’ve already got one for my iPod Touch and it’s invaluable – but I figure if I get one with a straight USB out it can charge almost any of my devices with the right cable! This makes far more sense to me, so today I went hunting. Would you believe how hard these things are to find?

I’ve been offered rechargable batteries, battery chargers, spare batteries for the phone all sorts of things – none of which were quite what I wanted, I think this boils down to not knowing what to search for – generally most of what I found was listed as:

“Rechargeable Backup Battery Pack USB”

I’ve found to, one by an unknown manufacturer (PINES) and one by Kensington, so I start doing a little comparison on them, the features I need are:

• Small
• Light
• Capacity

Shouldn’t be that hard really, nobody can play with dimensions or weight (although there will probably be trade-offs for capacity!) but they’re pretty much standard:

Almost sold then, Kensington tell me lots of information about their pack and it’s 7wH capacity, compared to Pines 4800mAh?
Wait a minute…. Are we comparing apples with apples and beans with beans here?

What are wH and how do we convert them to mAH?

I found a useful link on camerahacker with conversions, so let’s crunch the numbers.. It’s probably easier to convert the Pines product so it is also in wH

watt = amp * volt

So,

Wh = 4.8Ah * 5.5VDC (Note we've converted the mAh to Ah by dividing it by 1000)
Wh = 26.4

Compared to the Kensington device – that’s huge! 26.4Wh vs 7Wh (and it’s cheaper!)…
Have I got something wrong here?

Most people know I’m a big rugby fan… My father-in-law sent me this today, it surely has to be one of the best tries ever?

Most people that know me know that I love my mobile phone, and it has to be a good one – simply because I run the business from it!

I rang Orange the other day to enquire what was currently on offer, and as usual they don’t have a single phone that interests me… The HTC Touch Pro 2 I did fancy is available, but not as an upgrade. I’m not convinced I want an iPhone as I’ve got my iPod Touch and it really does lack a keyboard that I need. Even if they had got a phone I’m not sure I’d upgrade because every contract is 18 or 24 months – what happened to 12 month contracts?

Locking in for 24 months on a contract seems ridiculous to me, Orange did tell me that I’d had my current phone for nearly 2 years! I had to ask them what phone they thought I’d got, they were wrong – that one has been in a box for at least a year! Technology changes so quickly that I want a bit more freedom than a 24 month contract.

So I’m in deep discussions with them at the moment about moving to a low contract Business SIM-only probably with 30 day rolling contract for £15 and a huge data bolt-on, from there I can always upgrade with them at any point I choose…

However, to make sure I have a phone I want I’ve gone SIM Free and ordered the Motorola DROID (yes, I know – for those that know me they’ll know I’ve only just left the company!). So here it is…

More posts to follow on this subject I’m sure…

I don’t like the stuff – I make no secret about that… OK I do – but only for photo’s, everything else about it I thoroughly dislike!

We’ve had almost a week of it now and I have some observations…

1. This country will never, ever, be prepared for this. Even people from countries that are used to digging their cars out of four feet of snow say it’s difficult in this country because we are just SO unprepared.
2. By law in many countries you have to clear your path and pavement in front of your home and business, doing this would reduce the risk of people slipping on pavements (they don’t grit them, so if you’ve driven to work on wonderfully gritted roads you fall over getting out of your car!).
3. Weathermen either don’t know how to react when reporting a high of –1, so they either act sarcastic or smug! Neither are appropriate – where’s that “Barbecue Summer” you promised?
4. Stockpiling helps nobody (except yourselves!) and if it thaws you’ll go out again and it will all go out of date – what a waste of money!
5. Britain does still have a sense of community and combined whinging seems to get neighbours talking!

Rant over – I’ll leave you with a photo of an igloo I found on my way home the other morning…