Blog of an ICT teacher
For reference for myself and anyone else who happens upon the error E: Internal Error, Could not perform immediate configuration (2) on initramfs-tools when trying to upgrade a Linux machine, it can be resolved using:
cd /var/cache/apt/archives
sudo dpkg -i --force-all initramfs-tools*
sudo apt-get -f install
In a break from the usual Teaching posts, I descend into a bit of geek.
Having spoken to a few people recently about how I handle my data, I thought it’d be useful to post the process. Here’s how I keep two laptops, two Operating Systems and a USB stick synced with Dropbox, shared partions and Synctoy.
It looks complicated, but it’s out of necessity; I have to share data between 3 locations and two Operating Systems.
The Macbook is my main laptop which runs just Kubuntu. This is nice and simple, anything changed on here gets synced via Dropbox.
The NC10 is my school laptop bought as it was super-light, and also I didn’t have a Windows install before that. I use it to deliver lessons, but I don’t have access to wireless or the school network. It runs dual-boot, with a shared FAT partition between Windows and Linux. The hard drive is paritioned into two, the latter being mounted as ‘My Documents’ in Windows. This is then mounted to /media/ under Linux and my Linux folders are symlinked to the appropriate ones on the partition. This lets me have data on just Windows, and just Linux, and to share certain folders which are always the same. Both OS are running Dropbox too so the shared folders are synced to the Macbook.
As mentioned, I don’t have access to the school network so I need to use a USB drive to get data to and from it. I use Windows Synctoy to keep the folders from the Windows’ Dropbox synced with the folders on the USB. If I add anything to the USB it gets back to Windows and therefore Dropbox (and vice-versa).
So there we have it (I think), a setup which stops me having to think about my data and let software keep it organised for me.
So I’ve had the G1 for a good few months now and it’s pretty awesome except for the well-publicised battery issues. Now, I’ve recently started commuting which involves a fair period on the train and tube. Since I started, it seemed to be even worse battery life but I thought I was just imaging it; the battery didn’t seem to last until I got home however, this definitely seemed shorter.
It turns out that for whatever reason, the G1 really sucks when it doesn’t have a signal; it seems to rape the battery when it loses a signal while it frantically polls to find a reception. I installed Locale (a must-have app anyway) and an airplane mode plug-in for it and turned on airplane mode for the times I was travelling. The results are amazing, it literally lasts about twice as long.
Now, it goes without saying that this shouldn’t be necessary, the iPhone doesn’t need dirty hacks to last the day, but the battery issues were well publicised before I bought it. I hope this helps someone with their battery woes.
If you (like me, and apparently scores of others) are having problem with o2 Broadband and it dropping connections, it’s down to its crappy DNS. I recommend changing the router’s DNS to something like OpenDNS or Google DNS (which the Howto uses) for the time being.
Below is a post that I posted to the VLE of the school I am currently at. I don’t make any revolutionary claims here, I would imagine that all of the tools have at least been discussed, if not used, in schools already; this was just what I thought might be useful for this school.
I’ve been trying to get a Microsoft live@edu email account set up on Android’s work email application which uses Activesync. This has only been tested with specifically live@edu accounts but any Windows Live-based email might work. The information needed to do it is out there but it’s really not very easy to find. Here is what worked for me.
My email was in the form username@live.uni.ac.uk.
Email address: username@live.uni.ac.uk.
Server address: m.exchangelabs.com
Username: username@live.uni.ac.uk.
SSL: On
If you’re stupid enough like me to manage to SIM lock your G1/Dream, you might wonder how to unlock it with a PUK code seeing as there’s apparently nowhere to enter it on a G1/Dream. The process is to click ‘Emergency call’ and enter:
**05*$puk_code*$new_pin*$new_pin#
and press call. A nice sign of the times is that you can also obtain your PUK code online, with T-Mobile at least.
Hopefully this can save some people the hassle of finding this out the hard way.
You can use a Google Apps account with Android by clearing the saved data in the Google Apps application under Settings->Applications. The only snag with this is that your Google Apps account doesn’t have a Checkout account associated with it, this means that any apps your bought in the market on your old account won’t let you upgrade without buying again.
This is my review of the HTC G1 from T-Mobile. I must prefix this with saying that the G1 is my first “proper” phone, I’ve never really cared much for phones apart from being able to send a text and make a call.
Hardware
The first thing you notice about the G1 is the looks. I can’t say I’m overly bothered about how my phone looks but it’s fair to say it’s not about to win Miss Mobile UK; if the iPhone is Brad Pitt, the G1 is Adam Sandler. It’s not horrible by any means but the generous touchscreen and slide-out keyboard (both pro’s in my eyes) unfortunately do nothing for its “lines”.
Being a Linux user, looks and fashion obviously hold little to no weight in my eyes and it’s all about the software and it doing neat stuff. Android the platform is good, very good. Again, it’s probably still not quite at iPhone standards but with today’s release of cupcake (which spurred me on to write this) it’s getting pretty damn close.
One key point to note is the battery life: shitty. Really shitty. Turning off most superfluous services and not raping the internet means you can make it last from getting up ’til bed. Accidentally, I forgot to charge overnight once and it was just about alive in the morning. If you turn off absolutely everything and don’t touch it, it could probably last maybe two days but that sorta defeats the point of having a phone.
Software
The layout of the home page is pretty good, the top bar doubles as a notification area which can be pulled down to reveal more information about the notifications received. The main area on the home screen is available to place shortcuts to apps and widgets, and as of cupcake, live folders and a better selection of widgets. The interface pre-cupcake was nice and smooth, however the upgrade has really brought some more polish to the system with some nice animations which make it feel more natural.
One of the key factors in getting the phone was the integration with Google products. Now, this might not interest some people, i.e. the people that think Google is going to crack one off while reading your smutty email to the girlfriend, but if you’re not a fan of Google’s products then this probably isn’t the phone for you. The products available are: Gmail, Calendar, Contacts (which make much more sense now), Maps, Youtube and Picassa. Notably missing is Reader which I can only assume is for a good reason.
Having all the Google services on your phone only adds to their usefulness, Contact for example automatically pulls in your Gmail contacts and vice-versa syncs your phone contacts back to Gmail, which would help cut down on the number of Facebook groups created when phones are lost by a factor of at least 10. Gmail and Calendar integration is slick and unobtrusive, the usefulness of having one place to keep all your calendar appointments can’t be understated for someone who has no clue what date it is. I finally see the appeal of a Blackberry. Google Maps was pretty much for the mobile, I had a chance to use it walking around London with Street View turned on and it was the most fun I’ve had sans-lubricant.
With the cupcake upgrade, the ability to upload video to Youtube and photos to Picassa was introduced, which both work really well. If the quality of the recorded video wasn’t bad enough though, uploading Youtube wrings any last drop of quality out of it, leaving a bone-dry, shitty mess.
Apps
The Android Market is fairly new but has expanded to a fairly respectable size. It’s obviously nowhere near Apple’s but once you factor in that every 2-bit handset company will be shipping Android over their fucking awful piece of shit software they insisted inflicting on us for so many years, the user base of Android might be rivalling that of the iPhone in a few years.
Despite the relative youth of Android Market, there’s still some very decent apps. A few that spring to mind:
Honorable mentions to Last.fm, Shazam, aNetShare, Scoreboard.
I think that’s all the bases covered. All in all, a very good phone albeit with a few faults, namely battery life and looks. Are they big enough to detract from the quality of the software? Not a chance. Android has changed the playing field for phone software; a worthy competitor to the iPhone.