Replacement battery for Android Dev Phone 1

This is a long pending post that I wanted to write. In April, after about a year of purchase of my Android Dev Phone 1 (a.k.a. ADP1), its battery started draining out. It became so bad that that I had to keep the phone always on charging. While at home/office, I used to charge it using USB/AC power. While driving, I kept it charging using a nifty car adapter.

After about a week of frustration and laziness (to search for a fix), I decided to buy a replacement battery. But the question was, whom do I contact for the replacement battery? HTC? Google? or Brightstar (the distributor) ? Phew….

MySQL GUI Tools (Query Browser, Administrator) for Fedora 13

In Fedora Linux, the mysql-gui-tools package provides the graphical (or GUI) clients to query and administer a MySQL database – useful alternatives to the command line client.

While I’m very comfortable with the mysql command line client, I do switch to the GUI query browser to add/edit stored procedures/functions.

“yum install mysql-gui-tools” was the simplest command to install the GUI tools for MySQL in Fedora Linux. But in Fedora 13, this results in “No package mysql-gui-tools available”.

So what happened here?

Solved: ‘requires bundle org.eclipse.wst.xml.core’ error, while installing Google Plugin in Fedora Eclipse

The simplest way to get started with developing for Google App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Google Wave is to use the Google Plugin for the Eclipse IDE. This plugin installs the SDK as well. Eclipse’s built-in wizard to add new software (plugin) makes it very easy to install the Google plugin. This wizard can be supplied with a URL (http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.5 in this case) to a download site. Henceforth, Eclipse takes care of downloading and installing the plugin, along with associated dependencies, bundle or required software.

However, for me, installing the Google Plugin didn’t go as smooth as expected. I have been using Fedora Linux on my laptop since the last 5+ years. Fedora ships with the Eclipse IDE. When I tried installing the Google Plugin in Fedora Eclipse, I faced the following error.

Solved: Garbled text in Putty

Putty is a popular and free Linux terminal/shell client for Windows. It allows one to connect to a Linux server using SSH (Secure Shell) or Telnet. I have been using it for as long as I can recall. But this issue of garbled text in Putty is what I have been ignoring, until yesterday.

Yesterday, I had setup Paradox database using DOSEMU on Linux, for a client. On Putty, the Paradox interface showed garbled making it unusable for the client. My instant suspect was DOSEMU. A quick check revealed that it’s happening with other apps too - those with a ncurses or text based user interface.

Drupal 6: Different Page Templates for different Content Types

Given the flexibility of Drupal, a different page template depending on the Content Type is not very demanding. The good news is, it is very much possible. The bad news is you may have to struggle like me to find the simplest, neatest and working method to achieve it.

Reading the documentation and Googling would result in many methods – some are confusing, some are not so neat and others apply to earlier versions of Drupal. Following is my favourite method to setup different page templates, depending on the Content Type, in Drupal 6.

E-mail notification for new or updated Google Wave

A few days back, this feature was introduced in Google Wave. This new feature allows you to setup E-mail notifications for new Waves and updated Waves i.e. new and updated Blips or messages in a Wave.

To enable E-mail notifications, login into Google Wave. Move your mouse over Inbox (on the left). Click on the Arrow (pointing downwards) and select Notifications.

Microsoft Tag Reader for Android

What is Microsoft Tag? In simple words, Microsoft Tag allows you to store information in images (Tags). More on Microsoft Tag can be found here. My excitement about Microsoft Tag is, the Tag Reader app is now available for Android phones.  

I own an Android Dev Phone 1 (a.k.a. ADP1). It was just today that Microsoft Tag Reader app for Android was announced. The Tag Reader app allows to scan, extract and store information in Microsoft Tags using the phone’s camera.

Android: How to change the Google Account without a hard reset

I own an Android Dev Phone 1, also called ADP1. The phone prompted to setup a Google Account as the very first step, before I can start using it. For the Google Account, I used my credentials for Google Apps Standard Edition , though I also have a regular GMail account.

I supply my Google Apps credentials each time I wipe off (hard reset) the phone. Though optional, I wipe off the phone’s data whenever I update my phone with a new ROM. Following the official and non official upgrades, I’m currently running CyanogenMod 4.2.14.1 on my ADP1.

Then came a day when I did not want to wipe off the data but only wanted to change the Google Account associated with the phone.

Google Buzz on maps in Android

It was the morning of 10th February, when I got to know that Google Buzz is rolling out to users. Was disappointed to not to spot it in my Google Apps (Standard) and in my GMail. Learnt that Google Buzz also works on Google Maps on mobile phones.

I guessed that it would require a Google Maps upgrade on the phone. Instantly fired Android Market on my Android Dev Phone 1 (a.k.a. ADP1), clicked on the Downloads tab and was greeted by an available upgrade to Google Maps – Google Maps version 4.0.0. Opted to install the upgrade hoping to spot the Buzz on the maps but alas – it wasn’t a smooth sail.

Use Google Wave to Blog

I have been thinking about this idea ever since I started playing with Google Wave. How about creating a blog post by embedding Waves – one for the post and the other for comments. The former Wave will be editable only by me, while the latter will be editable by anyone (with a Google Wave account).

A blog post using Google Wave for content and comments

This became possible, recently, with the introduction of the read-only access feature. I created a blog post with a Wave talking about the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Google Wave and a blank (to start with) Wave for comments. Click here to see this blog post. This was achieved as follows: