Now the issue was, many JPEG images, especially the larger ones, loaded up only partially in a Web browser (both Internet Explorer and Firefox). What made them load fully was pressing CTRL+R or clicking on Refresh/Reload several times. Bandwidth wasn’t an issue here, since this problem occurred even when browsing the JPEGs from the local network.

At first, I doubted that it could be an issue with the way the JPEGs are produced, something related to the progressive rendering et al. But then I came across an instance (too involved to explain it here) which proved me wrong.

Testing the case further, I found that the JPEGs load absolutely fine in the Web browser, when opened up via File>Open – instead of hitting the Web Server. This made me turn my eyes onto the Apache Web server. Googling around and reading the comments in the Apache configuration file gave a few hints. With some hit-n-trial, the solution that worked for me is as follows:

• Login as root
• Open the httpd.conf file (the configuration file of Apache Web server) in a text editor (like vi). On RedHat/Fedora/CentOS Linux, this file can be found in the directory /etc/httpd/conf
• Append the following line to the end of the file:

  EnableSendfile off
  

• Save the file.
• Reload or restart the web server. On a RedHat/Fedora/CentOS Linux the command ’service httpd reload’ can be used for the same.

The EnableSendFile directive in Apache is documented as: “Control whether the sendfile kernel support is used to deliver files (assuming that the OS supports it). The default is on; turn this off if you serve from NFS-mounted filesystems.”

What caught my attention was “turn this off if you serve from NFS-mounted filesystems”. But, in my case, the JPEG files were mounted via CIFS and not NFS. But reading more about the EnableSendFile directive at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#enablesendfile, reveals the it affects even SMB (and hence CIFS) or any other network mounted files. Following is the snippet from the document:

With a network-mounted DocumentRoot (e.g., NFS or SMB), the kernel may be unable to serve the network file through its own cache.

Also, I guess, this solution is not specific to JPEG files. The above mentioned issue and the solution should be applicable to other file types too, which are served from a network mounted drive.

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….

While I was Googling around to find an answer, I came across the site of Mugen Power http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/. It looked interesting enough to try shipping a replacement battery from here. So I decided to chuck out Google, HTC and Brightstar and go for Mugen Power. But it wasn’t a joy ride to start with. The first stumbling block was as follows:

Will Mugen Power’s ‘TMobile G1 Dream battery’ work for ADP1?
The battery that Mugen Power sells is labelled for TMobile G1 Dream. While TMobile G1 Dream and ADP1 are the same hardware, I didn’t want to take any chances.

So, I filled up the Contact Us form on the website asking whether the same battery will work for my ADP1. I got an E-mail reply within 4 hours asking me to send the photographs of the phone’s battery. After sending the photographs, I got a reply within 7 hours confirming that the T-Mobile G1’s battery will fit in my ADP1. The E-mail also mentioned the link http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/htc/htc-dream.html from where I could buy the battery.

The take home from the above are:

• While the responses were coming from a Gmail address , Mugen Power’s support is quick and effective.
• The battery for T-Mobile’s G1, sold by Mugen Power, fits in and works for an Android Dev Phone 1.

The shipping experience
Following the link, I bought “Mugen Power HTC Dream T-mobile Google Phone G1 1200mAh Extended Replacement Battery [HLI-G1SL]“. Sorry for the long name, but that’s what it is called.

Note that I went for the 1200 mAh battery. The battery which ships with ADP1 is a 1150 mAh – so this Mugen Battery was hardly an extended battery. But, one can also go for 2400 or the 3900 mAh batteries which will keep your phone powered up for days! But note that the 2400 and 3900 mAh options need a extended battery cover due to the size of the battery. Fortunately the battery cover is shipped alongwith.

Coming back to my shipping experience, I ordered the 1200 mAh battery priced @ $26.95. I went for Free Shipping and not for the Speedpost option. The latter costs $36.13 (more than the cost of the battery!) but promises delivery within 2-6 business days. Free shipping quoted a delivery within 10-15 business days. But guess what, I received the battery in 8 days! I placed the order on 29 April and it got delivered to my residence at New Delhi, India on 8 May.

Seems I was lucky because one of my friends who ordered an extended battery for his HTC Touch, received the battery after 15 days at Gurgaon, Haryana, India.

Note that there were no import or customs duty to pay. That is, I owned the battery at the cost of $26.95 (all inclusive).

To sum up, the Mugen Power battery came to rescue when I was desperate. When fully charged, the battery keeps the phone alive for about 7-8 hours under heavy usage – Twitter, Facebook and E-mail sync, WiFi and GPS at times, screen at its full brightness and active wallpaper! This performance is almost same as that of the ADP1’s battery – which it shipped with. My phone is powered by Mugen Power battery for more than a month now.

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?

Why Fedora 13 repositories don’t have mysql-gui-tools package ?
The reason for this is explained in a bug report here. In a nutshell, the explanation is, the MySQL GUI tools is purposely removed from the Fedora 13 repositories because they have been buggy! Fair enough – it has crashed on me many a times.

But what is the alternative? The thread in the bug report suggests that it will be replaced with MySQL Workbench. That’s great! MySQL Workbench has many more features. So now can I issue a ‘yum-install mysql-workbench’ to have it installed on Fedora 13? The answer is no. This is because the bug report sums up with the following note:

mysql-workbench has not finished its review yet.  this is due to the enormous
amount of work needed as the mysql team follows lots of bad practices.

Until we can cleanly and sanely package mysql-workbench there will be nothing
available on fedora. 

The above reply is dated June 17, 2010. A 'no release date' left me desperate to look around (google).

The solution
There is always a solution and Google leads us to it. In a nutshell, I installed MySQL Workbench  from the Remi repository. A quick install of MySQL Workbench, on Fedora 13, is as follows:

• Login as root
• Open a terminal window in GNOME/KDE or switch to the command line
• Issue the command:

  rpm --import http://rpms.famillecollet.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-remi 

• Next, issue the command:

  yum install http://rpms.famillecollet.com/remi-release-13.rpm

• Open the file named remi.repo, found in the directory /etc/yum.repos.d, in a text editor (say vi) and change line no. 5 from:
  enabled=0 to enabled=1
  This will enable the [remi] repository.

• Finally issue:

  yum install mysql-workbench

  to install MySQL Workbench on Fedora 13.

Henceforth, MySQL Workbench can be launched via a terminal window by issuing mysql-workbench or it can be found under Applications >Programming in GNOME.

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. This error surfaced with Eclipse 3.5 on Fedora 12 and Fedora 13.

Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found.

  Software being installed: Google Plugin for Eclipse 3.5 1.3.2.v201003242055
                                        (com.google.gdt.eclipse.suite.e35.feature.feature.group 1.3.2.v201003242055)

  Missing requirement: Google App Engine Plugin 1.3.2.v201003242055
                                   (com.google.appengine.eclipse.core 1.3.2.v201003242055)
                                   requires 'bundle org.eclipse.wst.xml.core 0.0.0' but it could not be found

  Cannot satisfy dependency:
              From: Google Plugin for Eclipse 3.5 1.3.2.v201003242055
              (com.google.gdt.eclipse.suite.e35.feature.feature.group 1.3.2.v201003242055)
              To: com.google.appengine.eclipse.core [1.3.2.v201003242055]

Googling around gives numerous solutions – from using a third party repository (with a broken link ) to installing “Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers” from www.eclipse.org. But the solution that worked for me was the simplest. Please note that this issue and the following solution could be specific to Eclipse on Fedora and Google Plugin.

The Solution
Launch Eclipse. Click on Help>Install New Software. On the subsequent window titled “Available Software”, click on blue link ‘Available Software Sites’. Look for the URL http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo in the list of Software Sites. Select and click on Enable (button on the right). Click on OK.

Enable the Galileo software site before installing the Google Plugin

Back on the “Available Software” window, type the URL http://dl.google.com/eclipse/plugin/3.5 in the field labeled “Work with:” . Click on Add. This will show Plugin and SDKs in the bottom pane. Check the boxes against them and click on Next. Follow the onscreen instructions. This will install the Google plugin and SDK. When prompted, restart Eclipse.

A few Troubleshooting Tips
On a freshly installed Eclipse, all software sites are disabled by default. This may not be true, if you have been updating or installing other plugins in Eclipse. I recall that, on Fedora 12, I faced the issue of numerous conflicts till I disabled all but the http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo site. Bottom line: before installing the Google Plugin, make sure that you only have the Galileo site enabled.

Second, this happened to me once that, even after following the above steps I got the same error. It seemed that Eclipse had problem in downloading the required software and ended up throwing the same error, instead of reporting a failed download. In this case, restart Eclipse, else you may keep getting the same error on retries. After restart, follow the steps mentioned in The Solution again.

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.For example: The garbled text, around the borders of UI elements, showed in ntsysv (as shown in the screenshots). ntsysv is a nifty console app, found in RedHat/CentOS/Fedora Linux, to start services during boot up.

The Solution
Launch Putty. On the Category pane (on the left), click on Windows>Translation. For the dropdown labeled “Received data assumed to be in which character set”, select UTF-8. To save this setting, click on Sessions (in the Category pane). On the right pane, select “Default Settings” and click on the button labeled Save. This is what worked for me with Putty version 0.60.

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.

What is a Page Template
This is the template which contains a Node. This must not be mistaken with the node template, for example, a Story node which displays the title, teaser, images, comment form and et al. In Drupal, the default page template is written in the file named page.tpl.php (and the node template is in node.tpl.php).

It is the page template with which you can display three columns for certain content types and two columns for others. It is the page template using which you can dictate the column which will show a Story, a Blog entry, a Forum topic or a Webform. This template is where you insert the Regions for Blocks and Views.

A Neat Solution
Append or write the following code in a file named template.php in your theme’s directory:

<?php
function <theme-name>_preprocess_page(& $vars) {
	if (isset ($vars['node']) && $vars['node']->type == "blog") {
		$vars['template_files'] = array();
		$vars['template_files'][] = 'page-blog';
	}

	if (isset ($vars['node']) && $vars['node']->type == "forum") {
		$vars['template_files'] = array();
		$vars['template_files'][] = 'page-forum';
	}

	if (isset ($vars['node']) && $vars['node']->type == "webform") {
		$vars['template_files'] = array();
		$vars['template_files'][] = 'page-webform';
	}
}
?>

In the above code replace <theme-name>, in the name of the function, with the name of your Theme’s directory. For example, suppose the name of your Theme’s directory is “blue”, then:

function blue_preprocess_page(& $vars)

Now all you need to do is what you are most creative at. Write the templates for each content type. Drop files in your theme’s directory named page-blog.tpl.php, page-forum.tpl.php and page-webform.tpl.php for the Blog entry, Form topic and Webform  respectively. Feel free to set different page layouts and Regions in these files. Note that any Content Type which is not specified in the above code will use page.tpl.php – the default page template. For example, in this case, the Story content type will use page.tpl.php.

Important: Log into Drupal as admin and goto Administrator>Site configuration>Performance and click on the button “Clear cached data” (at the bottom).

I prefer this solution because the template selection logic goes separated into a different file, leaving the Page templates friendly for a designer. Plus, template.php is the logical place to add overrides or specific behaviour. Most likely a seasoned Drupal developer will first look into this file for customizations.

Created or added a new content type? All you need is to add another IF block in the above code and drop a new page template. Before concluding that it is not working for you, do remember to clear the cache.

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.

Google Wave: E-mail Notification Feature

You can opt to get notified about new and updated Waves immediately (as it happens), hourly or weekly. The notifications are sent to the E-mail address associated with your Google Wave. This will be the GMail or Google Apps (in my case) E-mail address at which you got the Google Wave invite.

I tested it with “immediately” option and found that Google Wave sends an E-mail when

• A new Wave is created and you are added as a participant
• A new Blip (message) is created in a Wave in which you are a participant
• When an existing Blip is updated in the Wave in which you are participating

Google Wave will not send a notification when:

• It has already sent you notification for a new or updated Wave. It will not send any further notification for any update in that particular Wave, till you log into Google Wave and click on the new or updated Wave.

A new Wave E-mail Notification sent by Google Wave

Issues/Bugs:

• The notifications are sent even when you are using Google Wave – logged into it and seeing the Waves. Why a notification when I can see a new Wave(s) being created and updated in front of me ? So what if I choose to click on them after sometime. Ideally the notifications should be sent after I have closed the Google Wave window on my Web Browser. I said “closed” and not logged out because logging out of Google Wave may mean to log out from other Google apps too.
• The “Immediately” notification is not so immediate. Few notifications were delayed by as long as 14 minutes! Though at times I have received the notification within a minute. This does not fit well with a real time app like Google Wave. Immediate notifications must be “immediate”, as it happens and within seconds.
• The notification settings link in the E-mail (notification) just opens Google Wave and does not show the Window or popup to change the settings. Note that this bug is a known issue as per the Google Wave blog.

Good to have in the next version:

1. There should be a provision to send notifications to any E-mail address and not only to the associated Gmail or Google Apps E-mail address.
2. The notification settings, besides being system wide and applicable to all Waves, should be present for individual Waves too. The notification settings for individual Waves should override the system wide settings. This way one can subscribe to notifications only for the Wave in which he/she is interested.
3. If point 2 is implemented, there should be an exclusive option to get notified about New Waves created by others – where you are added as a participant.

I was wanting this feature so much that last year I wrote a Robot for my own use (with a hard coded E-mail address) to send me notifications for updates in Waves. I add this Robot to the Waves of my interest. I even wrote an article in PCQuest magazine about this Robot. For those who are interested in the code, refer to this link at the PCQuest forums to download the article with the code intact. If Google Wave could bring the Notification settings to individual Waves, I would no longer need to use my Robot.

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.

I wasted no time in firing up Android Market on my ADP1 and searched for “microsoft”. And voila Microsoft Tag Reader showed up on the top, in the list of apps. Installed it. Alternatively, one can browse to the URL  http://gettag.mobi using the Android’s web browser. This will automatically launch the Android Markert app, prompting to install Microsoft Tag Reader.

To see the app in action, you will need to have a Microsoft Tag handy. One of the quickest way is to create your own at http://www.microsoft.com/tag/. The different types of information that one can store in a Tag are URL, Free Text, vCard and Dialer. The Microsoft Tag Reader is well integrated with Android and invokes the appropriate actions for each of these types like - launching the web browser with the URL, displaying the text, storing the vCard into Android’s Contacts and launching the Dialer with the number.

Pros

• Instant and fast scanning
• Integrated with Android apps like Web browser, Contacts and Dialer

Whilst there are some cons too

Cons

• VCard: Does not store IM Address in Contact’s Chat addresses.
• VCard: This seems to be a bug. In case of commas (,) in the address or any other fields, the Tag Reader prefixes a backslash (\) to each comma. For example: an address like “124-A, New Delhi” is stored as “124-A\, New Delhi” in the Android’s Contacts 
• The app displays the text for Free Text but does not allow to copy (for copy-n-paste) – a good to have feature.

Cons aside (its likely that these will be fixed in the next version), the noteworthy point is Micrsoft Tag Reader is the first ever Android app from Microsoft!

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.This was the day when I wanted to play with Google Buzz which requires a GMail or non Google Apps account. I googled around and found solutions suggesting:

• Clear data for Gmail and Gmail storage under Manage Applications
• Clear data for Google Apps and you will see a message in the Android’s notification bar to setup a new Google account.

None of these worked for me. What worked for me is as follows:

• Goto Home (by clicking on the Home hardware button).
• Click on Menu (hardware button)
• Click/touch on Settings>Applications>Manage Applications.
• Click on Google Apps.
• Click on the button labelled “Clear data”
• When prompted with “All information you’ve saved in this application will be deleted permanently”, click on OK
• Subsequently, click on back button thrice and then click on “Data synchronization”. Alternatively, click on Home>Menu>Settings>Data synchronizaion.
• This will start the wizard which will prompt for a new Google account. This wizard is the same that you would have seen when you first (after you bought it) powered on the phone or whenever you wipe off the phone’s data.

This is what helped me in testing out Google Buzz on Google Maps on my Android phone. In your case, this may simply help you in changing the Google Account without hard resetting your Android.

Update (February 14, 2009): After following the above procedure, I noticed that though my E-mails were syncing, I could not search my E-mails. Whenever I typed in a search keyword in the GMail app and clicked on the search button, I saw a message saying something as “E-mails will sync shortly”. This can be fixed as follows. Goto Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>Gmail. Click on “Clear data” button.

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. After the upgrade, I fired the Google Maps app on my ADP1. clicked on Menu>Layers>Buzz and spotted a new icon  on the maps. Clicking on the icon showed me a screen where I could post a new Buzz (a message).

Post a Google Buzz using Maps on Android

Along with typing a text message, this screen also allowed me to upload a new photo that I could click via the phone’s camera or select an existing picture from the Android phone’s Gallery. Once I posted a Buzz, I could see a new speech bubble on the map at my current location – determined via GPS or Cell location (without GPS).  Over time, I realized, I could see only my Buzzes. Was no one else buzzing?

Buzz is not for Google Apps
Later during the day, I realized that my friends, using their GMail account, could see other’s Buzzes on their Nokia phones. Also they could not see my Buzzes.

I instantly suspected that it could be all because of using a Google Apps (not GMail) credentials on my Android phone. My Android phone is tied up with a Google Apps Standard Edition account which is not a regular GMail/Google account. That’s when I got onto the Net and  this blog post confirmed my suspicion. But the confusion remained for a while. How could I post a Buzz (as said above) but not see other’s Buzzes?

So I spent the remaining day (of 10th February) and 11th February ensuring that Google Buzz indeed does not work with an Android using Google Apps account. I changed my ADP1’s Google account from Apps to a regular GMail account as explained in this blog post – Android: How to change the Google Account without a hard reset. Subsequently,  I changed it back from GMail to Apps. Kept flipping the accounts several times. Witnessed a few erratic and confusing behaviour – call it caching. Eventually, I concluded the following:

• Google Buzz on maps in Android works with a regular GMail account and not with a Google Apps account.
• If you are switching from a Google Apps account to a GMail account on Android after installing Google Maps 4.0, refer to the following:
  1. Launch Android Market
  2. Click on the Downloads tab
  3. Select Google Maps
  4. Click on the button “Uninstall updates”. This will downgrade Google Maps.
  5. Subsequently, reinstall/update to Google Maps 4.0.0
  6. Now, launch Google Maps and click on Menu>Layers>Buzz
  7. And voila, you should be able to see what others are Buzzing on the map.
     

     Google Buzz on Maps in Android on February 10

• Buzz should work, if you have switched from a Google Apps account to a GMail account before installing Google Maps 4.0.0

Clicking on a bubble shows the Buzz with Photo (if any)

A few other observations and notes:

• Buzz on Google Maps for Mobile has no privacy settings. All your Buzzes along with photos will be visible to everyone.
• As per my friends, Google Buzz seem to work equally well on Google Maps in Nokia and Windows Mobile. Nokia and Windows mobile users can goto http://m.google.com/maps to install/upgrade Google Maps to version 4.0.0.
• As reported by friends using Nokia, the Buzzes may disappear at times. In this case, removing and adding the Buzz layer on Google Maps will show the Buzzes again.
• Seems that the “speech bubbles” for Buzzes, older than a day, disappear from the map.
  

  A list of all the Buzz at a location, along with comments

While I have been playing with Buzz on my Android for the last two days, I may soon switch back to my Google Apps account. I can’t sacrifice my official E-mails on Android for the Buzz. Hope, Google Buzz for Google Apps is released soon. In the meanwhile I will play with Google Buzz on my Gmail account