My phone screen is dead (well, almost...)

After almost a year after I bought my HTC TyTN from eBay, I encountered a problem with the device. And worst thing about that is it is gone when I need it the most.

The problem is known as White Screen Of Death (WSOD). Many AT&T 8525 devices had this problem. Most of them had to send their device for replacement to AT&T. But, that is not an option for me because 1) I live in India, 2) Warranty is probably expired and 3) I have unlocked this phone so, warranty is void :D

Anyway, normally I would open it and try some "hardware cleanup" but, I don't have my screwdriver kit with me. I may have to arrange a "cheap" cell phone as temporary solution. But, I will open that piece of hardware and try to make it work. Whatever happens, I will post it here...

System setup - Part II

This post is a follow-up to System setup - Part I.

I installed Ubuntu 8.10 in VMWare. By the way, I am not much of a linux user. I mostly work on Windows and mac. First and foremost, I mounted VMWare Tools driver image. Double clicking the vmware tools rpm package didn't help. Package manager returned with an error. So, I tried to compile the drivers. I'll spare you from the details but, that also didn't work for me.

Then, it suddenly struck me, why don't I install good old Windows XP as my development server OS? I can perform all the required tasks in XP then why not? So, I installed Windows XP in VMWare.

Now was the hard part. I have never setup a development server with this many roles. I wanted to make it all-in-one ALM server (at least good enough for small projects). I needed to install Java Application Server, Database, Project Management System, Bug Tracker, SCM, a Wiki for development notes and a mail server.

For Java Application Server, jBoss should have been my first choice. But, somehow I was tempted to try Glassfish and Geronimo to find out which one is better. Because, at work; we use jBoss and I was impressed by its stability and ease-of-use but, wanted to try others anyway. So, I tried them one-by-one hoping for a perfect solution.

First was the Geronimo's turn. I successfully installed it. But, when it came to deploy an application WAR, it asked for deploy plan and deployment failed. I searched for the solution. But, couldn't find any way to bypass the whole deployment plan thing. So, I moved on.

I downloaded Glassfish jar and I don't know why but, I was not able to successfully install it and run it. I tried exact installation procedure from Glassfish site twice but, couldn't got around it. I simply don't have a clue why it failed.

jBoss AS was nice except some things didn't work as I have imagined. I am using jBoss AS on mac at my work. And now I know it was mac and not jBoss which gave me ease-of-operation. But, I had no other better choice. So, I settled with jBoss.

My database choice was obvious. I installed MySQL 5.1 Community Edition.

For project management systems, I did hefty amount of research for that. I got mainstream project management tools like Collabtive, e-Groupware and multi-purpose tools with basic project management functionality like trac, Redmine etc. What I needed was an all-in-one solution or a group of application which can be configured to run together in co-operation.

First, trac seemed to be the best solution for my needs. It is basically a python based application. So, I had to install python and mysql plugins for python. I downloaded and tried to installed it on my server vm. But, again I encountered a big fat failure. I could not manage to run the server. Then I moved on to Redmine which required RoR (Ruby on Rails) to run.

Manual installation and configuration of Rails in windows is kind of problematic. This time I was prepared for a failure and I failed. After a little bit of searching, I found RubyStack from BitNami. They had many configured-out-of-the-box packages. To my surprise, I didn't even heard of it. They are providing a preconfigured RubyStack as well as Redmine out of the box. I don't want to run multiple instances of web servers so, I am going to go for Redmine Stack which contains Redmine and Subversion. I am downloading it right now and will post about it in next post.

System setup - Part I

I was away from this blog for quite some time (not only this blog, I was sort of away from internet). In all these months, many things changed around me. Among few not-so-good things happened to me, one good thing happened. I got a new system for myself. Primary target was to built a gaming-cum-development machine (yeah, I am a gamer :D); in which, I can play latest games and setup my development environment as well.

I got the system. But, now problem is - how to setup the system which will perform both of these tasks without much hassle. My plan is something like this.

- Install a single OS in system. Multi-boot is not an option because, system will be on most of the times and restarting it will take unncessary time. Of course, my OS of choice is Windows Vista. But, until I get a copy of Vista, I installed good old XP.

- Make a virtual machine running a multi-purpose linux server. It will be used as Web/Application server, Database server, subversion repository, file server etc. Long term plan is to move this virtual machine into a headless machine (machine which doesn’t have monitor or any i/o devices attached to it); which will run 24×7 eventually. I chose vmware for my virtualization platform. First, my OS of choice was obviously Fedora 10. But, I had to move to Ubuntu Server for technical issues. I’ll talk about it in detail later.

- I cannot afford to run the virtual machine all the time; espically, while gaming. It will take major performance hit. So, virtual machine should be in saved state and should be up and running in no time. I could perform this flawlessly using vmware.

Will come with the details part later.

Radio Test Results on HTC TyTN a.k.a. Hermes

I have been using a Windows Mobile 6 based HTC TyTN (Originally AT&T 8525) for a while. I came across a forum post having title How power hungry is your radio version? on xda-developers forum. I was using original 1.03 Radio from AT&T (and of course, not satisfied). I came to know for the first time that changing Radio can actually affect Power Consumption. So, I upgraded my Radio to version 1.47.30.10. It didn't gave me expected results (As it was least power hungry Radio according to mrvanx's test results). I also came to know that there are different Radio versions for different area. (For ex. x.x.07.00 were US specific Radios). I didn't found anything related to Radio versions being used in India (Yeah, I am from India). So, I decided to run tests on different radios on my own.

I also came across people here in India who had WM based phone but, didn't know anything about advantages of owning one. So, I added one section of introduction of Windows Mobile based Phones in general for those who don't know what a ROM or a Radio is. For those who know all these stuff and just interested in test results, can skip Section 1.


Section - 1: Introduction of Windows Mobile

There are mainly two types of Windows Mobile phones.

1. Windows Mobile Smartphone (More of a phone than PDA, without TouchScreen)
   
2. Windows Mobile Pocket PC (More of a PDA than Phone, with TouchScreen)
   

I don't know much about WM Smartphones. But, as far as I know, they are less flexible than PPCs. Now, about my device - it is WM PPC. There is one thing about HTC devices - Typically, they have more than one name. Most importantly, they have cool (at least I think they are cool) codenames. As for the case of HTC TyTN, it is codename Hermes. You can read more about hermes Here.

Now, let's talk about software counterpart of PPC. A PPC is more or less comparable to Personal Computers in terms of Software. They boot into OS like PCs. I am going to explain different components briefly.

Bootloader - Combination of IPL (Initial Program Load) and SPL (Secondary Program Load). In short, it "boots" the device into OS.

ROM - In general terms, it means Read Only Memory. It is the memory where software counterpart of PPC device is stored. Flashing or Upgrading ROM means replacing one or more components of ROM with another one (I am not using newer here). There components include OS, ExtROM, Radio etc.

OS - You can directly compare the OS to your PC os like Windows XP.

ExtROM - It stores the customized application/configuration data which is to be installed on each Hard Reset (Hard Reset is like Reinstalling the OS on PC. Here, all Data to be installed is already available in ExtROM. So, no need of "Windows Mobile Disc")

Radio - Don't confuse it with FM Radio. It is GSM Radio Software which controls GSM hardware on PPC device.

So, Now we know that OS is "upgradable" in PPCs along with other things like Radio. When we talk about upgrading ROM, generally it is related to OS and ExtROM only. Although, Official ROMs released by HTC contain other components like radio, IPL/SPL, too.

Upgrading ROM is a little risky. You can damage your device while upgrade if something goes wrong during upgrade. You can upgrade to respective official ROMs at your own risk without restriction.

There are many custom made ROMs, put together by (genius) people on xda-developers. (Most appropriate word is "cook" the ROM). You can also flash these "custom made" ROMs (of course at your own risk). But, before flashing other ROMs into your device, you need to CID (Carrier ID) Unlock the device first. Keep in mind, it will void your manufacturer (or any) warranty. Once it is done, it can't be undone. So, consider before taking this step.

Looking at the bright side of CID-Unlocking the device, a large world of custom ROMs awaits you. Now, I have an AT&T 8525 which came with WM5 + all AT&T crap, which was apparantly useless for me in India. So, Flashed my device with Schap's 4.30 ROM for Hermes. And I got to tell you, it was much faster than previous ROM from AT&T. Since then, I flashed about 10-12 different ROMs on my device, looking for optimum performance/stability/storage combination.

I am holding onto my TyTN just for simple and plain one thing. You get a lot of options when it comes to your phone OS. You can choose whatever you want. And of course, you can also cook your own ROM. But, let's not get into that.


Section - 2: Radio Test Results

Now, let's come to the point. I tested 4 different radios on my Herm100 device. I tested the whole thing on Airtel, which is by the way an EDGE enabled provider. I tested with PDACorner Pro v13 ROM. I tested data speed and average power usage when idle (with backlight 50% on all the time. i.e. for 5 minutes). Data speeds are tested on Opera Mobile 9.50 using Iphone Speed and Latency Test Here with full (not literally full. Just 4/4 bars) network strength.

Radio: 1.47.30.10
Data Download Speed: 48 Kbps
Average Idle Power Usage: 102 mA
Comment: Data connection was continuous and latency was like 1500ms average. It is darn slow for EDGE.

Radio: 1.54.00.10
Data Download Speed: 38 Kbps
Average Idle Power Usage: 92 mA
Comment: Connection was not continuous. Sometimes, I got latencies of 12000ms which is not at all acceptable. But, it also topped in power saving compitition.

Radio: 1.54.07.00
Data Download Speed: 44 Kbps
Average Idle Power Usage: 98 mA
Comment: Connection was not continuous. But, it was doable with average of 2000ms latency.

Radio: 1.54.30.10
Data Download Speed: 92 Kbps
Average Idle Power Usage: 108 mA
Comment: I was overhelmed by its data connection. It was continuous and it beautifully topped data speed charts. Though, it was the most power hungry Radio among the tested. It was worth it with data speed.

There was no neck-to-neck compitition in all the tests (I was surprised, actually). For me, 1.54.30.10 was the best radio, mostly because of data speed. These tests don't display one radio better from another. It might even perform differently on your device. These results are just for reference

If you have any comment or suggestions, you are most welcome.

An experience regarding import of mobile to India

I recently purchased a Windows mobile device from eBay.com, which is my second phone imported from US. (First one was sony ericcson W950i.)

My first phone was shipped using UPS International Express and took one whole month to reach to Rajkot, Gujarat..

The second device was shipped using USPS International Priority Mail. Surprisingly, it took 12 days to reach Mumbai while it reported the item to be dispached from O'hare airport, Chicago.

After the package reached india, I found out that USPS packages are handled by Indian post. I did some research on their service regarding international packages. To my shock, I didn't find ANY positive reviews. All I found was some complaints about never receiving the item and missing electronic equipments from the package. (all reviewers accused Indian Post for stealing their package or items.)

I waited whole 15 days for my package. Then, I lost hope and started to regret my decision on choosing USPS for my phone because I haven't found a single review that gave good impression of Indian post.

But Indian Post proved all the bad reviews wrong when I received my phone after 34 days total. Better late than never.

I thought I should write first positive review of Indian Post. So, here I am, reviewing them.

Matrix Style Ping Pong

I recently came across this video through a blog. I found it to be an excellent piece of art as well as very funny. Enjoy.

IMDb as marketing medium for movies...

As a matter of fact, I watch quite a lot of movies. I often refer to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) for movie related reference. It is very resourceful database.

IMDb has a list that includes Top 250 movies of all times. This list is based on public votes. For quite some time now, many of the new movies make appearance in this list of Top 250 Movies of "All Time". Eventually when number of votes for the movie increases and average rating decreases, the movies lose their places from the list.

In my opinion, it happens because most of the voters who have voted in beginning, are most likely to be movie fans. So, the movie receives higher rating at start and loses its rank eventually. But, notable fact is, when some IMDb user finds that the movie made to the list of Top 250 Films of All Time, the thing comes to his mind is "Wow, this movie must be good. I should go and watch this.". The movie may be good or maybe not (most likely it is not good enough for Top 250 of All Time), but after all it adds up to the box office of the movie.

Each and every person has different taste for a movie. So naturally, some like it and others don't. Those who like it awards the movie with 10/10 and those who don't find it enjoyable gives 1/10 - 5/10 without considering essential factors for a good movie like script, direction etc. (Of course, not all people do that but there is a whole lot of people who do). It brings injustice to old classics as well as good movies with limited budget because they receive less number of votes as compared to recent movies with good marketing budget.

This process adds quite an amount to the movie revenue. So, it is fairly good marketing mechanism to promote a movie.

Here Comes Another Bubble...

I came across a great music video "Here comes another bubble" Here. It is a must watch.