Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Solution to free up storage space on Samsung Galaxy SII

After months of struggling with running out of storage space for apps on my Samsung Galaxy SII and ending up in dead end every time when I looked for a solution on the Internet, I finally managed to find a quick and effective way to free up the limited storage space of this phone. The thing about this phone model and its biggest problem is, it has an internal USB storage of around 12GB which couldn't possibly be used to install apps. Instead, all the apps by default are installed in the 2GB device memory which is shared with the OS. So, one can imagine how frustrated the user will become and eventually forced to consider replacing it with a newer model.

The solution I found was posted in the AndroidCentral forum by a dude alias Stu40 which can be found at this link: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii/272384-galaxy-s2-cannot-download-updates-new-apps.html

This is his suggested method (copied from his post):
A simple way to free up storage space is by deleting all the log files in the device memory. Just dial *#9900# on your phone and select option 2 “Delete dumpstate/logcat” in the prompted menu. It's not necessary to root your phone either. That’s it! 

It works like a charm! Thanks dude!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Finally beaten D3 Hardcore mode

After a long-running pursuit, finally I have beaten Diablo III hardcode mode today using my Witch Doctor hero. For sure it has been thrilling and nerve-racking along the way but the sense of achievement is equally rewarding too. Hooray!!!

Monday, September 9, 2013

Getting started with the jQuery-File-Upload plugin and cutomizing the upload directory from client-side script

Last week I just got started to explore the elegant and powerful jQuery plugin built by Sebastian Tschan which is hosted here: https://github.com/blueimp/jQuery-File-Upload

It had been very easy and straightforward to deploy it onto my PHP server based on the helpful guide provided. After that I wanted to modify the plugin to be able to upload files and store them in custom sub-directories at server side. This has to be specified by my client-side Javascript and each time the client might point to the same directory or a different one depending on the client operations.

Luckily it has been figured out by a kind person who has generously shared the steps here: https://github.com/blueimp/jQuery-File-Upload/wiki/PHP-%24_GET-dynamic-Directories

Hope my post might help someone to find the link to there too. :)

Sunday, July 7, 2013

HANSON - MMMBop



Love for the fast and exciting rythm~

Saturday, June 1, 2013

How to "really" get started with Android SDK to build PhoneGap (Cordova) apps (unofficial guide of Getting Started with Android to build PhoneGap apps)

Honestly I've struggled with the PhoneGap SDK based on the official guide provided on the PhoneGap website with a few version releases. First it was PhoneGap 2.0.0 and now PhoneGap 2.7.0. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and I have picked the Android SDK (which uses Eclipse) to be my main development environment. I personally prefer the ADT (Android Developer Tools) as it is much more easier to setup on my machine.

After I have gone through few rounds of setting up PhoneGap development machines, I decided to document all the compulsory and "working" steps here to help those who have got themselves lost in the journey too. The latest guide of Getting Started with Android (release of PhoneGap 2.7.0) doesn't seem to work in my case for whatever reason. Hence I fell back on the earlier version of guide (release of PhoneGap 2.1.0) which proved to be still working with the latest release 2.7.0 to date.


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Achievement unlocked: Move in to my own nest (24 Oct, 2012)

Finally the day has arrived for me to bid goodbye to my long-running room renting career (14-years streak). Now I'll get busy with filling up my haven with all the necessities and the not-so-necessities. Hehe...

Monday, July 30, 2012

A new milestone

5 years after I joined the company, now I got another chance to move on to something more interesting and inspiring in my career - the phone app business.

One thing very different from what I expected though, is that I probably won't get much chance to get my hands dirty like what I used to do in the past - build the programs myself. Well, maybe it's time to move to a different stage of life. Time to "level up" myself. Time to look into business aspects and learn for my own sake in the long term perhaps.

It's time to pay off my luck with efforts.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

VB.NET - How to obtain a DLL's file location (during run-time)

In order to obtain a running EXE's file location, you may use the method: System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory to get it. However, this method doesn't work similarly for a running DLL. This is because it would return the file location of the "container" that calls the DLL, but not the DLL itself.

So the proper way to obtain a running DLL's file location is to use the method: System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.Location

Many credits to this site.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Windows XP SP2 installation could not detect your internal harddisk? It's the AHCI/ATA setting in your computer BIOS.

Last night I faced a small glitch when I tried to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows XP Home Edition SP2 on a DELL Inspiron laptop which was pre-installed with Windows Vista - the internal harddisk which had been working fine with Windows Vista suddenly just "vanished" from the radar of the Windows XP installation. In other words, the Windows XP installation told me that there's no internal harddisk whatsoever detected on the computer.

Lucky for me, I read about this AHCI setting previously and I quickly went into the computer BIOS screen (just keep on pressing the F2 or DEL key when you start/restart your computer) and looked for this setting. When I found the place to change the setting (look for something that reads "AHCI" or "ATA") I just switched it from the pre-configured AHCI to ATA mode. After that I just saved the changes made and exited the BIOS screen (then your computer will restart automatically). And then I tried the Windows XP installation once again and finally got it working.

I read it in some Internet forums and some people said it's due to the lack of support for AHCI by the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Couldn't migrate your Workstation/Player VM to VMware Server? Error HTTP 12029? Here's the solution!

When you tried to migrate your existing Workstation/Player VM to VMware Server, the moment when you tried to add it to the Inventory, you were prompted with an error: "The server could not complete a request (HTTP 12029)". Well this happened in my case where my VM Guest OS is running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit. The reason why I switched to VMware Server is mainly because it's FREEEEE...

What you should do now is to get a copy of VMware Converter (also FREE) from VMware's website. Previously it was only known to me as a tool to convert a physical machine into a VM image. But in fact it could be used to convert between varied versions of VMware products too! Just grab its installer and install it on your computer and do the conversion. It works!

Monday, January 10, 2011

One of your VMware Server Guest OS'es could not reach the network (though seemingly it has connection)?

Today I faced a new issue with my VMware Server environment. I had cloned 4 Guest OS'es (I followed the steps on how to clone VMs in VMware Server here: http://panoskrt.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/clone-virtual-machine-on-vmware-server-20/) and had them run simultaneously on a physical server box and interconnected each other (each with a distinctive fixed IP). Due to some technical issue, I needed to replace one of the Guests with a "blank" one and reinstall the apps into it. What I did was just copied the entire VM folder and added it to my inventory (clue: what did I miss out here?).

After I booted up the newly replaced Guest (along with other Guests at the same time), I realized that it could neither ping other Guests, nor it could be pinged by them. After a few cracks (such as disabling all firewall-related settings, changing from fixed IP to DHCP client, etc.), I decided to restart all the Guests in a different sequence. Then it turned out to be another Guest facing the same symptoms this time. With few rounds of tests (and wastage of time), I finally believed there were only 2 Guests which shared the same problem.

It was then I finally recalled back there were some particular steps I must follow in order to clone VMs in VMware Server (unlike VMware Workstation). One of them is the UUID setting. Since I had pinpointed the root cause I started to compare the contents of the .VMX files of the conflicting Guests. It was this line in the .VMX file which must not have the same value as other Guests: uuid.bios = "56 4d ac f5 60 eb ..."

Thank goodness I could resolve it by today! (And get some good sleep tonight hopefully)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Extremely slow file transfer rate when copy files between host and guest OS (VMware Server)?

Today I managed to resolve a 2-day performance issue with copying files from the host running VMware Server to any guest OS (VM) and vice versa. Luckily I found a solution from VMware Knowledge Base:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006619

It is a known issue with VMware Server host running in Windows Server 2003 or 2008 environment.

Cheers~

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Year's Resolution for 2011

This year I'm gonna upgrade myself, kind of. First is the language. I would like to master 2 specifically: English and Japanese. Secondly is the other language. I would like to learn Java, JavaScript and C#.

The clock is already ticking, and I'm already 30 this year. So no regrets later, fight now!! GO GO GO...

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

VMware Workstation 7 installation problem - "Failed to create the requested registry key"

This morning I've been struggling with an issue I encountered while installing VMware Workstation 7 (7.1.0-261024) on my laptop running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I was prompted with an error right after the installation process just started:

Failed to create the requested registry key
Key: Installer
Error: 1021

I tried to search Internet for helps as usual but none of the suggestions worked in my case. Finally I decided to try something on my own based on what I'd learned from their explanations. It looked like there's some permission issue with the VMware installer writing a key into my Windows Registry since I updated my Windows 7 just recently (note that I had been able to install the same VMware version on this particular laptop before I re-formatted my Windows 7 and updated the latest patches). The 'key' here is referring to {HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.}.

What I did was, uninstalled the existing VMware Remote Console on my laptop (I was using VMware Server as well), then did a search-and-destroy of those suspicious keys in my Registry. In fact, you must uninstall all other versions of VMware products before you can install a different product (the installation process would automatically prompt you to do that but in my case the problem hit before that). And use the keyword 'vmware' to search for targets to delete in your Registry (basically I only deleted those keys which were supposedly used by VMware programs only but not Windows). The rule of thumb is to backup your Registry of course.

Then I tried my luck again, and wholla! It finally completed the installation. Credits to my predecessors who faced the same problem and shared their ideas on the mighty Internet.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Flickr ~ Don't try this at home kids.


Don't try this at home kids., originally uploaded by kennymatic.

Wow... I can use that too!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

1st ever trip to Hong Kong (25th-28th Oct 2010)

I'm on a mission assigned by the boss. So here I am now. 1st night since arrival - not much discovery made yet. Probably I should have set some expectations before I came, just to add spice a little bit.

Well, tomorrow onwards I'm gonna have my fellow work friends bring me around HK to discover the right places.

Oh ya, one really bad impression with Hong Kong's hawker. I got conned by the wanton mee hawker!! Based on my own calculation it should have been just HK22, not HK30 like what he charged me!! Damn you bald uncle. But I was afraid because I was alone and don't know if he has "friends" suddenly come out of nowhere or not... :S

Monday, September 13, 2010

I'm investing in better life with my life now

Just wish my efforts won't be wasted...

But then another question pops in my mind... Is it going to get worse if I move on like this forever?

I'm crossing my fingers now...


Monday, August 30, 2010

Oh no! Facebook has killed my blog and emails and messengers and my time!!

When I realized it, Facebook has already overwhelmed my life and taken everything from me - my blog, my emails, my messengers, my pc games, and most of all my Internet life!! Now I don't surf the net the way I used to find new and interesting stuff. Now I don't share stuff with my friends in emails. Now I don't chat with my friends to keep in touch with them except visiting their Facebook profiles. Now I don't... I don't... live my Internet life the way I used to any more!!

So what's next Facebook?