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.

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...

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.

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.

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).

An introduction to data backup tape rotation schemes

For my own reference...

An introduction to data backup tape rotation schemes

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!

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)

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~

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...

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.

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!

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

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...

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?

Flickr ~ Pac-Manic

Pac-Manic, originally uploaded by [a.m.photography].

Creative!

I used to have an idea of a "see-through" desktop wallpaper that lets you "see through" to the inside of a computer display, you know, all the wiring and electronic parts inside (basically an illusion of course). But seems like now people have gone way beyond my original idea.

Finally resolved the USB issue I had with VMware due to the Sony Ericsson driver (seehcri.sys)

Since yesterday, I've been struggling with resolving the issue I had with connecting my USB scanner to my VMware OS. Every time when I booted up my VM, I received a message saying "USB controller initialization failed". So I searched on the Internet hoping to find a clue about what's going on. At first I found nothing specific to the problem I was facing. Then some guy suggested in a forum to use a utility called DebugView (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647.aspx) during the VM boot process to diagnose the cause of problem (million credits to this guy). Then only from there I found this important clue "seehcri.sys" showing up. Then I continued to google this clue and that's when Sony Ericsson came out on my screen (I installed its software and uninstalled it sometime ago). Damn... this problem almost caused me a heart attack because the first time I realized about it was when I was preparing for a software demo using my VM and the bloody Sony Ericsson driver just stopped my VM from connecting the USB scanner for me! Phew... That was the past nightmare now... I have survived in the end.

And today I continued to search for a solution to this and finally I found the tricks:

1. On my host computer, I could see a Sony Ericsson device listed under the Universal Serial Bus controllers (Control Panel > System > Device Manager) though I had uninstalled my Sony Ericsson program sometime ago.
2. Disabling and uninstalling it would not solve the problem as Windows would detect it again and put back the Sony Ericsson driver in place. So I needed a "total" "annihilation" of this driver.
3. So I uninstalled the Sony Ericsson device first, then I searched my computer (mainly C:\Windows\) for the file "seehcri.sys" and I killed all of them.
4. I restarted my computer after that. Then I found out all my USB root hubs listed in the same place as step no. 1 were having some driver problem and none of them worked!
5. And so lastly I just needed to reinstall the driver for all the USB root hubs one by one, by manually picking up the 2nd USB Root Hub driver from the list when Windows asked me for a signed driver. This was the trickiest part, as you would be presented with 2 signed USB Root Hub drivers, both with the same name! And you could now guess it - the 1st driver was indeed the Sony Ericsson driver (damn you). And if you tried to pick the 1st one to install it would prompt you for the location of the file - "seehcri.sys" (I already deleted all of them from my computer in step no. 3).

So the result? Whoooola! I finally got my USB scanner to work once again in my VM! But my demo was due yesterday :(. Anyway, just thought of posting it here so it might help somebody with the same problem again. Thank you Sony Ericsson... Thank you very much...

It's New Year time again

Last year was quite a challenging year to me as I was stuffed with works which I have never been acquainted to do. There were basically 2 parts - one part to deal with the systems, another to deal with the people. That's the scope of presales, in my way of explanation.

First, I'd like to comment about dealing with people. As a Scorpio who tends to be low-profile and keeps quiet and cool most the time, doing pre-sales activities which inherently means getting to know more people and hanging around with them, has been quite a daunting and scary job to me. Till now, I'm still trying to adjust myself to accomodate with the environment but I guess it's gonna take some time and (interpersonal) skill improvements.

Now let's talk about the systems side. I thought, as I've been thinking all along, until now, dealing with systems, or more specifically software, should be a very interesting and tireless task for me, like I was born to do it. But dealing with other people's systems? What I mean here is the vendors' systems. NO, not as much fun as I do it with my own hands (please get it 'straight'). Problems, problems, problems... Yes, I understand no system is perfect. But how about systems with fundamental in-built mistakes? Where the heck was QC? Who let this thing out to the market in the first place? All these questions then turned into doubts, against the vendors and ourselves.

So what's gonna change in year 2010? I really have no idea but to take the first step out into the war zone again. May angels watch over me all the time. Cheers~

Flickr ~ Avatar (Dec 2009)

, originally uploaded by OfficialAvatarMovie.

I love this movie very much~ This is the movie genre that creates the fantasy dreams for all of us at all age. James Cameron takes good time to make good movies.

Flickr ~ Broccoli?

IMG_6956 viel gesundes grün, originally uploaded by tin.G.

Fascinating creation by the Mother Nature.