My Writings. My Thoughts.
How sure are we that the Higgs exists?
// July 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
This is an excellent little article on how confident we are in the existence of the Higgs Boson particle. It’s a good read if you’re unfamiliar with basic particle physics of the Standard Model. The short version is, basically there’s some pretty strong evidence that the we will find the Higgs and that it’s in the mass range that we expect. But only time will tell.
The Noob’s Guide to Rooting your Android Phone
// July 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
FAQ
I recently rooted my HTC Incredible and I thought I’d compile all that I had learned in the process here. I can only guarantee that the following information applies to the HTC Incredible, the Desire, the Aria, the Hero, and the EVO. The method I will be describing uses the tool by Team Unrevoked, who did an outstanding job. First, some commonly asked questions, and questions that I had prior to rooting:
What is rooting?
In Linux, the root user is the equivalent to the administrator in Windows. Just like in Windows, you can right click things and choose “run as administrator”, in Linux you can run things as superuser. Basically it lets you run things as root even though you are logged in as a regular user. When you root your phone, you are allowing yourself to run things as superuser which means powerful applications can be run that can do things normal apps can’t.
Why should I root?
There are a couple reasons to root. First, you can run apps that require root access, like the wireless tether (turn you phone into a wireless access point using your phone’s data plan). You can also change the behavior of the lights on your phone, take screenshots, and get access to a terminal. The second main reason to root is to use custom ROMs. A ROM is basically a customized version of the Andriod OS. Developers can make tweaks and fix annoyances that are in the stock version of Android and can make their own user interface. The most popular ROM is Cyanogen. There are a bunch of ROMs out there and there’s an app that lets you manage them and boot into the one you want. The third reason to root is the Clockwork Recovery mod. Normally, if you turn your phone on while holding the volume down button, you will see a white screen with a bunch of text and options on it. This is the built in recovery and isn’t really used except for special purposes. the Clockwork Recovery mod replaces that screen with a different one that lets you upgrade your Android version and make something called a nandroid backup. It’s a complete image of your phone that you can use to revert back to a working installation in case you accidentally screw something up.
Ok, so I want to root. Is it hard? Will it take a long time? Is it possible my phone will get bricked?
Thanks to the Unrevoked Team, it’s insanely easy. Just follow the guide below and you’ll be fine. I had never rooted a phone before and it took about 4 minutes from unrooted to rooted. There is almost zero interaction on your part, so it’s highly unlikely that your phone will get bricked. However, I can only speak for the phones listed above. Also, I don’t take any responsibility if you do manage to brick your phone.
Will rooting my phone void my warrenty?
Yep, it sure will. But don’t worry, you can unroot your phone almost just as easily as rooting it. I’ll post a guide on how to unroot later. You can google for tutorials if you need to know. Once you have unrooted, there is no way that your carrier can tell that it was ever rooted.
Will I lose all of my data during the rooting process?
No! Again, thanks to the great work of Unrevoked, you will not loose your contacts or apps.
What about my user interface? I like the HTC Sense UI, will it go away? How will my phone be different after it’s rooted?
All rooting your phone does is allow you to have more permissions. Unless you specifically install another ROM, the only difference you will see on your phone is the addition of a superuser app. Other than the changes made under the hood, you will notice nothing different about how your phone behaves.
How to root
If you are running Windows
You need a driver for the process to work. If you’ve installed HTC Sync or any program from Verizon or Sprint, uninstall it and any drivers they came with. Turn off your phone. Go to unrevoked.com and pick your phone. Download the file for your OS. Run it and extract the contents to somewhere you’ll remember (I used my Desktop). Open the HBOOT.html file that it unzipped and follow the instructions to install the driver for your phone. If you have and Android SDK installed, you may see the phone appear as Android ABD instead of Android Bootloader. To fix that, just right click on it and choose update driver. It’ll ask if you want to search for drivers online or in a specific location. Choose specific location and point it to the Android USB Driver folder. It should reappear as Android Bootloader.
If you’re running Linux or Mac
You’re good. Don’t worry about the driver thing.
Rooting
Ok, so now comes the easy part: rooting your phone. Turn on your phone like you normally would and let it boot up. Unplug it from your computer. Start the EVO3 application on your computer and it should say that it is waiting for USB connection. Once your phone is done booting, plug it in and don’t touch it anymore. The phone will reboot a couple times. Watch the text on the EVO3 program, as it’ll tell you what’s going on and what it’s doing. After a while, if everything went well, the EVO3 program will say “Done”. You can unplug your phone from USB. Your phone will be in the Clockwork Recovery screen. To boot back into your phone, just choose the top option by pressing the optical sensor button (if you have an Incredible) or by pressing the power button. It’ll reboot into Android and you’re done! You can go to the Market and download root only apps. If something doesn’t work, google the message that EVO3 give you and there is a big community that will be able to help you better than I can.
Wireless Tether
I found out the long way that on an Incredible, the Wireless Tether app doesn’t work out of the box. First, make sure that you have the latest drivers for you wireless card on your computer. Next, download this file: http://www.mediafire.com/?undhjydn0oy
Make a directory on your SD card called android.tether (just in the root directory, ie F:/android.tether) and paste the file you downloaded in there. Reboot your phone for good measure and you should be good to go.
So that’s how to root your phone. If you’ve got any questions, comment and I’ll try to answer. You can also try googling for errors and stuff because a lot of people have done this and there’s a large support community. All in all, the Unrevoked method of rooting is pretty foolproof and unlocks the full potential of your phone.
Epic new physics engine does really well with squishy stuff and dirt
// July 20th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
I’ve never seen physics engines that can do the kind of stuff this can. It seems particularly good at squishy stuff, sticky stuff, and granular stuff. The dirt demonstration I think is the most realistic (and not because it’s the only full render). The engine is called the Lagoa Multiphysics engine. The technical name for squishy, sticky, and granular stuff is “deformations”, “elastic structures and incompressible fluids” and “high friction granular media”. Still, it’s pretty impressive.
David Merrill demos Siftables
// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Had to post this. I’m really interested in new human computer interaction, and this is another great example of the kinds of things we’ll see.
How to mount shared folder in virtualbox
// July 20th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
This is a quick little post that shows how to mount a shared folder in a linux guest from a windows host in virtualbox. Here’s the two commands to run:
$ mkdir /home/username/share
$ sudo mount -t vboxsf share /home/username/share
where share is the name of the shared folder (click the folder icon in the virtualbox window and it’ll tell you the share name and the path.
My RSS Feeds
// July 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
It’s been a while since I shared my RSS feeds. I am subscribed to about 100 feeds. I have dropped some and added some since last time and I think it’s a pretty good representation of my interests. If you’d like to import them to Google Reader, just download this xml file and import it under Google Reader settings. It’s an OPML export, so any RSS reader that is compatible with that scheme will work.
My RSS FeedsReal life Iron Man holographic prototyping
// July 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
One of my favorite pieces of technology in the movie Iron Man was his holographic prototyping device. He could sketch something out in CAD (in the air) and then manipulate it and test it right then with a hologram. With some new technology (which really isn’t a new technology, just a new idea with old technology), that kind of thing is actually possible.
So here’s how I figure it could be done: constructing things in 3D space could be done with IR LEDs and IR cameras (like the Wii does it). In fact, there are already projects like those by Johnny Lee and lots of others that allow for finger tracking and interactive whiteboards using a Wii remote. It would just be a matter of cleverly placing the IR cameras. The hologram technology already exists to make holograms fairly similar to the ones in the movie. To physically interact with the models, this research would work:
Basically, they use ultrasonic sensors to track motion (which could be improved using the IR tracking mentioned above). Once they know where the virtual object is, they can shoot small, direct streams of air to let you feel the object. Now, this would be weird since it wouldn’t feel very solid, but I think it would help. If your object tracking was good enough, the model would basically snap on your arm (in the case of Tony Stark) once it entered the interactive area. Imagine having a whole photoshop-like program running as a hologram. You could grab and drag parts, extrude, color, render, animate. And it would be the most natural thing. I feel inclined at this point to mention the Sixth Sense project at MIT.
(Here’s the full TED talk about SixthSense)
Imagine walking into a design meeting and everyone puts one of these on. Each team in charge of each part of the project could show off their models and then combine it with other peoples’. The guy who CADed a pair of legs can attach them to the torso designed by another person on another computer. You could then see how the parts would interact without fabricating a single thing. And if something didn’t work, just open up your holographic CAD program right there, make some changes (which I suspect would take much less time than a conventional CAD program because of how natural it would be to interact with) and then try again. You wouldn’t even need powerful computers on your hip, because you could have all of the animation and rendering and stuff being done remotely on a beefy cluster hundreds of miles away. The only technology that doesn’t exist yet in that scenario is a portable holographic projector. But pico projectors like those being used in the Sixth Sense project exist readily and could be used in a similar way. In fact, you could fake a hologram by using existing polarized 3D technology (just have a silvered surface to project on to preserve the polarization and wear polarized glasses). It seems to me that as computer-human interaction develops, we will move away from the traditional square screen with square windows to a method that lets us be more mobile and interact more naturally. I cannot wait for the future, and as an engineer, I get to make the future. I get to develop and test these new systems and explore things and ideas that no one has explored before. It’s going to be so much fun.
A First Look: Android App Inventor
// July 13th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
If you haven’t heard about the Android App Inventor, you probably will soon. It’s a project by Google to allow people to write their own Android apps without any coding knowledge. It’s currently in closed beta, but I managed to get one of the first invites. Here’s a quick overview of what it’s all about:
Once you log in, you have to launch the blocks editor. It opens as a separate window and connects to your phone that is plugged in via USB. As you edit your app, the changes appear in real time on your phone so you can see what it will really look like. I had some trouble getting my phone to connect, but I solved it by installing the HTC Sync program for my HTC Incredible. This installed a few drivers I didn’t have. I couldn’t get the blocks editor to talk to my browser while using Firefox, but when I switched over to IE8, it worked fine. If you have trouble getting it to connect, try searching on the Google Group. You can also try looking at the debug output for Java by going to Control Panel->Java->Advanced->expand the Console option, and check to show console. When you launch the blocks editor, another window will also come up and show you what’s going on under the hood. If you know enough about java, you can sometimes figure it out from there. If not, post it in the google group and someone else can help.
So here’s what you will have when you start to make your app:
On the left is the browser window where you’ll decide what the app looks like, and on the right is the blocks editor, where you’ll design the logic. The interface is pretty intuitive. You just drag and drop stuff into place. Some components are visible, meaning you will see them on the screen (like labels and buttons) and some are not visible, and they appear right underneath the screen when added (like sounds). As soon as you drag a new element over, it appears on your phone. If you select an element, all of the settings for it appear on the right. Once you add an element, the block for it appears in the blocks editor:
Clicking on the object shows you all of its uses:
When you snap pieces together, you get a nice snapping sound effect which tells you that your syntax is right. If you mess up, just drag the blocks into the trash can on the bottom right.
The sensors you currently have access to are the GPS, accelerometer, and the magnetometer. You can do a lot of cool things with those. I don’t want to go into too much detail, because most of that information is already online at http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/learn. But, I bet you’re wondering: when I make my awesome app, can I get it in the store? Well, I’m working on that. I’ll post another article on how to do it once I figure it out.
Music to Check Out
// July 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Pogo is the name of a 21 year old Aussie who makes some awesome stuff. He’s written a lot, but here’s a little sampling. You can go to youtube to see the videos for some of these. Check out some of Pogo’s work after the jump.
TED talks
// July 6th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
Here’s a couple good talks to watch. The Mandelbrot talk is kinda hard to understand sometimes, but it’s pretty cool to see the actual guy talk about his discovery.
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