Changing the size of a VDI file for a VirtualBox VM

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=50661

Really I'm just posting this so I don't forget, but in case anyone else needs this.

On Linux/Ubuntu, you run this command line argument and it does it.

sudo VBoxManage modifyhd /home/scott/VirtualBox\ VMs/Win7/Win7.vdi --resize 61440

(I was resizing to 60gb from 40gb)

The used space remains the same (assuming you have it set to grow dynamically) but the available space is bigger.

As the article mentions, you will need to resize your partition inside the Host OS.

Make sure you backup your VDI file before you do it!

And don't be surprised if first boot after resize takes a while.

Artists who's Entire Catalog I celebrate

I was thinking today about the musical artists who's entire catalog I celebrate.  Those where you can throw ANY song from an album or concert on and never hit the "next" button.

In no particular order -

Metallica (up to the Black album, at least)
REM
U2
Erasure
Cure
New Order
Depeche Mode
Pearl Jam
Breaking Benjamin
Evanesence
Paramore
Evans Blue
Sara Evans
Garth Brooks
Tim McGraw
Pink Floyd
Sting
Police
Peter Gabriel
Frank Sinatra

There are more that need to be added.  Those are just things that I've thought of off the top of my head.

These tend to be things I just throw on when I'm in the car cruising along.  Some, of course, better than others due to the tempo/tone of the music (a lot of Frank or Pink Floyd will put you to sleep - bad on the interstate at 2am!)

Social Media is predominantly just the modern incarnation of the Tabloid.

Social Media is predominantly just the modern incarnation of the Tabloid.  Yep.  I said it.

Yes, I know businesses and athletes and stars and even the average joe is trying to use Pinterest/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Reddit and the like to connect with friends, share stories and post the latest cat video (Va-kume can eat and yell at the same time, in case you missed it).

But what do we all think of Social Media as famous for?  Spreading "news" about some celebrity.  The more salacious the news, or the more famous the celebrity (and mostly some combination of above) the greater it spreads.

Today's piece that made me think about it is Tony Stewart.  The consensus on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook is that he intentionally ran over and killed a competitor.

Statements like "you don't see 7 police at a race track for an accident" are totally unqualified.  I've been at the track for deaths.  You get police cars at the track for people who die from heart attacks in the paddock.  Its just how it is.

Yes he hit the competitor.  Yes the competitor was killed.  He didn't run him over on purpose.  If you watch the video and know about racing and human behavior, what happened was a tragic accident.  The other driver should not have been running TOWARDS other cars on track, dressed in all black on a dark track.

Human tenancies are to steer towards what you are looking at.  Stewart was behind another car.  You're driving around and see motion out of the corner of your eye and you're head and hands are drawn towards it.

Dangerous, Dangerous thing.

But on Social Media, instead of lamenting the loss of life and using it as a teaching moment for the victim's mistakes, we're criminalizing an accident and  someone and rounding up a lynch mob.

Which is what the tabloids of the 60's and 70's did.  Take a celebrity and an event and turn it into a story when it wasn't.  Because that's what sold.  Headlines about drunken accidents and affairs sold!  If you told the truth... you'd go out of business.

You simply can't believe everything you read on social media.  Don't allow yourself to be whipped into a frenzy because "sex sells".  Review the facts (not others opinions) for yourself and seek out KNOWLEDGEABLE sources for your information.  

Walmart as your Primary Care Doctor

I've always thought of Kaiser as the Walmart of Healthcare.  In my experience, they do just enough to keep you alive and out of the office with minimal effort to actually cure you (from personal experience as well as the first hand experiences of several friends).

But now Walmart wants to do their own healthcare.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/business/in-ambitious-bid-walmart-seeks-foothold-in-primary-care-services.html

On one hand... its great that they can reach people who are otherwise unserved/underserved.  On the other hand... do I want healthcare from someone famous for selling cheap foreign made products and providing low, low income jobs?

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I also wonder if Walmart's own employees make enough to be able to afford Walmart Heathcare?

Where nearly 20% of GDP is spent on healthcare, it makes sense that Walmart would want in on that cheddar.

Did you REALLY think that $5 logo was going to be awesome and original?

The rise of creative marketplaces where you can solicit design/creative work for as little as $5 seems... appealing for small projects, startups and sole proprietierships.

But you should really think about what you get for such a small dollar amount.

Quality identity pieces (logo, cards, letterheads, name tags, banners, etc) take time.  Even the simplest might take a couple days.  Someone has to get to know you, you're market, your culture, your target audience and weave all that into something you can proudly display, stand under, attract talent to, etc.

Its your BRAND.  Its YOU!

Would you really think someone could do any kind of justice producing those for you for $5? or even $100?  What's a couple days of your life worth?  I bet its more than $100.

That's why good branding campaigns cost $5000, $10,000 even $100,000

Not $5.

Anyway, here's a great article I saw on Hacker News which goes into it in-depth.

https://medium.com/@sachagreif/in-the-past-couple-years-startups-have-started-realizing-that-good-design-can-make-the-difference-2fdeb90d390a

Suffice to say, you get what you pay for.  If you paid $5 you should expect low quality or forgery.

Dealing with burn out

I caught this article on Hacker News today.  It had a catchy title on there.


http://kentnguyen.com/personal/getting-rid-burnouts/
Who references teachings from Marissa Mayer

Kent sums it up as

NOT able to take break is NOT the cause of burning out. What I have learnt to be extremely crucial in looking at the matter is another way of defining it: burning out is result of not able to do what you love or important to you regularly.

It made me think about the past 7 years of my life.  Since the economy fell and the company I work for started downsizing in 2008, I've been focused on work and not on me/life.  I nor my company have enjoyed the "recovered economy" everyone talks about.   Its tooth and nail.  Hand to mouth.

Its easy for me to point at things I love or are important to me that I don't do anymore.

I don't drive my race car anymore.  Its an expense/luxury I have a hard time justifying - but there's also not enough time to prepare it nor days off to go do it.

I don't go for walks in the neighborhood - the economic downturn caused me to move to a neighborhood that isn't particularly safe.

I don't work on or care for my cars anymore.  In part the neighborhood, in part time in the day.

I don't enjoy wine anymore.  Part heath (mostly stress related I suspect), partly being on call 24x7, part a shortage of time.  Same with Bourbon and Scotch.  I don't like to drink by myself, but my work hours and where I live have kept me from family and friends.

My wife and I don't have weekend get-aways anymore.  There's no money to afford it, and I work most weekends.


I don't ride my motorcycle anymore.  I actually bought a 2nd one thinking that would re-invigorate me, but it hasn't.  I don't work far enough to justify riding to work (and I never know when I might need to run out to an appointment that's better suited to the car).  Weekends when I could ride, other projects creep in and get in the way.  And when I want to ride... bikes need work anyway.  1 of the 2 needs major service.

BBQ/Grill/Smoke - I'd like to spend a lot more time bbqing, smoking meats and grilling.  It takes more time and preparation than I give.  Its not much fun to do for yourself (and I'm away from family/friends).  Meat prices have also doubled, and when you're watching dollars that kind of spending is inappropriate.

Finally, I don't drive my classic car anymore.  Its part time to fix it, part money to fix it (it needs work).

So... I do sort of fit the mold.

Next post... how to deal with those things.

The strange stuff you find at Gas Stations

Ok, for much of rural America, this is probably normal.

In Ohio and Wisconsin where my family is from, this was normal when I was a kid... well in Ohio they didn't have a gas station in town, and in Wisconsin there was no town - but tractors on the roads wasn't unusual.

I've NEVER seen this in the Bay Area, and I've lived here for 35 years.

On the way home tonight I pull in to get fuel and there's a tractor coming at me.  I make a left in front of him into the gas station and he pulls in behind me.  He's more crafty than me at navigating the cars at the pumps, though and pulls in just in front of me.

And proceeds to tank up.

The tractor is a 1969 he was telling another interested fellow who walked over to talk to him. The engine and transmission bolt to the rear end and basically make up the frame.

The owner said it was old and worn out, like him, and that he wasn't going to replace it. When it broke, he was retired.

I remember my grandfather having one in green just about like it when I was a kid.  Last time I saw it, I was 4.  His must have been 30 years older, because it was worn out 40 years ago...

It was neat to see and be taken back.

Proof that criminals are dumb

Uh, if you're trying to hide, don't give up ANY information about your whereabouts.  No matter how secure you think you are or incompetent your pursuers are.

Arrogance has been many a fellow's downfall.

http://news.kron4.com/news/fugitive-suspect-shares-murder-rap-updates-on-facebook/

Its time for music to stop disrespecting women

Recently I heard O.P.P. by Naught by Nature when channel surfing in the car, and was surprised that "kitten" was censored.

I mean, who hates Kittens. 

I posted that on Facebook and a friend came back with

"LL Cool J's song Doin' It. Similar thing, "make it last forever, damn the kitty cat's tired." Kitty cat gets censored."

I suppose what they're trying to do is not be disrespectful to women because of what the song is referencing... but if the radio station wanted to be respectful to women, they simply wouldn't play the song in the first place.

There are lots more songs and artists that way. Many I'm probably very unfamiliar with.  A few that come to mind -

Damn near anything by Akon

Some of Pit Pull's stuff, thought he's not as terrible as most of the above.

Jason Derulo's latest.

And of course Chris Brown, in general...

I suppose this is just me getting old.  When I was a kid, girls listened to this kind of stuff and it didn't seem to bother them.  when "Back to the Hotel" was popular, I worked with a girl who said it was her "favorite song".

I'm not going to go on a crusade or anything, I just think we should show more respect to women, and I won't listen to artists that produce music that portrays them in an unkind way.

Edit -

Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

Warning: the conversation is graphic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gpESLdCKLQ

She is Hilarious.  Her come backs are brilliant, as is how she carries herself in the studio.  I'm offended by the content, but impressed by her manner of being.

Some flavors are best left unsaid

Let me say,  I am all for trying new things, but Cappuccino flavored potato chips?

Some things are best left off the menu.

I do give Lay's credit for actually creating them.  A team of scientists and chemists likely worked pretty hard to find flavorings that would work in the chips (and be good over time, stable, etc).

But, I don't see where I'd ever take a potato chip and dip it in my morning coffee.

Resurrecting a Buffalo Terastation Pro V2

We have a Buffalo Terastation Pro V2 4TB that we bought at work 7 or 8 years ago (for a lot of money) which has been a champ.  We use it for storing backups and migrating data.

While other machines have lost disks and failed boards, this thing JUST KEEPS GOING.

Its not the smallest, but its got a good size fan and its really quiet.

So when I wanted to upgrade my data redundancy at home, and I stumbled on one without disks cheap on eBay, I bought it.  I liked that it can sit quietly in the office and just house data from the various machines I use.

Since I'm prone to reconfiguring hardware and trying out different OSes, storing data locally is a pain.


I figured like every other NAS product I've worked with, that the firmware was on some internal flash memory, and I'd just pop some disks in and configure an array be up and running.

Not so much.

It uses an ARM 9 processor with a *NIX variant as the OS, and the OS is stored ON the array disks.  So, without the array disks, you have... ALMOST nothing.

Fortunately, the Buffalo devices have a strong community following, so I was able to gleam what I needed by reading about 20 articles from various forums.

Most Buffalo devices have an "Emergency Mode" where they'll actually TRY and download the boot files from an FTP server on your lan if they can't find them on the disk, so there was hope!

The process was, essentially -

• Boot the device using a local FTP server to ensure it would boot.
• Try pushing the firmware to the device once booted.
• When pushing the firmware failed, try manually building the boot files on the primary disk by mounting the primary boot disk in Linux and extracting the images from the firmware update file.
• When that worked and it booted, try pushing the latest firmware with some hacks to force it to "rebuild" all the boot files on the various disks.
• When that failed, do more research, discover you actually need all 4 drives, scrounge up more drives and re-boot.
• Try pushing firmware again, when that works, celebrate.
• Configure the Arrays and put it in production

I used various articles to do this.  These have most of the information.  The others were redundant, but helped me understand the process and the device - and reinforced what I was deducing between the lines.

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Terastation_Recovery#EM_Mode

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=79.0

http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Revive_your_arm9_box_from_scratch

http://forums.buffalotech.com/index.php?topic=17359.0

http://supportingtech.blogspot.com/2014/01/recreating-disk-array-change-from-raid.html

http://supportingtech.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-to-upgrade-and-add-larger-disks-to.html

http://downloads.buffalo.nas-central.org/TOOLS/ALL_LS_KB_ARM9/ACP_COMMANDER/OLD/README.TXT

At each step, I kept getting these ACP errors.  There are some tutorials out there about ACP Commander (a Java app) which purports to fix them - but it never worked for me.  I think I never had the "right" scenario for the error (despite having the right error).  The problem is... there are so many variants of Buffalo NAS, your error may be right and the tool may be right, but for a different product.

I was estatic after I built the boot disk on Ubuntu and was able to get it to boot without the TFtp Server, only to get that same ACP_State_failure error.  After mostly said and done, It still wouldn't work.  I only had 2 disks and this ships with /  typically uses 4.  I figured, like most other  NAS products, as long as I met the minimum to add an Array (in this case, a mirror), I'd be good.

Nope.

I found a thread, which I can't find now, but essentially learned that it was a pain to get it to work on less than 4 disks, and that the error I was getting - ACP_STATE_FAILURE -  was possibly related.

Well, these shipped with either 500gb or 1tb drives, and I struggled to find anything bigger than a 250, till I found a pair of 750s in an old machine I had laying around.

I quick wiped them and popped them in.

Bingo.  Booted and the firmware update worked like a champ.  A few minutes figuring out how to switch from Japanese to English on the console and i was in Business.

I was able to create a pair of mirrors on two different size drives with no problem.

Yeah, this doesn't have a lot of the newer features like built in DNLA, mobile app syncing, Private Cloud and the like, but I value stability and security over features - and for the price, it was just right.

And I know that it should soldier on for years.  Yeah, I may need to replace the PSU board and Fan... but the processor and memory are simple - particularly since the files are actually on the disks!

The D-Link DNS-320 this replaces has a ton of features, but its fragile.  Its clunky to setup.  The shares sometimes show-up then disappear.  Its REALLY hard for the Mac and Linux to see the shares. Sustained transfers from the Mac and Linux are hard, too. the DNS-320 also has NO cooling, so the hard disks always get really hot - so I never leave it plugged in when I'm not using it.

So, I'm pleased.  Not worth the 5 hours invested, of course, but a satisfying intellectual challenge.

(I actually started working on it because I needed it for a data migration project.  In the midst of trying to make it work, I took a break and went and bought a 4tb Seagate USB3 drive - which is probably better anyway.  Transfers over the lan, even on Gigabyte Ethernet aren't as fast as USB.)

Next up... to see if it works with 3tb drives.  The File system is known to be incompatible with the block size on modern drives > 2GB, but the WD Red are supposed to use some sort of custom file block system so it emulates smaller/older drives... 

Yes, I'm saying there's a chance!

Volume Locker - don't let your pocket change your ringer settings

I was frequently a victim of my pocket changing my ringer settings on my phone.  It wouldn't vibrate, or would ring when it shouldn't.

I found a nifty app called Volume Locker which solves the problem.  I've been locked into Vibrate for about a year and couldn't be happier.

Android users:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hourdb.volumelocker

Google Project Ara - modular phone

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/google-project-ara/

This has been around a while, but just got demod.  Ironic that the screen broke. What's the most common part which fails for folks... yeah, screens.

I wonder if Google will do better with this than their other hardware devices.  The Nexus one was a little bit of a flop (as much to do with HTC's hardware as anything).  Google TV didn't really go anywhere.  Google has a history of hardware failures.

And getting people onboard with a hardware ecosystem like Apple has takes years.  Will they have the might and persistence to stick with it?

After all, they sold Motorola in just 18 months.  Wouldn't Motorola have been a great component for this?

COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-15/for-45-per-month-all-the-coffee-you-can-drink

Great idea, if you live in the city and travel by/near coffee shops frequently.  NYC is a great place to start.  I think it would work in SF, Berkley, Seattle, Portland and other urban environments as well.

As a coffee lover and former partner in a gourmet coffee company, I wish them nothing but the best.

From the too big to fail corner

http://skepchick.org/2014/04/godaddy-released-my-personal-information-to-a-spammer-troll/

GoDaddy exposed woman's personal info to a spammer who spammed her - and how he's going after her.

Shame on GoDaddy.  Sure, they're protecting they're paying customers over random internet folks but man - who wants to be responsible for causing someone to get stalked.

The risk you run when you rely on someone else...

Here's why its a bad idea to build any kind of branding or marketing on someone else's service.

They own what you do and will take/change/exclude it - and normally their TOS prevent you from being able to do anything about it.

Case in point...  This guys' wife lost her cool username on Instragram because an Instagram employee wanted it.

https://medium.com/p/5c546662abc0

Bad business? yup.
Rude? yup.
Anything you can do about it? Nope.

Sucks, though.  Don't ever think if you have something cool that you'll get to keep it.

Why Free isn't a business model

Excellent read about why "Free!" isn't a good business model.

http://blog.trak.io/freemium-vs-free-why-we-ditched-our-free-plan/

I hadn't thought about Free! not being a competitive advantage before (but, then, I never considered it a competitive advantage - just a way to open the door to conversation).

And free users needing the most support is spot on.  Spot on.  They're the hardest to get rolling because they have no resources.

There's another point I'd add - and he kind of touches on it discussing Google Analytics.  You value what you pay for.  Something that's free often has less value to you than something which has a cost.  Because you pay for it, you engage in it and use it and it becomes part of your life.  Free... is just something you expect to be there and work, but often refuse to invest the time in understanding.

Car Tipping, you say...

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Suspects-Flip-Over-Smart-Cars-in-San-Francisco-254177981.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_BAYBrand

Apparently urban youths prefer Car tipping to Cow tipping.  Who knew?

Give it a listen...

Real Guitars. A fiddle. A Mandolin. A String Bass. No Computers. And no Auto-tune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiXmnGWw2EU

Worth 5 minutes of your time, even if you're not a fan of Country Music. So many musicians can't do real "music" anymore.

Jeremiah Denton

Jeremiah Denton died today. He was a Navy pilot who served in Vietnam and was a POW for 7 1/2 hears. He was famous for spelling out "TORTURE" with eye blinks during a video his captors made of him and broadcast.

Denton was the senior officer among former POWs who stepped off a plane into freedom at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Denton epitomized the military spirit as he spoke for the returning soldiers:

"We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our commander-in-chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America."

What a badass. Not many people would get off a plane after 7 1/2 years as a prisoner being tortured and say something like that. Rest in peace and god-speed, Mr Denton.

Tracking down old MX records

I had a nice challenge tracking down lost MX records today.  A client moved their hosting to us and didn't mention that they had email hosted with their domain.

I ended up using two tools.

http://whoisrequest.org/history/ let me lookup the old NS servers for the domain.

and then http://www.geektools.com/digtool.php let me "dig" them for the old MX settings.  I was then able to transfer over the correct settings to our servers.  The trick is to put the old name server in the box that says "query nameserver" so that you're not just getting current data.  Oh, and switching type to MX (or all, for the overly curious).

 

For those of you wondering what an MX record is... its the way a domain name knows where email is hosted.  Without it, email fails.

Napa Platimum Oil Filters

Napa Platinum

This is my new favorite oil filter.  Its expensive, but offers better protection for longer Oil Change Intervals (OCI).  I'm a subscriber to OCI.  I like to go 10k to 12k miles per oil change.

• I spend less time changing oil
• There's less hassle disposing of used oil
• Its better for the environment
• Oil is expensive.

Previously I used Napa Gold.  There's nothing wrong with the gold, I just feel better using the Platinum.

Napa filters are made by Affinia, who also make Wiz

Read more over at Bob Is the Oil Guy (bitog)

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3151427

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2741644

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2304026

New favorite gas station!

Andrade exit off 680.

New Music option for Samsung Galaxy Owners

Samsung Milk

Built on Slacker... but with no ads/no fees.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9246827/Samsung_39_s_Milk_music_streaming_service_is_free_has_no_ads?taxonomyId=77

I haven't tried it yet.  Sounds like it has limited musical selections - obscure stuff may be missing.

If it has online capabilities it may be better than Pandora.

I miss Paul Harvey.

What a treasure he was. We don't have guys like him anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzhwkaNC40&feature=youtube_gdata_player

More Good Diesel News - the Ford STD (ok, maybe that's a bad name...)

The Focus ST is going to get a Diesel.

Now... will we get it in the States?  Because damn near everything gets a Diesel in Europe.

But... we can hope!

http://www.imotortimes.com/ford-focus-st-diesel-confirmed-diesel-powered-focus-st-has-its-eyes-set-vw-golf-gtd-report-25822

Yaaah Fairfield! Oh, wait...

Our local fire department shared this on Facebook today. It's not the greatest of news. 

It comes from this NBC Bay Area Story about PTSD screening.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Doctors-Recommend-PTSD-Screening-for-Civilians-oakland.html

Why are we such a depraved society?

What's wrong with us?

I was walking through the parking lot of a store the other day and had to step over used condoms and dirty baby's diapers.

A few days later... another diaper at a different store.

What the hell is wrong with us?

My first job in HS (and partially funding college) was working at McDonald's.  Its an entry level job.  Lots of low income/underskilled folks work there AND eat there.

I NEVER had to clean up used condoms or dirty diapers.  In 7+ years.  Ever.  I never did it, none of my crew ever mentioned it to me, we never talked about it in meetings... IT JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Yes, I grew up in a fairly nice part of town... but I also worked  in a store "on the other side of the tracks".

I'm convinced society is going down hill.  In the 50s/60s, Marilyn Monroe was considered salacious.

Now she's damn near a role model for piousness as compared to the likes of Miley Cyrus.

The euphoria of those who survived WWII, the baby boom and their children are to blame.  Everyone gets a puppy and an ice cream cone has bread generations of an "expectation" society who things everything they ever want should just be theirs.  They shouldn't work for it, they "deserve" it.

Its not their job to pickup after themselves.  They shouldn't have to walk to the garbage can with their dirty diaper or wrap it up to dispose of at home. They earned the right to discard it on the ground for someone to step in.

Its depressing.

Part of me considers myself fortunate we can't have kids.  I won't be contributing to this problem nor burdening my offspring with it.

Bam! Tundra Diesel

We really need half ton pickup diesels.   Better fuel economy, better towing, longer range... Diesels are just where its at.  Europe has been lucky in that regard, and their disdain for them is unwarranted.

My friend Derek tipped me off to the Dodge Diesel a while back and I've been watching it intently.   Unfortunatley, dad told me never to buy Dodge (Chrysler) products, so while I can look at it longingly, I can't buy one...

Well, I caught an article today about Toyota's new Diesel in the Tundra.  This looks really good.

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/02/toyota-tundra-getting-cummins-diesel.html

Now, if we could only get Ford to do it...
And we could get them to cost less than $50k!

Yes, we should ban plastic bags.

I know that a lot of the country makes fun of us in California for our forward environmentalism... and I've seen some flak about banning plastic bags.  But let me tell you why I'm in favor of it.

Since so many stores insist on forcing us all to use self check, we're left to figure these bags out on our own.

Seriously, the hardest part of self check isn't looking up the produce or stuffing bills in the machine... its separating the damn bags so you can put stuff in them.  I end up overstuffing bags or taking forever trying to set them up... its incredible.

So, we should absolutely ban plastic bags and force people to bring their own canvas or use paper.

Now, selling us paper... that's another story.

Did you know there was a Korean Motorcycle Manufacturer selling in the US?

I'm a car/bike guy.  I like to think I'm on top of things like this.  I missed it!

http://www.hyosungmotorsusa.com/

South Korean. They make cruisers and sport bikes.  My friend Justin posted a CL ad on Facebook the other day for one, needling a friend of his to start riding.

Their prices are quite a bit lower than the equivalent Honda. Their 650 Race Rep is $5k less than a 600rr.

The Boss covers Lorde's Royals

Not sure how I feel about it. Cool he did it. Think he could have done better.

Crowd seemed nonplussed.

 http://www.stereogum.com/1667571/watch-bruce-springsteen-cover-lordes-royals/video/ 

Posted via Blogaway

Blocking Apps from reading your SMS on Android

A variety of Apps are starting to request to read your SMS history on Android.  Facebook was first (actually a while ago, but rescinded under pressure... but its back), and I noticed this past week LinkedIn and Twitter.

I'm not comfortable with that.  Not because I'm doing anything nefarious, but because of how a single sentence or phrase can be positioned in the form of a "sound bite" to sound like something it wasn't. I don't need a single off handed remark about a salacious celebrity from a friend in a text to become something a future employer sees as one of my "interests"

Facebook started to worry me a few releases ago when it started suggesting I post photos I'd taken when I launched the app.  I don't want Facebook scrounging around in my photos... what's to stop them from uploading them automatically?  The combination of that and SMS mad me nervous enough I just uninstalled it.

But then Twitter and LinkedIn did it.  And I actually use LinkedIn, so it was time to find a way to have my cake and eat it too.

iOS users... Apple doesn't permit that, so you're safe.  But on the Android world, its a little harder.

ASOP briefly had the ability natively to manage this through the Ops Center, but Google removed it as "a mistake".

If you're rooted, CyanogenMod (and presumably others - I can't recommend CM since they took money and went commercial, their intentions are now on shareholders not on users) aftermarket roms have these abilities - to manage app permissions on a app by app permission by permission basis.

But, if you're like me and LIKE what the manufacturer added (I happen to like TouchWiz on my S3 - and before you flame me, I have a N7 2013 with 4.4.2 on it too, and previously owned an HTC with Sense) - then you're not going to throw a new ROM on there.

What I found is the Xposed Framework.  Its like what Cydia is to the iOS world.  Any easy way to manage side loading apps that aren't in Google Play (because they wouldn't get approved, or its too much hassle).  You do still have to be rooted, which voids your warranty and can block you from future updates, so its not to be taken lightly.  I'm not advocating you root your phone.  But if you've rooted already for other reasons, or understand it and want to take the risk, Xposed is something you should add to your tool chest.

Xposed lets you add XPrivacy, which lets you manage all permissions for all apps.

Here's a good how-to on installing.

Discussions about apps are on Reddit and XDA

What Xposed does is feed the app fake data for contacts and SMS, so it doesn't hang/crash due to an access violation - it just doesn't get any data.  You can either select apps to setup or just setup apps when they install/update.  It does an elegant job of prompting you.

So far, all I've seen is Facebook fail on 2 factor SMS security... which is ok with me, I'll take that as a trade for not letting it read my SMS.

Another Xposed plugin I'd suggest is BootManager.  Its like MSCONFIG for your Android - letting you choose what runs at startup.  I shook my head at some of the things running at startup - now, there are valid reasons for them.  Badges, notifications, etc.  But often they're for apps you don't care about, or you might be like me - I don't care for most push notifications.  A few I like - news, sports - but I don't need Flappy Bird reminding me to play or iHeart Radio telling me a new podcast is on.

Boot Manager doubled the performance of my phone - both in speed and battery life, at no real expense to me.

I'm not being paid by either... I just really enjoy their features/benefits and wanted to spread the word.

Who, what, where, when, why?

I figure I owe the reader an explanation of what this blog is and why.  Lets just go through it.

Who
I'm Scott.  Middle aged (sigh), married, with cats.  Don't have kids (long story).  Love cars, car projects, racing, computers, science and technology.  I'm terminally overcommited.  Late on every project.  Slow to respond.

What
This blog is the quintessential blogging error.  There are two kinds of blogs.  Subject blogs, which are narrow in variety of topic, but deep in topic material... like a blog dedicated to the mating habits of a horned toad.  Those are of great interest to horned toad fans.

The second is a diary type log.  Lots of rambling subjects, not a lot of focus.  Really only interesting to those who know the author.  I'll be writing one of those.  You'll get stuff about pop culture, cars, computers, mobile phones, cats... who know what else.

Where
Well, on this URL, and I'll eventually figure out how to notify on Twitter and Facebook.

When
Not regular, and probably not often.  as I see subjects that interest me and have time to document them.  Maybe 3 in one day, maybe nothing for a month.  We'll see.  I'll try to avoid the terminal error of letting the blog die.  If I think that's going to happen, I'll try and post to report that - though I'll probably leave the older posts as artifacts in case I provide something of value.

Why
Good question.  Mostly because I need a bit of a creative outlet.  Somewhere to document thoughts and opinions.  And the challenge of writing them.