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Samsung Galaxy S – Troubleshooting and Optimizing Guide
Jul 15th
So i got my Samsung Galaxy S this Sunday and i am totally loving this phone . It has undoubtedly the best screen that i have seen till date and it packs a very powerful hardware under its hood. Now it is probably the best Android Phone out there (Running Eclair 2.1 “Samsung says froyo 2.2 will be released for it by August”) it does have some problems of its own. Here are a couple of problems that i had with this phone and i went over to fixing them
Problem #1 :- The Orientation Sensor has a Factory Offset
How I know :- Try any game that uses Orientation Sensor (eg. Abduction) from Market Place. You’ll see that the cow jumps slightly to the left even when the phone is perfectly erect.
How to Solve :- To solve this problem you’ll need to root the phone.
This is how i rooted my phone.
- Check for your phone firmware . Under Settings –> About Phone –> Baseband Version. By default my phone had I9000DDJF3 . Now you need to Have firmware I9000XWJG1 to continue. If you have that firmware you can skip the steps below and go straight to Rooting part. Else you can install the new firmware.
- To install the new firmware you need to download the following files
Firmware : http://www.multiupload.com/BW9A3F2HH8 (download from any of the 4 mirrors)
Odin : http://www.multiupload.com/DLS7TWUVPY (download from any of the mirrors)
Pit File : http://www.multiupload.com/4N0NMBO0WE (download from any of the mirrors)
Guide on flashing the firmware : http://samsung-firmware.webs.com/Flash%2520guide%2520english.pdf from samsung-firmware.webs.comWatch the videos for more info :
Galaxy s Flashing Part One
- Now that you have the the I9000XWJG1 firmware you can go ahead an root the phone by installing the Modaco’s Custom Rom 2(MCR r2) . Download the MCR r2 from here
Video on how to update to MCR r2 given below . Please note installing the rom also roots your phone
- Now to correct the orientation sensor problem do the following. Install the Better Terminal app from Marketplace. And type this one line at a time
su
/system/bin/sensorcalibutil_yamaha - Before pressing Enter make sure you have put the phone on a flat surface . Note that the Lower end of the phone has a slight elevation so make sure that part is hanging out to make the rest of the phone perfectly straight
- Do not forget to reboot the phone to apply the changes. Now your orientation sensor is calibrated.
In next part of the series i’ll talk about how to run your PC and Samsung Galaxy S in perfect Harmony. (i know Kies can be irritating)
Creating Image Maps for Complex Shapes !! The easiest way
Apr 9th
Hey friends its been a while since i last posted something on the blog. This time i have got a tutorial for you on how to create Image Maps for (well maps) images which have complex layouts.
For eg. To Create Image Map of Image like this (see below) is a herculean task if done manually
The tool i use is Adobe Fireworks. And probably it is the best tool for the same task.
Step 1 : Open up the image in Adobe Fireworks
Step 2 : Click on Magic Wand Tool in the toolbox and click on the area you want to select. You’ll see it will automatically create a selection around the “similar colored area”.
Step 3 : This step is optional, This is just to make our image map look and function better. Go To Select –> Expand Marquee.. and Expand the marquee by 1px
Step 4 : Now Go to Select –> Convert Marquee to Path
Step 5 : You’ll now the see the image turn up something like this.
Now Right Click the portion which is highlighted by blue dots , or in other terms the Path that you just created and Click Insert HotSpot or press Ctrl+Shit+U
Now the image will turn up like this.
Next Step is to repeat the stuff with as many regions as you want. And then to export the image as HTML. To export the image Go To File –>Export (or press Ctrl+Shift+R)
And then save the HTML file anywhere. Now open up the HTML file to get the Coordinates to the area or the image map.
Hope you find this tutorial useful , if you have any doubts pertaining to Image Maps feel free to ask it in the Comments.
btw – here is a demo of the website i was working on where i implemented this map
http://anuj.im/gqa/ . Please note this is just a development setup for the website.
PID 4 is using PORT 80 on Windows 7 !! Help
Feb 11th
So i have been using apache to run a local server on my home computer (Well xampp exactly) , from the past few days i have been having trouble starting apache on port 80. I was wondering what could possibly be the reason for that , MySql was running fine on port 3306 but apache’s port 80 was being used by some process . So i did a netstat –ano command at the command prompt to see its output , and to my surprise PID 4 was using the port 80. To find out which Process has the ID 4 (Process ID 4) i launched the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) , went to Processes Tab and checked Show processes from all users
Well this is a screenshot after i got it working so you’ll see my httpd daemon is already running. I posted it just to make sure you guys are following me
Now after some research i found some solutions , so i am going to list them all here. But none of them worked for me , (well they might for you)
Here is one solution from the site cameroncooke.com
1) Launch RegEdit:
2) Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP
3) Add a new DWORD (32-bit) value
4) Name it ‘NoRun’ not including the quotes
5) Double click the new property
6) In the Value data field type ‘1? not including quotes and click OK
7) Re-boot your computer
But obviously it didn’t work for me.
Second solution from the comments on the same post
Go to Services (search for “services” on windows start menu ) and then disable Windows Remote Management
Third solution that worked for me was to disable the Running IIS server on my computer. It is disabled by default and i have turned it on some days back for some reasons . Turning that off solved my problem. Go to Windows Start menu and search for “turn windows features on or off”
Then start the program and uncheck the Internet Information Services
Then just reboot your computer and try to start the apache (it will start ofcourse).
I hope it helps a few fellow web developers. if you are still facing trouble please ask in the comments section
Update : Sometimes SKYPE also occupies port 80. So make sure to run your apache server before you start skype
Web Developer Tips – How to disable spellcheck in firefox
Jan 27th
Hello my fellow web developers and designers. Many times while creating a websites we are encountered with problem of not so good looking forms , and on top of that firefox’s built in spellcheck functionality adds to the disgrace by adding red dotted underline to misspelled words , or more appropriately words that are not in firefox’s dictionary. For eg. Have a look at the following “textarea” input field. It is a default textarea field with attributes rows="5” and cols=”40” set. i.e.
1 | <textarea rows="5" cols="40"> </textarea> |
Do you see the red-dotted underline beneath “textarea” and “smartanuj” , they just are not good. Whatever firefox thinks to me both textarea and smartanuj are correct spellings. So how can i get rid of this problem.
Now here is a another subtle but significantly good looking textarea
You see how the textarea and smartanuj both are free of the red-dotted underlines. Lets see how you can accomplish the same.
To create the above textarea i used the following code.
1 2 | <textarea spellcheck="false" rows="5" cols="40" style="border:1px solid #ccc;-moz-border-radius:4px;padding:5px;font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:20px;color:#4B4949"> </textarea> |
Lets break down the textarea bits by bits and understand whats going on there
spellcheck="false"
Disables the firefox spellcheck functionality on that textarea
rows="5" cols="40"
Sets rows and columns of textarea or width and height of the textarea
border:1px solid #ccc;
Sets border around the textarea which is 1px in width , solid and has color code #ccc
-moz-border-radius:4px
Curves the border around the corners in an arc of radius 4 cms
padding:5px
Sets padding 5 pixels , so the characters are some pixels away from the borders
font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:20px;color:#4B4949
Sets font-family to “Verdana , Geneva , Sans-serif ” , the size to 20px , and font-color to color code #4B4949
Isn’t it fairly simple. Important thing to remember , the make the styles inline to give the textarea proper formatting
If you have any questions please use the comments area below
Google has a new interface and it is UGLY !!
Jan 8th
The Google’s new interface (the one with the blue buttons) was in their testing phase for quite some time and it looks like they have finally implemented it at http://google.com. From the first looks the new interface is ugly and personally i do not like it. I am posting the screenshots below for everyone.
and here is the search page
Now if Google can hear this.. please bring the old interface back…
What do you guys say for the new interface.. lets hear it in the comments.
Update : Google has implemented this interface (rather slightly less colorful) interface permanently… oh we are doomed !!
Update 2: Firefox users can now use the a Old Google userscript to get back the same look and feel
Google’s New Year’s Easter egg.
Jan 6th
Google has yet another Easter egg for us. This time they are wishing us a Happy New Year in an animated way.
To see this Easter Egg simply just click on the “I am feeling Lucky” button with a blank search field and voila you have the Easter Egg. Just in case you miss it i am attaching a screenshot for you.
This animation runs indefinitely so you can just see random “Happy New Year” appearing all over the screen forever
How to unlock Everything in Windows 7
Jan 4th
So how can you unlock basically everything that is in the windows control panel. The windows 7 “Everything” folder gives you the ability to have every setting at one place , be it the Action Center , Administrative Tools , Bitlocker etc. Basically it is just a folder with expanded Control Panel. Please see the screenshot below to see it in more detail
To get this folder all you have to do is the following
- Create a new folder anywhere on your hard drive
- Rename this folder Everything.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
That is it. When you open the folder you’ll see everything which inside. Please leave your comments below.
Google Easter Egg
Dec 13th
Google has a new easter egg. This time right on the homepage.
To see the easter egg simply click on I’m Feeling Lucky button with nothing in the search field and voila!!
Google Easter Egg , Countdown to end of the year 2009
Ubuntu 9.10 WUBI installation problem , GRUB screen after updating
Dec 12th
Okay so I wanted to try Ubuntu 9.10 on my computer partially because it is so damn old to run windows 7 and partially because I wanted to give it a try. Only problem I didn’t have a Boot CD and my old computer won’t boot from a USB. So I tried WUBI and installed Ubuntu within windows. I was all set to try Ubuntu now. Ubuntu was running quite good , I had even shifted my development environment from Windows XP to Ubuntu 9.10. After running for a few days Ubuntu’s update manager notified me there are some updates, so i clicked Update and the update started. After the update it asked to Restart Computer and so i did.
After the restart when i tried to boot into Ubuntu , the GRUB screen came and i was like what do i do now ? I am a techie but i am not that into Linux so i was clueless there.
So i had to boot into Windows again , fire up Firefox and hunt the web for a solution as now i had everything in my Linux Environment.
Finally i found a solution and compiled everything at one place.
Please follow the following steps if you too got stuck at the GRUB screen in a WUBI installation after doing a Linux Kernel Update / Update to Ubuntu
- sh:grub>set root=(loop0)
- sh:grub>linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro
- sh:grub>initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
- sh:grub>boot
please note /ubuntu/disks/root.disk is the location of your WUBI installation (default being C:\ubuntu)
this will enable you to boot into Ubuntu Back
After booting into Ubuntu follow these steps to not to see that GRUB screen again during starting up.
- Open Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)
- Type sudo update-grub2 and click Enter, enter your administrator password and voila your GRUB list is made again. and you’ll not the GRUB screen again
I hope that helps. if you have any doubt please say in comments.
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