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Das Blog - Latest Entries (14 unread)

Updating Nokia firmware in Vmware under Linux

Posted: December 12th, 2008, 7:09pm CET by Robert Thomson

pIt was a bit of a struggle to get everything working... but here's how I did it. /p ol li Install VMWare 2.0.0 under Ubuntu Linux (due to kernel changes, the older version of vmware could no longer compile the kernel modules (asm/semaphore.h changed to linux/semaphore.h and the kill_proc function was removed from the kernel). /li li Browse to vmware's localhost web page and install the Firefox/Mozilla plugin for it, restart firefox. /li li Upgrade VMWare hardware version of my pre-existing Windows vmware image, add USB hardware if not there, let Windows hardware detect and install drivers as necessary, reboot if needed. /li li codemount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb -o devgid=500,busgid=500,busmode=664,devmode=664/code (I set the devgid and busgid to my uid, which was the admin account in vmware. Maybe you use root and don't need to do something, or maybe it was just strange for me.. no idea.) /li li Browse to a href="http://europe.nokia.com/A4579163"Nokia's website/a and install the Nokia Software Updater. Reboot windows. /li li Plug in the Nokia phone, select Nokia mode (as opposed to storage mode or another mode).. mount the device in the VMware image. Any read/write errors here are probably permission related in regard to /proc/bus/usb/. /li li Shutdown Windows, find the emvmware.log/em file and do codequot;grep path:quot; vmware.log/code.. find the entry corresponding to the Nokia phone. Copy amp; Paste the Numbers/Numbers after the path: bit. (maybe it's 1/2/3 for you or just 1/2) /li li Edit the .vmx file in the same directory, add codeusb.autoConnect.device0 = quot;path:THOSE/NUMBERSquot;/code. I also added codeusb.generic.skipsetconfig = quot;truequot;/code but I'm not sure that's necessary. You are actually binding that particular USB port on the host to that VMware image. You may want to undo this afterwards. /li li Start up the Windows guest again. The phone should now connect automatically. /li li Run the Nokia Software Updater.. cross your fingers.. if it doesn't work, uninstall and reinstall the software. Apparently the USB device drivers get screwed up often enough and this fixes them - at least, it did for me. /li li The Nokia Software Updater SHOULD now detect your phone.. if it doesn't, it's probably the device driver.. uninstall and reinstall Nokia Software Updater. It should find any new firmware for your phone and commence installing it. /li /ol pThe reason why you need to use usb autoconnect with the path option is because (it would seem) that the phone reboots into a firmware update mode and changes its identity.. and if it doesn't respond fast enough, then the Nokia Software Updater aborts (causing you to wonder whether you just turned your phone into a brick - luckily it wasn't the case for me). /p pGood luck! /p p(For the record, I ended up embarking on this journey when the Nokia Software Updater just stalled at the start screen on my girlfriend's laptop - a common problem, google would suggest.. Please Nokia, give us a Linux firmware updater!) /p br /i1 comment./i
gnokii --reset hard != reboot

Posted: December 11th, 2008, 12:34am CET by Robert Thomson

pI held a short memorial service for my SMS archive. At least I'd backed up my phonebook before doing it. Seriously, it looks innocuous if you read the gnokii manpage. /p
Why git is better than X

Posted: December 7th, 2008, 12:44pm CET by Robert Thomson

pa href="http://whygitisbetterthanx.com/"WhyGitIsBetterThanX.com/a prompted me to take more than a superficial look at git (Version Control System), and I'm very impressed. I think I'm a convert, forever destined to look down on other VCS' with a slight air of disgust. /p pemUpdate:/em Commenter emKK/em wanted to point out a href="http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSvnComparsion"http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSvnComparsion/a for a less koolaidy comparison. /p br /i1 comment./i
Chess Board!

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 8:54pm CET by Robert Thomson

pNo more lonely nights browsing websites (no, not emthose/em websites)! We now have a chess board... and the books Chess for Dummies and Complete Idiots Guide to Chess. :-) We still need to buy a pack of cards and a couple of board games. :) We must also find some sports we can do during winter here.. there's not really much to do in the city center itself since it's all historic, so it will take 20 to 40 minutes on a bus each time.. /p
Locked out of house, and rescued by firemen!

Posted: October 9th, 2008, 9:37pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pYes, in Italy, firemen come to your house when you're locked out. 'twas cool! And we met all of our neighbors! We have a second lock, to which we have no key, that we only use from the inside.. it must have clicked shut when we closed the door. Luckily, we had an open window, and with a long enough ladder, it was reachable. /p br /i1 comment./i
Internet in Perugia

Posted: October 9th, 2008, 4:02pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pWe have achieved that which we thought impossible. We now have Internet at our apartment in Perugia! It is a miracle! After over a month of wrangling with technical difficulties (which they never mentioned when we called to find out about our order - instead claiming that we were not customers, and trying to sell us something, thus leading us to assume our order was dropped, and to us placing a second order).. And so it is, that we now have Internet in our apartment. We probably could have had it a couple of weeks ago, had the modem (or instructions, since we had a spare modem) arrived sooner. But now we are officially customers, and we shall cherish our new-found status. /p
Will work for food

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:06pm CEST by Robert Thomson

p.. if I'm ever that desperate. But seriously, since I'm going to Italy for 10 months, and quitting my job to do it, I will probably look for some projects to keep me busy, and with the current state of the share market, I'd feel better earning money instead of digging into my savings. :-) So if anybody has any 100% remote part-time work for me (python, perl, linux, whatever) at realistic rates, starting November, let me know. The Django remote work job-board looks like an interesting option, if you weed out the adverts wanting something-for-nothing. /p
Italian service providers just hang up if they don't understand you..

Posted: September 9th, 2008, 7:57pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pIt's quite ridiculous. You call, you ask if you can speak to somebody who speaks English.. they say, quot;No.quot; .. so you attempt to use your pre-formulated sentences to get across your message.. they interrupt you, then you say that you don't understand, and they hang up. Gar! /p
Emergency Root Canal Treatment!

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 10:16pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pI had that on Monday (yesterday), because of one of my bottom front teeth. Luckily, it wasn't very painful. The nerve of the tooth was mostly dead, and the anaesthetic worked a treat anyway.. I didn't even dribble my water afterwards! /p pI'm sure I could have gone without pain meds today, but as the day wore on, my overused mouth was starting to make itself known, so I decided to take a paracetamol+caffeine (for the caffeine, really!) and later an ibuprofen tablet as a preventative measure. I'll probably also take one just before I sleep, so there's less chance of me waking up. /p pApparently dead nerves/gum infection usually occurs because of some prior accident, and the only accident I could recall happened when I would've still had my baby teeth, so that's almost certainly not the cause. So, no idea why! /p
Italy Italy Italia!

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:31pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pSì amici! I was in Italy. It was a wonderful few days that Sophia and I spent in Perugia, Umbria. While it gets quite warm there, it is dry heat, so with sensible clothing and plenty of water, it#8217;s quite bearable, even pleasant (more-so in the evening)./p pAn Australian friend has already lambasted me for talking as if 30#8211;35 degrees was possible only on an alien planet, and he reminded me that it#8217;s actually quite common in Oz and told me that I must be getting soft in Europe. All I can say to that is #8220;Nyer! Nyer! I#8217;m going to Italy and you#8217;re not!#8221; which I hope will put an end to the discussion./p pWe stayed at a cool place called the #8220;Farmhouse hostel#8221;, located a short bus-ride outside of Perugia, where we enjoyed the use of the pool as well as laid-back drinks in the evening with the owner, his friends, and other guests./p pWe also found an apartment. It#8217;s studenty and small, but well divided (upstairs and downstairs with desks to work on both levels) and in the city. We should also be able to fit a single camping mat on the floor downstairs, for any visitors that we might have. :-)/p pIn the meantime, I still have almost 3 months of work at Shell/T-Systems before I move there. So I#8217;ll be trying to save money now so that I can enjoy the good life later. :-)/p pOne of the many old streets in Perugia:br / img src="http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v272/152/43/790866943/n790866943_1148654_8987.jpg" alt="" //p
Java, Android, XML

Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:19pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pDoes it irk other people as much as me that we are expected to read amp; write span class="caps"XML/span in order to build and run programs? What ever happened to real configuration files? How about editing tools for span class="caps"XML/span? Did half the world forget that span class="caps"XML/span is intended for machines, not humans? I always get a bit annoyed when I see end user documentation telling humans to edit span class="caps"XML/span. Sure, sometimes the tools come later, but quite often not, or they eat up 200 MB of span class="caps"RAM/span and require a span class="caps"GUI/span to edit a 30 line configuration file. span class="caps"EOR/span./p br /i1 comment./i
iRiver Clix2 arrived..

Posted: July 13th, 2008, 4:11pm CEST by Robert Thomson

pThe iRiver Clix2 that I ordered strongfinally/strong arrived. It was supposed to be here after 2#8211;3 weeks, but instead it took 8 weeks#8230; in the meantime, I was given a free 1GB iShuffle by T-Systems (my new contracting client following Shell#8217;s outsourcing), which I also quite like due to its small size and the clip, making it perfect for when I#8217;m on my bike./p pI#8217;m happy with the Clix2. Right now, I#8217;m using it to listen to the radio (and switching stations whenever they start talking their horrible language). It came configured in span class="caps"USB/span mass storage device mode, instead of the alternative span class="caps"MTP/span mode.. I#8217;ve installed some new themes and some flash lite games on it.. I#8217;ve transcoded some TV shows for it (320#215;240 span class="caps"OLED/span screen) .. wouldn#8217;t want to watch a full length movie on it though./p pIn other news, Sophia and I are going to Perugia, Italy, later this month, to see if we can find some accommodation for her Erasmus year and my extended-holiday, and generally check out the place. We#8217;re eagerly counting down the days until we#8217;re both in Perugia!/p
Warum liegt hier überhaupt Stroh?

Posted: June 28th, 2008, 9:45pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Warum liegt hier überhaupt Stroh?
Gettin' it done..

Posted: June 5th, 2008, 9:58am CEST by Robert Thomson

I'm sure many of you have heard about Getting Things Done, an action management method by David Allen, which basically involves recording tasks and information in an manageable fashion, to get them out of your head and your worries. For a while now, I've been using a piece of software called ThinkingRock at work, and I find it quite useful. I do project work, and at the moment, it's a lot of small insignificant projects and tasks for them, all demanding some level of time and thought throughout the day, so doing a brain dump is excellent and it's a relief to know that things won't be forgotten.

My only complaint is that ThinkingRock doesn't have any web integration at the moment.. It would be nicer even, if it could use WebDav to save/synchronise with other instances, and publish summaries online for an on the road reference, perhaps talking to a web app for collaboration with other users (you can delegate tasks, and being able to track them would be great)
Italy! Italy! Italy!

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 3:41pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Vado a Perugia questo anno! Eccellente!
12 days until Maibaumkraxeln!

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 10:28am CEST by Robert Thomson

The countdown has begun! Maibaumkraxeln is an annual event in Freinberg, Austria (just near Passau) of beer-swilling pole-climbing fun! There are often side-events that are more readily accessible to the inebriated types, but ultimately it's just a day of drinking beer and eating good Austrian/Bavarian food in the sun along with friends and strangers, while watching some death-defying unharnessed people climb a 15m high pole like monkeys, and watching others climb it like your grandmother, inching up with arms and legs holding on tight enough to choke a bodybuilder. I can't recommend it enough! This year it's on the 18th of May (unless the weather really is terrible, in which case it's postponed). Bring your Lederhosen and your Dirndls and come along!
The longer I live here, the more I hate this city.

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 11:33am CEST by Robert Thomson

Never move to Den Haag.

May 6 update: Sure, now the weather's lovely.. don't trust it, though.
C++ gives me static

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 10:22am CEST by Robert Thomson

Defective C++

Scripting languages, managed runtimes and similar (CLR, Parrot and D) make me smile.
Warm weather's on its way!

Posted: April 16th, 2008, 7:16pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Hopefully. In the Netherlands, you can't really tell. It still gets to around freezing point, but the days lately have been around 10-12 degrees with sun, which makes sitting outside with a light jumper or even a long sleeved shirt a possibility. With daylight savings changes, it's no longer dark of an evening, which makes it a lot less depressing. I'm hoping for a nice summer here - mid-twenties with a soft cool ocean breeze.

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Das Blog - Latest Entries (14 unread)

Posted: December 12th, 2008, 7:09pm CET by Robert Thomson

Posted: December 11th, 2008, 12:34am CET by Robert Thomson

Posted: December 7th, 2008, 12:44pm CET by Robert Thomson

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 8:54pm CET by Robert Thomson

Posted: October 9th, 2008, 9:37pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: October 9th, 2008, 4:02pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:06pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: September 9th, 2008, 7:57pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 10:16pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 3:31pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:19pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: July 13th, 2008, 4:11pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: June 28th, 2008, 9:45pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: June 5th, 2008, 9:58am CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 3:41pm CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 10:28am CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: April 25th, 2008, 11:33am CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 10:22am CEST by Robert Thomson

Posted: April 16th, 2008, 7:16pm CEST by Robert Thomson