Previewing Android L on Nexus 7 2012 through MultiROM!

Disclaimer: Before you start anything, you must know that I take no liability for anything that would happen to your device as a result of you following this guide and/or any of the instructions from the links that will follow.

The new Android L (5.0) has been recently announced by Google, and if you own a Nexus 7 2012 tablet, than this is your chance to try the newest version of Android on your device. Please note that this is nothing official, it is just an port from the Android L emulator with the proper Android 4.4 binaries included. Therefore, you should expect frequent force closes, poor performance overall and lots of other problems.


Here are the general steps you need to follow:

1) First of all, the tablet must have an unlocked bootloader, with a custom recovery installed on it. This is a great guide that'll help you achieve that: link.

2) Then, you must install MultiROM, it will allow you to boot multiple ROMs on your tablet so that if you feel Android L is too unstable, you can easily boot the other ROM: link.

3) Finally, download the Android L files and gapps, and flash everything in MultiROM by following these instructions: link.


If you see a .zip file named repacked-something (repacked4.zip at the time of writing this article), then it needs to be flashed in MultiROM, unless the last link states otherwise. Do not follow what other websites or articles say (they are not even giving direct links to the original authors, which is unfair), some of them advise to flash repacked4.zip directly through recovery, that will not work and you risk bricking your device that way.

So that was all I had to say. I am currently running Android L myself, it is unexpectedly stable, I've seen relatively few force closes, but performs poor in terms of speed. There is probably barely any acceleration whatsoever (YouTube videos won't start at all). The animations are probably accelerated at less than even 30 frames per second and with more than several programs in the multitasking menu, you are going to see huge performance issues.

For the apps that are not available (Chrome, Facebook etc): go on Google, and search, for example, "Chrome apk". It will give you the apk for that app, which can be easily installed. Yes, it can be altered/have malicious code injected but.. this is the only way you can get these apps.

Good luck!

Ubuntu Linux on Chromebook: Crouton vs ChrUbuntu, or installing over Chrome OS or dual booting.

For the end of the term at the University, I've decided to bring with me my Chromebook (Samsung Series 5). I am on a computer science degree, so I must sometimes act like I am a power user or at least, have access to ssh, plus a X client. Therefore, it seemed obvious that I sometimes needed to have a desktop environment able to run native applications (e.g java), plus the X thing via ssh. Okay, Chrome OS is somehow able to do ssh and some sort of X server-client thing, because it's still a Linux operating system underneath, but it's not brilliant at that. 

Before starting anything, I need to say that I am not responsible for anything that happens to your computer by following what I will say. You are doing everything on your own responsibility. Everything is specifically designed for Samsung Chromebook Series 5. It might apply to other machines, or it might not. Please check the sources carefully before doing anything.

One vs. another.

Just to make everything clear: 

• ChrUbuntu is installed on a removable storage, so it doesn't touch the internal storage or alter it.
• crouton is installed on the internal storage, so it *might* touch the internal storage.

My recommendation is crouton, for a number of reasons I will enumerate in the section designed to it. ChrUbuntu is probably easier to install, and easier to use, but it has some fundamental drawbacks which make it a bit annoying. For crouton, you'll probably need to use the terminal a little bit, but it's really not that much to be afraid of.

However, because ChrUbuntu is installed on a removable storage, all you have to do in order to get rid of it is to format that storage. This is rather easy, and won't affect the existing Chrome OS installation from the internal storage at all. For crouton, there are some commands to run in Chrome OS in order to remove it, because it installed on the internal storage of the Chromebook. This can get risky sometimes, and if something goes wrong, the only way to recover is to get back to the original state of the storage, and that is to wipe everything and set-up as a new Chromebook.

Fortunately, on Samsung Series 5, there is a hardware switch which just turns off developer mode, and so it wipes the internal storage completely. It might be this easy on other Chromebooks also, but I am not sure about this matter. I advise you to search a little more on recovery for your Chromebook before doing anything.

ChrUbuntu.

First off, I tried to install ChrUbuntu. ChrUbuntu is a quite nice thing, it runs, as I have already told, on a USB flash drive or on a SD card, and you basically dual-boot in order to be able to get into Ubuntu. Yes, you need to reboot for that, so you don't have both running on the same time. 

Installation. 

Technically, to get anything working you need to follow everything from (this is the official ChrUbuntu website) (here), except that at point number 4, you MUST replace the command with the one you get from (here), according to your device and according to where you are installing it (USB flash or SD card). That is all.

Note: turning on developer mode will remove everything from the internal storage!

Luckily, it's not a very hard process (even though at first sight is seems so), and it should be easily reversible in most cases. Unfortunately, after a month, my USB drive stopped working (applications were reporting I/O errors when it happened), and after a reboot it failed to boot anymore in ChrUbuntu. I've seen some other people complaining about this, I don't know if it's only the flash drive which has been broken, if it's related to ChrUbuntu, or if something from the operating system got broken. Anyway, Chrome OS was just fine. 

Booting it up.

What I should mention here is how ChrUbuntu is supposed to start. When you first start the Chromebook, you'll get a warning screen with a "scary" face. At this point, you have three options:

• Wait for about 30 seconds and it will beep two times, and boot Chrome OS.
• Hit Ctrl + D -> instantly boot Chrome OS.
• Hit Ctrl + U -> boot Ubuntu.

Nothing that complicated at all. If you hit Ctrl + U and the installation of Ubuntu is not present, than it will beep so that you know that it can't boot.

Good and bad points.

+ Ubuntu runs exactly like on a regular computer.

+ so you can do (almost, look below) anything you would do on any other machine running Ubuntu.

+ the guy who created ChrUbuntu took care of the drivers, everything is working fine (on my machine at least).

+ little or no maintenance to involved, so might be suitable for people not willing to touch the terminal at all.

+ nothing really altered on the internal storage (except when you first turn on developer mode).

- it's only Ubuntu 12.04, not one of the latest versions.

- because it's installed on a USB drive (2.0 is supported only), or on a SD card, it's deadly slow.

- limited to the maximum speed of the medium it's installed on.

- requires a medium of at least 8 GB, about 2 GB will be free after installation.

- has no swap partition, so when you get out RAM...well, Chrome and other applications will eventually crash, or lag being very bad.

Crouton.  

It's a bit more complicated, but the huge advantage is that it runs on top of Chrome OS, and in the same time with Chrome OS. Therefore, it uses the kernel provided by Chrome OS, all the drivers from Chrome OS, and everything else that is provided by Chrome OS, and so everything should be working just fine and it's extremely fast. When I say extremely fast, I mean that it's one of the fastest experiences I've seen to date on a computer running Ubuntu (this is on just 2 GB of RAM and a dual-core Intel Atom processor running at just 1.6GHz!). 

Important here: just don't do the silly thing of installing Xfce instead of Unity. Xfce is just awful. It has the worst interface I've seen, it's not attractive at all, half of the icons are broken etc etc etc. Go for Unity from the beginning. I did the silly thing, and it seems that there are some "traces" from Xfce on my installation of Unity, and it's sometimes annoying, but I can still do whatever I want because I have the terminal available. 

Actually, forget what I said above. Xfce works actually quite well, and it is worth to give it a try. It will be significantly faster than with Unity, but I still think that Unity will give higher productivity. It's really up to you. Please note that you must use "xfce" wherever you see "unity" in this guide, and start it using "sudo startxfce4" after installation.

Installation.

For the installation, follow the first point from ChrUbuntu for your own Chromebook, that is, just to turn on developer mode. I repeat, from (here), follow just the first point!

Then, from (here), download the package provided. 

Afterwards, follow the guide from (here, same as before but at another heading), but for the point 2, type "unity" instead of "xfce". This will install Unity. For point 4), type "sudo startunity", and Unity will start. Everything else is the same.

Note: logging off does not work for me, for some reason. If this is the case for you, to close Unity, just hit Ctrl + Alt + Back to get back to Chrome OS, and then, in the crosh window in which Unity is running, hit Ctrl + C. This is not a very elegant way of closing it, but it should kill it pretty okay.

Starting it up.

Just as with ChrUbuntu, when you power up your Chromebook, you will get the "scary" face warning. But now, you can wait for 30 seconds and Chrome OS will boot automatically, or you can hit Ctrl + D and it will boot Chrome OS at that moment.

When you want to start unity from now on, hit Ctrl + Alt + T. This will open a crosh window on Chrome OS. There, type "shell". Afterwards, type "sudo startunity", just as before, and it should start.

To close it, try to click logoff. If it doesn't work, then go to Chrome OS, and in the crosh window, hit Ctrl + C.

Good points and bad points of this method.

+ it runs on top of Chrome OS, in the same time with it.

+ easily switch between them.

+ everything is guaranteed to work.

+ performance is absolutely astonishing, as everything is optimized for Chrome OS.

+ Unity + my apps apps add up to about 2 GB, leaving around 8 GB of free storage.

+ unified storage, so each OS can easily manage the files.

- it's only Ubuntu 12.04.

- can be a bit too technical for some users.

- in my experience, I had to use the terminal quite a little bit.

- uses internal storage (not excessively much).

- resources are shared, but I could not notice any difference.

Conclusion.

I've seen a lot of people complaining about the Chrome OS not being a complete operating system, about not knowing to do that and that, about being too minimalist and so on. With the possibility of having Linux working on a Chromebook, this completely vanishes. It's definitely not a solution which satisfies anyone, at least not on my machine. I am expecting it to work much better on the Series 5 550, the newer generation of Chromebooks that has the Celeron processor and double the amount of RAM.

However, it transforms the Chromebook into a computer that is capable of handling almost all the tasks a home or a power user would need to perform.


If you have any kind of questions, I will answer them here. I will try to look regularly for this on this particular post. I think that almost anything you would need can be found just by searching on Google, but if you still need help, I am here and I will try to provide it. 

How to listen to Pandora radio from anywhere outside the US.

I used to listen a lot to Pandora radio when I was in the US and I really enjoyed it, so obviously that I wanted it back home. But unfortunately, Pandora is available only in the US, because of the licensing problems which streaming in other countries could create. So, basically, if you are not in America, you can't listen to Pandora radio. But this is the official version...

There is a VPN service called Hotspot Shield which creates something like a tunnel between your computer and a gateway provided by Hotspot Shield (that's some sort of the definition of the VPN), which exists exactly in the US. The idea is that through this VPN, you should get a much safer browsing experience, because everything you do on the internet is sent, securely through that tunnel, in the US, so there is impossible for one to attack you and to try to track your data or something like that. For me it is not clear how the data is handled when it exits in the US, so I wouldn't trust Hotspot Shield when I buy something on the internet for example, but this remains at your own judgement.

By using Hotspot Shield, you should be able to access Pandora from wherever you are. I've been using it not very often for the last 1,5 years, but it always did its job.

Of course that using this also has some disadvantages, and they are mainly related to slow internet speeds (because everything has to go to the US and back) and sometimes slow DNS response. However, it is definitely worth being used for the possibility it introduces to all the internet customers, no matter where they are.

Note: I am not responsible for everything that happens to you by using this service. You use it on your own responsibility.

You can go on their website to learn more or try the product: http://www.hotspotshield.com/.

mysms SMS application seems to be very promising, brings many useful features over Whatsapp.

A few days ago I've presented you Whatsapp (here), a great messaging app available for a lot of mobile platforms which gives you the possibility to send free messages over the internet to all the users who have Whatsapp installed on their device. One of the disadvantages of Whatsapp is that you must be on your phone to send the messages, so you can't register on your phone and then send the messages from your computer or anything like that.

However, with mysms SMS application, it becomes possible to send messages from your computer to all of your friends from all the other platforms, using the mobile phone number you register with before. Moreover, mysms comes also as a standard SMS client, having the ability to handle all the SMS functionality of your phone's default SMS application. More specifically, you can send and receive standard SMS messages directly through mysms, without having to open the stock application separately (you'll have the option to send messages via mobile carrier or via mysms, in case your friends have it). I don't know whether this works or not on iOS because of Apple's restrictions, but on Android it works quite well.

One problem which I found is that I can't send messages through mysms from the browser (Chrome), maybe this functionality is currently unavailable, but it's still a great product. At 700 messages a month from my carrier contract, I think that it's still worth using it, considering that I don't even need to access my phone in order to view or send messages. And the ICS/JB design is a big plus over Whatsapp.

Visit the official website for more information http://www.mysms.com/, or search directly in App Store/ Google Play for "mysms".

How to install Frash (Flash) on your Jailbroken iPad (the easy way).

One of the biggest disadvantages of browsing the web via the iPad is its total lack of Flash, which makes it not that web-friendly. Apple claims that Flash sucks, that it uses enormous resources, that it is slow, it drains battery fast and many others. That's why they probably won't ever accept Flash on the iPad.

Actually, Apple is that one which sucks here, because Android shows that Flash can run decently on smartphones. OK, without counting on what's on YouTube, I can tell you that Nexus One is compatible with 99% percent on what's out there (yes, on the internet), and on over 90% of all websites containing Flash content, Nexus One is capable of playing that content smoothly.

Returning to iPad and Flash, there's a way of installing something like a Flash, named Frash, on it. But firstly, you need to know that you must have a jailbroken iPad. And you can jailbreak it only if you're on iOS 3.2.1 or below (sorry if you're on 3.2.2). For the right firmwares, just use http://jailbreakme.com/ (I hope I don't need to tell you that you're doing it on your own responsibility).

Then, after you finished jailbreaking your iPad, you must start Cydia, go to Manage | Sources, and there add http://repo.benm.at . After you've done that, just search for "Frash" on Cydia. Install it, and, bingo, you have....Flash, on your iPad. You just need to type on what's Flash content on websites in order to display it, but, unfortunately, it isn't as compatible as it should be.

I mean, stuff like ads work perfectly, but where we are talking about games or videos, you'll be disappointed. Mainly, they won't work at all. So, even with this trick, iPad's style of browsing is still far away from where's Android's browser.

Exclusive: Install Google Earth 1.1 on your Android 2.2 device (without Market) !!

You probably heard that today Google launched "Google Earth", version 1.1 for Android 2.2 devices. It should be normally available for download via the Market (as everywhere writes that) or via a scan of its QR code, but, unfortunately, it isn't. Or at least, I can't find it in the Android Market, and there are many users complaining about this. If you are one of these users, I have a good news for you. I found a way of installing Google Earth on Android, without the use of Market.

We are going to use another application in order to install Google Earth, and app that has similar functionality to the Market. So, open the Android Market, and search, download, and install "AppBrain App Market". In the meanwhile, go to AppBrain.com from your desktop (most recommended) and create an account using your Google account.

When you finished creating your account, open AppBrain App Market, and sign in with your Google account (you should see in the upper right corner "Sign in"). When you have successfully signed in on your account in AppBrain App Market, go again in the Android Market, and download "Fast Web Installer". It will ask after launch for the permission to your Google account, so give it, and then the app will quit by itself.

The following step is to go on your browser from your Android device to AppBrain.com (you should be automatically logged on; if not, login with your Google account), search for "Google Earth", click on the first result, and then click "Install" (not "Download directly from the Android market!). The download will start automatically, and you'll have Google Earth on your device installed in a few moments.

So, enjoy Google Earth and if this really helped you, please share this page with your friends! :-)

Seesmic force close problem was fixed a few minutes ago via an update !!

Seesmic announced a few minutes ago on their official twitter account the availability of an update in the Market, which promises to fix the problem with the Twitter API users from all over the world had today (which was causing Seesmic to force close). However, it seems that the problem has been fixed for the previous version also (maybe Twitter changed something at their APIs in the same time?).

The new version is 1.4.3, and yes, I confirm that it fixes the problem.

iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G users have to save SHSH Blobs from now!

If you're having a 3G iPhone or a second generation iPod, you didn't have (until today) to care too much about saving SHSH Blobs. We are talking about those who have jailbroken iDevices, of course. So, these applied, until today, for the 3GS iPhone/3G iPod and later iDevices.

Starting from now, SHSH Blobs must be saved by iPhone 3G/iPod Touch 2G users, because Apple stopped signing digitally for older firmwares for these devices. If you have one of theses devices, changing firmwares was easy, you just had to select an firmware and click update or restore and then to do jailbreak, depending on the situation.

If you update today, for example, your jailbroken iPhone 3G from 3.1.3 to iOS 4.0, and you didn't save the SHSH Blobs for your device, there's no way of turning back. You'll be stuck on iOS 4.0, with iTunes giving you an error when trying to downgrade (restore to older firmware). And this happens because, as I've already told you, Apple stopped signing older firmwares for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 3G.

So, you really have to save them (just for any case). On your jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch, open Cydia,  and tap on "Make my live easier, thanks!". This is all, it's really simple.

If you're asking what this does exactly, here it is: when iTunes will try to downgrade your iDevice, instead of asking Apple's servers for approval, it will call Cydia, which will, if you have saved your SHSH Blobs, give iTunes "OK for downgrading".

Update: Another virus hits Yahoo! Messenger.

A virus which is not new to Yahoo!'s network seems to be hitting it again. A Romanian website for security warns users of Yahoo! Messenger about its existence and offers help in fixing it. This virus sends various links, most of them referring to Facebook (so this creates confusion between users). Some of them are pasted here:

• http://ow.ly/2D4zB?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• is this you on pic?  http://ow.ly/2cWs2?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2d3aB?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2cTes?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2bmMb?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• foto :D http : //ow.ly/2b7Xp?=www.facebook.com/photo.php
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2aG6r?=www.facebook.com
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2arJj?=www.facebook.com
• foto :D http://ow.ly/2aHoc?=www.facebook.com

The virus asks user to download a file, which is, of course, the virus. Here are some examples of files containing the virus:

• 012457566896789-JPG-www.facebook.com.exe
• PIC348u6234-www.facebook.com.JPG.exe
• n719753102_09.JPG-www.facebook.exe
• n11975310_09.JPG-www.facebook.exe
• n11975310_09.JPG-www.facebosok.exe
• n777719102_09.JPG-www.facebook.exe
• 102_09.JPG-www.facebook.exe 
• 9.JPG-www.facebook

Normally, an antivirus program should detect the malware and remove it, but if it doesn't (or you don't have one), you may download Palevo Removal v2 from here. This program should automatically close the virus and remove it. All you need to do then is to reboot. 

Note: Windows 7 and Vista users must click "This program works correctly" when prompted. 


Thanks to the Romanian website called IT Security which made everything possible. (Google translated webpage here).


Update: The admin from IT Security warned me that the virus is downloading more and more files with strange names (it's quite impossible to keep up with it). He also told me that using Malwarebytes should help much (download here). Make sure to update after installation and then perform a full scan. 

Syncing Palm handhelds (running PalmOS) with Ubuntu 10.04/10.10.

If you have an Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 and a (older) Palm handheld, you probably want to synchronize them, especially to install programs on your device (I have a Zire71, which doesn't have WiFi, so the only way of installing applications is via a computer). We'll be using "gnome-pilot" in this purpose. So, go to Synaptic Package Manager (System | Administration | Synaptic Package Manager), search for "gnome pilot", and install it. 

After you installed gnome-pilot, go to Start | Preferences | PalmOS Devices, and click Add. Now make sure that the port/hub in which the handheld is connected is working, and your device has enough battery. If you had your device synced before, click on "Get from PDA" button, and tap on the sync button on the dock. If that doesn't work or it's the first time you sync your device, give it an owner name, and an ID (it doesn't matter what  ID, I put 1000), click "send to PDA" and tap the sync button on the dock.

If that succeeded, close that window, and on the "Conduits" tab, enable all settings you want. Make sure that conduit "File" is enabled. When you're ready, right-click on panel (the bar with Applications, Places, System, etc) and click "Add to Panel". There, select "Pilot Applet" and click Add. A black-and-white icon should appear on the panel (if you can't find it, ask for help). 

All that you have to do now is to download applications for your PDA, and to drag and drop them over that icon. When you tap on the sync button on your device, it should be automatically installed on your device. I know, it isn't intuitive, but you can't say that it's difficult. 

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to leave a comment and I'll be happy to assist you.

Nexus One trackball flashing in different colors (Android 2.2, -no root required-).

If you own a Nexus One, you probably know that there is a conflict between Google on one side, and developers and users on the other side. This happens because users and developers want the trackball to flash in different colors, and it is not known why, but Google doesn't want this. 

I don't know if this is a feature brought by the Android 2.2 update, but, without any root, the trackball from the Nexus One can actually flash in different colors. You can have any color you like: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Cyan, White, Magenta, Purple, and if you now the hex codes of the colors, almost any other color (or a combination between them). I'm not sure, but what I think is that there is only a single LED, capable of flashing in different colors, and not more LEDs, every flashing in its own color. But this doesn't matter.

What's important is that this feature is working well on Android 2.2, FRF91 Build, without root. I'm now asking myself were the hell are the developers, and why they didn't develop yet their applications with this feature. They can make the trackball to flash blue when you receive a reply or a DM on Twitter, and yellow when you get a message on eBuddy, for example. 

Search for "LED Tester" into the Android Market (it's the second result, that one with the blue trackball at its icon). 

if it doesn't work work for you, please leave a comment telling the version of Android, its build, and if your device is rooted or not. 

Apple launches iOS 4 today!

Apple is today going to launch their new version of iPhone OS, now named iOS. We are talking here about iOS 4, a new operating system for iPhones/iPods which adds over 100 new features to the iPhone 3GS, compared to the earlier OS version. It's a quite complicated story, because this new OS will be available only for the new iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

However, if you have a 3G iPhone, it has been already shown that the new iOS stresses the device considerably much. I recommend you not to update yet, and wait for some videos on YouTube to see how fast it moves. Apple is always making older devices (this time is 3G's turn) to move slowly with new software, in order to make people buy new devices (3GS or 4). And if you're on 3G, you won't have multitasking and wallpaper image (so there is no real need to update, in my opinion).

What else you need to know is that if you ordered a new 3GS today, it is already being delivered with iOS 4 so if you need to unlock it, there is no jailbreaking solution yet. Don't understand me wrong, iOS 4 has already been jailbroken, but the 3GS and the 4 will surely come with a new boot rom installed so you can't jailbreak them yet.

Anyway, if you need a jailbroken device, do not update yet, as the situation is not clear how to jailbreak iPhone 3G/3GS/4.

Android 2.2 FRF72 manual update is now available.

Google launched yesterday an update for Android 2.2, for those who received their Nexus One at Google's conference. It updates the build number on the Nexus from FRF50 to FRF72, and it is just an under 2 MB .zip archive. So, there shouldn't be any notable difference compared to previous version.

However, for me it seems that it makes the applications a little more responsive, and changes the way "pinch-to-zoom" works on pictures. The first sensation is a little inaccuracy, but after playing a little with it, I think that this is a new feature. If you move your both fingers in a direction while zooming (in or out), you will observe that the image moves that way. This is too natural (for the fingers) and too smooth (for the phone) to be a bug, in my opinion.

Please note that in order to update, you MUST have the previous built for Android 2.2 (FRF50) installed on your phone.

You can get the Android 2.2 built50 (previous built) with installation instructions from here.

For FRF72, follow the instructions from the link above, as they are the same.

Download Android 2.2 FRF72 from here. In case that Google removes the file, mirror download link is here.

You can expect for this file to hit the Nexus via an OTA update anytime.

Notes:

• You may have to try step 6 for several times (it might not work for the first time).
• Step 8 is necessary.
• This will NOT void your warranty, however, the update is on your own responsibility.

Fixing "connection refused" problem in Pidgin (Ubuntu).

"Connection refused" error is a problem which is known by many Linux users. It is usually occurred (sometimes) on most IM clients, especially when trying to connect to Yahoo!. This is a very annoying problem, and almost nobody knows exactly how to fix it (and if they fixed it, what they really did). Certain is that this usually occurs when the guys from Yahoo! are changing the way users are authenticating on their servers. So their servers are probably misconfigured (for Linux users), and they are simply refusing all clients who are coming from other clients, different than their own client (application).

There are some ways of fixing this on the internet. It has been reported that if you continue trying to connect, you could be in a final connected or redirected to a server which allows authentication in the old way. However, theoretically spoken, this solution is only temporary. If you disconnect, you'll probably have again problems connecting. Other users reported that changing the server on which the application is logging on may resolve the problem. I've tried changing it between scsa.msg.yahoo.com, cn.scs.msg.yahoo.com, scs.msg.yahoo.com and other addresses like these. I tried to change the address even with server's IP address directly (thinking that it could be an address resolving problem), everything with no luck.

But I continued trying, and after tens of forums and blogs, I found on brainstorms.in a user who reported that changing the server to scsd.msg.yahoo.com works. And it really works. So, if you have this problem, click on Accounts -> (on your account) Edit Accounts -> Advanced, and on the first row (Pager server), put "scsd.msg.yahoo.com".

Please leave a comment to know if this fixed your problem or not.

Ubuntu 10.04 + Nvidia FX proprietary drivers? Maybe not!

I never was a fan of Nvidia's graphic cards. I don't have a reason for this, but I simply prefer ATI's products. And after what Nvidia proprietary driver did when I activated it in Ubuntu 10.04, I surely won't be a fan of them ever. So here are the details. An AMD platform (32-bit), with a Nvidia FX 5600 graphic card and a fresh-installed Ubuntu 10.04.

Nvidia usually makes its own drivers for Linux distributions. These kinds of drivers are known as "proprietary drivers", which means that their code is made and developed by Nvidia developers. In Ubuntu, in case that something goes wrong (including a driver), developers (from anywhere in the world) start working (on open source code) immediately on a fix so that it is available as soon as possible in the Update Manager. But with Nvidia, the situation is different. Because it's a proprietary driver, Ubuntu's developers doesn't have access to the code (because it isn't a public or open source code), so they can't improve or fix it. Any user using a Nvidia graphic card under Ubuntu has to wait for Nvidia's developers in case that it appears a problem with the driver.

So here's my problem. After I activated Nvidia's driver (version 173), it asked for a reboot. Until then, everything worked fine. But after reboot...it happened...I don't know what. I can't even explain. Under the VGA port, the image was highly affected. I could hardly read something on the screen (the colors and the image were totally misplaced). The monitor (Samsung T220) was continuously warning me that the image is displayed in "not optimum mode", and even after I got into driver's settings and changed them from auto to 1680 x 1050 with 60 Hz, the situation remained the same. The image on the monitor was starting to color white at every 10 seconds, and I was afraid that this can burn the pixels or even broke the entire monitor.

On DVI, the situation was completely different. The image looked pretty OK, however, the monitor was still warning me that it is in "not optimum mode" and it was restarting at every 1-3 seconds. This happens both with driver version 173 which is recommended, and with version 96 to which I have access.

In now stuck on a desktop without any accelerated video driver, but at least, this works (even if it is quite slow). The only thing I can do is to hope and wait for Nvidia to update their stupid driver for Ubuntu 10.04. I don't know why, but I think that Nvidia won't change something here...I hope I'm wrong. I know that there are some open-source drivers for Nvidia called "Nouveau" but I observed that they are only for GeForce6 and above (mine is GeForce 5).

So, if you installed one of these drivers with problems, try to enter into "hardware drivers" to remove it, and then reboot. In this way, you will be able to use your computer.

If you know how to fix this, please let me know via a comment.

Testing campaign for BitDefender 2011 Beta has started.

BitDefender, the security company from Romania, announced the start of the testing campaign for their latest security suite, 2011 Beta. The installation of this new product is done quickly, with the possibility of scanning before installation and without the need of restart after installation. What you have to do in order to get this product working, is to enter here to create an account at BitDefender (if you don't have one), and then to enter here and select one of the first two options. Then you'll get two keys, which will give you 180 days (6 months) of trial if they are inserted.

Related to the antivirus itself, it now has another interface which is optimized especially for unexperienced users. It includes "Search Advisor", which automatically warns you if you visit a website reported as infected (all links are automatically checked with BitDefender's servers), a new utility which displays you all applications that are stressing your computer and suggests you ways of fixing them, and a new mechanism, which assures the optimum speed of the computer (the antivirus adapts its use of resources dynamically, depending on the available resources of your computer).

The detection rate has been improved compared to the earlier version (with the help of new methods of detection and upgraded existing ones), and I can really say that this places BitDefender on top of the world's most powerful antivirus suites. However, as usual, BitDefender has important problems related to the fix of advanced and complex malware. This kind of problem can even make your system unable to boot.... so this is an important thing that is not yet resolved.

If you want, you can download and test this security suite, but as it is a Beta 1 version, I don't recommend you using it in an environment in which the security is something essential.