Porting and managing your E-Books on Kindle

If you have a lot of books in electronic form and want to port them to Kindle and then manage them well, here are a few tools you will find very useful.

Use caliber or mobipocket creator to convert books from their current formats to Kindle format. In fact caliber can even transfer them properly to the Kindle for you. I know that a similar conversion can easily be achieved by sending the file to your Amazon Kindle email id and then receiving it when you are connected to Wi-Fi. However, I personally prefer to be in control of this process and I like to use caliber.

Then use Kindle Collection Manager to create collections of books and organize your books in them. As the books get organized in collection which are nothing but a form of folders, the list of books you see in the home screen of Kindle becomes a bit smaller and more logically organized.

Your Android/iOS phone may have rootkit (Carrier IQ)

It was recently discovered that many Android, iOS, Nokia and RIM phones may have Carrier IQ mobile diagnostics rootkit software embedded deep into the software. The implication of this is that it is possible to track a lot more than just your problems with the phone without your even getting a whiff of it! Read more about this rootkit on website of Trevor Eckhart who is credited with finding this.

You can download the android app written by him to check whether your phone has Carrier IQ running behind your back.

To remove it, you can get the key for the Pro version for $1 from the android market but there are no guaranties that it will work for sure. Surest solution is to root your phone and go in for custom roms like CyanogenMod.

If you are on iOS5, it is simpler to disable this by going into Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage, and click "Don’t Send.". For older versions of iOS running on jailbroken devices, go to chpwn blog.

10 Android apps from Google for 10 cents each

Google is providing 10 Android apps for 10 cents each for 10 days to celebrate 10 billion downloads of Android. Check out if any of the offered apps appeal to you for a dime...
Linky

Kindle Import "Operation Failed" on TouchPad

I was trying to import a few books into Kindle on TouchPad using Calibre + Kindle Import but was getting the error "Operation Failed". Here's how I resolved this problem

1. Uninstalled Kindle & Kindle Import 
2. Deregistered this Kindle instance from the Amazon account (it may even work if this step is skipped)
3. Restart TouchPad
4. Reinstall Kindle and Kindle Import
5. Reregister this Kindle instance
6. Convert & Push the books from PC to TouchPad using Calibre
7. Run Kindle Import on TouchPad to select & import these books

That should solve your problem!

Updates to HomeBrew patches on TP

Updates to the patches listed in my previous post on Installing HomeBrew on TouchPad are now available for webOs3.0.4! Go ahead and update the patches and enjoy your TP. Note that I had to update each patch individually as the option to update all did not work.

Make PDF Reader intelligent on HP TouchPad

The PDF reader on the HP TouchPad currently just reads pdfs  :) It would be great if it could remember the last page that I had read on a particular pdf and it would be great if it allowed me to bookmark specific pages on pdfs.

Well, it seems that this particular wish is now granted and works well according to this thread on preCentral forums. It is a simple as downloading and installing this ipk - that's all one needs to do to get this awesome feature!

Note that this is just the beginning and there's lots of work still to be done.

WebOS 3.0.4 Update released

Ari Jaaksi, the head of webOS & services and HP announced on his blog here that they are releasing a new software update (3.0.4 - 77) for the HO TouchPad. It is an OTA update and has lots of perforamce improvements, better support for camera, UI updates & tweaks, and more apps!

So go ahead and update your TPs, but if you have HomeBrew and custom kernel & patches, then worry not. According to this forum post and this one, and this wiki page, updating your home-brewed TP is harmless and you do not need to do anything special. The patches may just stop working for some time till the latest updates of those patches are available and get updated. Also, some of the issues being addressed by the patches may also be taken care of by the new update.

So, as Ari says - enjoy the new update - no strings attached  ;)

Google gets a Patent for Doodles

Was checking out today's Google Home Page Doodle "Gumby" and stumbled upon the fact that Google's Sergey Brin got a Patent (7,912,915) for it! The application was filed more than 10 years ago on April 30, 2001 and is described as "Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site"
To quote the text of the Patent:
[Quote]
A system provides a periodically changing story line and/or a special event company logo to entice users to access a web page. For the story line, the system may receive objects that tell a story according to the story line and successively provide the objects on the web page for predetermined or random amounts of time. For the special event company logo, the system may modify a standard company logo for a special event to create a special event logo, associate one or more search terms with the special event logo, and upload the special event logo to the web page. The system may then receive a user selection of the special event logo and provide search results relating to the special event.
[/Quote]

Use FoxIt for filling in forms in PDFs

Needed to fill in a form in a PDF which had not been made originally in such a way that Adobe Reader could understand there were fields in it. Most probably it was a scan & print to pdf of a word document.

In such a scenario, FoxIt Reader came to the rescue! It has a tool called the Typewriter which allows you to click anywhere on the PDF and type in text in desired font, size & color - viola! Used that to fill in the form and print it out. Only problem is if you save this PDF, free version of FoxIt reader adds a watermark so better print it before saving the changes.

You can get the portable version of FoxIt Reader from here or if you prefer the full version, you can get it from here.

Entrepreneurship is the "in thing" in India

The Entrepreneurial spirit is very high in India these days with tons of very good companies and products coming jostling for attention. Many of the ideas are adaptations / localization of successful ones across other parts of the globe and some are very unique to the unique needs/demographics of the country. Here are a few that I cam across - not necessarily listed in any order of relevance or importance but more for my own future reference.

• Revu - a twitter style instant review from via SMS
• Paytm - instant recharge of your phone, data or tv card and get free coupons
• freecharge.in - instant recharge of your phone, data or tv card and get free coupons
• roopit - localized craigslist / sulekha for Bangalore only
• mobisy - consulting to create apps for mobile platforms
• Kreeo - platform to manage content, knowledge and social networking inside enterprises
• CraftsVilla - online market for Indian handicrafts (on the lines of Etsy except that artisan cannot interact directly?)
• Craftila - another online market for Indian handicrafts (on the lines of Etsy except that artisan cannot interact directly?)
• goibibo - domestic flight, hotel, holiday & travel booking
• kidloo - online toy store carrying all major brands
• firstcry - online store for branded infant and baby products
• timtara - fast growing online store
• buyTHEprice - online electronics store
• pluggd.in - Indian version of TechCrunch?
• flipkart - India's very own version of Amazon?
• mime360 - secure digital media distribution platform
• mYusic - streaming legal bollywood music

Let me know if you see any more sites....

Good day for Developers

It seems that today is a very good day for Developers!
On one hand, Google, launched its APIs for the Google+ platform here.
On the other, Windows is offering a free download of its' latest Win8 build here.
Hmmm ... decision, decisions, time crunch!

State of Mobile OSes

What with Android, webOS, MeeGo, bada, WinMo7 in the race to become stable and the de-facto standard after iOS, things don't look very good for end-users. QuiksMode blog has a very nice entry summarizing the current fragmented & cloudy (pun intended) state of affairs for mobile OSes here. From this report - it seems that Apple may continue to be the winner unless webOS or MeeGo manage to turn the tables around.

Happy Programmers' Day!

Today is 13th September - the 256th day of the year. The number 256 holds a special place in the eyes of (most) programmers as it is the highest value that can be represented with a byte: 2^8 or 0b11111111. Since this is the highest integer less than 365 (days in a year) that can be represented with powers of 2, this is celebrated as Programmers' Day. Read more on the history of Programmers' Day at Wikipedia.
Sadly - Google does not have any Doodles for this on their home page even though they are a very techie company.

Better Blogger Interface

Blogger is working on a vastly improved interface and I got a preview of it recently.
The new interface is really nice and am hoping it will become the standard interface soon.

HomeBrew on HP TouchPad

On HP TouchPad, side loading of apps - referred to as HomeBrew - is very simple and consists of a few simple steps! No complicated rooting, jail-breaking or difficult procedures as all. As detailed in this site, the steps are as follows:

1. Enable "Developer Mode" by typing webos20090606 in the "Just Type" box at the top of the home screen and enabling it
2. Download webOS Quick Install (WOSQI) developed by Jason Robitaille from here and install it on your computer.
3. Connect TP to this computer and click on close when prompted to enable USB Drive mode
4. Launch WOSQI on the computer and click on the globe like button on the right to install the Package Browser/Installer (note that it may take some time to load all the feeds and you may be prompted to load drivers from NovaCom - this is ok)
5. Launch Preware from Downloads and read through the notices - you can safely skim to the end
6. Search for and then Install the following patches to improve performance of your TP - note that you can restart after you have installed all these apps instead of once each time each app is installed:
1. Unset CFQ IO Scheduler
2. Muffle System Logging
3. Remove Dropped Packet Logging
4. Unthrottle Download Manager
5. Quiet powerd Messages
6. Faster Card Animations HYPER Version
7.  Reduce logging level - you can safely ignore the warnings that pop-up:
1. Open the Phone application and dial ##5647# followed by the green send button to open the logging menu
2. Clear the existing logs
3. Set logging level to minimal
4. You can also delete the trace/dump file from the menu on the top left

All of this took me only 15 minutes from beginning till very end!
Hopefully after reducing logging levels and speeding up the card animations, performance on TP should be vastly better.

Note that for reducing logging level, you do not need to pair to a phone or setup a phone application. Just open the included Phone app and select your own webOs account.

Track your Phone / Laptop using Prey

Now you can track your stolen laptop / phone (but not iPhone yet) for free using an open source software called Prey. It is a very small & lightweight software that can be installed on your Mac, Windows, Linux or Ubuntu Laptop or your Android smart Phone. Set it up and then you can wake it up in case your device is (God forbid) stolen. There are paid Pro version too for those who want a greater feature set and active monitoring.
This was recently used by self professed Info Sec Evangelist Greg Martin to track his stolen MacBook in the aftermath of the London riots.

Java 7 Summary of New Features

Here is a summary of the new features released in Java 7 as part of Project Coin language enhancements are:

1. Improved Numeric Literals - Binary integral literals and Underscore in numeric literals
2. Strings in switch
3. Diamond operator or simpler type inference for generic instance creation
4. try-with resource statement
5. Multi-catch and more precise throw
6. Simplified varargs method invocation
7. Fork & Join enhancements
8. NIO 2.0 & File system access enhancements

These are explained in detail below.

Improved Numeric Literals

Integral types (byte, short, int, and long) can also be expressed using the binary number system by prefixing "0b" or "0B" to the number's binary representation as:

int binaryLiteral = 0b110011

You can have underscores in numeric literals to make them more readable like:

int tenMillion = 10_000_000;

Strings in switch

Till Java6, only numbers or enums could be used in switch statements. Now strings are also allowed:

String switchString = getStringValue();

switch(switchString) {
    case "foo": doFoo();
                break;
    case "bar": doBar();
                break;
    case "fuu": doFuu();
                break;
    default: doDefault();
             break;
}

Diamond operator

This is a short cut to reduce typing and make it simpler to infer generic types during instance creation

Map<String, List<Pair<String,BigDecimal>> myMap = new HashMap<>();

Simplified varargs method invocation

When a programmer tries to invoke a *varargs* (variable arity) method with a non-reifiable varargs type, the compiler currently generates an "unsafe operation" warning. This proposal moves the warning from the call site to the method declaration. This merits more detailed explanation and a separate post.

Multi-catch and more precise throw

Now you can catch multiple exceptions in the same catch clause and also re-throw final exceptions without declaring the method with the "throws" clause.  More Precise Rethrow allows you to catch a high level exception instead of each possible exception, but when you re-throw this caught exception, the correct sub-class is thrown instead of the higher level exception. This merits more detailed explanation and a separate post.


Fork & Join threading enhancements
New Fork / Join framework as an implementation of the ExecutorService to help take advantage of mulit-core / multi-processor machines.


NIO 2.0 & File system access enhancements
NIO 2.0 & File system related changes make it easier for traversing file system trees and access file properties.
There are numerous changes and these could be a good candidate for a separate book in itself.


Check out the Summary of Java 5 features that are also hold good and are very useful.

Java Diamond "<>" operator

As part of Project Coin - Language enhancements, Java 7 has introduced the Diamond operator "<>".
In reality, this is just a short cut for a simpler type inference for generic instance creation.
So instead of this:

List<String> stringList = new ArrayList>String>();

one can use this in Java7:

List<String> stringList = new ArrayList<>();

So you say "big deal"?! The real benefits show when the type being inferred is very complicated and has multiple types nested in it like:

Map<String, List<Pair<String,BigDecimal>> myMap = new HashMap<>();

You are saved from repeating the same thing - less typing and less errors!

Eclipse support for Java7

Good news for Eclipse users is that all new builds of Eclipse 3.7.1, 3.8 and 4.2 will now fully support Java 7.
Earlier development of Java7 support in Eclipse was being done in BETA_JAVA7 branch which now has been fully merged into the HEAD and the R3_7_maintenance branch.


So the implication is that if you want Java7 support, you need to move to the latest builds of Eclipse Indigo (3.7.x) or higher. Cannot use Eclipse Helios (3.6.x) or even the initial versions of Indigo as the older JDT & Core packages do not understand the new Java7 features as Eclipse uses its own compiler and the ones built into older versions of Eclipse do not support Java 7. Also, as noted in the Project Plan For Eclipse Project, version Helios, support for Java 7 is deferred and decoupled from the 3.6 release since Java 7 release will be after the official release of 3.7.

Note that you will need to download a 3.7 maintenance build (>= M20110729-1400), a 3.8 build (>= I20110729-1200), a 4.1 maintenance build (coming soon) or a recent 4.2 build (>= I20110729-0200) to get Java7 support in Eclipse.

Java 7 GA release finally available

Java 7 was finally release into the wild today and made "GA" - Generally Available!
Download the latest from here.
Here's a very high level list of the new features/changes that made into Java7:

VM

• Support for dynamically-typed languages using the new InvokeDynamic instructions
• Strict class-file checking

Language

• Small language enhancements from Project Coin like Strings in switch statements, try-with-resources statements, diamond operator, etc.

Core

• Upgrade class-loader architecture to avoid deadlocks in non-hierarchical class-loader topologies
• Concurrency and collections updates in form of a lightweight fork/join framework, flexible and reusable synchronization barriers, transfer queues, concurrent linked double-ended queues, and thread-local pseudo-random number generators

Internationalization

• Support for Unicode 6.0
• Separate handling of locales to separate formatting locales from user-interface language locales

I/O & Networking

• New APIs for filesystem access, scalable asynchronous I/O operations, etc
• New NIO.2 filesystem provider for zip and jar files
• API for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) on Solaris
• SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol) support for reliable, high-performance network streams over Infiniband connections on Solaris and Linux
• Networking code modified to use the Windows Vista IPv6 stack, when available, in preference to the legacy Windows stack
• Support for Transport Layer Security version 1.2

Security & Cryptograpphy

• Implementation of the standard Elliptic Curve Cryptographic (ECC) algorithms to allow Java programs to support it out of the box

Database Connectivity

• JDBC 4.1 and Rowset 1.1

Client

• New Java2D graphics pipeline based upon the X11 XRender extension, which provides access to much of the functionality of modern GPUs
• New platform APIs for features originally implemented in the 6u10 release namely Translucent and shaped windows, and heavyweight/lightweight component mixing
• Cross-platform Nimbus look-and-feel for Swing
• SwingLabs JXLayer component decorator added to the platform
• New Gervill sound synthesizer created and made available

Web

• Upgrade of the components of the XML stack to the most recent stable versions: JAXP 1.4, JAXB 2.2a, and JAX-WS 2.2

Management

• Enhanced MBeans to report the recent CPU load of the whole system, the CPU load of the JVM process, and to send JMX notifications when GC events occur 

Pheww - that was a long list to say the least ;) No wonder the release date for Java7 was a very difficult moving target.
I will be putting out a detailed post on each of the features soon - so keep watching this space!

Conditional Breakpoints in Eclipse

If you have a big data set that you are using to test changes that apply to specific scenarios or rows, Eclipse conditional breakpoints can help to make life easier and simpler.

In Debug View (obviously!), right-click on the breakpoint that you want to make conditional and in the window that opens up, check "Enabled" box and then the "Conditional" box. This enables the textarea below it where you can enter any valid java expression which should trigger this breakpoint when true.

Optionally, you can also check the "Hit count" box and enter a positive number to make this breakpoint trigger after that many number of iterations.

Change format of Date displayed in SQL Developer

To change the format of Date column displayed in SQL Developer worksheets (output of SQL queries) do the following:

1. Select Tools > Preferences
2. Expand the Database section
3. In the NLS Date format field, enter the desired date format as supported by Oracle

My preferred format is DD-MON-RR HH24:MI:SS

Restore MS SQL Server Backup file

Recently I was faced with a dilemma - a friend of mine had a M$ SQL Server backup file and wanted me to extract some data from it. Since I work on Ubuntu & LAMP stack, I had to grab hold of a Win7 laptop and then follow the below steps.

To restore a database you need to do three things:

1. Install MS SQL Server Express
2. Interrogate the backup file to find the logical file names it contains
3. Restore the file into the appropriate database

Assume: For this example, the backup file is C:\Backups\DB_Backup_20110131.bak

Step 1: Install MS SQL Server
Go to Micro$oft site using the direct link http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/I-nstallOptions.aspx and download and install the most appropriate version of SQL Server Express.

Step 2: Interrogate Backup File

RESTORE FILELISTONLY FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\DB_Backup_20110131.bak'

This will return something like the below set of rows which represent the internal logical composition of the backup file:

LogicalName        PhysicalName                 Type FileGroupName Size      MaxSize
------------------ ---------------------------- ---- ------------- --------- --------------
SourceDatabase_data C:\SqlServer\Src_DB_Data.mdf D    PRIMARY       836461765 35184372080640
SourceDatabase_log  C:\SqlServer\Src_DB_Log.ldf  L    NULL           91592723 35184372080640

Step 3: Restore from Backup File

RESTORE DATABASE Destination_DB
FROM DISK = 'C:\Backups\DB_Backup_20110131.bak'
WITH 
     REPLACE, -- Overwrite DB - if one exists
     RECOVERY, -- Use if this is the only file to recover
     STATS = 10, -- Show progress (every 10%)
     MOVE 'SourceDatabase_data' TO 'C:\SqlServer\Src_DB_Data.mdf', 
     MOVE 'SourceDatabase_log' TO 'C:\SqlServer\Src_DB_Data.mdf'

Array Equality in JUnit

Till JUnit4.2.*, the only way to compare equality of arrays was to use the following snippet of code:

assertTrue(java.util.Arrays.equals(primitiveArray1, primitiveArray2));

JUnit4.3.* added the assertArrayEquals methods but surprisingly omitted a method to compare arrays of primitive doubles so, one had to fall back to the above mentioned way to compare them.

This important feature was added in JUnit4.6 so if you are using that or a later version, you can do the following:

assertArrayEquals(doubleArray1, doubleArray2, delta)

where delta is the allowed tolerance.

The advantage with using the assertArrayEquals method over the previous method is that this method clearly indicates the first element which differed. For example, when the below basic test is run, it gives the error message:

arrays first differed at element [2]; expected:<2.3124> but was:<2.3224>

Here is a sample class file showing implementation of the above test:

import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
import org.junit.Test;

public class AAETest {

    @Test
    public void testAAEDouble() {
     double[] da1 = {1.002d, 1.234d, 2.3124d, 3.91293d};
     double[] da2 = {1.003d, 1.2345d, 2.3224d, 3.91293d};
     double tol = 0.001d;
     assertArrayEquals(da1, da2, tol);
    }
}

Comparison of Intel Atom processors

With the various Atom Processor based netbooks and nettops being available these days, it becomes very difficult to decide which one to go for. Searching for the differences between the processors, I found the following comparison chart:

Product Name	Max TDP	Cores / Threads	Intel® VT-x	Integrated Graphics	Intel® Turbo Boost Technology	Status
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z560 (512K Cache, 2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.5 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z550 (512K Cache, 2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.4 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z540 (512K Cache, 1.86 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.4 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z530P (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.2 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z530 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z520PT (512K Cache, 1.33 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.2 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z520< (512K Cache, 1.33 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z515 (512K Cache, 1.20 GHz, 400 MHz FSB)	1.4 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z510PT (512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB)	2.2 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z510P (512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB)	2.2 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z510 (512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB)	2 Watts	1C / 1T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor Z500 (512K Cache, 800 MHz, 400 MHz FSB)	0.65 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N570 (1M Cache, 1.66 GHz)	8.5 Watts	2C / 4T				Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N550 (1M Cache, 1.50 GHz)	8.5 Watts	2C / 4T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ processor N475 (512K Cache, 1.83 GHz)	6.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N470 (512K Cache, 1.83 GHz)	6.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ processor N455 (512K Cache, 1.66 GHz)	6.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N450 (512K Cache, 1.66 GHz)	5.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N280 (512K Cache, 1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB)	2.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor N270 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	2.5 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E680T (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz)	4.5 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E680 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz)	4.5 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E665CT (512K Cache, 1.3 GHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E665C (512K Cache, 1.3 GHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E660T (512K Cache, 1.30 GHz)	3.6 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E660 (512K Cache, 1.30 GHz)	3.6 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E645CT (512K Cache, 1.0 GHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E645C (512K Cache, 1.0 GHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E640T (512K Cache, 1.00 GHz)	3.6 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E640 (512K Cache, 1.00 GHz)	3.6 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E625CT (512K Cache, 600 MHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E625C (512K Cache, 600 MHz)	7 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes		Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E620T (512K Cache, 600 MHz)	3.3 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor E620 (512K Cache, 600 MHz)	3.3 Watts	1C / 2T	Yes	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ processor D525 (1M Cache, 1.80 GHz)	13 Watts	2C / 4T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor D510 (1M Cache, 1.66 GHz)	13 Watts	2C / 4T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ processor D425 (512K Cache, 1.80 GHz)	10 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor D410 (512K Cache, 1.66 GHz)	10 Watts	1C / 2T	No	Yes	No	Launched
Intel® Atom™ Processor 330 (1M Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	8 Watts	2C / 4T	No		No	End of Life
Intel® Atom™ Processor 230 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB)	4 Watts	1C / 2T	No		No	End of Life

This is taken from the Intel Ark site.

Now based on the above table, the decision making process is slightly easier!

Fix Magento Invalid model for shipping method

Since a couple of days I had been playing around with various shipping method modules and installing & uninstalling them to see which fit the requirements. Then when I tried to ship an order from the backend, I would just get the error and on checking the logs, saw the error message "Invalid model for shipping method:" with a huge unintelligible stack trace.

I suspected foul play between my custom theme and the various shipping methods modules that I had tried so I removed all of them and then tried but got the same result. On reinstalling the modules, I noticed that the configuration data was being pre-populated automatically and this got me thinking.

I poked around in the database and found that the configuration info is stored in the table core_config_data.  In this table, I saw rows of data for all the modules that I was playing around with!

I deleted all these errant rows carefully, then cleared Magento cache and tried again and eureka! The order was processed & completed successfully!

Set Default Quantity to 1 in Magento

By default, the quantity box on the product page is always blank and that is not very user friendly. It would be great if the box would be set to "1" by default .

Now this can be done without any programming - only through configuration changes in the backend as follows:

1. Go to Admin Panel -> System -> Configuration -> Inventory-> Product Stock Options from the Menu
2. Click on Add Minimum Qty button (next to Minimum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart option)
3. Choose Customer Group: ALL GROUPS as you want this to be applied to all users
4. Enter 1 for Minimum Qty
5. Save Config

Abracadabra! The work is done - now products page quantity box is defaulted to 1.

Flying with Froyo on Vibrant

Froyo is now available for T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, however to really get it, you need to have the charged to more than 75% and have the Samsung Kies Mini downloaded & installed. This release is not OTA and the full fledged Samsung Kies software dos not work for USA hence the Mini is required.

Downloading Kies downloader was quite fast, however the actual installer download took some time but the install was a breeze. Hooked up my phone to the laptop and was told that an update is available and I started it. The downloading took about 15 minutes and then the actual install another 7 minutes. Here are the steps:

1. Setup Vibrant as follows:
1. Go to Menu > Settings > Applications and check the box beside "Unknown Sources"
2. Go to Menu > Settings > Applications > USB Settings and select "Ask on connection"
2. Download Samsung Kies Mini from Samsun website.
3. Install Kies Mini
4. Ensure that the battery on your phone is more than 75% charged
5. Take a backup of your data from the phone
6. Start Kies Mini and connect the phone to the PC
7. On phone prompt, choose "Samsung Kies" as the connect method on the phone
8. Kies will show that an update is available, click on the "Phone Upgrade" button on the left
9. A disclaimer Caution screen pops up - Read the Caution statements
10. Click the checkbox for "I have read and understood...", and click the Upgrade button
11. Kies will download the upgrade from the server - this took about 15 minutes for me
12. Once the files are downloaded, Kies will start the upgrade process and the phone screen will change to reflect this with icons and info of what step is being performed
13. After the installation finishes, click on the "Ok" button in the last screen to complete it.
14. Now the phone should reboot by itself and now you can disconnect your phone from the PC

My phone just kept waiting for about 5 minutes in the initial screen that displays the Vibrant logo and then came up.

Here are the differences that I see right off the bat:

1. Menu icons are colorful
2. Phone seems to be a bit faster than before
3. T-Mobile TV is now available - this is a pad service so not that interesting for now
4. Option to add Samsung widgets on the home screen using the long press is not available any more
5. WiFi calling is now available - but this still uses plan minutes so is useful only in places where T-Mobile or any other roaming GSM signal is not available, but a Wi-Fi signal is available.
6. There is a new app for Google Search
7. USB / Wi-Fi tethering is now available from Settings > Wireless and network > Mobile AP and Settings > Wireless and network > Tethering 
8. In the pull down menu from the top notification bar, there is a new icon to control Auto-Rotation

Here are the current version numbers:

• Firmware version: 2.2
• Baseband version: T959UVKA6
• Kernel version: 2.6.32.9
• Build number: FROYO.UVKA6

Yay!!! Finally on Froyo!!!

Android 2.2 Froyo now available on T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S

Good news !!! Finally Android 2.2 Froyo is now made available to T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Galaxy S users after months of waiting.
Sad part is that this update is not available over the air (OTA) so the user needs to download Samsung Kies Mini from Samsung website and install it. This upgrade includes Wi-Fi calling, USB / Wi-Fi tethering, and various software enhancements. The update is build number T959UVKA6 also known as KA6.
The full instructions for the update are available on the T-Mobile site.
Note that AT&T Samsung Captivate is still  not ready for Froyo as the update is only a maintenance release as per Samsung website.