The blog of Karl Majer…

A note to myself really, I was trying to get ADB to run on both my CentOS 5.5 machine and a VMWare Fusion Virtual Machine running Ubunto. Both flavors of linux protested my using adb with something along the lines of:

majer@ubuntu:~/android$ sudo ~/bin/adb devices

List of devices attached ????????????    no permissions

After a considerable amount of digging I found the one line change that needed to be made on both OSes. Add the following to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666"

And then restart the adb services with a:

[majer@ubuntu:~/android/] sudo ~/bin/adb kill-server

[majer@ubuntu:~/android/] sudo ~/bin/adb start-server

The adb command will work as expected now.

>>> Karl

I’ve recently started using Google Chrome, and while my browsing habits of keeping 30+ tabs open doesn’t mesh well with how Chrome uses memory, the Incognito mode is fantastic for going to friendly sites like FaceBook that share your login cookies/credentials with an ever growing number of sites on the internet.

The following hack will start Chrome up in Incognito mode by default. If you want a “normal” browser, just open a new browser window. Note, this is a ‘I’m not afraid of the shell prompt, I like voiding warranties, and if my computer explodes I’m fine with it’ sort of modification.

In windows land you can do this by right clicking on the desktop icon and editing the properties to add a ‘-incognito’ at the end of the line. Things don’t quite work the same way in OSX.

Without further delay:

bash-3.2$ cd /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/
bash-3.2$ mv Google\ Chrome Google\ Chrome.real
bash-3.2$ echo '#!/bin/sh' > Google\ Chrome
bash-3.2$ echo 'exec "/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome.real" -incognito' >> Google\ Chrome
bash-3.2$ chmod 775 Google\ Chrome


Click on the normal icon, if the app starts up it should be in Incognito mode. If it doesn’t start, fire up the console app and look at the last couple of entries, you may have a typo. If all else fails you can fall back with this:


bash-3.2$ mv Google\ Chrome.real Google\ Chrome


So what does this do? OSX .app bundles contain all the resources for the application. The binary is usually hidden in the MacOS directory. We’ve just created a shell wrapper for that which calls the real binary and passes it the -incognito switch, just like they do on Windows.

Like I said earlier, you have been warned. I’ve been using this for a while now without any problems but my setup is likely different than yours, and this definitely would not fall under “normal” usage for Chrome. Also, note that you will need to do this anytime you update your Chrome installation.

Good luck,

>>> Karl

So I’ve had an iPad for a week now. I’m one of those that pre-ordered the device shortly after they were available on the Apple store. I thought I’d take a moment and jot down my thoughts on the device in no particular order.

Context is everything with this device. If you were hoping to replace a laptop or skip out on getting that netbook by buying an iPad, I’m afraid you’re in for a rude awakening. I have gotten in the habit of reading technical manuals on my laptop prior to going to bed at night. I wanted to simplify things and purchase something smaller and lighter to let me continue my light reading in the evenings. I contemplated buying a Kindle at first, but decided to hold off after Apple first made mention of their device.

With that point of view in mind, the device has been quite successful in meeting, if not exceeding, my expectations. I have iBooks, Kindle for iPad, and GoodReader for iPad installed on the iPad and between the three applications, there is little I cannot read. I do wish that the iTunes Bookstore carried technical books, but I can always pull down the kindle versions of those, or buy pdf versions and view them in GoodReader.

Just a quick kudos to the GoodReader guys. The app offers almost a dozen different ways to get data into it from your iPad. When I first tried it, I was having issues with the iTunes integrated sync, but then realized that the app has an integrated webserver that can be connected to as a network folder (I’m on a mac) and then it was literally just drag and drop. I’ve also have yet to find a pdf that it can’t open and read. Well done guys.

So, using the iPad as an ebook works splendidly. The screen doesn’t require ambient light like the kindle does, and the controls on the various readers let you adjust the brightness/contrast as needed. I’ve already chewed through a few books in my nightly habit of reading for at least an hour.

As to the bonuses, the iPad is just the right size to comfortably lay in bed and watch content from iTunes U. Some of the Stanford lectures are outstanding and are free as an added bonus. I have also found its just the right size to keep up with my RSS feeds that I tend to consume as well. And when I feel like relaxing, the free Netflix client (account required) streams a decent selection of movies right to me.

There are a few downsides. The iWorks suite that can be purchased is tolerable at best on the virtual keyboard. I’m used to Excel and so caught a double whammy with the mind shift to how Numbers does things, and not having a full keyboard for data entry. Keynote was actually the best of the three, I was able to throw together a quick presentation without too much effort, and Pages works fine for a quick note, but I wouldn’t want to try and take notes in a class or a meeting on the device. I can almost touch type on the virtual keyboard until I hit a need for a special character. Then you’re flipping to another keyboard screen to get access to those. They should really move the apostrophe to the first keyboard.

So as I said, based on what I intended to use the device for, the iPad exceeds my expectations. I know there are other people whining about not being able to code on it, and/or it still being limited because its running iPhoneOS instead of MacOSX (which would have absolutely rocked), but frankly, at the end of the day I’d rather read a book than stare at more code.

>>> Karl