All posts by vyom

Minimalism and Memoirs of the Past

Personal, , , ,

Before life used to be in fast lanes, people were minimalist. They used to work hard in the day, earn enough to eat two times, sleep peacefully over the night, and start all over again the next day. They used to respect each other, celebrated, mourned and participated in any events happening in their neighbors together.
But over the years life has not been the same. As the industrial revolution evolved, people turned to cities. They started to face competition and they needed to fight in order to be heard and get what they deserved. We earned. We bought stuff. We felt happy buying stuff. So we earn more to buy more stuff. Slowly we became so habituated with the cycle that we started to drift from what once mattered to us more than anything. We started accumulating things we may not even need. Suddenly a new kind of competition was there. Competition to look more smart. More trendy. More fashionable. Something more to boast about. It never end.

But minimalistic living is something people eventually turns to, when they finally understand that they have enough of the shenanigans of consumerism.

Continue reading Minimalism and Memoirs of the Past →

Installing WhatsApp on Nexus 7

Technology, ,

Nexus 7 doesn’t have GSM facility. So that means installing Whatsapp on N7 shouldn’t be possible. But in my experience despite of it giving warning it installs straightforwardly. Here’s my exprience on how I migrated WhatsApp from my phone to Nexus 7.
1. Install Whatsapp on N7 from market or through APK file. But don’t open the app yet.
2. Create backup of existing Whatsapp messages:
If you don’t want to migrate existing messages then you can skip this step. Of course, there is no reason why you should skip, since its pretty easy. Just transfer the file: “msgstore.db.crypt” from phone to tablet, which resides at “/sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/”. And keep the file in the same folder in N7. Create the folder database if it doesn’t exist.

Continue reading Installing WhatsApp on Nexus 7 →

Using OTG cable to access external storage and 3G dongle on Nexus 7

Technology, , ,

In my last posts, I wrote about how to root your Nexus 7 and install Ubuntu Touch. Today I am going to write about how to use an OTG cable to access pen drives and External Hard drives. Also one of the most awesome thing you can do is to use 3G dongle on the Nexus 7. And I am doing it in questionnaire style.
Why use OTG cable?
You can use an OTG cable to attach following devices to your Nexus 7:
1. Pen drives
2. Memory card readers
3. External Hard Drives
4. 3G Dongle
5. USB Mouse and Keyboard
What is an OTG cable looks like?
Shown clockwise from top left: OTG Cable, Card Reader, Pen Drive, an Huawei 3G dongle (with Airtel connection).
Yup, OTG cable is that small. Some other variants of OTG cable also comes with no wire. Refer this.

Can any OTG cable be used with Nexus 7?
Continue reading Using OTG cable to access external storage and 3G dongle on Nexus 7 →

Installing Ubuntu Touch on your rooted Nexus 7

Technology, , , , ,

If you haven’t rooted your Nexus 7 yet, you can follow my previous post and do that easily. This guide assumes you have connected your device with your PC and can use ADB to push commands over to your device. If this doesn’t make any sense, read my previous guide.
In this post I am about to write how can you easily install Ubuntu Touch on your Nexus 7. Before we do that, you can read this article on why shouldn’t install Ubuntu Touch: 4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Install Ubuntu Touch on Your Nexus | OMG! Ubuntu!
But since we are dual booting the Ubuntu with Android, the reasons stated above won’t matter!
1. Installing Custom Recovery (Flashing TWRP Multi ROM)
Using adb commands the next you need to do is to flash a version of TWRP recovery which is tweaked for MultiROM support. The file I downloaded was “TWRP_multirom_grouper_20131022.img” from here: [MOD][OCT 22] MultiROM v16a (fix SuperSU for secondary ROMs) – xda-developers, and used following command to flash it.
fastboot flash recovery d:\path-to-recovery\TWRP_multirom_grouper_20131022.img
Continue reading Installing Ubuntu Touch on your rooted Nexus 7 →

Rooting Nexus 7 and Unlocking Bootloader

Technology, , , ,

In my previous post I posted a few screenshots of my new Nexus 7 which I bought recently. In this post I am going to write about how you can unlock the bootloader of your Nexus 7. This process can be basically done in 5 steps.
Rooting the N7:
You can live your life with N7 without rooting it. But as one of the Android Commandments say: “Thou shalt not use thine nexus unrooted” I think you need to be awesome instead and do unlock it to get these features to work:
1. Ability to use an OTG cable to connect pen drives to the device, thereby overcoming the 16 GB (13 GB available actually) limitation.
2. Using a 3G dongle to let your device take advantage of 3G (which by default this device don’t have)
3. Take advantage of apps that only works when device is rooted, like Titanium Backup and Cache Cleaner
4. Flash custom ROM’s and/or Install Ubuntu Touch on your device (and be a part of an OS in the making!)
You can read this article that echoes my thoughts, until the part where he used a toolkit to root (I rooted the old fashioned adb way).
Here’s How to Root the Nexus 7 – But Should You? | Android.AppStorm
Anyway, so how actually you root N7?
You can use the most popular Nexus Rootkit to do all kinds of stuff to your N7 including Rooting, flashing zips etc, but if you are geek like me, here is how to do it manually (and its way easier than you think):
Continue reading Rooting Nexus 7 and Unlocking Bootloader →

My Nexus 7

Technology, , ,

I bought Nexus 7, 16 GB, 2012 Wifi model from Flipkart a week ago. And I have to say, it is one of my most awesome investment that I ever did. I immediately started my research on rooting it so that I can unlock the true potential of this beast. Now I have installed Ubuntu Touch on N7 and its dual boot with Android. But I faced numerous challenges in doing so, due to lack of experience in this regard. I decided to document my research and finding so that other who may want to unlock the bootloader of N7 and want to flash Ubuntu Touch can do so easily.
I am going to post this guide in three part post. In this first part I am presenting unboxing video and some screenshots of the N7 running Jelly Bean.

 
Images are scaled down, click the image to open the image in its original quality
The Lock screen:

Continue reading My Nexus 7 →

Mawaru Penguindrum – Anime

Pop Culture,

I have watched a few Animes over the duration of a couple of years. I have watched Clannad, a beautiful comedy drama that make me cry many times over the course of two seasons. And I have watched Steins;Gate a science fiction anime which haunted me for days with its creepy “time travel gone wrong” images. But I have never watched an anime like Mawaru Penguindrum which was confusing yet engrossing with each passing episode, although after a period of time.

Mawaru Penguindrum is a story of three main characters: brothers Shouma and Kanba and their sister, Himari. The girl Himari has a terminal illness that causes her death just as the series begins. But a magical penguin spirit revives her from death on a condition that the brothers must find a secret stuff called, “Penguindrum” which would give her sister’s life for forever.

What follows is a strange tale of complex story, subtle humor and dark pasts of the characters involved. What makes this anime unlike any other is the extensive use of Symbolism. Most of the flashbacks and even the climax are mere representations. This makes the series hard to understand since its difficult to decipher whats real and what’s not. But that is also what makes the series worth the watch. Since it relies on viewers to decipher the hidden meanings that it bestow.

One more contrasting thing about the series is its weird mix of childish humor with mature themes. The significance of the sexuality theme is once again left for viewers to decode and the one thing which have left me in awe.

Coming to music, there are a fair number of different compositions spread across the series. Two different opening theme songs, and nine ending songs. It also has three insert songs (the songs played in the middle). And all of the soundtrack are excellent, with my favorite being, “The Children of Fruit and Destiny” which I think is the crux of the series. Music amply complements the comedic nature of about first 12 episodes and the sudden pace of the tone and speed of the second half of the season.

You need to have watched a fair amount of anime to get used to the tone of Mawaru Penguindrum and to truly appreciate the genius behind it. This series is must watch for those who like to watch something different and not something clichés and formulated and its for those who like to figure things out rather than being spoon fed.

If you ever decide to watch Mawaru Penguindrum then one thing have to be kept in mind that the first half may deceive you. And you should hold on until the real plot starts to kick in. But be warned that when it comes it may catch you unguarded, while you frantically search for the answers, buried deep inside the minds of the characters.

I for one will need to watch the series again, cause I myself am not sure what actually happened with Himari and their brothers and how to interpret the climax. After all, the Penguindrum is not an easy thing to find!

After Earth : Danger is real, Fear is a choice

Pop Culture, ,

*** This review may contains Spoiler ***
Genre: Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi
After Earth is a Sci Fi survival story of a boy named, “Kitai Raige” (Jaden Smith) who crash landed on a planet along with his father “Cypher Raige” (Will Smith), and have to survive various kinds of dangers that Earth greets the crash landers with.
I have to admit that the trailer when I saw it months ago, did get me excited. But fortunately I saw today that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and all my hopes were out. It was this low expectation that made the movie worth a watch.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Mr. Night, but he have a knack of making movies too boring sometimes. But fortunately his last movie “The Last Airbender” wasn’t his last movie as a director. So when I say After Earth wasn’t a total disappointment, I mean it.

Story wise movie doesn’t give much to offer. Except the basic premise of survival and some flashbacks there isn’t much to say. Visual effects were also just acceptable. Certainly not that what is expected of this age. The pace of movie was rather acceptable, and father son combo was the selling point.
But what I think lacked much in After Earth, was the fact that Earth didn’t seem much dangerous to me. Mr. Night failed to get more dangers for the actor to fight against. And it felt like movie was cut short due to budget constraints at a later stage of production. This is why the time is took to built the pace seemed long, but the actual time devoted to Earth felt short and rushed.
Talking about performance of Jaden, real son of Will Smith, I have to say he needs much to learn. He is shown to be a boy who gets scared easily. But is later shown to gather courage to do what he sought out to. Its not like this is his fist cameo with Will Smith. He first worked with his father in “The Pursuit of Happyness”. But unlike that film After Earth wasn’t a Will Smith movie. After Earth can be said as Jaden’s role as a first billed star cast.
One thing I liked about this movie was the Soundtrack. It felt immersive enough. After all the music was created by James Newton, the man behind soundtrack of Batman Begins, along with Hans Zimmer.
Overall, movie didn’t feel something to drool over. But is worth a watch. Maybe when it comes out on DVD, or TV. But I liked it. It’s not a lot of times when you get to see a father and son movie that are father and son in real life.
Rating: 6 / 10.

Continue reading After Earth : Danger is real, Fear is a choice →