Map of Online Communities which is similar to the subway map of the US highway system I posted here.
Map of Online Communities
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Motorola Razr V3xx SIM Lock problem
Apparently, many (but not all) Motorola V3xx phones from Cingular have a problem where they will not work with a locked SIM card. If you change your SIM code it will apply the changes, but as soon as it turns on the “SIM Lock” feature, the phone will not be able to access the Cingular network. If you call Cingular, they will insist you have “locked up” your SIM and that they must send you a new one. A thread on the Cingular forum about this topic appears here.
If you have access to a different GSM phone however, you can fix the problem yourself by moving your SIM card to the other phone, typing in your SIM card number, and then turning off the “SIM Lock” feature. When you move the SIM card back to your V3xx phone, it will work again. Just remember, don’t turn on the “SIM Lock” feature on a V3xx until Motorola/Cingular issue a fix unless you have another GSM phone around to correct things if you have one of the broken v3xx’s.
I verified that my V3xx has this problem and notified Cingular.
Changing the outside display logo on a Razr V3XX
My RAZR V3xx has two screens, a small one on the "outside" and a larger one inside. During normal phone usage, the outside screen shows the Cingular logo. (Or the Motorola Logo if you have a non-branded phone.)
I decided to replace the Cingular logo with one of my own, so I used P2kCommander-v4.9.9 to replace the cl.gif file in a/mobile/ with my own. (I'm currently using the picture of electronics, which makes the outer screen look like a window into the phone, but I've included a few others you might want to use instead.) Remember to back up your original cl.gif if you ever want to go back!
Other hacks for the v3xx are here and here and my review is here. Continue reading
Book Recommendation: Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson tells the true story of two American wreck divers who discover a sunken U-boat off the coast of New Jersey where the historical records say none should exist. Over the course of several years they risk death (at least three other divers die while exploring the U-Boat) and their marriages searching for the identity of the U-Boat, both underwater and in historical archives.
Robert Kurson makes this historical narrative an exciting story in addition to being a very well researched piece of true history. If you are interested in WWII or Scuba Diving I strongly recommend this book. Continue reading
Homemade Bokashi (Kitchen composter)
Bokashi is a Japanese name referring to intensive composting. This Bokashi bucket was made from a Target brand generic cat litter container, a $5 Coleman igloo spout, and some laser cut 1/8 inch acrylic left over from a picture frame. Similar units sell for over $60, and since we were going to buy the cat litter and acrylic anyways, building our own saved quite a bit of money that my wife promptly spent on 3 containers of special Bokashi starter mix. (I argued that we should just throw in some moldy cheese that we also had laying around.) Continue reading
Linux OBEX Push via bluetooth to the V3xx
I recently had trouble using the standard kbluetoothd and KDE OBEX file push client to send a movie to my Motorola V3xx cell phone over bluetooth. The transfers would be denied with no explanation. I decided to try the command line tool obexpush (written my Marcel Holtmann of the BlueZ project) to see if I could get a better error message. Continue reading
Tinfoiling an entire office
My adviser received a promotion to full professor, so my group tinfoiled his office. It took 12 of us six hours, and almost 3000 square feet of aluminum foil. We individually wrapped books, computer cables, ceiling tiles, etc. The effect is best seen via this Quicktime VR panorama. I really recommend you take a look at the Quicktime VR view of the office, it really captured the ambiance wonderfully. Also, when the sun goes down in the late afternoon, the office gets to be painfully bright.
We also installed a new Port-a-Potty door and a congratulating plaque. Continue reading
Review: Motorola RAZR V3xx
The Motorola RAZR V3xx is one of Cingular's new non-smart 3G phones, and can be purchased relatively inexpensively with a contract. (Amazon sells them for 0.01 with a 2 year contract, cingular charged $79 the last time I checked.) Although it doesn't have a mini-qwerty keyboard and good email support like the Blackjack, 8525, or Treo 750, it also costs $200-400 less. The Motorola RAZR V3xx is in the same class as the Samsung A707 SYNC and the LG CU500 Phone in that it supports 3G, playing music, and Cingular videos, but it's 3G chipset is twice as fast (3.6 vs 1.8). Continue reading
Best J2ME mobile applications
This is a list of the J2ME applications that I use and like. To make the list they have to be free to use and not have annoying advertising (open source is also a plus).
NOTE:
If I do not list a URL Link, but instead just have a number in parenthesis such as (7223) the number is a "quick download" link at wap.getjar.com.
Laptop Paint Job
Ok, I'll admit it. Ever since I saw Hackers I've wanted a painted laptop. I finally got around to finding a good graphic and painting it onto my IBM x31 Thinkpad. The hardest part was cutting the stencil out. I then lightly coated it with mineral oil to keep the paint from sticking to the stencil. After that, I used rubber cement to hold the stencil to the laptop (being sure to keep the rubber cement off of the holes) and gave it six coats of white spray paint. After it dried I used Turtle Wax polishing paste to remove some of the over-spray, and then edged the white with black ink to give it a sharp edge.