Since migrating to my new Moto G05, I have discovered one really annoying issue. When I switch to "just vibrations" mode, no icon appears in the top bar. However, when I switched to 'silent', the indicator icon appeared.
This is quite problematic as I turn to vibrations while I am at work, and without the icon I am completely unable to tell whether I am still on vibrations, even when I am elsewhere and my phone does not ring.
As I usually run Lineage OS, which has this 'feature' fixed, I have not faced this issue even though I am on the current Android version. However, after some research, I discovered that this function has been present since Android 12. It took me a lot of Googling and searching through the settings to get the icon back.
But why is silent mode being signalled and not vibration mode? Who came up with this stupid idea, and what is the purpose?
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As my Realme 7 is on its way out β especially the battery and charging port β I had to find a new phone. I don't need much. All I need is a relatively recent version of Android and a USB-C connector, which is the only thing stopping me from buying an older flagship second hand and flashing it to Lineage OS.
So, I found the Motorola Moto G05. I know many would argue that it's absolutely worthless, but I actually really like it.
I bought it two weeks ago and have just tried it out. Then I put it back in the box and laid it on the table. I really need the screen protector because I'm not very careful with phones. I ordered three of them from AliExpress because the price of one glass here is about the same as the price of seven from China. So I had to wait. And yesterday, they finally arrived. And yes, I had more fun with Czech Post, especially the postman who refused to walk a few more steps to our house because of roadworks. So I had to visit the post office. However, I collected the package ...
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I received another gift. It's a box of mobile phones. Most of them should work; some of them don't. However, they all look interesting. There is also a Galaxy Tab 3 with a dead battery, which I am going to fix and use.
The first item brought in for repair was a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini with a dead battery. I performed some resuscitation procedures, as can be seen in the following picture.
After some hours of resuscitation, the battery was brought back to life. I reassembled the phone and expected a quick solution. However... It was not that easy.
The phone booted up to the S4 Mini logo and then switched off. When I connected the charger, it displayed a weird 'battery loading' signal and got stuck. After some tinkering, I got to the stage where the logo stayed on the screen forever, the phone heated up, and nothing else happened. I tried to boot into the recovery menu, but without success as the display just showed 'no command' and rebooted. However, I am able to access ODIN and I will try to flash it. This phone is proving more ...
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I received a lovely gift yesterday. It's just another NES emulator handheld. But I really like this one.
The first thing to mention is the price. It costs around 6β8 euros and comes in a nice case. I don't think I would be able to buy just the case for that price here.
So, of course, the plastic looks cheap and the buttons are not very nice to press. Sometimes you have to press them harder and more precisely. The A/V output is more amusing than useful.
However, the feature I really like about this device is the ability to connect a second external controller so you can play multiplayer games, which my son really likes.
Also, compared to the handheld I bought a few months ago in Action Supermarket, this one has well-known and fun NES games instead of Chinese rubbish.
One thing I was warned about was charging. I was told that there is no charging circuit to look after the battery; the battery is simply charged by a constant voltage connected from the source. Therefore, it would be better to only charge the device when I can supervise it. I will have ...
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I came across the Polarbit game again on the "new" BlackBerry" and remembered that I had played it on my first touchscreen phone, the Nokia 5230.
And I also realized how much I've always admired what they were able to create. Specifically, I've always been fascinated by how sophisticated games they're able to create on devices with power that makes it seem impossible
Even back then, the only 3D game I remember being on the Symbian 5Th was Bounce. A game developed directly by Nokia. After that, only Polarbit's.
Specifically Raging Thunder, Wave Blazer, and Armageddon Squadron. The first two mentioned are car and jet ski races, and the last one is a combat aircraft simulator.
After some brief research, I found two more Polarbit games for Symbian: The first is ToonWarz, a shooter game that I have played before. The second is IronSight, which I have never managed to get working.
And even after all these years, I'm still fascinated by what they've managed to create compared to all the other developers. I've come across their games on a lot ...
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I feel a bit embarrassed, but I have to admit that compiling and installing my favorite Nano turned out to be a faster and easier option than using Vim.
I'm still determined to learn with Vim, and I guess I'll still be more motivated about learning that than I was before, but for the sake of usability I'll probably resort to Nano for now, as the quickest route to a result.
Anyway, it has the upside that I've compiled something again after all these years, and on an βexoticβ device
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I've had this second BlackBerry Classic in my drawer for a long time. It came with the working one that I wrote about previously. However, this one had a cracked display, but surprisingly it was still working. About a month ago, I ordered a really cheap spare one and it arrived about a week ago. My colleague from work changed it for me.
And now it's really nice! Second time lucky! The first time, he forgot to connect the flex cable from the trackpoint. However, it works now. The only small problem is that the jack connector has somehow become corrupted and it is switching from the speaker to the jack output every few seconds.
I don't really need the sound though, and I have another fully working piece of that phone in my collection, so I don't care.
So, once again, I have installed some software and games. This time, I downloaded a different sideloading tool. This time, I tried to make it work from VirtualBox, as I didn't have a computer with Windows nearby. After some adjustments, it worked surprisingly well!
Then I did something I ...
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One of the best technical events of the whole year. Exhibition of old machines in the Museum of Old Machines in Ε½amberk. Every year there is a large number of steam cars, locomotives and other machines on display, as well as other technical uniquenesses, the vast majority of which are in working order, and others are constantly being added and put into operation.
After a few years of missing the date or clashing with something else, I finally made it to this event again, and enjoyed it as much as ever. The museum has grown again since my last visit, many of the exhibits have gotten a better location, and there are some brand new displays.
There was also a cavalcade of six steam locomotives, one of which was not fully operational until the day of the show.
The event also included a vintage car race with a steam train, which I unfortunately missed.
Below I offer at least a few photos from the event
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Yes, it works !
It wasn't as hard as I expected. It was just really annoying having to reinstall the OS. However, I then just used the Windows XP driver, which had failed before because of a conflict with a newer driver that had been previously installed.
Now, as you can see on the dxdiag screen, acceleration works. However, another issue has been found. The screen has a very unusual resolution of 1024x600, so most full-screen games require a bit of tinkering to work.
Another interesting fact is that the battery is still in perfect condition after 15 years. I did all the reinstalling, installing software and playing games on battery power alone, without an adapter. Of course, I plugged it in and fully charged it before this, but since the first run it has just been on battery. So far, it has worked for around 5 hours of hard use, and I am still on 40%, which is unbelievable.
So, the next step was to look for software and games. I guess I'll need some freeware titles and small games because of the slow processor and limited RAM. I remembered one really old but significant game ...
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A few weeks ago, my colleague asked me to reinstall his wife's Ultrabook, which had become sluggish and unstable. It took a few tries, as I initially attempted to perform a recovery from the recovery partition, but this failed and resulted in a BSOD bootloop. Then I had to set up BIOS to boot from USB, which was also tricky. However, I managed it in the end and returned the ultrabook to my colleague.
In return, he gave me his old Samsung N210 netbook.
It has a single-core Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM. Despite my obsession with installing the original OS on the notebooks in my collection, I can't do that in this case as it was shipped with Windows 7 Starter,which is terrible and unusable.
After a while, I decided to try installing Windows XP. The installation went surprisingly well and everything seemed to work. However, as I expected, driver problems arose soon afterwards.
I was easily able to get the battery driver working, and after some time, the sound worked too. However, the 3D acceleration is bugged. I found some drivers and ...
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