Mike

Removing The AT&T Boot Screen From A Samsung Captivate

Android Comments Off

Jan 162011

Anyone who has played around with custom ROMs on their Samsung Captivate (particularly if you started with the Rogers SGH-I896) knows that there is an AT&T logo when you first boot the phone. It’s mildly annoying for those of us who don’t actually have an AT&T phone. Well, I’ve found a solution.

First, an explanation of how the boot sequence works. When you first power on the phone, it’s the responsibility of the boot loader (similar to a BIOS on a regular computer*) to display an initial graphic on the display. The boot loader then loads the kernel, and then it’s the kernels turn to display a graphic on the screen. The kernel loads the rest of the ROM, and then the ROM gets a chance to display a boot logo or even boot animation. The instructions below will show you how to change the first boot logo.

Bufferbloat: Finally It Has A Name

Networking Comments Off

Jan 092011

I’ve seen an explosion of discussion in the last couple of days regarding something called Bufferbloat. It seems that Bell Labs’ Jim Gettys has been investigating poor network performance at his house, and has stumbled onto a network phenomenon that he’s termed bufferbloat. Essentially, bufferbloat is when networks are configured with excessive buffers which leads (perhaps counter-intuitively) to poor network performance.

Jim has written a series of blog posts as he has investigated this problem. You can find them all here. He freely admits that he’s not the first to have stumbled across this problem, though he certainly seems to have successfully coined the best term for it. Bufferbloat has in fact long been identified as an issue by those who build their own routers. I remember reading about the phenomenon years ago (though it did not have a name at the time) and avoiding bufferbloat has in fact been the cornerstone of my own home network configurations for over five years now.

Installing trixbox As A Xen Virtual Machine

Virtualization, VoIP Comments Off

Dec 172010

My cordless phone are dying. For years now I’ve used a pair of GE cordless phones and a Linksys SPA2100 with the Primus TBB VoIP service. The batteries and LED screens on the phones are pretty well shot at this point, so I need a replacement. But why would I buy another set of analogue phones? That seems totally counter to my position as a VoIP tech. So here’s the plan: Get trixbox running as a paravirtualized Xen domU and configure a pair of Linksys WIP310’s to act as my house phones (the WIP310 is a wifi SIP phone in a candybar form factor, meaning they are essentially drop in replacements for my old cordless phones).
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ROM Of The Moment: Assonance

Android Comments Off

Dec 062010

I’ve tried out a lot of ROMs in the last few weeks. Cognition was a great ROM, but is no longer actively developed, the developer having moved on to Perception. Perception showed a lot of potential up to and including build 4, but all builds after that have been unstable to the point of unusability. Axura CE (Captivate Edition) showed promise, but then some schoolyard drama appears to have killed off that project.

But the ROM of the moment and a serious contender for being my go-to ROM is currently Assonance 3.1.

Recovering A Captivate From Near-Dead

Android Comments Off

Nov 212010

A reader recently contacted me looking for advice with his new Captivate. He was concerned he’d bricked it, but the phone was getting as far as recovery mode, which meant that I was confident it could be saved. I met him at a coffee shop, and we spent some time recovering his phone. I learned some stuff, and have some thoughts that are worth sharing. But first, I’ll explain how to do this yourself.

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