Root the Droid X – My Notes

There are a few good reasons to root your android phone: remove bloatware, install special apps, if you are like me and are working on developing apps and want to see what you are doing, or all of the above and then some.

I started writing a post earlier containing my notes from rooting my Droid X, basically a compilation of my research on the subject, but after a while it turned into a rather long guide including step-by-step instructions for those of you looking to attempt the same.

I moved the guide to another page, it can be found at the link below:

Root Droid X - Simple Steps, With Notes

Comments and suggestions on improvements to the guide are welcome and can be sent to [ programs (at) majo.me ].

Oybt cbfg gvgyr

Inspired by something I saw on Slashdot this morning I dug this out of my archives, gave it a quick dusting and update and here you go:

FoxPro ROT13 encryption/decryption function source:
(Zip File Download)

All your base... oh, nevermind.

Was playing in PHP this morning, then switched to a different project and was playing in Visual FoxPro, and as any multiple-language programmer will tell you, it's a bit annoying to shift between similiar languages, particularly because functions are generally just different enough to screw something up, or exist in one and not the other.

In my case this morning, I realized that VFP has no built-in function for calculating numbers in different bases - BASE_CONVERT() in PHP.

So I wrote a set of functions to do it.

Syntax is the same as the PHP version: BASE_CONVERT(NUMBER,BASEFROM,BASETO).

The functions have been tested in FoxPro Dos 2.6 and VFP 9.0 SP2, so should work in everything in between.

Source isn't pretty, but it IS functional, and fully commented.

Download the source PRG (ZIP) here.

"There are only 10 types of people in this world: Those that understand binary math and those that don't." - Unknown

Irony

For a while now, I've been working on a plain-text compression\encryption program as a bit of a hobby. I don't think the program will ever be worth anything to anyone but me, it's just something I do when I'm bored, or when I need to take a break from other programming projects for a few minutes.

Working on this program has taught me a lot about compression and encryption on computers - and I've gotten reasonable results from my efforts, being able to compress plain ASCII text to levels comparable to commercial programs such as WinZip. This pet project is also helpful in other situations, such as when I'm trying to pick up a new programming language, and I think to myself, "How can I duplicate my encryption algorithms in this new language?" That gives me a baseline for teaching myself the new language, since I'm familiar with my own algorithms, I can concentrate on the language rather than the program.

Here's the thing: I wrote an outline of the program with some notes a little over a year ago, and I put it in a word document called "Encryption Program.doc" Haven't looked at the document since, because I can recite most of the algorithm off the top of my head.

I password-protected the word document.

I don't remember the password, so the document is encrypted.

It's the digital equivalent of writing the combination to a safe on a piece of paper and locking the paper in another safe. Why I would have password-protected this document, I don't know, but that only makes me want to open it more.

Coming soon...

(...er or later)

You know how it says at the top of this page "Check back for ..." even though I haven't made an entry here in a little over 6 months? Well, this very morning I was finally fed up with not being able to get anything done with my programming and writing projects decided to do something about it.

One of my biggest problems was a lack of usable web hosting & reliable database servers, so I've gone and gotten myself a real setup for web space and database rather than having to rely on free hosting with insufficient features or free database servers that crash or are unreliable or, more often than you would think, simply disappear.

Short end is, I now have the ability to actually effectively work on some of my PHP-based projects, as well as distribute some of my other softwares and nonsense. At least for the next two years - which is how much hosting I paid for in advance (I got a hell of a deal on it though.)

As a fun side note, I also registered my own vanity domain name, courtesy of the government of Montenegro.

majo.me - Go ahead, click it, you know you want to.

It'll just redirect you here, anyway.

In any case, content is coming, because now I have somewhere to put it.

J