Security and ROMs

http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/10/xiaomi-privacy-issue-cloud-messaging/
So apparently anyone could've just read all your messages and a lot of your contact details.

Earlier this week, Finland's F-Secure looked into claims that Xiaomi was secretly sending data from its MIUI-powered phones back to its servers, and it turned out to be true. Despite having not added any cloud accounts, F-Secure's brand new Redmi 1s -- Xiaomi's budget smartphone -- still beamed its carrier name, phone number, IMEI (the device identifier) plus numbers from the address book and text messages back to Beijing. Worse yet, the data was unencrypted, thus allowing F-Secure and potentially anyone to, well, get to know your Xiaomi phone very easily. Earlier this week, Finland's F-Secure looked into claims that Xiaomi was secretly sending data from its MIUI-powered phones back to its servers, and it turned out to be true. Despite having not added any cloud accounts, F-Secure's brand new Redmi 1s -- Xiaomi's budget smartphone -- still beamed its carrier name, phone number, IMEI (the device identifier) plus numbers from the address book and text messages back to Beijing. Worse yet, the data was unencrypted, thus allowing F-Secure and potentially anyone to, well, get to know your Xiaomi phone very easily.

This is partly the reason why I never touched MIUI.
But then in the end, it's pick NSA or MSS, or both. Like Skype, I'd think it highly probably Wechat and other similar apps reported to their home governments with juicy data. Lots and lots and lots of meta data.

____________________________________________________________________________


Also, I have been upgraded to a Sony Xperia Z1 from my Desire HD ("Karuu") this year, which I used after upgrading from the Dopod WinMo5-6 in 2010/2011. In light of my recent rooting and flashing exploits, and having experienced rooting and flashing custom ROMs on HTC (Desire HD), Samsung (S III, Tab), Sony (Z1), ASUS (TF300T), Yuandao (N90), Dopod/HTC (838 Pro), Zopo (ZP950) devices, and dealing with each manufacturer's quirks, here are a list of tips I should follow (while also following my flash guide/checklist):

1. Do these even when you've done this many times, because a false (or true) sense of proficiency can be misleading and lead to mistakes being made. 
2. Read everything, then re-read it! (Luckily most chefs/devs highlight potentially bricking hazards with warnings in red text. But still read everything in the OPs, and if more info is needed straight after OPs and latest posts in the thread and use search within thread/sub-forum).
3. Don't assume each sub-forum (for each device on xda) is similar. Know your sub-forum by exploring. Also, each device handles differently.
4. Plan the whole process - like using the waterfall methodology in SDLC. Know your aim, and define each step of how to get there. (Regain workable recovery: try flashing this 1st via fastboot, if that doesn't work, then ... etc.) 

This would save lots of headaches and having to do work-arounds which take literally hours longer than I'd have had to if I'd read (all the related threads!), understood, planned it out properly and followed the steps. This is one process where the Agile model way of doing things would work poorly, costing you more time. (And probably brick your device if you're not careful).
When you start trying the more labour-intensive/involved 'solutions', you start losing your shorter simple options because of wipes and incompatibilities between different partitions of your device. It's kind of like in cooking how you can always add more X but once it's mixed in, you can't take X out.

You can see why people operators like NASA, SpaceX, pilots, etc. have a pre-flight/launch checklist and the whole launch sequence timelines. One little mistake can have catastrophic consequences (not just bricking a device, more like death).

Oculus Rift VR

Oculus Rift. (OR)
VR's big comeback. Or at least the biggest name in VR these last couple of years.

The set up OR of the day - we played on a laptop

I was, and still am extremely excited by the immense possibilities the OR brings to VR and can't wait to see how things will develop in the future!
Especially with Star Citizen "coming out" at the end of this year. This VR/AR headset has so many different applications that VR/AR comes with including remote tele-operations, education, entertainment media including games, videos, etc.

I was able to try the OR thanks to a fellow Computer Science student, after I participated in his research at the CSIRO/RSISE in ANU. He said many people experienced nausea and couldn't take more than 10 minutes with the OR on, but surprisingly, I didn't want to vomit at all, and quite enjoyed it! This might have been partly due to my biggest disappointment - being able to see the pixels and pixel borders after the LCD screen's light passes through the OR's lenses. The lenses let your eyes see the screen from individual perspectives creating a 3D experience, as well as helping you be able to focus your eyes to infinite distance while being able to look at the light from the screen.

Here are some photos:

Always RTFM first right? I like Friendly Manuals.

Includes 3 different lenses for near-sighted people. Otherwise, you can wear your glasses inside/under the headset.

 Le treasure chest. And headset.

 Side - angle views. The viewing angles on the display were pretty darn good.

Too bad you can clearly see the black pixel borders when you put on the goggles through the lenses. It's worse than it appears in this photo with my camera.


An OR with one lens cap (left) taken off.








And a close up of that area below:

I think the biggest thing going for the OR is that it makes you feel like you're there. This makes for just the wonder and awe of exploring the world that you're now in - when you wear the headset - to be quite a delight.

The biggest problem I had that broke the immersion was seeing the black pixel border lines, I hope this will be fixed in future higher resolution versions. It also alerted me to having to try before I buy the consumer version, since I definitely wouldn't spend $300 on the immersion breaking and awfully low-res to the point of blurriness (720p screen divided into half for each eye) dev-kit as a consumer product.

I could also feel a bit of latency or probably judder, although it's being worked on, and I think my head naturally compensated by moving my head slower. (Valve is supporting Oculus Rift and aren't manufacturing hardware for now, preferring to be a platform where OR users will seamlessly launch apps and games from). Unfortunately, this must also be checked out before I buy for gaming purposes, as when you're desperately looking around the cockpit for that hostile spacecraft, you don't want your vision to be blurry and laggy, creating more nausea or noobplay.


A little Carmack envisioning a SoC (running Android) 4K integrated headset/future OR:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/18/oculus-rift-john-carmack-interview/


And most recently:

CES 2014 (Crystal Cove) updates:

• 1080p OLED (still not sure that's enough resolution after the lenses)
• New Positional tracking via IR-LEDs on the OR and an external camera on your monitor. 
• Lighter, smaller
• Lower latency, via OLED & technologies as talked about in the video in the link below
• Apparently winner of "Best of CES 2014"
• Still aimed to price accessibly at ~$300
• No release date but 2014 "big year" for OR

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/09/the-oculus-rift-crystal-cove-prototype-is-2014s-best-of-c/
So apparently they sold 55k units, with only 7.5k units sold during their Kickstarter!

For those worried about nausea, with positional tracking, it might be better. Someone does a write-up of their pleasant experience with Crystal Cove after previous nausea with the old version:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/01/10/oculus-rift-crystal-cove-prototype-hands-on-at-ces-2014/

Ubuntu Edge - Wow Canonical!

This is one high-end early adopter phone. And the internets are talking about it.
They want to smash Star Citizen's current USD$14.6 million record in crowd-funding by raising $32m, which roughly translates to 40,000 units.
As they say on their indiegogo page, they want to do this like a Formula 1 thing, (so prototypes or betas on a testing ground if you will) instead of the million unit scale of normal consumer phones.

They're also trying to get into the market like Google - not technical mobile phone makers but 'advisors'. I just hope they don't force Ubuntu Unity on people =/ (which they won't because they haven't turned evil right?)

Open source projects being funded!

Title is as self explanatory as Kim Jong Un looking at things.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcbotics/sparki-the-easy-robot-for-everyone
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1923745690/open-source-nimh-battery-charger-analyzer
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kytelabs/bleduino-bluetooth-40-ble-made-easy-arduino-compat
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/495099991/ember-and-torch-apps-meet-arduino?ref=live

It makes me happy to see people backing projects which are open source =) The last project still needs funds to be funded!
Ah, BLE 4.0, when you come on Android, all those things I could do with you -fantasizing-.

Star Citizen - RSI, from the makers of Freelancer etc.

from the makers of Freelancer ... THIS. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen

• A rich universe focused on epic space adventure, trading and dogfighting in first person.
• Single Player – Offline or Online(Drop in / Drop out co-op play)
• Persistent Universe (hosted by US)
• Mod-able multiplayer (hosted by YOU)
• No Subscriptions
• No Pay to Win

Only thing missing from it is shiny MMORPGFPS gameplay on the planetary surface found in the likes of Precursors (which gameplay-wise was amazing =D).
What makes me so excited: MMO persistent universe, FPS elements, Ship combat which is like Freelancer and not MOBA-style (sorry DoTA2, D3, Torchlight, just not so into click click click =P).
Shameless plug for my favourite game of all time (Tribes 1) remade into an arcade style FPS: less gameplay complexity, and weird speed gain when skiing but nevertheless FUN.


BOARDING SHIP MECHANIC explained
Multiplayer and Single player instancing explained.
Because, FIREFLY for inspiration. =) - would love that job xD
Support Linux at the poll for stretch goals (click thru to RSI website for the poll), give CryEngine3 the incentive to go to the quickest growing gaming platform right now with Source, Steam, Unity supporting =) Linux. Speaking of Linux, Humble Bundle for Android 4 finishes in 6 days!


Final-week's (3 days left to pledge!) pitch:


FINAL WEEK PUSH from Roberts Space Industries on Vimeo.

So a few points of our next major stretch goal (from boarding ship mechanic post and RSI star citizen website):
$4.0 million Level Additions

• Melee & Heavy Weapons
• Zero-gravity Simulation
• Suit HUD Options
• Increased Customization
• Outside-the-ship combat (magnetic boots on a hull; think Moonraker)
• Pro MOD TOOLS FREE to players!
• Persistent Universe (forever instead of 30 months), 50 star systems
• More Squardron 42 campaign gameplay
• Increased community updates

- According to RSI website, we need $250k left till $4mil. Also, back on Kickstarter, your pledge will go towards stretch goals of BOTH kickstarter and the overall stretch goals at RSI.  
SO PLEDGE ON KICKSTARTER NOW =D.


I've always wanted to do Precursors MMO'd with friends. This is the closest thing I have ever seen. No amount of procedural universe generation, even if done by big industry pros would sway me. Just damn good gameplay with friends =).
That said, I've had my eye on Infinity Universe for years, because dang-it, its got great gameplay and scale, just without the FPS element >=| and definitely will be happily playing when it comes out.

Initial thoughts on JellyTime R7 (CM)

Check my previous post for more regarding ROMs and Android for the HTC Desire HD. 

Just notes to myself mainly; thoughts on JT R7 (CM) by randomblame from having upgraded from IceColdSandwich 8.4 by LordClockaN

TL;DR - it's REALLY smooth that's for sure. phone feels a lot less lagy. (and more stable than ICS =o)
battery life is pretty much a little bit worse probably by 5-10% but i just came from AOKP and these are pretty early releases, will switch to AOKP soon.
Pretty much everything works fine atm, but video camera .

defs feels like a 4.1 instead of 5.0

Video recorder broken (even though changelog says 720p OK) -gallery stopped (vid cam illusion works 480p), stock camera app greatly improved, touch focus.
recording audio unbroken. No mic mute problem when speaker turned on in call. 
Screen on when turned off with light bands - saw this once, fixed by turning screen on then off. 
 
Updating Google Play apps not jaggered-frozen/slow anymore, the Play Store app is generally faster/smoother.
A lot less lagyness, not near as frequent force close messages (prob occured when nand recovered back into ICS8.4).

Toggles work flawlessly, however CM has no powersaver option. Must manually turn off stuff before turning off screen.
Battery life is a bit worse, 3-7mA idle vs. ~10(-80)mA. Battery overall probably lasts 2 hours less, although music with screen off is still ~75mA. Probably a combination of no power saver in CM and project butter pumping my CPU to the higher freqs more often.

CM does indeed have less options than AOKP and lockscreen gestures doesn't work/no option for them, only 5-slider lockscreen. Custom Apps/Shortcuts don't work atm, I think this was in the changelog. 
Apollo music app - lockscreen no artist, widget - only white, has black theme. Luckily still uses DSP Manager. Change to google Music - the one that comes with AOKP. 
Switch to AOKP ASAP.

Revert Exec Assist. lockscreen to non-ad. Possible future android app dev project - lockscreen/widget.
FB app running faster, could be FB devs or FB-JB compatibility. 

USB storage connection with computer breaks regularly, or could be this new cable I'm using, will test with original cable soon. 

Android ROMs on the HTC Desire HD & Flashing Checklist

Most of your DHD ROMs can be found right here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=765

Glossary/Links:
CM - http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
AOKP - http://aokp.co/index.php/about
AOSP - http://source.android.com/ (Hurray for FOSS!!)
ROM, Flashing, radios, etc. - Google and xda site search are your friends. (i.e. RTFriendlyM)

Here's a list of the ROMs I've used previously:

- Stock 2.3 Gingerbread with Sense. Yuk. (My opinion of manufacturer Android distributions/overlays - being launcher, widgets, lockscreen - is that they love to make them hard to use and ugly.
- Android Revolution HD (by mike), pretty good Android 2.3 ROM
- Virtuous Quattro, didn't really like it

Current ROM: 
- Ice Cold Sandwich by LorD ClockaN
It's been great, got it before the Camera even took photos without cutting off bits. Then came the 480p video recording mod and my phone was complete =) I mainly upgraded to Android 4.0 ICS because I wanted to be able to access my university's wpa2 wifi network. When I tried moving back to ARHD or any 2.3 ROM I just didn't like all the missing features.
It's more or less stable (with the odd reboot, which could be triggered by certain app versions misbehaving), with great battery life (lasts the day) and AOKP's power saver works well to achieve that. Camera's still no where near as good as the Sense camera (only thing good about sense) but it does come pretty close to the AOSP one.
From the AOKP ROM Control, I use an octo-lockscreen, toggles, custom auto backlight levels, custom clock battery and signal icons/text colours etc. =D
Nova launcher is my preferred launcher, especially now that it has backup and restore function. Good for regular ROM flashing, speaking of which, I'll have a little checklist at the end of the guide that I use to make sure I don't brick my device (check those checksum hashes of the ROM/radios people).
Apparently BFS kernel and smartassV2 CPU scheduler (default is ondemand) yield freeze/boot-free results and better CPU respectively.

ROM I'm thinking of using:
JellyTime, since it's basically the only ROM based on AOKP which you can find updated regularly on the xda forums. ATM I'm thinking of using the CM based build just because it seems to be updated a bit more and possibly more polished. (It's AOKP's fault for being a bit slow on the ball for JellyBean.) I am however, an AOKP fan as it just seems to have all the settings I want so I'll be moving to AOKP soon.
Here's the links on xda:
AOKP-based JellyTime by randomblame
CM10-based JellyTime by randomblame

 

 My ROM flashing checklist (useful if you flash constantly and need to remember stuff so as not to screw up or brick your device).

Pre-Flashing Checklist
SMS log      - SMS BackUp Restore
Call log     - Call log BU&R
Whatsapp etc.- Backup Convos In-App & Account with Titanium Backup
Home Screen  - Nova Settings/Layout Backup
Apps         - Titanium Backup (data),
             - Astro (APK for Easy Installer),
             - APK Batch INstaller [PC]
ROM settings - AOKP Backup settings
(Rebackup Data for SMS/Call/Home Apps)

Nandbackup  !!
--------------------------------------------
Flashing:

Boot Recovery (Nandbackup reminder)
Full wipe (incl. Wipe cache + dalvik cache)
Install/Flash ROM
Flash Gapps if needed

Boot into ROM

(Flash kernel - BFS if needed)
--------------------------------------------
Post-flash:

Reinstall: Easy Installer/Astro/Titanium Backup
Restore all apps (Easy Installer/APK Batch Installer[PC])
Restore all app-data (Titanium Backup/APK Batch Installer[PC])
Restore SMS
Restore Call log
Restore Whatsapp, Viber, Line etc.
Restore Home Screen

Redo ROM settings. - AOKP Backup/Restore




Optional custom DPI:
Restore DPI - 210/220
Flash market/ install GPlay apk (Phonesky, Google Services Framework)
Clear Market Data
Redo DPI method