MyBroadband - Blogs

How Telkom can improve and make me a happier customer

Saajid — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:52:34 GMT

Today Mybroadband, my favourite South African website and online community, sent me an email with the announcement quoted below. They are running another one of their surveys, and rewarding users through a competition for providing their input.

Tell your broadband provider how they can improve and make you a happier customer, and stand a chance to win a Sony 10�� Android tablet: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthre...ovider-improve

I decided to respond to the announcement, by providing my views on how Telkom can improve, and make me a happier customer, in the hope that...

Read the full blog post here: How Telkom can improve and make me a happier customer

Dead calls & crossed lines between MTN & Cell C subscribers

Saajid — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:14:57 GMT

In my quest to test drive the Cell C network, I had 3 weeks of brilliant service, followed by almost 2 months of frustration and agony due to problems with calls received from MTN numbers. These included lots of dead calls and crossed lines.

I recently ported my MTN number over to the Cell C 99c for Real prepaid package, in order to test their network coverage and stability, as well as data speeds. This is in preparation of moving our company's cellular account away from MTN the more affordable, flexible and simple products available from Cell C.

For the first 3 weeks, the Cell C service worked brilliantly, and I was just about ready to start signing documents to move our account from MTN to Cell C. However, a few days later, I started picking up strange problems...

Read the full blog post here: Dead calls & crossed lines between MTN & Cell C subscribers

8ta More is more for 8ta, less for consumers !

Marcan — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:25:57 GMT

Recently finally managed to cancel my Telkom landline and thought I will continue to make calls to their lines by making use of an 8ta prepaid SIM in another cell, paying just R0.65/min. Found out that you have now 8ta More and you get considerable extra free airtime on recharging with amounts from R20 upwards. So recharged 4 days ago with R50, but did not receive free airtime. So called 180 and found out you must change your tariff plan first to receive this benefit. Did this, but now on found out that this tariff plan has a fee of R2.75/min to call landlines Peak and R0.98 Off Peak ! Changing back is not possible and all new 8ta Prepaid SIMs activated from now on will be on this 8ta More, so 8ta has become useless for cheap calls to their mother company Telkom. So if you just like me use 8ta mostly for this purpose don't change to 8ta More !! So for me cheapest Peak remains Cell C at 99cts /min and Off peak Virgin 98cts/min, or Cell C. Not interested in these complicated Yebo for Less and MTN zone offers.

Day 2 (ish): OSX

AntiThesis — Sat, 12 May 2012 08:57:12 GMT

So it's the last day with OSX and I've decided to mix it up somewhat by trying to install some custom Kexts to get my dual monitor setup working. Should be interesting.

I am growing used to OSX's little quirks and intricacies and once you get over the irritable bowel syndrome that is iTunes, it's actually not that bad. As with all the platforms I've tested so far, dev work is a breeze.

I've opted to leave Aptana studio behind on this one and have shifted over to Netbeans so that'll be the base for my comparisons from now on - I just found Aptana to be a little too clunky for my likes.

Alright, off to go install some kexts. Wish me luck.

Day 1: Osx86 (Hackintosh)

AntiThesis — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:30:22 GMT

After the untimely demise of my Fedora install, the next OS to crop up was OSX.

Let me start off by saying that I have mixed feelings about this behemoth in the OS space. On the one hand, it's something like my geeky Everest - I've never really run it and in many respects, its unclaimed treasures remain unspoiled (at least by me - many others have spoiled OSX but that's another story).

On the other hand, it represents all that I feel is wrong with the world - it's regimented, has stringent rules about what I can and cannot do and of course, includes iTunes*

Something the previous OSes have had in common is their native ability to support pretty much any architecture and hardware combination out there. OSX has no such compatibility.

This isn't surprising given the walled garden approach that Apple have chosen to adopt with their technology - if nothing else, the software giant is consistent in its philosophy.
Briefly summed up, this is: "Do it our way or GTFO"**

I installed OSX on my machine by ~~going to the internet equivalent of a man with a large overcoat standing in an alley~~ PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE MEANS and after fiddling with various start-up options, was presented with a fairly smooth install.

OSX is... different. While I do feel that there is a market for it, I'm not convinced that I am that market. The design harks back to the era of Windows 98 and dancing the Macarena, I find the buttons to have a distinctly pre-web 2.0 look and the liberal use of gray and those icky rounded blue scrollbars makes me cringe.

Before I'm beaten soundly by a crowd of ravenous fans, let me say this - to its credit, OSX is FAST. Really, really fast. This may have something to do with the Quad Core and 4GB of RAM but I doubt it - while I may not agree with the philosophy that underpins the OSX experience, this they have done perfectly well.

I'm left with a slightly bewildered feeling - remember when you were young and you found your dad's Scope magazine? You felt good but bad and also a little guilty? The OSX experience is like that - bewildering. I'm happy... but I don't know why.

For day 1 (and probably day 2) a solid 7/10 for OSX: Lion

Pros

Fast - < 5 second shutdown. No really.
Finder - Godsend of a tool
Application Installs - so easy!

Cons***

iTunes
Design and look
Restrictive nature

* Which everyone in their right mind agrees is the spawn of all evil.
** Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying this is a bad thing, just that it's as uncompromising as an angry she-bear.
*** An unofficial con is that it makes me REALLY want to buy a bigger monitor. OSX is built to have a 40" monitor. 19 just doesn't do it justice.

Day 2: Fedora redux

AntiThesis — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:11:28 GMT

I must admit, Fedora is starting to grow on me. Gnome is not. At all. Unless it's like syphilis in which case, yes, I suppose it is growing on me.

I'm still not used to running everything through "Activities" and I'm finding the lack of taskbar use to be more and more of a problem. While taskbars are undoubtedly

Perhaps Fedora could be a decent, viable solution.

edit: Scratch that. Some form of odd kernel panic has doomed me. Since it took place around 12:30 or so, I'm just going to move onto OSX86.

Overall rating: 3.0/5 for the kernel panic and the "Activities" feature.*

*Yes, this is subjective again. I'm sure at some point I screwed something up but that's OK :)

Dissecting a Quamtum 4Gb Bigfoot hard drive - pt3

The_Librarian — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:39:05 GMT

The parking mechanism is a very simple, yet effective mechanism :

The parking mechanism in action :

The heads in normal use (unparked) :

The parking mechanism (note the small iron piece - this will ensure that the lever stays in position) :

Because the metal piece is attracted to the magnet, it'll automatically close the mechanism when the hard drive spins down.

Older hard drives might have more elaborate mechanisms to open and close it.

On the other end this lever have some vanes, this ensures that the wind movement (caused by the spinning HDD) will keep it open.

Most modern hard drives will also do on-the-fly remapping of bad blocks encountered. A map of bad blocks is stored on the controller board.

If you have a HDD with a ton of bad blocks, and want to do data recovery, it usually helps to put the controller board of exactly the same make and model of HDD.

But you're stuck if the platter with the tracks on which helps with voice-coil calibration/location is shot - then you cannot access your data, and will need the help of specialized data recovery specialists.

Dissecting a Quamtum 4Gb Bigfoot hard drive - pt2

The_Librarian — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:35:21 GMT

After removing the cover, we now can see the Hard Drive in its naked glory. :o

Quite impressive :p

All modern Hard Drives are operated via a voice coil. Older hard drives used a stepper motor.

Why a voice coil instead of a stepper motor?

A stepper motor van move its spindle by small, fixed amounts. But, due to the tracks getting closer to each other, a stepper motor cannot move those small distances.

The advantage of a stepper motor is that the controlling circuitry knew exactly where the head(s) was at any given moment. But, with a voice coil, that doesn't work as the head(s) could be anywhere. What the manufacturers did, was to "format" the 4th side (for a 2-platter HDD) or the 2nd side (for a single-platter HDD) with a special layout - and the voice-coil controlling mechanism can now "read" from that special platter, and know exactly where the head(s) might be at any given moment.

Then there is another problem with stepper motors - the older variants would leave the heads on the middle of the hard drive, a prime candidate for a head crash should the HDD start up again, hence the need to "park" the heads before moving the computer. Newer stepper motor variants usually have enough power to move the entire head assembly to track 0 (closest to the spindle motor, or platter spindle) to "park" the heads.
A voice coil mechanism does the same.

One little problem, however. With a stepper motor, the heads cannot move when transporting the HDD. But, with a voice-coil, the heads can still move.

So the manufacturers got clever, and build a little cantilevered arm into the assembly, which'll stop the heads from moving when being transported. When the hard drive spins up, the air movement will cause the parking lever to move, allowing the heads to move.

Dissecting a Quamtum 4Gb Bigfoot hard drive - pt1

The_Librarian — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:34:47 GMT

WARNING - DO NOT OPEN ANY WORKING HARD DRIVES WITHOUT A CLEAN-ROOM ENVIRONMENT.

YOU MAY DESTROY YOUR WORKING HARD DRIVE IF YOU OPEN IT WITHOUT THE PROPER EQUIPMENT IN A PROPER CLEAN-ROOM FACILITY!!!

Having said that, let us proceed.

During the course of my career I have opened many hard drives, just to see what these look like, and of course!!! To get the magnets!!!

Voice-coil magnets are extremely strong, and is just the thing needed to pinch somebody's earlobes, or any other delicate part of the anatomy... errrrr....

...errr... sorry, wrong channel, this is not Club BOFH.

Anyway, as I was saying, voice-coil magnets are very strong, and care is needed when working with these in case some delicate *ahem* piece of your anatomy is pinched between two strong magnets. You have been warned.

The Bigfoot series was very fascinating to me when they came out, since the trend was towards physically smaller hard drives, not physically larger HDD's.

Anyway. It's quite an interesting HDD as it got a "window" at the bottom, where you can see the heads moving if you so want.

To disassemble any HDD, you'll need a proper set of tools. I bought this screwdriver with an assortment of screw tips at a Chinese mall :

You'll probably need a bigger Philips screwdriver, with assorted bits, in order to loosen any screws which might be quite a bit tight.

Then, studying the case of the Bigfoot, we find :

Black is the screws we'll need to remove (this includes the PC Board). Yellow means the sticker/warranty label is hiding a screw.

Unfasten those screws, and put these in a safe place.

Day 1: Fedora 16

AntiThesis — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:33:58 GMT

24 hours in, Fedora isn't driving me as insane anymore - it was a rough start but after some percussive maintenance and genteel swearing, I've managed to overcome some of the things that irritated the hell out of me.

Gnome 3 is the devil in Fedora's details and the source of 90% of the frustrations. Like Ubuntu, Fedora seem to have gone somewhere along the line of simplifying everything without too much consideration for usability.

Peeves include no minimize or maximize natively (have to edit gconf to get it right), no shutdown and/or restart function unless I hit alt and a complete inability to add anything to desktop or taskbar without another gconf edit. Bah.*

Like Windows 8's Metro and Ubuntu's Unity, Fedora's use of "Activities" does make me lean more towards grabbing an axe and wreaking terrible vengeance on the creators but it's something I probably have to come to terms with - seems like the slippery slope we're all destined to fall down sooner or later.

For dev, I've been using LAMPP + Aptana studio + Smartgit + Chrome so I can keep it all pretty much OS independent.

Something I'd forgotten about that irritates me about Open Source OS is the inability of native players to... well, to play anything. I know it's not really their fault, proprietary codecs are everyone's enemy etc etc but it's a little hard to feel impartial when I'm unable to play any of my files without first installing VLC.

Pros:

I missed yum :love:
Boots like a ninja; sub 30 seconds all told
Native handling of multiple monitors is pretty effortless
Native ssh means I don't have to use putty? (:erm:)

Cons:

No native support for codecs
Windows don't pre-empt each other well (sometimes get stuck behind)
Minimizing sends a window away completely to be lost somewhere in the "Activities" section
Native handling of multi-monitor taskbar is pretty nonexistent (?)

I'll call it a draw so far - overall rating, 3.5/5 - I'm not overwhelmed but I'm not suicidal while using it.**

* I know, I know - I could use some other Desktop environment. But I shouldn't have to work to do so. At the least, I should have the option right up there glaring at me during setup:

1) Use Gnome 3 and want to murder Fedora devs
2) Use Gnome Classic and live with the old tech

** This is an opinion, not a technical review ;) It's based only on my experiences and my particular needs. In before OMGWTFN00b and so forth.

10 days, 5 OSes

AntiThesis — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:01:26 GMT

Having grown bored of Windows 7 and all her ilk (That's XP and Windows 8*), I'm adventuring into the semi-unknown realms of Operating Systems.

- Fedora
- Mint + Cinnamon
- Ubuntu Studio
- OpenSuse
- OSX86

Since I'm clearly some kind of masochist, I'll be installing an OS with all requirements for a total of two(ish) days and then doing a complete wipe and restart.

My requirements are:
- Must be able to pollute the internet with my drivel (browse)
- Must be able to work in PHP/MySQL easily
- Must be able to watch the occasional bit of media

Wish me luck or failing that, watch me fail.

* Windows 8 is actually a completely different beast. Something evil and wet. Probably smelly too.

The PC is dead, Long live the PC

Elimentals — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:39:04 GMT

Yes I know everyone is thinking, The Desktop will never die, I use it all the time, or there is no way that my tablet/phone will ever replace my desktop/laptop and you know what it already has. Let me explain:

The Past

1st lets look at what the general view is of a Personal Computer from the wiki

A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator. In contrast, the batch processing or time-sharing models allowed larger, more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to be used by many people, usually at the same time. Large data processing systems require a full-time staff to operate efficiently.

The Present

If we look at above we can start to point out that the average smart phone has become the Personal Computer of today and tomorrow.

You get no more a personal device than the phone you carry on you, it contains your life in a small form factor, and is with you no matter where you are, be it at the office, your home, or the the local watering hole. Its general purpose as it is no longer a device to just make phone calls or send text. Its a calculator, a music player, a camera, a flashlight, a Internet browser, a reader, a GPS, a gameing device, a communication device and all this before you even installed a single application. It stores your contacts, your social life and you can even say a small part of your soul, just look how lost you are the moment it goes missing/stolen or gets dropped into the toilet. You do not share it with other people(well mostly) unlike your desktop, like where some households that can not afford a Desktop/Laptop for every person in the house.

The Future

If you look at how the Tech houses are merging the OS factors, like Android and Linux (Be it Kernel Merge or the future of Linux for Android spin offs), Microsoft with Windows 8 /Windows Phone 8 kernel merge, Apple with Mountain lion OS X and iOS and beyond we can say they all driving towards this future where your PC and your phone will run the same applications. Everyone is pushing for cloud storage, be it Microsoft's Skydrive, Apple's iCloud or Google's future GDrive, Linux's Ubuntu One. We did not even start to cover all the other store options springing up like Dropbox, Box and others seen here or Cloud Applications from online mail, or office to full ERP systems and more. Games get covered two in companies popping up all over the place like OnLive Gaikai or Streammygame to name a few.

We are moving into the cloud, like it or not, OS's are merging, like it or not. Pretty soon your phone will be able to do everything your Desktop can.

Personal View

I believe that the desktops as we know them will die, but not in the way most people think. You might still have large computer in your house, but it will move into the realm of being a server for the family/home. It will become a place where people store/back-up their data that is not in the cloud, or brute horse power to play a game a single communication hub for the house and its appliance. We can see this move with Apple's and AirPlay and wireless sync, or Android's WiFi Direct and Android@Home or DLNA for home media and remote desktop applications like Splashtop that is even able to stream the most intense games, also look at Kainy for personal game streaming. Its all means to the end of the desktop of old.

Your phone/tablet will be able to dock to a Screen and keyboard/mouse in the future for use as a good old fashion PC linking to your powerful home server or the cloud if your home is without one, but gone will be the era where everyone in the house bought their own super gaming PC. I guess the only question that people have to ask is not how can I fight it, but how can I make the transition smoother and shape it to fit my life/pocket.

Only thing I really find odd, is that the promise of cloud computing was that it would releases us from the bounds of a single platform, but the more I look at it, the more it seems that we will get bound far more than the past, as your choice will affect not only the OS you chose but also the protocols and markets you are binded to.

Microsoft vs Apple vs Open Source the choice you make now, will affect your future.

To sum it up. I see 2 groups in the future:
Group A: Power users that will Dock, their Personal Computer(Phone/Tablets) and connect to powerful computers(Servers) at home to allow the same functionality they do today.
Group B: The normal users that just want to consume content that will use the cloud instead of a Server at home and can dock their Personal Computer(Phone/tablet) to be able to use it as the desktop of today if needed.

Online Privacy: Do Not Track

Elimentals — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:04:32 GMT

See where your data goes before you click

an image from the Future of Privacy Forum

I know we see it mentioned all the time, the "You are being watched", "Careful what you share" but most of the places do not cover what you could do to prevent this or what the new DNT (Do not Track) protocols cover. As we know one of the best solutions is to always browse in Private mode, but that is not the most user friendly solution as most sites use cookies and other data to save and share your data like what you preferred theme is or the user is already validated.

Now today I am gonna arm you with some info. Please note, I use Mozilla Firefox so I will probably have the best information for those users.

1st lets get some info

Installing http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/ I can start seeing how the Internet is tracking you. For example

You can read more about DNT (Do not Track) at this link : http://privacychoice.org/
When visiting its also a great way to see if your DNT is active
Also another test by Microsoft is http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/br...k/default.html

FAQ

What is Do Not Track?
Do Not Track is a step toward putting you in control of the way your information is collected and used online. Do Not Track is a feature in Firefox that allows you to let a website know you would like to opt-out of third-party tracking for purposes including behavioral advertising. It does this by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header every time your data is requested from the Web.

Is Do Not Track available on Firefox for Android?
Yes. Firefox for Android is the first mobile Web browser to offer the Do Not Track privacy feature, and behaves the same way it does on the desktop. To turn Do Not Track on in Firefox for Android, simply swipe left and tap on Browser Tools. From the Preferences pane, tap on the box next to "Tell sites not to track me" to turn this option on or off.

Does Do Not Track block ads?
No, you will still see ads with Do Not Track enabled. However, Do Not Track may change the type of ads you see. For example, behavioral ads are targeted to your interests based on the websites you visit and the search terms you use. If you request that websites Do Not Track you, and the sites respect your privacy preferences, you will see more generic ads in place of behavioral ads.

How does Do Not Track work with other privacy tools?
Do Not Track is one of many privacy solutions. Do Not Track does not replace your anti-virus software, will not encrypt data, and is not a security mechanism. There are several other privacy and security features within Firefox.

Will Do Not Track affect the rest of my Web experience?
Do Not Track may interfere with some personalized services you enjoy. For example, a Do Not Track request might mean you would have to type in your zip code each time you want to view a weather report, rather than seeing the weather automatically displayed. Personalization on websites can save you time and repetitive typing, but it requires data.

Will companies honor my Do Not Track preference?
Companies are starting to support Do Not Track, but you may not notice any changes initially. We are actively working with companies that have started to implement Do Not Track, with others who have committed to doing so soon.

Now I guess you ask what can you do to use this.

FireFox:
The latest Firefox its as easy as ticking a simple box in your privacy section.
Also install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir.../trackerblock/

Internet Explorer
In IE9+ you can just click follow the instructions as per http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/br...k/default.html

Chrome:
Chrome does not support this yet but will soon as per : http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Go...Policy-875431/ but you can use the following extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...fdgfjilccfpfoe to help.

Safari:
Sorry no support for either iPhone or Mac as of yet, with no indication if they will follow the rules or not. But you can use the following extension http://www.orbicule.com/incognito/ to help.

Opera:
See http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog...nt-mail-themes

Android:
Default browser does not support this but you can install and use Firefox for Android that can enable this feature.

In the legal system you can see more info on it over here

With all the momentum its getting it will pretty soon be law in the US that most if not all sites have to abide by the new protocol, for now I think its best to make people aware of this and start enabling it.

Where can I learn more?
Other interesting work about Do Not Track and online privacy:

Private browsing in Firefox � limits saving data about which sites and pages you have visited online
Managing cookies in Firefox � lets you control how cookies are saved on your computer
Alex Fowler's Mozilla Blog � latest news from Mozilla's Technology and Privacy Officer
donotrack.us project � Stanford researchers working on the ideas behind Do Not Track
Mozilla and Stanford's Do Not Track submission to the IETF � IETF is a standards body that helps define how the Web works, regardless of which Internet browser you use
Ghostery � a tool that lets you learn which sites are tracking you online

New to Android (What apps to look at)

Elimentals — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:32:05 GMT

I could not decide to blog this or create a thread so here goes

I see there are a lot of new Android users around so I created a list of "Must Have" applications for your new phone, but seeing that people differ on what app they like/use I decided to add the options under each one. I have placed a * under the ones I am personally using so take that as a recommendation that it was worth using them.

1. Security
I would highly recommend you get one of the following GPS tracking on the phone even if you disable the Anti-virus
* Lookout AntiVirus/Back-up/phone location
AVG Free AntiVirus/Back-up/phone location
SeekDroid Locate and remote Wipe
* Theft Aware Locate and remote Wipe (Needs Root)

2. Communication
Whatsapp Text/SMS replacement
ChatOn Text/SMS replacement
Skype Text/Voice and Video chat
* Viber VoIP and SMS replacement
* IM+ All in one Instant messenger
* Tapatalk Forum App Forum app with MyBB support.

3. Data Management
3G watchdog Data Alert
My Data Manager App breakdown and alert
* Onavo Data Plan management + app control light firewall
Droidwall Firewall (Needs Root)

4. Power management
Data on demand Disables data radio when phones sleeps
* Juice Defender Polls data radio and schedule nighttime's so your phone dont waste power while you sleep.
* Watchdog Task Manager unlike other useless task managers this one is based on CPU usage with alert/kill settings.
PowerTutor Display in mW how much power each application use, Find the drain.

5. Office
Quick Office Office document editor
* Documents on the go Office document editor

6. File Management
ASTRO File Manager Add supported with option to remove
* ES File explorer
* File Expert With cloud integration (all in one)

7. Navigation
* Navfree Open street map generated offline navigation - needs to be online when searching new addresses.
* Sygic Total offline navigation
CoPilot South Africa Total Offline navigation
Route 66 Offline navigation
Waze Community GPS navigation (Thanx to DWPTA for admission)

8. Browser
Opera Mini Web Browser with data compression
Firefox Sync with desktop + WebGL Support
* Dolphin Tab supported Browser
* Miren Tab supported browser

9. Market
* Amazon App store (Free app of the day) How to Join from SA
* GetJar Paid applications for free under Gold Star list

10. Keyboard Replacement
SlideIT Swipe with loads of themes
* Touchpal Swipe + touch + voice input.
Swiftkey X Predictive keyboard with loads of themes
* Thumb Keyboard Themed keyboard with tablet support

11. Remote control/management
Remote Web Desktop
* AirDroid
Android Sync Manager
* Splashtop Remote Remote streaming of your desktop (Free in GetJar)
PocketCloud Remote RDP / VNC Remote client for your phone

12. Look And Feel

Launchers
* ADW Launcher Launcher with extra themes available
LauncherPro Launcher with extra themes available
Regina 3D Launcher Launcher with extra widgets
* SPB Shell 3D 3D Launcher with extra 3D widgets
MXHome Launcher Launcher with extra themes
Launcher 7 Windows Phone 7 Launcher Metro look
Espier Launcher Complete iPhone look and feel
GO Launcher EX Launcher with loads of custom widgets and themes.

Widgets
* Beautiful Widgets Weather and clock widgets with extra themes in app (Free in Getjar)
* Android Pro Widgets Loads of widgets from Facebook to calendar with themes.
* Calculator Widget
* Power Widget
WidgetLocker Lockscreen Allows you to customize your lockscreen like adding widgets

13. Back-up
* Titanium Backup Allows for full phone back-up and simply the best (Needs Root)
MyBackup Root Simple full backup (Needs Root)
Call Logs Backup & Restore
SMS Backup & Restore
Backup Contacts
As for Applications the File managers mentioned above does the normal APK back-up to your SD card. (I would normally advise just re-installing applications from the market to be able to see updates.

Other
General apps I normally say is a must
Samba file share Share your phone directories so you can browse and use them from a PC (Needs Root)
WiFi Finder Locate and test Wifi Signal or
WiFi Analyzer Locate WiFi in your area
My Sync Center Android WiFi sync+backup with iTunes support
SwipePad Quick Launcher for Android.
Official XBMC Remote Media center remote control via WiFi
Compass General use Compass with tagging ability, find your car made easy.

This is by no means all of it but its the sections I highly recommend you look at to enjoy your phone more

Also dont forget the Sticky in the Android section

PS: I will probably add/remove to this list as time goes on.

Quitting smoking tomorrow

shaddowdragon — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:20:35 GMT

I guess on myBB you find everything. Decided to quit smoking and I am finishing my first fortnight today. Tomorrow is another day. For some reason, this post has been the most helpful today.

Originally Posted by Myrrdin

The biggest shock when you quit smoking is finding out what fast food really tastes like.

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Now be honest. If you ran RJR-Nabisco, wouldn't you be tempted to slip a little nicotine into your crackers?
Nothing like a good saltine to relax you.
And a half hour later you want another one.
After a good meal, you'd lean back and suck on a nice cracker.

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Remember, smoking doesn�t kill people. People who are trying to quit smoking kill people.

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One poll says 73% of Americans favor raising the cigarette tax. It's only fair. Since smokers aren't around as long as the rest of us, they should pay more while they're here.

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I quit smoking once for six days. And then they untied me.

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Trying to quit smoking can drive you nuts -- especially when you try to light your nicotine gum.

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Marlboro has a line of outdoor gear for smokers. They recommend you buy it a size larger so paramedics don�t have to cut it off of you.

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The Marlboro clothing is very functional. The denim jacket has electric heart paddles
sewed right into the lining, and there�s a backpack that can hold a portable respirator.

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I stopped smoking and extended my life expectancy. My wife is furious.