[Android] Easy Logging

From the Java ( log to logcat)

import android.util.Log

Log.w("myApp", "My Message");

From the NDK/Native side ( still logs to logcat)

#include
#define APPNAME "MyApp"


__android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_VERBOSE, APPNAME, "MyMessage\n");

also remember to add the following to Android.mk

LD_LDFLAGS := -llog

Easy peezy.

Answers were from:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2364811/how-do-i-write-outputs-to-the-log-in-android
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4629308/any-simple-or-easy-way-to-debug-android-ndk-code

[Android] undefined references

If you get a ton of undefined references, for methods/functions that you're sure are defined. Make sure to add:

"LOCAL_ALLOW_UNDEFINED_SYMBOLS := true" to your Android.mk file.

Reasoning is given here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7209971/ndk-build-undefined-reference-to-errors-when-statically-linking-to-libxml-a

[Android] Note: limits: No such file or directory

If you get the following error:

fatal error: limits: No such file or directory

Or

error: 'numeric_limits' is not a member of 'std'

The solution is to include ( not or ). Then add

"APP_STL := stlport_static" to your jni/Application.mk 

Adding it to your Android.mk file does not work. I created an Application.mk file, with just that line and it worked.

Solution from:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/android-ndk/4cIVid0P3go/LY3htUx_qMgJ

[Android] Note: Device Not Showing up in ADC

If DDMS is seeing the device, but eclipse/Android Device Chooser is not showing it then check to see if the project requires a more up to date SDK version.

[RAID] Updated the RAID5 yet again

My RAID5 on frisket was running dangerously low on space. When I noticed that it only had 100GB's left, I knew it was time to either upgrade or delete massive amounts of data. To those that are saying 100GB is plenty of space, the drive was 98% full, and I still had about 500GB of data on various external drives that needed copying to the main server.

I decided that even deleting all my rips, I would still fill up again within a year. I needed another 2TB HD, if the server could handle it. I also needed a backup. RAID is not a backup. It will guard against single drive failure yes, but not against misguided fingers. Checked the server setup, and I still have 2 SATA ports free ( on the expansion card). I also had one more open 3.5" bay.

I bought a 2TB internal drive, a Seagate Barracuda instead of my regular Hitachi's. I also bought a 2TB external drive, for backups and safeguarding critical data for the RAID grow. Growing a raid is non-destructive.. if all goes well. But getting any command wrong, formatting the wrong drive, or a power failure at a critical moment can all lead to a broken RAID, and lost data. 

I copied all my TV Shows and Movies to the 2TB drive. That almost completely filled the drive. I also copied over any data that couldn't be replaced, and weren't stored anywhere else. This filled up any left over nooks and crannies in all my external drives. Unfortunately my 500GB and 750GB external drives are now at my parent's place and remotely transferring 500GB+ worth of data back and forth on my 100KB/s upload is just not plausible. 

On Sunday I started the procedure. I used the same procedure I outlined here RAID5-fun. Currently the RAID has about 23 hours left on the re-sync. After that I have to resize the file-system in order to utilize the free space.

Update: Took roughly 26 hours total to do the grow of the raid partition. Currently I'm running e2fsck to check the filesystem over, then the filesystem has to be grown. 

[WOW IC] Bob and Hotplate back in action

Bob wiped his lip and gingerly put some weight on his knee. It didn't give out instantly, which was a good sign. Whatever liquid his hand wiped from his chin, whether it was blood or sweat, Bob didn't get a chance to look. Kragnar let out a taunt at the pair of Yongol he was fighting. These Youngol, were different than the Youngol he had encountered in the village. They were imbued with the power of the Sha. Instead of simple brute force ( of which they had plenty of), they were attacking with the force of hatred itself.

Bob hurled yellow and green deadly fire at the pair. The yellow fire streaked through the ground, curling left and right, like a snake, ready to devour its target. The green fireball of chaos streaked through the air on a more direct route. Regardless, they both hit at almost the same moment. Where there were once two hate filled Youngol, only two craters now remained.

Kragnar turned to acknowledge his master, then silently floated off in the direction of his next target.

A few yards away, Hotplate was keeping herself busy as well. Her dual blades whistled in the night air. Normally, Pandaren nights were moderate, requiring nothing more than a linen blanket to sleep under the stars. But the air around hotplate was as frigid as a blizzard in Northrend. The death knight was born of this bitter cold, and it would never leave her. Now the cold was her weapon, along with blood and rune. Her blades gave off an eerie white glow, like the color of snow in the moonlight. But instead of inspiring an image of a peaceful Winter Solstice, they were cleaving through a particularly large Youngol warrior.

The warrior did not last long.

-------

"Did I ever thank you for dragging me to this demon infested continent?" quiped Hot.

"You could have stayed at the manor, helped Hunt at the market" replied Bob.

"What? And let an old man like you go back to war on his own?" joked Hot.

While Bob wasn't as young as he used to be, he looked younger than he'd looked in years. The last few months in Pandaria had hardened Bob. After years of being cooped up in the manor with his books, his body had softened and aged. This new campaign sharpened his mind and reinvigorated his body. He was almost in as good a shape as he was when he fought the Burning Legion, a lifetime ago.

The trip had done well for Hotplate as well. Retirement had not suited her. While the others could change clothes, and pretend to live the simple lives of civilians, the Northrend campaign had obviously changed Hotplate. She no longer spoke about her time before becoming a Death Knight. Before Arthas had made her into what she was now. But the action had given her a purpose, and that was something she was sorely missing.

[Wow IC] How retirement has been treating everyone

Hooff brought the ale to his lips, listening offhandedly to the conversation at a nearby table. The two Tauren were trading war stories back and forth. Some battle Hooff recognized, some he did not. Hooff listened more intently to the battles he didn't recognize. Ever since Hooff retired from the War with Deathwing, he'd lived a quiet life.

He decided to settle in Mulgore. After the guild had disbanded, he decided to retire. Hooff still thought of himself as a Drainei, regardless of what the mirror showed him every morning. Unlike other Drainei who were born too recently to remember before the crash, Hooff remembered the trip vividly. The Exodar held no more solace for him than the broken world he had left. There was pain and sorrow everywhere. A land filled with prairie grass seemed as good a place as any. Hooff quickly gained respect for the naturalistic Tauren. They too got used to have a "Belf" living in Mulgore.

Hooff made himself useful. He helped his neighbors, though they were few and far between. Sometimes he would even help some of the instructors at Thunderbluff, to train new recruits. He didn't do this often. It doesn't pay to get too attached to new soldiers in a time of war, they just don't last long enough. But he did what he could, taught what he could. The recruits needed all the help they could get.

Still, Hooff felt like more time had passed for him. It seemed ages ago that he was helping fight the invasion of Ogrimmar by fire elementals, though the calendar says it was barely a year ago. Barely a year ago when he saved the life of a young warlock. Fitting it seemed, to save the life of a young warlock, when his own life was saved by a warlock when he was young. Hooff thought of his old friends, his old family.

"Do you ever regret coming for me?" Hooff asked to his companion.

"Nope, I wasn't doing anything anyway... " a young Tauren sitting across the table replied. "Besides, who else would cover your back?"

Waash had arrived about a few months after Hooff arrived on this Azeroth. He travelled through the same interdimensional portal, had undergone the same transformation Hooff had. Outwardly a young Tauren, Waash's soul was still that of a Night Elf. Similar to Hooff, Waash had little ties to the old world, other than the "family".

Both of the companions were dressed in the drab, dull clothing of farmers and merchants. No one in the inn would have guessed that These two simple townsfolk had once fought with dragons and demons. That they had traveled to the heart of the maelstrom and done battle with the very elements themselves. Had assisted in the rebirth of Cenarius, and had helped liberate the Stonecore. No, these were simple townsfolk, listening to the tales of "true" adventurers, like those in the table near by.

------

Playstation Vita

Picked up a Vita because of work's Xmas deal. Received it a week ago, and its been a mixed ride. Long story short: Great system, good games, nice handheld. But burdened by price, proprietary memory cards, overly complicated routines and inept bundling. 

Long story:

Received the Vita on a Saturday. Unfortunately I was also getting sick, so I just pulled open the package and turned the system on. I plugged it into my PC, hoping it would charge, and it seemed to. Woke up a few hours later, grabbed Unit 13 ( game from work) and stuck it into the Vita. Updated the firmware and ... got a message saying that I needed a memory card to play Unit13. No problem, I'm sure they stuck a tiny one in the package somewhere, just enough for a small saved game.

Nope, nothing.

Read online, and most games do require a memory card. I can't believe they'd sell a system that was so incomplete, that you couldn't play it RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I can see this as a major disappointment on Christmas morning. Kids opening up the package, sticking a game in, and finding out that they can't play until they head down to the store and buy a card. Not a great first impression.

Unfortunately my Vita was a big, pretty, paperweight until I was able to borrow a card from a friend. I ordered a card for myself, but the order got screwed up ( which is a whole other fun story).

Memory Card:

Let's take a moment and talk about these memory cards. Even though they look very similar to mico-sd they are in fact a propreitary Sony memory card. Not just a Sony card, but a VITA memory card. Sony created a whole new, incredibly expensive ( currently), memory card format just for the Vita. Again, not a great way to gather good will from your customers.

There's a good write-up on the possible reasons why Sony did this: The Great Flash Memory Controversy.
I see that their points are valid, but the memory is still obscenely expensive. Currently the 32GB card is the best value at MSRP $100 ( $80 or so on a sale). With only Sony making the memory, prices will probably stay high.

Looks:

The fit and finish of the Vita is top-notch. It sports the same black and glass look that the "Fat" PS3, and PSP has. The front OLED touchscreen is gorgeous, and responds well. The buttons feel substantial and have a satisfying action when pressed. The back touchscreen seemed responsive as well. I only, very briefly, tried Dungeon Hunter which uses the back touchscreen. It was very brief so I can't comment on how well the touchscreen fits into the control scheme.

My only gripe so far with the control is that, its difficult to use both thumbsticks and hold the Vita up at the same time. For Unit 13, you need to use both triggers, both thumbsticks and a few of the buttons. This leaves precious little room on my palm to support the (surprisingly substantial weight) of the Vita. I might look into a grib to give the vita a little bigger footprint. Something like the Sony Trigger guard possibly. I'm hoping I'll just get used to it and settle into a comfortable grip.

Graphics:

The graphics are great. The screen is wide and bright. You're not going to get 720p looks, but they're still pretty good. I tend to hold it up pretty close to my face, so its easier to see the individual blocks, but someone more normal won't be bothered.

Game Selection:

From what I've been reading online, there are 3-4 "must have" games for the Vita. 2-3 of those I already have, so I'll be playing those when I get time. So far I'm about 1/3 of the way through the Unit 13 campaign. I'll be trying Uncharted next, then Gravity Rush and maybe Resistance. I was skeptical about playing an FPS on the Vita, but it hasn't been that much of an issue. Unit 13 has a fair bit of stealth, so that probably helps with things. I'll see how Resistance ( which is a more classic, run and gun game) fares on the Vita.

I'm also keen to try Assassin's Creed, which I've heard is also very good. But it's more of a sandbox game, which I don't do well in.


Quirk:

One quirk I've noticed is how unnecessarily complicated charging the vita is. The normal charging process, Vita into charger into the wall, that's easy enough. The indicator is solid orange when its charging. If its flashing orange, then there's not enough juice for the vita to turn on.

Things get more complicated if you're plugging the vita into a PC to charge. Plugging the Vita into the PC to charge when its off, will function basically like the wall plug. If your PC does NOT have content manager installed, it will charge normally when plugged in, on or off. But if it does have it installed then it will TRY to charge when its on, but it MAY not have enough power to charge. This is because with content manager installed, the Vita will make a connection to the PC and will be using more power. If you have content manager installed, the easiest way to charge it is to turn the Vita OFF ( not sleep).

Its not that complicated, but its much more complicated than it should be. It should charge or not, regardless of what software is installed. Having things silently change behavior is a recipe for frustration.

Conclusion:

I'm liking the Vita more and more every today. It excels at its primary focus: playing games. There's nothing quite like having dedicated controls that are designed from day1 for the game you're playing. It runs youtube app pretty well, and has a decent camera. I am even less likely using the Vita to take pictures around town, but its handy for games. Some games are already using it for Augmented Reality, which is cool.

I think Vita would do very well if it was $50-$75 cheaper, and you could use normal memory cards ( or the cards themselves were half priced). The games are reasonably priced ( $40 or so) and there's enough to have a good starting point.

Disclaimer: The views here are obviously my own, and are formed based on my experience as a consumer, with retail equipment. These views are not endorsed by Sony, or any other company I may or may not be affiliated with. Blah blah don't sue. 

[WoW] Back on the crack

Yup, I'm back on WoW. The new expansion lured me in, and some friends finished the job. It was a bit surreal logging back in. Quite a few of my toons were logged out at random inns in different cities. Because of the patches and whatnot, most ended up in their respective main cities. Ogrimmar for the Horde and Stormwind for Alliance.

Playing without addons isn't as bad as it used to be. Before you could barely play if your addons weren't working well. I've gotten to the Jade Forest without addons, and done a few quests. Having said that, I died multiple times because I didn't have any healing spells on my bars ( no healbot). At one point I resorted to typing in "/cast Flash Of Light" to heal myself. Its going to take some time for me to rebuild my interface.

System requirements must have been raised. Even with my new SSD, MoP isn't running near as smooth as Cata did. I had to drop down the settings to "Good" instead of "Ultra" to get smooth gameplay. I can jack it up to Ultra and still get mostly 24-30fps, but as soon as action starts, it drops to the teens with a bit of a stutter. I've gotten very annoyed at that stutter so now I'd rather run at Good and always be at 25+fps. It could of course be because I haven't updated any device drivers, and am running in full screen windowed mode ( to be able to read guides and such on my 2nd monitor).

Most of my characters on Blackwater Raiders are level 80 and below. Some of my old guildies are playing their, but in order to play with them, I'd need to get into the 85-90 content. The prospect of leveling through the cataclysm areas yet another time is not appealing to me. Plus all my money making toons have been transferred to Forgotten Coast. I have my 80 Warlock, 80 Death Knight, and 74 Shaman.

Forgotten Coast has quite a bit more money, and money making toons. My scribe is over there, plus my gathering toons. I have 3 85s there ( Pally, Priest, Druid) and a 74 Warlock. I think I'm going to mainly focus my efforts there. I dont' feel like releveling my toons on the other server, plus I'd feel like I'm handicapped by not having my other toons for support. But we'll see.

[WoW IC] Waash Arrival

Waash, Level 80 Tauren Druid. Day 2

I've been here for 2 days. I'd like to say I've been productive or even getting used to the "new" me. But I'm not. The best I can say is that I haven't killed anyone, or myself yet. I arrived in Thunderbluff 2 days ago, stepping out of the portal very disoriented. I made my way to the nearest Inn to take stock of what I had with me, and what I have become.

I'm surprised that losing my face hasn't affected me as much as I thought it would. Maybe seeing the "old me" held more pain than I thought it did. I'm a Tauren now, and for the foreseeable future. I have the letters for Master Hooff, as well as the bit of gold that I was given. I also have my armor and weapons, though they somehow have matched my more sizeable girth than they used to. I guess I shouldn't expect any less from a Mage as powerful as Ronin. I even somewhat resemble myself, though that might be just wishful thinking.

I have yet to track down the young Warlock that Bob's Felguard mentioned. That will be my next order of business. In the past 2 days I've walked around Thunderbluff, trying to get my bearings. I only recognized it was Thunderbluff from the stories that Bob used to tell. How he knows what Thunderbluff looks like, I guess I'll never know.

If I'm reading this Tauren calendar correctly, its been a month since Ogrimmar was attacked by the Fire Elementals. A month since Master Hooff saved that young blood elf warlock. 

Ronin mentioned that Hooff had joined a guild of other travellers. From different dimensions they had gathered to this one, to aid this land in defense against Deathwing. I stopped by the Guild Registrar, found the guild in question. "From the Ashes". A rather ominous name for a guild. I guess optimism doesn't run rampant here.