I like to read, but it's hard for me to just read and be still. I also don't like that reading constrains you to certain positions, so you can hold and see your book and continue to flip pages.
2013 was probably the busiest and most productive year of my life. But I still was able to read quite a lot.
2013 recap:
18 books this year and maybe still a 19th to come. This does not include partial reading of several books. For example, I'm half way through A People's History of the US, which is itself longer than several average books combined.
17 of those were in 7 months.
6 of those in December alone.
I didn't have to give up any of my time I spend doing other things to do all this reading either, and the key is audiobooks - that I LISTENED to all those books (except maybe 1).
Cooking, walking around campus, cleaning, laundry, drifting to sleep, running, even showering...all are activities I now listen to books during.
I used Audible's app and listen to them at 3x speed. This is not a true 3x...it's probably just under a true 2x speed. I wish they'd up the speeds available tho. : (
Anyway, listening at a fast speed (takes a bit of getting used to) while doing all those things lets me just crank through books.
To make this easier (or even worth doing), I always have bluetooth headphones with me. That way my phone can be any wherever in my apartment or sitting cordlessly in my pocket. I've gone through 3 pairs of Motorola S305s (over years...) and recently am trying out a Kinivio BTH240. Both are excellent. The form factor is much better on the Motorolas, but the buttons and cost are better for the Kinivio. I probably like the Motorolas slightly more (fit well under my motorcycle helmet). I've abused both models so much, and they hold up incredibly well.
So I have a subscription to Audible.com - whatever plan that gives me 2 credits per month for books. I don't like that credits can't roll over beyond 10 or 12 and a few other things, but the service is pretty great. The app works well, and there is a wide selection of books. I've tried using 3rd party audiobook apps and finding and downloading books myself. It's just too much of a pain. Library audiobook apps aren't that bad and maybe they've improved enough to take another look soon. With Audible though, I'm cool with paying the overhead for a super easy experience.
You can see what I read and rate at Goodreads if you like:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/25809992-damien-sutevski
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
modding my Nexus 4 with Cyanogenmod and enabling LTE
Disclaimer: You probably won't do any permanent damage to your phone (but don't take my word for it) if you do anything wrong here, but you can waste a lot of time and get very frustrated. I've modded 4 different androids many times over the last 5 years or so, and I've never bricked a phone.
Speedtest.net results:
LTE:
17.95 Mbps download 19.52 Mbps upload
CDMA:
4.21 Mbps download 2.09 Mbps upload
I want to get the steps down in writing to help others do the same and future me when I need to reformat my phone. There no single solution to getting this done, so I'll describe the process I took. I did this using Windows 7, but most of the steps should be similar regardless of the OS.
1) Tools that are included in the latest Android SDK (adt bundle), called adb and fastboot, are necessary to access the phone. Download it here and unzip wherever.
2) If you haven't enabled Developer Mode on your phone, you'll have to in order to enable USB debugging. Go to Settings and click "Build number" 7 times. You'll see a visual confirmation. Now enable USB debugging.
3) Even getting your computer to recognize your Nexus 4 can be a pain sometimes. If you have issues with Windows, uninstall the current drivers through the device manager, and install this driver. If that link breaks, here is the forum post:
Make sure to add the whatever Cyanogenmod (we'll call it CM hereon), Google apps, radio zips to your phone's /sdcard/ directory (whether a real sdcard or on the internal memory). Plug your phone by USB into your computer and either drag and drop files or use the adb "push" commands (in the 'platform-tools' directory of the Android SDK you installed). Sample command:
adb push cm-10.2.zip /sdcard/
4a) If you want CM with LTE enabled, go here (10.2 is currently latest stable version):
And get a radio:
Mmultiple choices here under "Resources", but I used the .33-.84 Hybrid radio, and it's working fine so far. Others have reported the other radios working too.
4b) OR for the standard CM, go here:
And get a radio in case Wifi/Bluetooth don't work (mine didn't by default):
5) Google apps (make sure to match to appropriate CM version):
6) Also get the ClockwordMod Recovery image:
I made sure to take whatever I wanted to off my phone before doing this, so make sure you back up whatever you want. I have no recommendations for how to do this, but there are tools out there.
7) Now with your phone connected by USB to your computer, run this command from the terminal:
adb reboot bootloader
8) This will boot the phone into the bootloader screen. FYI, in general, volume up and down control direction and the power button selects.
Now in your terminal, you'll want to unlock the phone (visually confirmed). I believe this step wipes the phone:
fastboot oem unlock
8) Restart the phone if it didn't already. You may need to re-enable USB debugging.
Now get to the bootloader screen again. Make sure the ClockwordMod Recovery image is in the same directory as the adb and fastboot (makes it easier) and run:
fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.3-mako.img
Then:
fastboot boot recovery-clockwork-6.0.4.3-mako.img
9) Now you should be in the CWM Recovery screen.
9) Now you should be in the CWM Recovery screen.
Choose to factory wipe / reset your phone.
Now choose to install a zip and navigate to the sdcard and to the /0/ directory or wherever you put your zips.
10) Install the CM zip first. Then the Google apps zip. Then the radio zip.
Now restart your phone! If you chose the LTE enabled CM, there are just a few more steps - otherwise, you're done!
11) Don't worry if your signal bars look different now or have a weaker signal. Go to the phone dialer and enter:
*#*#4636#*#*
Go to Phone Information, and select "LTE/GSM/CDMA auto" from the drop-down menu.
APN fast.t-mobile.com
MMSC http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
MCC 3109
MNC 260
APN type default, supl, mms
APN protocol IPv4/IPv6
You can create a new one or modify the IPv6 version to include the IPv4/IPv6 option. Remember to hit save.
You should be good to go!
I JUST did this process myself, so I have no feedback about bugs or if this helped or hurt my Nexus 4 experience. Will try to remember to update. Let me know about your experiences! : )
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