Create a bootable USB

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Fix for unknown baseband on I9300

Edit 2015-03-30: I see from other sources that TWRP 2.8.6.0 could be too big for recovery partition on I9300 so beware!

After flashing the latest TWRP with Flashify, the phone fell into a boot loop. Here is a list of recovery procedures performed in case I need them again.
So, first I used a USB stick modem to get Internet. SIM extender or an original remains of the card were needed to fit the SIM card into the USB modem.

Recovery

Then, via PC, I flashed TWRP with Odin, using PDA option. This fixed the recovery and the phone booted into OS.

Baseband / Modem

However, the phone would not connect to network. The baseband was unknown and IMEI did not show up at all when trying with *#06# code on the phone.
The solution for this was to flash the modem.

1. Get the latest firmware from SamMobile
2. Extract the files to get modem.bin.
3. Download img2tar tool from xda. It is also possible to use Tar for Windows but this is safer as it generates md5 hash as well.
4. Flash the resulting modem.tar.md5 file using Odin, via Phone option (not PDA). This is with Odin 3.07.

This fixed the baseband and the phone correctly recognised that there is no SIM card.

Beautiful Markdown editor

Thanks to the article I just read, I learned about a few more Markdown editors. There used to be very few to choose from and none had a great performance. Nowadays the situation is a bit better and here is a gem:

Haroopad - The Next Document processor based on Markdown

 

Android App Launching Made Gorgeous

Great article on mechanics of launching of Android apps.

If you were annoyed by the blank screen that shows up before your app starts, here are a few tips on how to make it look good.

Android App Launching Made Gorgeous - Cyril Mottier

 

Cleaning up NVidia download files

The article below lists several locations that contain files that NVidia Network Service piles up. These can amount to gigabytes of junk files. Even though I have the latest drivers installed, the network service still downloads about 10 versions in the past.

Needless to say, there is no setting to prevent this. My solution was to disable the network service and occasionally check for updates manually.

Cleaning up old NVIDIA driver files to save disk space (updated) - GameplayInside

Oh, finally...

No, the browser is not going away but the name has so many negative conotations that it is much better that it is about to disappear.

Microsoft is killing off the Internet Explorer brand | The Verge

 

Google: Another service goes down

Another Google service is shutting down. This is becomming a recurring story.

A source-code-hosting service Google Code is due for burrial. On the positive side, the service was OK but never got any big popularity. It was surpassed by the likes of SourceForge, BitBucket, GitHub, even Bazaar or Visual Studio Online.

If they (Google) continue like this, soon there won't be much to use of them at all. Their new products are failures and the successful ones are getting killed by the company itself. Wonder what this will turn to.

Google Open Source Blog: Bidding farewell to Google Code

Telegram Messenger

Here is a new messenger that drops most of the limitations of other chat apps. It has me interested so far and warrants some time to try it out more thoroughly.

Telegram Messenger

 

Android Device Manager won't start

Today, all of a sudden, AVD Manager won't start, giving the

FATAL:.//android/base/sockets/SocketWaiter.cpp:88:Check failed: isValidFd(fd). fd 1132 max1024

error. The issue seems to have something to do with the network:

Issue 102361 - android - Emulator will not start, fails with Check failed in SocketWaiter.cpp:89 - Android Open Source Project - Issue Tracker - Google Project Hosting

So, the solution is to run the emulator with parameter "-http-proxy none" or specify a real proxy.