American Rant #1

    Well, It's been quite a whie since I last blogged. Whoops. I'm trying out the mobile app today, so we'll see how things go.
    Anyways. Here's a rant about American kids.
    Recently, I overheard news of a kid I knew needing to take vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D supplements. Do you see what is wrong with that? No? I'll tell you then. Vitamin D comes naturally from the sun. Which means that, obviously, kids don't get out in the sun enough. The hell. Kids nowadays have practically no idea what going outside is. Not a chore, as many think. It's supposed to be an enjoyment. Being forced to take out the trash isn't going outside. Kapeesh?
    A funny thing about staying inside--you can get fat. Seriously. When outside, being in hot or cold temperatures actually burns calories; your body is using energy either to shiver or to sweat. If you stay inside all winter, or turn the AC to 69°F (hehe) in the summer, you're not going to burn the same calories you would have. But nobody really cares, right?
    That's all for today. A few interesting facts to tide you over. Mainly because I can't think of more things to write. Gotta get those creative juices flowing, you know?

Rooting a Kindle Fire

I hated my Kindle Fire. It was slow, had too many barriers, and in the end didn't give me my money's worth of hardware. So I hacked it. In this blog, I will explain how you can get the Google Play store on your Kindle, be able to download apps that are actually cool and fun (wow), or run a better version of Android.
Yes, I know, it's long, but it's worth it.

Notice: This tutorial only applies to Windows XP, Vista and 7. If you are running OSX or Linux, this will most likely not work. You can still read if you are interested, though.

Rooting your Kindle Fire

    You probably don't know what Android device rooting is. If so, read this excerpt from Wikipedia.

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    Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's subsystem. Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, resulting in the ability to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized apps that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user. Rooting is analogous to jailbreaking devices running the Apple iOS operating system. On Android, rooting can also facilitate the complete removal and replacement of the device's operating system, usually with a more recent release of its current operating system.

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(Your Kindle is, in fact, an Android device. Just like the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble.)

    If you didn't read the excerpt, that's okay too, I will just summarize. Rooting is the equivalent of Jailbreaking on an iOS-running device, except Rooting is for Android devices. And, yes, it does void your warranty.

    In order to install all these exciting (or not-so-exciting, if you are a pessimist) features on your Kindle, you will need to break the security barriers by allowing root access to the Kindle. (If the security barriers are brick walls, think of rooting as shoving an obscenely large missile into the wall with a truck, then blowing the sh*t out of it.)

    Attached to this blog is a file called "KFU.zip". (I lied. Click here to download it.) This stands for Kindle Fire Utility, which will do the rooting stuff for you. No work needed, just observation.

Actually Rooting your Device (after many lectures)

    Download the KFU.zip file. It will take anywhere between 10 seconds and 42 days to download, depending on your internet service provider. Put it in its own folder, you wouldn't want to just leave it anywhere, trust me.

    Once you download the file, make SURE that you extract the files. Run the file install_drivers.bat. This will ensure that when you connect your kindle to your computer, there will be no issues communicating with the device.

    Connect your kindle to your computer. You will either get a notification about connecting to your computer, or your screen will change to a picture of a white USB cord. Do NOT touch any on-screen buttons on your Kindle until I tell you that you can. This is vital to the safety of your device, and your bank account information.

    If any queries come up on your computer, do what you think is correct. If you get a "Device Failed to Connect" error, or something like that, leave a comment below describing what happened. (You can also talk to me in Google Talk or mention me in a Google+ post if necessary.)

    Run the file run.bat in the folder where you extracted KFU to. You will get red text on a black background, then a menu.

    Near the bottom the window should tell you your ADB and Boot Status. If ADB reads 'offline' then there is a driver problem. Leave a comment below.

    If ADB reads 'online', however, check your boot status. If Boot status reads '4002' or '5001' then press 1, enter, 1, enter (Otherwise, skip this step). This restarts the Kindle Fire, and this is normal. Afterwards, navigate back to the main menu of the program, then press 2, enter. This begins the Rooting of your Kindle Fire. Make sure to watch your kindle and computer in case any errors pop up. If nothing bad has happened yet, you are golden. Wait for the script to end, then return to the main menu. Do the same procedure for option 3 and option 5. This installs your recovery program.

    After that, navigate to the main menu (again) and select option 6. In that menu, select option 1. This adds the Google Play store to your app list. Once this script finishes, close out of the program, eject your kindle, and restart it. You have successfully (after a lot of reading and confusion) rooted your Kindle Fire. Hooray.

    (From now on, when you boot up your Kindle, you will get a blue Kindle Fire logo screen before you get the default orange one.)

    From here, you can go on to either upgrade to a custom operating system, or leave it as it is.

Installing a custom OS

    Yes, finally, we have gotten to installing a custom ROM (OS). My personal favorite as of now is Jandycane ROM, but you can look for your own. In this section I explain how to install Jandycane on your (rooted) Kindle Fire.

Download Links:

    Jandycane ROM Zip Archive

    GApps Zip Archive

    This section will be listed in steps!

1. While connected to your computer, drag and drop your downloaded Jandycane and GApps .zip archives into a folder on your Kindle. Remember where you put them.
2. Restart your Kindle. Upon restart, you will see a blue Kindle Fire logo. Hold the power button until the bottom of the screen displays three options (Normal Boot, Recovery, and Reset Boot Mode). Press and hold the power button until the moving hyphens are on either side of 'Recovery.'
3. Wait for the TeamWin Menu to load. You will have to turn your Kindle to Landscape position, unless you have sideways-pointing eyes.
4. TeamWin Menu:
1. Tap "Backup."
2. Check all of the boxes in the middle of the screen. The "Enable Compression" and "Skip MD5 generation" boxes are optional. Set the backup name if necessary.
3. Swipe to backup.
4. When finished, press the home button in the top-right of the screen.
5. Tap "Wipe."
6. Tap "Factory Reset." Confirm it.
7. Wait.
8. Upon completion, press the home button at the top-right of the screen.
9. Tap "Wipe," then tap "Cache." Confirm it.
10. Repeat step 9 but tap "Dalvik Cache" instead.
11. Press the home button in the top-right of the screen.
12. From the main menu, tap "Install."
13. On the left, navigate to the sdcard folder. This should be "/sdcard/" (you can check from the location bar in the upper-middle region of the screen)
14. Navigate to the folder in which you placed your Jandycane .zip archive. Click on the .zip archive when you find it.
15. Swipe to Confirm Flash.
16. Wait.
17. Upon completion, press the home button at the top-right of the screen.
18. Repeat steps 11-16, but look for the GApps.zip archive.
19. Restart your system after completing the second step 9.
5. Configure your new Kindle Fire!

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Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, because it took a FRICKIN' LONG TIME TO WRITE.

Just kidding. Thanks for reading!

Going Paperless

There is this new fad in this day and age about going “paperless.” That is, we save everything to electronic data sources; flash drives, disk drives, and diskettes. But, even though there are so many benefits of doing so, the possible disadvantages loom ahead.

Disadvantage Theory One: Electromagnetic Pulses (EMPs)

Our nation has already used technologies such as EMPs (pronounced Eee-Em-Pee, not emph). They are used to knock out electronics in a certain radius. But, say another country developed an EMP powerful enough to wipe data clean off of a source? And what if that same country dropped such an EMP on multiple server sites that contain all of the data that lies within the now-internet-only-version of Encyclopedia Britannica? Well, crap.

Disadvantage Theory Two: Space Impact

What would happen if a giant space rock or meteor knocked out a data center? Well, instead of getting those photos and documents back, take a space rock. Go post a picture on Instagram, or whatever.

Disadvantage Theory Three: Finite Resources

As far as I can remember, metal is a finite resource. It does not grow. It does not magically appear under your pillow. It does not hide in the closet. So, inevitably, if we are to continue to create more hard drives and diskettes to hold all of this data, and create more and more computers to access this data…won’t we run out of metal to create new computers at some (very distant) time?

Huh. Maybe, since trees grow back, using paper is a better idea.

Why Kids Bring Guns To School (and a side of potatoes)

Well, I seem to have taken a ridiculously long sabbatical from writing blogs. My apologies if you have been waiting for one. If you didn’t really care, that’s fine too.

Anyways, today’s topic: things that you probably didn’t care about. Let me (barely) amuse you by starting off with a little segment about…flavored medicine.

Flavored Medicine.

Ask your parents about medicine. Go ahead. What did it taste like? Most likely, their description of the taste would be along the lines of “It was disgusting” or something like that. Well, too bad for them, right? They were forced to digest this revolting syrup (cod liver oil, perhaps).

But, this was a good thing. The medicine tasted terrible, thus was an incentive to not want to ingest medicine. Nowadays, medicine tastes good. Since this is the case, young children want to have more of it because they like the artificial flavoring. Next thing you know, the child is in the medicine cabinet, figuring out how to remove the “childproof cap” and downing a whole bottle of grape-flavored Tylenol. Wonderful.

Speaking of children, why not move onto a more interesting topic; kids fighting in school?

Kids get punished for fighting.

In most public schools nowadays, teachers and principals are making a move against violence in school. They are trying to reduce the amount of violence by, in essence, teaching children of the various ways to be punished for having your fist meet another kid’s face. Detentions, suspensions; basically isolating the child from the rest of the school as a punishment. And, should a teacher not be aware of a fight or conflict, a student who has seen the dispute is to report the incident to the teacher. Because, as we all know, running to a teacher always makes you the hero and fixes everything.

Let me create a scenario. Imagine we have three people in a classic school hallway; a teacher, and two middle-schoolers. Say one of the middle schoolers is a big, burly, bully-type of guy who is having a bad day. The other kid is your classic nerd; weak, helpless, focuses mainly on bringing back good grades to his parents and staying out of trouble.

Big bully (let’s call him Billy for good alliteration) is storming down the hall. Nerd kid is busy putting his belongings in his locker. The teacher walks into her classroom. Billy grabs the nerd by the shoulders, whirls him around, and shoves him towards the wall, hard. Nerd kid’s books fly everywhere, and he slumps to the floor opposite his locker. Billy then walks away.

What should nerd kid do? This has been happening every day for the past two weeks. Should he go and tell the teacher, and risk being called out by his peers as a wuss? Or should he keep it to himself, knowing yet that the same event will happen the next day? Well, nerd kid doesn’t want to ever risk being called out as a wuss. That would be his end; he would be shunned by his peers. So, he keeps it to himself.

This continues for another week. At the end of the week, nerd kid can’t take it anymore and slaps Billy in the face as he approaches on his normal routine. Billy notices a teacher nearby, and fakes extreme pain to get revenge on nerd kid. The teacher is unaware of Billy being a bully. The teacher immediately refers nerd kid to the principal, where he receives an in-school suspension for three days the following week.

I may have not clearly conveyed my point, but this is the gist of what I am trying to get across: bullies attack students, students keep quiet for a while, then the student retaliates, but the student, not the bully, receives punishment. This happens because the student is initially scared of retaliating, but in the end doesn’t really give a damn. And, there is a worse ending to this than what was previously described. That ending can be compared to events such as the Columbine Shootings: kids were picked on until their fuse finally burned out, then went berserk with weaponry, seeking revenge, trying to convey “who’s the boss of me now?”

Now, what if we allowed kids to fight in school? What if we tolerated bullies? I can draw a picture. A bully would go up to a kid and throw him down, but then that kid might get back up and throw a punch, then some of each side’s friends would come to aid, and within a couple hours, peace would be restored, truces created, and everyone could go back to their normal habits. Summary? Don’t have teacher intervention. Let things play out the way they are supposed to be. Then, from strife, peace will arise. Because in the end, having more violence leads to less violence…

…does that even make sense?

(My apologies if I don’t make any sense. Carry on.)