"Across" the Kaaba

Where ever on this earth, Muslims face the Kaaba when we pray during salah. This direction is called the qibla. Basically, it's the direction in which a bird would start flying in order to get to the Kaaba by the shortest possible way.

This is interesting, because of the Earth's rounded shape, if you take a straight line from the Kaaba, through the center of the Earth, towards the surface across it, from here, the bird can fly in any direction and the distance to the Kaaba are all the same. Which means, here, any direction is the qibla! :) Now the shape of the Earth is not best represented by a perfect sphere, but an ellipsoid instead. But then still, from this place, the bird can choose 2 opposite directions that lead to the Kaaba with the same (shortest) distance. :D I wonder where that is!

So, the location of the Kaaba is at 21°25′21.15″N 39°49′34.1″E. Based on the image below from Wikipedia describing the latitude and longitude of the Earth

(and a little knowledge on how to convert the degrees-minutes-seconds coordinates to decimal degrees), we can infer that the location of this peculiar place is at -21.42254167, -140.1738611. Let's look it up on Google Maps! And... *drum roll

it's in the middle of nowhere (the South Pacific Ocean to be precise). Well...

Papa

I am the son of Taufik Rahman bin Mahlan. We don't always get along with each other, but he is still a hero to me. Better than any superhero, he's real. I remember when I was still in elementary school, my mom enrolled me in an English course, where the teacher once asked who my idol was. I answered, "My dad." She asked, "Why?" I said, "Because he's clever." Well actually not only clever, my admiration to my dad that time also revolves around his very good handwriting :) and his talent in arts: visual (I always envy his ability to draw and he's also a photographer) and musical (while not an expert, he can play several instruments alright).

My dad is always there when I need him. When I was working on my final project as the requirement to get my degree in college, my dad was practically my professor, providing me helpful advice more than my official ones. Currently I am in the middle of a very ugly chaos, and he is there struggling with me as well. To keep me sane, he thought I need a pleasant distraction and got me an electric R/C helicopter to play with:

It's a mini 3-channel coaxial-blade electric R/C helicopter (it's around 20 cm in length). A toy, but it took me a while to be able to control it properly. I've always wanted a R/C that flies, but they were expensive and very hard to play. Now that the Chinese made these somewhat durable little electric helis, well... it's basically childhood dream come true! :D

I keep the helicopter with me (I live in a different city far away from where my parents are), so my dad could not play with it although we know that he is fascinated by the toy as well. That's how my sister and I started to hunt the perfect R/C helicopter for his birthday present. We ended up with this one:

It's a medium-sized 4-channel single-blade electric R/C helicopter (the picture above is with the training gear attached, notice the pencil as the scale reference). We wanted something more advanced, and this one suits pretty well. It's still a toy (not even hobby grade I guess), but it resembles the real thing far better than mine and can be flown outdoors conveniently. Being able to do all the movements a 3-channel R/C helicopter does, a 4-channel R/C helicopter can also do the right and left cyclic rolls. We love it!

My dad's broad horizon along with his sound understanding about so many things is clearly his outstanding quality. But no less important is his attitude towards life. Probably that's how he got to the general director position of the company he worked with until he decided to retire. Having a professional life myself, I know for sure that getting there is nowhere easy. Being there might even be worse! I am not sure how to describe this and I think it would be nice to hear his side of the story. So he has this blog on Kompasiana, with a lot of interesting posts. This particular one is a brief autobiography of himself. You might know him better after reading it.

Dukun Pengusir Hantu Rumah Turbin (it's in bahasa Indonesia, English: The Exorcist who Banished the Power House Demon) :D

When I was small, I always said I wanted to be an engineer, because my dad is one. Now, I am one, although not nearly as good as him. But being an innocent child I was at one time, I thought I'd ask my dad what he wanted me to become. I was expecting that his answer would be, "I want you to be an astronaut" :) or something like that. Indeed, his answer was, "I want you to be a good person." I was confused at the time and went speechless... Now that I know more compared to the innocent me back then, I still go speechless everytime I remember his answer to my question at that moment.

Wanting to be like him is a high aim for me, so at least I guess I'll try to find out how to be a good person anyway. Thx, Pa!

Rooting and Installing Custom Recovery on LG Optimus One P500

Here's how I rooted and installed ClockworkMod Recovery on my LG Optimus One P500 (O1). Apart from the fact that I try to make this guide as accurate as possible, I should not be held responsible shall anything bad happen to your phone as a result of following it. :)

Rooting

One of the most popular apps to root O1 phones is z4root. The most comprehensive guide for this can be found in The LG Optimus One P500 Blog. Several notes about z4root:

• It is known that z4root could not be used to root devices upgraded to the V10e firmware.
• Even though your firmware is older than V10e (e.g. V10c), make sure that the Android version is not newer than 2.2 (e.g. 2.2.1). I've read people facing problems rooting their devices with z4root if the Android version is newer than 2.2. If you can't get z4root to root your device, give SuperOneClick or GingerBreak a go.

BusyBox and Superuser apps are required by many rooted apps for their proper functioning. So, use Root Checker from Android Market to verify the proper installation of these 2 apps.

Installing Custom Recovery

I'm a n00b so I look for the easiest way to get things done, and I found that the easiest way to install a custom recovery is to flash ClockworkMod Recovery using the "official" method below. :) Please be aware that to be able to install custom recovery to your device, it must be rooted.

1. Install ROM Manager from Market and launch it.
2. Tap the first option i.e. the one that says 'Flash ClockworkMod Recovery'. Specify or confirm your phone model if prompted during the process, and follow any on-screen instructions.
3. Once the process is finished, you have the custom recovery installed on your phone.

Once it has been installed, booting into ClockworkMod Recovery can be done by launching ROM Manager and tapping 'Reboot into Recovery'. Once you have booted into recovery, the touchscreen won't work. You can navigate through the options by using the Volume-Up and Volume-Down keys to highlight an option and the 'Menu' key to enter/launch the highlighted option on the O1. Now, it's time to create a backup of your system before you mess with it any further! ;)

AddictiveTips has a complete guide for ClockworkMod Recovery.

My Android Glossary

As the title says, this is my Android glossary. I'll update it as necessary. :)

custom recovery

All Android devices ship with a recovery image that is basically a partition on the device's internal memory and can be booted into. The stock recovery of almost all Android devices provides a few basic options, mainly to factory reset your device. A custom Android recovery basically replaces the stock recovery with one that lets you do all you can do with the stock recovery, plus a plethora of more options for maintenance and recovery tasks to give you a lot more control on your device. In PC terminology recovery can be compared to BIOS with some added features. The general method of installing a custom ROM is by flashing it using a custom recovery. An example of a custom recovery is ClockworkMod Recovery. Also note that flashing a custom recovery requires a rooted device.

firmware

The read-only operating system that stays "firmly" in the ROM without modification access to the users of the device.

flashing

A special procedure to install or modify the firmware on a device's protected flash memory.

flash memory

A non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. Non-volatile means the chip keeps the saved data even if the device power is off.

ROM

Random Access Memory, a kind of flash memory. The internal storage of the device containing the operating system instructions that need not be modified at all during normal operation. When it comes to smartphones and tablets, the term ROM is used to refer to the firmware.

root(ing)

Android is based on Linux and comes locked with only standard user access given to its user. This laid basis for many potential abilities remaining dormant. The name root comes from the Linux operating system world, where the most priveleged user on the system (otherwise known as Administrator on Windows) is called root. Rooting essentially means gaining root-level access to your device. In other words, by rooting you get complete control over your device which means you can overcome limitations that the carriers and manufacturers put on your phone. Rooting the phone typically also includes an application called Superuser that supervises which applications are granted root rights.

Sources:

AddictiveTips, Android Police, GSMArena.com, Wikipedia, XDA-Developers forum

Li-ion Battery Care

With the currently widespread use of Li-ion batteries (starting from mobile phones, laptops, and so on), it's interesting when people discuss about how to care for it in order to get the most out of it. Here are 2 of the most interesting articles I've found so far on the subject:

• Getting Great Battery Life
• Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

Recently, I also found a thread started by DarkDvr back in 2010 on the XDA-Developers forum specifically for Android-powered devices. The 1^st post there summarizes his findings regarding Li-ion battery care taken from sources like Wikipedia and BatteryUniversity. Here is my compilation of some interesting points, not just from the 1^st post, but through the entire thread (page 7 as of this writing):

1. A complete, full FIRST charge is recommended for 12 hours.
2. The slower the charge - the longer (long-term) battery will serve you. Trickle-charge (USB) is best.
3. Frequent partial charges about 40 to 90 or so percent are probably the best.
4. Calibrating should be done every 30 or so days/partial-charges: drain it fully (keep turning the phone on after it's "dead" until it doesn't turn on anymore) and then charge it to 100%.
5. Don't worry about charging your phone to 100% everytime. Charging to max voltage every time reduces battery life.

However, at the end of the day,

The thing with Li-ion batteries is that you don't really have to worry too much about them, it'll die regardless. Just keep it cool whenever possible, and don't let it die to 0% (aside from the calibration cycle).

Credits to DarkDvr and others on the forum. ;)

LG Optimus One P500

Finally, my first Android phone! :D It's the LG Optimus One P500, an entry-level Android phone. After some research over the internet, I picked this one because of its quite superior hardware specification in its price bracket. I got mine from Global Teleshop, Balikpapan for Rp1.999.000.

Definitely not perfect, but I think it's generally a nice phone to experience Android. Here are 3 things I have in mind after having it for a few days.

Battery Life

I've been reading that Android phones drain their batteries pretty quickly. Of course it depends on the usage, but thanks to the 1500 mAh battery packed with the Optimus One, I think I can get up to around 24 hours battery life just by occasionally turning off the data communication when not in use and setting the screen brightness to minimum. This is actually good.

Touchscreen Bug

I guess this was something I overlooked when doing a research on the phone. I can say that it's true Optimus One has a touchscreen bug: it lags when I hold my touch on the screen (observable while playing Angry Birds). :P Some say that it's an Android problem, and not specific to this phone only. However, higher end phones should handle this better compared to the Optimus One. Workarounds for this issue involves flashing a custom ROM or just a custom kernel developed by mik_os on the XDA-Developers forum. Once I finish familiarizing myself with this phone, I might try that.

Dust Problem

It's unfortunate that I just knew this problem after I bought the phone. Users of the Optimus One reported having dust getting in the screen of their phones. ideaguy shares his research results regarding this problem on the TechEnclave forum. Guess that I'll just have to see what happens with mine. :-|

ROM, Firmware and Flashing

I've been interested in the Android operating system, and recently been digging more information about it. One thing I just found out is that Android phones are highly customizable you can even overclock the processor! Suddenly, a lot of technical terms are encountered. I like to know the actual meaning of jargons in order to have a good understanding and be able to use them correctly. There are 3 terms I’d like to discuss here: ROM, firmware and flashing. We find these terms regularly when reading about customizing the Android, and I found myself in a hard time since I didn’t have the exact knowledge of what they mean and how they relate to each other. The information below is extracted from an article on AddictiveTips I found after some googling. I simply rewrite it here in a more concise manner as a summary for quick reference.

OK, let’s start. So Android is the operating system. ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, the internal storage of the device containing the operating system instructions that need not be modified at all during normal operation. That’s why it’s read-only. The read-only operating system is also called a firmware as they stay “firmly” in the ROM without modification access to the users of the device. The ROM used in smartphones and tablets etc. is a kind of flash memory. Installing or modifying the firmware on a device’s protected flash memory (the ROM) requires a special procedure called flashing. There you go! :)

As a note, when it comes to smartphones and tablets, the term ROM is used to refer to the firmware. So now you know precisely what it means to flash your phone with a custom ROM, right? :D