Hey all, time for the third Punk Love Designs Identification Contest! This one's a doozy but the prize this time is 1 year of Instructables.com pro service:
A small collection of unusually colored white moss was found growing vigorously on three large rocks at the edge of/ in the stream running alongside War Spur Trail in Pembroke, Virginia. It completely coated the upper surface of three adjacent rocks in a lone, isolated patch with no additional growth in comparable areas. The white coloration may have been a temporary seasonal effect, as each growth showed a slight green tinge at the base. However, the moss appeared vigorous with no apparent ill effects.
The first correct identification commented here with means of identification wins the code for a full year off Instructables Pro Service. The winner will be chosen from available answers on St. Patrick's Day, 3/17/2013.
Good Luck!
James Schlitt
PunkLoveDesigns.com
James
For the past two weeks my phone has been getting more and more difficult to keep charged. The initial symptom was slow charging/ finickiness with chargers. This showed on higher amperage chargers that normally worked quickly. Eventually, the phone would charge barely if at all on the best of chargers and slowly lose charge on the others. I also noticed an increasing frequency of connect/ disconnect notifications when plugged into my laptop via USB as well as frequent failure to mount as detachable storage. This left me in a cycle of powering down the device to charge slowly as I slept and scrounging for battery life as I was awake.
What follows is a step by step guide as I diagnosed the issue from easiest to hardest to fix cause. Please be aware that some of these procedures may damage your phone if you make a mistake or simply run into bad luck, so consider carefully whether it is worth your time to repair this on your own versus going through a paid or warrantied repair service.
For me, as my phone is tweaked exactly as I like it and has important documentation on it, it was crucial that I do not lose data as would be expected during a factory motherboard replacement.
A small collection of unusually colored white moss was found growing vigorously on three large rocks at the edge of/ in the stream running alongside War Spur Trail in Pembroke, Virginia. It completely coated the upper surface of three adjacent rocks in a lone, isolated patch with no additional growth in comparable areas. The white coloration may have been a temporary seasonal effect, as each growth showed a slight green tinge at the base. However, the moss appeared vigorous with no apparent ill effects.
The first correct identification commented here with means of identification wins the code for a full year off Instructables Pro Service. The winner will be chosen from available answers on St. Patrick's Day, 3/17/2013.
Good Luck!
James Schlitt
PunkLoveDesigns.com
James
For the past two weeks my phone has been getting more and more difficult to keep charged. The initial symptom was slow charging/ finickiness with chargers. This showed on higher amperage chargers that normally worked quickly. Eventually, the phone would charge barely if at all on the best of chargers and slowly lose charge on the others. I also noticed an increasing frequency of connect/ disconnect notifications when plugged into my laptop via USB as well as frequent failure to mount as detachable storage. This left me in a cycle of powering down the device to charge slowly as I slept and scrounging for battery life as I was awake.
What follows is a step by step guide as I diagnosed the issue from easiest to hardest to fix cause. Please be aware that some of these procedures may damage your phone if you make a mistake or simply run into bad luck, so consider carefully whether it is worth your time to repair this on your own versus going through a paid or warrantied repair service.
For me, as my phone is tweaked exactly as I like it and has important documentation on it, it was crucial that I do not lose data as would be expected during a factory motherboard replacement.
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Signing UpStep 1: Step One: Take command of your software
In many cases, poor battery performance is simply due to excess running software on your phone. Applications in Android frequently autoboot or run as a background process after being opened only briefly. This significantly increases usage of system resources and decreases battery life. The simplest fix is to install a quality task manager, open it frequently to see what's running, and group shut down everything that you do not need at the time. If you notice a program or feature has a nasty habit of running when it shouldn't, consider uninstalling it.
Many of these intrusive programs are what is known as bloatware, software from your mobile provider's partners that they are paid to install on your phone and prevent you from removing via conventional means. If you bought a subsidized phone you almost certainly have bloatware. If you are amenable to voiding your warranty and of the belief that you can do what you like with your lawfully purchased property, you should consider rooting your phone and removing the unwanted applications with Root Manager or similar software.
To root your phone, you will need to find a tutorial specific to your phone carrier and model. For the T-Mobile Galaxy SIII I used this guide. Be sure the guide is for your exact phone, android distribution, and carrier or you will most likely irreparably damage your phone. If needed, rooting may be reversed for warranty service by resetting your phone's flash counter and reflashing the stock, factory ROM. I've also had luck stretching my battery out by underclocking my phone in periods of disuse via SetCpu.
In many cases, bloatware applications actively monitor your data, web usage, and physical location for reasons completely unrelated to the function of the software. One particularly odious example of this is angry birds' location tracking. Personally, I don't believe in granting any commercial entity further access into my personal life than law enforcement would get without a warrant, and real time position tracking is one of those things.
Consider looking into the following programs if you'd like to go further to enhancing your information security and reducing logger resource usage:
Many of these intrusive programs are what is known as bloatware, software from your mobile provider's partners that they are paid to install on your phone and prevent you from removing via conventional means. If you bought a subsidized phone you almost certainly have bloatware. If you are amenable to voiding your warranty and of the belief that you can do what you like with your lawfully purchased property, you should consider rooting your phone and removing the unwanted applications with Root Manager or similar software.
To root your phone, you will need to find a tutorial specific to your phone carrier and model. For the T-Mobile Galaxy SIII I used this guide. Be sure the guide is for your exact phone, android distribution, and carrier or you will most likely irreparably damage your phone. If needed, rooting may be reversed for warranty service by resetting your phone's flash counter and reflashing the stock, factory ROM. I've also had luck stretching my battery out by underclocking my phone in periods of disuse via SetCpu.
In many cases, bloatware applications actively monitor your data, web usage, and physical location for reasons completely unrelated to the function of the software. One particularly odious example of this is angry birds' location tracking. Personally, I don't believe in granting any commercial entity further access into my personal life than law enforcement would get without a warrant, and real time position tracking is one of those things.
Consider looking into the following programs if you'd like to go further to enhancing your information security and reducing logger resource usage:
- Logging Test App: Provides numerous key enhancements to encryption, ip settings, etc, blocks and deletes hidden logs, removes CIQ, and allows access to secret menus. Extremely easy to brick your phone with, you will absolutely need to restart and then backup your phone after every change you make. Software changes may break your phone in ways that are not apparent until your next attempted restart. If your phone becomes unable to boot, a Clockworkmod backup will allow you to return it to it's previous state.
- LBE Privacy Guard: Allows you to manage the permissions a la carte of every installed and system app. Notifies you whenever an application requests a permission not previously granted. Now you can battle those green pigs without your search, web, and location history being sold to marketing firms.
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also for the chargers: only because the wall wart delivers 2.1A doesn't mean it charges faster than a 1A. The current regulation is done by the charging circuit inside the phone.
sources:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
and
http://batteryuniversity.com/
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2012/09/02/smartphone-apps-track-users-even-when-shut-down/IH5UM0d4FYU5Gf5GlFjWcL/story.html
A 1A charger intended for my phone will certainly charge faster than my 300mA spare charger or for that matter a PC USB port, even if my phone is regulated to 700mA max.