Windows Mobile 10

I like messing with stuff, it's fun. So lately I've been messing with Windows Mobile 10.

I've had a couple Windows Phones in the past. Going way back, I had a hand-me-down HTC Shadow running Windows Mobile 6.0. Then more recently I got a Lumia 630 when I switched phone carriers. It was passable. I did a craigslist switcheroo and got a 635 instead so I could have LTE. Then I sold that as it clearly wasn't going to be my telephonic future.

I stayed windowless for a bit and snagged a Lumia 640 for $30 on black friday. Now that's a bargain! I liked it well enough to get a 640 XL on www.swappa.com. It's also pretty decent. Though I think my 640 is a bit snappier.

Anyway, long story short, I'm trying to park my trusty Nexus 5 and try out Windows for a bit, again.

Problem is, Windows likes to play by the rules and I don't. I like connecting to non-enterprise VPNs, using chrome remote desktop, accessing files on my home network while I'm on the road, tethering! and other such nonsense.

Windows mobile... not so much. My PPTP VPN worked for a bit, then stopped. Chrome remote desktop will never happen and tethering is blocked. No fun. Also, Edge chokes on half my localhost IPs. Lame.

So the jury is out. Can I adapt? Maybe. Will I? Ehhh.

I can't geofence my wifi to turn on and off like I could in 8.1. I'm pretty sure there were some other gripes I had.  The OS is getting better with each build, but I just don't like the restrictions. My Nexus 5 lets me run free and I definitely miss that... 4 hours in.

Conclusion: Windows Mobile 10 is cute. It's fun. It's personable and personal. I want to like it. But it's killing me with the superuser lockdown bs.

Symbolic Link on QNAP (Linux)

The Qsync folder on a QNAP NAS is a hidden directory, so it's hard to add to things like Plex.

Luckily, the solution is a Linux one, rather than a QNAP one.

I like using Qsync because I hate sorting through hundreds of files to make sure things are backed up between two directories.  I'd much rather manage one directory than two.

Before you try anything on your NAS, understand that you are operating outside the safety of the QNAP interface.  You could really mess things up if you aren't careful.  Therefore no warranty is part of this whatsoever!  Proceed at your own risk!

A symbolic link is nice because it doesn't make a copy of your files, it just points to them.  You can put those pointers in a convenient place.

So... download Putty and SSH into your QNAP.

After you login with your QNAP's IP address, and your credentials, enter the following command to create a symbolic link between the admin's Qsync folder and a new symbolic folder called "movielink".  Of course you can name it anything you want.  This can also be done with other user's Qsync data, just change "admin" to whatever their username is.  Keep in mind that these folders are fully linked, read and write.  So only make sure you link with users that won't wipe out your data!

[~] # ln -s /share/homes/admin/.Qsync/ /share/homes/admin/movielink

Ta Da!  Now if you go to the Filestation you can see your new folder

If you make a bad link, or want to remove the one you created, enter this command:

[~] # rm /share/homes/admin/movielink

That's all there is to it.  Now my Plex server can access Qsynced content!

Windows 10 and AMD laptop display drivers

So far Windows 10 is pretty cool.  There are some privacy concerns, but aside from that, it works pretty well.

That is except for the display drivers on my AMD A10 laptop.  But here's how to fix it:

I recommend downloading the most current Catalyst Control Center / drivers from AMD first.

Settings - System - Display - Advanced Display Settings - Display Adapter Properties - Adapter - Properties - Driver - Update Driver

This took a couple minutes to run and install, despite having the latest Catalyst Control Center installed.

Then, back in normal Windows control panel, go to the Device Manager.  My Monitor was called out as being a DISABLED Generic PnP Monitor.  So enable it on the driver page and bingo!  Brightness controls are back!!

Whew, so much for simplified settings controls for Windows 10.  I find that any heavy lifting still has to be done through the older style control panel.

Backing up Windows Home Server 2011

I tried to backup my entire WHS11 to a large external hard drive and found out that backing up to a drive over 2TB is against the rules!

So, a little research later I found this: https://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c0c0ecb1-7d48-4eb7-8c7f-7abea3794328/client-backups-and-server-backups-over-2tb

Long story short, add a QWORD to the registry in the following place:

To remove the 2TB limit in the backup wizard. 
HKLocalMachine\Software\Microsoft\Windows Server\Server Backup
QWORD MaxVolumeSize = n
N is some number larger than your volume size. 2TB is 0x1FDFFE00000 or 2190431223808 bytes

I used 21904312238080, so that should be good for a 20ish gig drive.

I don't know if it works yet, but I got farther than I did before.  WHS let me setup and begin the backup.  It's running now.  With any luck it should complete successfully, we'll see.

I don't get that if this was identified all the way back in 2011, why do I have to modify my registry in 2015.  Kind of like how WHS2011 still needs the UEFI hotfix run manually.  Can't this be a windows update?

Google-less Update

Almost a month in, and I'm hanging in there. Getting a little antsy for updates. I miss a few things, mostly remote desktop and hangouts.

Updating my contacts is a multi step, multi device process. I'll try to sideload some new apps this week, and maybe update CM (though I read some people had issues with the 3/3/14 nightly build).

We'll see how much longer I can last.

I think the phone is definitely more responsive without all that Google junk on there bogging it down. It's still super snappy.

Life Without GAPPS - or - Android without Google Play Services

I'm giving it a shot.  We'll see how it goes.  A whole day into it now and it's only minorly inconvenient.

That's right, I'm running an android phone without a Google presence.

No Gapps, no Play store, no Google Play Services, no Google Account.

To be more specific, I'm running a nightly build of Cyanogenmod CM12 (Android 5.0.2 [Lollipop]) for the Nexus 4.  It's stable and relatively bug free.

In CM 11, I could use Privacy Guard to turn off some of the Google annoyances.  But so far in CM12, blocking location reporting to the Play store, or disabling even the smallest privilege to Play Services causes it to force-close uncontrollably.

I'm just getting tired of the Play store and Play Services waking my phone literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TIMES.  The same with my location.  There is absolutely no reason for the Play Store to query my exact location on the planet HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TIMES.  I'm not exaggerating.  This is not hyperbole.  That's how close of an eye Google is keeping on you.

So I'm doing something about it.

I switched from:
Browser: Chrome to Firefox
App Store: Play to Amazon and F-Droid
Email: Gmail app to IMAP email app
Maps: Google Maps to Sideloaded Google Maps (not attached to my Google account)
Messaging: Hangouts to built in Messaging app
Calendar: Google Calendar to GooCal (a few bucks from the Amazon App Store)
Contacts: Google Contacts to vCard export (my contacts change little enough to not be synced)

As you can see, I'm still using Google services.  I haven't cut that cord and probably won't.

But I'm probably less monitizable and trackable.

The biggest thing I'm going to miss (in order of pining):

• Chrome Remote Desktop
• Hangouts
• Google Maps linked to my account
• Google Music
• Google Keep
• Probably some other stuff that hasn't come up yet

These Google apps run fine without Google Play Services (albeit without account integration)

• Chrome
• Google Maps
• Nest (no Google account necessary)

I can always run some of the stuff I miss in a browser anyway.  Also, I'll probably start leaning on Microsoft services more since they've (finally) got their act together in a good way.  We'll see how long I last, and if I go back.

Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center is a mystical mysterious mystery.  It barely exists.  It's hiding, laying in wait on all Windows 7 computers.

All you need is:

• A reasonable, used even, quad core PC
• 4 Gig of RAM minimum
• 1 TB of disc minimum
• 1 TV tuner minimum, official support for 4
• 1 Antenna, higher in the air the better
• Some type of remote

You'll also need a bunch of wires, depending on your setup

• VGA or HDMI to your HDTV
• Audio if necessary
• Coax for the antenna, preferably RG6 for less signal loss
• Network cables

All this stuff may cost a couple hundred dollars if you're starting from scratch.  But how much to you pay for cable per month?  Though lots more people have dropped cable.  It's fun in any event.  Does take some maintenance, but it runs WAY better for watching live or recorded TV than any third party program I've ever used.

The software setup can be a little tricky, but that's for another day.