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Archive for October, 2009
Oz Road Trip 09 – Day 4 – 30.08.09 – ALICE SPRINGS & ULURU
Oct 31st
30km to go to Alice, so we were pretty excited. We almost reached the biggest goal on this trip: the Uluru (also known as Ayers rock). Well at least we thought we were pretty close. After passing Alice (nothing exciting there, really) we still had a couple of hundred kilometers to go. Eventually we arrived at the Uluru ressort, where we planned to stay for one night. We were early enough to have a look around before heading off to the sunset viewing area at the Uluru. The park was only about10km from the Uluru away, so there was no need to rush. So here are the pictures of the Uluru:
Laura is excited about Uluru and wants to take it home...
...so I tried to squeeze it...
...but that didn't work. So I had to carry it home.
Luckily, I was to lazy to carry it. So it was still there for sunrise.
Well to be honest I have to say, that the Uluru is not as impressive as I expected. This is mainly because of the following reasons:
1) Everyone in Australia tells you about it. How big it is. How nice it is. How different it looks depending on daytime. How amazing the feeling is to actually see it. How different it looks from every angle. All nice and good, but people just overstate a lot. After all it’s just a massive rock.
2) You’ve seen it so many times. On magazines, postcards, pictures of friends, on the internet, on book covers, in books, in the newspaper, on shirts. It’s just everywhere. So when you actually stand there and see it, it looks just like you already knew. No different at all.
But anyhow, we saw it, and we could drive on 
Oz Road Trip 09 – Day 3 – 30.08.09 – DALY WATERS & DEVILS MARBLES
Oct 21st
Off to day 3! Actually we thought about leaving the camping site we stayed over night without paying. But as we were just about to leave, the park ranger came along and asked for the money…damn! 
Anyhow, our aim for today was to get to Alice Springs! But first we wanted to stop at the famous Daly Waters pub. So off we were to explore the very special Australian outback pub culture. Yes, it’s kinda strange. They have nothing in the outback. Just endless spaces full of gum trees and … nothing. But then out of nowhere there is a pub. And even funnier there are people in the pub drinking (this fact does not correlate to the time of the day). Daly Waters is specially famous as a good example of such an outback pub, full of stuff. And I really mean stuff. They have everything there, starting from id’s over money to thongs (german: flip-flops) and bra’s of people who visited once and left something behind. Just have a look yourself:
IDs at Daly Waters pub
Money hanging off the walls at Daly Waters pub
They even had an original DDR numberplate there.
Original DDR numberplate at Daly Water pub
After we had seen enough of Australian outback pub culture, we drove on to Alice. On our way we passed a sign telling us that we were close to the so called “Devils Marbles”. We never heard of them, but decided to stop, as we were a little bit tired anyway. And what a good decision this was! These are big round rocks looking like marbles, standing just there as if the devil himself put them there to play with. I wonder though why they are named “Devils Marbles” . Some of them were stacked up high and I climbed on some of them. From up there the view was even better, as you could see how many of those marbles there actually were. For those who are interested how they were created, have a look here.
One of the Devils Marbles
Laura also enjoyed the view, standing on top of one of the marbles:
Laura looking over the marbles
And after this nice stopover we drove on to Alice and almost reached it. We stopped at a parking spot 30km before Alice and set up our van for the night.
How to update the G1 (developer version) firmware from 1.5 to 1.6 and new features
Oct 20th
If you want to update your firmware from version 1.5 to version 1.6 you can basically follow the instructions below. Of course you will need the update files to follow the instructions.
- To get the needed update files you can go to this official HTC site. But as that one seems to have some issues, you can alternatively go to here and download the 2 needed files. (Files are: ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip and signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip )
- Rename the “ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip” to “update.zip”
- Plug your G1 into your computer and mount as a USB mass storage device using your USB cable
- Copy the “update.zip” onto your SD card in your G1
- Unmount the USB mass storage device and than disconnect the phone
- Shut off the G1
- Start up the G1 by pressing the “home” and the “power on/off” button at the same time (and hold) until a triangle with a “!” appears
- Flip the keyboard and press “ALT” and “l” (lower case “L”)
- A screen appears with a menu
- Press “Alt” and “s” to apply the “update.zip” on the SD card
- If the installation is finished (it tells you when), press the “home” and the “back” button and release them again to reboot the system
- If the system has rebooted, mount the device as USB mass storage device again, by using your USB cable
- Delete the update.zip from your G1 SD card
- Rename the “signed-dream_devphone-ota-14721.zip” to “update.zip” and copy this onto your SD card
- Unmount your USB mass storage device and disconnect the G1 from your computer
- Power off the G1 by pressing the “power on/off” button
- Start up by pressing the “home” and the “power on/off” button at the same time (and hold) until a triangle with a “!” appears
- Flip the keyboard and press “Alt” and “l” (lower case “L”)
- A screen appears with a menu
- Press “Alt” and “s” to apply the “update.zip” on the SD card
- If the installation is finished (it tells you when), press the “home” and the “back” button and release them again to reboot the system
I did update my own phone this morning and everything seems to be fine. The new features of android 1.6 are (from here):
New User Features
Quick Search Box for Android
Android 1.6 includes a redesigned search framework that provides a quick, effective, and consistent way for users to search across multiple sources—such as browser bookmarks & history, contacts, and the web—directly from the home screen.
The system constantly learns which search results are more relevant based on what is clicked. So popular contacts or apps that have previously been picked will bubble up to the top when a user types the first few letters of a relevant query.
The search framework also provides developers a way to easily expose relevant content from their applications in Quick Search Box.
Camera, Camcorder, and Gallery
An updated user interface provides an integrated camera, camcorder, and gallery experience. Users can quickly toggle between still and video capture modes. Additionally, the gallery enables users to select multiple photos for deletion.
Android 1.6 also provides a much faster camera experience. Compared to the previous release, launching the camera is now 39% faster, and there is a 28% improvement in the time from completing one shot to the next.
VPN, 802.1x
A new Virtual Private Network (VPN) control panel in Settings allows users to configure and connect to the following types of VPNs:
- L2TP/IPSEC pre-shared key based VPN
- L2TP/IPsec certificate based VPN
- L2TP only VPN
- PPTP only VPN
Battery usage indicator
A new battery usage screen lets users see which apps and services are consuming battery power. If the user determines that a particular service or application is using too much power, they can take action to save the battery by adjusting settings, stopping the application, or uninstalling the application.
Accessibility
Users will be able to download new accessibility services built on the new accessibility framework and enable them in Settings.
Android Market Updates
For devices with Android Market, the latest version improves the overall user experience and makes it easier for users to discover great apps and games from developers.
- At the homescreen, users can choose among Apps, Games, and Downloads.
- Inside a category, users can explore titles that are Top paid, Top free, and Just in.
- For each title, users can now see screenshots submitted by developers in addition to reviews from other users.
New Platform Technologies
Expanded Search Framework
The Android search framework has been redesigned and expanded to provide third-party applications the opportunity to surface content from their applications in Quick Search Box, the global search tool. To do this, developers will need to make their app “searchable” and provide suggestions in response to user queries. To enable application search suggestions, users simply select each application from which they’d like to receive suggestions, under Searchable items in the Search settings.
Text-to-speech engine
Android 1.6 features a multi-lingual speech synthesis engine called Pico. It allows any Android application to “speak” a string of text with an accent that matches the language. The engine supports the following languages: English (American and British accents), French, Italian, German and Spanish. If you’re using a T-Mobile G1 or Dream device, you’ll need to download the SpeechSynthesis Data Installer from Android Market, which includes the “voices” needed by the text-to-speech engine.
Gestures
A new gestures framework provides application developers with a framework for creating, storing, loading, and recognizing gestures and associating them with specific actions.
Developers can use the new GestureBuilder tool included in the Android 1.6 SDK to generate libraries of gestures to include with their application.
Accessibility
Android 1.6 provides a new accessibility framework. With this framework, developers can create accessibility plugins that respond to user input, such as making a sound when a new window is shown, vibrating when navigating to the top of a list, and providing spoken feedback.
Expanded support for screen densities and resolutions
Android 1.6 adds screen support that enables applications to be rendered properly on different display resolutions and densities. Developers can also specify the types of screens supported by their application.
Telephony support for CDMA
Android 1.6 includes support for CDMA in the telephony stack.
New version of OpenCore
Android 1.6 includes the updated OpenCore 2 media engine, which has:
- Support for OpenMAX encoders
- Support for additional audio codecs in AuthorEngine
- Improved buffering model supports shared buffers allocated in the decoder
2.6.29 Linux kernel
Android 1.6 upgrades the Linux kernel from 2.6.27 to 2.6.29.
Oz Road Trip 09 – Day 2 – 29.08.09 – KATHERINE GORGE & MATARANKA HOTSPRINGS
Oct 14th
After having a good sleep in the van, we got up very early, to be one of the first people on the water: Our plan was to hire a canoe and paddle along the Katherine Gorge. For those who don’t know how the gorge looks like, check this out:
Katherine Gorge
Awesome, isn’t it?
Before we hopped into the canoe the instructor told us we were allowed to stop everywhere and jump into the water or onto the land, except where they had signs. The signs basically told every curious tourist that there are some crocs breeding and they may be aggressive if people come to close. Well, to be honest I thought “whatever…” and thought about going on land there. But after only 10 minutes on the water, we saw a 2 meter crocodile swimming right next to us. Not 10 meters away, or 5, or 2. It was just RIGHT next to us, maybe half a meter. I could have reached if I had tried. While Laura and I were fascinated and shocked at the same time, the croc didn’t really bother. So luckily we escaped without being harmed and ew could jump into the water a couple of hundred meters further down the gorge, to cool down. This place was just so amazing. We climbed up the rocks, jumped into the water and swam around. Soo relaxing.
But anyhow, we had to move on, so after half a day canoeing, we drove further down to Mataranka, which is famous for it’s hot springs. As we arrived we directly jumped into the warm water and had a swim. After jumping in, you don’t realise how warm the water actually is.
Mataranka Hot Springs
But I had a swim a bit further down in a river. In here you could feel the warm, or even hot water from the spring floating into the in comparison ice cold water of the river. It was quiet nice, but there were croc warning signs everywhere. This, the fact you couldn’t really see the riversides, and the croc experience earlier this day, made it clear to me that I had to get out of the water as soon as possible.
After this experience we just drove a few kilometers up the road and stopped on another camping spot to rest for the next day.
Oz Road Trip 09 – Day 1 – 28.08.09 – DARWIN & KATHERINE
Oct 13th
Today was the big day. We finally were able to convert our planning the last few days (or even weeks?) before into action. We took a Taxi to get to the camper van rental company and were so keen on getting our little baby. Of course to get this, we had to fill out heaps of paperwork. After watching a 10 minute DVD that explained us, how to open the door of the camper van, how to use the steering wheel and how to cook we were given the keys! One final inspection and off we were. Of course we had to fill the esky, so we first went shopping before we drove off to my workplace to say goodbye to everyone for the next 4 weeks. After all we were ready:
Ready to go
So we headed off to our first goal: Katherine. After driving more than 300km we found out, that it was a bigger goal than we thought – we were already running out on fuel! On the first day. Luckily we managed to reach the first fuel station in Katherine. With nothing to offer for Tourists we decided to keep on driving to the Nitmiluk National Park where we planned to stay over night. The reception was already closed so we just drove onto the campground and looked for a nice spot to stay. We did not only see some Cane Toads, but also our first wild wallaby:
First wild wallaby
After taking those pictures we went to bed, tired, but happy to be on our way! We had big plans for the next day…
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