Idea - GPS Enabled Gun Safety Lock

So I haven't posted any of my thoughts on the recent shooting at Sandy Hook or any of my thoughts on Gun Control as of yet. Mostly because I am tired of seeing rows and rows of posts on Facebook that only make a statement or complaint, no real proposed solutions that weren't going completely over the left wall or the right wall. It even looks as though people are afraid the Government will try to use this to take away our weapons. So I set out on a thought experiment that would allow us our rights to bear arms, while allowing us the ability to track and disable weapons if a situation arises, so this is one of the solutions I came up with, GPS enabled electronic safety lock for guns.



In this experiment, we were given a good period of time to replace most weapons on the market with ones that included an electronic safety lock. The way this works is by pushing the button, and waiting till it turns red, then you can shoot.

The Logic:
When the button is pressed, the unit sends a unique identifier and GPS coordinates through GPRS, and awaits a simple confirm or deny message. this can happen as quickly as it takes to check the time on your cellphone, so 1-2 seconds.

In some locations, the weapon would be automatically given a denied response if your weapons identifier is not authorized for that area, like Government buildings, schools, malls, etc. Other places would be given an automatic confirmation, like rural areas during hunting season, or shooting ranges, etc. The point is to allow as much freedom with your weapons as possible, but allow the ability to provide a kill-switch if needed.

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How-To - Using Joomla to build mobile Web Apps.

This rough How-To will go through using Joomla to build a simple mobile Web App.

You will need a few things first:

• Joomla 2.5 or 3.0+ - http://www.joomla.org/
• Add2home plugin for Joomla - http://download.waltercedric.com/downloads/joomla/917-apple.html
• A good responsive template. I used the YooTheme Warp Framework with the Yoo_master template for this one - http://www.yootheme.com/themes/warp-framework
• The MobileJoomla framework or one like it, this one is free at least and only used in this case to load a different template on Mobile devices. - http://www.mobilejoomla.com/

Start off by reading the setup instructs for the YooTheme Warp framework, and set up your pages accordingly. I will sometimes make it so the content of the page doesn't go down too far on the first screen, this will give the users an overall good first impression on a mobile device. Once that is complete, we will set it as the default template. With this design, it automatically detects screen size, but if your client wants a different design for Desktop users, then you can use the MobileJoomla plugin and component to assign a different template to mobile devices. 

Next we will have to download the Add2Home plugin, but don't install it right away. Once you download it, navigate to your download directory and extract the file into a folder. then navigate into the plugin folder, and change the photos there (Unless you absolutely love the ones the developer uses)

Once we are done editing and replacing the graphics, we will then re-archive the files back into a .zip and then we will add the Add2Home plugin to your Joomla extensions. Once it is installed, Just make sure you enable it.

Then it's time to start testing it out and making sure all the content is in the right places. Have fun with it and make it yours :)

Till next time!!

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Projects - Star Crane Mobile site design

Did some more work on the mobile app for Star Crane today. I was able to get it to finally show the Add to Home Screen pop up for mobile phones and tablets, and I also added a custom Icon and Start Screen for the web app too.

I wasn't happy with the menu design I was using to start with on this, so I decided to use the native UI controls so that it will appear smoothly on all mobile devices. I have some messing around to do in order to get the slides how's to show up right on the mobile side as well, but the good part of making the entire mobile app just a themed wrapper for the website makes upkeep on the app almost completely automated.

I like the direction this is moving, so I think I will keep it like this unless the client doesn't like it, then I may be able to change what they need, but for usability across the board, this is the way I feel it best presents it's self.

 

 

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On to other things - new site design

So I have been working on a new project recently, and this one was a two part project. The first part was making sure that their current site has a working contact form. and the second part is redesigning a new look and feel on top of a Joomla site, so that they can expand in the future with components like an online storefront, or deeply integrate a social marketing campaign into their website.

I took a peek at their current site, and found out that the issues were with the current request mail form, which mind you is written in .PHP, which I kinda hate. I was able to fix the issue though, and got it working perfectly. I know its working perfectly, because the client is now getting SPAMBOT requests :) Too Funny!! But I have them covered already, because the first thing I implemented into the new request form on their new site was a ReCaptcha security method. This should stop the spam from coming through.

I then took my time and started working on a nice responsive theme, but wanted to keep it looking like it was more for their Corporate Office vs a large crane shop. I remade their logo based on some of the feedback they gave me and then used the main colors of their logo and equipment for the highlights of the site. I also used a simple menu system that will adjust to smaller mobile screens and provide a mobile dropdown menu in those cases. Overall, the site is pretty solid so far, with no real issues other than having to rebuild Apache with multibyte strings enabled.

My next stage of this process is to dismantle the site and modules I have now, and rebuild it with a darker, more progressive theme, and after that, another lighter theme, so once they choose from one of those, I will put it all back together with the look and feel of their choice, and then it goes live. I gave the client a timeframe of two months for the project, but the pace I am working, it may only take me three to four weeks, so that's a good thing ;)

Till next time, enjoy your adventures!

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Until then, this is Untitled

I have spent the past days trying to think of a good blog post, and nothing cool came to mind at all. I went through tech projects, art projects, and even an invention or two, nothing! But then I remembered what an awesome week I have had so far, not much to complain about at all.

I started work on a new clients site, got that first down payment, then I also received a check from a back owed client, so that was nice too, not much, but together I was able to pay a little towards rent and pick up one gift each for the kids. This year we picked a gift that has the potential to offer gaming, learning, and communication... but that will end up becoming a whole other post on it's own.

The wife cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal by herself this year, and I didn't even realize till the next day that I didn't have a single complaint about it, it turned out pretty awesome! (That, and I didn't have anything to do with it this year), just awesome! There were also an assortment of baked goodies too, from Pumpkin pie, to some kind of Spice Cake and even cookies. She went all out this year and it turned out awesome.

My mother came over, and we spent plenty of time playing games and socializing. There was even a spy game in there I think, found the to-do list from my little spy... Just not sure why finding Willow is so far down the list :) Overall, it was a good week spent with the family, so there are never any complaints about that. I did plenty of art and even some music in between. I'll update my post later with a live recording of a song I'm working on.

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Forced downtime... again

I have been busy lately, so please forgive me for the lack of posts recently. For starters, I have almost no work on the table, three projects in limbo, just waiting for a green light, and a tiny trickle of gas and cigarette money coming from one web client. So I have a bit of downtime. This doesn't mean that I haven't been bust cold calling businesses or answering requests for websites and graphics work off the web though, I keep myself pretty busy, just in things that don't generate immediate income.

I started taking out some time to make some animated backgrounds for my Church's projectors during the songs. Some... less psychedelic ones perhaps ;) Here is a playlist of a good portion of the animations. I am willing to donate high resolution animations for any religious organization that may want it, otherwise, I think I will ask for a donation.



I also got a little flame under my butt on music too, trying to make a couple new songs and a couple remixes of things I hear here and there. Here is a little taste of one song I'm working on recently:


As usual, I'm always up to something, so keep posted for updates on what I'm up to next.

Thanks ;)

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APPS: The Adventures of making a showcase app for Windows 8 UI

Yesterday, I woke up knowing I would do something I have never done before, but not quite knowing what it might be. I started off the day, took the kids to school, and came home and cleaned up a little with Willow (More like, I cleaned, and she played the defensive linebacker role), so after she fell asleep, I climbed onto the computer and made up a quick and dirty mobile app for my church: Frontline Community It's still not done, but I at least got the basics in there, and can do a little of styling in Visual Studio now. 

Then I decided to take it a step further, and see what I can do to make a Windows 8 app. I put the basics into Joshfire Factory, and deployed it as a Visual Studio project. Opened it and instantly found that it didn't work. That's fine, I thought, I love a good challenge, so I was off looking to see if I can figure out why it didn't work. I found that much of the issues with the project were because it was using the old version of WinJS. I corrected every line that pointed to the old WinJS, and updated them to point to the location of the new version. I rebuilt and then clicked Run. 

Almost... There were a couple of issues still, like when viewing a section or page, and going back, you get the same content loaded behind the items on each section. Well that sux! 

So I dug a little deeper, and found out that it was not checking to see if the content was already loaded when it went back to the home screen, since I'm still a novice at this, I felt a simple CLEAR statement on load will do (I'm not too sure how to do a conditional statement just yet). That did the trick :)

Now all I have to do for it is fix the picture container when it loads the pictures from their sources, and also fix the YouTube stream from trying to use an ActiveX component... (Not even available, cant see why it defaults to it) and I'll be all set. At least I got somewhere in my ventures though, even though it is not 100% working, it is better than anything I've done with the OS thus far. (Minus a couple found registry tweaks :0)

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IDEA: Bluetooth Tape Reciever

 

 

I have been toying with this idea for only a short period of time, the idea started with a want to get my iPhone to play music to my old school stereo, without having to leave it plugged in next to the stereo. So I thought of a unique way to make that happen using elements that already exist, so the cost is lower than it normally would be.

 

The unit is made up of a Bluetooth radio, Processor/DSP, a magnetic tape head, button, batteries and a generator. When the unit is in use, the play action of the tape player will charge the batteries and run the device. When the tape player is not running, the unit will only power the Bluetooth radio to allow for connection or reset.

Overall, its a simple design, and I haven't seen anything like it on the market as of yet, but who knows, it may already be out there somewhere. On the event it has not been produced yet, I am considering this as a Kickstarter project, so if you think its a good idea, let me know in the comments.

 

 



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Proposed solution for the FTC's latest contest.

So the FTC is now offering a reward to the person offering a way to stop telemarketing or robot calls. This may prove to be a bit difficult, but it can be done and I wish I had the funds to work on this. Since I don't though, here is what I'm thinking.

What they would need is not to monitor the content of calls, but the pattern that calls are made. If calls are made in a timed pattern of more than three or four in a row, then we take that number and block all outgoing calls until they can answer a simple spoken word or a math problem over the phone to restore service. This would resemble a system close to the one we use for social networking or chat systems that use a Captcha model to deter bots.

The only way a telemarketing robot could get around this would be to use a new outgoing number after making the max amount of calls per number. Using a triangulation or location based system to detect location, would also help this from happening, because if two or more numbers are found from the same location repeating the same call patterns, it's a bot.

It's a good start at least, and its a solution based on software and not hardware, so there is no need to upgrade existing equipment in order for it to work.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, Thanks.

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Quick and dirty UFO timeline

Here is a quick and dirty UFO sightings timeline I made for Tablets and Laptops/PC's. You can view it HERE

If you are interested in making your own, Head out to joshfire ( http://factory.joshfire.com/)

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Giving a webapp a try

Today I set out to make a web app. One that will pull a lot of the different media I have to offer online and present it all to the user in an easy to digest manner. Well, I have something along those lines, but not quite the experience I was rooting for at first. You can check out the latest version of my web app HERE. I will also be working on a Windows 8 app, just as soon as I figure out a couple things first.

If you are interested in making your own, Head out to joshfire ( http://factory.joshfire.com/)

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Revamping The Resume - Part 2 - Virtual Resume

One morning I was browsing my normal news sources when I came across Lifehacker's article about making a static resume and putting it on the web. I took that and ran with it over the last month in my spare time and came out with a good representation of my coding skills so far. Mix that with my Design abilities and I think I may have one of the key items I've been missing as a businessperson all along.

The site is 100% static HTML5 (CSS & JS) so it will run on 90% of the modern browsers out there. It uses a few types of animation too. One for the foreground and one for the background (which moves when the mouse moves, all 3D like). This is just version 1 of it so far, so I might have to revamp it a couple of times before I'm happy with it.

This is a link to my revamped resume jonwest.site44.com (mirror)

I plan on updating that as regularly as I remember, so leave a comment if you have any thoughts :)

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Fun with code: GPS tracking on the cheap

I have set out to learn a bit more about the Google Maps API and how to easily impliment a custom map into Joomla. After looking around quite a bit, I was not able to find anything I could use. What the client wanted was a simple map view showing where his drivers were. The thing about this though, is that they did not want to spend too much $$ on new equipment or GPS fleet tracking software, and he only wanted something simple.

After hours and hours of research and testing, I have found what I think to be the easiest way to impliment multiple KML layers into a single map and I will share my findings with you all too ;) You will need a few things first though, so open up a new browser tab and go install Google Earth if you haven't already. Once you have that, we are ready to get started.

Start by opening up the Google Latitude page, and sign up for a new Google ID per vehicle, biker, etc you want to track, and in Latitude, go ahead and set up a location. Click Privacy Settings, and set that to Detect Your Location. Then tap on the gear in the upper right.

Once you click the gear, choose Advanced Settings. This will open a new screen showing widget embeding options. At the bottom of that page, you will see a Developer Informaion link, click it. and select the KML link.

Now we will go into Google Earth and add that link. Across the top, go to Add, and then Network Link.


Then fill out the info for your location and on the Refresh tab, you can set up your refresh options for the location. It should look something like the dialog here.

Next we want to open a normal Google Maps page, and we will set up our route here. Enter in all the stops on the route, and when done, click Get Directions.

Once finished there, scroll down to the bottom of that left hand colum, and select the Save to My Maps link. Once that opens up, make sure you click the KML link, and save it to your computer somewhere.

We will then open up Google Earth, and open the saved KML file. This will show up in your Map view after imported. Repeat the process how ever many times you need to for trackers and routes, then save the setup as a new KML file by right clicking on the main group, and selecting Save Place As. Then upload the KML file to your server.

Once you have the KML file saved on your server, you will have to create a page to load and show it. Many of the solutions I found online needed a PHP file and an HTML file to function, well I found an easier way for this with just a simple HTML file.

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>

<title>Maps Example for loading a single KML file, or multiple KML files. </title>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {

initialize() ;

});

function initialize() {

  var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(42.97112, -85.679208);

  var myOptions = { zoom: 14, center: myLatlng, mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.TERRAIN}

  var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), myOptions);

  //Route1 Info

  var georssLayerR1 = new google.maps.KmlLayer('http://yourwebsite.com/maps/routes.kml', {preserveViewport: true});

  georssLayerR1.setMap(map);

}

</script>

<body>

  <div id="map_canvas" style="width:100%;height:500px"></div>

</body>

</html>

Once you have this set up, save the HTML file on your server, and you can load it in Joomla by making a simple Wrapper Widget, and setting the URL of the widget to be your saved HTML file.

That's about it for this lesson, if I missed anything, let me know ;)

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How to avoid the iOS 6 update wiping all your contacts

I'm back again with another helpful hint for updating to iOS 6. In some cases, the iOS 6 update is erasing all the contacts off the iCloud account, and that is never a good thing to have happen, so I have a nice and simple solution for this just as a precaution.

The only thing you will need for this solution is a Gmail account. Once you have that set up, we will need to get out your iOS device and go to Settings>Mail, Contacts & Calendars> and Add New. Set it up as an Exchange account, and use m.google.com as the server. Make sure you also use your full gmail address as the login/account too. When it confirms connectivity, just select Contacts, and whatever else you dont have syncing already.

Next we want to give it time to sync all your contacts to Google's servers, after that, you will want to go to Settings>iCloud> and make sure it is turned on, everything is selected, and you have a recent backup. If you dont, do it now, and walk away for an hour.

Once done, you are all safe to Restore and Update your iOS Device. If something goes wrong with the update, and all your iCloud contacts are wiped, you have Google's exchange set up already syncing them anyway. (Personally, I turn off iCloud Contact Sync because it has a tendency to double my contacts randomly) Just make sure once the update is done, you select Restore from iCloud and you will be all set ;)

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How to get Google Maps back on iOS 6 (sorta)

Since iOS 6 has dropped, the main complaint I am seeing so far deals with the lack of Google Maps and the replacement with Apple's own brew of maps. But the accuracy and inclusion of metro areas has been a bit buggy in some areas, so I'm going to show you how to get a form of Google Maps back on the device.

This is a super simple and easy trick to get a shortcut to googles maps services onto your homescreen. Start off by opening Safari, and in the address bar, type "maps.google.com", Googles server will redirect you to their mobile maps, and then from there, all you have to do is tap the share icon, and then tap on "Add to Home Screen", (It might even prompt you if you're lucky). That's it! Now you can navigate all areas that Apple Maps won't let you.

Drop me a commen or share if this helped you out at all ;)

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A basic iOS 6 heads up

Today is the day, and as most of us Apple users get ready for the release of iOS 6, I thought I'd take the time to cover a few basics. 

1. It will be available OTA. Over the years, those poor Apple Tech Support people have been sent out to the slaughter on days like today, all because the majority of iOS users all still use their computers to backup and restore, Hardly any of you still have iCloud set up for backing up your device. Please do yourself a favor before updating, Make sure you have iCloud set up and that you have a recent backup in the past couple days, if you don't... DO IT NOW!!!! Then save you and those Apple Technicians some time and headaches by going to Settings > General > Software Update > and check for your update there (WiFi Needed).
2. If you don't have WiFi, you’ll need iTunes 10.7. Apple released the next version of iTunes a little bit ago, but if your computer is anything like my Families, the software update in iTunes did not work right. What you will likely need to do is go over to the iTunes download page and grab a fresh copy. http://www.apple.com/itunes/download and then install it on your computer. This will make sure your computer can read your iPhone after the update, and if you don't have WiFi, it will allow you to update the old fashion way. 
3. Backup, Backup, BACKUP!! The worst thing you want to have happen is you go through with all this and you then found out you never backed up your device. I suggest using iCloud for backups, but if that is not an option for you, make sure you do a backup the old fashion way through iTunes. You can force this by right clicking on your devices name in the left hand side, and selecting Backup. 
4. Delays are the name of the game when millions of people all try something at once. It's best to just be patient, and keep trying if the update fails. Try, try again until it finishes, but don't interrupt the process, this can cause damage to your device. Just ride it out, and if it gives an error, start over.
5. You are going to want at least half power to start the process. A good rule of thumb is to charge your iOS device to at least 30% before starting an update. I say 50%, because you never know what can go wrong, and its a bad thing to loose power half way through an update. You might have to learn hot to enter DFU mode as a weekend project if that happens. 
6. Some of your apps might have bugs after the update. Just exercise caution here, not all app developers have gotten their app caught up to iOS 6 compatibility, but they are likely to get there eventually. If you come across any of these apps, just try not to use them until you notice an update from the App Store for them. 
7. Apple being vague? Never!! They just don't mention the release time. In the past couple years, Apple has released the update at 1:00 EST (10:00 PST) , so it's a good bet that it will happen today around this time. If you haven't received your update by this evening, it likely means you have a firewall issue, or you have a DNS issue. Good luck ;)

That's about it for the iOS 6 heads up, I hope this helps a couple of you out there. 

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Alien Dubstep

Made this little cartoon a while ago, just thought I'd share ;)

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Animated Windows 8 RTM/PRO theme

So I upgraded to Windows 8 RTM today, and my first adventure on it was a simple theme. There is a nice feature to this theme though, it is animated, so the desktop background will change in hue slowly over time, allowing a smooth transition from blue to green, yellow, orange, etc. I did most of this work years ago, but adapted it for Windows 8 RTM and PRO.

You can find the theme over on Deviantart for now ;) http://electrikjesus.deviantart.com/art/ID-Animated-Win8-theme-326807125

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How to do a few things that Apple won't usually do for you

As an tech geek who owns a few Apple devices, I have come across many things that Apple support will do for you, and apparently, hackers too. But here is a list of things that you can do that Apple will NOT help you with, and instructions for how to do them.

Syncing apps to your iOS device without iTunes.
There are a few reasons that you might want to do this one, the one we are going with is that you purchased an app or album that is no longer available. If you let iTunes sync your apps and restore from iCloud, there is a good potential that after a restore, that app or album will not be there to download again. The solution for this is to A, use iFunBox or another app like it to sync, backup and restore your apps and music library. The app is free and there is no cost to use it, and as an added bonus, it will also sync all your unsupported music to your device too.

Making your iOS device play nice with your Android devices, syncing mail, notes, etc. even text messages potentially.
The key to this one is actually a company that used to play nice with Apple, but now that they are in the process of dropping Googles services, we have to prove their worth once again. Google has many services that can help with your iOS device. The two that we are going to focus on here are Google's Gmail, and Google Voice. With Gmail, iOS only gives the direct option to sync Mail and a couple others. What you need to do instead, is set up your iOS device to use the Gmail Exchange services, this will allow you to sync your contacts, notes, tasks, mail, etc. To do that, just follow the instructions from Google here: http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740 The other half of the equation is all about Google Voice, so if you have a carrier that allows, you can have all your calls and texts routed through your Google Voice account, allowing them to also be sent to other devices as well. The Google Voice app is available for both iOS and Android, and it costs nothing to route your calls through Google Voice, so you can have an account without needing to spend your hard earned cash.

Restoring a jailbroken or bricked iOS device back to stock iOS.
The key to this one is simple, DFU mode. So if you ever have an issue or you brick your iPod Touch while jailbreaking it, plug it into a computer with updated Apple Device drivers hold down both the power and the home buttons for a few seconds until the device turns black, then let go of just the power button, while continuing to hold the home button for three seconds after it goes black. If the device shows an apple, try it again, the home button must be held for three seconds on initial power up, otherwise it won't enter DFU mode correctly. The computer you have it plugged into will do the usual USB notification sound when it works, but the screen on the device will be completely black. Load up iTunes and then click the Update or Restore button. That's it.

How to reset the error log for your iOS device's Home button (sometimes making the Home button more responsive)
This is the mythical "Home Button Recalibration" trick, but all it really does is clear an error log on the device. Open any stock app on your iOS device (iTunes, AppStore, Music, Dialer, etc.) and hold the Home button, and the Power button till you see the slide to unlock page. From here, let go of the buttons, and then hold the Home button until the page closes and you see the home screen (Springboard). This will have cleared the error log for you r home button and possibly made it a bit more responsive in the process. If not, you might want to look into clearing out the  junk on your iOS device, or just restoring it and jailbreaking it again.

How to block certain phone calls and texts from getting through
This one requires a jailbroken device to do it yourself, otherwise, some carriers do offer the service for a fee. If you have a jailbroken device though, you can use the iBlacklist app available through Cydia app store. This will allow you to block calls, texts, and much more from ever bothering you. It has worked well for me.

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Idea of the day: Crowd funding government projects

I posted a simple question on Facebook this week, and it developed into a possible solution to the current economy in the US. I see many people expressing their opinions on taxes, and city/state projects that are only wanted by a few, and not the majority. This has always been an issue for us, for as long as I can remember at least. So why has this not been fixed yet. Yes, many of these ideas get voted in, and bundled with other ideas to be voted in, then we are taxed for it. But we need more power into the peoples hands for this, and less power in major corporations who can afford large sums for supporting a project.

The idea I was toying with would be cutting almost all taxes except for sales and a couple others, and then move funding for all of the government projects to an open and croud funded platform. Give the ability for Individuals to donate up to a certain amount, and disallow companies or corporations to donate, keep it on the individual level. Once a project reaches its goal for funding, all individuals who donated to get it there become shareholders, and have a say in how the company progresses. Doing this changes a couple things that I feel we need to change, it forces all public government projects to be completely transparent, and it also tips the scale of power towards the people, the individuals that actually do the work.

This solution also allows the public to get back what they put in potentially, here is an example. Let's say that Martha donates $100 towards a project for the city zoo, that project has a total of 550 donations made, and their donation amount varied up to $5000 and the total project goal was $500,000. So the shares are then split according to % donation amount. After the project is finished and starts to generate profit, the shareholders start receiving checks for their % of the shares. You see how this will go, it is a benefit for all involved.

With our current state of technology and communications, there is no real reason not to continue evolving how we fund and run government. We started off being a self governed nation, and we can get back to that state with just a little bit of work.

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Weekend Project - Android x86 on Q550 & W500

I know that when a normal person comes up with a weekend project, it is usually just one thing, like weatherproofing the deck, or fixing the steps. Not me, I tend to do things a bit differently, no only am I only taking one day of the weekend, but I am doubling up my work, by performing similar mods to two Windows 7 Tablets. This means that I am starting my Sunday off all Geek like and adding the ability to dual-boot into android or Windows 8(Which I already have on both devices).
So I spent most of Sunday working on two tablets. My Fujitsu Q550 & my Acer W500. What I had set out to do is put Android on both of them, and thanks to the Android x86 project, that process went by very smoothly.

The Fujitsu Q550 - Windows 7 Tablet

For the Q550, I started off by going to the Android x86 homepage at androidx86.org. Then go to the download page, and notice that Huang updated the downloads to RC2.  I downloaded the Tegra2 iso , it is the only one compatible with the Q559 currently. While I was waiting for that to finish, I downloaded Linux Live USB Creator, and once it was finished downloading, I used it to write the ISO to a spare USB drive I had. Then once it was done, I powered down the tablet, plugged in a USB hub, with a keyboard, mouse, and the USB drive I just made, and powered the tablet back on.

On the first screen, I selected install, and then selected the third partition of four on the Q550 (I had Win 8 on it too), then after the initial wright, I made the storage disk at 1gb. Then waited for that to finish.
Once it was all done, I was pleased to find that mostly everything works on it already. No HW acceleration, rotation, and Sleep is a little funky, but other than that, the device is far more usable than it was with Windows 7 or Windows 8. So I'm pleased. There was another issue, where it does not support the full range of WPA2 wifi encryption, so I did have to change my routers settings to connect to the internet. ARM emulation also is enabled in this build, so yipee! Here are some more pics of the Q550 in action.

On the Acer IconiaTab W500 - Windows 7 Tab.

The process was just the same, except for two things, i had to use the AMD-Brazos version of Android x86, and this device has half the storage space of my other tablet. So I had to erase an older version of Android x86 from it to make room for the new release. Once the initial install was done, I got it all set up and downloaded a few apps to test it out. I have to admit that Android is quite speedy on this machine. Its almost fast enough to allow me to type at full speed, and my using my ADHD as an enabler for faster typing, that's a good thing for a tablet. After testing out a couple games, it seems as though ARM emulation is not enabled on this build, some games keep on crashing. It could be something else, I'll have to look into the log files to make sure.

On this device, video seems to work fine, as long as I disable HD video first. So there is one sign HW accell is nit enabled. And any 3D game or app I load crashes, so that's my other sign. On the bright side, the Blogger app works great on the W500, so I think I found my new blogging format for now. The Crackle app loads, but video doesn't play, but the TV.com app works well, so I can at least veg out a little with this device. I'm sure there will be many improvements to come, but for now, I'm quite happy with Android on both of these tablets.

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