Jun 13 2012

T-Mobile SGS2 ICS update via Kies successful

Yesterday, I ran into a few problems when trying to update my SGS2 (SGH-T989) to Android 4.0.3 ICS. The problems were indeed related to having Window$ installed in a virtual machine. Both Windows 7 and Windows XP exhibited problems, though different ones, respectively. Today at work, I used my laptop (which has Windows 7 as the host OS) to install the updates via Samsung’s Kies application, and it went through without any major issues. The only problem that I had was that my work’s firewall wouldn’t allow for the download of the firmware. Luckily, I just used another phone as a mobile hotspot, and the upgrade was successful!

After I gave the problems of last evening some thought, it occurred to me that they were likely caused by the USB passthrough functionality of the Type II hypervisor. The operation could have required special privileges in terms of direct USB access on the host machine. As such, the sandboxed environment would likely reject such requests. However, it would have been nice for VirtualBox to have logged some type of error. However, I would imagine that the problem I experienced with the firmware upgrade is similar in nature to 1) not being able to directly access a GPU from within a guest OS, and 2) not being able to burn an audio CD from within a guest OS. Maybe one day these two operations will work, but until then, at least my SGS2 is running ICS.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich ICS

As for ICS, I do like it compared to Gingerbread, but I still don’t like the Samsung proprietary skin of TouchWiz (although it is better than HTC’s mess that is Sense UI). I greatly prefer AOSP ROMs, and especially CyanogenMod (although there is likely a personal bias involved). I’m sure that we’ll have CM9 sometime in the future; at least a completely functional “unofficial” port. Until then, I haven’t found an AOSP ROM of which I’m particularly fond, so the Samsung official 4.0.3 shall do. 🙂

Cheers,
Zach

Jun 12 2012

T-Mobile US Samsung Galaxy SII (SGS2 SGH-T989) update to Android 4.0.3 ICS

T-Mobile of the United States announced on their support blog yesterday that owners of the T-Mobile variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II (SGS2, or model SGH-T989) would now be able to update their phones from Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) to Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich [ICS]) via the Samsung Kies application. Interestingly, the update to ICS is only available through the manual installation method through Kies, and will not be sent out OTA (over-the-air).

Since I don’t have any computers that run Windows or Mac OS, I had to fire up a virtual machine in order to install the Samsung Kies application. Other than the download being a bit on the slow side (probably due to Samsung’s download servers being overloaded) and the typical Samsung bloatware, the Kies installation went smoothly inside of a Windows XP SP3 VM. Thereafter, I simply had to enable USB Debugging in the settings menu, connect the phone via USB, and enable USB passthrough in the XP VM. Of course, I had to reboot the VM in order for the application to function properly, as is the case with most Windoze programmes.

I’m not sure if it was related to having Kies installed inside of a VM, but I had to minimise the main Kies application window immediately after starting the programme. If I didn’t do so, the firmware upgrade screens were behind the main application window, and none of the options could be selected. Further, once the process started, the progress window glitched and didn’t display any status updates. After that glitch, the firmware transfer simply halted. At that point, I decided to try the upgrade in a Windows 7 VM. The application installed successfully, and didn’t have the visual glitches that were seen in the XP VM, but I couldn’t get the drivers to function properly in Windows 7, so no go there either.

So much for upgrading to ICS a little bit early… at least from within a VM. Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow on my work laptop, which unfortunately has Windows 7 as the primary OS.

Cheers,
Zach

Jun 11 2012

Introduction to Wine, part I: looking, smelling, and tasting

Last Thursday (07 June 2012), I went to my first wine class. The class was entitled “From Vine to Wine: Wine 101,” and was held at Wine Authorities in Durham, NC. Though I have enjoyed wine for several years, I have just recently started researching various aspects thereof–different varietals, regions, and so on. There was a lot of information presented in this two-hour class, and I plan on sharing some of the key points over the next couple weeks.

In this first post, I’m going to share some information regarding a method for tasting (or sampling) a wine that will allow you to get the most of out the experience. The process can be broken down into three stages: looking, smelling, and tasting. Though they are separate processes, the culmination of the three will result in something greater than any of the three individually; they will combine to bring about your overall experience of the wine.

Looking:

The first stage involves visually examining the wine in the glass. There are two parts to this process. The first is to simply tilt the glass to the side, which allows the wine to spread across a greater surface area within the glass. The main area of investigation is the colour of the wine. There will generally be a concentrated colour in the centre, with a more faded derivative toward the edges. The difference between those two colours can be minimal or stark. The colour of the wine will tell you a bit about its age, in that wines get darker with time. Therefore, if it is a darker hue, it is likely an older wine. The colour will also tell you a bit about the grape(s) used, and the corresponding varietal. For instance, pinot noirs tend to be more ruby-coloured, while cabernets show more purple tones. For whites, lighter ones tend to be brighter and more crisp (indicating a slightly higher acidity), while darker ones may have a more buttery, mellow taste.

Tilt the glass to examine the colour of the wine

The second part of the “looking” stage is to swirl the wine around in the glass. You want to make a circular pattern with the glass, and provided that it wasn’t overly full, it should swish around the sides of the glass without coming over the top. Not only does this process help aerate the wine, which is necessary for the “smelling stage,” but it also allows the wine to leave “legs” or “tears” down the side of the glass:

Wine legs or tears on glass

These legs essentially tell you two important things about the wine:

  • The alcohol content
  • The sugar content

Thicker legs indicate a higher viscosity (resistance to flow), and thus, a higher alcohol and lower sugar content. This can also be seen in the number of legs or tears that appear. Again, the higher the number, the more alcohol.

Smelling:

As the sense of taste is highly reliant on the olfactory sensations (the sense of smell), it is very important to take in the aromas of the wine before tasting. To do so, swirl the wine just as you did during the “Looking” stage. This time, though, stick your nose well into the glass, and breath in deeply. Do this two or three times in order to pick up on the nuances of the aroma. If you stop being able to distinguish the scents, smell something entirely different (such as coffee beans, or [more readily available] the sleeve of your shirt).

Dr. Ann Noble came up with a categorisation system for the aromas (and corresponding flavours) that are generally present in wines, and has made it available in her Aroma Wheel. Some of the major aromas are floral, spicy, fruity, nutty, earthy, and woody.

Tasting:

Ah, the stage you’ve been waiting for, right? Now that you have visually examined the wine, and taken in all of its aromas, it is time to taste. There are two steps to fully tasting the wine, and both of them help you experience all of the flavour complexities of the wine. Firstly, you need to take a sip and vigorously swish the wine around your cheeks and to the back of your tongue. As your tongue has receptors that are more or less sensitive to certain tastes, you swish so that the wine comes in contact with as many of them as possible. Secondly, you need to swallow the wine and immediately breathe out of your nose. Doing so will allow you to truly taste the wine in its entirety. Breathing out through your nose heightens the back taste, which is commonly known as “the finish,” and is the part of the taste that is generally used to judge the overall quality of the wine.

These three stages and multiple steps may seem like a lot to do just to sample a wine, but after you have done so a few times, they come naturally. Further, and more importantly, they allow you to fully take in everything that a particular wine has to offer. It seems obvious, but if you don’t like the wine during the tasting, why would you ever want to drink a full glass of it?

Cheers,
Zach