I’ve added BBS Tournament Wordle to the main Shadowscope Theme Door Games menu. Will try to get it added to the other themes when I get home from work this afternoon. Also, recently I have added a bunch of native Synchronet doors as well. These can be found in the doors in the “Ports” menu.
I still need to go through and retest all of the doors to make sure they are working correctly, but do it with a guest account or something. Another user found and I fixed a bug on the InterBBS version of BRE where everyone that played was thrown in under my name.
I am also thinking about expanding and adding more maps to the Operation Overkill game, potentially just have a section strictly for that and use all the maps. I’ve found that some are extremely popular, where I was getting multiple calls daily and when I reset the game last year it’s now been pretty dead.
Going to reset the default Mystic theme to be able to accept non-ansi callers. I know there are a couple that have issues displaying it and forcing ansi isn’t the way to build up any sort of regular callers.
One last thing, if you’ve found that it won’t connect, either from your telnet client or from the website here, please shoot me a message so I can fix it. Normally that’s because the IP address has gotten into my denylist for whatever reason.
Telnet Page Fixed
I took a little time and fixed it so that the BBS telnet page is working again and can be logged into from the web page. Not sure why it wasn’t working but it is now…
Some of the fonts I am using don’t seem to display properly, I may consider going back to the old ones soon.
RPG Dice Roller For Android
So I made a pretty simple dice roller for my android phone using Tasker. If you don’t know what Tasker is, it’s an all-around automation app. It’s been around for as long as I have been using Android phones I would guess. I’ve used it for years but have gotten really serious about it in the last year or so. This isn’t a post about Tasker though, although you will need it for this.
I had come across a Task (a set of actions) that would allow you to simulate the roll of a single six sided die. Really it’s just a random number from 1-6 so that part is pretty easy to emulate. I wanted to be able to roll multiple dice and I wanted the whole gamut, 2,3,4,6,8,10,12,20 and percentile dice. I took a little bit of work but I was able to get that part finished. I am currently using Google Assistant Intercept so I can say “roll 2d10” and it correctly recognizes that, gets the random number between 2 and 20 in that case, displays it on the screen and also speaks the answer. Tasker steps are below:
Task: RPG Dice Roll
<How many dice to roll>
A1: Variable Set [
Name: %Dice_number
To: %par1
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<What type of dice (d6, d10, d20, etc)>
A2: Variable Set [
Name: %Dice_type
To: %par2
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<Sets the minimum amount. This is easy, it just matches how many dice you are rolling. The minimum number you'll get>
A3: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_min
To: %Dice_number
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
<The rest of the Variable sets puts the max amount you can roll * whatever kind of dice it is, i.e. 3d12 would be 12 * 3.>
A4: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 2
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 2 ]
A5: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 3
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 3 ]
A6: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 4
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 4 ]
A7: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 6
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 6 ]
A8: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 8
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 8 ]
A9: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 10
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 10 ]
A10: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 12
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 12 ]
A11: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 20
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 20 ]
A12: Variable Set [
Name: %HowManyDice_max
To: %Dice_number * 100
Do Maths: On
Max Rounding Digits: 3
Structure Output (JSON, etc): On ]
If [ %Dice_type ~ 100 ]
<Found this one at Soundbible. You can download your own sound file or disable this part.>
A13: Music Play [
File: Tasker/soundfiles/Shake And Roll Dice.wav.crdownload
Start: 0
Stream: 3 ]
<Get the random number between the minimum # set earlier and the max # set earlier and outputs it to the Dice variable.>
A14: Variable Randomize [
Name: %Dice
Min: %HowManyDice_min
Max: %HowManyDice_max ]
A15: Say [
Text: You rolled a %Dice
Engine:Voice: default:default
Stream: 3
Pitch: 5
Speed: 5
Respect Audio Focus: On ]
A16: Flash [
Text: <h1><b><center>%Dice</center></b></h1>
Long: On
Tasker Layout: On
Title: You Rolled a:
Continue Task Immediately: On
Dismiss On Click: On
Show Over Everything: On
Position: Top
Use HTML: On ]
I do have this up on Taskernet as well, you can find it here if you don’t want to input all of that. I would also like to create a series of scenes for this as well at some point but I’m pretty shitty at drawing. I’m thinking animated gifs that show up with the correct number and type of dice and actually show the correct numbers on them. Seems like it would be pretty difficult to implement and would need to include hundreds of images to make it work right. IDK. Going to have to think about that one for a while. I tried using DALL-E and LeapAI to create the images on the fly but it didn’t work worth a crap. Vaguely resembled dice but the background wasn’t transparent and the numbers on them weren’t actually numbers.
How Not to Tech Support – A Lesson from Life360
An example of what NOT to do in tech support.
I tend to update my phone at least once a year, sometimes more. I’ve gone through all the Pixels except the 4, the Oneplus 7 and 8, Note 3 and 10, all the Google Nexus family, a couple of different HTC ones, the Droid Incredible and Incredible 2, couple of different blackberries, couple of Windows phones. One thing has been consistent across most of the Androids. I’m an avid Rom flasher (it’s like getting a new phone 10+ times a year).
The problem with that is that I must back everything up and restore it. I have gotten fairly good at it but it still takes several hours each time.
One app has been a major headache every time I load a new Rom or get a new phone. Life360. I have one of their premium memberships and I use it with my home automation stuff as well, so it’s important. Any time I have to set it back up, it’s always been a bear to log back in. Usually, I can finally get it to log back in after 20-30 attempts though.
This time, I have tried to log back in 200+ times since March 31st and have been unsuccessful. I contacted Life360 through a DM on Twitter on April 2nd:
So, I went ahead and opened the ticket. I described my issue of not being able to log in, told them I had followed their FAQ. I tried over Wi-Fi and mobile. I tried in multiple locations. I uninstalled and reinstalled. I cleared the cache and storage. I disabled the ad blockers on my home network as well as on my Pixel 7 Pro. I reset my password twice. At two different points in the process I even got a text message from Life360 telling me welcome back, etc. You get that when you’ve made a successful connection, which obviously I had not.
Anyway, I get this initial email
Hey there,
It looks like you forgot your password. Let’s get you a new one.
If you didn’t receive the email to reset your password, please check your spam folder to see if the message is there.
If you didn’t receive the SMS text, make sure your carrier plan is set to allow SMS text messages.To reset your password, please follow this link- https://www.life360.com/forgot-password
*Watch this short video on How to Reset Your Password: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckK_sWbFLg
If you still need help, please respond with the email and phone number on your account and we will be happy to help.
Let us know if you tried, but did not receive the password code through SMS text or email.
Thank you,
Life360 Customer Care
So, I immediately emailed back “This has nothing to do with having forgotten my password.
Email is [REDACTED], phone is [REDACTED]”
No response after that until I sent them a DM on Twitter again.
Next email from Life360:
Hi Richard,
Thank you for reaching to Life360 about new device log in. I appreciate your patience and understanding on this matter. I’d be glad to help you with this.
To effectively assist, may I know what device are you using now?
Your swift reply is highly appreciated.
Have a safe day,
So of course, I email them back immediately
“I am using the Pixel 7 Pro
Thanks
Richard Miles “
I got a response quickly the same afternoon
Hi Richard,
Thank you for reaching Life360 Support about your account. I can assist you with this.
I would suggest to perform an app refresh.
Kindly follow this steps:
Note: Do not uninstall the app
Open your phone Settings app
Scroll down to and select Apps
Select Life360
Select Storage
Tap Clear Cache
Tap Clear Data
Power your phone off for 5 minutes
Open and Log back into the Life360 appAfter refreshing the app, you can reset your password. Kindly click this link
If the issue persists, please provide me a screenshot of the page that you are stuck.
Looking forward to your response.
Have a safe day,
Even though I had reset my password twice already at that point I went ahead and did as he instructed because sometimes it’s not the steps, it’s the ORDER of the steps that matters. I was in tech support at one point, and I know it’s important to go through with this stuff. Of course, that didn’t work. I emailed them back:
“Did as you instructed. Got the results in the screenshot. I did attach the logcat to my initial ticket.
Thanks
Richard Miles “
They emailed me back:
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response.
I can see to your screenshot that unknown error has occurred. May I know if you have a stable internet connection in your area?
For the meantime, I suggest that you restart your Wi-Fi connection then, try resetting your password again with this unique link that I’ll be provided.
Please let me know if this works.
WTF. Okay, so I reset my password yet again for the 4th time. And yes, my internet connection is great here. Not only that but I had tried it on multiple connections and networks. I shot them back two emails:
“I have reset my password again using the link you provided. This is the 4th password reset I’ve done.
Restarted wifi connection. Internet connection in my area is fine. I have done this on two different wifi networks as well as connected only to mobile data in three different locations.
Same results, unknown error.”
“Also, it’s obvious it’s making a connection because if I enter the WRONG password it immediately tells me I have the wrong password.”
I didn’t get a response after that, DM’ed them again on Twitter:
Ok cool. Higher level of support. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that. It usually only takes a time or two or public tweeting once and they get someone with intelligence on the job. I was pretty wrong on that. Next email I got from them:
Hi Richard,
I appreciate your patience on this matter. Let me further help you with this.
For the password reset link that was previously provided to you, have you already tried the link on different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, or Safari) on your computer? If not yet, can you please try to access the link and try it on different browsers to see if the issue still persists?
Please let me know if this works.
Have a safe day,
What in the cracker jack box do they think this is about? Obviously not reading any of the prior tickets or emails. I let them know (on April 6th:
“The link worked and reset my password. What does that have to do with getting a network error in the life360 app?”
On April 7th, I sent them another email:
“Any sort of updates on this ticket? Been a week since I was able to log in.”
They finally responded 14 hours later (this was Friday I believe):
Hello Richard,
Thank you for your patience in regards to this matter.
I am glad that you’ve able to login by resetting your password through a web browser.
There are some time that resetting the password will not work in the app but it is a rare case scenario. That is why we provided an alternative through the website.
Please let me know if everything is fine now.
Have a safe day,
I was starting to get pretty pissed off now. This idiot has no friggin’ clue. Sent a couple of DMs to them again.
Received an email response a short time later:
Hello Richard,
Thank you for your patience in regards to this matter.
Upon checking with your phone settings, I can see that there is a VPN. Can you confirm if you are using a Virtual Private Network?
Looking forward for your response.
Have a safe day,
What? Number one, you can’t see my phone settings, and if you think I believe that you really are a fucking fool. Number 2, I am not behind a VPN. While I do occasionally use one to access my home network when I am away, I haven’t used it in months and certainly not on this ROM.
So again, I emailed them back lol:
“I’m not currently using a VPN. I do occasionally use one to access my home servers but not in general.
I do use Adaway (not VPN mode) to block ads but it is currently disabled while I troubleshoot this.”
and a second email a few minutes later with a snippet of my logcat in hopes that someone that knows something there will be able to help. I don’t know what most of it means unfortunately, just that it’s errors:
“Just tried logging in, all ad blocking disabled, connecting over 5g rather than wifi. This is the log recording:
—- Apr 8, 2023 5:10:32 PM —-
04-08 17:10:36.180 4187 4187 I GoogleInputMethodService: GoogleInputMethodService.onStartInput():1898 onStartInput(EditorInfo{inputType=0x0(NULL) imeOptions=0x0 privateImeOptions=null actionName=UNSPECIFIED actionLabel=null actionId=0 initialSelStart=-1 initialSelEnd=-1 initialCapsMode=0x0 hintText=null label=null packageName=com.life360.android.safetymapd fieldId=-1 fieldName=null extras=null hintLocales=[]}, false)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: https://api-cloudfront.life360.com/v3/oauth2/token error
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.etag.ResponseETagInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:2)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.OkHttpClientSingleton$special$$inlined$-addNetworkInterceptor$1.intercept(SourceFile:3)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.NetworkManager$RetryStrategy.doStrategy(SourceFile:3)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.NetworkManager$RetryInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:5)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.HeadersForV5ApiAndAboveInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:19)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.cache.CacheInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:20)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.Life360PlatformImpl$AuthInterceptorBase.intercept(Unknown Source:13)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.internal.DynamicBaseUrlInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:11)
04-08 17:10:46.535 14180 29161 E NetworkManager: at com.life360.android.l360networkkit.NetworkCallInterceptor.intercept(SourceFile:12)
That was on April 8th. Three days ago. Still no response. So I DMed them again first thing this monring
They didn’t even bother to respond there. Probably getting tired of me. They did, however, respond via email a few hours ago:
Hi Richard,
I appreciate your patience on this. I’d like to make a follow up on this. Are you still not able to log in to your new phone?
Have a safe day,
Really? No shit I’m not able to log in. What the fuck do these guys do, send out generic emails and close the fucking trouble ticket so they can tell their supervisor they’ve fixed everything for the day?
And my response to them
“No, I am not. Have not been able to log in since prior to April.”
To their credit they responded pretty quickly, although it was not helpful in the fucking least:
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response. Can you confirm what type of device are you using and also can you check it for me if you can log-in using other device?
Have a safe day,
So, we are back to the same initial questions again. I did respond again though,
Pixel 7 Pro.
I’m setting up an old phone now to see if I can log in there anymore, will take a few minutes before I can get it set up.”
and then again, a few minutes later after having tried to log in from an older phone (non-rooted, completely stock, no extra apps installed, no custom rom.
“I got the same result trying to log in on another device. OnePlus 8 pro.”
And they responded again. Third time in one day. Wow. This guy must be tired from all the typing he’s had to do:
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response. Since you are still unable to log back in to any device you might need delete your account and recreate it?
Have a safe day,
That’s all you have? What the everloving fuck.
So, I sent out a tweetstorm rant over on Twitter for my two followers to see. Only thing I’m getting there is answers from bots and spammers.
I have had Owntracks set up on my phone for the last few days. While it doesn’t (currently) offer me all the bells and whistles that Life360 does, I am able to integrate it into both Home Assistant and Homeseer using MQTT and trigger my automations off that. The way it’s headed now I will be deleting my Life360 account and cancelling my subscription. Biggest issue with that is that my daughters and my mom are all on my account as well and don’t live with us so getting it on their phones and getting everything working properly is a pain in the ass.
Hacked Again
One of the downsides of posting crime stories on top of the tech stuff is that some people (including Google apparently) count it as hate speech. I don’t know but it seems to make the site a target for getting hacked. It’s happened several times over the last few years, but I’ve gotten rather good at cleaning it up and restoring everything.
This last time (Sunday afternoon) I did a better job at securing everything. Only thing that concerns me now is that I am not so sure that my host, LivingDot, does such a wonderful job with securing their servers and that other sites hosted on the server where mine is might be prone to letting bad actors have access to their file systems.
Seriously considering moving this back to my own server at home. The only issue I ever had with that was bandwidth. The first few years I had my site online after I took my BBS down, I hosted it at my home, first under Apache on a Debian box then under IIS on a Windows 2000 server. I finally moved it to LivingDot sometime around 2005 because of DNS issues as well as the occasional bandwidth suck (remember the Slashdot effect?)
Those same issues are the ones that are holding me back from moving it inhouse right now. I am still on cable internet with Charter Spectrum and while my DL speeds are decent the UL sucks balls. We also do a lot of streaming and gaming (when my daughter is home from college) and that’s not conducive to running a web site on cable. I’m still hoping that someone will eventually offer fiber. It’s available a block from here and at least one company has fiber running 3 feet from my front yard.
Updating Old Posts
As I am going through the older posts on here (and the ones that are still listed as private) I am slowly but surely trying to fix problems with formatting, grammar, missing information, and photographs. Each time I update a post, WordPress sends an email out like it was a new post. I’m not sure if there is any way to stop that but I apologize for the spam. Overall, it will make this place a little better.
I may even take out some of the foul language in a few of them. Don’t count on it though.
DNS Issues for the BBS
If you’ve tried to connect recently using bbs.shadowscope.com, apparently that has not been working at least for a couple of days. A mistake by my web hosting provider I would guess. As I have had my site here hosted with LivingDot for at least the last 15 years or so I just manage the DNS from the rather than Google Domains, which is where I recently moved my domain registration (F register.com by the way).
The BBS (and home automation stuff which is behind a VPN) is hosted at my house and I use dynamic DNS to get it. Rather than having to connect with noip and other services I have used in the post (darktech, etc) and making folks change that around, I use a CNAME record to resolve bbs.shadowscope.com to whatever DDNS service I use.
Unfortunately that CNAME disappeared from my zone records at livingdot at some point recently. Had to put in a ticket with them this morning as it wouldn’t let me add it back. Either way, if you really give a shit about the technical stuff anyway, it’s fixed now.
How to Root the Pixel 7 Pro
FYI, if you buy a Google Pixel 7 from the Google store enter “Z1M77NMTD8MEMZWQI7SNT87” at checkout and both of us will get $100 in Google Store credit
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is fairly easy to unlock, root and pass SafetyNet provided you have a little bit of knowledge on how to use the command line and aren’t afraid to permanently break your phone. While Pixels are relatively easy to recover if you do something wrong, there is always the potential to permanently brick your phone if you don’t know what you are doing.
You are going to need a few things before you can unlock and root. I am assuming you are doing this from Microsoft Windows (I am using Win 11 and everything works from there)
- Pixel 7 Pro Factory Image (in case you fuck something up)
- ADB/Fastboot (SDK Platform Tools)
- Windows USB Drivers
- Magisk Stable
- SafetyNet Fix MOD
Unlocking the Bootloader
Unlocking your boot loader will factory reset your device. There is no way around this so make sure you have backed up everything. Once you unlock it I would suggest never relocking. If you do want to relock it, make sure not to do so until you have restored it to 100% stock. A couple of notes are that with Verizon branded versions, they can never unlock the bootloader. With T-Mobile and AT&T you can unlock once you’ve paid off the phone. You can contact your carrier and have them CARRIER unlock it (not the same as bootloader unlocking). Your best bet for unlocking and rooting phones in my opinion is to buy them direct-from-google or make sure that you are buying the carrier unlocked version if you are getting them from Amazon, Best Buy or some other vendor.
The steps to unlock the bootloader are:
- Go to Android Settings – About Phone
- Click on Build Number repeatedly, seven times
- Go back to the main Android Settings – System – Developer Options
- Toggle OEM Unlocking (you need to be connected to the internet)
- Make sure you’ve unzipped the ADB/Fastboot (SDK Platform Tools) and installed the Windows USB Drivers (you will have to do this twice. Once when you first connect and again when you reboot into the bootloader.)
- Navigate to the platform-tools folder
- Make sure your USB cable is plugged in to your computer and to the phone.
- Run the command “adb devices”
- On your phone you should get an ADB prompt. Check the box to always give ADB permission and click OK
- You should get a list of connected Android devices at that point. If not you may need to troubleshoot your drivers, make sure you only have one ADB device connected, etc..
- Run command “adb reboot bootloader” and the phone should reboot into the android bootloader
- Run command “fastboot flashing unlock”
- One the phone press the volume up or down button until you see “Unlock the bootloader |>|” beside the power button.
- Press the power button. The screen should go black for a moment and then near the bottom it will say “Device state: unlocked”
- After this go to the steps to root your device.
Steps to Root
- Unzip the Pixel 7 Pro Factory Image that you downloaded.
- Copy the Magisk apk to your phone (I generally use the Downloads folder and copy all items to it.)
- Copy the init_boot.img file from the unzipped factory image to your phone.
- On your phone go into whatever file manager you use and install Magisk and open the app.
- Toward the top click “install”
- Click “Select and Patch a File” and choose the init_boot.img that you copied over from your PC.
- Copy the modified init_boot.img (it will look something like magisk_patched-25200_1a2B3c.img) back over to your PC into the platform tools folder
- Go back to your command prompt and run “adb reboot bootloader”
- After it has rebooted into the bootloader (Fastboot mode), run the command “fastboot flash init_boot magisk_patched-25200_1a2B3c.img” (use whatever your file is actually called)
- Run command “fastboot reboot”
- Confirm that your phone reboots normally.
Congrats. Your phone is rooted. If you open Magisk it should show “Installed” and the version number.
Passing SafetyNet
If you want to use Google Pay and most banking apps as well as some games and media apps there are a few more steps you need to do.
- Launch Magisk
- Go to Magisk’s settings (the gear on the top right).
- Click “Hide the Magisk app. You’ll have the chance to change the Magisk app’s name to something a little less unobtrusive such as Settings. Note that when you have it hidden or renamed you can accidentally install a new version of Magisk and neither will work at that point.
- Go back to Magisk settings
- Click “Systemless Hosts”. That will add a Magisk Module to Magisk, you can verify that later.
- Toggle “Zygisk” on.
- Toggle “Enforce DenyList” on.
- Click “Configure DenyList”
- Add every app that you want to deny root access and the existence of root including Google Play Store, Google Services Framework, Google Play Protect Service, Wallet, GPay, and banking apps, any streaming apps that use DRM (like Netflix), any two-factor authentication apps.
- Reboot your phone.
- Go back into Magisk and go to Modules at the bottom.
- Confirm that Systemless Hosts is in the list, and enabled.
- Install the Magisk Module Universal SafetyNet Fix that you downloaded.
- Reboot.
- Install from the Play Store YASNAC – SafetyNet Checker and Play Integrity API Checker.
- Launch YASNAC and click “Run SafetyNet Attestation”. It should say: Basic Integrity: Pass., CTS profile match: Pass, Evaluation type: BASIC.
- Launch Play Integrity API Checker and click “Check”
- It should have green checkmarks beside MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY and MEETS_BASIC_INTEGRITY.
- It’s normal for MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY to have a red X beside it.
- You don’t have to keep those last two apps installed unless you just want to.
- Sometimes you will need to clear app cache AND data for apps like the Google Play Store, GPay, Wallet and others if you have opened them before all of these steps.
I’m currently using the following Magisk Modules and can cofirm they work with Android 13 on the Pixel 7 Pro (Cheetah):
- Advance Charging Controller
- AOSP Mods
- Daily Job Scheduler
- Project Themer
- Systemless Hosts
- Universal SafetyNet Fix MOD
- LSPosed (Zygisk)
- ACCA (front-end for ACC)
If you install a Magisk module and you start bootlooping or SystemUI freezes up, restart your phone (make sure you have it connected to your PC and from the commandline run: “adb wait-for-device shell magisk –remove-modules”
That will boot you into safe mode and all your Magisk Modules will be uninstalled and you can add them back one by one to see what the issue is.
Pixel Watch – Two Weeks On
So, I received the Pixel Watch back on October 13th and figured I would post an update on it.
I got the non-LTE version as I already have five lines on my mobile and don’t currently feel like I need the added capability that it provides. I’m never anywhere without my phone, and (I am assuming) also don’t need the extra drag on the battery that LTE would cause. I could be wrong about the battery usage, just making non-technical assumptions here.
Battery life on the pixel watch so far has been about what I expected. Not great. It does seem to charge a bit faster than my Galaxy Watch 4 Classic that I have been wearing for the last 14 months. I prefer to wear the watch at night for sleep tracking. With the Watch 4, I can get through the entire day and all night then charge before I go to work and end up somewhere around 50-75% before I leave the house. With the Pixel watch I am able to do the same, but it will be at full charge before I leave the house. I haven’t done any sort of real thorough testing but basically if I am travelling it’s an absolute must to carry a charge with me. It would be nice if someone could come out with a decent watch that would last several days between charging. The charger is also proprietary and I can’t use my Samsung charge for it (or vice versa) and weirdly enough can’t use my Pixel 7’s battery share feature to charge it either.
One thing I don’t like is that I have to use a third-party app to get all my data into Google Fit. Google chose to strictly use Fitbit for the Pixel Watch, which I guess makes sense as they own fitbit, but does that make Google Fit the red-headed stepchild now? I’m not adverse to using fitbit but I would like to use the same app for both of my watches as I am not using the Pixel exclusively. I am using FitToFit to get all of my stuff into Google Fit currently. Just one more app. I already use Health Sync to get my info from Samsung Health into Fit.
The large bezels don’t bother me as much as I was afraid they would. Google did an excellent job hiding them and as I use a black watch face they aren’t very noticeable.
As far as comfort is concerned it’s more comfortable to wear than the 4 Classic. It’s a much smaller watch than I am used to (comparison pic below) so I guess that’s part of it. The band fits nicely and there is more play (rubbery lol?) than the band that came with the Samsung Watch. I don’t even notice I am wearing it most of the time.
It’s a stylish watch and I really like it, however, it’s obvious at first glance that it’s a smart watch. Having worn watches from an early age I am used to having big old clunky things (I seem to remember having a Casio calculator watch at some point) and like big watches like the 46mm Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.
The band mechanism is neat and something I would like to see other watch makers offer, but it will never happen. Rather than use a normal watch band their bands go right up to the watch. You push a button and twist, and the band comes right off. Putting one back on is just as easy. The problem that causes is that you can’t use a regular watch band with it and Google did not release any sort of adapter. That’s only a matter of time though until someone releases one.
A couple of things I don’t like are that the Pixel Watch can’t do blood pressure (the Watch 4 can) and sleep tracking. I snore a little bit and with the Samsung it can record it for me using my phone. I am sure I could use another third-party sleep tracking app for this but that’s just one more app (and I already use 200+ as it is). There is also no automatic workout tracking either. While it will continue to monitor steps, you must go in and select when you are working out. That’s one thing I got used to and really like about the Watch 4 Classic.
I am concerned about the lack of ruggedness as well. As you can tell in the size comparison above my Watch 4 is pretty beat up. I work in the service industry and my phones and any wearables get a lot of abuse from it. The lack of raised bezels is the part that concerns me as well as a lack of water resistance. That means that as soon as I walk into one of the restaurants, I must remove my watch (if I remember) in case I end up washing dishes. I do most of my walking going through my restaurants daily and I would like to be able to track it. I have gotten it wet a few times (submersed) when I have forgotten to take it off and so far, no problems with it.
Even with the cons listed above I really like this watch and will keep on using it. The only things I have to compare both the Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch to is the Moto 360 which I wore for a couple of years until it finally died on me. Both of these are much faster and have better battery life than that one did.
New Pond Photos
Just some more recent photos of the pond. At some point soon I’ll mount a couple more of cameras from my security system and stream at least one of them on my weather station website. Nothing at the link currently, it’s just a placeholder.
