Asus MeMO Pad 172v Fix Charging Problems

I had a rapid drain issues and random charging notifications even no cable was connected. All the problems begin when charging tablet on laptop USB ports and mobile phone 1.0A charger and updating tablet to the latest version 

First you need to download ASUS MeMO ClearData SOP utility from official ASUS support website. You need to extract downloaded ZIP card into MicroSD card and boot your tablet with this card. 

Press Volume Up + Power if you stuck on Asus logo and don't see the blue menu screen. Use Volume keys to navigate and Power button to confirm clearing user data.

Also I noticed there is some problems with Google Play downloads on this tablets. Most apps just freeze on download. You can solve this by going to Settings-> Applications and clearing Download Manager, Google Play services and Google Play Store data. 

Next step is fully discharge and charge the tablet using 2.0A power charger. I am using Kruger & Matz Dual USB 2.1A charger and I am having a good battery life.

I wouldn't recommend some cheap Chinese chargers from eBay,DX,FocalPrice and etc. These may not have actual 2.0A voltage and may come without any overcharging protective circuit boards. And you may set your home on fire if you leave those cheap chargers overnight.

On standby I am getting  3-5 days without charging and in normal use it's a 4-5h hours for surfing the web, checking email and playing some small 2D games and lots of 3D games tends to freeze this tablet. 

How to root this tablet (ME172V) ? 

Use RootGenius . Download Link2SD and get rid of Asus bloatware. 

Winamp: Creating own online services

I noticed that Winamp Online Services list is very poor without Facebook,Youtube or some Flash games that you could play straight from Winamp browser window. 

It's really easy to add more online bookmarks to Winamp Media Libary.

This blog in Onlines Services menu

Find the folder where all the online services configuration files are saved. Make sure you have enabled hidden folders in explorer to see Application Data or AppData
On Windows XP it should be like:
C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Winamp\Plugins\ml\omServices
And on Vista and 7
C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Winamp\Plugins\ml\omServices

Here you will find a few .inf files. They look like omService_{0000010100}.ini
To make a new Online Service make a copy of some already installed service and rename
it with your own unique digits code. I used 07


Next step is to open and edit it with your text editor. The configuration looks like this.

[OnlineService]
id=07
name=GintasDX Blog
url=http://gintasdx.althirius-studios.com
icon=raticon.png
flags=0x00000001
version=1
generation=2

We only need to change ID with number we used before in a file name and change name displayed in Winamp,URL and icon. Icon can be stored in a same folder or you can provide online URL. Don't change other 3 values or remove them. Save the file and reopen Winamp. You should see your new service with your icon.

Winamp uses Internet Explorer engine to display pages so on Windows XP it's no fun at all.

Download Example Online Service file

Remove custom search in Linux Mint

I find a Google custom search rather annoying since it doesn't have a sleek look as the original one so here is few steps how to get back into using normal one.

Mozilla Firefox

Download and install Google.com in English. To select it as default for search field click on search engine icon in the search field. Select "Manage Search Engines..."
and move it to the top. Second step is to make it work in the address (URI) field.
In the address field type about:config and press the "I'll be careful..." button. Here type a google in the Filter field.

Now you need to change the the 3 lines:
browser.search.defaultenginename
browser.search.order.1
browser.search.selectedEngine
double click on each field and type Google.com (in English) .
That's all you are done! Try to search for something random in address to see if it working :)

Chromium

Click on wrench icon and go to Preferences. In the Basics options you need to find Search options. Click on the Manage Search Engines button. In a new window you will find a Default search options in the third value field replace a current entry with this one:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s .

You are done!

Opera

I rarely use this,but it's really easy too. Go to Tools->Preferences... -> Search tab. Select Google and click Edit... button. Press Details >> button and replace
Address field entry with http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s

Note:
The Linux Mint project is funded from the Ads in custom search engine so make sure you are giving them a donation before removing their search engine.

Tutorial: Code::Blocks with FLTK

Building the FLTK library is pretty easy.
Building the library on Windows
Stuff you will need:
CMake
MinGW Compiler System
CmdHere Powertoy

Make sure you have a MinGW in your PATH. On Windows XP you just need to right click on My Computer
and select Advanced tab. Press the "Environment Variables" and add the MinGW folder path into the PATH variable. In some cases MinGW setup lets you add this automatically.

Lets setup the CMake. Run the CMake-GUI application and setup the extracted FTLK library folder.
I was testing this with stable 1.3 and 1.1.10 versions.

On first time run you need press "Configure". Options window should appear. From the list select
"MinGW Makefiles" and select "Specify native compilers".
Browse for the C and C++ compilers in MinGW folder.

For the C compiler select gcc.exe and for C++ compiler select
g++.exe . Yes not the c++.exe :)

Your settings should look like this. We don't want to use the system libraries and build all the examples.

Hit the Configure button and later Generate. All the red warning should be gone. 

Note:

For 1.1.10 version you need to open the CMakeLists.txt from \src\ folder and 

and in the end of file add the following lines:

if(WIN32)

   target_link_libraries(fltk comctl32)

endif(WIN32)

Now we have configured and build all makefiles we need. Lets build the library and FLUID.

If you have configured Comand line shell in explorer from the link above you just need to right click

and on the extracted folder of FTLK that includes all the source and test files,and select "Open Command Window Here". If you don't have such option press Windows Logo key + R or from Start menu select

"Run..." and type cmd in opened window. 

Now you need to execute command pushd . 

And execute command mingw32-make or just make. Look the image bellow.

If everything alright you should get everything build 100% and all FTLK libraries plus FLUID app in the

FTLK bin folder. Or in the folder defined in CMake. Copy those libraries into MinGW installation lib folder.

I actually added FLTK library folder into Code::Blocks search directories. You can find those in 

Settings->Compiler and debugger... -> Global compiler settings -> Search directories tab. 

How to build libraries on Linux?

Everything is quite the same. You need to download cmake and cmake-gui (probably with QT interface).

After generating makefiles right click on the FTLK source folder and open the terminal.

In terminal enter make command. That's all. If you get some errors you might be missing some libraries 

and dev packages.

When building from the imported MS Visual Studio files on Code::Blocks don't forget to link those libraries:

• ftlk
• uuid
• ole32
• comctl32
• comdlg32
• gdi32

If you get and error that some X function cannot be found in libfltka you may want to look in Google 

for that function to see what library you will need to link. If you are building a new project using wizard simply make new folder called include in FLTK library folder and copy here the FL folder since Code::Blocks Project wizard always looks for include folder. 

Have fun with codding! 

You can download my Win32 build version with 4 extra Gleam themes.  

[Download FLTK 1.30 Stable + 4 Gleam themes]

Phone as FM tuner for laptop

Since USB FM tuners for laptops and desktop computers aren't very cheap you can make an alternative just for
0.99$. All you will need is:

• Phone with FM radio,iPod,MP3 Player or basic FM radio with 3.5" audio jack
• 3.5" to 3.5" audio cable.

Connect one jack into phone 3.5" port and another jack into your computers microphone port. Most times it's a colored in pink or has a little microphone icon near. Turn on the FM radio on your phone and unmute the Microphone in the Volume control. On my Realtek soundcard it is called Pink In in Volume control   panel. And that's all! You can now record the music from your favorite radio station or listen to iPod music on your laptop/desktop PC speakers. 

Some phones has 2.5" inch headphones port so you will need an additional adapter.

Download Youtube videos to PC

There is probably lots of tips and tricks how to download those. I often search for some Flash game development tutorials and sure I want to watch video again without internet connection. With old Flash Player plugin it was easy since all the videos was saved into browsers cache folder, but now the Flash Player holds the downloaded video in <User Name>\Local Settings\Temp (well on WinXP anyways :P) folder *.tmp files. They are locked by program and cannot be copied. I tried various force copy handlers,but not much help from those.

After testing  a few Firefox extensions I found the one that does the job well. It can download vidoes in High or Low quality and in .FLV or .MP4 format (yep you can watch your downloaded videos on the phone or iPod) . It's called Flash Video Downloader Youtube Downloader Facebook . Sure it does downloads any embedded videos from any websites. To use it simply press Play on the video and right click on the player and select "Stop Download"

Find the blue arrow near address bar or in the bottom right corner and click it.

A dialog should appear with all available video formats. Pick the one you need and wait until extension downloads the video.

Even more goodies available at extension developers website:
http://www.flashvideodownloader.org/

Enjoy!