How about better forum s/w? - MDA, XDA, 1010 General

This message contains all postings in this thread
dated before January 19th 2003
Subject: How about better forum s/w?
From: Carlos
Date: 07 Jan, 2003 08:02:07
Guys, this forum software is really clumsy and feature-less.
I'd like to see participation on this board go way up and share
more hacking/tweaks about the XDA, but this isn't conducive to
having that happen.
I don't know what your server situation is, but I'm willing to
put up phpBB on my server at no cost to anyone to host this.
Say the word, and I'll have it running in a few hours or less.
I'm sure you know that phpBB is feature-rich, clean,
user-friendly, and reliable. My server has good connectivity
and is nicely under-loaded. You can see a couple other boards I
host at
http://www.azbusas.com/forum[/
url] and
[url=http://www.cbr1100xx.org/forum]http://www.cbr1100xx.org/for
um if you like.
Drop me a line at [email protected] if you want to discuss.
Subject: crummy forum software
From: XDA developers
Date: 07 Jan, 2003 14:09:33
Yes, you're abolutely right: the software behind this forum
sucks. Bigtime.
Thank you for your kind offer of hosting the forum, but we have
a nice-enough unix server with PHP, and we'd like to keep things
under our own control for now.
We've been meaning to get around to looking for nicer software,
but we've been busy doing other things. (You'll see...) phpBB
looks very nice indeed. I would really like to import the
current threads into phpBB. How hard is that? (Given that the
format they are currently in is both easy and understood.)
Another thing: we sort of dislike forums where users have to
identify themselves. Nothing religious, we just feel it's easier
if people can talk without leaving traces all over the place.
Does phpBB allow such a mode of operation? We can always hit
delete if people abuse that privilege...
Subject: Understand
From: Carlos
Date: 13 Jan, 2003 01:17:40
Understand all your concerns. phpBB does allow people to remain
anonymous if you choose (under admin control) or to register.
Personally I'd rather register and always be identified. It's
not like it's going to require government-issued ID and a
fingerprint... You can select the level of control you like.
As far as importing, I don't know if there's a clean way to do
it. What I've done in the past when I've moved boards is to
simply copy/paste an entire thread into one post on the new one.
I understand your time limitations. I volunteer to set up the
board to your specifications and help get it all started. You
can then remove me as an admin and change the main password if
you like. All I would need is full FTP access to a directory
(suggest /forum). Also, the board requires MySQL to be running
and have a DB created ahead of time, it will then create it's
own tables, so of course I'd need that permission in the SQL
server temporarily.
Subject: Forum s/w is good on a PDA
From: Alex
Date: 14 Jan, 2003 10:41:57
I understand that this forum software isn't the most beautiful
looking, but it does load very quickly when you're surfing on a
PDA. Comparing this to other sites, I have to say that this is
preferable and seems to fit better on a PDA screen. I'd rather
be getting decent content than using up my monthly data
allowance on downloading icons, etc.
just my two cents...
rgds,
Alex.

Problem fixed... I hope...
Please use this topic if there are any problems with the new forum.
Alex: I've slashed a lot of unnecessary things out of the regular phpBB layout. I hope it'll display good on PDA's, but must admit I haven't done any testing myself: too busy doing the actual conversion. We needed to switch to something else, that much was clear...

Column width
Hi there,
Have just checked the new forum s/w out on my xda, it works fine and the login to see unread messages will be much better.
The only slight problem is the width of this column (the one you're reading now). It is about seven characters too wide (so you keep having to scroll left and right to read the replies).
Apart from that, all fine. It definitely looks and feels better than the old.
rgds,
Alex.

Better?
Alex: I created a few new templates which are only used when the "Windows CE" appears in the user agent string sent by the browser. I cut some (but not all) of the graphics to make it load faster, and fixed the column width thing.
Forum is now very useable on the XDA...

Brilliant
You are a top man! Sending this from my xda - everything is fine.
Thanks very much,
Alex.

Related

[Resource] ATTN Chefs: Stop using rapidshare!! I'll mirror your rom.

It makes me so very sad to see such fantastic projects that people put countless hours into get dumped onto sites like Rapidshare not just because they suck, are often temporary links that disappear, your customers have to go through ridiculous captchas and waits and download and speed limits, but also largely because these companies benefit commercially (ads and selling premium accounts) from your work probably more, I'd wager, than you benefit from donations from people who use your work and manage to give you a few bucks (wild guess).
I don't want to be sad anymore. Just so happens I've got space and bandwidth to spare. If you want me to mirror your Raphael rom, just ask (though I may ask you first) and I'll give you a deep link to post which will look like this -- http://mirror.blownfuze.org/[the rom's filename]
People click it, up pops the download dialog, Save, bam the thing downloads fast with no ads, no donation requests, no nothing. And if you get curious I can let you see how many people download your rom relative to the other roms I'm hosting and where these people are coming from geographically. That's icing on the cake; my primary purpose is to give back to the community without using paypal.
Three prerequisites -- it's gotta be intended for the Raphael, in English and you're a senior member.
Shoot me a message.
I second this motion!!
d0ugie gets it!
Rapidshare drives me nutz...
PS. Thanks Doug.
No offense meant but the problem with mirrors is that they don't last long. At least rapidshare is always there. Its a major PITA when a mirror site goes unavailable.
A BitTorrent pool might be a better option. But that would be dependent on people staying active as well.
i agree...rapidshare is bull$hit!!! and PayPal is a joke as well...help a brother out...
Paypal? Where did that come from?
I forgot to mention that I thought the thread title was a threat when I first read it...I read:
"Stop using rapidshare!! I'll mirror your MOM."
@d0ugie
Great idea though it ONLY makes sense if your mirror is stable.
Hope you know what you are buying into it?!
I have no bandwidth problem either and mirrored 2 Tilt and 2 Raph ROMeOS's... counts go up easy in the 100s of Gigabit/month (almost like on a xxx-site).
Just wanted to make you aware.
Sleuth255 said:
No offense meant but the problem with mirrors is that they don't last long. At least rapidshare is always there. Its a major PITA when a mirror site goes unavailable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, a bit of topic but is there any chance there will be any public roms from you sleuth? i id love to see what you've been up to since the kaiser roms =)
+1, Informative
tyguy said:
@d0ugie
Great idea though it ONLY makes sense if your mirror is stable.
Hope you know what you are buying into it?!
I have no bandwidth problem either and mirrored 2 Tilt and 2 Raph ROMeOS's... counts go up easy in the 100s of Gigabit/month (almost like on a xxx-site).
Just wanted to make you aware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. 100Gb/month for romeos links, huh.
Well here's the setup: My own server (blownfuze.org) has a modest link to my ISP. The server and its connection are very stable and sturdy; I know what I'm doing with Linux machines and I've had the link for years without any interruption that I was aware of. On one of the ISP's servers I have a shell account with a 2GB quota and no explicit bandwidth quota, speed or cumulative. The cabs I host on my server and even in peak hours it has not been out of control, not enough that the people I serve websites for with the same machine have said anything regarding latency -- even with HostnameLookups turned on. The radios and roms however I put on my shell and when someone downloads a rom or radio from my server my server redirects them with a meta refresh file to the file on the ISP's server. Based on my trial run over the past month or whatever with my site, guaging how much traffic I'd sting the ISP with on their server with these rom mirrors, I think it's a safe bet my ISP won't object. I'm a good customer, we have a good relationship and they're a strong enough outfit to handle a customer giving out files for people to mess with their phones.
So yes there are now two points of failure, my server and the ISP cutting me off, but I can dodge both problems by, if my server fails, changing the A record on my mirror host on my domain to my office server (we have a ton of bandwidth we don't need) or if the shell thing becomes a dealbreaking issue I can just change the refresh tags on my server to point at my office.
I believe there is a "within reason" understanding in terms of the shell bandwidth usage as this ISP is connected to multiple bluechip telcos and even pumping out dozens of gigabytes a month wouldn't piss them off -- in my estimation. Again I've been a good and profitable customer of theirs for a long time (several years?) and doubt they'd just pull the plug on me but if they did I'd simply redirect those meta refreshes to the server in my office until I negotiated something either with my ISP or another company and would not leave rom authors just hanging. So by having the links go to my server I have control over where they are directed and I also enjoy the bliss of datamining my Apache logs to see whose rom is getting downloaded by how many people and from where those people are located. That's fun to me.
In light of your own experience however it would be prudent of me to have a chat with my ISP to make sure they're cool with this so that I don't make major commitments to XDA folk and then fail them suddenly -- even though I take the basic measures to keep my pages from being googled and botted and can get aggressive with mod rewrites and other Apache tricks to enforce only letting XDA people (not ppcgeeks and strangers from search engines and such), hits with xda in the initial referrer entry, download anything from my server (which triggers the fast shell download).
Nevertheless, for now, I am going to continue to proceed with caution, contact the ISP soon, and take it from there.
Thanks tyguy.
As long as no one uploads on rapidshare, then i'm good. 15 minutes between downloads is KILLER =(
Just wanted to make you aware of the issue d0ugie.
I too have no problems with my host and bandwidth and you seem to have some internet / web hosting experience but as example when i hosted ROMeOS2_150_5_ENG_20759_041208_conFUZEd.zip which was a pre-final it was downloaded 190 times during one day with a file size of 78.78 MB on the server, looking at the start and exit counts assumes some used download managers. Just be careful and get the ducks in line up front.
Let me give you some help to calculate:
Just use Windows "Start" - "Run" - "Calc", take the thumb of your left hand and pick your nose with the index finger of the right hand and make a good gestimate of popular ROM and theme demands and go from there.
Some help, that chickensh*t <essentials> packed behind my "ATT Fuze NOOBs only - Little setup guide. " started 14-12-2008, 05:02 PM is 20.20 MB was downloaded 276 times while the thread was viewed 2,179 times. Not sure if you always can gestimate 10% download ratio over views but ...
Don't wanna be a nerd but don't like get others burned as well.
How about a Bittorrent pool like someone suggested? That is the best idea IMHO. Torrents are always fast and worth it.
That was my first thought but P1Tator didn't take kindly to my post on the subject. Though when a major release gets going there could be added layers of redundancies with multiple trackers, you gotta have someone who knows what they're doing to start this, you got to have people maintain this, you need trackers on a reliable server like xda's and when you do that there must be some careful monitoring over what torrents are hosted by XDA-connected (or even just loosely-afiliated) trackers, who has access to it, which authors are trusted not to include anything sketchy so that an old copy of WMWifirouter or a cracked version of BeeLineGPS doesn't slip its way through the cracks. Not easy to delete an in-the-wild bittorrent share as you can delete a thread.
The word bittorrent itself starts fires. XDA needs to keep a low profile when it comes to its members behaving themselves and when you've got people messing with Microsoft's software and rebranding it as their own and then distributing it over a notorious method it could get ugly.
From a practical standpoint, a bittorrent download takes a while to get warmed up; a direct link from a solid mirror does not. Users have to have an additional client installed. A lot of us do already and those who don't can figure it out but we'd need more how-tos. From the serving standpoint or an additional more complicated database thing you'd find on other bittorrenting sites it just doesn't sound feasible especially when you have some people out there like me who can donate bandwidth (I'm vetting myself to make sure I can do this reliably). We're talking what, 70-100MB files here that people put a ton of time into and people who use these files shell out several hundered bucks for their phone and another hundred a month for their bill. Bandwidth is cheap and if we get people fired up a bit we can figure out how to host our own files without Rapidshare and friends or bittorrent.
Though I still like the idea. Certainly more than rapidshare.
I wrote my ISP a thoughtful letter to see how much is too much in terms of giving out bandwidth for mirroring. When they get back to me I'll get back to you all. If they say yeah sure go ahead, at least for the Raphael forums, problem solved. Mostly.
Kraize said:
How about a Bittorrent pool like someone suggested? That is the best idea IMHO. Torrents are always fast and worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
d0ugie said:
That was my first thought but P1Tator didn't take kindly to my post on the subject.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
P1Tater not P1Tator.
All kidding aside. You have actually hit the nail on the head. Bit Torrents are frowned upon due to the large amount of publicity these create. Noone has ever said this but think about it. We strip shipped roms and tear them to shreds. We also take shipped apps not meant for "all" devices and port them to God knows what. We even have ported other OS to a WM device never meant for anything but WM. Plus, having a cooked rom come up in a torrent search/finder beside WAREZ and other files with virus' inside is not the publicity XDA is looking for. Not trying to come off all high and mighty, just want to keep XDA smooth and as trouble free as possible so we can continue to rip apps, port roms to other devices, and have our wonder developers continue to devlop apps for our devices without having to go to some sort of "store" (cough cough iStore) and buy every app that we want to install on our phones. Please understand, I just want to keep XDA as smooth and as trouble free as I possibly can without any "negative" publicity. That's all.
P1Tater said:
P1Tater not P1Tator.
All kidding aside. You have actually hit the nail on the head. Bit Torrents are frowned upon due to the large amount of publicity these create. Noone has ever said this but think about it. We strip shipped roms and tear them to shreds. We also take shipped apps not meant for "all" devices and port them to God knows what. We even have ported other OS to a WM device never meant for anything but WM. Plus, having a cooked rom come up in a torrent search/finder beside WAREZ and other files with virus' inside is not the publicity XDA is looking for. Not trying to come off all high and mighty, just want to keep XDA smooth and as trouble free as possible so we can continue to rip apps, port roms to other devices, and have our wonder developers continue to devlop apps for our devices without having to go to some sort of "store" (cough cough iStore) and buy every app that we want to install on our phones. Please understand, I just want to keep XDA as smooth and as trouble free as I possibly can without any "negative" publicity. That's all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sleuth255 said:
No offense meant but the problem with mirrors is that they don't last long. At least rapidshare is always there. Its a major PITA when a mirror site goes unavailable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and I agree with both of you. Rapidshare may not be for everyone but it does trick for right now.
I understand the hesitation with torrents and not wanting too much attention, but let's face it...Microsoft knows about this site, HTC knows about this site. Torrents aren't going to be any more negative publicity than it's gotten in the past about the FTP, and that was mostly because the files were directly linked to the site.
Hey I hear you with the c'mon argument.
Yes Microsoft and HTC know about us. I've gotten hundreds of hits from proxy server hosts under .microsoft.com downloading everything on my site and HTC has gotten plenty of love letters from us as well as petition websites brewed by XDA people. We don't really pose a threat to Microsoft though one could argue we have a tepidly adversarial relationship with HTC for our criticism of them and our attempts to generate negative publicity against them as well as our attempts to pressure them to do business differently (like with the Kaiser video driver saga). Though XDA may be some server in the Netherlands, we comprise XDA as we are clumped together in the minds of The Man when we do something The Man doesn't like so we, thanks to the likes of P1Tater and other volunteers, have to spend an enormous amount of time cleaning up not just spam and dumb threads but making sure no one posted Skyfire when it was recently in private beta and so on. We're on self-warez-patrol, defcon 1.
You add extracted and redesigned software with different branding artwork, possibly copyrighted software, operating systems, leaked or hacked drivers etc on top of that and you have a large happy community such as ours that is operating in the gray area. We're more good to MS and HTC than we are bad but if they so choose to exercise it they have power over XDA, power to kill XDA, and we must act accordingly. People can post cabs and links but there is some vague protection for XDA, sort of like Slashdot but with attachments, as those are posted by individuals and are therefore sort of owned by the poster not XDA and XDA with their moderators tries to operate in a manner that projects an air of good faith /in addition to/ helping Microsoft and HTC as we are a resource for ways they can produce better products. We're pretty harlmess -- why would HTC care if someone else cleans up after them with GPS driver fixes? Cheapest thing for them to do is copy /our/ work.
In the event of Microsoft or HTC or Opera or whoever developing a major grievance with something that goes down here and sends XDA a cease and decist letter that XDA cannot afford to defend themselves against and must comply with, demanding XDA to take down threads containing *, when you've got bittorrent in the mix as you're suggesting XDA loses the ability to comply swiftly and effectively with such a demand to the satisfaction of these potentially litigous companies if satisfying them includes pulling the plug fully on a proliferation of a file that made its debut here if it's floating around in bittorrent and making its way to the high traficked torrent portals with traces back to XDA.
No one cares about FTP and for these purposes no one even knows what FTP is. Rapidshare (or good samaritan mirror operations like mine) is not on the MPAA's hitlist either. But the reputation of bittorrent, even though those who defend bittorrent adamantly cite that it's great for kosher stuff too like Linux (and us), makes it not an option for XDA as XDA does, again, to some extent operate in a gray area and does not have the resources to do so with the audacity of providing bittorrent solutions in the event it needs to pay legal bills. XDA may not even know how gray our gray area is, doubt we have a lawyer on retainer. I doubt most lawyers would know the answers anyway. Unchartered territory (but gray territory). So XDA has to assume an MO of paranoia. Blending in bittorrent to XDA either with an XDA-sanctioned and maintained portal/tracker or just encouraging users with wikis and such on how to set up their own tracker when they release their own rom, given that there are other options, is bad for business. Now me I am not even going to bother researching how legal these roms are; I am cool with my ISP and I'll assume the risk by putting them on hosts directly connected to me and my identity but you won't find these roms on XDA's ftp server probably not just because their more than 1MB but because they are sketchy in nature. XDA can barely pay for bandwidth with these banners ads that most of us don't see with adblock and the small stream of donations. Where's XDA going to get $20K one day if **** hits the fan? Nowhere. Just because we've got thousands of members here, often extremely talented and good-hearted people, does not make us immune from total destruction and bittorrent gives that doomsday scenerio an elevetated probability.
XDA's doomed at best to walk on eggshells. Bittorrent is a four letter word. XDA cannot, in my estimation, live with it; certainly not when XDA can live without it.
motionmind said:
I understand the hesitation with torrents and not wanting too much attention, but let's face it...Microsoft knows about this site, HTC knows about this site. Torrents aren't going to be any more negative publicity than it's gotten in the past about the FTP, and that was mostly because the files were directly linked to the site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
d0ugie said:
No one cares about FTP and for these purposes no one even knows what FTP is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of the rom files used to be hosted on the FTP, that's all I mentioned that for...were you around for that? Just don't remember how long ago that debacle was.
Also, I know there are invite-only networks and we already have to be a member of xda-dev to download locally hosted files, so what about a private p2p setup?
jonteponte said:
Hey, a bit of topic but is there any chance there will be any public roms from you sleuth? i id love to see what you've been up to since the kaiser roms =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah same here.
Is there like a record for the longest written post in a forum?

[Q] Can someone develop an app for me?

Hi.
I am looking at getting a couple of Flyers for my small business, but I need something quite specific, so I am guessing I would need an app developed for me.
What I am looking for, is an app that I can use as a job sheet when on site.
It would need to have a template for the job sheet, with areas that I can enter text using the on screen keyboard.
It would also need to have tick boxes for several areas of the service work that has been completed.
Another thing that would be required, is the ability to automatically save to a specific folder on the SD card, using the job reference as a file name.
The final thing, and probably the hardest to implement, is an area for the customer to sign upon completion of the work.
Is this possible, and would anyone be interested in helping out with this?
I think that if the template could be inseted into the app using either an image file, pdf, or some other file type, the app could be valuable to many people considering using a device like the Flyer for work.
If somebody could get an app developed in this way, we would be able to pay something towards it.
Thanks.
Steve.
stabloid said:
Hi.
I am looking at getting a couple of Flyers for my small business, but I need something quite specific, so I am guessing I would need an app developed for me.
-snipped-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I ask a few questions...
1. Why an app specifically for the Flyer? Would a web/cloud app do?
Given that you could save to a cloud database rather than an SD card, this would have certain advantages. If this doesn't work for you, I'd be interested to know why not.
Though question 2 might do it.
2.a I get why you may want a customer to sign a screen with a pen as per the Flyer platform. Could they use Evernote to do the signature?
2.b If Evernote would suffice for the signature, why not just use an Evernote form. for the whole app. (Google 'Evernote Form' for details)
3. Personally, I advise avoiding "signing" tablet devices (like delivery pads). The potential identity theft and data protection risks from recording and storing handwriting make me shudder.
A better form of authorisation (imo) would be to complete the form, email a PDF to your client, and have the client reply back to authorize. This is better because the client's email server and your email server will both have a legally enforceable record of the transaction.
I'm interested in your view of this.
Hope that helps
I will have a look at the suggestions you made.
The reason we're looking for this app, is to replace our job sheet books, which we take on site with us.
Being able to use the flyer instead, will save us a lot of money over a 2 year period, and would be more convenient than a paper book, which becomes dog-eared, and I am able to print off multiple copies if required, or email it direct to the customer.
We tend to deal with commercial establishments, such as care home groups, so we could streamline the whole process.
With regards to the whole identity theft thing, we don't take any details from people other than name & signature, and we never have any access to home addresses, credit cards, or bank details. Like I say, we bill head office, and they send a cheque, or use direct bank transfer.
I will try and post up a copy of one of our sheets, so you can see the layout we currently use.
Are you able to help develop an app, or are you just trying to help me find a different way to acheive my goals?
Cheers.
Steve.
There is a possibility that I could develop such an app. I would like to see a copy of the work sheet you currently use. I cannot commit myself to it right now though. If no one else picks it up in a few days, I'll try to carve out some time for it.
Thanks.
No major rush.
We don't have the Flyers yet.
I think I would prefer an app, as it is less messing around.
Cheers.
Steve.
stabloid said:
-snip-
Are you able to help develop an app, or are you just trying to help me find a different way to acheive my goals?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My interest is in web-based mobile apps rather than os-based mobile apps. The difference being that web-based is browser only, whereas os-based runs on your device. What you've asked for here is, ostensibly, an os-based app - what I think you want is a business solution.
Right now, there is a lot of pressure, from the marketing side of the software industry, to build os-based mobile apps. Personally, I challenge the long-term commercial viability of this - because it will not fulfill customers (i.e. your) goals.
My concern is with the total cost of ownership. The bug fixes, version upgrades, and general long term viability are a 10:1 factor in favour of web-based rather than os-based. In this I'm referring only to custom/bespoke business applications not mass market targets.
(However, in your case, as you want to take your job books on-site, you may have to work without an internet connection and this means you have to go os-based.)
Forgive me if this all seems a bit esoteric.
Short answer, if you want a web-based mobile app, yes I can help. PM for details.
But... I suspect the costs to build/host could come as a bit of a shock. Your posts imply that you'd have a handful of users. To get major cost benefits you'd have to have 100's of users - and I think this would apply wherever (web or os) the app was targeted.
From what you've said, and guessing at your budget, getting someone to simply put your form into Evernote would be your likely best course of action. Sorry, I can't help with this.
(Evernote is the free Notes app that comes pre-installed with the Flyer. I've no affiliation, though I am a user.)
Trust that is all of some use.
Regards
You make some good points mate, and I can see the benefits of all solutions.
However, as you say, with taking the Flyer on site, we do end up in "dead-spots", and this would just cause huge problems.
I was considering getting the wifi version for us, and using tethering from our phones for data when required.
If it can all be done in Evernote, then that may be an option.
The reason I would like sd card usage, is so that I can review job sheets at any time.
I would like to run a full system for job sheets, invoicing, etc. but that would just be too costly.
I think VNC to connect to the office PC would be best option for invoicing.
There are currently only 2 engineers, and we would just like a nice clean simple solution to the job sheet problem, and the Flyer seems like it could be perfect.
It would replace diaries, job books, notepads (pen & paper), sat-nav, and looks nice and professional when you are on site.
Cheers.
Steve.

I need a professional DEV

I need to find a very good DEV who is available to work on a fairly large project.
I am a disabled yet still serving soldier, who has a need for a specific app. This app will help millions of people and I DO plan to market it to both VETS and
NON Vet disabled persons (as well as anyone else who wants it!) Vets will of course have either a free or reduced price option.
You will be required to know every aspect of a project DEV to include the GUI, images, background, visual aid, the Database, it has to "share" and export to several mediums including googleCal and Excel graphs. It may be built with a module style or have a lot of options that can be turned on or off. Some will be protected so it can't be turned off unless a password is entered depending upon the level of disability and functions needed per person.
I will expect a non-disclosure agreement. I have done the paperwork to protect my idea.
I will expect timely completion of phases as well as bug fixes. All of which I am very realistic about. We just need to be in daily or even hourly communication if needed.
This is a long term project that can lead to a permanent type of side job for all the ongoing updates/changes.
I need to get this moving while I am still able to keep track of what I actually need it to do. Your development skills will be instrumental in getting this up and running. You will have full liberty to do the app as you see fit as long as it meets the needs and has the ability to do each task I need. I really don't care how it is done as long as the outcome is correct. I have certain tasks that must be included, you are more than welcome to add your ideas as well.
Payment is of course Negotiable as either upfront or a portion of future income from sales, or possibly both. This will be agreed upon in writing for everyones safety, but this will really be more of a friendly work together type of environment.
Please msg me or reply here for more details.
(Mods, if this is is the wrong category, I apologize. Just move me and I will learn my lesson!)
Must have placed this in the wrong area! I can't seem find a good developer in the entire world that wants to take on a very lucrative (possibly like all good ideas are) project??
Wow Ok anyone know where I should look or post my "Programmer wanted" ad?
You would probably be better posting it in the developer forums rather than Q & A.
Good luck with your project!
All the best,
Ash

(Survey Closed - Results Below)ASUS Prime Online Objective Survey & Results Review

(Survey Closed - Results Below)ASUS Prime Online Objective Survey & Results Review
Ok fellas,
I have constructed an online survey questionnaire as I have previously suggested here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1707406&page=31
This way issues can be objectively collected and centralised – and if follow up is needed by ASUS. This online survey only serves to kickstart “things” in a more directional fashion, rather than the usual scattered complaints which are difficult to follow and sometime lead to a lot of duplications.
Hopefully we can get as many people to do this and we can get the general idea what is going on with our prime.
Also, if the data is useful enough, maybe we can get some of the guys in here who are close to asus to send them the data and hopefully they will do something about it. Or following the data collection, perhaps a second detailed survey can be collected to home in into issues that matter most to the end-users.
The link for the survey is here - And you can see the cumulative results at the end of the survey
https://kwiksurveys.com?s=MLKOKM_b334b37b
Note:
(1) At the end of the survey, the cumulative results are shown(hence instant result – no secret statistics to hide). And individual result is there for everyone to see and follow.
(2) Questions marked “*” are compulsory
(3) Please answer non-compulsory questions if possible so better picture can be drawn in the end
(4) If your cookie is enabled, you can change your answer after completing the questionnaire but only one survey is considered valid per ip address
(5) If you have suggestions on what other questions there are to add or details to add, pm me and I will change it. Or if you note any gross logical error in the construction of the questions, pm me.
Disclosure of interest:
I don't know anyone from ASUS. I neither work for ASUS nor have worked for ASUS and I don't work for rival companies. I am doing this as part of (or lack of) my contribution to this forum.
Update (20/06) - Survey is now closed See results review at post #23 #24 #25 #26 #27
all.pdf - all results to date (164 responses)
anyappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with ANY apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 1)
specificappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with SPECIFIC apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 2)
The results can be filtered against multiple criteria. If you have a request, tell me and I will do it at my earliest opportunity. Raw data can also be exported into xml/xls/csv format.
I filled out the survey. I want to give you a huge THANKS for doing this. And Asus should give you a free Infinity lol
Yuhfhrh said:
I filled out the survey. I want to give you a huge THANKS for doing this. And Asus should give you a free Infinity lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worry dude. Used to think that linux has mind of its own. But this thing is in a different league, seems like a living organism/psychopathic ex-gf to me. I am baffled.
maxfac1234 said:
No worry dude. Used to think that linux has mind of its own. But this thing is in a different league, seems like a living organism/psychopathic ex-gf to me. I am baffled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That pretty much hits the nail on the head. This tablet is very temperamental. You never know how of is going to act when you boot it up.
cause to ponder
I have been in IT for 30 years now, and have used just about every device ever made or at least one representative sample. The only people I ever see complaining about devices are generally people who don't read up on them, load way too many conflicting apps into them, or try to do way too much, and complain because everything doesn't work - what I call "Swiss army knife syndrome". Most of the above can be attributed to pure inexperience. Of course statistically 5-10% of the people doing anything on the planet just aren't pleased with anything, so you have to take that number right off the top - they will never know how obstinate they are so don't bother. I have had very few problems with this device, and I do not consider myself lucky - just experienced. Great survey. I really hope it helps!
Some preliminary results
So far there 72 responses over the last almost 24hours – Which I think isn't bad.
(1) I have pasted the “compact” "raw" data in pdf form in the OP / post #1– And I will try to do this for every 50-response-increment. There are two files:
i. all the results
ii.the results filtered against those who have problems with ANR's/FC's with ANY apps at ANY duration (just to give you the idea and sample what the tabulated data look like) – Question #22 in the survey.
(Edit 1): I'd forgotten to click "expand" for the "text based input results" - In case you're wondering why they appear truncated.
(2) The result can be filtered – e.g. information "just from rooted users" or information "just from users who have x problem(s)" – If you want to view any data filtered with certain criteria, tell me and I will try to do it when I am free and post it here for everyone to follow up. Unfortunately the particular website I am using doesn't allow me to filter against serial number right now as it requires 4 alphanumerics in the filter field – However, the expanded raw data can be exported into csv/xml/xls format for anyone who is interested.
More inputs please.
@photogf4
Maybe you should beginning read some of the many treads about Primes problems and issues before you make a statement like yours. There is a VERY GOOD REASON why no one else still had a quad core tablet out for sale (including Asus themself !) Asus olso accept that they have problems with Prime .
Please notice; XDA people that have problems with Prime are NOT Android novices. I promise you, that they all have trying much, much more then normal customers will and can do to to find a solution on Primes very stranges behavior.
Wow, sorry... I didn't expect a guilty conscience so soon! I assure you i read xda nearly daily, and it is a fabulous reference with serious people serious about making these devices the best they can be. I am not trolling, just making an observation. I maintain that he 80% of people left need to ask themselves if they are causing their own problems before they skew the survey. Thanks to xda i have a cell that i can manage my entire company network with, and two tablets -101 and 201 that run flawlessly ( I gave my Apple tablet to someone else). Any problem I have ever had was my own fault, other than gps. I bought a few 201's for my staff, and they don't have problems either!! Don't blame the hardware until you look at the software.
An additional observation is that if no one on xda used the developers' product and discussed it here, this would be moot. Thu site needs users as well, and i appreciate the privilege.
photogf4 said:
I have been in IT for 30 years now, and have used just about every device ever made or at least one representative sample. The only people I ever see complaining about devices are generally people who don't read up on them, load way too many conflicting apps into them, or try to do way too much, and complain because everything doesn't work - what I call "Swiss army knife syndrome". Most of the above can be attributed to pure inexperience. Of course statistically 5-10% of the people doing anything on the planet just aren't pleased with anything, so you have to take that number right off the top - they will never know how obstinate they are so don't bother. I have had very few problems with this device, and I do not consider myself lucky - just experienced. Great survey. I really hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what your saying is Asus is sending out updates, gps dongles and rma's just for fun? 30 years in IT ....you might want to look into taking some refresher courses or perhaps a a new line of work.
Enough with the personal attacks... try and stay on topic!
The last four posts have gone waaayyy of topic. Please stay on topic which in this case is a user survey regarding problems people are having with the Prime, and please keep all comments constructive.
Thanks.
Good idea!
Just filled the survey! Thank you for your time!
I have a problem that I haven't solved yet, and I hope this survey helps in any way!
Thank you again!
PS: BTW, here's my problem explained http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1716591
Sorry about the post.
I did not mean to go off topic, but for anyone to come and deny that the Prime has no problems is just unrepresentative of the community as a whole. I do realize that some problems are user induced but most of these are well documented across many different user bases! If this were not so, we would not see ASUS patching and working with consumers on this somewhat personal level.
I have to believe with the data at hand that the problems lie in the manufacturing of the device or materials used. It looks like someone's quality assurance department fell asleep on the job, and now many people suffer from problems, and maybe even ASUS because one manufacturer let some bad material pass that should of been tested more thoroughly.
But hopefully, the data collected from this survey is pointing to some common things that many users are experiencing, which will be able to be addressed with new firmware and software. Thanks for creating the survey and I wish I could take it again because I did not know you had to save each page as you went along and only saved the last page, which did not let me see the current tally. Peace, V
@vvveith
I had a look at the survey again and how it works - You don't have to save each page as you go along - They are automatically saved - In the end, it should show you the cumulative results. But again there may be quirks that I am not aware of.
However, if you want to do it again and put some comments in - Just go to the same link and do it again - but from what I understood from the website that provide the service, each ip is logged to prevent multiple entries, so
(1) if you do it again (with your cookie previously enable and still available), then your result based on your ip will be changed accordingly (I have enabled this in the survey setting)
but
(2) if you do it again (with your cookie previously disabled or cookie is not available), then your survey input will just be rejected
(3) the other workaround is for you to hook onto your neighbour's free wifi or work's ip
(General) in any case, I will be updating the full unfiltered results soon. If you have a specific request, i.e. to have the results filtered against specific criteria, just make it known here and I will try do it.
Update 19/06
I've updated the survey results (see OP/post #1):
all.pdf - all results to date (127 responses)
anyappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with ANY apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 1)
specificappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with SPECIFIC apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 2)
A thought:
(1) A quick glance at these results shows some recurring themes in terms of the good, bad and ugly.
(2) This “to date/.28” survey not only shows magnitude of certain issues (evidenced by answers to compulsory questions on certain well known issues) but also shows some improvements in certain other areas (again evidenced by answers to compulsory questions and the free-text based inputs). However a quick glance also show some not-so-new minor issues which are still persistent (the list of these problems mostly in the free-text based inputs)
(3) If I understood some of the other posts in other threads correctly, the beta testers are testing .28.5 – This “to date/.28” survey will be a good baseline shall we all want to run a second survey.
(4) If a second survey is run (after .28.5 or newer that is), we can home in into bigger issues found in this survey with more details – and see where improvements/deteriorations occur in a more objective fashion. And at the same time assess the magnitude of minor issues listed in this survey by formalizing them into multiple choices.
Essentially, next categorization (based on usability with assumption “what lay people would possibly find frustrating” rather than pure technical aspect it) would be:
High frequency non-severe issue (e.g. gps, wifi intermittent dropping)
High frequency severe issue (e.g. severe wifi drops with distance, ANR's and FC's)
Low frequency non-severe issue (e.g. small number of specific apps with ANR's/FC's)
Low frequency severe issue (e.g sleep of death and failed update - ?semi brick)
Mystical issue
Have a look at the results.
maxfac1234 said:
I've updated the survey results (see OP/post #1):
all.pdf - all results to date (127 responses)
anyappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with ANY apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 1)
specificappfcanr.pdf - filtered against ANR's/FC's with SPECIFIC apps at ANY duration (just a sample idea 2)
A thought:
(1) A quick glance at these results shows some recurring themes in terms of the good, bad and ugly.
(2) This “to date/.28” survey not only shows magnitude of certain issues (evidenced by answers to compulsory questions on certain well known issues) but also shows some improvements in certain other areas (again evidenced by answers to compulsory questions and the free-text based inputs). However a quick glance also show some not-so-new minor issues which are still persistent (the list of these problems mostly in the free-text based inputs)
(3) If I understood some of the other posts in other threads correctly, the beta testers are testing .29 – This “to date/.28” survey will be a good baseline shall we all want to run a second survey.
(4) If a second survey is run (after .29 that is), we can home in into bigger issues found in this survey with more details – and see where improvements/deteriorations occur in a more objective fashion. And at the same time assess the magnitude of minor issues listed in this survey by formalizing them into multiple choices.
Have a look at the results.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually the new build I'm testing is .28.5 they could end up sending me an even newer one though.
demandarin said:
actually the new build I'm testing is .28.5 they could end up sending me an even newer one though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
woot woot *corrected. Thanks fella. Looking forward to the new build soon!
demandarin said:
actually the new build I'm testing is .28.5 they could end up sending me an even newer one though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And how's it looking so far?
Did the survey. Thanks for putting this together.
However, few suggestions:
- add SKU to the base questions
- add dock / no dock to the questions
- add no issue as a separate answer
- add common answers given as text as separate answer
... Just some ideas. Also, could you compile a comparison between root and stock?
Thank you.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
tobi01001 said:
Did the survey. Thanks for putting this together.
However, few suggestions:
- add SKU to the base questions
- add dock / no dock to the questions
- add no issue as a separate answer
- add common answers given as text as separate answer
... Just some ideas. Also, could you compile a comparison between root and stock?
Thank you.
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good ideas - all.
Also: SOD? I did not see it in the survey, and I am hit with it, lately VERY infrequently, but yes, I have had an SOD event (just a single occurrence) on .28
Though I wonder how to effectively track text based answers, they can provide additional dat that would otherwise not be picked up. I think this is an idea who's time has really arrived. Too many unscientific and off the cuff observations around these forums. Thank you very much for this. A good set of data, even with some margin of error is extremely valuable as a tool for some honest measurements in the field. I would venture to say that the respondents here are somewhat more "polarized" (to put it mildly) and that the BASIC group of non-techie Prime owners are, in many case not even AWARE that their tablet has issues, unless they are painful, or incapacitating is some noticeable way.
What has always been my biggest annoyance with the Prime is it's obvious lack of a major performance advantage over the OG Transformer, which I sold to buy this. Yes, it is slim, and pretty, and had all the ingredients for a technical slam-dunk. It has just never "wowed" me like I expected.
anyway, I got off subject there, or rather too detailed for this particular thread. I liked that the guy with the sensors issue simply linked to his thread, instead of going off all over the place like... er... well, like me, I guess. Sorry bout that. One thing you can NOT accuse Prime owners of is not being passionate about their tablets.
Thanks again for doing this. Perhaps a quick update after the ew firmware would be good as was suggested.

Is There an App That Will Overlay Time/Temp Over All Apps?

I've got a few larger tablet type Android devices mounted around the house that I use for security camera viewing. That's the only purpose they serve and they're wall mounted. Next to a couple I have a $20 device from CostCo that displays the current time and current temp as well as lots of other BS I really don't need.
What I'd like to do is eliminate these secondary devices as right next to them is a much more powerful machine that is capable of more accurate temperature and what not. I'd like an app that will display the current time and current temperature in text form right over the top of other apps. I use IP Cam Viewer for my cam app and it has a time feature but the time is too small to see from a distance. Something that allows me to sort of hover the time in the middle of the display with the temp right above or below would be perfect.
I've used the Google Machine and haven't come up with much in terms of a solution that will help me accomplish this. It's probably something very simple that I'm not thinking of or finding... hopefully. It could also be that what I'm looking for is unique enough that it's not out there but I hope not.
Any help, thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Anyone have any ideas?
I'm not really sure why this got moved to "help & troubleshooting" as I don't really need help nor do I have a problem. I just want to know if an app exists that will allow me to do something that is relatively basic.
This site's countless subforums with nondescript descriptions has always been one of it's negatives IMO. In all the years I've been here I doubt I've got a 50% record of not having a thread moved to a section that doesn't seem to make sense. I've had zero issues on all other forums of all types. This is a problem unique to XDA for me.

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