Wasn't to certain on where to stick this so Mod please feel free to move if needed.
I think when we look at motivation these days we find ourselves to get. a little more unmotivated. There's just no true value anymore it seems. Well, today I wanted to take some time out to write to every Dev and anyone inspiring to be one and I hope it reaches out to some of you as an influence rather than motivation. I feel being influenced will drive you to do what you love, influence is the foundation of what motivation derives from. I shouldn't have to feel motivated because I am influenced self-motivation is already there and established. I can't tell you how many times I have stayed up for 2 days straight coding away, and refusing to accept 'No' as the only possible answer has paid off.*
When I first started I heard a quote, and a man came on through the audio of my computer while watching youtube and the man quoted in the video and it goes as follows.
"The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream." -Les Brown
Thinking about that made me realize that if I was to be truly happy in life, I'd first have to be influenced as self-sustained happiness should always come from within first or you will only do more bad than good with those around you. I guess bad and good are self-opinionated definitions and argument able through the eyes of each individual dependent on terms. The moral of it is, *if you can always give a happy version of you than those around you will always want to be around you and in turn hoping so, they may also be inspired.
Before I get too far down the topic I want to say I worked multiple jobs, Real Estate, Cellular, Insurance, Medical and at first they were all great. What I found out is I got burned out. The last thing we look at a mostly atlas to me Is what I love to do. What I love to do has been plagued by society as something not of true work, unless you build multi-million dollar companies from home, I am sorry to say a job like being a full-time Dev reliant on income from people via unlocking or rooting or device customization services isn't exactly eye-popping, After hearing that quote I looked at my wife and I told her "I'm going all in on something, I want you to trust me, and I will never work for another man again." I got tired of protocol from HR groups who didn't even step foot in the office that builds and structures the corporate foundation.*
I started with getting my hands on an HTC MyTouch and following that an HD2 running Gingerbread. I soon needed my service unlocked and I ended up than meeting with a guy named Jeff who a year later would be sentenced to prison for unfortunate reasons. While working with Jeff he should me how the Windows CMD and Os terminal operate and how just by reforming command arguments you can create exploits in the smallest of areas and depend on what you're doing bigger ones as well. I was inthralled with the logic from it and my immediate response was "This was way too technical." right there I determined my success or failure and for months went with no break through and hating the 9-5.*
I decided I'd pick it back up only after being unemployed a bit, I was bored, tiredness and needed something to do while the wife slept. I hopped on and I started watching and reading guides via youtube and XDA and really the one thing I think I least looked at or kind of refuse to because of being lazy was the tools provided to do a lot of the work for you. Ask yourself that before you even decided to code something, or before even knowing how. We viewed it in a term of having to manually write it line for line, we never seen the tools first. The moment I got my hands on those tools and the understanding of relative arguments and manipulating arguments to produce the opposite response I was hooked. I was so driven even now I still love to just pick apart a room and it's OS even if I feel it may be a dead end I can find myself lost for hours in building.
What stops people is other peoples opinion, not just friends but the real important ones. How many of you without looking at your family first have had a stranger or someone not too close to you tell you "you can't-do something" I think we all have, now how many times can you see in that light, that those closest to you told you that you can't-do something? For most of us, the ones we care more about have the most affect. They are no different then a strangers opinion, self-happiness is yours to have in the most selfish right and with that comes sacrifice, if your wife is going to leave you because she can't accept the time it takes to build a dream, let her go. It's selfishness, see because her personal happiness would have a based upon the value of you removing yours to increase hers. Not that in that point in time it would hold much weight but it does add up, and that negativity mounting faster than your Hard disk to your computer after a late night computer software sabotage from rage. I am happy to say my wife has stuck by mysids on sometimes days with no sleep and damn near losing my mind. We both continue to smile and be happy because our love is depended on the pretense and communication of one another and she knows I can go all the way and get the dream job or build the dream company one day when my reputation reaches that level.*
What I'm getting at is code has forever changed my life, XDA and it guides and it's such humble, kind and trust user base has kept me going. I know I haven't been active and this looks like a new account, but I never leaked, I only helped people physically learn. I used it as the dictionary to my new found passion. I decided to join here to repay that honor, to teach those wanting to learn and to provide roms and builds to some devices that go unnoticed. I know what it's like not having much and not a great phone and wanting a great phone. To create software to give even the slowest of phones that boost or that drive or that deadening it needs to adhere to the persons wants and needs in relevance to speed or performance is important.*
So lastly I thank you, and I want you all to know that I am still here working, I own my own work from home company, intact 3 of them just this one is developing so I stay busy but it pays off. Don't forget to make time for those who give you encouragement, you will need someone there to pick you up when no alternative option has been presented within yourself. My wife and my friends and not to be cheesy have seen me to the point where being behind on the bills and getting evicted has done to me, but I kept going. In my head I would wake up on day's where I felt suicide was a peace of mind, it wasn't I was just tired, I was emotionally drained. I stepped back a few days, worked to make some money on other services I naturally was good at and I paid the bills because I learned from that eviction. *I went back to coding a few days later with a clear mind. To all of you, do not trust your emotions when you are tired or angry, you will only do things that you naturally wouldn't do. As an example thing of what creates an argument with someone and what makes someone laugh. 9/10 that argument will be a topic that has been an issue and just like issues it gets worse the more you talk about it. Learn to leave things alone also it's not a bad thing, just take a break. With all that done, doing this job has never been so amazing. I look forward to meeting all of you and I hope this acts as a letter to those experienced to keep going, your work is appreciated very much. I get to read scripts and learn more things and more work arounds then I KNEW. Have the power to accept you haven't mastered anything and you still have everything to learn.*
God Bless
TheCodeDev
Related
Had enough,
sure i shall miss the stuff you can do but tbh for me most avg phones are closing in fast,on ability and im sick to death of crashes,bugs,reinstall's
it jusy aint worth the headache,im off to find a decent Phone
well the more normal "smart" phones catch up
the more advanced their software will be and
the more issues they will get
:s
we're doomed if we do and doomed if we dont
yer your right just phone and msn n email will do me these days
If I would put the energy that I put into my PDA (to get it work properly to keep in touch with my mates), into the relationsships with my friends, they would like me more than now... Most of them don't care if I call then via VoIP or Skype if at least I DO call...
I had a few of things that bugged me about having a PDA ,but i compromised them in the belief that ,they it will be far more worthwhile to have one and live with the issues
but the faults list grows and the good point just arent enough
TBH I don't know what the fuss is about. I have an XDA mini which is fabulous. Never crashed in 6 months and I'm running Tom Tom aswell. The only problem is that it's not working properly now, but that's since it got soaked in my pocket riding from Newcastle to Edinburgh on the bike in the rain. It's still going and it handles everything I do and more without question. I'm sticking with my PDA phone to save me carrying two things around with me (I need all the stuff when I'm running a business).
I have had my last 3 HTC devices from a friend who has bought them, had problems, and bought the next one that comes along thinking things will get better.
I never have these unreliability issues he always has, and they are the exact same devices he has had.
I put it down to the type of person, and knowledge of the device.
Sure, you shouldn't need to be a technical person just to use a PDA, but it obviously makes a difference.
Maybe you just need to stick to a Palm or Blackberry
Jace - I'm interested to know which device you used.
I used the xda2s and the xda exec and got really fed up with both.
I'm not remotely technical and just wanted a good phone that does email and few other bits when needed.
Got the xda mini in July this year and have never looked back. It is a pure phone that does the few extra things I need without issue.
If possible I suggest you try it as you may be surprisingly pleased with it.
HPJ
In a way, I could understand where the original poster is coming from. But don't get me wrong I love windows mobile devices, but if your like most people, we just want things to work. So when things don't work, your either the type that'll find ways to make it work, or the type that'll just find another device. We have to be honest, those of us that come in and out of these forums on a daily basis with hacks and solutions and those of us looking for hacks and solutions for our windows powered devices are among the few that'll actually take the time out to do so. If you think about it, It can literally take up to 3 months are more to actually get the device operating exactly the way you wanted it. Mabey that's just a little too long for the average person.
I too have felt like the OP, contemplating over and over again, after the countless amount of resets, whether or not I should just go get a fancy nokia n series or something, but I have grown found of my wizard, and its kinda of fun hacking away at its OS to see it become highly operational, kinda like the way M$ should of made it out the box. Just my two cents.
Here is a story about a friend of mine (no point posting my opinion as part of the reason I love my Jamin is the fact that I can tweak it and make little apps for it - so I don't care even if it does require reset on occasion).
Any way this friend has a company phone (a simple Nokia) and he gets a lot of calls on it (part of the job). Trouble is this phone doesn't have BT so my friend complained that at the end of the day his ear heart.
The thing is, this particular friend always told me that Phone edition Pocket PC devices are too unstable, too big and generally useless as phones.
One they he got a MIO a701. At first he told me he was just using it for the BT so he can speak through the hands-free.
Now he just won't give it up. Even when his headset broke he still refused to go back to the regular phone.
Once while on a lunch break 2 minutes walk outside the office, he wanted to log in to his account on our server but for some reason the device couldn't connect (faulty GPRS settings). He begged me to use my Jamin.
I wouldn't let him, arguing that his work station was just an elevator ride away.
Eventually he broke, and admitted that he just couldn't give up the convenience.
HPJ
I have owned a MDA Compact,which was ok but when i up dated the ROM from the TMobile site it fried the unit,
I then got an Exec,i have found that ok for my needs,(being phone,email,msn,web browsing)
but i agree with the above comments for some one not so minded tech wise,then maybe an incorrect choice of device for me
Basically an out the box unit ,is ok,just ok
but to make it decent takes some effort to get the best from the device
Ok they cant make the device suit everyone out the box,i undertsand that
however freezing up and soft resets a plenty,they are just too unstable for me
beofre my job required me to be away for long periods and the Exec fitted my needs ,now i think ill just be happy with less abilitys and more stability
The smartphones and nokias are gaining ground fast,for my needs maye they are better
The upside for me is the way you can alter and personalise the devices
but to be used day in day out as also my main phone there are far to unstable
In my case i had a compact which went tits up after a simple ROM update,
then an Exec which would freeeze and be a bit moody but then when the shutdown.battery problem started ouccruing(got new battery now)i just said to myself
you know what aint worth the hassle
dodgy pics a cheap nokia can match and beng a brick etc etc
maybe id be more suited to a smartphone or just a humble phone but me and HTC Pda just dont work out
I suppose at this point in timei dont have the time to mess around too much with the units
So my ideal maybe my Exec for away from home times and other certain situs but day to day maybe a an all singing all dancing mobile
ntornics said:
its kinda of fun hacking away at its OS to see it become highly operational,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit the nail on the head. You find it fun, and actually know how to get into the OS and mess around with it. There are plenty out there like me who haven't the faintest clue. We want our xda's to work out the box, and thats all. We come on this forum to 'take' information: get interesting apps, ask silly questions etc. I've very rarely ever actually contributed as such.
And then, when something doesn't work, we either continue to bang our heads against a wall trying to get a fix (from you guys, not from ourselves), or we move on.
Getting my xda mini s was my last attempt, and I am glad to say that it has never crashed; is never slow on answering a call; does not look like it belongs in a laptop case; and email works perfectly. The only thing I would like would be a today screen like I see so many screen shots of on here, but I haven't a clue and it would probably slow the thing down anyway :wink:
These devices are so young anyway it's no surprise they have problems. Can't wait to see what's gonna be around in 5 years time.....
good point mate
ive just read the hermes prob thread & ive had the exec battery problem
nothing is flawless in life,but it dont help that they release these products with faults
your mayor phone makers dont release units with big issues
i think id seen the light when having the exec battery problem came along and while a new battery arrived,i used a nokia 3250 it was such a nice change to have a device that preformed its functions
i just think we accpet a lot in PDA's that maybe we wouldnt put up with in a PC,Car or phone
we think its a trade of for there many functions for some problems but were do you draw the line
how many soft resets do we do?freezes?
anyone reading this do you feel ive just picked the wrong devices?,if so what do you think may have been with hindsight a better option?
Can't wait to see what's gonna be around in 5 years time.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what today hang around for 5years time?
apart from social deseases ?
Although the subject is rather troll like I hope I can do it in a non troll way.
There's a number of things that are really hacking me off about phones these days. I thought I'd have a major slam out to let off steam with the off-chance that someone might say "Ah but if you try X you can avoid that".
...some of the challenges in the mobile phone area these days...
1) Battery capacities aren't good enough as we all know. Getting through a single day is really the basics for me. Why not have hot swappable batteries? For me I expect to be able to go for 3-4 days. I don't know why... I just kind of expect that kind of efficiency.
2) Samsung Galaxy series... seems amazing but the batteries overheat, no?
3) So many people are ignorant of security to the point that most people are walking around with devices and apps that can just completely own you. Yeah there's sandboxing but it doesn't really work, it's been sidestepped. The iPhone just hides what's going on, rarely fixing the issues.
4) Licensing, all that stuff. Companies reinventing the wheel, fighting, all the rest. You can't buy a phone that does X and Y because company X won't license tech X to company Y
5) Trying to get everything perfect in one device... it's a bit of an ask but needed for portability. If things were separate we could have the better of most worlds, but that doesn't seem possible
6) Closed source. Just a bit irritating to see the inefficiency of it all in general. Bit of a hash moan but for those who can imagine better it seems like the dark ages in some areas still.
7) Closed source binary blobs. See Replicant on Samsung phones as the best we can do... the modem is arranged such messily and it's just not true a solution because of that. Kind of irritates me that there is no phone that can really guarantee it's not recording my phone numbers, conversations and credit cards because it's fully open source. Certainly an issue for companies. Companies in general are happy to rely on the word of Blackberry for thier integrity but for those of us who can imagine a solution that is secure by design it's not the best.
8) App whitelisting. Similar to the reactive rather than proactive security we tend to see as the trend in general. Manually checking all apps in the app store, trying to block and check them all.... doesn't seem the best. We've also had censorship. There are alternative stores, that's good.
9) Wakelocks. The Dalvik VM not managing or helping us track them down. Further, it's hard to tell if the app that you want to use is going to shaft your battery... once installed it's hard to tell if the app is ruining your battery too. It's messy.
10) IMEI security is a pain in the butt. It slows down the criminals but it also slows down everyone more so. In the case of Turkey it's another way to screw people with tax. Again, imperfect design.
11) As a man, if you have a phone at waist level that reduces your sperm count. Almost nobody notices or cares.
12) Just the usual society things... people looking at phones rather than each other. Can't really complain about that... the interface of looking at a screen is a bit basic. I've had speech recognition available to me... but I don't use it because there's always people around me and I'd rather be quiet... just one of those funny inventions
13) Screen don't work in bright sunlight still. We've got Motheye coming though which is great but we've had eink for ages and still no eink phone. Further, it can't be hacked onto an existing phone. Some of us aren't interested in games and movies and are focussed on getting stuff done. I feel Mirasol & PixelQi are being blocked or delayed as they try to slow things down until the point we've run out of ideas to make things better so only then does that tech get deployed.
14) Networks interfering with phones. I always go prepay because it's cheaper if you do the maths in many countries and also it allows for freer trade. Networks are always trying to get thier fingers into the mobile phone pies. Thank you Samsung for helping get against that, and also custom ROMs.
15) Apple are great but it's not clear what's going on behind the scenes.
16) eink displays would help battery life. A NookTouch can last for a month. How much would that help a phone on standby? Yet no eink display or anything like that.
17) Great to see the back of proprietary connectors but they still come back sometimes.
18) I hate the way things are made to break. Watch out for this. There's usually one thing on a phone that is designed to break. Sometimes it's a moveable part, like a ribbon cable in a slide phone. Sometimes its the USB connector. You can't buy port savers. When they fail you're screwed. Mitigate against this if you can. Try to figure out what the weak spot on your phone is.
19) Lock in software. I have an old backup phone... but I still have to keep the sync software... bit annoying. One day it probably won't work on Windows9 or whatever. People say throw it away but that's just it, throw away society. No, fix it, get it to work and be in control.
All of these things can be mitigated against. But you have to think about these things when you select your new phone.
If the commercialisation of the industry, cut throat tactics and so on aren't good enough as they are for me one thing you can do is buy a slightly older, but popular phone. In my case I never buy a new phone and instead go for something that I already know is popular with the hacking community. I know you guys can give me an insight into what I'm really looking for in life. As an example my last phone was a Galaxy S i9000. Way out of date in a sense. That's the way I find the best way to go. Go with something popular. That way you have some real support like a real man able to handle things yourself, not AppleCare and a 1 year limit. A philosophy for life. You can't have it all but with a bit of thought you can do a lot to get a bit closer to it all.
I'll try to keep this brief, however summing up one's station in life is normally not such a task that lends itself to brevity. If you want to skip all the background and go to the reason for this thread, start at the paragraph that begins with an asterisk.
I'm almost thirty, doing the whole wife and kid’s routine, and I find myself truly perplexed on what course to take in my life. I've always loved tech, I can remember my first real fascination with something was when I was in my early teenage years and my Dad bought a computer. It was Hewlett Packard, with only dial-up, AOL at that, and I wanted to know how it worked. My very first book I ever purchased with my own money was "DOS For Dummies". I was enthralled; I went through all the commands learning what each one did. I can't count how many times I had to format that computer and start over, and the frustration it caused my Dad as each time I broke it he thought for sure, that was the end. Yet every time, no matter how bad it got, you could format it and start over. I always liked that, most people dread a system format, but for me it was so liberating, I was never afraid to break anything because I knew I could just wipe it all and start over. Things like installing drivers and resetting system configurations totally engaged me, and still do. Either way with this DOS book, I was hooked, I loved being able to manipulate the computer from the command line, show off the "cool" things I could do. I should have known right then that this is what I wanted to do with my life.
However as I got older, I didn't stay in computer land; I ventured out and found girls! Sex, drugs, and... well techno actually. I spent a lot of time partying, and only went to college as a last resort like a lot of kid’s do, to get their parents off their back. When I graduated, computers still being a hobby, I was obsessed with being a millionaire. I saw quickly money could get you things that made you happy, and I remember distinctly looking at the tech industry and thinking "there's no money in that". I floated around aimlessly, even managing to start my own company, which was short lived and closed after a year. I'd worked a lot of jobs, but nothing that made me really happy. I had found becoming a millionaire quickly was no easy task, and with the wife and the baby was not something I could afford to gamble on anymore. I needed to find work that fulfilled me, that I enjoyed.
So two years ago I decided to go back into something tech oriented. I had a small background with HTML and tried to masquerade as a web designer. I got a job through a friend of the family, only to find I was severely out of my depth. With no formal training and close to 10 years passed, web development had changed a lot! It wasn't just HTML; it was CSS, and PHP, a lot of other acronyms and two or three big software programs you needed to understand. Not feeling too thwarted because I knew my heart wasn't in web design, I answered an ad for a "Junior Developer", "no experience needed, will train". I thought this is it! Programming was like my DOS books I started with so long ago. I could actually learn to TALK to computers and make them do what I wanted.
While the company that hired me had the best of intentions, they had never taken on this task before, of hiring a programmer with no experience and teaching them. The owner was swamped with his own projects, and within a month had paired me with another Access Database Developer. She herself only had a few years’ experience, and was NOT the teaching type. She was cold and impatient. She also gave off this threatened vibe, like the owner had hired me to replace her. As you can imagine it didn't last long either, after three months of that I was brought into a conference room and told "we just don't see you progressing to the level we'd need you to be at for this to make sense." Imagine that, a guy with no programming experience, was paired up with an employee who'd never taught anyone, and herself had a full workload of clients to satisfy, who needed to teach me not only programming but database design concept and implementation with ACCESS! Looking back on it now, I see how unreasonable it was for them to think I could be a competent programmer in three months’ time. However at the time I really beat myself up about it. After all this is what I wanted to do, the owner was such a smart guy, and I studied every night. Maybe it was me that just wasn't cut out for programming. It actually still bothers me now.
Thankfully, they saw a passion in my heart for tech. It just so happened their hosting manager was a one man band, and was having a tough time getting his job done with all these lower level phone calls and emails he had to deal with. So they created a Help Desk position for me, which I've thrived in. I have almost a decade of customer service experience working for call centers, and I love solving problems, so the position was a natural fit for me. This was about eight months ago. Since then the hosting manager also introduced me to the networking side of things, how to work with servers and hardware etc. I found all that equally as fascinating, he was nothing like the girl who had "tried" to train me before. He was knowledgeable, smart, and patient; he had a great sense of humor, but was ex-military and had a way of dropping the hammer when he had to. Right as he was beginning to open this whole new world to me, last month I found he's leaving the company. He's a giant whale of a fish in a tiny pond and he's got to move on. Before he did, he got me on a path to work on my CompTIA A+ Certification. I feel very prepared and I'm sure I'll pass it.
* Here's where my problem comes in. Ever since starting the Help Desk job I've loved it. For the first time in my life I'm not watching the clock. I'm not waiting for lunch time to come, and quite often I'm even staying hours past my punch out time because I'm so into my work. However I've handicapped myself. While others have had fifteen years to be doing this work, I'm just now getting started at thirty. My two greatest traits are my knack for dealing with people and my tenacious problem solving skills. When I don't understand something, or can't figure it out, I'm not a pass the buck kinda guy, I'll spend hours on it until I can figure it out. I enjoy the satisfaction of giving the client a great product, and the "eureka" moment when I figure out the issue is like a drug for me! I LOVE the sensation that comes with understanding.
The thing is after my A+ I want to move on to my next cert and start tackling it. Not just to say I have the cert, but to gain the knowledge that comes with it. Problem is I don't know what my next move should be. The "tech industry" is so wide open. In my heart, I think I want to go back into programming. I like the idea of speaking with computers, making them do what I want. However I have the bad taste of the failed Access Programming job fresh in my mind, I wasn't "getting it". Was it that I needed to give it more time or was three months long enough to understand the foundations? What's worse, where I was comfortable with the command line, now I'm intimidated by it. I seem suited for networking, talking with people and tracking down problems. Or do I just feel that way because I had a better teacher in that field and had a more positive response?
I guess that's why I wrote this beast of a thread, to give you a little background. I'm hoping there are some more seasoned professionals out there who can say "you sound like you'd be a great _____ " or "your mindset sounds geared toward _____ ". Again there are so many specialties, maybe there's some other field I haven't even considered. I don't know many experienced tech professionals, so I don't have anyone to talk with about this. All I know is I LOVE technology, I love problem solving, I'm about to have my A+ and 1 years’ experience as a Help Desk Analyst... where do I go from here?
Okay well it doesn't have to be all about me. If someone wants to share their tech career stories, how they started of in the business and where they are today. I could really use some kinda discourse on the subject.
me too
Thanks for Sharing your story, man. After reading, I am moved to share my position in life as it is increasingly similar to yours; I'm thirty, I love Tech and my career is at a crossroads as well...
It is a bit late right now so I will update this tomorrow and.. who knows maybe you'll have some advice for me.
As seen in the title, I'm a smartphone addict. Although I don't have an Instagram or Facebook account, my addiction is plain and simple information. In that sense, news is what I crave for most, mostly political related or anything relevant going on in the world or my surroundings. You may ask then what is the problem with that, since I keep myself well informed on a daily basis. Well, the problem is that I'm absolutely fed up with the unending torrent of information that I spend most of my day searching for, to the point that I often put aside almost all of my responsibilities, from simple daily chores to work, social relations, hobbies, religion, books and many other things, necessary ou just pleasant. I literally spend hours on news websites and Twitter searching for that next fix. I struggle with this condition for some time now, as it has ups and downs, and I know I'm not alone: you get the impression that you are living normally; it isn't something the media or the doctors are ranting about (at least as they should be); and hey, it is technology after all, what could be wrong!?
Well, I see now that, as it occurs with everything, this too has a limit, and I've reached mine. I constantly see myself wondering about times past (from when I was I kid or teenager or even earlier, in movies and such), when people dind't have this absurd amount of distractions and futilities bringing them down. As an example for me, I picture the time when all the news one would be exposed to during a day were contained in a few pages of the daily newspaper. And that was it: if you wanted more, you had to wait for the next day, and so our brains were acostumed to that feeling and could focus on other things without any anxiety.
I'm not criticizing the rate at which we CAN get information nowadays, as this is a very good inovation for many reasons. What I am saying is that we aren't prepared for this at all, and that our brain, once it sets sight on anything that we deem good for ourselves, will relentlessly chase that to the ends of the world if possible. So now you can imagine what happens if all of this information is contained on a single device that fits on our palms and is beside us all the time. Long story short, I've tried many things and failed, and I can't take anymore of this, AT LEAST when I am out working, with friends, doing chores and such.
So I finally get to my question, and I apologize to all for the extended introduction. I want to know two simple things:
- If there is a basic phone out there that offers ONLY Whatsapp as an app, with no possibilities of downloading new ones. A browser is fairly ok, but not desirable.
- If there is a way or custom ROM that effectively and permanentelly disables the funcionality to download new apps after I've selected the ones I want to have on my smartphone. I have tried many cold turkey like apps and solutions, but they are so easily bypassable it is ridiculous (you can just uninstall the app or cheat in many ways). If I had to completely reset or flash another ROM in my phone, at least I know my laziness would work out in my favor (ok, I'm not THAT addicted). Otherwise, the only solution would be to destroy my phone altogheter and live as a hermit haha.
TL;DR: I need to drastically reduce my phone usage to only messaging apps, calls, and utilities like bank, food and mobility apps. But I need to do so in a way I can't easily bypass.
To anyone who read it all, thank you very much. I'm in dire need of help, so any is welcome. I think this is my last resort. Sorry for the drag.
grjota said:
As seen in the title, I'm a smartphone addict. Although I don't have an Instagram or Facebook account, my addiction is plain and simple information. In that sense, news is what I crave for most, mostly political related or anything relevant going on in the world or my surroundings. You may ask then what is the problem with that, since I keep myself well informed on a daily basis. Well, the problem is that I'm absolutely fed up with the unending torrent of information that I spend most of my day searching for, to the point that I often put aside almost all of my responsibilities, from simple daily chores to work, social relations, hobbies, religion, books and many other things, necessary ou just pleasant. I literally spend hours on news websites and Twitter searching for that next fix. I struggle with this condition for some time now, as it has ups and downs, and I know I'm not alone: you get the impression that you are living normally; it isn't something the media or the doctors are ranting about (at least as they should be); and hey, it is technology after all, what could be wrong!?
Well, I see now that, as it occurs with everything, this too has a limit, and I've reached mine. I constantly see myself wondering about times past (from when I was I kid or teenager or even earlier, in movies and such), when people dind't have this absurd amount of distractions and futilities bringing them down. As an example for me, I picture the time when all the news one would be exposed to during a day were contained in a few pages of the daily newspaper. And that was it: if you wanted more, you had to wait for the next day, and so our brains were acostumed to that feeling and could focus on other things without any anxiety.
I'm not criticizing the rate at which we CAN get information nowadays, as this is a very good inovation for many reasons. What I am saying is that we aren't prepared for this at all, and that our brain, once it sets sight on anything that we deem good for ourselves, will relentlessly chase that to the ends of the world if possible. So now you can imagine what happens if all of this information is contained on a single device that fits on our palms and is beside us all the time. Long story short, I've tried many things and failed, and I can't take anymore of this, AT LEAST when I am out working, with friends, doing chores and such.
So I finally get to my question, and I apologize to all for the extended introduction. I want to know two simple things:
- If there is a basic phone out there that offers ONLY Whatsapp as an app, with no possibilities of downloading new ones. A browser is fairly ok, but not desirable.
- If there is a way or custom ROM that effectively and permanentelly disables the funcionality to download new apps after I've selected the ones I want to have on my smartphone. I have tried many cold turkey like apps and solutions, but they are so easily bypassable it is ridiculous (you can just uninstall the app or cheat in many ways). If I had to completely reset or flash another ROM in my phone, at least I know my laziness would work out in my favor (ok, I'm not THAT addicted). Otherwise, the only solution would be to destroy my phone altogheter and live as a hermit haha.
TL;DR: I need to drastically reduce my phone usage to only messaging apps, calls, and utilities like bank, food and mobility apps. But I need to do so in a way I can't easily bypass.
To anyone who read it all, thank you very much. I'm in dire need of help, so any is welcome. I think this is my last resort. Sorry for the drag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
**What phone should I buy next?** -- Not sure what device to buy? Ask here!
Phone: Samsung S20 5G FE
Just to set a tone, this phone 'disappeared' from a hotel room occupied by an organizer of the 2022 Ottawa Canada protests, after the room was combed over by Police/RCMP, as well as other devices and documents. The phone was later 'found' back in the room and started behaving strangely with other people's photos and messages appearing randomly.
The owner of the phone contacted me and asked if I could help, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about this stuff and simply told them it would be best to reset the device and stop using it. They did that, then bought a new phone and gave this one to me, telling me "you can have it, do what ever you want, sell it or try to fix it, its yours".
Obviously I haven't used it for anything.
I would like to at least know if it is compromised and if there is any way to 'fix' it. I don't want to waste money paying to have the bootloader unlocked on it if rom flashing won't clean it. Or if I wouldn't even be able to tell.
Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
Reflash it to the original rom. Change Google and any other applicable account passwords.
Done.
Ok, I'll go through the unlocking process and flash a new rom to it.
Out of curiosity would this remove anything they could have used on it? Even if it was something like Pegasus? I would assume it would but I'm not sure if they have anything that works on a lower level.
Sorry if that might sound like I'm over thinking, but they spent a lot of time and money trying to track the people organizing the protests and anything is on the table. Some of the stuff I've heard about that wasn't public knowledge is pretty unbelievable.
MrCool00236 said:
Ok, I'll go through the unlocking process and flash a new rom to it.
Out of curiosity would this remove anything they could have used on it? Even if it was something like Pegasus? I would assume it would but I'm not sure if they have anything that works on a lower level.
Sorry if that might sound like I'm over thinking, but they spent a lot of time and money trying to track the people organizing the protests and anything is on the table. Some of the stuff I've heard about that wasn't public knowledge is pretty unbelievable.
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Click to collapse
Toss the device if really concerned.
If the DOD, FBI, etc are surveilling you in earnest, you likely won't pick off all their tiers of surveillance.
They aren't watching me, honestly, I was never involved in, at, or around any of the events, just distant buddies with one of the guys. I just have this phone, it's practically brand new, and feel it would be such a waste to toss it, I mean I could sell it I suppose.
I just, as anyone even mildly concerned about privacy, would rather not have anyone much less government officials snooping on everything I do. It would make a great phone for those rare times I need to install some scummy app to set up a device from aliexpress or otherwise. Or other similar tasks. Just rather know I cleaned it up before I go ahead and connect it to the same network as every other device in my house.
As an aside, I do see this as a good leaning opportunity. No matter how small I never pass those up. Just hope I'm not coming off as someone who's completely tinfoil hat, or hell bent on saving a device.
Rule #1- physical security is the only real security!