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What will this year have in store for us? H5N1? Covid-19? WWIII? Fuck No! Instead this site will be updated with the following: software for Pocket PC & Windows Mobile devices, new wallpapers for the latest flagship phones & tablets, and possibly a redesign of the Windows software pages where each OS will have a custom designed site with a matching UI (files should be stored in a similar layout of the Android section). Also I only posted twice in 2024, why is that? I have what medical "professionals" guess to be a stomach ulcer(s). I've only been able to eat plain unseasoned bean burritos without issue and occasionally jasmine or white rice. I've also tried applesauce, oatmeal, plain cereal, alternative milks, meal supplements, apples, bananas, and more. At approximately 2-3 burritos per day since April 12th (~267 days) I've eaten between 534 and 801 bean burritos, gross.
I've migrated the site to a new server. Previously the site was served on an HP t620 running XigmaNAS now it resides on a disassembled HP AIO 22-b013w running Windows Server 2019. The new machine has a 6.5W 14nm Intel Pentium J3710 vs the t620's 15W 28nm AMD GX-415GA, both are Quad-Core CPUs with similar performance. Both systems are outfitted with 8GB of DDR3L, the new system supporting dual channel RAM. The AIO removes 2 internal & 2 external USB 2.0 ports. The new system replaces the t620's SATA M.2 slot with a full size SATA connector and a SATA ODD. The site is now stored on a new 500GB WD SA510 SSD with plenty of room for upcoming activites.
Welcome to 2024. Repeat after me: I WILL update this site. I WILL NOT abandon this site. This site WILL be updated. Stay tuned...
I've swapped the 16GB SSD hosting this site to a 128GB drive, most files have been transfered except for software. I plan to reconstruct the software section of the site in the next month or two. I'm currently composing a bash script for wget so this blog post is probably the last site update of the year, I'll see you in 2024.
Yesterday I was talking to my brother David about creating his own site, I offered to host it for him but I doubt he will follow through with the idea. If he does you'll see a new link on the Chooser by the end of the year. Also I've been thinking about adding another site of my own to the chooser, something dedicated to web 1.0, I think you'll like it.
Have you ever tried to download an APK with the stock browser or Chrome on Android 2.3 or earlier and got a file unsupported message? I have and it usually has nothing to do with MIME types. As you may know I use APK-Info to rename my APKs before uploading them to the site. Filenames used to contain text like "minAPI=9+19" and "armeabi,armeabi-v7a". Apparently legacy Android doesn't know what to do with commas, equals, and addition signs in a url, that would explain why I could download these from an open directory but not an HTML page. My server rewrites these characters to web safe %XX thingies but obviousley not in prewritten HTML files. I renamed all APKs before noticing that commas were also causing issues and APK-Info didn't have a way to remove or replace the comma in the config file. I downloaded the source code for APK-Info and installed AutoIt and the Script Editor to edit the .AU3 file (Line 908) to change the comma to an underscore. After making similar changes to 3 other lines, I built the application (By smashing F7) and gave it a spin. It works and you can download my modified version which contains my customized config file. PS: I don't think I'm done with AutoIt yet.
I'll be looking at reworking the apps pages for Android APKs next month. I NEED everything to display properley on most legacy and new phones but also take advantage of the screen space on tablet displays. I thought tables were the way to go, maybe they still are, but I want to do some more exploration before I commit to adding any more information to the app pages. Expect to hear more about tables or some other BS in the next post.
I've made big changes in the Android apps section of the software page. Instead of just an open directory, I've decided to go with tables, yes that's right I said tables. Compatibility was my main goal when creating the Android apps pages. I needed to create something that would display correctly on as many browsers, devices, and screen sizes as possible so I chose to use tables. It's a very long and repetitive process to gather and format all of the data correctly but when I finish the apps section I will move on to the games. P.S. - I'm also in the process of moving everything to separate, properly formatted, CSS style sheets.
I'll be adding pages for Android apps instead of having to rely on just a directory listing which is often displayed zoomed out completely on most devices. Each app or game shall have its own page that displays screenshots, information, and old versions of said app. I haven't decided yet but each version may also have its own page as well. Expect a minimum of one post each month for the rest of the year.
You've probably heard about Reddit beginning to charge for API access and have seen “protests” where subreddits go dark and content is hidden or outright deleted. Did anyone actually think that a silent protest would persuade Reddit to modify or roll back on its decision? Going silent doesn't help anyone, that's what Reddit wants you to do instead of making a fuss. In my eyes you should make your voice heard instead of going dark or deleting content and leaving the platform. Deleting important posts, comments, and subreddits only hurts users like me and you, not Reddit. Taking part in such activities is just as bad as banning books, you are limiting access to knowledge after all. Be loud until change is accomplished, don't go silent. RIP Apollo and other third party apps.
Google "updates" Chrome again adding buttons that can't be hidden and a stupid Windows 11 like context menu. I'm a fan of compact menus that don't take up precious screen real estate. Why on Earth would anyone change a perfectly functional UI into an ugly mess of blank space and then force this unsightly change upon Windows 10 users. Really Google, really? I would use Linux and Firefox (Used to and occasionally try to) but they suffer from similar annoyances and inconsistent UI decisions. Why not check if Chrome is running on Windows 10 and if so, revert to the previous UI. I haven't even mentioned the unnecessary buttons such as the extensions puzzle piece, sidebar, and cast icon.
Some people have asked why I designed this site the way that I have, specifically the first page I like to call "The Chooser". I constructed "The Chooser" to separate each kind of data that will reside on my webserver into its own site. Take the WallpaperDB for example. This section of the site will host wallpapers for many devices and screen resolutions. Bonus Info: Each page for any given device is specifically designed to be viewed on said device. View this example for the iPhone 12/13 Pro Max. Note that there are 25 wallpapers loaded at native resolution, scaled to fit in a 5x5 grid that is displayed almost completely at 100% zoom.
The redesign and restructuring of this website marks a new chapter in my web development story. Gone are the days of under construction GIFs and Microsoft FrontPage 2003, It's time to welcome a pure HTML and CSS website built without a WYSIWYG editor to this domain. This time I aim to focus on optimizing this site for smartphones rather than old Windows CE based handhelds. The previous site and all associated content safely resides in multiple locations throughout my collection of Super Cyber Digital Storage Devices.™
