Digiland Tablets and "Insufficient Space" (Fix)

This is specifically for the Digiland tablets that Best Buy has been selling for rather cheap (as low as $40 on the 7 inch and $70 on the 10 inch).

I'm a tablet/Android newbie, frustrated by how limited the amount of space for apps was on Best Buy's Digiland tablets, and it seems like a lot of people are.  After a little bit of searching and combining a few different sources, I managed to resolve the issue using a Windows PC (sorry Mac users! :( ), and thought I'd put it all together in one place (just parroting what I found, really).

I did this on a Digiland 10.1, but I imagine the 7-inch version would work the same.  And, of course, DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!  I take no responsibility for what you decide to do with the words of an admitted Android newbie. :)

There are three parts total, and you'll need a micro SD card, probably of at least 2 GB for it to be worth it (I'm using a 32 GB card).  You'll probably want something that's faster too (look for a "Class 10" card).  You'll also need to download two free programs to your PC, and one free one to your Android.

On PC:

iRoot: http://www.mgyun.com/en/getvroot

MiniTool Partition Wizard: http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Free/3000-2094_4-10962200.html

Android:

Link2SD from the Google Play store.

Part 1: Root your Digiland

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKAzHl4cP9o)

1) On the tablet, go to Settings > Developer Options, and checked the box marked USB debugging.

(If Developer options isn't there:

Go to Settings > About and then click Build number seven times to unlock them.  It sounds weird, but it works!)

2) Run iRoot.

3) Connected the Digiland to your computer.

iRoot will automatically look for drivers.  It's a long process, and took a good ten or so minutes for me.

4) Once drivers are found, iRoot will display a button that says "Root".  Click it, and iRoot will run another long process.  During this time, the table may reboot.

Part 2: Partition your memory card

(Source: https://awanstuff.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/how-to-partition-sd-card-and-use-link2sd-in-any-android-phone-with-screenshots/)

(In the examples below, I used a 1 GB micro SD card, because my 32 GB card is already in use. :) )

In this step, you're going to be creating two partitions on your micro SD card (basically, splitting it into two parts).  You'll need to decide how much memory to use, and this is up to you and the card you're using.  Some sources say to only leave 1-4 GB for the second partition and that the first partition needs to be bigger than the second (so, for example, if you had an 8 GB card, you could split it 6 GB and 2 GB).  I personally split my 32 GB card into 18GB for the first partition and 12 GB for the second partition (where the Android apps will go), and it seems to work fine.

1) Put the micro SD into the computer (you'll probably need an adapter, but most micro SD cards come with one) and fire up MiniTool Partition Wizard.

2) Find the listing for the SD card in the MiniTool Partition Wizard.  Be absolutely sure it's the memory card you want to use, because your other hard drives will be listed as well!  It will also erase everything on it, so back it up first!

3) Right click on it and select "Delete".

4) Right click on it and select "Create".  Choose "Primary" and set it to FAT 32 (for media files; readable by Windows), then choose the memory size for it depending on what you decided to go with/what card you're using.

5) Right click on the second "Unallocated' portion, click "Yes" on the pop-up, and set it to "Primary" and EXT4 (some sources said EXT2, but only EXT4 worked with my Digiland).  Set the memory to the remaining space on the card for this.

6) Click "Apply" in the upper-left corner and it will begin to format the card.  This process may take ten or fifteen minutes.

Part 3: Set up Link2SD

(Source: https://awanstuff.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/how-to-partition-sd-card-and-use-link2sd-in-any-android-phone-with-screenshots/)

1) Open Link2SD on your Digiland.

2) Put in the SD card.  A window will pop up in Link2SD with several options.  Select EXT4.

3) Link2SD should briefly flash a message that says something like "mount script created", and then it should ask you to reboot the tablet.  Go ahead and click "reboot".

4) After rebooting, open Link2SD, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner, and then click Settings.  In the Settings menu, check "Auto Link" beneath the Auto Link heading.

5) If you have existing apps on the tablet, they won't be automatically linked to the SD card.  You'll need to click on each app within Link2SD and then click the "Link to SD card" button.

You're all set.  All applications should now install to the SD card!

Notes:

As of this point, I have nearly 5 GB of applications on the SD card.  I have dozens of them now operational on my Digiland, including some games that are particularly big (Order and Chaos Online clocks in at nearly 2 GB in itself).

Apps will allegedly run slower off of the SD card than off the internal memory.  Even so, I can run fairly graphic heavy games (see below for a few screenshots; you'll just have to trust me that they were a solid framerate!) without much trouble.  I don't know if that's because it's a relatively fast card (Class 10), or if the slowdown was exaggerated. In my mind, being able to install way more apps is worth the speed trade off, but your mileage may vary if you actually see a difference.

You can always move particularly intensive or important applications to the internal memory, and leave lesser-used stuff on the SD card.

Sometimes the games on the SD card leave "obb" files on the internal memory, some pretty big.  When you're looking at an app in Link2SD, it will show you if there's an obb file, and give you an option to "Link to SD card".  I've been doing that, but I don't know the potential issues that might arise from that.

If you pay to unlock Link2SD, you can also move data files to the SD card.  I've been doing that as well, but again, I don't know the potential issues that might arise from it.

Reading Conan: Shadows in the Moonlight and Queen of the Black Coast

I've finally started reading my first Conan stories in a volume called "Conan the Barbarian: The Original Unabridged Adventures of the World's Greatest Fantasy Hero", published by Carlton Books/Metro Books in 2010. I had briefly glanced over the interesting but somewhat dry and exhaustive opening work, a long, textbook like account of the Hyborian Age (set in a fictional historical setting on Earth) before recorded human history) but never got beyond that.

This morning I sat down with it and took in the first couple stories in the compilation.  There are some spoilers below, beware!  I tried to keep them on the vague side (I don't think anything of note or too specific related to the stories are spoiled), but I take no responsibility for you here!

Shadows in the Moonlight

This seems like a fitting introduction for Conan. An enslaved noblewoman, sold off by her own family, is saved from a brutal tyrant king by the barbarian. They then flee to a dangerous island that appears to be haunted, only to find themselves trapped on land by pirates.

Most of the story is actually told from the perspective of Olivia, the noblewoman. She's unfortunately a painful stereotype of the old helpless princess, only slightly redeemed as the story goes on. Watching her bumble about in a pathetic daze is less than appealing, but through her we're introduced to the noble savage. Despite the brute strength, there's some genuine intelligence to Conan, as well as a warm humanity that stands in start contrast to the earlier “civilized” king, the petty pirates or the monsters on the island, perhaps an idealized medium between arrogant, soft civilization and outright animalistic barbarianism.

The writing itself is fantastic in terms of description. It's a very enjoyable prose that paints strong images. Even the slightly lacking story and uneven pace don't hinder the text once Howard gets into his groove.

Queen of the Black Coast

I'm not sure if the stories in this compilation are simply put in the wrong order, or if Conan stories are typically unrelated, but this makes for a jarring transition. No reference is made to Olivia, and Conan almost seems to be a slightly different character. Gone are the noble roots, and he quickly falls in with pirates, professing his love for the lifestyle and caring not who he fights as long as he's fighting.

The female lead in this one, Belit, the titular Queen of the Black Coast, is just as much of a cliché. Sporting only a girdle, she's described as particularly busty (titular indeed!) and attractive, and her personality is about what you'd expect of your typical femme fatale. Her crew see her as a goddess, she's above everyone and highly skilled, and only the equally smitten protagonist can compare with her. Whereas Olivia had a moment or two nearing the end that showed some potential for character growth, Belit never struck me as anything but a blasé pirate female fatale type.

Their meeting is even more embarrassing and downright laughable. While the pirates are slaughtering the crew on Conan's ship, he bounds over to their boat and begins returning the favor. The merchant sailors are killed to the last man while Conan is decimating the pirate crew. Then Belit bounds up to him, and they profess their love for each other.

No joke.

Thankfully, he doesn't describe in any significant detail their rough love shortly afterward right on the deck in front of her crew.

After that rocky start, things really pick up as they stumble across the ancient ruins of an old city. Howard describes in vivid detail the city, Conan's visions, and an inventive backstory to the race that once lived there long before humans came into existence. The second half of the story makes up for the first with wonderful prose that kept my interested and excited for the next.

Although I've written more bashing this story than complimenting it, I can't stress the above paragraph enough: even with the characters falling flat and the opening being utterly absurd, the writing picks up to an exception degree. The descriptions alone are worth reading, and Howard does a great job of taking a somewhat meandering story and giving it some tension and intrigue.  Overall, I probably did enjoy Queen of the Black Coast a bit more than the previous story, which I liked in itself.

Other Thoughts

The pacing of both stories seemed a little off. The setup struck me as disjointed, but once the stories arrived at their prime destinations (the island in the former and the ruins in the latter), things picked up nicely on two accounts. First, the stories began moving much smoother, and second, with more stationary locales, there was more time for Howard to work his magic describing situations, emotions and locations. Both ended on an intense, satisfying note, particularly Queen of the Black Coast.

After the odd transition between the two stories and the changes in Conan's demeaner, I had to look up the chronology. According to Wikipedia, there's no definitive one. After Howard, several writers (some of significant note, like Robert Jordan) picked up the mantle. As expected, between multiple writers, and with more Conan stories by the original author emerging after his death, there's quite a bit of debate and conflict. Writers piece stories before, around and in the middle of existing Howard works. Still, it did clarify that Shadows takes place after Queen, which may explain Conan's personality shift.

I do wonder why then they decided to order the stories in such a way. Perhaps they simply thought Shadows was a better introduction to the character, and in truth he did come off as more likable on the island than later gallivanting with pirates.

Is it a bit jarring to see race blatantly referred to throughout both stories. The term "negro" appears a time or two in Shadows, and "blacks" is used instead in Queen of the Black Coast. To Howard's credit, however, Conan treats every man the same. While explicit culture is often referred to (Conan's Cimmerian heritage, the description of the sailors as Argosean), skin color never seems to be anything more than a physical description. I'm not sure if it was an explicit message on the author's part or simply an aspect of the prehistory context of Hyborian that lacks the racial component we give to skin color, but it was refreshing to see from stories written in the 1920s and 30s after the jarring use of the language.

Apparently many Conan stories are already in the public domain, but it's just so much more appealing to read them in book form. I'm definitely going to keep reading from here (the volume includes seven other stories), if only for the stellar prose (It's really very cool, I'm fairly enthralled with his descriptions). My hopes for the rest: a bit more personality and consistent likability to Conan, female leads that aren't so vapid, and a smoother pace. We'll see how it goes!

Patience is a Virtue

Yesterday reminded me why patience is such a practical virtue - quite the money-saver.

I've debated picking up Coldplay's album "Viva la Vida" for a while and never plunked down the cash. It wasn't terribly high on my album list, and I kept trying to remind myself not to be too impulsive. I hovered over it several times at the store, opting each time to not pick it up just yet.

Last night I popped over to Amazon's MP3 store to nab Junior Senior's wildly infectious "Move Your Feet" after hearing it on a buddy's inventive little flash video for it. There on the front page, at a special price of $2.99, was Viva la Vida. And not just Viva la Vida, it was the Deluxe Edition, which features the Prospekt's March EP: eight addition tracks consisting of two remixes and six songs dropped from the original album.

I got what I wanted and more, for about a fourth of the price, just by waiting several months. I need to use that as a reminder that I don't need the newest right now: that sixty-dollar 360 game will almost assuredly be rocking a twenty-dollar pricetag within a year, and that new album won't be more than a few bucks if I hold out a little bit.

Of course, any points I garnered for being practical are lost by admitting that I like Coldplay.

Chuck

Why destroy the magic?

I've long been a fan of fantasy author Terry Brooks, and his epic Sword of Shannara is still a personal favorite. In recent years my reading habits have moved away from his newer efforts towards more political, philosophical and classic writings, but something strange has come to my attention:

The Four Lands, with it's elves and dwarves, magic and high fantasy, is Earth, far in the future after a nuclear holocaust.

Seriously, was that necessary? Practically speaking, it doesn't add anything significant to the storyline, waving around in the air like some random, mutated appendage on an otherwise aesthetically pleasing creature.

It reminds me of George Lucas using the Phantom Menace to explain that the magical powers of the Force were the result of a high concentration of microorganisms in the blood stream. Nobody was screaming for a rationale behind the Force; It's the answer to a question only Lucas asked. It instead caused a backlash, because fans like the mystery and mysticism, the spirituality behind it.

This entry is a little bit disjointed, bore more out of frustration than any serious attempt at analyzing the trend of authors to turn their magic into the mundane. So it goes, I suppose - the Sword of Shannara remains my gold standard, even if I have to block the later absurdity out of my head.

The Chronicles of Narnia Deserve Better

I'm honestly finding myself a little torn on these new Narnia films. It's great to see Lewis' masterpieces (and my childhood favorites) receiving big-name Hollywood treatments, but at the same time, they're just not getting what they deserve. Much like the newer Star Wars movies, there's a part of me that almost would rather them not have been made, if only because the lower quality in turn sullies the original's legacy.

Having finally seen Prince Caspian in it's entirety, I'm let down a little more than I was with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's not that either of them have been bad movies; in fact, they've definitely been "superior" movies. They're just not what they could be, nor what the stories are deserving of being. They just stray too far from the original works and suffer because of it.

Those gifted with the honor of bringing Lewis' works to life through motion pictures just don't seem to entirely understand the source material. I've seen numerous quotes from the director, screenwriters and even the actors where they miss the mark Lewis laid out for them, and it's evident in the resulting production. It's terribly frustrating to see a mediocre student given a paint set when there are brilliant artists who could work wonders.

That's all I'll say for now, but I may just have to delve further into this at some point. 20th Century Fox has taken over Disney's role as producer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and there's talk of revising the script, so with any luck things will steer back on track. It's hard to watch someone's fantastic creation twisted and altered to become something a little less magical.

Test

Test

Christmas Trees in GTMO

I made the mistake of not pouncing on a tree at the Navy Exchange when they began putting up their Christmas section in, uh, October.  I hadn't thought about just how high in demand they'd be on a tiny island with a single store, so I was fairly dismayed when November turned into December and they still didn't have anything that wasn't several feet tall and pushing two or three hundred dollars.

It was with some luck that I stumbled onto a single four foot tree on Friday.  Sitting alone on the shelf and sporting a rather high forty-dollar price tag, I snapped it up.  I must have gotten lucky, since it appears to have been a display model, so I'm assuming it probably hadn't been on the shelf long.  Thanks to a little cash advance from a friend, I was good to go.

Although "pre-lit" takes away some of the fun (my fun, at least - I may have been the only one in our house who actually enjoyed putting on the lights), it's a perfect little fit for my room.  All that was left was to grab some ornaments...

...which apparently are now in short supply, rather than the trees themselves.  Having gotten paid today, I excitedly headed to the store, only to find they had four packages - yes, a mere four - of the generic bulb ornaments.  It would have been fine if they were multi-coloured, but the only two they had were, as far as I could tell, "Rust Brown" and "Shiny Rust Brown."  I nabbed a single box of "Rust Brown" - excuse me, "Mustang Velvet" - just to have something, with the hopes that they'll throw some more on the shelves in the next eleven days.

Thankfully, the good folks at home had supplied me with a handful of unique ornaments, including a nice, big black English "D," the traditional symbol for Detroit (not for "Dallas" or "Denver" as certain elements would try to assert).  And, of course, the numerous, carefully wrapped gifts rest under the branches, making the tree look all that much more appealing.

Now that I think about it, the tree is looking pretty fantastic.