Google’s major storage issues, data loss with Android 14 and how they hid and downplayed their mistake.

Intro
I didn’t expect much when Android 14 came out, looked around the forums and no major changes or issues. So a week into the release, I upgraded. A few days later I realized all the pictures on my phone were gone. Doing some googling led me to others having the same issue, except they described in more detailed the error, and the more I tried on my phone the more I realized how useless it had become. Applications crashing because of low storage, no ability to install new apps, cannot send or receive photos, camera is unusable because it thinks there is no storage. This bug in particular affected people with multiple profiles, a feature that a small percentage of android users use.
Initial response
What did google have to say about this? –NOTHING– no communication, or message or email. Then the articles on various sites came out highlighting the pointing to the issue. Which forced google to acknowledge it.


Public response and Issue tracker

So google started a public page for the bug on their external bug tracker, it listed the issue as P2, it’s a bug but not critical, and no google member assigned to it. Android 14 release continued, they’d fix the issue eventually but no timeline yet, and worse, no communication of official statement. As this went on, people who called google were told to factory reset their device and lose their data, many people got stuck in a boot loop with no way to use their phone or backup their data, and the fortunate ones had a significantly useless phone, but it would at least boot up. a week or two passed and the issue tracker reported more people and more loss of data. Three weeks later and only a couple communication messages on the issue tracker, barely any communication, or apology. Sometime in those two weeks they realized the screw up and changed to status to P0 which means critical bug and needs to be fixed before any major release of android. By now the number of people having this issue got closer to one thousand, many people stuck on boot loop and many waiting for useless phones.
I’m not sure if this page will still be up but this is the link to the issue tracker
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/305766503?pli=1

Do realize that many people depend on their phones for two factor authentication, an unusable phone means you won’t have access to secure services like email, VPN, etc which are daily necessities for many.

Hiding the screw up

The release notes on the Android 14 QPR1 Beta 2.2 (November 2023) page did not explicitly list this issue, even though it clearly fixed it. The only note that maybe alluded to this critical issue was this
Fixed an issue that caused memory corruption in rare cases.
Which does not encompass the severity of the bug that was fixed.

For me and for many, this will be my last pixel phone. It’s not the fact that they had a bug in their software, it’s the lack of communication, urgency and accountability. Not only the it feel like they were dragging their feet on fixing this, but people who actually lost data or precious memories did not even get an apology for the screw up.

This bug appears to have resurfaced in 1/24/2024…

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/24/24048920/google-pixel-bug-internal-storage-access-crashing-apps

Job Searching in 2022-2023

Job searching after the pandemic has been difficult, there is lots of competition, especially with the many layoffs happening in many larger companies and everywhere. I also found it difficult given my specific knowledge of single-cell image analysis which is a much smaller field. With all the competition, especially in the data science, domain knowledge was what I think made me stand out from other candidates. I wanted to share with others my job application trajectory to give some perspective of what it took.

If you are looking for a job, don’t get discouraged and keep applying. You can see how most of my applications got no responses and many rejected soon after I applied.

If you’re curious to see the code that I used checkout the repository
https://github.com/emmanuel-contreras/jobs_sankey_plot

Reasons why Linux (Ubuntu 22.04) can’t be my daily driver.

Updated: 2023/01/09

Main Reason: Stability

There is and inherent sense of anxiety and fear not knowing how your OS will react in any certain day depending on the task and whether or not it will be compatible with what you need.

Video Conferencing

  • This is lacking, online versions of zoom, webex, teams aren’t very well made and the desktop clients are lacking a lot of features. On top of this Wayland doesn’t support desktop sharing which is a pretty essential feature depending on your job.

Word Processing

  • No Microsoft Suite support
    • Closest I could find was OnlyOffice but it’s missing a lot of tools that makes MS Office work well.
  • No Adobe products including Adobe Reader
    • This is fairly important for signing legal documents.

Automation

  • There isn’t a robust built-in automation tool to use like macOS Automation

Other Random Issues

  • Mapping network drives can be difficult
    • By far not as straightforward and easy as in windows,
  • Remote Desktop (Remmina) isn’t as well made as Windows Remote Desktop
    • You can easily copy files between remote and local client as well as copy and paste from the buffer.


GPU Support

  • I have a NVIDIA 3070 Ti so with that in mind:
    • GUI/UI issues
      • Desktop icons shifting by themselves
      • With multi-monitors, dragging and dropping icons sometimes highlights them on both screens with unpredictable end placement on desktop
    • Fractional scaling breaks when using multi-monitor and launching games full screen
    • Sleep and then resume boots to a black screen with no icons or distorted text
      • It seems like it’s been going on for a while

Conclusion

I would love to switch over to Linux one day as my main operating system, but there are too many sacrifices and hurdles where I’m spending more time troubleshooting than actually being productive. I still revisit Linux every 5 years or so and hope enough progress has been made but unfortunately this year is not the year.

Tech Review: Netgear has started to put ads on their firmware

Take a look at the router GUI Below, notice anything different? AN AD ON THE LEFT SIDE!!!! I wasn’t a huge fan of netgear before but this will definitely prevent me from buying any future products. Shame…

This is the initial book screen to your router after firmware reset, you have to scroll down to the bottom and then below will be a link to enter normal router functions. So they basically try to confuse you into using their app…

Note: I ended up sending these two R6120 routers for electronics recycling, I could not consciously sell these to anybody knowing how horrible they are. I will not buy netgear products anymore

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Review: What to expect switching from a flat monitor –> to curved –> back to flat

Flat to Curved

About half a year ago I purchased a Samsung curved monitor (https://amzn.to/2YopwUj) thinking I’d see what it’s like to use a curved monitor. After setting it up and using it for 5 minutes I regretted getting it, everything looked curved, lines were curved, the taskbar was curved. How am I supposed to tell a straight line on here if everything looks curved?! Especially looking at designs and measurements.

Having already bought it, I kept using it having set it up and bought it thinking “maybe I’ll get used to it”. I kept on using it and the curves gradually faded into the background and I stopped noticing that it was curved monitor, lines looked “straight” and not curved like I used to. I’d say it took about 2 weeks to get used to it, but it’s hard to say since it was a gradual transition.

Curved to Flat

Fast forward to a few days ago 1/25/2021, I setup my new 4k monitor a Dell U2720Q (https://amzn.to/39wXlsR) and the first thing I noticed was that it felt like the monitor was bulging out, convex, as If the monitor screen had been wrapped around a ball, like a CRT monitor. It’s been a couple of days and it’s starting to feel more normal, I will update the post with an estimate of when it felt “normal” to look at a flat monitor again.

Conclusion:

If you are switching from a flat to a curved monitor or a curved to a flat monitor realize that it will take getting used to, give it a couple weeks. I think the curved monitor does reduce the travel your eyes have to do to scan the screen but because the majority of monitors aren’t curved monitors, it means that your brain will interpret flat monitors as convex. This will only be a problem if you use the opposite monitor of what you use mostly to any large extent.

  • This guy on youtube does a good job of also explaining this phenomena.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK06qjVTJzs
  • And I also found this reddit post of others having the same experience
    • https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/hawb4j/switching_from_curved_to_flat_monitor_screen_now/

Review: My Experience with Paypal’s Buyer Protection

On June 2nd 2019 I purchased a 2015 Macbook Pro A1398 from ebay as a new present to myself as my first large purchase after getting a new job for a few months $835 was my winning bid and I thought it was a good price. My previous macbook was a A1502 2013 2.4Ghz dual core macbook pro 13″ with 16gb. It was a good computer still but not enough processing power for my needs so I got a new computer and my dad got a new (used) computer as well 🙂

After a few weeks of owning the laptop it found it in my backpack with the fans on high and black screen, I quickly shut it down and it started up again fine. I brushed it off as a weird bug. A couple of weeks later went by and it happened again, this is when I reinstalled the operating system and hoped it was just a faulty OS install.

It happened again a couple of weeks after that. I would have returned it but it was past the ebay 30 day return days. I decided to take it to a certified apple repair store to see if it was a simple to fix .

Diagnostics without repair are $105 which I had to pay. They diagnosed a bad logic board, something to do with the hard drive. They purposely didn’t give me specifics on errors or codes found. They suggested flat fee tier 2 repair of $650 dollars ($$@#*&) I was not happy about this.

I contacted ebay to try to get a return and explaining to them the intermittent nature of this problem, but because of the 30 day return policy it was denied. They suggested going through Paypal who (supposedly) had a 60 day return policy I contacted them and started a case.

Below is the timeline of what happened.

I really thought I had a good chance since by taking it to the apple store they had found that the laptop, originally listed as used, had a different serial number on the outside than the internal hardware, signifying that it had previously been opened and fasely listed as Used when it was really Refurbished. In addition, the diagnostics had come from a reputable certified apple repair store, I did not attempt to open the macbook myself or diagnose it.

In the end, they closed it the first time stating that

We understand the item associated with this case has been altered while in your possession. Because of this, we are unable to determine whether the item is significantly different than originally described, and we are unable to grant your claim.

Calling them and explaining to them that no repairs were done re-opened the case, I was able to send them the original receipts from the apple certified store stating that no repairs were done. The case was closed the next day stating that

This decision was made because the merchant sent the item that was ordered.

What is the point of having a 60 day warranty if even after providing proof that the item was defective by a third party certified apple store, they were still siding with the seller….

At this point after a month of fighting this case. closed both times and seeing it was going nowhere I knew paypal was not going to be of any help.

I took it back to the apple repair store and was ready to pay the $650 to have a working computer, not much else I could do. For this type of repair they have to send it to apple and they do the repairs.

A few days later I got a call from them stating that apple had escalated the type of repair and it was now considered tier 4, a cost of $1500 dollars. (@#%*)!$%) I straight up told them, I’m not paying for that, that’s basically a new computer. I picked up the laptop the next day and thought about what I would do with it.

While looking for possibly a new logic board on ebay, something I did not want to risk be defective and me mess up installation, I came across a service for diagnostics and repair for macbook pro logic board. It was listed for $145 +$10 tax. I sent a message and the seller quickly replied stating that if they can’t fix it I get my money back. Cosidering the $650 I was ready to pay for and the ridiculous $1500 estimate from apple I decided to give it a try.

The seller I first contacted and was very responsive was J&M Industries It took them about 10-14 days from the time I sent it to them to get my laptop back. I got it back Monday, Sep 30, 2019 and so far the problem hasn’t resurfaced. They told me that the sleep sensor on the logic board had corrosion, so they cleaned it and replaced it. They offer a 90 day warranty with their service which I thought was awesome 🙂

I will provide an update if I experience any problems with the laptop

  • June 2nd 2019 – Purchased Laptop
  • June 6th – Laptop arrived and started using it
  • August 1st 2019 – Requested a return through ebay. Seller declined the next day
  • August 6th – Took in to an apple certified repair store for diagnostics
  • August 9th – Reported to paypal
  • August 20th – Claim closed in sellers favor
  • August 29th – Messaged paypal with documents from apple certified store that no repairs were done, the case was re-opened.
  • August 31st — Claim closed again in sellers favor

How To and Review: Lightworks

Problems and solutions!

  • Multi Cam video out of sync (GoPro and phone video)
    • Convert using Handbrake to Constant frame rate
    • If you make proxies with variable frame rate and import your high quality video, the proxies will still be variable frame rate and wont edit correctly.
  • Constant loading of app, cursor turns to spinning wheel every other second when clicking through clips.
    • Right Click on clip>Media>Create Proxy
    • Click on
  • Switching camears in Multi-cam view not working
    • Switch to flexible layout, multi-cam functionality not possible in fixed layout
  • Move Lucy to a different spot
    • Move preference box to a location you want Lucy to be, right click Lucy and  drag to the place you want her, then let go and quickly click on the “save preferences” Button
  • Sync Multi-Cam video ( Make sure you have Constant Frame Rate on video first!)
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjpdVp11MsA
  • Cutting Clips
    • Place red cursor on video and press c or del, then right click and close gap, this doesn’t work on tracks with multiple video!
    • use in-point and out-point, place track where you want to make initial cut, then press “i” then take red cursor to last point and press “o” then press delete
  • Edit audio and adding keyframes
    • Hover over the audio track with your mouse and hold SHIFT. This will let you add keyframes to the audio in order to adjust the levels
  • Using Proxies (for lightning fast editing!)
    • Right click clip>Media>Make Proxies
    • Click on project title>Video>Playback Media Quality>Lowest available
    • https://www.lwks.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=26&id=122511&Itemid=81

Review! Sunset Sunrise Alarm Clock (Instructions Included!)

I’ve been tempted to get one of these clocks for a while. Luckily I found one at my local thrift store for $3.50!! Without instructions it wasn’t too bad to setup, but understanding how it works was a nightmare without instructions. I thought it was a sunrise ONLY alarm clock, BUT the button under the FM radio is actually the sunset on/off button! I kept setting the sunset alarm as my wakeup alarm thinking that was setting the 0-100% brightness alarm, but what it was actually doing was going from 100%–>0% brightness as the time was reached. The sunrise alarm feature is controlled by the regular alarm (Bell icon).

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Review: Cheap Chinese USB Car Adapters (AD85063) (AVOID!!)

I thought I’d save some money and buy some cheap USB car adapters. I think it cost about $1 each. When they arrived I questioned whether they could actually out put 2.1A and 1A in simultaneously.  I opened one up and looked up the chip AD85063, did some searching and came across a similar post. The chip’s datasheet specifies that it can output 700MAh at 5v… This is nowhere close to the 2.1/1.1A specified… I quickly asked the seller for a refund, linking them to the datasheet, and they refunded me my money. Long story short, cheap comes at a cost.

 

Source:

Review: Donating Plasma

Donating Plasma seems like a way to make easy money. The first five times you get $50 dollars, then it goes down to $25 or $35 depending on how much you weigh and how much plasma they can get out of you. Employees in the front desk are often undergraduate students who are pre-med, have in interest in medical field or want to make money. There are also like 3-4 nurses present as well as phlebotomist’s. From my conversations the younger adults working there (20’s/30’s), are there for the money, are there while they pay for school, or in the process of applying to schools. Overall the staff was very friendly and fun to talk to.

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