Updating the Nexus 5 to Adroid L

1. I needed to update the USB drivers and found them here:  http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html -- without it, the phone would not work with adb / fastboot
2. adb reboot-bootloader (reboots your phone into fastboot mode -- works if #1 works!)
3. fastboot devices (shows you the phone connected hopefully if #1 works!)
4. fastboot oem unlock (as the device is locked by default -- )
1. Funnily, or maybe not, it deletes everything on the phone when you chose this option
2. For reference, it took 45 seconds to wipe my Nexus 

C:\Users\sd>fastboot oem unlock
...
OKAY [ 45.840s]
finished. total time: 45.847s

If you want some photos, check out this page:  http://www.droid-life.com/2013/11/04/how-to-unlock-the-nexus-5-bootloader/

1. Go to the folder where you have extracted / downloaded Android "L" 
2. Run:  flash-all
3. Here is the output I had

sending 'bootloader' (2508 KB)...
OKAY [  0.326s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  0.467s]
finished. total time: 0.806s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.087s]
finished. total time: 0.093s
sending 'radio' (45505 KB)...
OKAY [  2.036s]
writing 'radio'...
OKAY [  3.107s]
finished. total time: 5.160s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.080s]
finished. total time: 0.086s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
archive does not contain 'tos.img'
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 29236371456
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8192
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 32768
    Label:
    Blocks: 7137786
    Block groups: 218
    Reserved block group size: 1024
Created filesystem with 11/1785856 inodes and 156120/7137786 blocks
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 734003200
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 7472
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 2800
    Label:
    Blocks: 179200
    Block groups: 6
    Reserved block group size: 47
Created filesystem with 11/44832 inodes and 5813/179200 blocks
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: HHZ11k
Baseband Version.....: M8974A-2.0.50.2.08
Serial Number........: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [  0.100s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [  0.079s]
checking version-baseband...
OKAY [  0.093s]
sending 'boot' (8754 KB)...
OKAY [  0.536s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.750s]
sending 'recovery' (9412 KB)...
OKAY [  0.643s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.781s]
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  1.311s]
sending 'system' (683564 KB)...
OKAY [ 27.972s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 46.692s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 15.515s]
sending 'userdata' (139109 KB)...
OKAY [  5.937s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  9.362s]
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.485s]
sending 'cache' (13348 KB)...
OKAY [  0.756s]
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [  1.069s]
rebooting...
finished. total time: 115.481s

That's it -- cool, eh?

What's changed?  Well, after the android dude disappears (after install completes), the android colours/balls go flying in a crazy pattern on the boot screen animation.  no clue how long this goes for...

1 year, 1 month and a few days...

It would appear that I have neglected this blog for some time.  The exact amount of time, approximated to the subject of this post.  What's new?  What has been going on?  Quite a bit ... quite a bit.

• Celebrated another fantastic wedding anniversary
• Jack had a pretty awesome birthday party -- being born so close to Hallowe'en, it has its benefits
• We had a trip somewhere, a few times
• Lake Garda, Italy
• Toronto, Canada
• New York
• Las Vegas
• Played a lot of ice hockey in the '12-'13 season with the Dental Flyers

A lot of the events and adventures posted above were recorded with pictures and various videos and posted online -- 

• Picasa web album
• Youtube channel

Over the next few weeks, I will try to start posting again to here -- mixing it up between life relevant stuff, tech. stuff ( i haven't dropped out of tech ...! ) and well, anything else really.

Long story short, we're still here, and we're all fantastic!

Hello Galaxy, Part 2

After my previous post, a few other things have popped up regarding my Galaxy S3:

• [B] Unable to view/find any 5Ghz wireless networks.  I have a Linksys E4200 with  Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (06/14/11) mega installed.  I have 3 networks broadcast.  1 for BG mixed, 1 for N only (5Ghz) and 1 for guests.  
• [B] Cannot connect via USB to browse files.  Apparently I need to install Samsung Kies.  If you've ever done that in the past ( i have ... ) You'll know that is the worst decision you could ever make -- Kies is HORRIBLE.  I've resulted to ejecting the MicroSD card from the phone, and reading it on my laptop to write files that way....

Hello Galaxy.

2 years ago, in a country far far away (Qatar) I purchased my first Samsung Galaxy S.  At the time, I thought it was one of the best phones I have ever had.  I had a blackberry before and this was a world of difference.  Sleek, feature rich and fun.  Capturing some great moments, like Jack growing up, were so easy and the Android experience was pretty awesome.  Take a photo, or video, and upload it to picasa or youtube without any hassle.  Compare that with a blackberry experience -- there was no comparison.

Fast forward 23 months (last week) and I have purchased and received the new Galaxy S3.  We didn't just purchase one.  We being the family -- we purchased 2.  Lucy had a Samsung Ace.  A white one and a "pebble blue" one.

Lucy received hers near on 2 weeks ago.  Maybe more.  What a difference!  The Ace was archived immediately.  Her experience with Android went up 300% -- and she's non-tech.

I on the other hand, received my mobile some 40 days after ordering it .. near on 2 weeks once they started shipping in Europe.  Pebble Blue.  After using it for the past 4 days, my thoughts:

• [G] Best phone I've ever owned.  The Galaxy S was super quick compared to the Ace.  The Galaxy S3 shows me how slow and HEAVY the Galaxy S is/was.  
• [B] The power button on mine has "stuck" once -- forcing the phone into a reboot cycle.  Not sure if it's the case or something more sinister.  It's only happened once.  Could be, the Galaxy S3 is a bit more fragile compared to the Galaxy S.  A bit more finesse and loving touch, and the problem hasn't resurfaced.
• [B] There is a slight defect on the back cover.  If you read about the pebble blue delays, you'll know that these were all redone due to quality issues.  The defect, although very slight, you can still feel it.  It is similar to a Braille character.  I'll live with it and doesn't bother me.  
• [G] Battery life is pretty nice compared to the Galaxy S.  On a normal day, with 3G enabled, playing music and using it -- I consume about 40% of the battery.  With the Galaxy S, I consumed 100% in the same amount of time.
• [G] Over the wire upgrading works.  This feature never worked for me on the Galaxy S.  When I started up the S3, I was notified about a software update -- and it worked!  
• [G] I'll mention the camera.  When buying a new phone, the expectation is that it is better than the last.  The camera (video and still images) is far superior to the previous versions -- as expected.

Still getting used to it, but overall, as in my first point, it is the best phone I've ever had.  It pushes the iPhone now to grow up.  This is lighter, brighter and nicer ... 

2012, bring it.

2012 is here.  Lucy and I celebrated our first New Year's Eve in Zurich with Chinese take-away and  Luxemburgerli from Lindt & Sprüngli -- The only kind we had purchased were the Champagne ones.

The Chinese take-away was by far, one of the better ones we had had.  However, when comparing the price of it to what it costs in the UK, or even back home in Canada ... not sure the value was there.  Still, this is where we decided to live ... so this is what we live with. $125.00 for two people.  We didn't have a lot of food ... !

Jack's blog is up to date with some new photos ... It's now 1300hr on New Year's Day and I'm taking Jack to Thalwil for his 2nd go at ice skating.  His last attempt, on Christmas Eve was excellent.  He managed to pull himself up off the ice and stand up on his own ... and waddle along like a penguin.

2012 is exciting for us.  Jack will turn 3.  My Grandmother and Lucy's Nan will turn 94 and we have the wedding of Ninj to see to .. all 2 of his weddings.  So far, the first quarter of 2012, even with the extra day, will be super busy with fun things!

Happy new year to you and yours ... from the Dolgy's in Switzerland.

#Know11 -- Service Now Conference

For those who follow me on twitter and elsewhere, you may have found out (through many many tweets) that I have been out of the office the past two weeks for work.  7 or 8 airports over the course of two weeks!  Not many people get excited by that.

I presented at the Knowledge 11 Conference for ServiceNow! on December 8, 2011.  It was nice to be able to share some of the success stories we are developing here at Swiss Re related to IT Service Management.

The presentation was with one of our colleagues (exceptional chap) from Infosys, Subbarao Chaganty about the concept and IT Capability we developed around "Task Management" in ServiceNow!

Some people will tout the values of Runbook Automation in ServiceNow.  I think they've done a great job at developing something cool ... but it really is only applicable in circumstances where you have a fully repeatable end-to-end process you can automate.  After working in this space for almost 10 years (automation related to IT services and infrastructure) it's a daunting and often impossible task to get buy in from all of the key stakeholders to support the documentation, agree to an end to end process, and the subsidiary tasks --- all are strong requirements before you can automate fully and properly.

How did we differentiate ourselves so that we can contribute value back to the business?

You'll have to wait and see ... The presentation should be available online at some point in time:  http://www.slideshare.net/servicenowdotcom/tag/knowledge11-europe

• "Driving Task Management Efficiencies"  

6 days to go....@jdolgy

Jack turns two in less than a week.  I thought I'd take a non-technical interlude to reflect.  Two years ago now ... Lucy had encountered a few problems with the pregnancy and I'd rushed her super duper quick (i broke a few traffic laws) to Al-Ahli Hospital in Doha, Qatar.

For those who are new to reading this and that, I had this fantastic idea 30 months ago to move my wife who was six months pregnant to Doha for what was sold as an epic work adventure in "thought leadership" and a genuine opportunity to work on some pretty neat things.

We have a lot of fond memories from our time in Doha, especially the ones that happened the week after October 24, 2009.  Jack was born on the 24th via emergency c-section.  A little over 5lbs.  Not bad for being 2 months early!  He spent 5 days in NICU and neither of us could hold him that entire time.  On the 5th day, they said right ... Lucy, discharged.  Jack, discharged IF we could bottle feed him.  ha ha.

A lot of people told us before, during and after, how time flies ... It really has.  Jack is a proper boy now ... full weight, full menace.  Terrible 2's have started early and he fully enjoys testing the limits of Lucy.  He's trying to find his boundaries and is enjoying each and every minute of it.

Here is Jack from Yesterday:


I had written a bit on his blog the other day too.  http://jack.dolgy.com/

Anyway ... the next post will be back to uber geeking.  Just thought I'd duck out while my computer is being rebuilt and leave some candid thoughts..