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I’ve had enough of waiting for CyanogenMod 12 to arrive for my OnePlus One, so I’ve installed OxygenOS instead. Or rather flashed as they don’t offer OTA yet. First note, don’t follow their instructions in order to install TWRP, but rather this video. Otherwise you’ll still have Cyanogen recovery which won’t allow you to install OxygenOS. Other than that process is rather smooth as far as you’re able to read and follow the instructions, and install drivers and ADB/Fastboot first.

Recently I’ve finished Python course on codecademy and I’m hooked. The last language I’ve liked so much was PHP, but I lacked real incentive to start doing more advanced stuff. Python is different as I can create apps for my desktop (or even phone), not only for my server. It is quite logically organized, although there are few things I don’t like. And it’s the first language which forced me to indent my code which made it almost readable.

I was using Evernote few years back and then switched to OneNote. It was better in graphical organisation of the notes and its screenshooting tool is still the best. Plus I was already paying for Office so it was “free”.

Then Windows 8 happened and ruined screenshooting functionality. Now by pressing Windows+S you’re getting search instead. But I was still using it as I’ve got many notes there and UI was to my liking. And then another thing happened, I’ve started using VPN service for day-to-day browsing and guess what. MS Office isn’t playing nice with VPN connection. After yet another syncing problem I’ve switched back to Evernote.

If you’re using VPN which is based on OpenVPN, or anything other than Microsoft’s native VPN client where you have this magical “Use default gateway on remote network” option. And happen to use “Use following DNS server addresses” on your default network device where your VPN provider is using it’s own DNS server. Then you can encounter following message on OneDrive:

For me solution was easy. I’ve switched to “Obtain DNS server address automatically” and OneDrive is able to connect again. A bit inconvenient, but oh well, at least it’s working. I would gladly switch to Dropbox, especially that it has Linux app, but as I’m using Office365, which I really like, I have 1 TB of OneDrive space included. Where for Dropbox I would have to pay extra. And I’m a cheap person:)

Every fan of movies knows already that sequels are usually bad. There are exceptions, but they’re just confirming the rule. There is similar situation when it comes to TV series. Some series are good for only one season. Below are some examples.

Dexter. When I’ve watched first episode I was completely stunned. There was a series which had just everything I expect from good TV. Great and original story, good acting, proper level of “believability”. Each episode was simply perfect and many ideas just shaken my mind. But then second season came and that was it. I’ve survived few episodes, really willing to give it a chance, but it was simply bad. Entire feeling was lost and series was suddenly dead to me. 9/10 for first season, 5/10 for the second, I’ve not even bothered to watch the next ones.

I’m a horror movies, and books, fan for like forever. I’ve liked them even when I was small kid. I was scared like hell, but I’ve still wanted to watch them as they’ve had this special magnetism. Then I’ve started to read books and of course fell in love with Stephen King’s writing. This guy could write manual to VCR and I would still read that. After some time I’ve become immune to the fear presented in picture or by letters in the book. I’ve still enjoyed them much, but they weren’t able to shock me anymore. Of course there were exceptions, like Philosophy of a Knife. Which is this kind of movie I feel that after watching it something would irreversibly switch in my head. And I don’t want that. But this is rather hardcore example. I can watch Hostel or Saw and eat anything I like.

Well, according to the commercial above it is. But I tend to disagree. Sure there is a lot of stupid people there. And probably they’re the target of this platform as they’re spending the most of time on it. But common. Some individuals, including myself, are using it to simply stay in touch with friends and distant family, especially if you’re living abroad. And not everybody is addicted. I can live without Facebook for whatever period. But it’s nice source of entertainment and news about people I care about. However such commercials are lowering it to the level of dumb party-goers, hipsters and half-brains who cannot find any other activity for themselves than constantly reading about other peoples’ lives.

When I’ve started reading The Bookstore Strikes Back in the newest Atlantic I was thinking, well this is another nerdy lady who has too much of free time and is trying to make a fuss around her. How wrong I was. Or actually how well Ann Patchett is able to tell this story. As I’m always saying, I would read manual to screw driver with flush on my face if it was written by Stephen King. Some people just have this gift to tell even most boring story as if it was in fact the greatest adventure. And Mrs. Patchett has ability to sell any, even the craziest, idea just by creating interesting story around it. And she sold it to me.

I was setting up OpenVPN on my VPS today. I was following this tutorial and everything went smoothly until I’ve installed client on my Windows 7 desktop. I got connected, but my Internet traffic wasn’t forwarded through VPN and this was my main goal. So I’ve checked server config and applied few ideas found via Google, no luck. Modified iptables, still no forwarding. Then I’ve checked logs in my client, now I know that I should’ve started there. It turned out that because I was running client in standard user mode it wasn’t able to create proper routes in system as only admin can do it. The solution to this is to either run OpenVPN client as administrator, I don’t like it, or to add routes manually. I’ve chosen second option copying all route related lines from the log and adding them to bat file, then I’ve just run bat as administrator. Works like a charm!

For some time I was thinking about the post on how inconvenient Firefox is in comparison to Chrome. Actually there was only one small glitch, but it was driving me mad. In Chrome when you’re typing address the first suggestion is automatically filled in, so you just need to tap Enter. It’s very fast and intuitive. Unfortunately I also need to use Firefox, because it’s the only browser I know which has ability to use it’s own proxy settings, not the ones from system, and it’s really crucial to me. So it was driving me crazy that when I’ve typed part of address and hit Enter it navigated me to these three letters plus .com:) But today after update I can see that finally this functionality arrived also to good old fox, so I like this browser again.