Dim Fate Ahead for Recent Chapter of Computer History?

 Sharp IS01 Android 1.6 device (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Prior to the advent of Internet-centric devices, such as Android tablets or Chromebooks, it could be reasonably be expected for a computer to be usable as long as its components and power sources were functional or could be readily replaced.  For example, if an Apple II computer is working, it can still do everything that it could when it came out of the box new 40 years ago (although it may require other contemporary devices such as a cassette tape recorder for mass storage).  However if an Internet-centric device is put through a factory reset sequence even a scant few years after it was purchased, the software that enabled it to be in a usable state that was not in ROM may no longer be available, either because something like the latest version of the Firefox web browser won't support an older device, or the primary source of software such as the Android Marketplace or Google Play is no longer available.

Last month Google announced it was Ending support for Android Market on Android 2.1 and lower after just 7 years.  While I understand that older devices can't be supported forever, since much of the software is not available through means other than a single official channel like the "Android Market," this means it possible the heritage of this generation of devices may increasingly be lost to computing history forever.  Likewise if development environments and emulators used to originate the software are carefully archived as virtual machines that can be run in the future, we may escape having a missing link in the history of computing devices.

Google Play Services Can Kill an Any Android Device

If you see this message on an Android device and do a factory reset,  your device is toast.

If your Android device is giving you the message "Unfortunately, Google Play services has stopped." do NOT perform a factory reset.  Play services are apparently essential to the Google account login process required to restore your phone to normal operation.  If Play services are not running, the login attempt will abort, and the phone will no longer function normally; only emergency calls are permitted, and there is no access to apps, the camera, etc.

This problem can potentially kill any make, model, or flavor of Android device in existence.  After application of an Android 5.1 Lollipop update from Verizon on my Moto X 2nd Gen. phone, I started getting the "unfortunate" message above.  The pop-ups occurred without end, so I ultimately performed a "wipe data/factory reset" operation in an attempt to remedy the issue, which led to me being locked out of the device entirely.

Account authentication after reset is used to thwart crime so a thief can't simply wipe your phone and then sell it.  After a factory reset, the owner has to complete an authenticated login to a Google account to allow the phone to be enabled.  If your Play services are stopped however, immediately upon password submission a Play services error occurs and the login attempt starts over again from the beginning.  Login attempts still generate email notices to the associated Google account for successful authentications, and bad passwords are rejected, so the device is obviously functioning.  However the stopped service always aborts the login attempt, and the authentication process continues in an endless loop.  Without an extended warranty Verizon doesn't care, an expensive smartphone can become an extremely dumb phone, and best practices for updating devices become the worst ideas ever.

Avast Free Antivirus Version 11 Annoyances

Successfully Executed Chrome Browser Diagnostics

There are 19 available Chrome diagnostics as of this posting date; the following is a successful execution from Chrome Canary (https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/canary.html).  Note that Canary's executable is in a different location of "C:\Users\your-account\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\".)

Chrome Browser Diagnostics

The Chrome diagnostic output appears in a new command prompt window, and appears to halt execution after the first diagnostic failure.

The Google Chrome browser has diagnostics.  From Windows 7, enter a command prompt and navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application and then execute chrome --diagnostics.  The result of the diagnostic is shown here; [FAIL] is bad.

Data Choices Tab Added to Firefox 24 ESR Options

Firefox Health Report is enabled by default.

How Keys Work

New Java 7 Exploit Not in Java 6

Java 6 (left) does not appear to display the vulnerability in Java 7 (right).

According to US CERT, there is a zero-day vulnerability in Java 7. According to Brian Krebs in his commentary about the issue and my inspection of the Java Control Panel (see picture), this vulnerability only seems to exist in Java 7 and not Java 6.  The Java Run-Time Environment (JRE) 1.6 update 38 can be downloaded for Windows, Linux, and Solaris from Oracle.  At the time of writing the end of life for Java 6 was already announced. 

A Dawn During STS-130

Click on the picture for the high-resolution download.  This is just one of many wonderful images in many categories available from NASA.