How to Get SAR Values from your Android Smartphone

 Open the dialer app and type *#07#

How to Mirror the Screen of an Android Smartphone to a Linux PC

1. On the smartphone, set developer options on
2. On the Linux PC, install  scrcpy (sudo snap install scrcpy on Ubuntu)
3. Connect the smartphone to the PC via a USB cable then open a terminal session on the PC and type scrcpy

MacIntosh Classic Analog Board Recap

This post focuses on replacing the capacitors on the international version of the Macintosh Classic analog board 630-0525 Rev B 240V.

The figure below shows the capacitors to be replaced and their positioning on the analog board. For a more detailed picture, follow this link. Here, you'll find both the codes and values of the capacitors. 

The following table lists all capacitors with their value.

ID	µF	V
CP 10	470 µF	25 V
CP 9	470 µF	25 V
CP 34	1 µF	50 V
CP 7	1000 µF	10 V
CP 6	2200 µF	10 V
CP 36	2200 µF	10 V
CP 12	1000 µF	16 V
CP 8	2200 µF	16 V
CP 2	470 µF	50 V
CF 2	220 µF	16 V
CF 4	470 µF	25 V
CV 2	470 µF	10 V
CF 1	47 µF	25 V
CF 3	1000 µF	16 V
CL 11	47 µF	16 V
CP 3	10 µF	25 V
CP 37	1 µF	50 V
CL 1	1000 µF	25 V
CP 11	220 µF	50 V
CL 3	1 µF	50 V
CL 2	4,7 µF	250 V
CP 5	1 µF	50 V
CP 4	47 µF	25 V
CP 1	220 µF	400 V

Here, you find a list grouped by capacitor type.

Multiplicity	Capacitor
4	1 µF 50 V
1	4,7 µF 250 V
1	10 µF 25 V
1	47 µF 16 V
2	47 µF 25 V
1	220 µF 16 V
1	220 µF 50 V
1	220 µF 400 V
1	470 µF 10 V
3	470 µF 25 V
1	470 µF 50 V
1	1000 µF 10 V
2	1000 µF 16 V
1	1000 µF 25 V
2	2200 µF 10 V
1	2200 µF 16 V

 Hope this helps.

Vivaldi Browser - How to get saved passwords

For those who don't know Vivaldi, it is a browser based on Chromium. I personally use it instead of Chrome because I love its interface much more customizable than Chrome as well as its attention to privacy and security.

Although I use to let the browser save my credentials for accessing web sites, sometimes I need to get them back. Here comes the problem: how to find saved passwords in Vivaldi?

1) Type: chrome://settings/search#password into address bar

I'm not kidding. I know, we are in Vivaldi and not in Chrome, but trust me: type exactly chrome://settings/search#password into address bar. Vivaldi then will open a window similar to this one:

You may notice two things:

1. The window presents a vertical scroll bar and it shows the very end of the Settings page.
2. Vivaldi converts the chrome://settings/search#password URL into vivaldi://settings/search#password, but if you type this latter URL another page will be shown.

2) Scroll to the very beginning of the Settings page

At the very beginning of the Settings page there is a Passwords section. Now press on the right arrow corresponding to that section and... voilà! Saved Passwords appear.

Now you are almost done. Just click on the eye icon. 

Vivaldi will prompt you for your OS user credentials. Upon right completion of this check, Vivaldi will then unlock the password that corresponds to the eye icon you pressed before and you'll see it in clear.

TENMA 72-10165 Drivers Installation on Windows 10

TENMA 72-1065 is a PC-based oscilloscope, i.e. an oscilloscope that uses the PC for displaying signals. It comes with a mini CD ROM that contains Windows software: device drivers and a program to visualize data acquired through the device.
Although it's still sold nowadays, its bundling software comes from the past, clearly before the advent of Windows 10. That means that installing its device drivers on Windows 10 is not straightforward and is quite far from trivial. Here I'll explain how I managed to install them on the Windows 10 - based PC of my lab.

I'll start assuming that you already have the mini CD ROM with the software. If not, here I'll provide for you.

The first step is to execute the program "Setup.EXE" that comes with the bundle. This will install all the software for interacting with the oscilloscope but the device drivers. As a proof, after installing it, try to connect the oscilloscope and display some signals. You will end up with a message like: "Instrument not found. Possible causes are: driver is not found; instrument not connected to USB".

It turns out that the device drivers have not been installed.

The problem is Windows 10 contains a feature called "driver signature enforcement," i.e. it requires device drivers to be signed by the manufacturer.

Here, the manufacturer, TENMA, doesn't provide any driver signature, so... what?

The alternative for having signed drivers is to turn off the driver signature enforcement feature in Windows 10. Just follow these steps.

1) Restart Windows 10 in safe mode

Shift  + Click on Restart

2) Choose the option Troubleshoot

3) Choose Advanced options

4) Choose Startup Settings

5) Click on Restart

6) At restart, press 7 to disable driver signature enforcement

7) Update driver software

Now you are in Windows 10. Open the "Computer Management" window (you can do it either by searching Computer Management or by running compmgmt.msc in run window). Chances are you will face a situation like the following:

T72-10165 is not properly recognized and it appears under Other devices.
Right click on T72-10165 and choose "Update Driver Software".

Then select "Browse my computer for driver software". Now navigate to the folder "Driver" on the mini CD ROM.

8) Restart

The oscilloscope's device drivers have now been installed.

Troubleshooting Apple ITunes Update on Microsoft Windows

ITunes update on my Windows 7 PC. It had to be a trivial task... at least in theory. The only thing to do was just double clicking on the newest version of ITunes installer I downloaded before and waiting until it finished its job. You know, sometimes the reality goes beyond any imagination.

During the installation I got this error and as a result the entire update aborted.

"There is a problem with this Windows Installer package. A program required for this install to complete could not be run. Contact your support personnel or package vendor".

Apple, aka the inventor of user friendliness, was telling me something cryptic: "a program required for this install to complete could not be run". Now, my first question was: which program? But no info was given about.

Dear Apple, sometimes I guess you deliver these riddles to Windows users in the hope to converting them to your platform, where everything is wonderful and these error messages do non exist just because all is working like a charm. Well... I like riddles.

So, after an entire week-end spent on it, I discovered the solution. Which program caused this error message? Apple Software Update. It was missing or not properly installed on my PC.

These are the steps to follow for solving the error and to install ITunes correctly.

From Add or remove programs panel uninstall these programs in this exact sequence.

1. ITunes
2. Apple Software Update (if not present, just skip this step)
3. Apple Mobile Service Support
4. Bonjour
5. Apple Application Support (32 bit)
6. Apple Application Support (64 bit)

Now install ITunes.

If the error still appears, open Add or remove programs panel. Right click on Apple Software Update (now it has to be present) and choose repair.

Run the ITunes installer again. Now it should complete with no errors.

Hope this help.

Back to Samsung Firmware - part 2

It's time to get the root access. This operation can be accomplished in two steps.

1. Install a CWM (ClockWordMod) recovery
2. Install a zip file that allows to gain root access

The first step is needed because there's no way to install a zipped program into the phone without having a CWM recovery installed. Specifically, we will install the PhilZ kernel (for more info check this out).

Ok. Let's start.

1. Download PhilZ kernel.
2. Be sure the phone is switched off. 
3. Start it and press simultaneously VOLUME UP + HOME + POWER keys
4. Follow the instructions on the phone
5. Start Odin
6. Connect the phone to PC via USB cable
7. Click on the AP button in Odin window and load PhilZ kernel
8. Click on Start button. The transfer begins.

When the procedure terminates, the phone restarts. Now you will notice a yellow triangle just under the phone name. It indicates the phone kernel has been altered someway. Don't worry about it: it's possible to get rid of it. We will do it later, For the moment just forget about it.

Back to Samsung Firmware

Oops I did it. I mean, I installed CyanogenMod on my Samsung Galaxy S2.

After a week spent with it, I can say for sure that the only thing I really appreciated is the new version of Android OS (Kitkat, so Android 4.4.4, instead of Samsung's 4.1.2) . All the rest sucks (sorry!).

This is my list of major compliances:

1. Not energy efficient. A battery charge last at maximum half a day
2. Unstable. It reboots at least once a day
3. Ther's not an FM radio and I cannot live without http://www.modenaradiocity.it/

That's enough for me. Time to come back to Samsung Firmware: yes I will reinstall Samsung Firmware, obtain root access and remove all the unnecessary Samsung apps that only last memory.

It's 12:00 AM. Let's start.

As a first step let's do a Nandroid backup. It's easy to do it starting with an already installed CyanogenMod ROM. In fact CyanogenMod comes with a CWM-based Recovery that makes it easy to do a full, Nandroid backup.

1. Turn off the phone
2. Enter recovery mode: with the phone still off, press simultaneously VOLUME UP + HOME + POWER keys
3. The device will start in recovery mode
4. Select backup and restore (use VOLUME UP / VOLUME DOWN keys for moving through the menu items and use POWER key for selecting an item)
5. Choose either backup to /storage/sdcard0 or /storage/sdcard1
6. After about 15 mins, the procedure finished. My God! I started with a 65% of battery charge and now it's about 10%!!! Anyway, I chose to backup onto sdcard0, therefore the procedure created some subdirs for me, specifically: clockworkmod/backup and another directory labeled with today's datetime. Inside that directory the procedure saved all the stuff. 

It's 12:20 AM. My phone is charging now. I need to reach about the 60% of the full charge for completing the next step. So, let's pause for a while and have some rest/fun with other activities. 

It's 01:05 AM now. Phone charge is about 68%. Time to install Samsung Firmware back. We will use a PC with Odin already installed and Samsung firmware file already in there.

1. Connect the phone (still swiched off) to PC using a USB cable
2. Start Odin and load the original Samsung Firmware by clicking on AP button and selecting the corresponding firmware file
3. Start the phone keeping VOLUME UP + HOME + POWER keys pressed
4. Follow the instruction on the phone
5. Click Start button from Odin window
6. At the end of procedure the phone will install the Samsung Firmware and will boot.
7. If the phone keep restarting again and again without finishing the boot procedure, a hard reset is needed. In order to do this, switch off the phone. Then press VOLUME UP + HOME + POWER keys. The device will start in recovery mode. Select the item wipe data / factory reset and reboot.

It's 02:50 AM now. Samsung Firmware is working, but I haven't finished yet. I want to get rid of all the junk Samsung app that are pre-installed by the vendor. Ok. Time to root the phone.