Happy New Year

Yup, 2011 is done! And to celebrate Google has the following doodle up today:

And being 2012, I suppose it’s time to cue the end of the world/calendar cartoons…

From Bizarro Blog:

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From WebDonuts:

From Scientific Madness:

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No Carrier IQ on my Samsung Galaxy 580

Last week there was a bit of media kerfuffle about “Carrier IQ” – a hidden application installed on some phones that can log all sorts of things for the phone company (see this Lifehacker article with links to Android developer Trevor Eckhart’s posts here and here - the dev who discovered the app).

While I’m not overly concerned about the app, given that Vodafone NZ deny using it and as it turns out the logging/spying appears to have overblown given this post by security researcher Dan Rosenberg, I thought I’d try out one of the detector apps to satisfy my curiosity. The app I tried was the Voodoo Carrier IQ detector and it came up clean for me:

Part of the reason I wanted to check myself is that I’m not running the phone+software as purchased from Vodafone NZ. I rooted my phone and installed a new Froyo ROM on it (see this post) and as such is not running fully vetted/authorised by Vodafone NZ.

So, despite a lack of concern it’s nice to see it’s not on my phone.

For completeness, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy 580 (aka Galaxy 3 or GT-I5800) running Froyo 2.2 (an XXJPM build) on the Vodafone NZ network. Here’s my about/status screens:

 

I’m a Samsung

A brilliant ad from Samsung taking a pot-shot at the Apple fanboys:

 

The best line in the ad would have to be: “If it looks the same how will people know I upgraded?” followed closely by “I could never get a Samsung, I’m creative”. LOL!

Nice one Samsung. I’d like to think that S2 will be my next Galaxy phone…

Thanks to all Mo supporters

Finally, here it is, in all its glory. My 30 day old mo!

Mmm, bushy!

This was of course grown for Movember 2011, to raise awareness of men’s health issues and to raise funds for the Cancer Society and Mental Health Foundation here in New Zealand. The glorious mo you are gazing at was one of 13,112 officially registered mo’s in NZ, and raised $470 (to date) towards the NZ total of more than $1.2M out of a global total exceeding $132M.

So, to all my supporters and anyone else who donated to the cause – thank you for your support! Your generous donations make a month of mo growin’ well worthwhile.

Finally, if you missed out and still want to contribute, donations are still being accepted and you can still sponsor my mo via:

mobro.co/ChrisNZ

 

Thanks again,

Mo Bro Chris.

Google doodle for NZ election

Nice little Google doodle for today:

The Mo is back!

Yes folks, it’s moustache growing season with the return of Movember.

From nz.movember.com:

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men’s health.

At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo, raising money along the way to benefit men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

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Here in New Zealand, funds raised for Movember go to the Cancer Society of New Zealand and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand and in 2010 over 9,500 New Zealand Mo Bros and Mo Sistas got on board, raising $1 Million.

Personally, this will be my 6th year of mo-growing and I’m hoping to match if not exceed my 2010 fundraising total of $595 (which broke my 2009 total of $565).

Why am I doing this? Through my mo growing I hope to raise both awareness and funds by no doubt generating some laughs and sparking conversations. Here’s a few stats,

• 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime
• This year 240,890 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed
• 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime
• 24% of men are less likely to go the doctor compared to women

So how can you donate to the cause? Great question and I’m glad you asked! The easiest way is to hit my Mo Space page and click the big DONATE TO ME button. If you prefer, you can also post a cheque or flick me some cash and I’ll process a payment for you – get in touch and I’ll help out.

Thanks in advance for your support.

mobro.co/ChrisNZ