How To Run ANDROID on PC with LiveCD without Buying a Phone or Messing Up with PC Files

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Google’s ANDROID is a talk of the town after iPhone and iPad. HTC’s Google Nexus One which we saw a year and half back didn’t do well but Google never looked back then. Samsung, Dell, Motorola, Sony and HTC received the correct OS as a feeding they were always looking for their phones since slower and sluggish Windows Mobile OS was not helping them to grow. See how we can compare all ANDROID powered phones in one place.
Android-x86 is a project through which it is possible to Install, Preview, Test ANDROID on PC without buying a mobile phone.
There are 3 ways to test ANDROID on a Intel Based x86 PC

1. Run ANDROID LiveCD by burning it on a CDROM or by creating a LiveUSB
2. Install ANDROID using this liveCD or USB to a hard drive
3. Run as a virtual machine through VMware Player

The idea is to test ANDROID UI, games, apps, Internet Browsing and lots more.
Please Note: This is not intended for Flashing your Android Phone. nor it would work that way.

STEP 1: Download ANDROID ISO

Visit Android-x86 website for more details.
Download ISO for LiveCD from Android-x86 Project Page

STEP 2: Download & Install VMware Player

You need to download & Install VMware Player.

STEP 3: Create virtual machine from downloaded ISO file

You have to change your virtual disk type to be IDE because the default type in VMware is SCSI, and Android-x86 kernel is not configured to support SCSI. You can follow these steps:
Create a virtual machine.
Edit virtual machine settings after the virtual machine created.
Choose the hard disk and remove it.
Add a hard disk to create a new virtual disk, then you can choose IDE as your virtual disk type.
When finished, you can install android-x86 normally.

STEP 4: Run LiveCD or Install ANDROID on this virtual machine

You can choose to run LiveCD without installing it Or select to install on virtual machine we created above. Installing would be a safer option so that you can have read-write access. It will not harm your computer data since we are only going to install it on a virtual machine space we created.


There are options different from windows to create a partition. Choose in the sequence shown above.


Once the formatting and installation is done, it will show you a menu through which you can select to log into Android,. It will then check if the Android is installed on a partition and login automatically to show you Lock screen as above.

Slide lock screen to unlock the phone and voilà! Choose menu & you can see ANDROID board with lots of icons.
Play around and test ANDROID on your PC!

Please Note

I have not yet completely explored this ANDROID on PC. There had been problems setting up Ethernet network connection and WiFi connection at my end. Try and see if they work at your end or not.
I saw many such projects but this one has good development activity going on as latest as up to 2011.

Coming Soon: New features for ANDROID on PC by Android-x86

Following is a list of new features that are being added into this project.

• Port Gingerbread to x86 (gingerbread-x86 branch)
• OpenGL hardware accelerator for SandyBridge platform (olv, cwhuang)
• New x86 toolchain (cwhuang)
• Ethernet update (Yi)
• New target sparta (Doug)
• New target viewpad10 (Al Sutton)
• New target viliv s5 (okwon)
• Mplayer porting (okwon)
• Support external monitor
• better power management
• multi-touch touchpad support
• test out all default applications

It looks neat to test Android if you have a great thirst of sneaking in to it without spending money on it.
I shall keep you posted, You too keep me posted if you try this and find some interesting points to share.
Enjoy

Create Better Passwords

No one expects to have their password jacked. That's why most people choose lousy ones to begin with. Below are the secrets to creating an impenetrable passcode for all your digital goodies:

Step 1: Avoid the Familiar

For starters, scratch the first cutesy, memorable password that comes to mind. As technology advances, so do the tools for password cracking -- so you're going to have to pull out the big guns. Avoid any word that can be found in a dictionary. Other no-nos include using personal info (names, birthdays, etc.), or anything derived from a pattern. The more random your starting point, the better.

Step 2: Use Every Type of Character Available

Now that you're thinking outside the box, it's time to add complexity. Each addition of multiple character types (i.e., upper case/lower case letters, numbers, symbols) complicates any sort of would-be pattern. So, you'll want to use as many as possible. A good way to start is by taking a random string of letters, and then replacing some of the characters with numbers ("1" for "l" and so on). After you've got a decent letter/number mix going, go back and sporadically add symbols. If the end result looks like gibberish then you're on the right track.

Step 3: Go For Length

Committing 40 random characters to memory can be a daunting task. On the flip side, a five character password is a security nightmare waiting to happen. Ideally, you'll want to find a middle ground when it comes to length. A password that you can't remember is useless, but try to stretch your mnemonic boundaries. Taking the time to add a few extra characters outside your comfort zone can increase the number of possibilities exponentially.

Step 4: Rotate Regularly

Don't get too comfortable with your new creation. It'll only be a matter of time before it needs changing. Even though you've created the ideal 'unguessable' password, there's the still a chance that the information can be gleaned through a keylogging program or social engineering. The best way to combat this is to keep your password changing. Choosing a set 'rotation day' every month should throw any would-be snoops off the scent.

Darpa’s Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey

Perhaps you thought the four-legged BigDog robot wasn’t eerily lifelike enough. That’ll change soon. BigDog’s makers are working on a new quadruped that moves faster than any human and is agile enough to “chase and evade.”
Boston Dynamics, maker of the Army’s BigDog robotic mule, announced today that Darpa has awarded it a contract to build a much faster and more fearsome animal-like robot, Cheetah.
As the name implies, Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah’s makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can “zigzag to chase and evade” and be able to stop on a dime.

Cheetah builds off work on the company’s previous four legged animal bot, BigDog.  It was built as a kind of unmanned pack mule, designed to carry equipment for troops on the battlefield. The robotic donkey could carry 300 lbs. over 13 miles on flat ground, take a swift kick and keep on moving. It’s creepy, lifelike movement can be seen on a number of videos online, climbing over hills and snow and hiking alongside soldiers, using GPS coordinates as its waypoints.
Aside from its unspecified military applications, Cheetah’s makers see it galloping to the rescue and building a brave new future in the fields of “emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel.”
Think that’s creepy? Wait till you see its humanoid, Terminator look-alike buddy.
Meet Atlas, Cheetah’s humanoid pal. Atlas is supposed to look more or less like the T-800 series of Terminators, minus the head. Its designers say it’ll be able to walk like a human over rough terrain, crawling on its hands and knees when necessary and turning itself sideways to slip through any narrow passages it encounters. Headless, with a torso and two arms, it’s a step up from Boston Dynamics’ other biped, the lower-body-bot Petman.
Petman was built to test out chemical weapons protective suits for the Army by “walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics” and “simulat[ing] human physiology.” Designers made it capable of walking heel-to-toe at 3.2 miles per hour and staying upright even after it gets pushed.
As the new models go into development, let’s hope Cheetah never develops a taste for human flesh and that Atlas doesn’t have any hard feelings about its predecessor being a poison-gas guinea pig for the Army.
Images: Boston Dynamics

Robofish

 

Small swimming robots could aid underwater sensing and exploration.

Borrowing from Mother Nature, MIT researchers have built a school of swimming robofish that slip through the water just as gracefully as the real thing, if not quite as fast. Mechanical-engineering colleagues Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado '99, SM '01, PhD '07 (above), and professor Kamal Youcef-Toumi, SM '81, ScD '85, designed the sleek and inexpensive robots to maneuver into areas where traditional underwater autonomous vehicles can't go. Fleets of them could be used to inspect submerged structures such as boats and oil and gas pipes; to patrol ports, lakes, and rivers; and to help detect environmental pollutants.
"Given the [robotic] fish's robustness, it would be ideal as a long-term sensing and exploration unit," says Valdivia y Alvarado. "Several of these could be deployed, and even if only a small percentage make it back, there wouldn't be a terrible capital loss."
Robotic fish are not new: in 1994, MIT ocean engineers demonstrated the four-foot-long Robotuna. Robotuna had 2,843 parts controlled by six motors, but the new robotic fish, which is less than a foot long, is powered by a single motor and is made of fewer than 10 individual components, protected by a flexible body. The motor, placed in the fish's midsection, initiates a wave that travels along the fish's body, propelling it forward. So far, the MIT prototype fish can swim as fast as one body length per second. That's much slower than real fish, which can cover up to 10 times their body length in a second.
As part of his doctoral thesis, Valdivia y Alvarado created a model that calculates how stiff each part of the robot's body should be to generate the desired speed and swimming motion. With this model, the researchers can use polymers to create a continuous fish body that is stiffer in some places and more flexible in others, instead of building each body section separately and then joining them together. "This philosophy can be used for more than just fish," says Youcef-Toumi. For example, it could help improve robotic prosthetic limbs.
This fall, the researchers plan to investigate more complex locomotion and test some new prototype robotic salamanders and manta rays, says Valdivia y Alvarado. This research should put their approach to a harder test.