Aaron Gadberry

Yesterday all of my attempts to download from the Android Market on my Samsung Moment were met with a nagging “Download Unsuccessful” message. The app ended up appearing in the Downloads list of the market, but was not installed. This happened for all apps across all publishers.

I reset the phone, I re-synced my primary google account (google apps), added my gmail google account, updated Profile, updated PRA, cleared the Market cache, turned the phone off and took out the battery for a few minutes, and still continued to have the problem. I called tech support and went through to 3rd tier pretty quickly only to have the guy suggest a reset to factory. I said I hoped that Google had more answers than Sprint and hung up.

Sure enough on Google this morning I found this page. Just so you don’t have to go read it all, what worked for me is below:

Applications–>Settings–>Applications–>Manage applications
Menu–>Filter: All
Download Manager–>Clear data

And what do you know…I get my ability to download back without doing a factory reset.

Yesterday I saw a status message set to:

*WARNING**Go to the top right of your screen, click Account & then click Edit Friends. Go to the left side of your screen and click Phonebook. Everyone’s phone # is being published. Please repost (sic) to let your friends know of this change in security, so that they can remove their phone numbers or change their privacy settings…

I went and checked out my Phonebook and noticed that all the phone numbers in there were from Facebook friends that had them listed in their profiles. I think it’s not so bad for Facebook to organize the information that people have made available to me already. Apparently this is a pretty old feature I had just never seen. False alarm. Nothing to see here.

Then I saw this message at the top of the screen.

To learn more about Phonebook or to delete any contacts imported from your phone, click here.

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1. Primal Fear
2. American History X
3. American Gangster
4. The Professional
5. Terminator 2
6. Silence of the Lambs
7. Empire Records
8. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Armageddon
10. Braveheart
11. Tombstone
12. Super Troopers
13. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
14. The Italian Job
15. Real Genius
16. Memento
17. Fight Club
18. Speed 1
19. Matrix 1
20. Princess Bride

We are approaching a time of change in the United States. The $700 billion dollar bailout passed this morning and is being signed by Bush at the time of writing. For the past few days I have been considering what position this whole situation will leave me in. I’ve been trying to determine the best course of action for myself and my family, and I think I’ve found it.

First let me explain what I expect to occur and why. Predatory lending, naivety and irresponsibility on the part of the home buyer have led us to our current situation. Many people who should not have received mortgages did. Being already squeezed by their mortgage, rising oil and food prices left no way to make ends meet. In combination, a bubble on housing prices burst, leaving many actual responsible homeowners upside-down in debt, with seemingly no hope to recover.

The current result is an overreaction in the other direction. Lenders have all but stopped giving out mortgages. While requirements and qualifications will eventually become reasonable again, it will take time for an average American to be able to get a mortgage. Most importantly, no one will ever give out another sub-prime mortgage. This will reduce demand on housing drastically. With reduced demand comes reduced value. With an estimated 50-65% reduced housing demand I expect to see a 20-40% overall reduced home value. This is on top of any bubble burst experience some have already had.

At the same time there will be an inverse increased demand for rental property. Currently rent prices are just below mortgages, but that relationship will reverse. I expect to see rent prices stabilize around 150% of a standard mortgage payment.

These increased rental revenues will prop up home values, and perhaps even return them to their original position. Investors will pick up massive amounts of real estate for the sole purpose of collecting rent. I expect to see large firms build entire neighborhoods with the intention of renting out 95% of the property.

We will see a massive reduction in the percentage of home owners in the United States. Instead of paying a mortgage and trying to make ends meet while building equity, we will instead see people simply unable to afford rent. This forms a cycle of debt, leaving no way to work up the 20-40% cash soon required to put down on a house. Anyone who doesn’t already have a mortgage is in for a world of hurt.

Somebody wins here, and it can be you. Be ready to buy property when the price drops. Do your best to become a landlord. The more private landlords out there the smaller the impact will be.

After 7 calls and 2.5 hours on hold with Sprint I have finally done it.
It was really not that difficult, I just needed the special number to dial (#777) to make it happen.
For the rest of you here is a step by step guide.

1. Turn bluetooth on for the PC and the phone (Menu, Settings, Bluetooth, On)
2. Add the computer as a trusted device on the phone (Shouldn’t be necessary but it seems to not work without this configured first)
1. On the phone visit Menu, Settings, Bluetooth, Trusted Devices, Add New
2. Choose search. Select your PC name from the list and choose “Add to Trusted”
3. Enter a NUMERIC pin on the phone. Press Done
4. The System Tray on the PC will pop up with a pair request. Click on it and enter the code you just entered on the phone. Press OK.
5. Name the device on the phone (or leave it the same) and press OK
3. Make the phone visible (Menu, Settings, Bluetooth, Visibility, Visible for 3 min.)
4. Open My Bluetooth Places on the PC (Right click on Bluetooth System Tray Icon)
5. Choose Bluetooth Setup Wizard link on the left of My Bluetooth Places.
6. Choose “I know the service I want to use and I want to find a Bluetooth device that provides that service” and press Next.
7. Choose “Dial Up Networking” and press next.
8. Choose the icon representing your phone and press next.
9. Press “Configure”
10. Press “Configure” again
11. Put in the phone number #777 and press Ok twice. Press Finish
12. Bubble will appear from System Tray asking about pairing. Click on it.
13. Enter an security code using NUMBERS and press Ok
14. Phone will alert you of an attempted pairing. Choose Yes, enter the security code you just made up and then choose ok.
15. Connection will succeed and Dial Up Networking dialog will appear on the computer.
16. Username and password should be empty and phone number should be #777. Press Dial
17. It should connect. Your phone will ask you if you want to accept the connection. Say yes
18. The phone screen will change to read Data Connection.
19. Your computer is online!

Other things you can do to improve your experience…

• Turn on auto-accept on the phone for the trusted device
• Stop the PC from asking you the username, password and phone number by…
  1. Right click on the phone in the My Bluetooth Places screen and choose properties
  2. Choose Configure, then the options tab
  3. Uncheck prompt for name and password and prompt for phone number
  4. Choose OK and then OK again