Lightning McQueen Volvo Rally Art Car

If you were 3 years old, what car do you want your parents to own? It's not an easy question to ask a 3 year old as there answers are limited. However, Lightning McQueen surely has to be one of the top. And, if you need a sporty looking vehicle to base your Lightning McQueen on - what would you choose? A Volvo 740 of course.In this case, three grown adults made the car of their dreams,

Manual installation of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on Nexus One and Nexus S

As you might have already known, Google has started rolling out Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update to Nexus One and Nexus S. But, again, they have mentioned on the tweet that it will take few weeks for the OTA to complete. Some nice guys at XDA Developers have back traced the download link of the updates. In other words, you don’t have to wait for OTA updates and can now download the ROM (they are official Google ROMs) and install it manually on your device. Nexus One Gingerbread update GRI40 from FRG83G. Nexus S Gingerbread GRI40 from GRH78. Read more to know about manual installation.

Steps for manual installation

• First of all download the update from these links - Nexus One Gingerbread update GRI40 from FRG83G. Nexus S Gingerbread GRI40 from GRH78.

• Rename the downloaded file as update.zip and copy it in the root directory of the memory card

• Power down the device.

• Power up the mobile by pressing the power button, volume down key and track ball. This will take you to the boot menu.

• A screen would appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.

• When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.

• From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”

• This initiates the installation process and the phone gets rebooted automatically once the process got over.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if you brick your phone in the process of manual installation.

-- Varun

[How to] Setup a Personal Project Repository for free

If you are working on an open source project, there are many places where you can host your project. Some of the popular ones are Google Code, Github, etc. Google Code includes SVN and Mercurical as SCM system. However, if you are working on a personal project and don’t want to open your code yet, there are very limited options left for you. One of the popular free hosts is Beanstalk which offers you 100 MB space, 1 user and 1 repository. Github offers private repository but its little expensive. Here is a tip for you to setup your private repository using free cloud-based file hosting services like Dropbox, SugarSync, etc. Note: I will be using SVN for explanation in this post. You can use any versioning system of your choice.

Setup private repository on the cloud

• Create your SugarSync account. Setup an account with Dropbox or SugarSync (Referral links). Dropbox offers 2 GB free storage where as SugarSync provides 5 GB and you can sync multiple folders with SugarSync. The rest of this post assumes that you have a SugarSync account and have installed SugarSync desktop application. Note: Both Dropbox and SugarSync have their in-built versioning system but you can not enjoy all the features of an SCM like branching, merging, etc.
• Creating the repository. Create a folder named “Repositories/<your_repo_name>” within your synced folder. Then, create a SVN local repository in the same folder. You can use any of the SVN clients to do this. I have used TortoiseSVN to create repository.
• Committing the code. Now that the local repository is ready, you can start committing the code / any file to the repository just like any other repository. The only difference will be accessing the repository via file:// protocol. As you commit the files, the repository will be synced on the cloud. It is important to understand that only the committed files will be synced on the cloud.
• Syncing Work / Home setup. If you are working on multiple computers, you can setup SugarSync / Dropbox sync from all the machines. If you commit on one computer and then commit on another before SugarSync/ Dropbox has synced the files, you may end up with a corrupted repository. To maintain the sanity of the repository, please ensure that the files are synced before committing the files. 
• Team Collaboration.  There are two options for you to collaborate with your team. Frist and the simplest one is to share the repository folder in Windows. Your peers can also access the shared repository via file:// protocol. The second option is to setup a local SVN server using tools like VisualSVN Server. This will help you setup a repository as well as providing HTTP access to your repository. There is also a third option but I don’t recommend using that. You can share the repository as a folder on SugarSync / Dropbox. Your peers will be able to sync the folders locally and commit the changes to their repository and it will be synced on the cloud. Be aware that using this method may corrupt your repository.

-- Varun

Speed doesn't kill people, cars hanging from trees in Australia telling people that "speed kills", kills people

Again with the hanging car, but this time its a warning to other drivers in West Australia that "Speed Kills". But did did it ever occur to the marketing genius that distraction also kills. What is the point of slowing down only to run into another tree while trying to read the sign. Two weeks later your car is up on a tree down the street saying "Billboards Kill". Speed doesn't kill people, cars

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile - Photo by Eliseo Fernandez / ReutersJust got a tip from Kelly Lyles owner of Excessories Odd-Yssey about some pretty art cars hanging out to dry in Valparaiso, Chile during the National Festival Of Arts. Shown here with Generik Vapeur playing his bagpipe which I guess helps paint dry faster???

The Road Car

In this case the car IS the road and called the "road car" brought to you by Brian in Michigan. The paint is that spray stone texture with some added black splatters. The double yellow lines are custom mixed house paint so that it peels and flakes with age JUST LIKE REAL ROAD LINES. By the way it shoots blood from the windshield wiper sprayers.Close up of the "road car" texture. This is after a

Spaced out Moonraker Volvo Rally Art Car

From the deranged minds that brought you the Tank Volvo and Helicopter, we have a space shuttle theme.Not sure what the background to the idea from these particular overachievers is, maybe Moonraker, but they decided to do a space shuttle theme, with a trailer tent (its like a tent, but on a trailer) with a world on it.Obviously, making a space shuttle out of a Volvo just doesn't work (you

Call of the Syren - Goth 72 Cadilac by Christa Ansbergs

Syren Art Car at Art Car Fest - Photo by BagelChrista Ansbergs is the creator of a 72 Cadillac called Syren and is a regular participant at Art Car Fest where I met her. She loves the "goth" look and the darker side of life so she drives an art car to match.When she went looking for the right car she considered buying a used hearse, but found that they were to expensive and a pain to maintain

The New Face of Corvette - Oprah Art Car and more

Photo By karrelbuckThe Oprah Corvette Art Car could very well be one of the most amazing finds of my blogging career. I am not sure who would do that to Oprah or who would do that to a Corvette, but I have a sinking suspicion. I think its the same person who made the Oprah Cake to celebrate their new Oprah tattoo.

The Fantastic Life of Mercedes Art Cars

As the title sponsor of Berlin’s Fashion Week, Mercedes-Benz placed some of its own designs into striking art installations meant to represent the eras in which the cars were built.As part of the “Recollection Quartett,” staged by Mercedes-Benz and MoMu Fashion Museum, Antwerp, Belgian artist and photographer Frederik Heyman placed four cars amidst updated stereotypes of the years between

Crazy Corvette Batmobile Mod

This crazy Corvette Batmobile mod was sent in by Sonny Fenwick creator of The Bubble Truck . We don't know who, what why when, but we do know that it might be located somewhere in Panama City, Florida off high way 98. Will the owner of this Batmobile mod step forward and tell us more about it and where to get one.

TOP 10 TOTALS - Totaly Smashing

Seeing cars get totaled never gets old, Top Gear get is it right with their top ten totally smashing totaled cars.

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection

Volvo Art Car Splattered to Perfection. I don't know maybe they missed a spot:)

Chronon – Time travelling debugger

Today I came across this cool product – Chronon and I am really impressed with its capabilities. It’s a time travelling debugger for Java programs. It records every line of code executed inside a program and saves it to a file. The recordings can be played back on the time travelling debugger. With this debugger, you can not only step back and forth but also to any point in the execution of the program. The recording of the program execution also means that you don’t have to reproduce any bugs. Chronon can be installed as an Eclipse plug-in. Try it out here.

Highlights

• Execution Path.  Once you step into a method call in debugger, the execution path of that particular call will be shown in green. It will definitely help in debugging your applications if you have lots of branches on your method.
• Timeline.  A timeline to indicate the progress of the program execution. Using this timeline, you can not only step back and forth but also to any point in the program execution.
• Variable History. You can track how the variable changes with time. Variable history will give you an audit trail of the variable.
• Method History. With method history, you don’t have to use breakpoints to debug the problem. This view shows all the calls made to a method. It also tracks the parameters being passed and the return of the call. This view also provides a filter option which is much better than the “conditional breakpoints” in traditional debugger. (Impressive)
• Threads View. You can see all the threads of the application and their execution time window.
• Exceptions View, Stack Traces, Locals View and many more views.

More info here, here and here.

-- Varun

VServices Cricket Score: Dial to get live cricket scores

With less than one week for the start of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, every cricket fan in India is gearing up for the big event. In a country like India where cricket is a religion and cricketers are worshipped as god, it is going to be a festival season. But, do you have to miss out some matches due to personal / work related reasons? Is Cricinfo blocked at your workplace? Are you travelling and could not get scores from your friends? For all you guys, I have added a new service to VServices suite – Cricket score service.  Just dial +91-40-39411020 and enter the pin 4335 to get live cricket scores.

Numbers to dial

Hyderabad – 040 – 39411020 (Pin: 4335)

Bangalore – 080 – 39411020 (Pin: 4335)

Mumbai – 022 – 39411020 (Pin: 4335)

Chennai – Coming soon.

You can use the aforementioned local numbers if you are from any of the above cities. If you are calling from other places, standard STD call rates will apply. Dial the number and the pin 4335. You will be connected to VServices Cricket score service. The service will list the current series (including the domestic series) happening around the world. Please dial the series number followed by pound ‘#’ sign. You will be given the list of live matches from the selected series. Please dial the match number followed by pound ‘#’ sign. The service will give you the score and the status of the match.

Technical details

This is my first telephony application and is powered by KooKoo.in and Cricinfo. KooKoo, product from a Hyderabad based company, is an interface to telephony applications. You can use it to perform telephony functions like placing a call, receiving calls, send SMS, gathering user input etc. I am using Cricinfo’s live score feeds to get the live scores. The backend service, which is powered by Google App Engine, parses the feeds and feeds them via KooKoo.

Note: I am using the KooKoo free account and it uses open source TTS (Text To Speech) engine which is not perfect. Some names and special characters might not be pronounced correctly. Let me know what you guys feel about this service.

-- Varun

MFP Mad Max Lemon Art Car In Hot Pursuit

Today's StreetSafari car was prepared for our US event, BABE Rally (Big Apple 2 Big Easy).Instead of the European limit of £150-£250, the US event has a limit of $500. In 2009 when these pictures were taken the price had been increased from $250 to $500 in fact. Apparently $250 were getting hard to come by what with scrap prices getting higher.With a doubling of the allowable car price, something

Space Invaders Take Over Art Car

I love this space invaders art car from the UK. I takes me back to a time when life was simple and the video games were the same. The goal was easy enough to accomplish in one sitting and the controls were easy to manage: Left, Right, and Fire.

The Strange Story of the Vanny Van Art Car

The internet is a strange place and sometimes interesting people email me with interesting art car submissions. The Vanny Van is one of those art cars that was submitted to me covered in hand written notes and stickers put on by all kinds of people along the way. The Story of Vanny VanYear oneI was born in some kind of car baby making factory called Dodge. It was 1999 and I was a BIG baby. They

C-3PO's Car found Parked in LA called Dub Robot

C-3PO's Dub Robot art car was seen parked in Santa Monika some weeks ago, photographed by Ellen Bloom on her LA beat. Mystery solved, C-3PO drives an old golden Volvo.Photos by Ellen Bloom

Volvo Tank and Helicopter Banger Rally Art Car

End2End is a Land's End to John O'Groats banger rally in the UK. The event is based around camping rather than hotels, although we don't mind teams doing guest houses if camping is too rough.However, we do encourage caravans on this event. Its a Banger Rally meets Carry On Camping.With that said, Team Atlantic Booze Cruisers took up the challenge of making a caravan theme for their art car and

Egyptian Rustic Art Cars

The Egyptian protesters in their quest for freedom have developed a rather unique form of art car creation. All that is needed, is an angry mob, gasoline, a lighter and a parked car. The angry mob picks a car at random, dosed it in gasoline and then sets it on fire. The process takes about an hour and after everything flammable is consumed a very unique and beautiful texture emerges on the car.

Steelers Fan Paints his Mercedes in time for Super Bowl

Martin Reese's 1983 Mercedes-Benz is decorated with a Pittsburgh Steelers logo and portraits of several players. Reese, of Daytona Beach, transformed his car into a Steelers memorial for the upcoming Super Bowl.Martin Reese wanted to show his love for the Pittsburgh Steelers.But instead of buying a T-shirt, Reese, 27, of Daytona Beach spent 90 hours transforming his 1983 Mercedes-Benz into a

The Evolution of Classic Art Cars by d'Assis Cordeiro

Portuguese artist Ricardo d'Assis Cordeiro is the creator of these car oil paintings depicting some really cool classic cars. They are the result of an idea that took shape last year that took him back to the adventures of his childhood and teenage years. These paintings are a tribute to the elegance, beauty, history and evolution of classic cars over time. He wanted classic car enthusiasts to

2011 Hyundai i20 Art Car

Commisioned by Hyundai Australia, two local Sydney artists created this vibrant art work, using aerosol paint only, the colaborations of two distinct styles sees bright colours, and organic patterns illustrate nature morphing with urban lifestyle. via

The Art of Heavy Car Lifting - Phil Pfister at 2009 World's Strongest Man Competition

One way to save on gas is to simply pick up the car and move it yourself. That is what Phil Pfister is doing here at the 2009 World's Strongest Man Competition in Malta. You can see that vain in his head from space.

Check-in with Google Latitude

Today Google has released a new version of Maps (5.1) for Android and the major feature added to the same is “Check-in to places”. So, finally Google jumps into the places game with this move. Its quite a surprise that it took so long for Google to build one such thing into its location-based services. If you are an Android user, visit Android market to upgrade Google Maps. You can enable auto check-in at places you choose. You will be checked-out automatically once you move from that location. You can configure your check-ins to be posted on Google Buzz.

 

-- Varun