HTTPS Everywhere Add-On Interfering with YouTube Videos

It seems to be a very recent (17/4/2014) issue between YouTube and HTTPS Everywhere. When HTTPS Everywhere is in action, all YouTube videos fail to load with YouTube replying that there's an error. So just disable HTTPS Everywhere for YouTube and it WILL be OK. Hope this issue gets resolved in the next week or so.

---------------------------------------(Update on 19/6/2014)--------------------------------------------

Seems that the issue has been resolved to date. I believe it was fixed quite a while ago but I was busy.

My Take on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 LTE (SM-P605, XME) (UPDATABLE)

Year 2014 has arrived and I've finally received my coveted Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition(LTE)(SM-P605) to commerate - nerdgasm, yeaaahh. As I've covered (most of) my first Android device - the Nitetology Black Peark II(i9400), I am glad to do it again for Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition, let's call it SGN 10.1 2014 for short.

Full specification details:
If some of you are still in the grey, my version has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU which is also the only available model in Malaysia.
http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/2014galaxynote10.1/specification.html
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-GALAXY-Note-10.1-2014-Edition_id8139
http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-101-2014-edition-specs

Note: I know I could compile them all my self and maybe put them in a nice JPEG or PNG but there's already plenty of detail out there and I don't need to plagiarize or make more copies of them(reference from Lifehacker ).

Details from tablet:

AP / CSC (PDA) versions: Dial *#1234#

I've done quite a few readings on rooting SGN 10.1 2014 and I can tell you for sure that ROOT is DEFINITELY available for SGN 10.1 2014 running Android Jelly Bean 4.3. BUT the problem is, there's an additional security feature on the SGN 10.1 2014 which is called KNOX. KNOX is Samsung's security software basically which has a deep grip in monitoring changes to the devices ROM. Since rooting does something like that, it will cause KNOX to trigger. Trigger as in KNOX flag changes from 0x0 to 0x1. If it does then say "bye bye" to your warranty. To date, I've found 2 'reputable enough' methods to ROOT - one will trigger KNOX (CF Auto Root) while the other MIGHT trigger KNOX (Universal Root de la Vega(URDLV)).
Sources:
WILL TRIGGER(CF-AUTO Root)
MIGHT TRIGGER(URDLV)
Related to URDLV

To be EXPLICIT, I have NEVER tried any of the aforementioned rooting methods for SGN 10.1 2014. Some people have claimed URDLV worked but others not. So i've not taking the risk of losing warranty over root access. The tablet as it is is already very satisfactory since we can install any apps we want even without root.
SO, I decided on waiting because of the release of Android Kit Kat 4.4.2(SOURCE) and also the famous Chainfire's recent news. 

The only problem with the tablet without root is the present bloatware but good thing most of them can be disabled; which is the same as freezing them through an app manager like Titanium Backup. Just go to Settings>Application Manager>All tab.

So just be patient and await the release of Kit Kat 4.4.2, plus root.

 ---------------------------UPDATE(23/10/2014)------------------------------

 Update for Samsung Note 10.1 2014 - Malaysia HAS BEEN RELEASED! F***ING FINALLY!!! Luckily, I checked late today at Lowyat Forum(exact page of mention) and a user mentioned the update available OTA . The weird thing is I wasn't informed of the update earlier during the day although I used it then. Not sure if it was a bug with the software update app or they just released it or something else. Here's a screen of the update:

 From Samsung Kies 3

 New firmware version mentioned: PDA:NJ1 / PHONE:NG1 / CSC:NI1 (XME)

It's a reasonably sized update for 685.55 MB  I believe. A user from the Lowyat Forum mentioned significantly improved smoothness in UI plus looking more like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I have not looked at the Note 4 UI myself so I can't tell for sure but this update is really well needed as I experienced stutter and force-closes here and there. Most notably the proprietary app, S Note. Although I didn't use it as much, it's somewhat slow and crashed several times. Trying to search for a change log seems to come up with nothing (it was a quick search and still early anyways) as it will most likely be an interesting read catering to fixes of the fair amount of problems with the Note 10.1.

There's an archive online for the ROMs of pretty much all Samsung devices. Here's the one for the tablet:
Samsung Update Live (showing Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 LTE (SM-P605))

---------------------------UPDATE(25/7/2015)------------------------------

Another update. This time 99.90MB. I believe this update was rolled out much earlier since I didn't connect my tablet to the Internet for almost 3 months. Will update if any changes noticed. 

---------------------------UPDATE(17/6/2016)------------------------------

After all a long and painful wait, I finally managed to get Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 on my Samsung Note 10.1 2014. I couldn't wait for a certain company who did not give enough attention to software development to provide it for me as a customer who have paid for a device that is expected to be up to date at least to a certain extent. I ended flashing the 3rd party ROM of Android Marshmallow myself. 

@@@@@CAUTION@@@@@

The following methods WILL lead to your Samsung KNOX(a.k.a. efuse) to trip and permanently void warranty. Mine's already over a year to warranty isn't an issue to begin with.

Root the tablet

1. Download CF Auto Root HERE. It contains Odin Tool as well that will be used to flash to the phone.
2. Enable USB debugging on the tablet
3. Go into Downloading Mode by turning off the tablet then pressand hold volume down key and the power button at the same time until a warning message appears. Press Volume Up to continue
4. Run Odin Tool and connect the tablet to your PC
5. A message will appear in the Odin tool. Now press the PDA button and point it to the CF Auto Root File.
6. Press start and wait till it finishes. A green button with a PASS will appear once it completes.

Installing the ROM

NOTE: There are 2 ways to do this, one is to download TWRP HERE and use Android Debug Bridge(adb) to install or download the app to download TWRP and install. I used the latter method as the first method caused my tablet to stuck in a loop during boot and it drained the battery as a result.

1. Download the Android Marshmallow ROM by Schischu HERE
2. Download GApps(from the same XDA Forums page in 1)
3. Download SuperSU(from the same XDA Forums page in 1)
4. Flash TWRP 2.7.1.1 or higher (Note: 2.8.7.0 does not work). I used the app with Root so get the app HERE
5. Reboot into recovery. Go into wipe menu. Select "Advanced Wipe". Check
   • Dalvik Cache
   • System
   • Cache
   • Data
6. and wipe them. Don't reboot just yet.
7. Go into install (of TWRP).
8. Flash aosp-XXX.zip
9. Reboot to Recovery. Else flashing GAPPS will FAIL!
10. Flash GAPPS.zip
11. Flash SuperSU.zip
12. Reboot to System
13. Check Settings->System Updates (Creates /sdcard/OpenDelta/FlashAfterUpdate)
14. Copy SuperSu and Gapps zip to /sdcard/OpenDelta/FlashAfterUpdate so that they are automatically applied after OTA update. Else your system will be unusable after an OTA!(NOTE: for this last step, I couldn't find the directory and decided to create my own folder and copied the files into the internal storage of the tablet)

As would be expected, this (self) update is a tremendous performance improvement for teh tablet. ALL, and I mean ALL, bloatware has been removed as this is a pure Android Marshmallow ROM. I am still unsure about the copying SuperSu and Gapps to that directory step as the respective folder didn't show up even through searching of the file system. Hope no issues arise during the next update.

References:

SkyNeel

XDA Forum

 

I/O Device Error, Raxco's PerfectDisk's Optiwrite, Microsoft's Windows Task Scheduler Not Running with Disk Defragmenter and BitCoin Miner

The problem is when I wanted to copy 'specific' and I mean 'specific' files, I encounter I/O device error. For some reason, a majority of the files (like 99%) of them are image files. The only one that wasn't an image file was a Warcraft III replay - DotA replay to be exact. Luckily I have backups for them except for album covers so I had no choice but to delete them :( . The weird thing about these corrupted files (let's call them that shall we) is that they are still there but can't be opened (for the images at least). Trying to will cause Windows Photo Viewer to hang. Even previewing the images in thumbnail causes COM surrogate(a Windows only program used to...) to crash. What's even weirder and a pain in the *** is that the album covers that I had to delete were, to put it simply, time-consuming. I just used Windows default errr trash manager to remove them but each attempt to delete the corrupted images took waaaaaaaaaaaayy longer than usual. One of them even caused the 'trash manager' to encounter an error:

And yes, there are plenty of these files. Wondering how I found them? Through TeraCopy of course! The first few images were more time-consuming since I have to repeatedly attempt copy of these files. When TeraCopy stops abruptly then I got my answer. Luckily only that Warcraft III replay was unique among the corrupted. The easiest to find was the albu covers. After finding 2-3 image files named 'cover' to be corrupted(which made the correlation that most, if not all, of the corrupted are named so), I simply search my music collection to find the rest. And luckily it worked:

As for what caused this in the first place? I suspect Raxco's PerfectDisk 12.5's OptiWrite. According to their statement, OptiWrite prevents fragmentation of files from happening in the background during - I/O - operations. This is JUST a suspicion but to play safe I avoided it.



The next problem solved was regarding Task Scheduler and its interconnected service, Disk Defragmenter (Windows). Since my previous defragmenter was a likely cause of the aforementioned problem, just using Windows's default one should be enough. But at last, another issue pops up; when I tried to run Disk Defragmenter, it gave me an error stating Task Scheduler wasn't active. Going to Administrative Tools -> Services and trying to turn on Task Scheduler was a nono too. The option to turn it on was greyed out. The solution was HERE . I had to go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM]CurrentControlSet\services\Schedule and modify the REG_DWORD type registry named 'Start'. If it was already correct, the data in the registry should be 0x00000002 (2) but mine was 0x00000004 (2). Some sort of malmare or program I used messed with it(further details on next issue). Changing it to 2 allowed me to manually change Task Scheduler's properties and so I made it turn on automatically on startup. A restart was necessary to make the changes take effect - just turning on Task Scheduler alone doesn't make Disk Defragmenter usable.




Last and most troublesome of all is the so-called BitCoinMiner. As the name implies, this little nasty program uses your computers processing power to calculate cryptographic hash functions of Bitcoin transactions in order to earn BitCoins - a new online currency. The file itself looks like this:

The program also caused this error:

Googling the malware came up with many gibberish names but the process still says the same. At first I had no idea it was already in my computer. I only found out when I went into my system drive to clear out orphaned files and folders. Trying to delete it with the normal method fails as it says you need administrator privileges to modify the file. The other victims that asked for help online also mentioned the malware created a fake program under the name Adobe Update or something like that which can be looked up in Task Manager but for some weird reason I couldn't find it myself. I only found it under startup programs in CCleaner's list. I found the solution to the removing the malware HERE. But it wasn't smooth-sailing. I followed the methods (almost) down to each letter - using ComboFix by Swearware and RogueKiller by RogueKiller(TM). It wasn't easy cause I had to reuse ComboFix several times - while only using RogueKiller once. This issue is actually the first among the 3 and also the oldest(about 2 months) so the EXACT order of actions taken is quite fuzzy but I absolutely used the programs stated in the source. The last bit of detail I remembered is after several uses of ComboFix, the malware easily deletable as in just highlight it, and then press the 'Delete' key easy. The startup program in CCleaner was also gone.

So 3 issues tackled and won. Hope this helps you.

Trouble with Steam Wallet

As the title implies, I've purchased some cash for my Steam Wallet that I intend on using to get at most a premium status for my Team Fortress 2 game. But due to some unforeseen forces of nature, I'm denied my rights and glory to the premium-ness gaming experience (table comparison). 

 

This was done on the online web Mann Co. Store. The problem similar when I did it in game.

Going through forums and all the normal searches online couldn't bring me the answer . But one forum user stated going through Steam Support so I thought "Guess that's my only option."

So I created a Steam Support account and sent a 'ticket'. It's a very simplified process. Steam even prepared specific categories in order for you (and me) to relate the problem to them with great detail. I can mention exactly which game I'm having problems, the type of problem (for me it is  Purchases and Payments > Purchase Failures) and even the exact payment method used from their drop-down options. Because of this, I didn't have to say anything else in my question.

After exactly 2 days 2 hours and 34 minutes later I got a reply:
=====================================================================================
Hello (insert name here),

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
In order to investigate this issue, we must verify the purchase receipt and your ownership of the Wallet Credit code.
Please handwrite your Support Ticket Number above the code (the number should not be written on a separate piece of paper or inserted with an image editor) and reply with a digital photo or scan of the code and the receipt for your recent purchase. Please ensure that you submit a full-color image in .jpg format, rather than a photocopy.
Example scan: https://support.steampowered.com/getimage.php?id=253
We accept receipts issued within the last 90 days. Receipts from auction sites and used merchandise sellers will not be accepted.
After verifying your proof of ownership we will gladly assist you with this issue. 

=====================================================================================

So on I go and upload a photo shot of the purchase. Immediately, I received a computer generated reply through my email :
=====================================================================================
Hello,
Thank you for adding a message to your question. We will respond to your message by email. 
=====================================================================================

Actually they responded to both my email and Steam Support account except for the message above.





Another round of awaiting reply for, this time, 16 hours and 13 minutes. Finally some good news:

=====================================================================================
Hello (insert name here),
I have updated your account. Please try your purchase again.
If you have any further questions or difficulty, please let us know.
===================================================================================== 

HAPPY PREMIUM TO ME!!!

FYI: Once you have cash in your Steam Wallet you're eligible to buy any items from Steam without giving any sort of personal information.

Hope this helps others in need :D