Guides

Shell Scripting

• Redirecting stderr to a function
  So, I was writing a shell script where I have made a custom log function to be used for custom messages, errors and warning. However, I also wanted to store everything from stderr in this log file, which I thought would be no big deal.
   

Linux in general

• Full Disk Encryption with Linux
  A great thing about Linux, is the built-in subsystem DMCrypt, which, with some help from the brilliant Initrd, allows you to make a full disk encryption, including the root partition (Boot excluded of cause) and have it unlocked by a key file or password during boot, all without any third party software. This guide will show you how to encrypt your entire hard drive and set up your computer to unlock it on each boot using a password.
   
• Multiple Encrypted Disks with Linux
  Encrypting you entire hard drive is great. But what if you like me, have more than one hard drive in your computer? One thing that is not great, is having to enter multiple passwords on each boot. Well, you don't have to.
   

Android Development

• Check Android Uptime
  So you are programming an application for Android. You have made a custom caching system which should clear the cache after each boot. One way to do this, could be to create an onBoot Receiver and have that clear out your cache. However, why have your application run on each boot if the user might not even use it all that much? And what if the user installed some Privacy Guard Application and disabled your app's receiver?
   
• Android Activity in Dialog Style
  I was working on an Application where I had created a custom settings Activity (Not using the Android built-in settings tools), in order to adopt the same layout style as in the rest of the Application. It worked fine, and now I wanted to add some additional tablet styles as well.
   
• Add missing Android Activity tools
  One major issue with Android, is that Google have never implemented a proper way of detecting which Activity is currently in the foreground and which are behind. If you open multiple Activities in an application, and then flip the screen, all the callbacks (onCreate(), onResume() etc) will be invoked in all your Activities.
   
• Custom System Service using XposedBridge
  For those of you who don't know XposedBridge, you should really have a look at it. By enabling you to hook any Class and Method within Android, system classes as well as normal application classes, this is just as powerful a tool as a root shell session. This however operates within the Java VM instead of hacking your way in from a shell.
   
• Communication across the UI
  One of the greater things in newer Android versions is the Fragments. It allows you to split the UI into smaller pieces that can be put together in different ways, depending on different circumstances like screen size and such. However some times you might need to adapt things in one Fragment based on some conditions in another.
   

Java Development

• Controlled Environment
  You are building a library of some sort, and you want to have a primary class with additional "extender" classes which all should be accessed through your primary one. Why? Don't know, hopefully you do since your the one making it. However, what is to stop anyone from accessing your "extender" classes directly?