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So today while a portion of the Willow Springs 10 were working at the Heritage Hall, my phone became locked. You see, Android devices have this nifty way of unlocking where you draw patterns on the screen. However, if a user enters an incorrect pattern 5 times the phone asks if you’ve forgotten your pattern. If you answer “yes” the phone locks out the pattern screen and then asks for your Google account information. At this point the phone is almost as good as bricked; there is a known bug where you cannot log in. It never returns to the pattern screen. I don’t know how this happened to my phone, and I really don’t care, I just wish the Android developers weren’t so fucking lazy that they closed the bug ticket without fixing it.

The solution to the problem involves exploiting another bug documented by many, but most notably Randall Munroe, author of XKCD. You first call your phone. While the call is in progress, you flip the physical keyboard open and shut while tapping the home button. This causes the phone to change orientation. While it is between landscape and portrait mode you cause it to go to the home screen, bypassing the lock. You then disable the pattern, doing this will allow you to bypass the lock by just flipping open the keyboard. Once this is done, you simply change your Google password. When the phone attempts to sync, it will fail and prompt you to enter the new password. Next, you lock the phone by pressing the power button, hit the menu button to bring up the “forgotten pattern” screen, and enter your new account information using the on-screen keyboard. The phone is now back to normal.

As I said above this bug is still unfixed. Since this workaround only works on phone with a physical keyboard, many users, particularly HTC Magic users, will be fucked. The only other solution is to reformat the phone, losing all data not stored on the SD card or Google account. My confidence in Android as a platform is almost at zero at this point. This bug was first reported early this year, was noticed by Android developers a few months later, and left unresolved for at least 5 months. Ignoring a bug of this magnitude is unacceptable. At the end of my contract I will be replacing this phone with something sure to be worse, but at least properly supported.

PBS just aired a documentary about one of the most important scientific tools ever created, the Hubble Space Telescope. Until earlier this year, most of its instruments were offline. In May, astronauts embarked on the most difficult mission in the history of space flight with the goal of repairing the telescope. The reason it was so difficult? Tiny, tiny screws–IN SPACE. Learn about its repair by watching the documentary in full here.

His astonishing results have been broadcast in the U.S. in a History Channel documentary titled Hitler’s Escape.

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Looks like it is time for a resurgence of WWII first-person-shooters.