As you may have noticed, I have migrated the board software to MyBB, following concerns of security issues as Chris pointed out some time ago. I would've gone for IPB as with The GTA Place and several others, but I am not arsed to pay for a licence, and nor am I willing to install a nulled version of it either.

Plans for moving the board to a new server are still underway too, as Chris will be shutting this server down ASAP.

Over the years, I have thought about building my own computer, but I always had a fear I would mess it up either through unintentional ESD damage or not connecting things properly. Blame a computer class I took in college. The instructor was great, but she decided to go for a custom Cooler Master CPU fan instead of using the stock unit, and it was a nightmare to install. That left a bad impression on me, and I felt that PC building was a tough proposition... until yesterday.

During the past few months, I have been acquiring the parts needed to build my own Intel Skylake rig, all suggested by Blake. Yesterday, the final part, the Intel Core i3-6100 CPU arrived at my home and I proceeded to assemble the system. I'd never imagined that a computer build would be so easy, and it's thanks to Intel developing an easy to use standard for CPU installation and mounting the cooling fan.

Here is what my new rig is made from:
-Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX case
-Gigabyte GA-H110M-A MicroATX motherboard
-Intel Core i3-6100 dual-core processor
-Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM Stick
-Corsair CX430 Power Supply (I already had this )

The remaining parts were reused from my old systems, consisting of a 500gb Seagate drive from Audrey, PCI-e Wifi from Ruby, a "Manhattan" 6-in-1 card reader, and DVD-RW drive from Patsy, and most importantly, the graphics card... the Nvidia GeForce 750Ti.

Later upgrades will include adding a secondary 1TB HDD and installing another Corsair 8GB RAM stick, maxing out the memory at 16GB.

The name I chose for the rig was Pearl, named after this neat little book series. Pearl is the rabbit btw... https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Wagner-Two-...%26+wagner

So far, Pearl has literally outperformed all my previous systems, and I haven't even completed benchmarks yet. Websites load up almost instantly and system response time is much improved, noticeably when installing my software programs. I also gained two USB 3.0 ports on the back, along with four USB 2.0 ports.

I did have to make one minor change during build... Pearl's two front USB ports aren't connected because the GA-H110M-A only has one front USB header, and I decided to use that for the card reader. The card reader does have a standard USB port on it, so I can still use flash drives.

Later on, I will post screenshots of benchmarks and other things. I should get that done soon, I hope.

Here's another client in need of TLC:


Problem: Nothing really serious, just a case of ads showing up on the lock screen. One of my uncle's relatives bought it off Amazon from a promo, and given how these things go for around $75-100 unsubsidised they obviously have to resort to adware to make up for the loss leader tactic they used.

So what you're going to do is this:

Download SP Flash Tool and then fire it up, then download the recovery at http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/?dir=Blu%2...D%20Amazon (TWRP_Scatter_R1_Prime.zip) and extract it to a convenient place e.g. Desktop.

Now open the scatter file from the above mentioned recovery and you should get a screen similar to this:


I'm sure you know the drill after this one: turn off the phone, press Download, plug the USB cable in to your phone and the PC, then wait until the recovery image is flashed. Once that's done, take out the SD card, plug it in your computer, then download either of the three zips in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/r1-hd/ho...y-t3429555

In my case I used bluR1-Prime_AMZ-PARTIALdebloat-blockOTA.zip as I need the Amazon underground app, but any of the zips may work. Copy the zip to an SD card, insert it back to your phone, then boot to recovery by pressing Volume+ and Power. Select recovery on the menu that shows up, then you should see this screen:


Swipe the bar below, and you should be greeted with this menu:


By that all you need to do is to install bluR1-Prime_AMZ-PARTIALdebloat-blockOTA.zip or any of the other debloat scripts. You may want to install SuperSU from a separate zip but that's completely optional. Just reboot the phone, and if everything's done properly, you should get a normal lock screen:



Problem, Amazon?

Works cited:

I know it's long overdue and all, so I was thinking, what if we ask Kiwi about moving the site to his server? Chris has expressed his intentions on discontinuing his hosting service some time ago, and while he was kind enough to host this board for a minimal fee, I still feel a little embarrassed and sorry at him for the inconvenience as the move to his server was originally an emergency measure during the 000webhost fiasco in 2011, and I didn't intend to have him host the place for so long.

Strawberryland.eu, or at least one of its subdomains, still appears to be live as of now, and assuming Kiwi still has the zeal to do anything SSC-related, I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask him about a possible server transfer.

I am also contemplating on the use of ads on the site in order to provide at least some revenue. As much as I hate to put a banner ad or two here, I'm afraid we're running at a complete loss here, and we can only go so far in this state. Not helping with this situation is the lack of active and/or interested users partly due to SSC being a niche fandom compared to the likes of MLP. This site shows some potential as a hub for collectors to pool their resources and knowhow on the franchise, but alas, we're yet to reach that goal.

Looks like they're going to come up with either a new season or a revamped animated series following the SSC franchise being acquired by Iconix:

Quote:http://kidscreen.com/2016/05/17/dhx-and-...ke-series/

Canada’s DHX Media and New York-based Iconix Brand Group have partnered to develop and produce a new animated series based on the Strawberry Shortcake brand.

As outlined in the long-term agreement, the companies will co-develop, finance and produce at least 39 new half-hour episodes of Strawberry Shortcake, with the option to produce more.

DHX Media will produce and globally distribute the new show, with its international licensing agency, CPLG, holding first-right of negotiation to represent the brand in certain territories. Iconix will handle global merchandising and licensing for the brand.

Time for another review of an off-brand Android device. Today, it's the Kphone K5, sold in the USA through the QVC TV network and on their website. It also received an on air presentation, which for QVC is a bit surprising as they tend to stick to name brand electronics, at least on air. HSN is the one that [strike]shills[/strike] sells off brand electronics.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHyybGxYZLI[/youtube]

Unlocked phones are still a foreign concept in the USA thanks to the contract business model that has been the status quo since cellphones became standard. But stores are starting to advertise unlocked phones that you can use with GSM based carriers, and there are now "bring your own phone" kits from prepaid wireless firms like Tracfone.

The Kphone K5 is a dual-sim unlocked smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core CPU with Adreno 306 GPU, 2GB RAM and 16GB of storage. There is no expandable storage option available. The screen is a high quality IPS 1280x720 display with very sharp clarity and good colors. There is a 13mp rear camera and 5mp front camera. Android is a customized Lollipop 5.1.

Kphone really wanted to emulate the iPhone as much as legally possible, and perhaps even pushing that boundary as well. The UI of the Android build has been thorougly customized to mimic the look of iOS as much as possible, right down to the "hold the screen until the icons jiggle" way of moving or removing apps. The settings menu also seems to be watered down at first, but a quick right swipe will reveal a standard Android settings menu. You can also enable developer options by hitting the build number seven times, and through this, you can unlock the bootloader and enable USB debugging among other things. Because of this, there is no dedicated app drawer for the home screen like every other Android device.

The OS performs rather well, and is quite responsive. The included apps load quickly and installing more apps from Google Play was a breeze. The Antutu Benchmark score is 26151, with 3D coming in at 296. By comparison, Poppy (Alcatel Pixi) gets a lower 12603 with no 3D score due to being "unsupported". Pumpkin (RCA 11' tablet) gets a 18472 and no 3D score again due to being "unsupported". Maybe later if I have the time I will test out additional benchmark apps.

There really isn't much in the way of bloatware on the Kphone aside from the standard Google apps. It's basic stuff like a clock, notepad, calculator, etc. There is an FM tuner chip, which is the primary reason why I got the Kphone. FM reception is rather good, but for weaker signals, it's best to be outdoors. It can record FM broadcasts as much as space allows and they are encoded in MPEG-4 AAC using the .aac container. I have to change the container to M4A to get them to play in Winamp. In comparison, a typical Chinese MP4 player records to MP3 or WAV, and Poppy records FM broadcasts in Ogg Vorbis.

Hardware wise, the build quality is rather stunning for an unlocked Chinese Android. QVC and the manufacturer claim that the screen is Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Judging by the weight of the phone, I'd say they may be right. The iPhone-esque design continues to the phones casing, consisting of a piano black rear with the Kphone logo and the all glass front display. Stereo speakers adorn the bottom along with the Micro USB port. The only buttons are the power and volume keys. There is a SIM slot on the right that holds two cards, and a small metal key is included to open this slot should you want a SIM or two.

One thing I can't test at the moment is phone functionality. I don't have SIM cards at the moment, and Poppy serves my needs well as my prepaid phone. There is another reason... a suspicous APK preinstalled on the device is flagged as malware by a few mobile AntiVirus apps, such as Malwarebytes. Those apps classify the APK as a member of the "SmsSend" trojan family. I pulled the APK and analyzed it the best I could, but I notified QVC of the potential issue and sent off a sample to Malwarebytes. I'm still waiting to hear from them, but it might be a few days.

It would be a shame if that APK is indeed a trojan. QVC promoted this on air a few weeks ago at a special price, so no doubt people bought it. It led me to buy it too with their ValuePay. Unlike HSN, QVC was far more honest in the devices presentation. The camera is excellent, and the performance is excellent. If that APK is indeed a trojan, the best course of action would be to issue a firmware update that removes the offending APK, or at worst, a recall of the phone. That would upset a lot of people. Me, I would have to unlock the phone and delete the APK myself since antivirus tools can't remove it. I'm waiting to see the outcome of the email requests.

Is it really, and I mean really necessary to have a cat spayed or neutered? My folks are more or less used to Ruffles bawwing and cawwing often, and yet I just couldn't seem to just pass it off as background noise due to how piercing her mating yells are.

I tried to convince them by showing and explaining the benefits of having said cat spayed, yet they just couldn't seem to care and shrug it off as a non-issue. What gives???

Okay, I am a fan of the 2003-2007 generation because thats what I grew up with. But now that the company focuses on the 'fruit' rather than the 'dessert' I just feel that there is less character development. Idk, but like their are so many cute dessert names like Ginger Snap or Angle cake. I think that names like Cherry or Blueberry are so blunt. Like Blueberry muffin was so cute. Why do they just call her Blueberry now? :evil:

Well, I see what has been going on behind my back. If that's the case...

This will be my last post to the forums. I have had enough abuse. My Arthur Substitute plans have been destroyed, and my war to get SSC back was futile with the bronies corrupting it.

I'm sorry. But if you're going to be supporting the bullies...

RAM Out.