"Plan B" to avoid Google Music messing with my audio files

After being fustrated by Google Music Android app not honoring .nomedia, I finally found a great way to avoid the problem.  It turns out that Google Music can't recognize files that stores 2 levels deeps.  So you if have a folder /MyStuff and put mp3 files in it, Google Music will pick it up and index it in its catalog.  But if you put the mp3 files in /MyStuff/SuperAwesome, then Google Music will ignore it.  So all I need to do from my now is move my audio files in folders at least 2 levels deep.

.Nomedia not work with Google Music

Still not happy that Google Music app on Android does NOT honor .nomedia file.  Damn you Google.

Time to speed up my Galaxy Nexus by uninstalling bunch of apps

The user expert  of my Galaxy Nexus is once again slow to a point that I can't tolererant, and it's time to do something about it.

The biggest reason why it's getting slow is because there are quite a lot of process running at the back for NO GOOD REASON.  I understand that in order to prove me updated information, some apps will kick off some process at the back once in a while, and I understand that.  However, I can't tolerate apps that keep staying at the background all the time and yet:

- Without option to choose whether to stop to service and STAY STOPPED until I choose otherwise
- Before even use it once

So here's the list I uninstalled from my device.  Notice that they are not all bad apps.  It's just that I personally don't use them enough to justify having them keep running at the backrgound for no good reasons:

Android application that runs that background for (to me) no good reasons:
- PhotoWonder
- Amazon AppStore
- PhotoWonder
- DoubleTwist
- SugarSync
- Spotify
- Office Suite
- Dropbox
- Nook
- WeChat
- musiXmatch
- WongXin (Alibaba)

So now they are gone, let me see if my Galaxy Nexus experience gets any better.

Ultimately, I really should just rooted my phone so that I can use "Freeze" tools to keep services from starting.  But it will involve wiping out all data on my phone.  So ... well ... someday I will root my phone.  Someday.

Gaalxy Nexus 7 and speed

I wasn't too happy about the speed of my Galaxy Nexus lately.  The performance was pretty sluggish after I turned on the phone for a while, and it didn't seemed to have anything to do with any specific app I opened.  Eventually I turned on [Setting], look under [Apps], and found that there are some games and process that kept running at the back while I was totally not usually them, particularly for those social games from Zenga, Bloomberg, United Airline and so on.  I was pissed and had them removed, and now my phone is back the quick and responsive that I used to love when I first brought it.  Awesome.

Addicted to emulator

Ever since I found out how to use my Wiimote as a control to place console emulator games on both my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7, I got so addicted to playing emulator games on them that I totally ignored all other gaming on other devices like my XBox, PS3, iPad, Nintendo 3DS and so on.  The instant save and load feature combine with the Wiimote configuration is just awesome.  I just wish, though, that I have more keys to play with because playing Super Mario World causing me problem because I don't have all the keys I need, and I can't have per game based key configuration.  I can of course buy a Classic controller and thus gives me all the keys I need.  But then I will have to deal with another dangling item, which, to me, sort of defeat the casual ease of use advantage of this Wiimote Android setup.  So I decided, at least for now, simply ignoring those games that requires more keys.  After all, just finishing all the games that utilize regular key configuration will probably already takes me the entire lifetime anyway.  Why bother creating more trouble to myself?

Connected Galaxy Nexus to PC, and found that files were missing on PC File Explorer

Here's the odd situation I encountered:  I used FolderSync to sync between my android device and a Dropbox folder, which as the result sort of allows me to sync emulator .sav files between 2 android.  But that was not the main point.

The main point is that after a FolderSync session, there were some folders created on my Galaxy Nexus file structure, and I can actually see them when I use File Manager to view the files.  The problem comes when I hook up my Galaxy Nexus to a PC, and then from the PC File Explorer exploring the file system on my Galaxy Nexus, I DID NOT see those newly created files (and of course neither the files in those folders).

At the end, I solved the problem by rebooting the Galaxy Nexus, and found that after then all the files show up properly when hooking to a PC.  But still this is annoying, and I still don't understand what was going on.

Finding speed adjustable video player for Nexus 7

I was trying to find a video player that allowed me to adjust playback speed.   And the end I found DicePlayer.  It allows me to slow down the playback all the way to 50%.  It also does not have the annoying advertisement when you pause the screen.