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Windows Mobile 6 and my BlackJack

Good Evening Folks, today i was alerted by my good friend that WM6 had been released for my AT&T Blackjack. So, i went to the update site and downloaded the update. Whilst downloading the update, i noticed a few times it telling methat Vista is not supported for this update, which – is very strange to me. But regardless, i downloaded the update, and then started looking around for resources on how to get this update to work on Vista.

First, let me say a few things about this update process.

Samsung,
It’s now 2008. The vast majority of the devices out there, that support some kind of removable storage, can update them self using a particular type of file on this storage medium. Why on earth do you choose to use such an archaic cabled method ? What’s wrong with you?

Ok, rant over. Now, i found information here on how to do this on Vista, so i got the driver (which i am hosting now temporarily here) and updated the Samsung driver on my Vista machine and proceeded with updating my phone.

After about 5-10 minutes of updating, the phone rebooted, and i was graced with a beautiful looking splash screen, some swooshing sounds, and then the WM6 homepage. Wow, i said, Wow.

Then, as i continued the process as stated by Samsung, i ran into some problems. I couldn’t do the full reset. The phone barked and said “Error reseting”. So i rebooted the phone, and tried again. Same bark, same message. So, i tried the next time – to see the current phone version. To my horror, i found tha the PDA version had been updated, by the Phone version was BLANK. OMFG. What the hell happened? I followed all the steps (albeit ignoring the “don’t try this on Vista” part), and why did this goof up?

So, i tried flashing it again. Same thing.

So, i got brave and thought about it for a second (it was 1am by the way). And thought to myself, ” I wonder if i leave my sim card in the phone during the update, maybe it’ll update then?” Quickly, i tried it. And to my surprise, it worked. Yay!

So, if you are trying this WM6 update on your Blackjack, and the phone version isnt getting set, try it with the Sim card in, it may work.

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USA vs Sweden

So,

I spent the time watching the USA vs Sweden game this weekend, and enjoyed the 2-0 scoreline that the USA obtained. It was no way near a “A” friendly game, but it was nice to see the young USA talent from MLS beat up on the reserves of Sweden, which makes me think that the USA has come a long way for sure. In fact, i’d say its no longer a “long way”, but rather the norm. Sweden did beat the US last year in Sweden in a proper “A” friendly, and that was a decent result for both teams.

The crowd at the game was dismal, but thats ok, its two teams that fielded teams they’d never take to a real tournament (heh!) and it was cold by Southern California’s standards. And i do think that this crowd showing is a telling sign to USSF that Americans do get it. They want to see quality games played. The international football fans won’t show up anymore to ‘B’ class friendlies. (Although a USA v Mexico game fielded with ‘F’ class friendlies will fill any stadium)

However, one thing did irk me a bit. Landon Donovan’s record setting 35th goal for the USA, really shouldn’t have been that way. I know he admitted to that in a short interview after the game that he didn’t want his record setting goal to come from the penalty spot. So my question would be to Landon… Why take this spot kick ? I mean, if you are as good as you are, why wouldn’t you let someone like Jozy Altidore take it (considering that he won the penalty)? Wasn’t the idea of this game to help get some experience to the younger players? Why would you take a goal that will forever taint your record? If i recall correctly, the last  goals in your international career have been from Penalties. I also did a quick tally, and found that about 14 of his 35 international goals have been from friendly games. I wonder how that compares to Klinsmann’s 47 goals (in just 96 caps), of which 10 were in world cups?