Lenovo Miix 700 Android compatibility

Not all Android distros will work with the Lenovo Miix 700, and even if they do they may have some issues.

For the distro of Android that I intended to use, I have set out the following requirements:

• Basic Android functionality must be present, but WiFi and sound are not negotiable. 
• Since I intend to use this to play a music game, the app must be able to run in full-screen. 
• All others features are not considered crucial. 

All of these issues are issues I have faced while installing each distro.

• Remix OS 3.0.207: Boots up perfectly, has WiFi, but no sound. Since Remix OS has discontinued support, using this is not recommended. 
• Phoenix OS 2.5.3 (based on Android 7.1): Boots up perfectly with sound and WiFi. Auto-rotate also works in this system. However, some Android apps can only run on windowed mode and not in fullscreen mode. 
• Android x86-64 6.0r3: Boots up perfectly with sound, but WiFi does not work. 
• Android x86-64 7.1rc2: Boots up perfectly with sound, and the WiFi works. Apps run in full-screen as an Android tablet would actually do. However, the auto-rotate and Bluetooth does not work. This is the version that I eventually used. 

Android... on a Windows tablet?

It's easier than you think.

The Lenovo Miix 700 is a passively cooled Intel Core m7 in a tablet form factor. Perfect for a more compact system like Android.

Android, at its heart, is a Linux-based operating system, so if you are familiar with other Linux-based operating systems (like Ubuntu) or software development environments like MinGW, you might be more familiar with Android than you think. It is also easier to install and troubleshoot an Android dual-boot from a Linux operating system than from a Windows operating system.

The first thing to do would be to make a hard drive partition for Android. I won't go into detail how to do it, just need to know that you will need to shrink the partition for an existing drive and make a separate partition.

You will also need to download an Android distro. I have tried many distros, but the vanilla Android 7.1-rc2 x86-64 distro works the most satisfactory in my opinion for my uses.

Once you have the distro iso, you will need to burn it into a bootable USB drive. Nothing too fancy, you could use a card reader and an extra SD card for it. Use Rufus to burn the iso into a bootable USB drive.

Next thing to do if you are using a Windows system would be to download Grub2Win. It installs a bootloader that appears before your Windows boots and allows you to select the operating system. The thing about Grub2Win is that it allows you to change the UEFI settings from your Windows operating system. Just be careful with it.

Once you have installed Grub2Win, restart your computer to boot into the USB drive that you have stored your Android install in. To do this you will need to hold the Shift button while pressing the Restart button in the Windows Power button options. This will give you a few startup options. Press the appropriate options to boot from your USB drive.

When the computer reboots you will be given a few options to either boot into Android in Live mode or Install mode. Live mode means that Android will run directly from the USB drive but cannot store files or save any changes. This is for testing whether Android works well on your device before proceeding to install. Otherwise you could just directly install it.

When you install Android, confirm, double confirm, and double confirm plus chop which partition your blank partition is, because if you don't do it right, you might end up wiping your main Windows partition. And that's bad. This Android installation works with UEFI and GPT, so there should be no issue as long as your boot options in Grub2Win are set properly (this is important too!).

Once you have confirmed that you have selected the correct partition to install Android in, format it to ext4 and make sure it does not install Grub or Grub2, since you have already done that with Grub2Win. The formatting is why you need to be extra careful, since formatting will destroy ALL data in that partition if it is not empty.

There are two other file system options, FAT32 and NTFS, but there are issues with both of them when installing Android. FAT32 cannot use files larger than 4GB, which restricts the amount of data you can store in your Android partition. NTFS is not Linux-compatible, so a workaround is needed by storing a .img file inside the partition. Either way, your files on Android will not be viewable from your Windows operating system, so you might as well unmount it. Also, needing an .img file for storage severely slows down install time since the installation will need to create the .img file.

Since EXT4 is Linux-native, formatting your Android partition to EXT4, while making it unusable for Windows (not like you were planning to anyway), allows the available storage space to be as large as the partition allows minus the space for the necessary operating system files.

You still can't use Android after installation though, since you have not filed an entry for booting into Android using Grub2Win.

To use Grub2Win, you need to open it using administrative privileges. Open "Manage Boot Menu" to see the list of operating systems that you will boot into. Do not touch the Windows entry since you will need that to boot into your main operating system. Add an entry for the Android OS and use "Edit custom code". Then, read through this website to see what you should be doing to the configuration file.

For Android Nougat 7.1, you will also need to add an entry

android.selinux=permissive

just before the initrd entry so that it will boot properly without pulling an Emergency Remount R/O. 

Check spelling before you reboot. I spent two nights trying to troubleshoot an Emergency Remount because I didn't check the spelling, only to find out I left out an "n". 

That wasn't very fun to find. 

A new tablet

The Lenovo Miix 700. 

Core m7 passively-cooled tablet PC, with 256 GB of storage, 8 GB of RAM, with Windows 10 Pro. 

Not the fastest PC, but it was never meant to replace my PC. It was meant to replace my aging iPad 4. 

With a Wacom pen, it positions itself as a capable drawing tablet at a pretty great price. I paid 985 USD to Singapore including S&H. Of course I don't intend to draw on it as much as my digital art friends would, but it is worth knowing that I could pick up drawing any time I would like. 

But this comes at a catch. 

The Lenovo Miix 700 is not officially Wintab-supported, and despite having a Wacom pen, its Elan screen means that it is not supported by Wacom Feel either. This means that officially there is no support for pressure sensitivity for Photoshop. However, this does not mean that it cannot work with Wintab. It is possible to still download the Wintab drivers for the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 series and have them work with the Lenovo Miix 700, thus enabling pressure sensitivity for Lenovo Miix for Photoshop or other non-Lenovo applications.

You will also need to open the Window > Brush panel, and under Shape Dynamics, select Pen Pressure under the Control tab.

Because this pen is not Wacom Feel enabled, you will not be able to re-map the pen barrel buttons from the defaults. The barrel buttons are for right click (front button) and erase (back button).

Palm rejection isn't perfect, and the pen is slick on the screen due to the hard nib that it uses, but otherwise this is a great pen to use.

At the current point it's actually more economical to buy the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 tablet (1st generation). It costs around the same price on Amazon, has the same processor, memory and hard disk space, but it also has USB-C charging, a longer battery life, the detachable keyboard has similar quality to the full-sized Thinkpads, and the stylus is Wacom Feel compatible. Basically it's everything a Miix 700 is, but better everywhere else.

I'm only a bit salty Amazon decided to tell me about the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 tablet after I paid for the Miix 700 and I have been using it for a week. 

Some random thoughts...

I like the song だってだって噫無情, but every time I play that song it takes me down a weird train of thought.

The song is about a tearful farewell^[1] by the singers to a person who "goes to the ends of the Earth, seeking the things they believe in"^[2]. The song also has a bridge part where each singer in the song tells the person she is singing for either asking them not to go, to return soon, or her hope that they will meet again.

Usually the image of a "person who seeks the things they believe in" suggests that the person is leaving for a cause they feel is greater than themselves or just the people immediately around them. That tends to mean military.

I always associated "going to the ends of the Earth" as something pilots do. I mean ships work fine, but I hate the open seas^[3].

Then the usual Hollywood image of someone tearfully persuading their loved ones not to leave, especially in a military context, would be for a mission with little to no hope of success. A last ditch attempt, or a Hail Mary, whatever floats your boat.

Now considering this is a Japanese song...

...my mind went to kamikaze attacks.

That was rather insensitive.


Footnotes

[1] Stanza 1, Line 3:
抱きしめる瞬間に 別れの気配
That moment when we were holding each other was our sign of farewell.

[2] Stanza 3, Line 3:
信じたものを求め 地の果てまで行く日
The day you will go to the ends of the Earth, seeking the things you believe in.

[3] Ironically, my favourite character in this group is associated with the sea.

I managed to find another jumping spider in the house, so I decided to drop it into the cellar spider can to see what would happen.

The cellar spider had already had quite a nice life, having been well fed previously. I actually fed it with some random flying ants. Of course, it also turned to cannibalism: I dropped another cellar spider together with the original cellar spider and it was instantly eaten.

What happened after the jumping spider dropped into the can was completely unexpected: Though it was caught in the cellar spider's web (which has already been there for a long time), it managed to escape. Then it found the cellar spider, instantly latched on to it, killed it and ate it.

That was quick.

RIP cellar spider.

The jumping spider went into hiding at the top of the can while it digested its food, leaving me with enough space to clean the cellar spider's web off the can.

Some more memories from my part time work...

Most of my part time work in Uniqlo was in the women's section, folding all the clothes in the bargain bin area. That area isn't wanting of work either: every single day I return to the bargain bin area the bins look like a tornado just went through them. 

Of course, since I'm also classed as a service staff, I do need to answer customers' questions about where some of the apparel are. Most of them are mundane, like where's the fitting room, or where's a certain type of apparel. 

Not all of them were mundane though: this question that came from a little boy who was with his mother was worthy of a Philosoraptor meme. 

Interesting fact: boy shorts are women's underwear. This is why. 

His mother told him to knock it off with the weird questions, but I seriously hope I wasn't the only one in the shop who thought it was a legit question. 

Some memories from my part time work...

When I working in Uniqlo in Chinatown Point for the closing shift, they would always play the song "Best of Me" by Oakfield Mansion. The music has a nice melody and beat, and the lyrics are very sweet. I initially wanted to download the song to play in my standard playlist.

Since this was played through the sound system in the shop, the sound wasn't that detailed.

Some time I stopped working there, I went to check out the song, this time using my high-quality IEMs. I managed to find the song on SoundCloud, and apparently the singer isn't that well known. Maybe that's why the store played this song: royalty fees are cheaper.



It would have been a nice song, if the singer didn't sound like he was about to inhale the microphone every time he takes a breath.

In the end the song didn't make it to my playlist.

Some things from Far Cry 3...

Oh I'm sorry, Willis Cuntley, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome our airport, which incidentally the one you'll be transiting at, is.

Trust me, if you have actually smelt a durian, you'd wouldn't just ban it from your subway, you'd be advocating for its genocide.

Bad day...

That much shit taste...

After the lamest guiding assignment where I had to bring around a group of girls around the same age as my sister (7 years younger than I am) in my university (which is mostly deserted since it's the weekend before classes start), I asked them what kind of music they like in an attempt to start a conversation.

They answered "Justin Bieber".

항암제（抗癌劑）: anti-cancer drug
Because that's what I need after listening to such a cancerous answer.
And if I want to be killed, I'd prefer to die cancer-free anyway. 

Conversation: killed. Didn't even get a chance.

Even dating sim characters have better taste in music than them. [1]

I'd say "get off my lawn" but Bieber's the same age as I am. He's from my generation.

[1] One of them likes piano concertos, the other likes British punk rock. I don't know what the third one likes.

So I read about the shutdown and consolidation of junior colleges in Singapore due to poor enrolment rates.

I was wondering why this situation sounded so familiar, then I realised:

Madre de dios.

It's literally the premise of Love Live.

Unfortunately this is (1) real life and (2) in Singapore. The same country that AKB48 left because of lack of interest [1].

Ain't nobody gonna set up a school idol group to save their school here.


[1] Of course the situation is a lot more complex than merely lack of interest: you have issues like pricing and management issues, but this was the main reason AKB cafe in Singapore didn't work out.

NUS Indoors...

(working range gatekeeper and having lunch)

(coach walks by)

Me: (eats lunch) Hi coach.

Coach: (looks at lunch packet)

Lunch packet is rice, vegetables and a fried egg foo young.

Coach: (looks at me)

Overweight, but shorter than average.

Coach: No wonder Singaporeans never grow big.

Me: Not enough meat?

Coach: Have you even seen a Korean hotpot?

Me: I rest my case.

Fun fact: Japanese to English translation is difficult. Especially if the translator is the same person as the author.

I wrote a speech in Japanese and now my lecturer wants me to translate it as well since she is attending a pedagogy (ie how to teach people) conference and wants to present my speech.

I did not write the original speech with English in mind, so the original script contained a lot of Japanese idiosyncrasies that made translation difficult. That's why most multilingual books have the author and translator as different people, even if the author knows the language it will be translated into. It's pretty well known that Haruki Murakami's English is good, but he did not translate his own books from Japanese to English.

Worst part of all this is trying to explain to my mother all that I have said above in Chinese.

I caught a jumping spider this afternoon and dropped it into an insect container that already has a daddy-long-legs spider.

After returning home in the evening, I found a dead jumping spider and a fat daddy-long-legs spider.

Nature is metal.

So I was reading @lucia_hunter 's Twitter feed about his trip to Uchiura, and my first thought was "Thanks for taking one for the team".

The thing about Uchiura is that like pretty much every rural area ever, is that public transport is almost non-existent. He also noted that the ryokan that served as the basis for Chika's home doesn't have that good service standards, with obvious maintenance issues. Shops only open for like 3 hours everyday and the bus only arrives every half hour. It is the definition of a sleepy town.

With 10+km distances between places of interest, it's not fun to cycle there either, especially when you consider rental bicycles in Japan have no gear shift capability. A huge oversight in a country that mountainous when rental bicycles here in flat Singapore have gear shifts. I have cycled from Shijo in Kyoto to Kiyomizudera to Ginkakuji and then back to Shijo, which is probably a total of around 15km. Nope. Not doing it again.

My personal recommendation would be to use Atami as a staging point to go to Uchiura. It's a 40-minute drive and as a former resort town, the infrastructure there is equipped for tourism and the resorts and hotels there have a certain standard of service. Even if the place hasn't progressed from the 80s.

Ok technically it's still a resort town, but it's pretty much dying. That's why they had to make a deal with the devil and tie up with a dating sim to try to resuscitate its visitor numbers (didn't work).

But still if you want to go to Uchiura, take the train to Atami, rent a car there, drive to Uchiura and then stay over at Atami if you feel like you need more than a day to explore Uchiura.

But what do I know, I don't even have a licence 🙃

I should probably get a licence.

Now all those missed picture opportunities that @lucia_hunter mentioned also made me think of the reason why I have a DSLR.

See a fleeting photo op moment and you have a DSLR slung around you? Raise it, kick off the lens cap, disengage the safety (flip the on switch) and fire away (I set my camera to Low Frame Rate Continuous). Bad shot? Don't worry: you have 5 more pictures of the same thing. Drop the lens cap? Clean it and you are fine. Lose your lens cap because you dropped it? It's Japan: they sell replacements.

I tried that with my cellphone, that's a missed moment. Nearly 5 seconds to get a camera phone ready, 3 of them spent cursing at phone lag. I only need like 2 seconds to get a DSLR ready.

The takeaway is this: Uchiura does not have the public infrastructure to handle tourism at all. I've seen it first hand too in Malaysia. My parents' hometown became some kind of hipster hotspot and with some promotion from the Malaysian tourism board and a direct air link from Singapore there, a shitton of visitors have descended on that town and now there are major traffic issues there. At least Uchiura has public transport of some sort. Ipoh doesn't.

Of course I prefer sitting in a train than having to actively drive a car, but in the countryside, there aren't many choices.

So during my archery tournament somewhere in April, the organisers were giving out this magazine called Augustman. Mostly because the magazine is one of the event sponsors.

I opened this magazine, and while reading it I was thinking "Look at all the luxury watches and luxury everything else I will never buy".

Question
What's the point of sponsoring this event when most of the participants are students and likely wouldn't have the money to buy the shit they advertise in the magazine?

Point
Archery isn't a cheap sport: I spent a total of $1200 on my archery set so far:

• Riser (second hand): $550
• Sight (second hand): $150 (another $30 for a fibre-optic enhanced sight pin)
• Stabiliser rods ("new"): $280
• String (new): $30
• Arrows (new): $160

Most of this equipment was paid with money I earned from holiday jobs.

Items still on loan from the club:

• V-bar
• Limbs (not going to buy them until I hit 70m range: that's the limb weight I will then get)

People who can take up archery have the dosh to buy their equipment, and likely might also have the money to buy the luxury items advertised in the magazine. 

Counter-point

Most of the students blew all their money on archery equipment. 

Counter-counter-point

There are some seriously rich kids who can afford the luxury items after buying archery equipment. 

Counter-counter-counter-point

These guys probably blew what's left on archery equipment upgrades. 

This card:

Love Live! School Idol Festival Card #1023

What this character is holding is her birthstone (March 15), specifically an aquamarine.

How much does it cost?

(Kinokuniya Main Store, Singapore)

Pretty expensive actually. Especially considering this stone is probably 1 cm tall.

The stone Umi is holding definitely looks larger than 1 cm.

Still not as bad as this really tiny diamond that I also saw being sold.

I guess that's why that crane game I saw in Japan where you can grab real gemstones is fiendishly difficult. Quite a huge price tag for such a tiny diamond. Gotta get back your money's worth somehow.

I tried getting a ruby but ended up getting a clear topaz instead.

Come think of it, last time I got a gemstone from a crane machine it was a clear topaz as well. At least that one was set in a silver-plated necklace.

A perfect gift for a girlfriend.

If I had one.

I tried handing it off to my sister but she doesn't want it.

So now it's doing nothing but collecting dust.

No I'm not going to give it away.

From: 大和 (NSFW)
He uses this picture as his profile pic

I like this artist's work, but navigating his* album is a bloody minefield. 

Like 80% of his* artwork is porn. 

Maybe that's why his* anatomical geometry is on point. 

*He declares himself as male in his profile. 

So I watched in a Cantonese drama about a chef who wants to make quail egg to make noodles so that he can kill a corrupt official who already had a stroke.

Come think of it, I wonder how quail egg noodle would taste.

Don't worry: I'm in great health.

Well I didn't know Hong Kong drinks are getting popular in Japan.

It's not actually entirely coffee: it's a mixture of coffee and tea in condensed milk. It's called Yuan Yang in Mandarin or Yun Yeung in Cantonese. (鸳鸯/鴛鴦 in hanzi)

I guess the Japanese really like their light novels.

I tried using the Japanese IME to type from the suggested Japanese pronunciation of the drink えんおうちゃ and it pretty much asked me "Seriously?"

I could write the name in kanji but I was like "fuck that" since it's the same as the Traditional Chinese name.

Turns out the term is recognised and already exists, but it's very obscure since it is a HK drink anyway.

I guess it's similar to how Chrome doesn't think the word "halation" exists unless you specifically teach it the word.