Dell BIOS updates have some undocumented command line switches that may be useful for system administrators. These are a few of the notable command-line arguments;

In order to bypass the Battery and AC adaptor check when attempting a BIOS update for a Dell laptop, simply run it with the /forceit command, for example;

• DELL_BIOS_A10.exe /forceit

You can also extract the actual image using commands like writeromfile, for example;

• DELL_BIOS_A10.exe -writeromfile

Dell use a variety of update programs depending on the age of the computer, so some commands may be deprecated or renamed. Let me know in teh comments if you find any other interesting Dell BIOS command line switches.

Where would I be without this gem! It’s worth the $5.50 AUD!

This app will essentially backup every piece of data on your phone onto the sdcard, ready to be restored as needed. It’s essential for anyone who wants to trial different ROMs on their phone and take their data with them. Alongside ClockworkMod, it’s unbeatable.  It has saved my ass quite a few times, thus why I felt it deserved the paid price, and the praise

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup

Okay, so maybe there is just ONE element of HTC Sense that I can’t just let go of; and that was the keyboard.

Can you spell drought? Well I thought I’d break it, by bringing a fresh new Android perspective to my site

The HTC Desire.

A magnificent phone, now a year old it was a driving force to help bring Android into the mainstream market. And I wasn’t the only one to own one in the family — which really highlights it’s density across the market.

As with any Android device owner who likes tinkering, I felt the need to unlock my phone and bring out it’s full potential, courtesy of the ample number of ROMs available on the XDA developers forum. I was using LeeDrOiD up until a few months ago (when the updates died down) and moved to my current ROM, CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod is pretty well developed, and still quite stock which I like. I didn’t necessarily like any of the HTC Sense launchers and twidbits — they were all a  little useless, so a stock environment was quite welcome– and awesomely fast.

You will find a few other Android related posts on my site, which describe a few useful apps and tweaks/tricks I’ve learnt over the last year with my HTC Desire. You can find them under the Android category