C'mon baby, root my Fire

Rooting your Kindle Fire and turning it into a nice Android tablet

I got my Kindle Fire from US a month back. However, being in India, I was confronted with tons of geographical restrictions set by Amazon. I wasn't even able to play videos in simple formats like mpeg or mkv.

I then rooted my Kindle Fire and installed Android Market, SwiftKey X and Go Launcher to begin with. Uninstalled all restrictive Amazon apps.

I now have an amazing Android tablet and I can revert to and from Fire's look and feel in one click.
I can install anything from the Android Market and, as of now, I can do anything with my Fire what I could do with any other Android tablet.


How tos


Rooting
I followed this xda forum guide to root my Fire
Please note that rooting doesn't cause any data loss and your books and all the configs and everything you can think of will still be there.
Just root with caution though. Careless fiddling might brick your Fire.

Installing Anrdoid Market
I blindly followed this youtube video to install Android Market.

Please make sure you don't update "Amazon kindle" app once you've installed Market to avoid losing your books. It's easily undoable, even if you happen to update it (Just "Uninstall updates" from settings->Applications->Amazon Kindle).

Changing the default Keypad
Changing the default keypad is a bit tricky and requires you to fiddle with Andoid system's sqlite tables.

I followed this guide, but instead of exporting sqlite file to PC, editing it, and importing it, I used Sqlite-Editor and Shell (free apps) to change the permissible keypads from Fire itself. You need to get SwiftKey X Tablet or any other keypad apk file before doing that.


Apps I've installed
These are the apps that are currently installed on my Fire

3D Bowling
Adobe Reader
Aldiko
AndFTP
Android Assistant
Apparatus
aShell
aSQLiteManager
Beaver Lite
Comic Viewer
Docs
Dolphin Browser HD
Dropbox
Easy Uninstaller
ES File Explorer
Fast AppSharer
File Expert
Glow Hockey
Gmail
GO Launcher EX
GO Note Widget
GO TaskManager Widget
GO TwiWidget
Google Services Framework
Hangman
ICS PRO
IM+
JustPictures!
Last.fm
Maps
Market Opener
Math Workout
Meridian
MX Video Player
NetQin Sync
PhoneMyPC
Piano Perfect
PowerAMP

Pulse News

Root Explorer
Share Apps
Sketch n Draw
Superuser
SwiftKey Tablet X
SwiFTP
SystemPanel
TOI
YouTube

Also see: (C'mon baby) Light my Fire, by The Doors

Yet another pointless conversation

A: I've started finding electronic rock interesting.
J: And I've started finding philosophy interesting... esp writings of Sartre and Nietzsche.
A: Oh wait... did you say philosophy?
J: Yep.
A: Oh wow... that's not good.
J: I know. People who find philosophy interesting usually end up in a mental asylum.
A: Exactly!
J: At some point of time in life, the question of "why life" comes to everyone's mind. Everyone's.
......
......
......

The end (Abrupt, the way it started).

A smudgy puzzle

A car with n (n > 2) passengers of different speeds of mental reaction passes through a tunnel and each passenger acquires unconsciously a smudge of soot upon his forehead. Suppose that each passenger

(1) laughs and continues to laugh as soon as and only so long as he sees a smudge upon the forehead of a fellow passenger;
(2) can see the foreheads of all his fellows;
(3) reasons correctly;
(4) will clean his own forehead when and only when his reasoning forces him to conclude that he has a smudge;
(5) knows that (1), (2), (3), and (4) hold for each of his fellows.

Show that each passenger will eventually wipe his own forehead.

Now for the solution
Hint: Mathematical Induction.
(Soln hidden: Select the text below)



Consider there are three people A, B and C.
Case 1:If A has no smudge on his forehead, B and C would find themselves laughing at each other. So B and C would wipe their foreheads.
Case 2:If B and C don't wipe their foreheads after a certain period of time, A reasons that it can be only because he has smudge on his own forehead. So he wipes his own forehead. Now, this boils down to the 1st case and B and C would wipe their foreheads eventually.

Now consider there are four people A, B, C and D.
Case 3: If D doesn't have smudge on his forehead, it boils down to Case 2, where A wipes his forehead eventually.
Case 4: Now if he finds A hasn't wiped his forehead even after a long period of time, he reasons that it can be only because he has smudge on his own forehead. So he wipes his own forehead. This brings the state back to Case 3.

By induction, this process can be continued and all the n (n > 2) people will eventually wipe their foreheads.