RSS feeds for Waygook boards/threads

I sometimes browse Waygook.org to see what all the foreigners in Korea are complaining about now. Recently I discovered that you can actually get RSS feeds for most Waygook sections, which makes browsing much easier. I scroll through in my RSS reader on the subway, find something that looks interesting, then save it so that when I get home I can open my computer, log-in to Waygook, and leave disparaging comments. Then I log-in with my other account and troll my first account. Then I sit back and watch the feeding frenzy as everyone takes sides. Yes, minions, yes...

Here's the basic RSS feed URL:
http://www.waygook.org/index.php?type=rss&action=.xml&board=##

Just replace the ## with the number of the board you want to follow, which you can find by visiting that board on Waygook and checking the URL. For example, the Gyeonggi-do board is at
http://www.waygook.org/index.php?board=72.0 so the RSS feed for the board is http://www.waygook.org/index.php?type=rss&action=.xml&board=72

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Typing in Korean on Lubuntu 13.10

I recently updated my Lubuntu netbook to version 13.10 and was appalled to discover that iBus is now a mess. If you check the forums, you'll see loads of horror stories about this new version of iBus and how many Asian script users (Japanese, Chinese, Korean...) are having difficulty making it work. Most are switching to alternate input methods. For me personally, I got iBus working for Hangul typing, but I had to keep manually switching between English/Korean by clicking with the mouse on the keyboard input icon in the toolbar ("panel" I should say). That is annoying. I have a Korean keyboard and want to use the 한/영 character.

I don't know if this is the best option out there, but this is working for me and I'm satisfied. Here's what I did:

Changing iBus to imhangul

Basically it boils down to: install Korean language, remove iBus, install im-switch, activate hangul

1. In the Language Support (or whatever it's called for you) settings, I installed the Korean language pack.
2. Using Synaptic Package Manager, I searched for, and removed, all entries relating to iBus.
3. Using Synaptic, I installed the packages im-switch and imhangul which will ask for the removal of im-config and the language config settings
   Yes, this will remove the Language Support entry from the System Preferences Menu, but if you already installed Korean langauge pack, you won't need it. You can always manually re-install it later too. 
4. Log out and log in (or restart)
5. To access the settings, run im-switch in a terminal. A settings dialog will pop up asking to choose your input method. I chose imhangul
6. Log in and log out
7. Go to Keyboard Layout Handler
   (I no longer have this setting in the System Preferences menu, but it's still present in my toolbar/taskbar/panel)
8. Under the Keyboard Layouts section, click "+Add", scroll down to Korean, expand the arrow to choose "Korean 101/104 key Compatible" and enable it. I also removed the entry for English. 

Now I can type in English or switch to Korean by using the 한/영 key on my keyboard, which I just did right there. Look I'll do it again 다시 사용하고 있지 wow that was much faster than clicking.

For some ways to configure the settings in imhangul, see my post here.

I hope to switch back to iBus at some point, but I think I'll wait for the 14.04 release. Hopefully it will be sorted by then. 

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Default Wi-fi Passwords in Korea

A Korean friend sent me this list of default Wi-fi passwords.

와이파이 비밀번호 모음

KT_Wlan - 1234567890
헬로우 디 (HellowD) - 534f4b4354
맥도날드 (McDonalds) - 16005252 or that branch's delivery phone number
세븐일레븐 (7 Eleven)- 2127393302
SK - a123456789
일반 Egg - Password
파리 크라상 (Paris Croissant)- vkflzmfktkd
부영컴 - 15444352
myLGnet, myLG070 - 123456789a , 987654321a ,1234567890 , myLGNetfe07
KT SSID , KT_WLAN - 1234567890 , 123456789a , 1234567890c
KT QOOK AP - 1234567890
SO070VOIP - 534f4b4354
Tbroadnet - 123456789 또는 a123456789
      에러 - 신호는 잡혀도 미연결시, MAC 이 원인임
      방법 - http://게이트웨이주소 치면, 관리자 암호 입력에 admin/admin or admin/password 입 력.
스타벅스  (Starbucks) - 매장별 전화번호 (영수증 참조)   (branch phone number, or check your receipt) 
Hellowireless - 534f4b4354
tobis - 1234
KWI-BxxxxT( Egg 택시) (Taxis) - SHOW3382 , password
Egg 택시, 친절콜 와이브로(KWI-B2200T-XXXXX,KWI-2200) - SHOW3382 (대문자 필수)

디폴트 Egg 뒷번호는 제품 시리얼 넘버와 일치. 이건 디폴트라면 ssid 뒷자리와 동일.

iptime (192.168.0.1), anygate(192.168.10.1), zio - 비번 필요없음. 암호설정시, 주인 임의
admin - password
LINKSYS 설정(192.168.1.1) - 사용자명은 없고, 암호만 admin
  SK(T-spot) - sktelecom

U+존 - a0123456789
U+100 : 단말기 시리얼 번호(무선 100MB)
T world zone - T월드 홈페이지 방문 mac등록(타 통신사도 가능)

------------------

You can find lists like this all over the place, but this one seems a bit more comprehensive.
I always feel sorry for the newbie teachers here, stuck in a shitty apartment with no way to contact their family or even other foreigner friends here. Hopefully one of these will work to get you at least a temporary connection. If you haven't got anyone to help you out, I suggest going with KT as they have a good English-speaking service. For example, check out @olleh_expats

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Adjusting scrollbar width on Lubuntu

I recently updated my Lubuntu and noticed that the scrollbars are now nearly too thin to see. On a netbook, it's almost impossible. Fortunately, it's easy to fix.

1. Run this command in a terminal:
   sudo leafpad /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/scrollbar.rc
2. Edit this line in the resulting document that pops up:
   GtkRange::slider-width = 20(replace "20" with your choice. 20 is a bit thick but that's how I like it. That's what she said)
3. Logout and Log-in again. Done.

Source: http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31638#p48810

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Find the Korean names of foreign / English / American movies

PROBLEM: 
You are chatting with your Korean coworkers at the bar after work. Everyone is going around the table talking about their favorite movie. It comes to your turn. You confidently say "Ernest Goes to Camp" but they have no idea what you're talking about. What was this called in Korean?

Nowadays "western" movies tend to carry their titles directly over into hangul. Thus, Robocop is 로보캅, not 로봇 경찰관. But others have had their titles translated into Korean. Frozen, for example, is 겨울왕국 (Winter Kingdom). This is especially true with (1.) children's movies, and (2.) movies released prior to 2000. What's the easiest way to find these Korean titles?

SOLUTION:
Simple. Use the Naver Movies site. Just type in the film's name in English, and the results page will list the name it goes by in Korea. Thus you can do a quick check on your phone and explain that your favorite film is called 어니스트 1 - 캠핑 가다 and take in the spray of comically/exaggeratedly spit beer as the shock of someone liking this movie overwhelms them.

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Watch current Korean movies with English subtitles at the cinema

PROBLEM:
You're living in Korea, and want to experience the culture by going to the cinema (or theater for you culture-less drones) and watching Korean movies. But of course, you don't speak Korean, and the theater (yes, theater, f*ck you for judging me) websites are a filthy mess of flashing navigation even if you could read Korean. But you know movies are showing with English subtitles along the bottom.
How is the lonely expat to know where to watch these films?

SOLUTIONS:
Frequently check the KOBIZ website (http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/schedule/subtitMovie.jsp). If a Korean film is playing with English subs, it'll list it here. Sometimes this page is blank (no showings listed) and other times it will randomly spring to life with information, so bookmark it and come back to it now and then.
and/or
"Like" this awesome Facebook group "All in Korean: with English subs please" (https://www.facebook.com/AllInKoreanWithEnglishSubsPlease)These fools straight up keep the 411 flowing. Updated way more often than the KOBIZ site.
Or if you are an RSS OG like me, get their page RSS feed here (https://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=405107282941022)

And, if you're looking for foreign-language films with Korean subs other than Hollywood crap, I suggest this place.

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Rooting your Android phone in Korea with Tegrak Kernel

PROBLEM:
You bought an awesome Samsung phone in Korea, and want to root it. But because it's the "Korean" version and not a US or International version, it's a pain in the butt. Custom ROMs like CyanogenMod don't seem to work. Fret not: here's the easiest way to do it.

SOLUTION:
In two words: Tegrak Kernel.

Disclaimer: Everything here is my personal opinion. I'm neither an Android developer nor paid endorser. I am just a guy who spent a hellofalotof time trying to figure this out. There could be an easier way out there. For me, this worked, and I hope it might work for you.

I'm not going to lie to you-- there is a huge variety of custom ROMs out there for Korean-model phones. The Korean developer community is, unsurprisingly, extremely prolific. But if you're like me, you don't really care about all variety of custom builds and wacky configurations and bleeding-edge features. Also, you don't read Korean. You just want your phone rooted so you can get rid of the bloatware and make it as speedy as possible.

Why choose Tegrak?

It works on almost all Samsung smartphones, from the humble Galaxy S1 to the Note and S4. I also like Tegrak because it's relatively low-risk: it is NOT a custom ROM per se. It's only a kernel, so you are still keeping whatever stock ROM your phone came with. In addition to giving you root, it has Overclock features and a Lagfix, though in my experience the lagfix is less noticeable on newer models.

How do I install it?

Basically the whole process boils down to this:

1. Download the files for your phone from the internet.
2. Install them via Odin (see below).
3. Install the Tegrek app from the Google Play Store.

That's it.

Tell me more, tell me more

What? You don't know what I'm talking about? Alright, I'll give you a bit more.

Step 1: Though there are many mirrors, hosts, fileshare lockers where you can find the files from a Google search, skip that crap and go to the source. Find your phone's model ("SHW-M110S" for example), and click through to that page. Scroll down.

See what he did here? There are multiple version of the Tegrak Kernel files, for each phone model and even for each Android version for each phone model. Therefore it's important that you PAY ATTENTION here. Don't go downloading any old "Tegrak Kernel Build" files. You need the ones for YOUR phone and YOUR Android stock software. So double-check that you're downloading the right files.

Scroll down to where the files are available for download (near the bottom of the page, just above the comments section. You'll see the little zip-file icons). Again, find the files for YOUR PHONE MODEL. Only the latest verisions will be displayed, so you might need to click the blue bar reading 이전 버전 다운로드 접기 to expand the list to see all the offerings. Check the end of the filename before downloading to make sure that it matches the software version displayed in your phone's "About Phone" (or similar) settings. You might not need (or even be able to use) the "latest build" but whatever.

Download the files. Note that some are in 2~3 pieces, so you might need to combine the files with 7zip after downloading.

Step 2: Shit just got real. Time to flash. You are going to need a copy of the Windows program Odin, which Tegrak conveniently makes available here:
http://pspmaster.tistory.com/attachment/cfile26.uf@250F504551E3A519103474.zip
This will allow you to flash the kernel files to your phone. THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO DO THIS, AND ALSO THIS COULD BRICK YOUR PHONE but it always works for me so please do not complain if it does something wacky. If you are seriously in trouble, there is a lot of useful information at the XDA forums. Search there for your model number.

Turn off your phone and put it into recovery mode (I feel lazy, so Google it yourself to see how to do this; on mine it was holding down the Home button and Power button simultaneously).

Oh, by the way: You're going to need to Samsung USB drivers for your phone and you need to ensure that KIES is not running. How?

1. Install KIES. Somewhere there is a menu option for installing USB drivers. Do it.
2. Uninstall KIES. Done.

IT IS TIME. You might want to follow along visually by looking at the screenshots he provides.
Load the Tegrak Kernel files in the "PDA" option of Odin. Connect the phone (which is in recovery mode). The yellow light in Odin should show up. "Start" the process. Let it do it's magic for several minutes. When it's all done, the phone should reboot. Let it do it's thing. Don't get antsy. Hopefully, you're done.

Step 3 should be obvious. Note that there is a free version and a "donation" version. Both are identical except for ads in the app itself, which you will only likely use once. This guy has done an amazing job, so once the process is done (and you've used the free version to set it all up), please consider replacing the app with the Donation version (like I did). It's a couple bucks to bring new life to your phone (I used my prior phone, Galaxy S1, for over 3 years thanks to the speed boost from Tegrak).

Open the app, enable rooting, and feel the rush of power surge to your brain. Enable lagfix and enjoy a speedy phone. Enable overclock and burn a hole in your pants don't bother.

Final thoughts

Again I am NOT an Android developer. I'm just sharing what worked for me. Please do not ask me how to fix X, Y, or Z because I, like you, am just a normal guy who scoured the internet looking for information. XDA Forums have it. I hope this little guide was helpful.

Major props to Tegrak for making this possible. Donate to him, minions!

P.S. If, like me, you did all this and discovered that your Galaxy S1 now had very little space for installing apps (an unfortunate side-effect of the lagfix process), I recommend Matpclub Hackpunch. It plays nice with Tegrak and gave me a much larger install space.

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