Fixing an Android Error Message - Error retrieving information from server

I have a Galaxy Nexus that recently got an over the air (OTA) update to Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). Coming from 4.1.2 I was thrilled to see the new changes, particularly with their new panorama feature. But after the update I had issues with updating apps on the Google Play Store.

The Problem

I got the following error message:

Update for "Foursquare" could not be downloaded due to an error. (Error retrieving information from server. [RPC:AEC:0])



This would apply to any app, but for my case both Foursquare and Google Music.

I tried a lot of different things from clearing the cache of each of these apps as well as the Google Play app, to even uninstalling the Foursquare app and re-downloading it. None of which worked.

Solution

In the end, I found this link which pointed me in the right direction.

The workaround is to simply to go to Settings->Accounts&Sync->Google and removing my Google account. Afterwards, just add it back again. Then the error message disappeared and I could update/install apps once again.

Setting up Windows Phone 8 Emulator on a Virtual Machine

Not long ago I blogged about Installing Windows 8 Pro on Parallels Desktop 8. That of course worked for me, but when it came time to having Visual Studio 2012 (VS2012) and running an emulator for Windows Phone 8, it simply doesn't work. I searched the Internet as to why, and came up with the following links:

• StackOverflow: Unable to create the virtual machine
• MSDN: Having problems running the Windows Phone 8 Emulator?
• Running the Windows Phone 8 emulator in a virtual machine (I followed this guide)

As a lot of people pointed out, it's not really possible in Parallels Desktop 8 (PD8), but is possible through VMware Fusion 5 (VMF5) with a small workaround.

I recommend following this guide, but will supplement some more information as it pertains to VMF5, as it's not exactly the same as VMware Workstation 9.

First off, I recommend installing from scratch. I tried to import my existing virtual machine created through PD8, and failed many, many, many times. I ended up with a blue screen screen and countless reboots that try to fix something that didn't get fixed. Save yourself time and just do a clean install of Windows 8 on VMF5.

Even if you have or haven't installed VS2012 with Windows Phone 8 SDK, you should uninstall Hyper-V.

You can get to this in Windows 8 through Control Panel and search for "windows features". Then click on "Turn Windows features on or off".

Make sure these boxes are unchecked, as in off. You'll check these back on later.


Next in the virtual machine's settings, in Processors & Memory, uncheck "Enable hypervisor applications in this virtual machine". You'll check this back on later.




Next you have the Virtual Machine Library window open, and then right click + hold alt (option) key to get the option to "Open Config File in Editor".


Here add the following settings, as they shouldn't exist.

hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE" 
mce.enable = "TRUE"



Finally, check back on everything you unchecked from before. A restart is probably needed for the Windows Hyper-V install again.

Now you'll be able to run a Windows Phone Emulator within VMware Fusion 5, on a Mac!


Happy coding!

Note: I haven't purchased my copy of VMware Fusion 5 yet. I'll likely buy it before the 30-day trial is up.

Long Beach Comic Con 2012

Over the weekend I attended Long Beach Comic Con held at the Long Beach Convention Center. It's not as big as San Diego Comic Con nor Comikaze Expo, but it definitely had a more collector's paradise feel to it.

I actually didn't take too many pictures myself as I was head deep in the comic book bins looking for deals on actual comic books. Normally I'm more of a trade paperback (TPB) kind of comic reader, but recently started picking up some individual titles again. I'll try to have a blog post up covering some of my more recent readings.

There also weren't too many people dressed up-- but then again I went only on Sunday, the day after the costume/masquerade party. I definitely missed taking pictures of some pretty nice costumes because I was mostly there for the comics, not panels or costumes really. Sorry to disappoint if that was what you were hoping for!

Full album can be found here.

Some pictures I took:



Went to the Valiant Comics panel.


Dinesh Shamdasani, CCO of Valiant in the middle.


Joshua Dysart, the writer for Harbinger.








Rocksteady!










Killer Klowns from Outer Space?! (Movie reference)












Related Posts:

• 2012 Comikaze Expo
• 2012 San Diego Comic Con
• 2012 Anime Expo
• 2011 Wizard World Chicago Comic Con
• 2010 San Diego Comic Con

Installing Windows 8 Pro on Parallels Desktop 8

Last week I went to a Microsoft launch event, New Era of Work, and got a free copy of Windows 8 Pro. I had already tried Windows 8 Preview as well as have Windows 7 Ultimate running as a virtual machines (VMs) through Parallels Desktop on my Macbook Pro (MBP). I didn't like the preview edition that much, so I uninstalled it after a few days. But after attending the event, I thought I'd give it another look.

Please note that the latest PC I own is a Lenovo Thinkpad T60 from 2006, which the wireless card just broke the other day. So my MBP from 2010 is the latest hardware I own.

The problems is that the current Parallels (version 8) does not support upgrading from any Windows OS to Windows 8. Here is the screenshot of what Parallels sent to me via email:



I learned this the hard way when I installed a preview edition of Win8 and upgraded to Win8 Pro, and things were just wacky. The following was screwed up:

1. Screen resolution was not fully supported. I have a 2560x1440 native res that wasn't supported-- instead I had to run it at 1920x1400, which was pretty sub-optimal.
2. The path to the shared home folders was not supported. I couldn't access my Mac's home folder of \\psf\Home, which is an inconvenience.

The preview edition of Win8 ran better than the upgraded Win8 on Parallels Desktop through the upgrade! There's no way I was going to try upgrading my Win7 Ultimate that already runs just fine!

But there's a workaround. If you do a full install, it should run just fine. Here's how:

Through Parallels 8, I'm not sure about previous versions, you have an option to install other virtual machines to whatever you already have. From the virtual machines list, click on new.

The window that opens up should allow you to download and install a preview edition of Windows 8 for free. Do that and pick whatever architecture you want (32 or 64 bit). I chose 64 bit and highly recommend that.



Let it download and install fully. From here, as per the instruction given to me from my copy of Windows 8 Pro, go to: http://www.windows.com/nfrdownload. Follow the instructions there to begin the download process of Win8 Pro. Once that finishes the download, there should be a screen that comes up that asks where to proceed with some options.

Choose to save the Win8 Pro as an ISO on your local computer to install later. Do not choose to install immediately!

Once you have the ISO saved, you can do a full install of Win8 Pro from that. At this point you can go ahead and delete the Win8  preview VM you just installed on your Mac.

Now you can install Win8 Pro from the newly downloaded ISO. The product key I had worked. If the product key you were given was for an upgrade only, there are workarounds for that even-- via some registry edit. See: Probable Fix: Problem in Activating Windows 8 After Clean Install

Note, this is all because Parallels 8 currently doesn't have a clean upgrade path for current Windows OSes. Once that fix is made, then this is probably the only way to get Windows 8 Pro to run on Parallels on your Mac OS X.