Ubuntu upgrade to 12.04: grub timeout does not work anymore

After doing the upgrade and solving some issues with my screen-resolution, another grub problem hit me:
The timeout for booting the standard kernel did not work anymore.
Inside /etc/default/grub

GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

and update-grub, grub worked like

 GRUB_TIMEOUT=-1

If you need a  good manual  just look here, but this does not help me, too.

After some tries, i did the following:

In /boot/grub/grub.cfg i changed from

terminal_output gfxterm
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ] ; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
    set timeout_style=menu
    set timeout=10
  fi
fi

to

terminal_output gfxterm
recordfail=0
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ] ; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
    set timeout_style=menu
    set timeout=10
  fi
fi

This works, but i have to redo the change everytime update-grub is used...

Ubuntu upgrade to 12.04: screen only works with 1024x768

After upgrading a laptop-system to 12.04 (precise pangolin) X only starts with a resolution of 1024x768 and not with 1366x768.
I followed many postings and tried many things:

• add new resolution with xrandr (here)
• create a xorg.conf file (here)
• add new drivers (here)
• ...

But there was only one thing wrong: /etc/default/grub

After changing the following line everything worked:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.modeset=0

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

(i added i915.modeset=0  because with the older ubuntu version hibernate does not work and this configuration fixed it. [link])

Telegram on two devices...

After trying Whatsapp on 2 devices without success, i tried the same thing with telegram. Telegram says about multiple devices:

So let's see...
Registering the mobile phone was straight forward: a SMS with a verification code and that's it.

Registering was easy: just another SMS

And after entering the code on the tablet i got the following message on my mobile phone:

After that every conversation or more precise: every unsecure conversation is broadcasted to all of your devices. That means, you can switch over from phone to tablet without loosing your context... really cool!

Smart Meter@Home: Fritz!Powerline 546E - really smart?

Everyone is talking about Smart Meter - is it possible to get in touch with this topic by buying a Fritz!Powerline 546E?

The key points of Smart Meters according to wikipedia are:

• real-time or near real-time sensors
• power outage notification
• power quality monitoring 
• collect, and analyze energy usage

What is supported by the 546E?

• power outage notification: no way without a battery ;-)
• real-time or near real-time sensors: one measurement per minute
• power quality monitoring: voltage monitoring
• collect and analyze: 

 

and

 

But there are some shortcomings:

• graphs and data only local on 546E, no integration to any central server, not even to a Fritz!Box (because of a missing DECT interface)
• configuration as WLAN repeater not described in the manual (only powerline)
• export via web frontend limited to 5 minute-intervals only 24 hours
• automated export only via E-Mail and limited to this: