Toshiba SD-570SR2 DVD player hack

Greetings,

Last night, in the middle of the night actually, just when we needed
to calm Sebastian down in front of the Teletubbies DVD, we discovered
the player wouldn't work. All discs we tried were giving a "Disc
region incorrect" error. We ended up watching Animal Planet which
eventually calmed him down. (Sebastian was suffering from a
'pseudo-kroep' attack -> I have no idea what that is in English).

Anyhow, I vowed to get the DVD player fixed ... as it was obviously a
software error ... probably brought on by the kids mucking about with
the DVD player and remote.

Well, after an hour of searching, I can confirm that the following
'multi-region' hack works on our Toshiba SD-570SR2 DVD player:

1. Power up the player;
2. Open the tray;
3. Enter 24039609 and press Enter (using the remote);
>> Immediately a number 9 appears in the top right of the screen,
momentarily.
>> You should now be region free.

Notes:
Thanks to "BrianPK":
http://www.avforums.com/forums/dvd-player-hacks/508285-toshiba-sd370e-6.html
(And by the way, I didn't respond in the forum as I'm not (and don't
want to be) a member).

Regarding the Toshiba SD-570SR2, it seems to have been created for the
Russian market, judging by the Google search results. Otherwise a fine
player and it (ours) has a standard multi-region capacity (a 5 logo at
the back).

Gegroet. Paul.

My sixpence worth ...

And here's another typical example of me getting distracted ...

 

All I wanted to do is compose a Dutch email for some colleagues at work. (The subject being of no importance whatsoever).

 

I wanted, however, to start off with an English phrase which sprung to mind (don't ask me why):

"Here's my sixpence worth"

Wanting to be accurate .. and as my memory isn't what it used to be, I wanted to look up the exact meaning (expecting questions from my colleagues).

So the first thing I did was check some online dictionaries I use:

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/sixpence?view=uk

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=74029&dict=CALD

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sixpence

 

.. and I find no mention of the (meaning of the) phrase.

 

So then I Googled on (see below) and was surprised to find how little mention is made of the meaning of this phrase.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sixpence+worth&aq=f&oq=

http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22sixpence+worth%22

http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22here%27s+my+sixpence+worth%22&btnG=Search

 

Strange as the phrase seems common enough (judging by the amount of results returned). The best result I found was the following (although it still doesn't fully explain the meaning):

http://www.yourdictionary.com/sixpence

 

I therefore make it my business to give the meaning of the phrase:

"Here's my sixpence worth" = "For what it's worth"

Or possibly a better explanation is: "It's up to you to decide what you think of this, but at least I've had my say".

 

That still leaves one intriguing question: what's the origin of this phrase?

 

I could go on about this at length (a sixpence used to be a day's pay whereas it wasn't worth much more recently) but I have found no conclusive etymology (I'm showing off now with big words).

 

So ... if you can tell me where its from ... please ... convince me !

 

Right, I'd better get on with that email to my colleagues.

 

Gegroet.    Paul.

 

PS: an interesting reference to (part of) the phrase is given in "The life of Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell.

PPS: another interesting site related to money slang:

http://www.aldertons.com/money.htm

Picasa Web Albums now does facial recognition

Greetings from a (still) sunny-ish Utrecht (well the ride into work
was nice enough, despite a 'tricky' wind),

Have you seen the news that Picasa Web Albums now does facial recognition ?
(Something I kind-of hinted at in my blog: http://boekhoch.blogspot.com).
(Maybe they were reading my blog ..).

It seems to work amazingly well (although our bairns all look alike,
so it had trouble differentiating between them). Quite addictive ..
and an easy way to tag photos.

(One worry .. what's Google gone do with all this info ..).

And have you the latest windows version of Picasa (version 3) ?

Oh well, just a quick mail to let you know .. back to work.

Gegroet. Paul.

Google Chrome

Hi there,

Just scouting through the news and the following caught my eye: Google
are going to launch their own internet browser: Chrome.

Apparently they made the mistake (?? I doubt it ??) of releasing a
comic strip about it too early.

Check it out:
http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

Looks interesting: I'm not sure when it's due, but Windows will be first.

On another note, the comic strip approach is really good.

Gegroet. Paul.

Google Faces (or.. why I look like Robert de Niro)

Mark my words. I'd be disappointed if Google doesn't introduce new search technology, soon.

After waking up too early one morning (kids !) I had this idea. I nearly got up at 04:30 to start writing this. But I wasn't that daft.

Imagine a new functionality where you could search images for content. Starting with face recognition.



Upload a photo of the person you're looking for and Google could scan it for biometrics and look for that face in the image database (starting with Picasaweb ?). Optionally, add tags to refine the search.

Using Google's computing power they could scan existing images for faces and calculate all the relevant biometrics.
Using Google's search technology they could gather the feedback from people searching to refine the search results.

Once enough people start using it, the combination of information technology and human feedback would soon start to generate real context to images.

But damn ! I'm blogging on something (similar) which already exists; check out www.myheritage.com/celebrity-face-recognition. (Or specifically, why I look like Robert de Niro).

Well, I still expect it would be worth Google's while to expand their search market.

And heck, why just stop with faces ? How about buildings, flowers, trees, animals ...

All that context to be added ...

Bike revision part 2

And now the final and very exciting instalment of Timothy's bike revision. Stripped of all the parts the frame and fork were hung in the shed for the spray-painting. To the perfectionists: this was a fairly quick and dirty job. No grounding / priming, just using Hammerite gold coloured aerosol spray paint.

And after adding 2 layers of (spray) paint, I am reminded of a James Bond movie (..). (Make mental note to wear a respirator/face mask the next time !).

And then (the day after), with the special help of some young friends (eager to learn how to fix a bike), the reassembly:


And after a long hot afternoon's worth of work, the result. Notice Timothy's smile.

(And yes, I still have to fix the chain-guard).
Now ... when I have some time, Sophy's bike has to undergo a girly metamorphosis.

Bike revision part 1

Hello,

As mentioned on Tuesday, I had a lovely day for myself, which I spent revising Timothy's bike.

The story: Timothy's too big for his bike, Sophy's too big for her bike. The solution: Sophy now rides Timothy's bike and Timothy is now riding on aunty Rachel's old bike (which must be about 20 years old).

To help this compromise along (Timothy wanted a new bike; but it isn't his birthday yet) I agreed to paint Sophy's bike purple (now silver) and Timothy's bike gold (now white (and rust)). Note that the kids chose these colours (really).

Being a perfectionist (or nerd), I couldn't stop myself revising Timothy's old bike when I stripped it for painting. So here's an illustrated guide to stripping down a bike. (Or rather, some of the action).

The bike before (under Timothy, with Sophy on a Sunday morning ride from Driebergen station):


Excitement as the coaster brake or back pedal brake or terugtraprem (:Dutch) is stripped:

.. For a 20 year old kid's bike, most of the mechanicals were in a remarkably good state.

Another view of the terugtraprem internals:

.. Note the screw for the 'clutch-like' mechanism.

And even more detail, obviously the elastic bands holding the brake pads are for display purposes only. This is a photo of the complete internals:

.. Spot the latex gloves; ideal when working with oily bike bits. You keep the feel and keep your hands clean. Admittedly they do wear out quickly (5 pairs for one revision).

Removing the crank, with my extractor (at long last a chance to use it in earnest):


And then there was the sudden, violent, hailstorm; just in time for lunch:


And at long last, the bike, stripped of everything and sanded down, washed and ready for the paint job.


To be continued.

Red cheek

Sebastian suffering from his molar coming through:

OK, so maybe the suffering is a little less now (he's with dada).

Mac questions to no one in particular

Will questions to the world on Mac issues elicit any responses ?

1. iPhoto 6 is starting to show more and more duplicates.  This is a gripe I have with iPhoto; I'm losing memory space as iPhoto generates duplicate images sometimes predictably (originals are never changed; a modified version is created) and sometimes unpredictably (I backed up some photo's recently to DVD and now seem to have created quite a few duplicates, huh ?).
   (So Paul; define what a duplicate is; it doesn't necessarily have the same name or file extension but does contain the same image information ?).
   
   With nearly 10.000 photo's; how do I clean up the duplicates ?
   I've looked at "Duplicate Annihilator", "iPhoto Diet" and "iPhoto Library Manager".  The first two don't seem to be completely safe or effective (judging by various comments & reviews), the second is old and the last doesn't seem to have dedicated functionality to remove duplicates (?).
   
   Maybe I should just wait till Picasa for Mac comes along .. although Apple related rumours are a dime a dozen.
   
   
2. Apple Dictionary is absolutely great; lookup any word you see, on the fly. But is there a way to search within the definitions of the thousands of words ? It would be really handy when you can't (like me) exactly remember the word but do know it's meaning. (A reverse lookup ... googling hasn't lead me to any results).
   

The reward to any positive replies will be an honorable mention in a later post !

Imaginary sidekick

Today is my day off. I'd imagined an incredibly relaxed day; I'd be pottering on with bikes, garden, ... Unfortunately, I'm already tired. Poor little (that's a misnomer) Sebastian was troubled by a molar last night and paracetamol and the Teletubbies didn't even help. So Sebastian & I spent a fair amount of the night downstairs, on the sofa. Strangely (?), giving him things to chew on (bread) kept him happy. Oh well.

Then there was our alarm clock this morning; Timothy; waking us up 2 minutes before the alarm clock. He's (more than) full of beans in the morning; in shrill contrast with the way I feel. (My first cup of coffee is starting to alleviate that, though).

Then there was the trip to school; Timothy was on his (foldable) scooter (I looked that word up on the web as it doesn't feel right) and Sophy wanted to go on hers. Which was in the car; which was with Christina in Bunnik. Tears.

I sent Timothy off ahead (as he needs more time on the scooter) and spent a 'good' 5 minutes trying to placate Sophy; just as I'd got Sophy to get on the back of the bike (hurrah), Timothy returns asking why we weren't coming. Makes me laugh.

Oh well, I'm all alone now, wasting my time (..) whilst I drink my coffee. Thinking that I need something to spice up my blog.

Listening to Terry Wogan, it hit me. All good shows on tv & radio have at least one person present to help the main personality along. Allowing for discussion. Allowing for dialogue instead of monologue.

So don't be surprised if I introduce an imaginary sidekick to this 'show'.
(Maybe I should call him (?) Hathaway / Wilson / Foreman / Chase / Cameron / Granville or maybe just Terry ?).

"Simple talk is of things, normal talk is of people, intelligent talk is of thoughts".

Magic moments

Greetings; thought I'd share these magic moments with you. With the sun out, it was a nice time to be out in the garden; all of us (Christina & Timothy were out there too); even Sebastian was (fairly) useful with his broom .. and Sophy had her (definite) own idea's how things should be done (in her garden). So, by the summer, our little vegetable patch will be ' producing' and we'll be able to make a fortune from our biologically sound veggies ..

And then more moments; Timothy seems to be happier (again); making the breakfast for all of us; of his own accord !
And then Sebastian (deliberately ?) making a mess, so he can tidy it up.

Another little grievance

Just a very short posting here; I sent the previous message from Outlook in an html format.

>> Make mental note to never do that again.

The amount of useless html contained within the message was larger than the message itself.

You'd think Outlook would be able to tidy the messages up before sending them ... ?

Gegroet. Paul.

PS: Plain text rules the roost !

Thought for the day on internet browsing

How much of the information you see on the internet do you actually want ?

Googling or Yahooing helps find the information, but even then the information is always packaged in a way you might not have chosen.

So, how about the idea of a web-browser which doesn't browse complete pages, but only the relevant information of one or more pages.

Imagine searching for, or browsing, the subject "car". In front of you, you see a "bubble" of information concerning the subject. Linked to the main bubble are other bubbles of information.

There would be bubbles of information of a higher hierarchical order ("vehicle", "transport", "logistics", ..) and bubbles of a lower order ("engine", "transmission", ..) and bubbles detailing the current level ("Ferrari", "Toyota", ..).


I see a (bit of a) parallel with what's happening to tv: with hard-disk recorders allowing you to record and watch, people are watching the programme (they want) and skipping the commercials (they don't want).

All that's needed is for information (content) to be accompanied by meta-data; information describing the information. Technologies for this are available and are used; xml is a mature and well known technology.

The interesting thing is, is that the (world wide) web is already moving this way. The "Semantic Web" as (a) term for the future of the web has long been coined.

Which leads me to think that somewhere out there, this idea has already been implemented. What's "Twine" for instance (I can't check it out here at work; the browser won't let me).

Can anybody tell me ?

PS: Regarding the parallel I draw to commercials, the commercials of the future will have to be (and already are) planted within the content ("product placement").

Gegroet. Paul.

Car navigation systems aren't for navigating, silly.

Nowadays, nearly all cars are equipped with (add-on) car navigation systems.

I am sure that (at least) 95% of the time these car navigation systems
are switched on they show the car occupants information which they
don't need. I.e. most of the time the car driver isn't lost or looking
for a location.

So why are they on ? Are they so hard to switch off ?

Maybe it's because they're a status symbol; look at me; I know where I am. Wow.

Or maybe ... the car navigation system has become a (very, very basic)
in-car entertainment system ?

Not contented with the sights of the world outside, nor with the radio
/ cd / ipod, the driver and passengers need something else to keep
them happy whilst in the car. God forbid, they have to talk to one
another.

So they look at a colourful, moving map, telling them exactly where
they are and what the surrounding streets, villages, cities, etc are
called. Now that's entertainment !

So .. maybe the Tom Tom's and Garmin's of this world should invest
less in the actual navigation and more in the entertainment side of
things.

Points of interest (the street you are now in has the highest number
of car-jackings in ...), useless statistics (you have been in this
street 322 times), ...

Of course it would have to be, primarily, a navigation system or it
would soon incurr the wrath of the law. But I'm sure navigation can be
brought to you in lots of interesting ways ...

Gegroet. Paul.

Rather happy as my tax return is in and the government owes me lots (I think).

Dogma's: part 1

Triggered by the study I'm doing at the moment ("Information Analysis"),
I noticed that I sometimes missed 'things' when I was analysing some of
the problems posed.

Annoyingly, I am sure that I wouldn't have missed these 'things' if I
hadn't been in the classroom; some were so blindingly obvious.

Why ?

Because I was trying to work from within the (new) Information Analysis
framework I am learning.

Now this might just be a problem only I have; I try to use only the
tools that I am learning (and try not to use the old tools I knew). Why
else would I be doing this study ?

Now I must admit, in hindsight, that this is a stupid approach; you
should always question the information you are presented with. In this
case; don't believe in the truth of the study; question it.

So what to do; learning throws up frameworks which limit thoughts.

This is of course part of the larger discussion about schools and
learning; we're all forced into a framework and consequently think from
within this framework. This stifles creativity; we have to make an
effort to think from outside-the-box.

So; should I teach my kids that 1 + 1 = 2 ? What would happen if they
could develop their own thoughts ?

But now it's weekend.

(And by the way; why is PI such a special number ? Or is it just that
the framework's wrong).

Gegroet. Paul.

Pancakes with Paul

Hola !

Poor old Sebastian's had a bad morning; falling out Sophy's bed; headfirst (how did he get in there ?). Later on, visiting some neighbours he smashed the other side of his forehead against a table edge. Result: 2 BIG bruises on either side of his forehead. He's not happy.

And now for something completely different.

(Gluten-free) Pancakes !

Here's "my" recipe:

• 500g gluten-free flour (I use Dove's farm plain white flour);
• a "bit" of salt;
• a squirt of olive oil;
• between 575 - 600ml milk;
• 4 eggs.

Mix all up to a homogenous milky liquid (some sites then advise to let it stand for 20 minutes for the starch to ...do something ..?). Pour out into a hot non-stick pan (with a minimal covering of oil). Enjoy (?).

Gegroet.   Paul.

A niche market for GMail; a child friendly version ?

Cycling to work on a rather dull looking morning, an old idea of mine
came to mind.

Why doesn't Google Gmail provide a GMail service, specifically for
primary school age children ?

I've given my three kids there own GMail accounts (although none of them
are literate enough yet to use them), but there's no way I can make
these accounts child safe:

- A higher SPAM filter setting;
- SPAM shouldn't be kept but trashed immediately;
- A guarantee that adverts are safe;
- The parent has the option to block (specific and additional) email
addresses.

>> I would imagine that a child GMail account would be a sub-account of
the parent account; allowing the parent access even when the little brat
discovers how to change the password.

Great eh ?

But then I started thinking that when for example Timothy becomes more
literate (and he's already quite internet-savvy), there's nothing to
stop him from just creating a new (standard) GMail account.

In that case I'd lose all control.

Which brings up the matter of how to make your child "modern-world-wise"
? (But that's a subject for a separate blog ...).

So is it a good idea or not ?

Gegroet. Paul.

Well, there isn't much happening with this blog ... but I thought I'd share this picture of our glorious trinity ...

Tuesday 28 Feb

As Sebastian is experimenting with his height (reaching all the light switches and creating a disco-effect) and Sophy & Timothy are safely (..) at school, my time to digest some of todays news.. 

• A handgrenade is thrown into a dutch café (killing 1, injuring 8) and it doesn't make headline news ..
  
• As the credit crunch continues, Fortis warns of sub-prime losses and believe me it won't end here (there was once a study that linked the number of times the word 'recession'  was mentioned in the media to the occurence of a recession XXXX
  

This experiment ends here, unsuccessfully, as Sebastian needs more attention ... and writing this doesn't take the 5 minutes I envisaged.

To be continued ...

Gegroet.    Paul.