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.