Fighting back against the monopolists

So in my quest to get a Freeview+ box with DVD player/recorder I ended up buying an LG RHT297H which is great in most ways (a few niggles like losing the time and hence recording times when the power cuts) but is forced to only play region 2 DVDs. Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again if I buy a DVD from the US the UK or Australia then it should play on my equipment so obviously I wanted to fix this.

After searching on a few forums here is how to make your LG HDD DVD recorder multiregion.

Switch your player on.

When it’s booted up hold down CLEAR on remote (under the slider) and PROG Down on the front panel of your DVD player simultaneously for about 6 seconds

You will see a list of codes

Change OP6 from ae or af to 8e (move around using the left and right arrows on the remote)

Press Enter and then menu/list on your remote

Your player will reboot or switch off

Turn it on or wait for it to reboot and now your player is multi region.

🙂

another nigerian spam

From: [email protected]
Subject: Invitation to act as Next-of-Kin
Date: 1 October 2000 09:15:28 BDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Reply-To: [email protected]

From the Desk: Barrister. Thomas Cole.
Thomas Cole & partners.
25 Wilson Road
Olodi Apapa
Lagos- Nigeria.
Private / Highly Confidential
Subject Matter: Invitation to act as Next-of-Kin

Good day to you,

I presume this letter will come to you as a surprise, but as things unfold, we will know each other better. Iwill start by introducing myself to you. My name is Thomas Cole a solicitor at law. I am writing in respect ofa foreigner who happens to be my client an oil merchant and contractor (Mr. Richard Burson) whoperished in a plane crash of 31st October 1999[WITH EGYPTIAN AIRLINE 990] with other passengers aboard as youcan confirm it yourself through the website below.http://wwwcnn.com/US/9910/31/egyptair.03/

Since the demise of my client I personally have watched with keen interest to see the next of kin but all hasproved abortive as no one has come to claim his funds of US$28.5m(Twenty Eight Million Five Hundred ThousandUnited States Dollar) and all the relevant documents in the bank has no record of any next of kin. On thisnote, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as his next of kin so i have contacted you to assistin repatriating most especially, the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declaredunserviceable by the bank where the huge deposits were lodged.

Particularly, the Union bank Nig Plc where thedeceased had an account valued at about Usd28.5 million dollars has issued me a notice to provide the Next ofkin, or have the account confiscated.

I seek your consent to present you as the Next of kin of the deceased since you bear the same last name sothat the proceeds of this account valued at Usd28.5 million dollars can be paid to you, as my clients Next ofKin, and then we can share the amount on a mutual agreed percentage All legal documents to back up your claimas the deceased Next of Kin will be provided.
All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will beexecuted under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law and you shouldendeavor to keep it confidential.

Please get in touch with me, to enable us discuss further about this transaction. Reply to this email: [email protected]

Best regards,
Thomas Cole

flickr and maps

Those lovely people over at flickr have integrated geotagging and yahoo maps into the organiser function. Very nice integration. Well if you live in the US it is. If you live in say London…

You might have more of a problem. Yahoo maps just simply doesn’t cut the mustard for this kind of application. Well any application actually. Let’s compare Google and Yahoo maps for my neighbourhood.

You can see if you look closely towards the centre a big square block called Du Cane Court. Well you can on the map on the left (google) on the right you just see a blur of housing.

Abercrombie & Wills? Jack & Fitch?

Stuart & Tom naked showering but still selling clothing[/caption]

Okay pop quiz. Is the above picture from;

a) Abercrombie & Fitch
b) Jack & Fitch
c) Jack Wills
d) Abercrombie & Wills

I wear A&F almost exclusively. Most people who know me already know this. Whilst I was in Brighton at the weekend I stumbled into a store that looked like A&F, smelt like A&F yet wasn’t A&F.
Jack Wills has an almost identical visual identity to the large US based store. It’s even a very similar font style. The store has a very similar feel, white painted wood and rich carpeting. The website has a similar feel. Even the obligatory lifestyle section filled with beautiful semi naked models. In fact I’m failing to see what item of clothing Stuart and Tom are selling in the picture above ;o)

Anyway since the Abercrombie store is yet to open in Bond Street and it’s always nice to diversify ones wardrobe every now and then I’ve ordered myself a catalogue in case I see an item or two I’d like to purchase.

Ten Four

Oh it’s been ages since I had a decent one of these…
Thanks to Spence for livening up my Monday morning!
Here are FOUR things you may not have known about me:

A: Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Club Host at Heaven

2. Bar Manager

3. Licensee in Soho

4. Head of Training

B: Four movies I would watch over & over:

1. The Opposite of Sex

2. Thank you for Smoking

3. Twelve Monkeys

4. The Bourne Identity

C: Four places I’ve lived:

1. Blundellsands

2. Fitzrovia

3. Tilburg

4. Motspur Park

D: Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Columbo

2. Law & Order (Special Victims Unit)

3. CSI (Any)

4. Oz

E: Four places I’ve been on holiday:

1. Sydney, Australia

2. Christchurch, New Zealand

3. Connecticut, USA

4. Singapore

F: Websites I visit daily: *

1. http://www.aol.co.uk

2. http://www.gmail.com

3. http://www.flickr.com

4. http://my.omniture.com

G: Four of my favorite foods:

1. Cherries

2. Beetroot

3. Bananas

4. Ramen

H: Four places I would rather be now:

1. Sydney

2. Wellington

3. A beach

4. Sydney (did I mention Sydney?)

* I can’t list all the work ones I visit as they are all confidential and/or behind a very good firewall.

mactop

Okay so I now am the proud owner of a brand new MacBook 13″ 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo with the regular 60Gb hard drive and 512Mb RAM. More here.

Now don’t get me wrong it was really nice of the boys to go to the Apple Store when they where in the US and buy it for me however, and heres the crunch. Two of them who aren’t even Mac fans (well they are now obviously) bought MacBooks while there and there were two slightly higher spec ones instore. Rather than asking me if I wanted one – they bought the better ones for themselves grrr!

Still I’ve got my memory on order and I’m converting my G4 Cube into a file server so my 60Gb should be fine for now.

I haven’t had much of a chance to play yet sadly been busy with work. Looking forward to playing at the weekend though.

Directions

1. Start at Leicester Square

2. Catch Piccadilly Line to London Heathrow Airport.

3. Catch flight from London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

4. Hire car at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.

5. Start going toward the “Airport Exit” on “International Parkway
South”
– Follow for 0.2 miles.

6. Bear left onto the highway toward “Terminal East Parking” –
follow
for
0.3 miles

7. Bear left onto “International Parkway North” toward “North
Airport
Exit” – Follow for 2.9 miles

8. Take the “Highway 114 west” exit toward “Fort Worth” – follow for
29.2
Miles

9. Then continue on “US 287 north” – follow for 91.1 miles

10.”US 287 north” becomes “Interstate-44 east” – follow for 0.7
miles

11. Take left fork onto “US-287 north” toward “Vernon” – follow for
104.0
Miles

12.”US 287 north” becomes “Avenue F (US-287)” – follow for 2.8 miles

13. Continue to follow “US 287 north” – follow for 104.9 miles

14. Take left ramp onto “Interstate 40 west” toward “Dumas” – follow
for
7.8 Miles

15. Take “Exit 70” onto “US 60 east” toward “Dumas” – follow for 0.5
Miles

16. Take the “Buchanan Street” exit toward “Dumas/Pampas” – follow
for
1.7
Miles

17. Turn right onto “Old Route 66 (Interstate 40)” – follow for 0.1
miles

Now that’s the way to f*cking Amarillo!!!!!!!!
SO CAN EVERYONE STOP SINGING IT NOW . . .!

notetoself.x

So last night I got an email about domain names and it set me thinking. There are plenty of TLD’s out there and plenty I never think about.
.ca for one. I am fairly used to .com.au because I go there and use sites ther all the time. Canada and .ca though I have to admit other than aol.ca I never really think about Canada having seperate domains from the US.

There is a notetoself.ca in fact there are plenty of other notetoself’s out there. Weird really when you think about it.
In fact I had the same thoughts when I used the old domain 8letters. there is an 8letters.com too and yet it seems to be blank – maybe just an email domain I guess.

notetoself.comis already registered(details)
note-to-self.comis already registered(details)
notetoself.orgis already registered(details)
note-to-self.orgis already registered(details)
notetoself.netis already registered(details)
note-to-self.netis already registered(details)
notetoself.co.ukis already registered(details)
note-to-self.co.ukis already registered(details)
notetoself.org.uk
is available!
note-to-self.org.uk
is available!
notetoself.uk.com
is available!
note-to-self.uk.com
is available!
notetoself.gb.net
is available!
note-to-self.gb.net
is available!
notetoself.gb.com
is available!
note-to-self.gb.com
is available!
notetoself.uk.net
is available!
note-to-self.uk.net
is available!
notetoself.us.com
is available!
note-to-self.us.com
is available!
notetoself.eu.com
is available!
note-to-self.eu.com
is available!
notetoself.infois already registered(details)
note-to-self.info
is available!
notetoself.bizis already registered(details)
note-to-self.biz
is available!
notetoself.me.uk
is available!
note-to-self.me.uk
is available!
notetoself.usis already registered(details)
note-to-self.usis already registered(details)
check out if your domain is available in other countries

.com
.org
.net
.co.uk
.org.uk
.uk.com
.uk.net
.gb.com
.gb.net