iPhone invisibleShield

I'd purchased a screen cover and a cheap rubber case as emergency protection when I first started using the iPhone.  The screen cover was from Carphone warehouse and was unbelievably crap.  When you read reviews about spending that little bit more for a cover, do it !

I opted to get the invisibleSHIELD from Zagg. Its not only a screen cover but a clear protective shield for the back, top and bottom.  Comes in 4 pieces.

I kinda rushed the installation and should have paid more attention to the instructions, or at least watched the video :)

Anyway, its on, the fiddly side over laps on the back piece are not exactly perfect but I've put the rubber case back on for that inevitable 'drop' experience so you cant see them.  The screen cover is excellent though. 

Creating iPhone ring tone from MP3

iTunes 9.1.0.79



1. Open iTunes.

2. Find the song that you want to make into a ring tone.

3. Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

4. Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

5. Right-click the song and select "Get Info."

6. Click the "Options" tab.

7. Type in the start time of your ring tone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.

8. Type in the end time of your ring tone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ring tone is no more than 40 seconds long.

NB// 7 & 8 are optional, if the track is 40 seconds or less anyway you dont need to amend the start/stop.

9. Click "OK."

10. From the menu click Advanced | Create AAC version.
In older iTunes versions you can right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC." Wait for iTunes to convert your song. Either way will create a duplicate version.

11. Optional - Right-click the original file under Music and select "Delete."

12. Right click on the new AAC file and 'Show in windows explorer'

13. Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band's name. It will have an extension of "m4a."

14. Replace the "m4a" extension of your ring tone with "m4r". You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.

15. Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.

16. Double-click the ring tone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ring tones folder in your iTunes Music Library.

17. Connect your iPhone and sync your ring tones.

Unwanted (?) Garden Visitor

I have a bird table in the garden which attracts Blue Tits, Robins, Redwings, House Sparrows & Blackbirds on a daily basis.

Yesterday something new turned up ..

And this morning the little bugger was asleep on the table ..

I dont know what to make of this.  The garden is in a pretty built up area by the London royal docks so where the hell has this bugger come from.  He/she is scaring the birds away but I guess also needs some food and somewhere to sleep ..

Blackberry to iPhone

We're a Domino shop and have an onsite BES server but needed to provide email access to other handhelds.  IBM have a product called Lotus Notes Traveller which supports iPhone, Windows & Symbian by default.  Its possible to get Android working using a simulator - we installed this a few weeks back with good feedback.

So being the dedicate support professional that I am I decided it was time to switched my Blackberry Storm for an iPhone which I did last week. Shame huh ..

So far so good, LNT works relativly well.  Once big downside is it needs a constant connection to the LNT server.  Which means you cant delete or send anymail with no service.  A pain as I used to clean out the days mail chuff while travelling home on the underground.

But other than that the iPhone is great .. Messing around with VPN, SIP phone to Call Manager and some networking apps.  As well as the paper toss, Google earth etc :)

Kid in a candy store

This morning we took delivery of 7 Cisco UCS chassis, 51 blades, Netapp & a stupid amount of disk.

These are all part of a data centre consolidation project at work .. due for completion June 2010 with a follow up project of turning London into a standby site for New York..

Let the fun begin ..

IQ Test

Just done an IQ test and come out with a 197 score.  I think it might be slightly flawed !  either that or I am a genius. 

New York

Having just spent 10 days in the city and looking like I'll be spending more time in the future here are some travel hints ..

Paddington Express to LHR - walk to the very front of the train when going to LHR and the opposite when returning.

JFK - If the official cab line is long then tell one of the privates to come see you when they need one more place. They charge the same flat rate of airport to city but they wait until all seats are filled before leaving.

Tips - Double the tax and add a little.

Engine Cover

Step one: Park the car on a flat surface, leave the car in gear, and set the parking brake.

Step two: Open the convertible top approximately 24 inches; just enough to raise the rear cover to its highest point. Now remove the key from the ignition, to prevent accidental operation of the top.

Step three: Disconnect two tension rope the ball–pivots located on either side of the convertible top. Just pry gently, and they should pop right off. You may need to remove the convertible top hinge covers (if not now then later to access the Bose speaker plug).

Step four: Release the cloth cover. Gently pull straight down on the plastic cover, preferably right at the clip holders (there are two) one is shown below. By the way, that’s a “mid” strut bar.

Step five: Lift the top up and grab the attached strap to secure the back of the top. I used a bungee cord to help. You just want to secure the back of the top so it’s out of the way.

 

This is the access you’ll have after removing the speaker and carpet cover.

Step six. Remove the Bose speaker by rotating the four black twist – locks. They secure the Bose speaker. Then you can rotate it to get better access to the plug connection.

 

Shamelessly copied from http://www.planet-9.com/cayman-boxster-tech/33919-how-remove-engine-cover.html

Lobsters

Staying in for New Year and decided to make Lobster & frites.  Checked out the fish monger at Borough Market and he put aside two nice lads.  On the way home I realised I'd forgotten to get them cleaned - bugger.  I'm used to a nice pink split in half preparation and was now faced with two very alive wriggling lobsters to deal with, or set free in the dock :).  Cue frantic google searches. 

Read a bunch of sites and decided on the deep freeze method which is supposed to quieten them down and then the knife in the head.  It worked I guess, it didn't feel very nice to watch something die and I don't know if I'd forget to have them despatched by a professional again.  

But, that was by far the best tasting lobster I've ever eaten, I guess it was the freshness ..


So for next time, if there is a next time here are the links I used :


http://www.finecooking.com/item/11058/video-how-to-kill-a-lobster
http://www.cooking-lobster.com/cooking-lobster/lobster-killing.html 

Open Link in New Window

Because every time I add a link to a blog post of forget the code to open it in a new window.

So here it is

Create the link using the blog button, switch to HTML view and add target="_blank"

eg

<a href="http://www.website.com/" target="_blank">Text Link in Post</a>


Shoulder Update II

Been back training since the Summer, started off slowly with a full body workout 3 times a week, light weights, 10-12 reps. Slowly built the weight up and started to notice some pain from the top of the right shoulder. Very specific point on the AC Joint when doing pushing movements. So Bench press, gets worse on the decline and dips are out of the question - anything that really compresses the ACJ. Interestingly over head pressing is fine.

There was an in surgery decision made by the consultant to clean up the right ACJ, although it was causing no problems and hadn't even registered on the MRI.

Been visiting the Physiotherapist at the gym, same guy that worked on post surgery rehab. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?ref=sgm&id=513253527

The diagnosis is scar tissue which needs working out. And man working it out is painful. But its working.

Also been in touch with my consultant, Simon Moyes, who said the shoulders can continue improving for up to 2 years and some pain is to be expected.

So persevere and carry on ...

Checking Boxster Drainage Holes

There are two drainage holes in the space where the roof retracts to. When up the water from the roof will run down into this area, and in theory down the holes and out the bottom of the car. If these holes get blocked up the water backs up and enters the cabin. The first place it heads is under the seats where the cars brains are. So its a good idea to check these and the two holes in the front by the battery.

Open the roof into 'service' mode. Which means just open it 30cm which causes the rear cover to open. The holes are in each corner, check they are clear and pour some water down to confirm.

There are also two holes for the front, each side of the battery. Looking at the car the left hand hole is pretty easy to spot and there's what looks like a mirror on the right, its not, that's some kind of grommet.  The actual hole is about another 5-6 cm to the right.

986 Diagram - http://mike.focke.googlepages.com/drainsdiagram

Installing Anti Bot Question Mod to PhpBB Forum

Each and everytime I do this it takes me at least an hour .. unlike the instructions which say 5-10 mins. Mostly because I forget all the lessons previously learned so here are my notes for next time.

Get the mod from http://www.phpbb.com/mods/

Open the xml instructions and read carefully !! note that some lines are inserted after and some before.

In the 1.2.0 Mod instructions the following are wrong ..

'S_CONFIRM_CODE' which you are asked to search for has been replaced with 'S_CONFIRM_REFRESH'

Edit the text against language/en/common.php to reflect where the question text appears. This will vary depending on the theme being used.

'AB_QUESTION_EXPLAIN' => 'For protection against spam, Answer the above question.',

Finally don't use CoreFTP to edit the files. It must add some hidden characters and screws the files up. Download BlueFish or Notepad++ and edit the files locally.  When you upload dont forget to check permissions - 644.

Treating Boxtster Roof

As the winter approaches and theres a chance, a slim one, but a chance the car might get caught in the rain I thought I'd treat the roof with some waterproofing. The roof sucked up water, I don't know if it leaked as its not been in the rain since we bought it but better safe than sorry. I guess it all helps.

I pretty much got the instructions from www.boxta.net and then did some follow up reading in the TVR and Lotus forums.

Theres a couple of options which all start with a good clean and then apply a product, spray, bottles, tins .. theres a few to choose from. I went with Fabisil liquid. All the other treatments required you (for a good job) to mask off the windows etc. I wasn't comfortable doing this, worried about sticky glue left around and using a liquid meant you could apply with a paintbrush which I was more confident with.

1. Give the roof a really good clean. I heavily diluted some baby shampoo in a bucket and used a stiff brush in circles to work the shampoo in.
2. Soak the roof with water and using the same brush scrub until you get no more soap suds.
3. Sit back and wait for the roof to dry.
4. Grab a clean 2" brush and poor some of the Fabisil in a clean container. This was the part the heart starts. Its an expensive car and worried this could wreck the roof. I started my first coat front to back. Keep a cloth handy to mop up any spills on the paintwork or windows. It goes on really easy, keep overlapping the previous part so you keep a 'wet edge' and you should get good coverage.
5. Sit back and wait for the roof to dry. The tin says 6 hours, but mine was dry enough, outside on a sunny autumn day about 12 degrees, in a couple of hours.
   
6. I applied a second coat, which is optional, some apply up to 4. My second coat was side to side. Others then go on the diagonal both ways for coats 3 & 4.

 

Suunto Vyper Battery Replacement

Tools : Small flat head screwdriver, tweezers or small cross head screwdriver
Parts : Battery replacement kit

Simply ScubaMikes #1 Dive Shop eBay

• REMOVE THE STRAPS !! all the other documentation I found neglected to mention this when they simply state - Remove the computer from the boot.

Use the small flat head screw driver and remove the straps like any other watch. The straps are held in place by a bar with a spring on each end. Use the screw driver to push the spring in and the strap will come out. Now spend 10 mins trying to find the bar as it pinged off.

• There are two holes holding the batter cover in place. I had a handy pair of tweezers or a small cross head will do. Rotate the cover clockwise and it will lift out.

• Use the flat head or tweezers to ease the cover off. This should be tight as its where the o-ring is. If you plan to re-use the o-ring (not recommended) then be very carful not to ruin it.

• Lift of the black retaining bar and switch the battery. Don't touch the front or back. Again, tweezers useful, don't forget to put the black bar back on.

• I used the replacement o-ring and applied some silicon grease. Same stuff used to lubricate camera o-rings.

• Now this part was tricky. I don't know if the o-ring was slightly bigger or just a better fit but it needed a fair amount of force to push it down and hold it there while also trying to get the cover back on. You'll work it out.

• Complete

I dropped it into a bucket of water, not a great test but better than nothing. No dive trips planned for a while so I wont find out if its 100% OK either.

Some useful links ..

Battery replacement video
Manual

Namibia 2009

View Namibia in a larger map

Going home ..

Breakfast- shit. I guess you get what you pay for and we've been paying allot.
Drove into town which just added to my already growing stress levels. Hung around for a bit and had some lunch while watching guys trying to hustle people. Interestingly they where hassling more Africans than tourists.

Dropped the car off at the airport and they didn’t spot the crack and signed all the forms. Result. They commented on the state of the thing. Bearing in mind we had it valet'd it could have been 300% worse.

Gave a pair of shoes to the guy just hanging out. He had a Manchester United hat on so couldn’t have him wandering around bare foot.

Enquired about a seat upgrade. N$300 per person! So much for last minute deals at the airport but at least by bag has gone down by 5kg's and they didn’t charge extra. So 10 hours of shit leg room and then an onward flight to the UK and a pain in the arse journey on Boris's tube network.

I hate going home.

Namibia

Stunning scenery, stayed in some fantastic places, met some really nice people and pretty much managed to see every animal we could have wanted to be setting off. Sure we did the luxury route and I very have conflicting feelings about that. Including not being able to deal with the poverty and the 'Africa' part you encounter when coming here. eg. I wanted to give those shoes away for a week but couldn’t. I saw kids walking bare foot but still I didn’t want to insult them by offering them my seconds. I think that’s bullshit. There’s such a range of poverty here that even the people that have jobs and appear OK really struggle.
I know where all my old clothes and stuff are going now.

Erongo Wilderness Lodge to Terra Africa BnB, Windhoek

Last day, current managers Mike (former owner) and Carol where excellent hosts and we really regretting not booking three days as our last place top on the Namibian road trip.

Slow journey to Windhoek - ROAD WORKS !! .. BnB Terra Africa. Cheap and cheerful. This was a last minute booking when Air Namibia cancelled the UK flight. Got a large room, TV and WI-FI, back to 21st century reality.

Ate at NICE - Namibian Institute of Culinary Excellence. It’s a Jamie Oliver ‘15’ type place run by the same people as Walverdans. Food was OK, if anything they are trying a little too hard with the presentation. I sound like a food ponce.

They were selling the sepia photos of the chefs at Walverdans. Wasn’t sure on which size to buy so will see if they can be bought on the internet.

Unfortunately for Max there was a price guide for staying at Walverdans in the back of the menu.

I can already feel my return to home/work stress levels rising.

Up early for a guided walk up to the highest peak. About 2 hours. Spectacular views and excellent guides.

Spotted some, what we thought where black stoats up at the room and around the dining room. Later found out these where Black Mongoose, extremely rare and only just discovered. Don’t I regret idling over to get the camera and missing the shot.

More relaxing, this place is so peaceful.