Redeeming your digital copy of a movie despite the best efforts from the majors and Apple

I recently purchased a blu-ray copy of a Fox movie along with a digital copy. I was not that interested in the digital copy in the first place, but what the heck, I paid for it, let’s get it on the iPhone!

So I placed the disk in my computer, fired up iTunes, clicked on the diskit and entered my serial number. There I get an unexpected message. It seems I have to have a UK or Irish account on the iTunes store to download the movie. I have in fact purchased the movie in the UK, tired to get ripped off on the price of blu-rays here in Sweden.

I tried to change my account from Sweden to the UK but then I HAD to have a UK credit card. Same for Ireland. Did one more try creating an account from scratch in iTunes. To do that, just log out of your session (go in the iTunes store, click on your identifier in the upper-right corner and select “Sign out”), go back the disk in iTunes, enter your serial number and when they ask for your login, just “Create a new account”. From there you can select “None” as means of payment! I have no idea why it is not possible to move to another country without having a credit card for it.

Then redeem your code (I had to do this twice before iTunes really started copying the file back on the hard disk). You will get your movie in the Movies section. Now log out and log back in your regular iTunes Store account. Tada!

For me it’s not tada yet, though. The movie has no sound and the picture is gray, whether I play it with iTunes logged-in as a UK user, Swedish user, or in VLC… Not quite convinced yet by the principle…

Rescuing a jailbreaking attempt

This is for educational purposes only.

I have my iPhone 3GS jailbroken (3.0.1) with Pwnagetool (from 3.0) and during a wrong manipulation I started jailbreaking it with Purplera1n. What I really wanted to do was to gather the signature data for my phone (using the “hidden” field on www.purplera1n.com and the ID obtained from the system profiler for an iPhone in rescue mode) to secure the possibility of jailbreaking or reinstalling old software in the future.

Anyway, there I was, watching my iPhone being jailbroken by Purplera1n because I DID NOT READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. So yes, listen to your parents and read the instructions before attempting potentially “dangerous” stuff. Since there was no progress indicator on the jailbreaking, I thought it was a good idea to turn the phone off asap. It probably IS NOT a good idea. Nonetheless, I went on with it and restart the iphone. There it didn’t go well of course and kept on displaying the loading Apple logo.

I decided to try to mess up more (couldn’t really mess up less at that point) with my iPhone and ran PwnageTool again over the messy iPhone and voilà, it was back to normal and I hadn’t lost any data.

I hope nobody will face that situation, but if someone does, at least you know there’s a vague chance at salvaging your iPhone via this method.

Setting up my own Disney hotel

After staying in a Disney hotel for a couple of nights, it occurred to me that me too could set up one.

First step: take a location anywhere. Proximity with a Disney Park is not directly relevant. Ours was located 30 minutes away by foot at a wandering pace. Our flat is 1900km away: check. Advantage given if it is not easy to access each building separately or navigate between them. With two-three doors to handle in the entry and the funky address (the building spans 3 streets and your address does not necessarily map well with the street on which your front door is), we should qualify.

From our place to Disney: 1900km

Secondly, have nothing reminding of the Disney universe in the rooms, but maybe a bar of soap. In our flat, we have Disney towels, DVD, photos. We should tune it down a notch otherwise they will sue us for unfair competition.

Disney goods are not always where they should be

Silence, yes

Third, only play Disney channel (crap) in all possible languages, while achieving a poor reception, on a TV as big as an open DVD cover. We have an old TV with no remote in the cellar, that should do. It has no aerial connected to it so that’s just perfect (in fact that might prove an amelioration on the usual Disney programs – you know, Hanna Montana…)

Fourth, provide full packed buses to Disney and charge big money for your luggage to follow the same way. I will have to pay for some extras to crowd the suburb train, but I sure as hell can charge good money to carry your bag from A to Z. Or use DHL or UPS so that on top you get them some day (not the same day, that would be some outrageously good service).

Fifth, organize a SISO queue. Not FIFO (first in, first out). SISO. Some time in, some time out. A good way to achieve that is to have multiple queues and multiple desks, with less desks than queues. I think on that one, we will compensate by manning the desks by the retards of the building (AKA Mr Shriek and Ms Slow).

Sixth, pack up on Spanish people. They provide the necessary level of noise and apparence that you are in fact in a trump squat. They will also help insufflate some randomness chaos in the hotel and make sure that no rule is left unbroken. For this, we might need to set Tequila traps or kidnap the cleaning staff from the building.

Seven, kill the detective’s wife and put her head in a box. Deliver to said detective. No wait… that’s something else entirely.

Au Moyen-Orient pendant le Ramadan

Je me suis récemment rendu — il y a presque un an, mais comme ma connexion, mon ordi, Safari, WordPress (au choix) ont mangé mon article, j’ai pas eu le courage jusqu’ici de le reprendre mais comme le Ramadan revient bientôt : le 22 Août 2009 en France), c’est le moment — au Moyen-Orient dans le cadre de mon travail et j’ai eu l’occasion de voir comment le Ramadan affecte la vie dans ses pays pour le voyageur d’affaires moyen.

Tout d’abord, qu’est-ce que le Ramadan ? Pourquoi, quand, comment, qui donc ? informations tirées de Wikipedia (anglais)

• Pourquoi ? Le Ramadan célèbre le mois durant lequel Mahommet recu la première des révélations de l’archange Gabriel qui donneront lieu à la transcription du Coran. Cette data particulière du mois de Ramadan est appelée Laylat al Qadr. Le jeûne du Ramadan doit apprendre aux musulmans la patience et l’humilité et les rapprocher d’Allah par leurs prières renouvelées.
• Quand ? Le Ramadan est le neuvième mois du calendrier musulman. Il débute et se termine par une nouvelle lune. Les dates changent chaque année et varient d’un pays à l’autre.
• Comment ? Le jeûne n’est qu’une partie du Ramadan mais sans doute la plus visible pour les visiteurs étrangers. Le jeûne commence au lever du soleil et se finit au coucher du soleil. Il concerne non seulement nourriture et boissons, mais aussi l’action de fumer et le sexe. Durant leurs prières plus abondantes pendant le Ramadan, les musulmans demandent pardon pour leur pêchés et la bienveillance d’Allah pour leur faire résister aux tentations du quotidien.
• Qui donc ? Tout musulman adulte, en bonne santé, et ne voyageant pas doit suivre le jeûne du Ramadan. Il devra le rattraper si il n’a pas pu s’en acquitter pour une raison valable (malade, femme enceinte, en déplacement etc.). Les différentes raisons et modalités d’application dépendent des différentes traditions (que faire en cas de manquement, etc.).

Et donc, qu’est-ce que ça change ? Même plusieurs semaines avant le Ramadan, il faut réaliser que les projets doivent soit se terminer au plus vite, soit être repoussé jusqu’à l’après Ramadan car pendant le Ramadan, l’activité est réduite. Pas réduite comme pendant les fêtes de fin d’année en Europe par exemple, mais par exemple les journées de travail se finisse à 14h ou 15h dans certaines entreprises de Dubai. Cela signifie aussi de nombreux embouitellages dès la mi-journée, peu commodes pour qui prend un taxi à ce moment-là. Au Bahreïn en revanche, les journées de travail semblaient normales. Dans les administrations, le travail s’arrêtera également souvent à midi ou une heure au plus tard.

Dans les grandes entreprises accueillant de nombreux étrangers, des cloisons sont mises en place pour abriter du regard les affamés. Idem dans les galeries commerciales. Notez que certains restaurants seront effectivement fermés pendant la journée. Mais pas les Starbucks par exemple. Il est strictement interdit de manger en public, l’amende peut s’élever jusqu’à 100euros si mes souvenirs sont bons (voire une visite au poste si vous la ramenez trop). J’en ai discuté avec un client musulman et il m’a dit que normalement tant que l’on mange discrétement, il n’y a pas de souci, il faut juste respecter leur jeun et ne pas manger ostensiblement dans la rue ou sous leur nez. Notez aussi que sur les plages privées des hôtels il est possible de manger dehors (!) mais pas de consommer de l’alcool. Bizarre dans la mesure où consommer de l’alcool devrait de toute facon être interdit… Près de ces mêmes hôtels vont généralement se dresser de grandes tentes où les banquets auront lieu à la nuit tombée. On y trouvera principalement des spécialités arabes évidemment. Le rythme des journées durant le Ramadan est donc grandement chamboulé et les nuits sont beaucoup plus animées que le reste de l’année.

Au passage on notera que le francais “ramdam” vient de ce même Ramadan.

Cet article n’engage que moi et relate mes impressions pendant ma visite. Il n’engage nullement la compagnie pour laquelle j’officiais à l’époque ou ses clients. J’accueille volontiers tous les commentaires et toutes les critiques que les lecteurs voudront formuler. Si un lecteur souhaite rectifier une information, il sera bienvenu de citer une ou plusieurs sources appuyant son commentaire.

Disneyland, not Wonderland

Just back from Disneyland, and I couldn’t help but realize that Disneyland is no paradise. “Just” is to take loosely, I tend to delay my articles quite a lot. I have in my stash an article beginning by “I just came back from…” and it’s 10 month old. I have a good hope to post it at the next occurrence of what I wanted to write about (and next time I witness it of course).

Please use real money when visiting Disney Land

Disneyland is very well organized. I read somewhere that Walt Disney insisted himself that two garbage bins should never be spaced of more than X minutes, where X minutes is enough to eat a hot dog (the value of X probably changes whether you live in the States or in Japan). But Disneyland is also very well organized to make you sure your stay will never be 100% complete or perfect. No matter how well organized (and yes we are) or how early you arrive and late you leave (and yes we did arrive early and live late) or how long you stay (and yes we did stay three days), you cannot do everything. Some rides are of course closed, for maintenance – end of June, perfect time for maintenance really – or for temporary repairs (without really spending our days monitoring I would say that at least two major rides break per day (Space Mountain, Thunder Mesa’s mine ride, etc.)).

To make things faster, Disney park now offers Fast Pass tickets which allow you to skip the queue for some rides, provided that you registered for them earlier during the day (one active registration at a time). But if you do that, you miss all of the fun of queueing and shuffling your feet for ages! Or at least that must be what the people working in Disney think, since all the ones from the Disney Studio Park were closed during the two days we visited it. Closed from the first hour, or running out of tickets within the first hour. Of course, seeing how little rides there are in that park, if you don’t queue, you will do them all in one day, over and over again and we don’t want that, do we? Further strategy to make you wait longer is known (from now on) as the “empty car” strategy. Let’s say you have a train-like ride, then only fill in the first cars of the train, not all. No matter what. This way, you ensure quality waiting for your visitors.

It’s also organized for your shopping pleasure. One hour before closing, the rides start closing their lines and the restaurants bounce you. Only option, going home, or visiting the numerous shops, of course posted near the exit so that you’re sure you won’t miss them.

Goofy Zombie

Now, imagine a park full of zombies moving slowly with awkward movements and the mouth drooling with blood. That’s the dream vision Disney  tried to enforce during my visit, and I for some reason compliantly strived for. Step one, run everywhere for the first day, while this temporarily put me away from my first goal, it definitely helped for days #2 and #3 where I could barely walk, feeling my heel had been replace by a wooden stub. For the gorier part of my dream, I will only need one contraption: an ice cream. Emphasize on “ice”. Open said ice cream, jump on it to quench your thirst and fight the heat, and get your lips, both, and your tongue, both, glued to it by the cold. Like an idiot, pull on it, request help from your buddies, but too late. Check: you now have a painful pair of legs, a bloody mouth and you are roaming aimlessly between Fantasyland and Frontierland with only indecision on your face, hesitating between some junk food restaurant and whatever ride you could find that will not have you queue 55 minutes before getting to enjoy the 1 minute ride.

But not all is bad. The Stunt show spectacular in the Studios park is quite enjoyable. Provided you do see it twice. Yes, twice. Everything goes very vast (can’t really do stunts in slow motion in real life). And those devious mice worshippers actually trick you into looking somewhere else when cool stuff happens. With videos, or by setting up decoys, you always end up missing the super fancy shit. It’s a bit hard to understand why they would spend cars and motorbikes flying altogether amidst balls of fire while you’re looking somewhere else. “What just happened?” is not really a nice compliment for the crowd to utter after your finale…

Finally, I was looking forward to answer the online survey to which I agreed when checking out, but well… the email sends me to a webpage that is redirected all the time to some vague error page, and of course the email address from which said email was sent is not read by anyone (as I was informed by yet another automatic reply). I guess they will have to find their way to my page to know what I think about them (by the way, look out for my article on how to setup your own Disney hotel soon on this blog!)

Educashame

This is a forbidden picture. According to French law for childhood’s protection, it’s illegal to show the faces or identity of kids publicly in medias. But apparently, in Musée d’Orsay, it goes beyond that: it’s also forbidden to take pictures of their guide and of the group in its entirety. That means that you also can throw your wide-angle lens away and use only your strongest zoom because the damn kids are everywhere… Or would the guide argue that if the camera is pointed not at the kids but at some painting or sculpture then it’s OK? Should I wait until all the kids are gone from a room, when the groups of the damn brats are queueing in the most crowded places and touring the museum in all its hidden corners (and the not so hidden ones too), and sit in flocks so that you can’t approach anything if you don’t want to trample them (but really that’s what you want, more than seeing the damn painting, isn’t it?)? Well I can’t.

Why should it be forbidden anyway? Should we protect kids from showing they visited in a museum? Afraid they will be called losers during recess for having some interest in an old Monet painting that wasn’t even made on a PC with paint and whose title might not be spelled like a SMS?

At least here is not a museum that forbids you take pictures of the paintings so that you would have to buy the post cards at the exit. At the same time it means a hoard of idiots taking flash pictures of the painting, which is bad for the paintings, their picture (but who cares?) and my damn picture where I will see the mark of their damn flash on the protective window or on the painting itself! Speaking of which, feel free to join my Facebook group for people against flash abuse in public places.

GlobalSat DG-100 on Mac OS X

After my post on how to get your GPS logger to work under Windows XP 64 bits, see link, here is another one to get your data out of your sweet little toy under Mac OS X. Simply use the application LoadMyTracks from ClueTrust. This tiny little app can load your GPS data from quite a lot of devices, including the GlobalSat DG-100. This application is free and not as complete as the one originally provided by GlobalSat though: no Google Maps integration for instance but it gets the job down: import the data, erase it from your device. That’s what you’re asking for, right? Then you will do the rest of the job in Google Earth or GPSPhotoLinker, won’t you?

Small catch, you will have to download the drivers from Prolific’s web site first (the chip’s manufacturer). If the previous link doesn’t work, try http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/download.asp and know that your device has a USB to I/O controller from the PL-2303 series (USB to Serial Bridge Controller).

And speaking of GPSPhotoLinker, you have to know that it only takes GPX file as input, so if, like me, one day you just export the KML file from your device and forget to take a copy in GPX format, you can use this free online GPS file converter, which works like a charm (unlike some other free online/offline converters I tried).

Traces corses

Disney 3D

Voici quelques uns des itinéraires que nous avons empruntés en Corse. Je les ai enregistrés au moyen d’un GPS data logger (Globalsat DG-100). Petite boîte noire de la taille d’un paquet de cartes qui se contente d’enregistrer tous vos déplacements (2 – 3 jours d’autonomie en usage normal). Au final un résultat assez propre, encore plus intéressant quand il est couplé avec toute la puissance de Google Earth.

Un bon exemple est notre visite à Disney Land Paris qui dans Google Earth se fond avec les batiments du parc en 3D pour vraiment visualiser les attractions visitées !

[gmap width='300px' height='600px' type='G_NORMAL_MAP' zoom='8' file='__UPLOAD__/2009/07/lighcorse.kml']

Sloppy Apple

After making of the launch of their iPhone 3GS a big event full of rejoicing for the nerd herds and apple maniacs, Apple is getting sloppy with the unlucky ones that won’t get their new iPhone early.

In Sweden, it’s only discreetly that Telia announced, a few weeks after the official keynote and 10 days after the release in some other countries of Europe, that the iPhone would only reach god-forsaken Sweden on July 31st.

For Apple, the iPhone is already available all over the world except a couple of poor African countries.

Lands where the iphone is available, supposedly

Also, note to Apple, most people do not speak Spanish in Sweden. So hey, don’t forget that having a popular product doesn’t mean you can get sloppy!

Corsica: the Lodgings

You may be wondering how we lived our lives on Corsica, far from our computers and cell phones. (Well okay, we had our phones, but I only turned mine on for 2 minutes to wish Jenny a happy birthday and then turned it off again super quick!)

Wedged in with barely any space to get out of our van

Well first we had to take a boat with Corsica Ferries from Toulon (mainland France) to Ajaccio (on the island of Corsica). Since we were planning on getting around in the van Max’s oh-so-generous parents loaned to us, we needed to pull our van into the underbelly of the ship and park with cars wedged in all around us. Like sardines in a can.

Nutella, a French staple

The ferry took 10 hours there only 6 on the way back for some reason. Which gave us plenty of time to do… nothing. I did get a cute photo of Max sitting on a chair that looks like a jar of Nutella*. I’m not sure that qualifies as productive activity. It was easier to tolerate on the way TO Corsica, since we had a big lovely cabin to ourselves.Our lovely cabin with luxury view!

Our cabin with its luxury view!

The cabin had 4 beds – the couch rolls around so that it becomes a bed, and there are two more beds folded into the walls as you can see, and a little writing desk. There was also a bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink. For the first time ever in our joint cruising experiences we got a window that was actually a window worth having. It was so peaceful looking out on the ocean. In the morning we could see the rocky islands begin to appear showing stark sheer cliffs. What a wonderful way to wake up. Even if they do require you to get out of the cabin at 6am.

Our first campground, Camping Barbicaja, was… well… uninspiring. It was well-shaded… but that’s about all I can was positive about it. There were herds of feral skinny cats running around. The ground was barren and hard, under the pine trees. The laundry drying line couldn’t dry anything, since the shading was so thick in our rock lined terrace/forest. The shower area was filthy and I kept my sandals on out of fear of planters warts – and the lights went out about 5 minutes after you press the button. You basically just have time to get to your shower stall and be half-naked when all goes dark.

You can't see it, but we have a tiny baby gas stovetop in the back for cooking!

Although the van was fitted with a mattress (quite ingeniously, actually, with storage under the mattress and shelves over the foot of the bed in the back) we had a tent which we set up to mark our place at the camping lot.

We stayed there out of pure laziness, really. We noticed that almost everyone camped around us only stayed for one night, which is never a good sign. After three nights, we finally decided we’d had enough. So while out on our “day trips” around the island, we randomly picked a camping place. When I say “randomly” what I really mean is that I told Max every single time we passed a camping place every day of the trip, and he decided that he would deign to go down a tiny little road out to a camping place not listed in our many many many travel guides. That camp ground, A Marina, turned out to be WONDERFUL.

It was only about 30 minutes from Ajaccio and far superior in every way. It had amenities we didn’t even dream of in our first hovel of a camping ground. They had a small store which sold, amongst other things, chilled rosé wine – a must in southern France – and ice-cream! They also had an on-site pizzeria/restaurant, a washer/dryer, clean brightly lit bathrooms, wide open fresh spaces for each lot and IT WAS ON THE BEACH!

You heard me! ON THE BEACH! We could listen to the ocean in our sleep, and take an after dinner stroll in the sunset dusted waters along the shore. It was our new base camp for the rest of the trip and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to go to Corisca!

*The picture is crooked because this computer refuses to turn images, it only turns them for the program, not the actual file.

Nothing as romantic as a sunset on the beach... or so they say