I know I haven't posted in a year or so but this bit of information seemed important enough to share.

I was helping a family friend fix their 160GB iPod and Google searches proved fruitless so I thought I'd share the issue as well as how it was fixed.

Setup:
160GB iPod
iMac

Issue:
iPod appears in Finder (equivalent of Windows Explorer) but does not appear in iTunes.

Things tried that didn't work:
Hard reset.
Disk mode.
Diagnostic mode.
Ejecting the iPod drive that appears in Finder causes iPod to disconnect and then instantly reset, almost as if it ran into a fatal error.

Eventual solution:
In Disk Utility I erased the drive partition and then ejected the iPod drive. The iPod then appeared in iTunes and worked normally including an update.

Possible issue:
The iPod drive appeared to be formatted to FAT and was using up the entire space available on the iPod. Ejecting the disc appeared to cause a problem as there was no space left for the iPod to actually store any media. Also to note, there was no content on the FAT partition; just empty space.

I've not traveled much by any stretch of the imagination. I have friends (like Mike Connolly) that have traveled around the world and experienced many cultures. My trips have been limited to the US, India, and parts of Europe. Yet it seems that I have more travel experience that most people. Why is it that people fail to travel anywhere except to pre-packaged resort all inclusive packages? Whatever happened to going on a road trip with only a compass and the only guides being the sun and the occasional advice from a stranger? Perhaps people are too busy to know better or want to package as much as possible into as little time as possible.

I try to take a distinctly opposing view by seeing things again and again. I like visiting some of the same places many times over and expanding the circle each time. That's not to say that I don't go to a new place but it's impossible to see a whole town in one day. A town or city isn't just historical sites; it's the sidewalks, it's the people or lack thereof in a park on any given day. Perhaps I take traveling too seriously.

Over the last few years my travel luggage has expanded from a single bag to four bags and now down to two. Experience teaches one that equipment can always be minimized. There are some things that just won't be needed. In case of an emergency there's very few things you worry about. For instance, last year when I went to Italy I crammed two camera bags full of equipment and necessities. This year I'm taking less than one camera bag and it has space for non-camera related items. It's partially the experience of knowing what to shoot with and also deciding that I don't really need 500 GB of RAID 1 backup on the go.

Do other people learn? Or perhaps other people are looking to see and not experience.

When UK Prime Minister Brown visited US President Obama he received 25 US DVDs. Of course what nobody at the time thought of were two things: region coding and signal format. Well, it turns out that Brown definitely ran into the region coding problem.

Most commercial DVDs released by movie studios are region coded so that DVDs bought in a certain part of the world only play in DVD players bought in that part of the world. It's a simple way to ensure that if a movie is released on DVD in North America but is still in theaters overseas then those overseas folks can't just import the DVD and watch it. It's also used to ensure that if a DVD is available for less in another market then a customer from a higher priced region can't import and watch it.

In the context of this post there are only two regions to deal with: Region 1 (Canada and US, basically countries north of Mexico) and Region 2 (Europe (except for Poland, Ukraine, and Russia), The Middle East (Iran and West including Egypt), South Africa, and Japan. Basically this means that DVDs purchased by Obama for Brown are not playable on regular UK DVD players. In order for Brown to play them he has to use a region free DVD player which he may not legally able to do. He could try and import a region free DVD player from China, or he could purchase a Region 1 DVD player, or he could simply purchase the Region 2 versions of the DVDs (yuck...more on this below).

Let's consider each of the options. Importing a player from China is not an option as it would circumvent the "DRM" (term used loosely) on the DVD. If he imported a Region 1 player then he'd run into problem #2 which is signal format. North America uses 60 Hz (NTSC) whereas the UK uses 50 Hz (PAL) which means he'd try to playback a disc and his TV would probably say "No Signal". If Brown still has his remote at this time (and it's not lying outside on Downing Street) then he would probably be resigned to buying the Region 2 versions of the DVDs. The movie studios, player manufacturers, and lawyers would all do a happy jig. Coincidentally all of the three mentioned jiggers are the ones that own/run the consortium that license all this technology.

So what about that first option? The Region free player? Surely you'd still have the NTSC/PAL issue. Most likely not as most region free players also transcode from NTSC to PAL and vice versa. Interesting isn't it? That you can use a simple box that probably costs the same as your normal DVD player to watch a movie that you can legally buy but probably can't watch. By the way, you can also use a PC to do the transcoding but you probably run into legal issues again.

So there it is, in a nutshell, the problems that Brown faced and will probably continue to face.

The opening credits to "Watchmen" is one of the best credits I've seen to date.  It's unlike most other films in that it educates you to the events leading up to the movie.  Most credit sequences are simply that...credit sequences and it's rare to find sequences where you can't pay attention to the titles because there's simply something far too interesting going on.

Jon also pointed out another great opening credit sequence from "The Kingdom"

Have returned from Snowplate 2009 up in Sudbury. It's an amazing tournament that I suggest all attend next year. Photos coming soon.

Finally after a year or so I bring you an update.

I am working on a little project to update the platform that this blog/blag runs off of. I also expect to spawn several blogs targeting each specific area of my life: code, Ultimate, photography, and life in general. They will all merge back here on this site as I am working on a new form of blog sharing concept. I have to solidify the design for that before I publish it.

Here are all the photos I've posted on Flickr:

Days 2 and 3 - On the Beach

Day 4 - San Marino

Freestyle Practice

Paganello - Sunday Night Party

Paganello - Ultimate!

Paganello - Welcome Party

Or, the full collection: Italy 2008 Collection

Normally I wouldn't post a trailer that's as slow as this one but...the disco music at the end goes way back to my childhood and I'm hooked on that alone...darn movie companies know exactly how to get my money.

Second last day of practice...let's see what's starting to happen.

Watch some day 6 practice.

Where's the sun?! It's started raining now and it's supposed to do so over the weekend/tournament. Weren't many willing to practice today so I did a walk around the city. Of course, the lighting was bad so nothing good to report of...but here's a video taken of the beach and the shells.

Watch HD video of the beach and the shells.

There was a lot of shaky camera work today so I'm posting the only good clip that made it. For the rest I'm going to have to edit heavily before I post it. This clip is also in 720p30 so don't be surprised by the big window.

San Marino Quick Look around clip (HD)

I'm posting a short clip now for each of the days. I plan on putting together a longer movie when I return with much more footage. For now though, enjoy an approximately 30 second recap of the last two days.

Watch it now!

Things get boring when you're sitting around. Here's some poorly shot video. In better news, I found a power source!

See shaky video of the terminal.

Well...things are delayed...probably because of that storm out east. Let's hope it doesn't affect this flight. Not much exciting to post but hey, you can see video of me sitting in a terminal.

Watch exciting video of me doing nooooooooooothing!

It's the night before I head off to Italy for a few days...yes...I know it's a surprise but it's going to be interesting. I've thought about getting a little video blagging going and this is my attempt at it below. I'll try to have pictures and video posted as often as possible.

Click here to watch "Technical Test".