http://www.simonb.com/ a 35mm comedic short about a man en simonb 2008-01-06T01:58:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/mac_dvd_region_code_reset/ On the Mac you can change the DVD region code 5 times after which no more changes are “allowed”. There’s something fundamentally wrong with hardware that disables itself. Or hardware that essentially dictates to the owner (the owner!) what it can be used for. Anyway, some searching turns up the means to reset the code. The below applies to Pioneer drives. My Mac has a Pioneer DVR-117 drive there’s seems to be no specific firmware for this drive downloadable on the net but some searching on the forums makes it clear that we can use the DVR-108 firmware. I found this article particularly helpful. WARNING: this may permanently damage your drive. The software to flash the drive - DVRFlash - can be downloaded from here. The firmware can be downloaded from here. Just follow the instructions, re-flash and region code is updated. Plus I think it adds some new capability to the drive. Mac simonb 2008-01-06T01:58:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/django_attributeerror_module_object_has_no_attribute/ If you get the error “AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘xyz’” in Django. It probably means you’ve added a new app but forgot to put the __init__.py file in the app’s directory. Django, Programming simonb 2008-01-04T02:07:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/story_of_loss_of_a_loved_one/ I wept Humans simonb 2007-12-18T01:54:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/google_chart_api/ Google have released their chart API. Here’s a few alternatives for Python: Matplotlib ChartDirector jpgraph dislin See also vtk and MayaVi Internet, Python simonb 2007-12-11T09:18:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/tweaking_words_numpages_field/ How to change the number of pages (NumPages) displayed in Word documents. Edit those field codes. Mac, Tech, Windows simonb 2007-11-27T07:04:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/china_moon_picture/ China has published pictures from its first moon orbiter. China, Tech simonb 2007-11-27T02:48:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/dtrace/ Interesting talk by Bryan Cantrill on DTrace. At the beginning he rips into Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg. Scott’s talk at Google is here. Programming simonb 2007-11-25T11:21:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/mac_cups_print_file_was_not_accepted_client_error_document_format_not_suppo/ “Print file was not accepted (client-error-document-format-not-supported)!” Is the error line appearing in /var/log/cups/error_log on the Mac The reason was this line: application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0 - in file /etc/cups/mime.convs on the server being commented out. To enable raw printing of octet streams (what the mac sends with foomatic etc.) - the line needs to be uncommented. Otherwise the job will be rejected. You can only see this in the cups error_log file on the server with the cups LogLevel set to debug: print_job: request file type is application/octet-stream. Print-Job client-error-document-format-not-supported: Unsupported format ‘application/octet-stream’! Remember Luke. simonb 2007-11-21T07:07:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/google_apps_gmail_smtp_pop_quirks/ Google Apps is a marv thing. And free too. Since looping our email through Google we’ve been getting much less spam. But I’ve noticed the following quirks: 1. smtp.gmail.com is clever about the From field. The user I authenticate as is the one that shows up in the From field when the message is received. So even if I set the From field to be info@..., if I login as simonb@… The receiver sees email From simonb@… Once you’ve authenticated most services let you set the From field to whatever you like. 2. Mail from me to me is invisible to POP. I was emailing error messages to myself which appeared to come from me rather than the from the From field I’d set (see above). These messages appear in the GMail online Inbox but when I try to download via POP they are invisible. The above is solved easily enough by creating a new user to represent my test box and have the email sent as the test-box-user. Proceed. Internet, Tech simonb 2007-10-29T18:25:00+08:00 http://www.simonb.com/index.php/simonb01/comments/mac_postfix_sasl_passwd/ Here’s a page explaining how to make the sasl_passwd.db file used by Postfix when SMTP relaying mail. Internet, Mac simonb 2007-10-29T16:48:00+08:00