Mike's Blog

BBC iPlayer Beta – Working with Vista

Posted on August 1, 2007 by mike

After registering on the BBC website for their new VOD (Video On Demand) service called BBC iPlayer, I have received my account details today.
I new already that I would most likely have issues actually using it, since my machines at home are all running Vista by now (with more or less success, but that is a different story). Anyway, although BBC has announced support for Linux, Vista and MacOX in the future, it is currently limited to Windows XP SP2.
Well, I don’t tend to give up that easily, and searched around a little bit on the Internets and rather quickly found several people reporting that they managed to actually get it to work under Vista.

By the looks of it BBC is only checking the OS/Browser etc.. based on the information provided by by the Browse, in form of the User Agent details. So changing what IE sends as that information is the key to success here.

So here is how to do it:
Open the Registry editor (regedit.exe) and modify/add the following registry entries:

Find HKey Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent
You should see one String Value called default, which is empty. Change that one to “Mozilla4/0” (without the quotes).
Create a new String value with teh name “Compatible” and enter “compatible” as value (without the quotes).
Create another String Value called “Platform” and enter “Windows NT 5.1” as value (without the quotes).

Restart Internet Explorer and you are ready to go.

So far everything is looking fine, and we will see how it behaves over the coming days after having played around with it a little bit more.

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Mentos and Carlsberg – Bad combination

Posted on July 28, 2007 by mike

Everybody knows what happens when putting Mento into Cola and is already tired of all of those video on YouTube showing it.

Well, have a look at this one. Nice one for a change!

Posted in Fun Stuff | Leave a comment

Assisted GPS on the Nokia N95

Posted on July 11, 2007 by mike

Nokia recently released another Firmware update for the Nokia N95. One of the major new features is Assisted GPS (A-GPS). When it took up to 4 minutes before (even longer sometimes) to get a lock to your current position, it now takes 30 seconds, or even less! Amazing. This is accomplished by combining GPS data with additional information stored on a Nokia A-GPS server, which includes positions of GSM cells/transmitters. And since it doesn’t only rely on the information received from the GPS satellites, it also works to a certain degree inside buildings!

All in all, the Nokia N95 just got even better!

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Finally…what to do with your iPhone

Posted on July 11, 2007 by mike

Too much hype around the iPhone these days. In my very personal opinion, it is a nice piece of technology, but there are simply too many features missing…3G/HSDPA, GPS, replaceable battery, memory card slot, no possibilities to customise/install applications…

As such, here is finally a interesting use of the iPhone. Just kidding. But anyway, I am looking forward to iPhone V2, hoping that at least some of the missing features will be added.

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The O2 – again

Posted on June 27, 2007 by mike

Looks like the guys the The O2 have changed there lightning schema a bit. Instead of turning the new lights completly off over night, they seem to be keeping only the blue and red illumination on the masts on, and only turn the bright white lightning off. Much nicer view from my place now. (Click on the picture to get it in full size)

Posted in London | 1 Comment

The O2 – Opening Fireworks

Posted on June 25, 2007 by mike

As mentioned earlier, this weekend was the opening weekend of the O2. I didn’t even know that there were fireworks planned, so I wasn’t really prepared to capture it on video or take pictures. Anyway, I managed to take some impressions. See the short clip below.

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Greenwich & Docklands Festival

Posted on June 25, 2007 by mike

Among the many events this weekend, was also the Greenwich & Docklands festival. A series of events were happening in the area. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t really that favourable on Sunday, but at least on Saturday, I was able to enjoy some of the performances.

Posted in London, Music | Leave a comment

The O2 – Formerly known as The Dome

Posted on June 23, 2007 by mike

When I came home this evening, the view out of my apartment had slightly changed. TomorrowÂ is the official opening day of “The O2”, most people still know it as the dome, build for the millenium festivities, and mostly empty ever since..but that is about to change.

The dome has been converted into one of the biggest entertainment centers in the UK. It includes a main arena, with place for over 20’000 people, which is surrounded (still within the dome) by samller hall (the indigO2), a multiplex Cinema, a number of restaurants and bars.

Opening act tomorrow will be Bon Jovi, followed by a number of high profile acts over the coming months. Anyway, as the above picture shows, for the first time, the new lightning of the building can be seen. Goos to see live come back to one of the landmarks of London!

Posted in London | 1 Comment

Hydepark Calling – and the rain came….

Posted on June 23, 2007 by mike

We are in the middle of the OpenAir Festival Season. I went to HydePark Calling today, mainly to see Peter Gabriel. I arrived at the Festival area shortly after five, and although there were a lot of people there, my first impressions were still that I have been at better OpenAir festivals in the past. Huge are, but not too many activities. Anyway. The first act we saw were “The Feeling“. I have to admit that I never heart of them before, but actually enjoyed it! A refreshing sound

from a young, energetic band. They really enjoyed there time on stage!

The next act on the main stage were “Crowded House“. As expected, great fun! A lot of the old songs and a few new ones! Some good old memories….

But unfortunatly, well, we are still in London, the worst thing happened. Although dark clouds were hanging over London the whole day, it didn’t really rain a lot, with the execption of a few short showers, but the sun always managed to get through again quickly. That was about to change during the last third of the Crowded House concert. As if it was the revenge of the weather gods…Neil Finn (front man of Crowded House) used the F-word against the threatening dark clouds, and the result was that it started to rain..well, really rain! Within minutes we were soaking wet. The shower, combinded with thunder and lightnings lasted for 15 minutes…

After Crowded House finished, we were on teh point of leaving, without even waiting for Peter Gabriel to start, since it was still pouring down…ob teh way to the exit we decided to go into one of the tents (Stage 3), since, although it was already packed with people, just when we passed by they allowed some more poeple in. Well, again a positive surprise. We saw the last 15 minutes of Seth Lakeman. Never heard of him before, but certainly worth listening to.

Wehn we got out of the tent, it had stopped raining, so we changed our mind and went back to the mainstage to see Peter Gabriel! What a disappointment! Terrible selection of songs..I didn’t know most of the songs. He explained tha the selection of songs was based upon a list of songs chosen by visitors of his website. Well, I guess only real hardcore fans were participating in that poll. You could clearly notice that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know most of the songs. Anyway, we decided to leave in the middle after an hour into the concert, since it started to rain again, and we really didn’t enjoy it that much.

Still a great afternoon/evening. No regrets!

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Hell’s Kitchen is back

Posted on June 5, 2007 by mike

The new season of Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay has started this week on Fox (US). I have just seen the first episode, and it so far it promises to be yet another “interesting” season. Gordon Ramsay is doing what he seem to know best: swearing, screaming, shouting at it’s best and by doing it pushing the candidates to the edge with the goal of getting the best out of them. Looking forward to next weeks episode.

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