:: the blog of geri-m ::

Today I saw the play “The dwarf is calling” (”Der Zweg ruft”) at the Phönix Theater in Linz. The play is about three derelicts finding Snow White and Adolf Hitler in a bunker deep down in Linz’s Poestling-Berg. As Linz is going to be Europe’s City of Culture 2009, the three decide to show their discovery to intendant of Linz09, Martin Heller to become part of the program …

I really can recommend the play and going there.  The play is great fun and amusing, mixed with different habits of the different characters and play on words. It is definitly worth seeing.

This week I have been at the Forum Nokia Event in Budapest (HU). As usually, we have been spoiled by our host, while staying in the *****-Kempinsky – what else Great presentations from different speakers form Nokia and Nokia partners, a fabulous audience out of Nokia Champions (like me and Andreas), Nokia University Pro Members and Cooperating Partners of Nokia. Thus the networking factor of this four-day event was impressive. I don’t remember any event where I exchange that many business cards.

There have been several highlights like a sightseeing tour thru Budapest and a vine tasting event. On Wednesday there was the Code Camp Competition on Widgets among the Nokia Champions, which – tatatat – I won (too bad, isn’t it?). I got a brand new N85 which is the most current Nseries Device. To sum up: a great and successful week in a very nice city.

Recently the HDD Disk in my G4 iPod Photo died. As I was a bit annoyed by that and I didn’t want to head for a new player, I decided to go for an experiment. I wanted to replace the HDD by a compact flash card, as the interface is more or less the same.

So I made a shopping list:

1. Opening Tool: In order to open your iPod you need a tool in order not to scratch the metal case. You can get this tool also when you buy new battery. As mine was already three years old I got a 1400 mAh battery for the iPod. There are several sellers on ebay. I also search on YouTube for videos on how to open the iPod in order not to destroy it.
2. Secondly I looked for a tiny 1,8” ATA => Compact flash adapter. You can find several sellers on ebay for that as well.
3. Last but not least, I needed Compact Flash card. I bought an 8 GB one, as this seams to be sufficient for my requirements. Actually there is not limit in size for the capacity of the card you would like to in add to your iPod – just your budget

These are the steps to take (no guarantee that they work for you as well!)

1. Turn off the iPod
2. Turn on the key lock, as we don’t your iPod to start during the experiment.
3. Unplug the battery in order to avoid short cuts.
4. Carefully remove the HDD
5. Put the CF Card into the adapter and Stick some heave paper in the bottom in order to avoid shortcuts with the PCB (it’s the yellow paper in the pictures)
6. Connect the battery again and close the ipod.
7. Connect the iPod to the PC again and let iTunes restore the Firmware Image.

I’m very happy with the solution, as it was quite inexpensive in comparison to getting a new one (12 EUR for Adapter, 16 EUR for new battery, 18 EUR for CF Card = 46 EUR in total).

Recently I had a discussion with a friend of mine (Rainer), about pictures and painting. When I lined out, that I got myself an Acryl-Painting “Starter-Kit”, he asked “So what are you painting?” - My ready witted answer was “Only expensive pictures” ;-)  So, just drop me a line, if you interested in one the pictures below *g* But be aware - they are expensive …