Another 15 minutes

2012

Draupner — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:04:30 +0000

Saw “2012″ yesterday, another end-of-the-world movie, I like those. I was a bit afraid that this one was too American, but it wasn’t that bad. But yet the movie didn’t bring anything new that you haven’t seen before in “Deep impact” or “Knowing” for example.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Server disk crash

Draupner — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:08:22 +0000

A few days ago I suffered from disk failure on two disks in my RAID5 array, which forced me to re-install the server from scratch and restore it from older backups. The server is soon up again and Penskyfiles Radio will be online with it. No related posts. No related posts.

Avatar

Draupner — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:55:07 +0000

Saw Avatar yesterday, seems to be the hype movie of the season. It’s an animated movie about an alien world that humans wants to exploit for a rare mineral, no matter what the cost is for the native humanoids. It’s a pretty good movie, but for me it was abit too much of fantasy and fairy-tale things in how the alien world Pandora works, it would have been even better with more science. But it’s still good and gets a high grade from me.

Rating: ★★★★☆

District 9

Draupner — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:01:25 +0000

Saw “District 9″ today, a movie about an alien species whose ship breaks down and can’t leave Earth again, suffering from starvation mankind decides to help them by allowing them to stay on Earth in slumlike camps, and they remain there for 20 years.

They are harrassed and abused, controlled and moved around and no human really cares for them and wants them to leave. One of the aliens managed to come up with a liquid that can power their ship, but the same liquid infects a human and transforms his DNA into one of them. Now they must work together for their survival.

Much of the movie is shot in a kind of freehand style, like “Cloverfield”, which can be annoying sometimes, but it’s a good story and very well made.

Rating: ★★★★☆

The taking of Pelham 123

Draupner — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:35:33 +0000

The taking of Pelham 123 is a movie about terrorists taking control of a subway train, holding hostages for ransom. The leader, played by John Travolta, makes his demands on the phone with a subway control operator, played by Denzel Washington, and they develope a bond. It’s a pretty good movie, and John Travolta always plays bad guys very well. I was a bit disappointed on the ending though, I wanted more of an unexpected twist.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Transformers 2 – rise of the fallen

Draupner — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:08:54 +0000

Transformer 2 (rise of the fallen) brings alot of nice special effects and eye-candy, and some bots are impressive and cool, but it has not got a good story I think. No big surprises in the movie, it’s pretty predictable, but some bots do got some gangsta lingo going on from time to time.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Impact

Draupner — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:14:42 +0000

Impact is a TV mini-series in two parts. It’s about a huge meteor crashing into the moon almost destroying it, which has a devastating effect on its orbit, and on the Earth, causing strange phenomenons to occur all around the world. Now, much like in the “Armageddon” and “Deep impact” movies, the world must unite to a common purpose in order for humans and the Earth to survive. As always, the first attempts to save mankind involves a lot of nukes, which always fail…

Rating: ★★★½☆

The invasion

Draupner — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:36:01 +0000

Watched “The invasion” today, a movie about people getting infected by an alien micro organism, coming to earth with a crashing space shuttle, and changing them in their sleep. Soon almost everyone is infected and the rest must try to get away, and stay awake. It’s an OK movie, but again, just like “Cloverfield” and “The happening” for example, the ending is too brief and I think it should be more scientific and less of a “zombie killing-spree”.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Howto flash your HTC Touch HD with custom ROM

Draupner — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:03:21 +0000

Ever since I noticed that TouchFlo 3D (also known as Manila) got updated on newer phones, but not on my HTC Touch HD, I have been thinking of doing it myself with one of the multiple custom ROMs available for this phone, made by enthusiasts of the Windows Mobile community. The newer versions of Manila has alot more nice functions and much better looks that I want, my phone comes with version 1.3 so it’s pretty basic. The procedure seemed a bit complicated though, and I didn’t want to risk my warranty on the phone. But after e-mailing HTC asking whether or not the HTC Touch HD (Blackstone) would ever get an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 and newest version of Manila and they replied…

- We currently have no knowledge of any planned updates for the HD. It is unlikely to be updated to 6.5 or beyond as Microsoft have made some hardware restrictions on devices that can use 6.5 that the HD does not meet.

… I decided to go ahead with my plans, since I know that many people use Windows Mobile 6.5 and later versions of Manila on their Touch HD’s and it runs just fine. I’m gonna go for Dutty’s “Leo” ROM with Windows Mobile 6.5 and Manila 2.5, since Dutty seems to be the most popular and skilled ROM cook out there, and here’s a step-by-step guide on how I did it.

First off, let me just say that I take no responsibility in any damage done to you or your phone for following my example, just in case.

Now, you need to decide if you want to use HSPL (Hard SPL) or USPL (User SPL). USPL is a temporary upgrade in memory only, to make the change permanent (survive a reset) you should use HSPL, and so I will.

You also need to check what SPL version you have, boot the phone holding the volume down button. This will put the phone in it’s “bootloader” screen. My phone had version 1.54 and I have a 1.56+ version ROM. In order to upgrade to a custom ROM you must change your SPL to allow uncertified upgrades, such a SPL has been made by “Olinex” and you must first install/flash this to you phone.

A guide and all the files you need are found in this tutorial; http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=505377. This will explain the terms more in details if you want.

I got an error when first trying to change the SPL (connection problem), but there is a troubleshooting guide just for this scenario. The solution is to download a program file to launch on your phone instead, then flashing the new SPL worked great.

TouchFLO 3D (Manila 2.5)

Once you have the new SPL in place, you can flash any ROM you like. I chosed Dutty’s Leo R2 ROM (Windows 6.5 and Manila 2.5). Just put your phone in bootloader mode again just as before, connect the USB-cable to your computer and wait until “USB” pops up on the screen. Then just launch the “BlackstoneRUUWrapper” program which usually is distributed with each ROM package, then flash your phone as you would with an official release.

After this it’s recommended to do a hard reset/factory reset twice. Do this by holding both volume up and volume down button while turning on your phone and follow the instructions on the screen.

All set, worked great for me! Just sync back all your contacts and files, install the CABs and customize your phone again. Programs you should install one by one and test them, to make your they are working correctly with the new ROM.

To sum up:

Backup your phone using Activesync etc.
Go for HSPL method.
Flash new SPL, if it fails then use SSPL (running boot loader from phone).
When SPL version is “1.56 (Olinex)”, flash new ROM.
Hard reset.
Hard reset.
Restore backup.
Done!

Good luck! I can really recommend this if you’re getting abit tired of the same old user interface on your phone, this is close to getting a new phone, and much cheaper :).

Crank

Draupner — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:00:27 +0000

Saw Crank tonight, the first one, not the sequel. I wanted to see this first since the sequel takes off where the first ends. The plot is about a hitman who becomes poisoned by a drug that forces him to keep his heart rate high in order to keep alive, and basically become a big adrenaline junkie. He must find new ways to keep his adrenaline level high while seeking his revenge. The movie was an OK action movie with some funny elements, there is also some blood and gore.

Rating: ★★★☆☆