Lunch 2011.09.25 - Bianco

Wrong day to have lunch at Bianco Brighton-Le-Sands. Supposed to have a nice walk along the beach before or after the meal. With this pounding rain and howling wind, I don't think so. Couldn't find the restaurant so we called them up. No wonder. They're along the Grand Parade, instead of Bay Street as listed in Eatability and their own website. And yes, they offer complimentary parking at the Novotel. Apparently, that parking lot was being shared with a shopping centre, which is not doing too good. And we thought we parked at the wrong place.

Looks like we're the only party at the restaurant, as only our table was set. It's all good because it's nice and quiet. The kids have the whole place for themselves - the main dining area, the lounge, and the bar. The food's not so bad, but for the price, I expected better. The pork belly (slow-cooked for 15 hours) was kinda small, and I would've liked the skin to be crunchier. The lobster pasta didn't have a lot of lobster. The mashed potato is quite chunky, and the cod fish is a tad too salty. Service is excellent though.

Dinner 2011.09.22 - Piano Room

Not as classy as we thought. Perhaps the pictures on the website was taken from a different era. And to think that we actually dressed up. Can't find any decent parking space nearby, so had to use Wilson Parking. $20 per hour, can you imagine!

Can't find where the place was, so we just followed where the others are going. The place was so dark, I can't see the decor. Most of the light was coming from the surrounding streets and the giant Coca-Cola sign below through the wide windows. Entertainment was provided by an old-timer on a baby grand piano and a crooner singing Sinatra on the centre stage. Food's ok, but slow in coming. We had calamari and bocconcini-stuffed risotto balls for entree, lamb cutlets for mains, and ice cream for dessert. Red wine to wash it all down.

ZTE V9 Optus MyTab Reflashed

Ever since I've upgraded my MyTab, I haven't been playing with it a lot. We basically use it to watch a few kiddie videos and play some MP3 files. Heck, there's so little activity, the battery lasts for weeks on a single charge.

I checked the Modaco ZTE V9 Gingerbread thread again, and looks like the latest build has pinch-zoom emulation. It even repartitions the NAND to yield a bigger /data partition for more apps. Now this I gotta try. I started reading all the threads and got a bit confused. Should I downgrade back to stock 2.2, or to stock 2.1, or even at all? Or should simply reflash with the latest firmware?

Anyway, found the answers. Correct applicable thread here:

http://android.modaco.com/topic/342556-repartition-nand-for-optimal-cm7-setup-2011-08-15/

Download the 2.3.5 build here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?hi7rhddjb2j33iv

After flashing, you'll end up with Clockword Recovery 4.0.1.4, 2011-08-15 build of CM7, and 20110613 Google Apps.

Movie 2011.09.16 - Doubt

When in doubt, give the other party the benefit of the doubt. Apparently, the principal of St. Nicholas in the Bronx never heard of this before. When Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) gets wind that Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is befriending troubled boy Donald, she assumes the worst and makes it her personal mission to drive him out of the parish. She starts spreading rumours and talking to the boy's mom. The boy's mom doesn't want to cause any problems, so the sister tries a different tack. She lies about making enquiries with his former parishes and uncovering his past offenses. With this, the father resigns and was actually promoted to a larger parish. The sister has her doubts, but she feels she has done her part.

Movie 2011.09.11 - Kings of Pastry

As a fan of Iron Chef (料理の鉄人) and Masterchef Australia, this movie is an eye-opener for me. The movie tracks a couple of pastry chefs making preparations for the MOF (Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France) competition. The contest is held every 4 years over 3 grueling days, and some participants prepare for months, even years. Watching how these guys perfect their craft, it's sad to see them miss out on the coveted title. No offense to Adriano Zumbo, but these guys are the real thing.

Movie 2011.09.09 - Cemetery Junction

Cemetery Junction is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and his sidekick Stephen Merchant. Surprisingly, it is not a comedy. More of a light drama about some teenagers stuck in their working-class town. Freddie gets a job as a door-to-door life insurance salesman and has aspirations of a better life. Bruce works at a factory and spends his nights chasing girls and brawling in bars. Snork works at the local train station and hopes to be a station master one day.

This and that happens. At the end, Freddie leaves town with high-school sweetheart Julie, who happens to be the boss' daughter (already engaged). Bruce gets a dressing down from the police chief and makes up with his unemployed dad. Snork starts seeing someone.

Updating the TomTom XL 330S

Another TomTom, another read-through of the forums. This time it's the TomTom XL 330S (a.k.a TomTom One v9).

First thing to do is connect up the GPS device to TomTom Home, and get some updates. I was hoping the navcore will be updated, but no such luck. I did get an extra computer voice, the QuickGPSFix, and some small updates to the US/Canada maps. After the update, make a backup of the file system.

Latest SE navcore I can find is 9.205.547817.1. Latest map I can find is v8.75. There's a new patcher called FastActivate that does everything in one click. Delete everything from the internal storage aside from ttgo.bif. (In case you've also deleted this file, just restart the unit, and the file will be regenerated.) Copy over the SE navcore basicpack files, then the ttsystem files. Copy over the maps that you want, plus the safety cams, and FastActivate. Copy over the VocalizerTTS and voices folders. (As the XL 330S has only 32MB of RAM, it won't use LoquendoTTS.) Run FastActivate. Update meta.txt first if your copy of FastActivate is outdated already. Then patch the maps.

By default, SE navcore will use x40 emulation. You get the 3-pane status bar, but TTS is broken. Computer voice tries to read the street name, but instead it says "Language Eng". Tried the X40light option by setting the model as x40light in the setconfig.txt file under config directory. Now that works. Downside is that you only get a two-pane UI.

You can also get TTS running on PNDs that are not supposed to be TTS-capable. For example on my TomTom One 130, I just added the line ttson on setconfig.txt, and TTS works fine. Sweet!

Movie 2011.09.02 - Friends with Benefits

Just look at the movie poster. Geez. With soft porn movies like this, who needs a plot? Just a little bit I guess. Guy and girl become friends purely to have s3x. Guy asks girl to join him at the family home over the July 4 weekend because obviously he can't have s3x with his sister. Girl gets confused and exclaims, "You're just like all the guys. All you ever wanted is to get into my pants!" Duh, wasn't that the deal? Guy realizes he can't live without his walking-and-talking live s3x toy, so he makes up with girl.

To make things interesting, we have the guy working for GQ flicking photos across the computer screen using a tablet. Guy and girl sit atop the Hollywood sign and get arrested. Guy had to be rescued and airlifted because he's afraid of heights. Throw in a couple of flash mobs dancing to some old tunes for that Bollywood effect.