After my previous post this one seems bizarrely trivial. But hopefully it will be of use to someone.
Projector lamps have a limited life, and consequently have a lamp timer. Once the lamp timer reaches a certain threshold the projector will start to throw up warnings. In some cases it will stop working when a second threshold is passed.
When it comes time to replace the lamp it is usually necessary to manually reset the timer. On some projectors this is easy, but on Sim2 projectors it is necessary to access a hidden factory menu. There is no reference to the factory menu in the manual, but I rang them up and they told me the secret:
Access the normal menu
Go to the Information screen
Press Up, Down, Up Down on the remote
The factory menu will appear
From there you can reset the projector lamp hour counter, or adjust it to any value you want.
We’re on vacation in Thailand visiting Shari, and are spending the first few days in Bangkok. One of the cheapest ways to get around is by Tuk Tuk – the three wheeled vehicle that looks like a rickshaw crashed into a motor bike.
You can get most of the way across the city for about 30 baht ($1), but it has taken us a couple of days and two scams to find out that not all Tuk Tuks are the same. Those with yellow license plates bearing the ‘taxi’ sign on the roof are public and are what they purport to be. But beware the white license plate. Those a privately owned and generally exist only to ferry unwary foreign tourists to high-priced (for Thailand) restaurants, shops and gem stores where the driver gets a commission.
The usual offer is to take you somewhere for 20 baht (60 cents) which is about the going rate, but then to ask if it is OK to stop at a small shopping center because the drive will get a ‘gasoline coupon’ for 5l of fuel (worth about 150 baht). And you don’t have to buy anything! Just spend 5-10 minutes looking.
Our original trip was quoted at 50 baht, but when I refused to stop at the shops he said he’d do the original journey for 10 baht, and then for free. At that point we got out of the Tuk Tuk and sent him on his way.
Tuk Tuks are a great way to see Bangkok up close, as long as you pick the right colour license plate!
Thanks to this post I finally managed to get rid of the MobileMe sync icon from the menu bar. I don’t have a MobileMe account so it has been driving me crazy why the damn thing was there in the first place:
How to remove the iSync (or MobileMe icon) from your Mac OS X menu bar:
Temporarily remove icon – Hold CMD, then click and drag the icon off the bar.
Permanently remove icon – Open iSync (use Spotlight to find iSync) and deselect “Show status in menu bar”.
Projector lamps have a limited life, and consequently have a lamp timer. Once the lamp timer reaches a certain threshold the projector will start to throw up warnings. In some cases it will stop working when a second threshold is passed.