Pot snack review: Gallo Risotto Box - ham and tomato

A weighty microwaveable item. Promises Ham and Tomato goodness.

"Must be good", thinks I. The Italians wouldn't put up with crap, right?

Tastes of packing material marinated in cheesy cat puke.

Noodle review: Samyang beef ramen

Lots of floaty "beef" soya balls in here. Warmish heat, generally yummy.

Sachet count: 1

Foam pot. Naughty Samyang.

Noodle review: Jin Ramen Hot

Bland heat, chewy noodles, and generally quite nice.

Sachet count: 1

Would have again!

Buying a GCW-Zero in the UK

Just a heads-up for those in the UK who want a GCW Zero.

I just bought one from Ithic.Com.

Item plus shipping to the UK was 195 dollars, which is £116 at today's exchange rate.

Sadly this item also incurs an extra customs charge of £26 when it gets to your local post office, so you'll have to go and pay that to pick it up.

Shipping via USPS took exactly 14 days.

FLASHING THE FIRMWARE

Turns out this Zero came without an initial flash of Dingux firmware - all it would do is show a red screen and then run a hardware test - white screen with green writing on it.

However my disappointment didn't last long, as I found the excellent IRC channel where many of the GCW devs hang out. They quickly pointed me in the right direction - I needed to flash my Zero, but this can only be done from Linux. I only run Windows 7 here, so here's what I did.

1. Download an Ubuntu DVD ISO: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
2. Burn the ISO to a DVD
3. Boot the computer from the DVD and run Linux without installing.
4. Install required libraries: At the shell, run: sudo apt-get install libusb-dev libconfuse-dev
5. Follow the instructions here: http://www.gcw-zero.com/flashing . Note that the key command to flash the Zero is $ ./ingenic-boot ... but you may have to run it as root i.e. do this instead: $ sudo ./ingenic-boot ...
6. If you have trouble flashing, try resetting the Zero using the reset button next to the USB socket.

After getting the firmware installed, you want to install emulators and games. Here's some tips.

INSTALLING EMULATORS AND GAMES

1. Surkow's wiki is great. Start here for essential info: http://wiki.surkow.com/Quick_Start_Guide
2. Download the emulators to your computer. The start repository is here: http://www.gcw-zero.com/downloads . Note that sometimes this doesn't contain the latest version of software. You should always check for the latest release here on the Dingoonity forums: http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-releases/
3. Get your game roms from a place that doesn't suck: http://www.freeroms.com
4. Download the GCWZeroManager: http://www.harteex.com/?page=gcwzeromanager . Use this to install your emulators and games. If you have any problems, look at Surkow's wiki. I ran into a problem with my computer not seeing the Zero - I had the common NDIS driver issue mentioned in the wiki and here: http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-help/win7-network-driver-failing-to-recognize/

In case you're wondering what are recommended emulators, I like:

• Fceux : NES emulator
• OhBoy: GameBoy / GameBoy Color emulator
• PicoDrive: MegaDrive / Genesis emulator
• PocketSNES: SNES / Super Famicom emulator
• ReGBA: Game Boy Advance emulator
• Mame4All: Arcade Game emulator - I found it better than Final Burn Alpha for the type of old games I enjoy like 1942, Pac-Man, In The Hunt etc.
• Unreal Speccy Portable: ZX Spectrum emulator. Hard to track down. I found the OPK here - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9EgGumkJaabSE9TaEdFbVVBSlU#list

I do like a bit of speccy action - Unreal Speccy isn't really targeted at the GCW Zero, and you can't map the Zero's buttons to speccy keys as I'd like. Shame. An alternative I've found is to use the FooN injector to convert speccy Z80 files into Game Boy Advance roms, and run those in ReGBA. FooN is great 'cos it lets you map specific GBA buttons to Speccy keys. http://www.codepuppies.com/~ben/sens/gba/about.html

AND FINALLY

I did a little video review, please check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZxVNBu3hJs

People Who Should Not Be Parents

Fitting a Single-DIN stereo to a mk2 / Gen2 Honda CRV 2002

I wanted to fit a new stereo to my 2002 Mk 2 Honda CRV because the standard Honda stereo didn't have an AUX-IN. I plumped for a Single-DIN Sony MEX-BT3100U system because it A) is cheap and B) has Aux-In, USB and full Bluetooth phone integration (hands-free phoning with built-in mic AND audio streaming + control).

So, the original unit looked like this.

I had been confused by various things I'd read on the net and couldn't figure out if I needed a fascia adapter or not to replace it.

Lesson 1: YOU DO NOT NEED AN ADAPTER TO FIT A SINGLE DIN STEREO IN PLACE OF THE ORIGINAL UNIT.

I also didn't know if I needed a special adapter harness to hook up the car loom connector to the new unit.

Lesson 2: YOU NEED A PC2-68-4 ADAPTER TO FIT A STANDARD ISO STEREO UNIT.

The Halfords guy said I'd probably need a DIN Aerial adaptor too. He was incorrect.

Lesson 3: YOU DON'T NEED A DIN AERIAL ADAPTOR TO INSTALL A SONY MEXBT3100U.

I had also read that when the original unit is disconnected, it will ask for a Security Code next time it's installed. So if you sell it on, be sure to include the code, which should be recorded in the front of the CRV Service Book. (Other sources said it was written in the glove box, or could be found by pressing 1+6 buttons on the unit - they were wrong for this type of stereo).

So, here's how I installed the new unit.

1. Under the central heater vents, there are two cross-head screws. Remove them. Then pull out the whole front of the fascia surround, which is held in with clips. Gently allow the fascia to hang from its wiring connector.

2. Remove the four screws holding the stereo frame into the dash, and the whole thing comes out.

3. Disconnect the aerial and connector from the back of the stereo unit. Unscrew the side screws which hold the original stereo to the frame.

4. Now the original unit can be removed. The new stereo can be installed in reverse of these instructions. Note however that the Sony unit didn't come with any installation screws to fix it to the frame, and the ones for the original unit don't fit the side of the new unit. Luckily I had some spare screws in my toolbox which fit OK.

END RESULT:

Had this installed for a while now and it's fine. I wish the volume knob was on the right of the unit though - it's a bit of a stretch for me! The UI isn't the best - if you click the volume knob accidentally, you enter a mode menu which you then need to find the exit button to get out of. Very easy to do when you're trying to adjust the volume in a hurry. But, to be fair, it's not expensive and the bluetooth streaming works fine, which is all I really wanted :)

LP Cover Lover

New favourite website!

http://lpcoverlover.com/