Despite the wealth of information regarding getting Canon Hacker Development Kit (CHDK) on your Canon Powershot S100, there are many options mixed up with old information.

For those who are new to the camera hacking game, and want an completely non-destructive way of trying out the CHDK follow these steps:

Installation

1. Take a photo (JPG format) on your S100 camera.
2. Copy photo from SD card to your computer.
3. Use Automatic Camera Identifier and Downloader (ACID) to identify firmware version of camera.
   1. Download and install ACID from http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/acid/acid.html.
   2. Open ACID and open the photo taken with the S100.
      Take note of the firmware version for your particular S100.
      (Will be either 1.00D, 1.00E, A.01A, A.01B or 1.02A).
      
4. Download CHDK version suitable for your firmware
   1. Go to http://mighty-hoernsche.de/, scroll down to the PowerShot S100 section and download the full zip file corresponding the camera firmware version.
5. Unzip contents of the zip file and copy to the root directory of your SD card.

Usage

The camera will operate as per normal.
In order to use the CHDK, the following needs to be performed every time the camera is powered on:

1. Remove SD card from camera and lock it by sliding the small switch.
2. Replace SD card into the camera.
3. Turn on camera in playback mode by pressing and holding the play button.
4. Press the menu button.
5. Scroll down to “Firm Update…” and press the FUNC. SET button, and update the firmware.
6. Enjoy CHDK after camera restarts.

Should there be problems, you may need to have prepare your SD card as a bootable type. In order to do so, insert the following between steps 2 and 3 in the installation procedure

• Use EOScard to format your SD card to be bootable.
  1. Download “EOScard.exe from http://pel.hu/down/
  2. Start EOScard, find your SD card, click refresh, select the “BOOTDISK” checkbox, click the large “CHDK” (lower left) button and then “Save” (Upper right).
     

Notes

This method is known as the “Firmware Update Method” amongst the CHDK hackers, but despite the terminology does NOT actually update the camera’s firmware.

It tricks the S100 into thinking it is doing an update, but loads CHDK into the camera’s temporary memory (RAM).  NO firmware flashing takes place. For this reason the above procedure must be carried out each time the camera is powered on order to use the CHDK there is no chance of doing harm to your camera.

As at the date of this post, requirements for visitors (tourists) for driving in Japan (who do not have a Japanese issued driving license).

1. – Valid driving license

2.1 – If the driving license is issued by nation that has signed the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, an International Driving Permit (IDP) from the issuing nation (list of nations recognizing the IDP can be found here).
2.2 – Driving license issued by Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco or Taiwan, a translation of the driving license.
This translation is an official translation made consular institutions in the issuing country or by institutions certified by the National Public Safety Commission (Japan) .

Notes:

• Despite IDPs being valid for three years from the date of issue, Japan only allows driving with IDP for one year from the date of entering Japan. Driving with IDP after one year is only allowed after an absence from Japan of greater than 3 months.
• IDP must be carried with original driving license while driving in Japan.

Information booklet (PDF file) for foreign nationals for driving in Japan issued by the Japanese National Police (NPA).

Official information from Japan NPA (Japanese):
https://www.npa.go.jp/annai/license_renewal/have_DL_issed_another_country.html

With the title “Marathon time can be shortened by good use of pacemakers”.
The article details Yuki Kawauchi’s record two sub 2:10 marathons within two weeks and how the world’s elite marathon runners make use of pace makers throughout part of the race and some theories on his biomechanics.

How air resistance is reduced?
The writer puts the question to mechanical engineering professor, Shinichiro Ito of Kogakuin University.

The role of pace makers has changed to being wind breakers for runners seeking records.
In this year’s Berlin Marathon (September), Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (Kenya) broke the long standing marathon world record (2:03:23) formerly held by Patrick Makau Musyoki (Kenya) (2:03:38) set in 2011. In both these races, the record holders were not in the lead pack until later in the race.

In the past, the main role of pacemakers has been to maintain a particular race pace until recently where they now also function as providers of a slip stream.

With the use of fixed models (dolls) research was conducted.

The findings were that a single runner has the drag coefficient of 0.97, air resistance is reduced to 0.11 when sandwiched between a two other runners (one in front and behind). The runner third inline will have drag coefficient of 0.3, greater than that of the second runner.

Maximum slipstream when running behind a row of three.
When Naoko Takahashi broke the women’s marathon record (also at Berlin in 2001, 2:19:46), she ran in a pack of five, with four male runners (front, rear, left and right) to be the first female to go sub 2:20. In this configuration she would have had a drag coefficient of 0.31.

The research continues to test a pack of four runners, with 3 of the runners running alongside each other. Forming a first row “wall”, the fourth runner tucked in behind the middle runner of the row will have a drag coefficient of 0.07 (less than 10% of running alone).

Although drag is ultimately reduced using three pace makers, three inline configuration is probably the most beneficial in terms of cost/performance.

A 175cm runner with the ability to run 2:10, sandwiched between two other runners at 2:05 pace up to the 35km IAAF convention will spare about 77kcal. This is equivalent to about 1360m or approximately 4 minutes.

Professor Ito concludes that “rather than run blindly for a record time, a runner being properly positioned behind a pacemaker(s), making use of the slipstream, will have an overwhelming advantage”.

Use of the spring of the achilles tendon recommended.
With regards to running form: “Kicking the ground, extending the ankle after foot landing is not good. Although this method of running is effective, it is only if each step is timed correctly over the entire 42.195km – which is impossible, causing a loss when timing isn’t correct.”.

Although some older Japanese coaches, still teach this method, Ito discourages it and it is better to run using the spring of the achillies tendon with the knee and ankle at fixed angles.

Thin (small) calves of the elite runners.
When looking at photos of Kiprotich and Makau, they both feature very thin calves.
World record holder and olympic gold medalist for the men’s 100m and 200m Usain Bolt (Jamaica) also has thin calves. Both elite sprinters and long distance runners share this feature. Sharing the same principles as when comparing the ease of swinging a fatter bat (baseball) against a thinner bat, it is easier to move the section below the knee.

“Kawauchi’s calves have been getting fatter through training..possibly because he is running with the image of kicking the ground. Stopping this style of running may help reduce calf muscles size possibly allowing Kawauchi to achieve better times”.

For the entomologists out there, this not so little bugger decided to pay a visit while cleaning my my air conditioning unit.

Hadn’t seen anything like it before, but thanks to a few friends on FB, phentermine it has been identified it as an Asian Long Horned Beetle (カミキリムシ).

…and in case you hadn’t noticed, it was blue.

Didn’t seem particularly keen to move on, so took a couple more snaps:

During a conversation with a friend concerning the correlation between the “whiteness” of rice and it’s glycemic index (GI), I let slip that as of late last year, for health and other reasons, I was milling my own rice.

Put simply, the browner the rice, the lower the GI and the greater the vitamin/nutrient retention.  After milling, the acidity of rice increases gradually, meaning there are also health benefits of eating rice that has been freshly milled (within 7-10 days).

So for the second time, rice features on this blog.

Pictured above is our Twinbird MR-E500W rice mill.

Here is the process that adds 10-15 minutes to my prep time.

Step 1: Remove lid to be presented with:

Step 2: Add paddy rice (up to four cups):

Step 4: Replace lid and lock into position (Milling will not start when lid is not rotated into the lock position).

Step 5: Setup using the analog dials (in this case for 4 “cups”, to be milled 70%):

Step 6: Press start, and let the magic begin:

Step 7: After it stops, remove lid and…  Tada!

Step 8: Remove spindle and basket:

Step 9: Dispose of the husk and bran layers which has been converted to dust.  Would make for great fertiliser – if I had a garden.

And that’s it!  Take the milled rice, wash/polish as per usual and cook.

Oh, and for the grinding mill engineer who was the inspiration for this post, a closeup of the mesh that makes up the basket.

Personally, I didn’t think there was a huge difference at 70% compared to 100% white.

The difference at 50% is a lot more obvious and may not be to everybody’s taste.

Good weather, 3 drivers,  2 cars, 1 track.

The economy the way it is, front bumpers were removed as a cost cutting measure. 

AE86 lived up to its purpose, as we tweaked and (I) learnt more about handling throughout the morning.  Having a pro driver around is handy!

Ultimately no matter what we did, there was little too much grip for the 20V.  High speed slides were a bitch to keep on line. 

Some classic Australian suspension tuning was applied and problem ceased to exist. 

UPDATE: Video

The rest of the day was joy as we got comfortable and let loose.

Nobody else showed up so we had the entire track to ourselves which was perfect for photography from some unconventional positions at this track. 

S kept us drift newbies in our place.

Great company, great day. 

Overnight tag-team long haul west. 

Slept in, then prepped for tomorrow.

PS: Introduced to this (amongst other tracks) which got us through the night:
StereoHeroes – Action Pack (The Mixtape) by stereoheroes

A bit of time for a few photos in the main foyer. 

For tourists who happen to be near Yokohama station with time to kill, all the cars in the current Nissan range (including export only models) and some concept cars are on display for public viewing in the foyer of their global headquarters.  Apart from the concept and race cars, cars are unlocked, free for visitors to poke around in. 

Rain -> Wet -> Light Rain -> FOG -> Wet.
Everything but fine weather conditions throughout the race – Take home notes at the end of post.

The day was spent between the pit and the lookout over hairpin corner. 

UPDATE: Finally getting around to sort out video and Youtube.  Video of the startup and check procedure after last minute suspension changes (Only for the seriously keen). 

The amount of rain just after the start (Kageyama steering). 

Rain suddenly stops, but it’s still a pool. 

A little more rain to keep Tanaka on his toes.

Then the epic fog – safety car sees action. 

There are cars in there somewhere:

Fog lifts, Hoshino all out.

Although everybody expected the GT-R to walk away with the race due to the unexpected wet conditions on the weekend, qualifying and Sunday morning practice data already suggested that the race was going to be another day of data collection. 

In December, an earlier protoype of this car was running 3 seconds faster in the wet, on wet tyres, than the race winning BMW today.  So what went wrong?  The wet tyres provided for this weekend were of a different compound than those provided in December to cater for the vastly different track temperatures.  The tyres were so hard that the drivers were unable to get them into operating range. 

The clincher is that Hoshino elected to go out on full slicks and during his session and beat the entire field for fastest lap of the day. 

Gallery including some other randoms:

From the outside, everything is just…bigger.

Air intake spans almost half the width of the bonnet:

Enormous rotors behind 18 inch wheels. 

Fronts:

Rears:

Just under 5 million yen for these when you could put your name down for one back in April.

http://www.subaru-sti.co.jp/product/r205/index.html