I'm now....a nerd.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think I've passed my nerd bar exam.
I have had a NEC DVD+RW ND 2100 AD-103D player/burner for a couple years. Burned CDs galore but never a DVD.
Well, there comes a time in every persons life.......A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.....You get the picture.
Here I sat with a DVD plus burner...about 50 -R and -RW DVDs...and that Homer Simpson feeling.

I spent a whole day going to NEC, Dell, then a link from Microsoft to the vast underworld of hacker/hero forums. I kept reading things like;

Flashing these firmwares requires some risk on your part. If you are not
comfortable with this please do not proceed. We cannot guarantee they will
work or flash correctly in any environment out of our control.

and

The flash process requires Real DOS, a DOS box under Windows is not suitable.

Go ahead and laugh but this is heady stuff when you haven't a clue.
The tales of woe in the forums like

"If you don't designate the second channel master or first channel slave, the flash will corrupt your windows installation".

They weren't saying but strongly suggested, it would also cause my toilet to flush continuously and adversely affect my Mothers health.

Eventually my decent into the dark side led me to THE DANGEROUS BROTHERS. That made me think I had no business being here but as I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, I sat on my balls. With a stab of pain and a flash of light I had an epiphany.
Knowledge...I have no knowledge....I don't need no stinkin knowledge...I've got balls. Hey, it works for W.
OK, ok, to the point. I flashed the firmware changing the 2100 to a 2510(skipping 2500) and from +RW to +or- R and RW, removed the speed locks up to 8x, added dual layer and eliminated region enforcement (with the help of DVD Region Killer)

All this after only 2 weeks ago I used programs like "Hijackthis", "Pocket Killbox" and "Shredder" to find and fix a software conflict that was causing major instability in Internet Explorer. (waiting for Firefox adulation)
I don't have a pocket protector so I guess I'm a closet nerd

aside- On The Dangerous Brothers site, they expound:

"We believe region coding to be an unnecessary annoyance, which interferes with the legitimate use of technology. If content suppliers wish to fight piracy they need to make the content available in the form the consumer wants, and at a price that reflects the actual cost. We strongly believe that piracy is immoral, but so too is greed, the market for legitimate unprotected content at reasonable prices is huge. Books did not destroy the world, they transformed it, because information is power. The fact we can share books, and that libraries exist has not destroyed the publishing and authoring industries. Technology should be empowering, and not restrictive. The concept of a Trusted Computer Architecture will ultimately fail when we all reject it as making our lives more difficult and less productive. So take our wooden shoes and stick them into the machines."

The "wooden shoes" link is to the U of AZ Digital Library," IWW pamphlet, 'Sabotage: its History, Philosophy, & Function,' originally used in the trial of the United States vs. William D. Haywood, et al. This exhibit was introduced into the trial of Michael Simmons vs. the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Company through the deposition of John W. Hughes." Exellent, but long, read.