I think Ebay is missing something essential to the entry system - a spell checker.

I was bored looking for something to do and ended up looking at boats.

Check out this superb example as to why it’s always a good idea to get somebody else to do the typing if you’re not that good at it.

Corrections in blue.

OK HERE GOES: HERE FOR AUCTION IS A 60ft MOTER (motor) TORPEDO BOAT.X3 THORNEYCROFTS (Thornycroft) 6 CYLINDER DIESEL ENGINS (engines).2 OF WITCH (which) ARE RUNNING THE OTHER NEEDS NEW STARTER TO RUN UP.NEW WHEEL HOUSE FITTED LAST SUMMER.NEW ROOF AND REAR ACCOMADATION (accommodation) JUST FITTED BUT UNFINNISHED (unfinished) DUE TO UNFORFORSEAN (unforeseen)SERCUMSTANCES (circumstances) >ALL MERTERIALS (materials) TO FINNISH (finish) PROJECT ARE ON BOARD .THIS WOULD MAKE A WONDERFUL LIVEABOARD (Er? Lifeboat, live-aboard?) THE FORWARD ACCOMADATION (accommodation) IS ALL IN ORIGINAL CONDITION>CONSISTING OF TWIN BERTH WITH SHOWER >TOILET>SINK>STORAGE SPACE..THEN A LARDGE (large) GALLEY CONSISTING OF SINK N DRAINER>COOKER >BENCHED DINEING (dining) AREA>LOTS OF STORAGE>THEN UP 4 STEPS INTO ORIGINAL WHEEL HOUSE>THIS HAS RADAR>SHIP TO SHORE RADIO>ORIGINAL SHIPS WHEEL>ALL CONTROLLS (controls) CLOCKS AND DIALS IN WORKING ORDER AS WAS TAKEN OUT TO SEA SEVERAL TIMES LAST YEAR>PROVING TO BE LOTS OF FUN BUT UNFORTUNATLLY (unfortunately) HAS TO BE SOLD AS IT NEEDS T.LC (surely either tlc or t.l.c. but not half way) >AND I JUST DONT HAVE THE TIME TO FINNISH (finish) (HER>CURRENTLY AFLOAT ON A BEAUTIFUL MOORING IN ESSEX ALONG SIDE OTHER HISTORIC VESSELS.SHE DOES HAVE LIVEABLE ROOM ON BOARD .SO SOMEWHERE TO STAY WHILST WORKING ON HER>THIS IS A WONDERFUL CHANCE TO OWN A REAL PEACE (piece) OF CLASSIC HISTORY.YES IT NEEDS WORK /? (well, does it?) BUT ITS ALL THERE.ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CALL ON 07837200251>THIS IS ADVERTIZED (advertised) ELSE WHER (elsewhere) SO COULD BE REMOVED.A DEPOSITE (deposit) OF £300 REQUIRED ENDING AUCTION VIA PAY PAL (technically should be PayPal) .TO VIEW PLEASE CALL ON ABOVE NUMBER.NO SWAPS OR PX AS NOT ALOUD???:{ (allowed) MANY THANKS FOR LOOKING>PLEASE DO NOT TEXT ME AS IM (I’m) STUPID (no shit) AND CANT (can’t) TEXT BACK;;RESERVE PRICE IS £3.000 (What £3? Or £3,000)

Yeah, I’ve got a question to text him. Which illiterate labrador did he get to type the description OWT FUR IM?

Tags: ebay, torpedo boat, eburks

Background

Over the last few months Facebook has made quite a few major updates to amend and increase the security of a FaceBook accounts.

It’s now possible to make all aspects of your profile to be secret, including the fact that you don’t appear on the search results.

That was the theory.

The Problem

I accidentally found a way around the security system by using Facebook’s iPhone application. The worrying thing is that it’s actually so simple, it’s alarming how it has been missed.

Step 1: Create a list of contacts of people you suspect are on Facebook with their known email addresses (or at the very least, good guesses)
Step 2: In the Facebook application press the “Friends” button on the main menu.
Step 3: At the top right of that screen you’ll notice a “Sync” button. Press it.

The result is the screen above. Facebook searches for ANY matching profiles based upon that email address and brings back what information it can, including the profile picture. It then drops all this information into your Contacts. Along with the name, a link to the face book app (complete with profile ID) it also copied the PRIVATE profile image.

Armed with my new discovery I had a work colleague make his Facebook profile entirely private. I then guessed his private email address and sure enough, I got the following details (greyed out).

So, how do I protect myself?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious. It’s obvious and also something else that I came upon by accident.

Because I use an abstract email address for my Facebook profile, people who guess or know my personal email address still cannot find me using the iPhone application. So my suggestion to you would be to create a Yahoo / Hotmail / GMail account specifically for Facebook and don’t share it with anybody.

Tags: facebook, security

I read on the BBC news site (for want of a better description) that Activisions excellent Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 has taken $1bn so far. You might remember it took $550 million in the first five days, which is pretty good going.

The unknown written on the BBC points out that this is pretty close to movie hits Titanic ($1.8bn), not to mention Avatar.

However, we are told, direct comparisons can't be made because essentially the 'ticket' price is three times higher for the games than the films.

This is true, but all a classic case of the lack of journalism I've come to expect from the BBC these days.

Sure, it costs three times the price. But the average gaming experience (one player) is expected to be around 6-8 hours. So that's three to four times the duration of entertainment.

But the most obvious way in which you cannot compare the two is in production costs. With estimates of production costs for Avatar running from $250-280 million I find it very unlikely that Activition spent more than a tenth of that on COD6. Then you've got advertising. I'm betting that total promotion for Avatar is going to be around $50m. Making the total spend in the $300m range. Making a profit of $700m.

Meanwhile, Call of Duty 6 : Modern Warfare 2 (Manchester United 1) made $500m profit in the first week and can only have made even more as it went on.

Games like Call of Duty represent the maxim of games production in turns of production cost and values. This is a game with a cast of "known" people (if only when you see their faces). Call of Duty 5 : World At War (Average) had Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman in it for gods sake!

Tags: call of duty, modern warefare 2, $1bn

Remember when home computers were a new thing? If you're about my age (sub 40... just) you might remember the efforts Commodore made in order to try and boost the Commodore 64 platform by making a compromise.

It created a BASIC compiler. The idea being that you could program within the simplistic BASIC language (no pun intended) and your efforts would be SUPER BOOSTED into 'machine code' by the compiler. Opening a whole new world of exciting posibilities that would otherwise only be available to people with enough time and interest to hand crank assembler (sad people, usually with no girlfriends).

Anyway, I remember it fondly for two basic reasons.

1. It was unbelievably slow. Any program greater than about 8kb (yes, KILOBYTES) would take over an hour to compile and the results would be;
2. It was terrible! The code hardly ran any faster than the bog standard BASIC intepreter. OK, so some functions did operate faster. But lets not try and encourage any nostalgia about it.

What was interesting was how the compiler basically operated by including a dirty bit library of functions (OK, probable 4-8kb or so) and then use that.

But the most interesting thing about the BASIC compiler was that fact that it appeared to be itself a BASIC application, compiled by itself. That's the sort of recursive action that could well have created a black hole back then.

I do remember, just before moving on from the (crusty) trusty Commodore 64 that there were in fact a number of funky compiler/languages available for it. Some obvious, Assemblers galore. But how about;

• White Lightening* which was a version of Forth developed by Oasis Software, with lots of additional functions for graphics, sound etc.
• C - A little C compiler that actually produced really decent executables
• Pascal - Not Borland's Turbo.. but I do seem to remember a little version (nothing too exciting)
• ADA - Yes, even the Commodore 64 managed to get a port of NATO's favourite language.

In the end, the machine was too old to join the later public domain, then open source community on the web. Even the Commodore Amiga arrived a little too early for that. But that's another story entirely.

*White Lightening formed part of a development suite of three variants developed by Oasis Software.

• Basic lightening was an enhanced version of Commodore basic with lots of extensions of graphics, sound and even structure. Applications needed to be packaged (I want to avoid saying compiled here) into a file that could run on other machines.
• White Lightening was a version of the compiled language "Forth". It included the very same libraries as Basic Lightening and provided a very unique environment for development purposes. Forth was decent enough at providing all those features missing from BASIC, but it's Reverse Polish Notation put a lot of people off and in the end White Lightening didn't turn out to be such a resiliant platform for development purposes. White Lightening included Basic Lightening in it's package.
• Machine Lightening was the premier package and included the premier assembler development studio, along with White Lightening and Basic Lightening. In Machine Lightening you had the ability to create macro code and link to the Libraries provious mentioned. It proved to be the most useful of the three and did get some work at Ocean software.

In the end Ocean Software bought it from Oasis (or bought Oasis) and it because Laser xxx. Laser Basic, Laser Basic Compiler and Laser Genius. The Laser equivalent to Forth was dropped, never to be seen again

Tags: commodore, 64, compiler, BASIC, White Lightening, forth, Machine Lightening

It’s only once in a while that I’m actually impressed by something on the net these days.

A good example of something that has really stood out for me has been the property search engine Globrix.
It is one of the most deceptively powerful little tools out there.

But don’t let the Google like simplicity of the front page fool you. Once you’ve provided it with a rough area to search, by which I mean you can enter “England”, “Scotland”, “Wales”, “Ireland” or ever “Isle of Man”, select whether you wish to look to rent or buy and click search.

But the real power of this system is found on page two, the detail screen.

To say that the filter system allows you to drill down like never before would be something of an understatement.

But lets look at the comparison site just to highlight the advantages.

On RightMove you are able to search at County level and no further and your primary filters are;

• Price range
• Property type (Houses, Flats/Apartments etc)
• Number of bedrooms min to max
• Price range min to max
• When it was added
• Retirement properties (yes or no essentially)
• Shared Ownership (shared or not)

And I’m afraid to say, that is it.



However, the Globrix filter screen is something else.

Clicking the “Keywords” section brings up a list of all the key phrases or single words that have been extracted from the listings.

So for example, from the selection above we can see that there are

• 54 properties with their own bunker.
• 2368 properties that have a cellar.
• 504 are three storey
• 29 have caravan parking
• 23 have their own croquet lawn
• 11 are ecohouses

Best of all are those desirable features we all dream about but have no other way of finding out.

So lets say you’re looking for a 4 bedroom house in Lancashire for under £350,000 that has its own swimming pool.

Turns out, there are three. All come with links directly to the estate agent in question and all match the requirements.

Incidentally, there’s a house in Rossendale with it’s own recording studio.

Best of all was a search I did for houses with their own “home cinema”.

Now in my mind, I picture a small room with a big TV and a sofa. Somewhere dedicated to watching the box. However... not everybody has the same idea in mind. In fact some people are a more enterprising when it comes to “Home Cinema” and some people are quite literal about it.

Case in point, this house in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
It is a seven bedroom property spread over three floors. It’s a terrace house, but looks to be in quite a leafy part of town. In fact, it looks like a very well looked after property.

But it does have a feature that no filmophile could do without.

Its very own sixteen-seater cinema.



I mean, seriously... this is more than a step beyond a few big chairs in a room. They actually appear to be genuine cinema seats.

At which point, is there an intermission in the middle, like in the old days, where a lady would sell ice cream?

Property details for the Bradford mini-cinema and house can be found on the Halifax Property website.

Tags: house, realty, estate agent, property, property search, search

Got dragged off some very complicated and necessary development work in order to resolve a problem with a test server.

“Nothing is working”, was the cry,
“We think that either .NET doesn’t work on Windows Server 2008”
“Session management is faulty.”
“We might need to rebuild the server.”

The problem....

Well, the SQL connections used SQL username and password and the server was configured to just use NT authentication.

It’s funny how quickly people panic and look for the obscure rather than look at the more obvious causes.

Tags: SQL Server 2008, SQL Server

Ever typed in an SU password when you first setup the machine, only to totally forget what it is six months later.

Yeah, me too.

In fact, that just happened.

So what I ended up doing was using the following neat bit of code.

If you can log in to OS X with an “Admin” type account then you’ll be lucky enough to sort the problem out with the following.

First, open a Terminal window. Terminal is an terminal command line program that lives in Application -> Utilities

Once you got that going, then type in the following command.

sudo passwd root

You be asked to type in a new password and then confirm it.

AND THAT”S IT!!

You’ve set a new root / su password. Now wasn’t that easy enough?

By the way. It’s always best to create an “Admin” account that’s not your active account. Then create a “User” account for all your normal work. When you need to install heavy duty software, then you can simply use the Admin account or simply type those credentials into OS X. The benefit of which is that by default, you machine is running a more secure environment. Plus, if you DO trash your user profile. You can just log in as the Admin, delete it and start again.

Tags: OS X, su, password, passwd, root

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll have no doubt spotted the points over time where Alan Sugar has turned up on TV and prompted me into a 5 page monologue on how much of a twerp I think this guy is.

If it’s not dismissing ideas as being unsuccessful because they are “Disney-like” (Disney make more money per day, than Amstrad did in the year he said this; he’s spouting on about his business genius while watching the fortune he made selling (somebody else’s) cheap computers diminish over time, whilst supporting the decreasing market for Sky boxes. Amstrad, it should be noted, don’t DO Sky HD. Sky+ is their only business now.

So it was no surprise to find that there was yet another “also like” product that graced the Amstrad shelves; until finally being put out of our misery some time back. Not that this stops it appearing regularly on “The Apprentice”.

Behold! The Amstrad, it’s a phone, it’s an internet station, it’s a game machine... er device.

The Amstrad E3 or E-m@iler Plus!
Now, I don’t know about you. But while on the phone, I can think of nothing better than playing an old Sinclair game whilst browsing the internet via a 56k modem.

Especially when it comes to the highly competitive rate of;

• Email at 20 pence each, and
• Internet access at 5 pence per minute

Now there’s value.

But at least it appeared original.... except....



Behold! Apple patent filling “User Interface for All-in-One Office System”. Filled on November 16th, 1995.

The fax-top-phone combines a mini-computer (think eMate), telephone, fax machine and MODEM in a single box.

Now all this isn’t without precident. Remember when Amstrad beat Apple to the first PDA type device by a matter of days. Apple blaming itself for holding back release in order to iron out all the bugs in the software (something that didn’t stop Amstrad, you should note).

Of course, pre-dating EITHER device is this.. OK monstrosity by ICL.

Powered by a Motorola 68008 processor (16 big CPU, 8 bit bus!! I ask you!!) it was basically a Sinclar QL clone with two microdrives (i.e. mini tape drives) an integrated MODEM and phone. Screen display was separate and of the old school HUGE monitor variety.

And the date of production? 1985, ten years before Apple and nearly twenty before Amstrad. Still, it IS an ugly old brick.

All of which goes to prove, there’s no such thing as a new idea.

Tags: Amstrad, apple, e-mailer, e3 superphone, E-m@iler Plus

What is it with SPAM these days? Times where when you could expect at least a few lewd suggestions regarding the availability of female individuals or the implication you have a certain short coming.

But these days the SPAM I check every week in the SPAM bin of our email server have more in common with the cryptic messages found in the “Da Vinci Code” than something more associated with the seedier side of the net.

Not that I’m a big fan of the book / film. But you get the idea.

I’d have used the reference to “Treasure Hunt” but I imagine I’ll be in the minority to remember that particular gem of Channel 4 television from the mid to late 80’s (1983-89 to be exact). Anneka Rice gets whizzed around the countryside in a helicopter while studio based contestants try to solve clues

So what is all this cryptic nonsense about? I suspect somebody must imagine that it will somehow magically find it’s way through the SPAM filters and land on somebody’s desk. They are fooling themselves. It’s utter nonsense and the SPAM filters see it as such.

Perhaps this is all a subtle plot and the Russians or Chinese are using SPAM to trigger sleeper cells. Okay. That’s rubbish, isn’t it!

Tags: spam

The HP recently acquired IT services company EDS has yet again put sensitive information on the streets due to carelessness. This time it's MOD information. You might remember that prior to that they mislaid a laptop.

What really gets my goat is that EDS nearly always ends up being 'preferred' supplier despite their atrocious record of late deliveries, poorly fitting IT solutions, over charging and incompetence... and I speak as somebody who was hired in by them on two occasions and was offered a job by them.

Tags: EDS, MOD

Had a fantastic bug the other day. In fact it's still a mystery as to why this is a problem. But there you go.

Here was the original "Where" clause for an invoice report.

Where (
CASE WHEN IsDate(tblOrder.SentDate) = 0 THEN '19000101'
ELSE CONVERT(DateTime, tblOrder.SentDate, 103) END
BETWEEN CONVERT(DateTime, @FromDate, 103)
AND CONVERT(DateTime, @ToDate, 103)
)
AND ((tblCustomer.customerid = @customerID) or (@customerID is null))

We changed the billing date and ended up with this query..

Where
(
CASE WHEN IsDate(tblOrder.AvailableForBillingDate) = 0 THEN '19000101'
ELSE CONVERT(SmallDateTime, tblOrder.AvailableForBillingDate, 103) END
BETWEEN CONVERT(SmallDateTime, @FromDate, 103)
AND CONVERT(SmallDateTime, @ToDate, 103)
)
AND
(cust.customerid = @customerID) or (@customerID is null)

... only trouble is, while the CustomerID section worked fine T-SQL TOTALLY ignored the first part of the where clause. I mean, totally. At first we couldn't believe it and ran it on a number of servers. But to no affect.

The problem? Well, SentDate was declared as DateTime format while AvailableForBillingDate is defined as a SmallDateTime. But why would create a section of clause to be ignored, that's a realy mystery.

In the end, I employed a trick and included the conditions of the Where clause within the From section.

FROM
inner join ...
tblOrder as ord on ... and
ord.AvailableForBillingDate is not null and
ord.AvailableForBillingDate >= @FromDT and
ord.AvailableForBillingDate <= @ToDT inner join
.....
Where
(cust.customerid = @customerID) or (@customerID is null)

Now SQL responds to the query.

How odd is that.

Tags: SQL Server 2005, SS2005, SQL, T-SQL

So, while I've got a moment I'm going to give you a quick review the Three's Mobile Broadband USB Modem.

Three are a mobile phone/network provider that pioneered 3G in the UK. In recent years they have expanded their well priced service to provide generous data packages and currently they are heavily promoting a USB based modem solution for use by computers.

The first thing that strikes you about the USB is it's neat, almost Apple like, design. The white modem is clean, simple and easy to use. What's better is that 3 actually supply support and drivers for Apple Mac machines. Something rival companies have been very poor of late to offer.

So how good is it to use? Well, so far I've tried it up and down the country and I've yet to find an area where I can't get at least GRPS coverage. It's fantastic!

The 1GB monthly limit sounds mean; but for the £10 per month fee (lowest in the UK) it's actually quite low. If you have a 3 mobile on business contract this figure actually drops to £5 a month.

Another advantage that 3 has over over providers is that if your in an area where they don't have any coverage, they'll piggyback another providers network. Now, how this works with the mobile broadband is anyone's guess.

We're off to Cornwall early next week. So this should really set the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of access. Wish us luck!

Update

Believe it or not I've never actually plugged it into a PC until today. After about 30 minutes of looking for the installation CD (and not finding it) I eventually found the installation booklet. What impressed me most was that 3 have installed the drivers and control software in the device and the it works like a standard flash memory. So no installation CD required. How awesome is that!?

Tags: three, USB Modem, 3, three.co.uk, huawei, e220, hsdpa

Here's a little cute product for 2008. (OK, so they have been around a little while, but now they are slightly cheaper).

These cute little 'Free Trade' devices are mainly constructed from renewable sources, and those parts that are not are easily deconstructed for recycling. Sounds like a great idea and the bring the friendly colours are the perfect gift for kids.. or bright and friendly adults you might know.

They market two devices at present. The starfish style 4 port USB hub, called "Oscar" and the 1.3MP USB WebCam called Lili.
Lili is obviously meant to be an Octopus or Squid, to go with the star fish style Oscar. But I can't help be reminded of the UK children's television program Itzy and Bitzy. A couple of cute spiders whose antics are sadly underreported on the Web.

Oscar and Lili are constructed from combinations of cotton, sand & kapok. Kapok, in case your wondering, is used for the padding. It used to be used for stuffing pillows before some numbty decided it was smarter to use highly inflammable poly-what's-it's-name instead.

Reviews seem to suggest that both Lili and especially Oscar perform up to scratch. While 1.3Mp doesn't sound fantastic, 1280 x 960 pixels is more than good enough for a WebCam and you might find yourself dropping down to 800x600 unless you've got decent bandwidth.

But lets be honest, these little things are so cute... are you really 100% focused on the specification?

UK distribution is via Aria (a fine Manchester firm) or via Play.com (who are technically based outside the UK in Guernsey). Currently Oscar is selling for £21 from Aria and Lili is £30. However, Aria does have Oscar on offer at present and frequently during the month. But do bare in mind, this IS free trade. So stretch a little.

Tags: united pepper, Oscar, Lili, USB, webcam, hub

Nokia's N95 and the iPhone have been around for quite some time now, and both contain Google Maps to allow you navigate around. The N95 contains a build in GPS receiver (it's quality gets mixed reviews) while the iPhone doesn't.

On the iPhone you tell it where you are and where you'd like to go or what you're looking for or any of the standard Google Maps function. After all, this is the full blown version of Google Maps.

But "here's the thing" (as Kevin Rose would say), did you know you could get Google maps for just about ANY mobile phone.

If you navigate here you'll be given a nice splash screen detailing which systems Google Maps for Mobile can run on.

The list is;
Windows Mobile
Palm OS, or
Blackberry Enterprise


But if this doesn't sound like your phone you can always open your mobiles web browser to www.google.com/gmm and give it a go. I'm running it on a Nokia N93, which sadly (and for reasons I can't explain) run Nokia's version of the same. But I can run Google's Symbian application.

If you're Nokia phone does run the Nokia version then I suggest you run it, because it allows you to download the maps in advance and use those on the go. Which, unless you have a significant data plan on your mobile phone contract, would be the better way to go. Especially if you're in the middle of nowhere! The most likely place to get totally lost.

One last thing before I go.... did I mention it works with any Bluetooth GPS receiver you happen to link to your phone? Well, I'm using a fairly recent Sirf III job and even in the house it's working pretty spectacularly. Not that I needed to know where in the world I was, I know where I live. But it serves as a decent test.

Best of all, you can even map out routes (before driving, obviously) and presumably you can track your progress with live GPS feed.

One thing it can't do, sadly, is re-route on the fly. Which is a bit of a shame, but what do you expect from a complete and totally free service!

Just for fun, you can even have the satellite image. I'm in, it appears.

Tags: Google Maps, Mobile, GMM

I just wanted to get this out there as quickly as I could.

I own a MacBook Pro running Microsoft Vista under BootCamp and I just patched Vista with the latest updates.

The results?

My MacBook Pro will boot Vista, but after the main desktop appears it crashes out.

Clearly something in the system library files has changed, because reverting to a previous working boot fails.

This may be a terrible coincedence; but I just wanted to get the message out ASAP.

Unless you can risk loosing your machine, please be VERY, VERY careful with this.

I'd love to hear from anybody else who has been affected or people who have not. I'd like to get a full picture as to what has gone on.

Thanks

Tags: apple, vista

UPDATE: Since writing this blog post I've had a lot of comments and emails pointing out that this SDK is for web development. I clearly didn't make it clear enough in my posting. But the point I'm making is that calling what is essentially a web design guideline an SDK is somewhat overstating a case and that releasing a simply guideline would have been more appropriate. That was my point. Hope that clears up the matter.

---

Well, after a turn around and then a little hype the iPhone SDK has finally hit the streets.

Apple have sent me (and ADC member) a link to get hold of the SDK, including a link for iTunes training videos.

So far it's been pretty much a rolling advert to get an iPhone. It's a remarkeable device.

When I get a chance I'll look into this. But not having an iPhone and being in the UK. I'll not get too excited.

But there's a problem. These are NOT native applications. These are applications that run 'from YOUR website'. The guides are merely to describe how to design the web applications for best practice.

In fact, even a quick glimps of the demo code shows they are HTML and JavaScript based applications.

Basically, this IS NOT an SDK to develop applications to run natively on the iPhone.

So is anybody else disappointed?

You'll need to get a free ADC account to see this page. Should you want to bother

Tags: apple, iphone

You know. Not everything about Google is so terrific.

For one, if you should happen to change the content of a site, as we did on Everything You Know Is A Lie, it can take weeks if not months for the new links to be indexed out.

This is made all the more frustrating as we are using Google AdSense and Google is the search engine used on the site.

Come on Google! Get a move on!

Tags: Google

If you own an early (but not 1st Gen.) MacBook Pro, the ones sporting 2.0 CoreDuo but NOT Core2Duo; then like me you're missing out on all the Wireless-n 802.11n goodness.

Sadly, the upgrade options would appear at first glance to be fairly low.

For one, there's this rather expensive and somewhat 'home made' appearing model. It's called the nQuicky. And it comes out as $149.95 USD. Which, is pretty expensive. To say the least.

So.. always on the hunt for a bargain, I started a trawl. First up, the Edimax EW-7718Un. It's a USB 2.0 802.11n adapter. Which, although it doesn't suggest it support the Mac and OS X, 10.3 and 10.4 in fact. The link I've provided is for the driver screen.. so you can see I'm not making it up! Costs? Around £35 - £40 ($70 - $80).

Now, if you're in the mood for some serious work, that's going to mean getting down and dirty with your laptop. There is an excellent solution from xlr8yourmac. Using the simple instructions you can take the laptop carefully apart (it's not too hard) and then replace the existing WiFi card with an upgrade card for the Mac Pro!

Sounds drastic, but is actually straight forward. It's also probably the best method, because you won't be reliant on anybody else's drivers. Price, well apparently you can get them for $49 and indeed I did find the MA688Z/B from Powermax.

So... who's feeling brave then.

Tags: 802.11n, Wireless-n, MA688Z/B, MA688Z/A, MacBook, OS X

For ages now I've been looking for an easy tool to stitch together photographs I've taken while on my travels.

Now, there ARE a number of OpenSource alternatives that give good results. But to be honest, none of them (at present at least) offer the kind of drag and drop interface that a 'purchase' bit of software can. Not that there is a vast amount of choice.

Clearly Photoshop and Photoshop Elements will contain such a tool. It's called PhotoMerge and while it is present in Photoshop Elements 5.0 for Windows; it's not so clear whether the current Mac version (4.0) contains it.

Am I crazy, or did previous versions of Mac OS X (10.0? 10.1? 10.2?) contain a free Panorama tool? Just me then.

Motivation

There's some appealing about being able to give a 'big picture' of the location and it helps to show people who've never been there a feel of how it all fits together.

So, armed with a bit of cash in PayPal I bought an unwanted version of Serif's PanoramaPlus 3 (retails at $49.99) to give it a go. OK. Firstly, this is a Windows only product. But I run Parallels (and I'm in MSDN) so that's not a problem. It was easy to setup and the results are actually pretty good. Although the application can occasionally blow up in your face and bizarrely, doesn't appear to have the ability to save 'work in progress'.


Anyway, I've played around a bit with some images I took in Disney June 2007.

One of the great things you can do is that you can create both panoramic images AND Quicktime VR movies. Both of which I've included below.

Here is a Quicktime VT of Main Street USA, in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida.
While here is the link to the Curious George Goes to Town play area, Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida.
Finally, I've create a quick panorama of the Lights Motors Action Stunt Show, Disney Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World, Florida. (That's Disney MGM Studios of late).

Finally, I've published the source combined images in a quick gallery. Sorry if it blows up your browser! Some of the images are nearly 10,000 pixels wide.

Please be patient as the images are so large they can take a few minutes to fully download. As can be seen in this image here.

Tags: panoramaplus, serif

It's can't be much more than a year ago (but is likely to be two the way times flying at present) that Sun came out of gates with Microsoft saying that it was nothing but love between them and they had patched their differences (umpty trumpty millions of dollars will do that) and would now be working together in peace and harmony.

Microsoft shared the secrets (and pitfalls) of their SMB system and Authentication methodologies for better interoperability twix Windows and Solaris and in return SUN Microsystems waited a month before making Solaris, ALL VERSIONS, free to anybody to download! Like the big bang resonates forever in space, you can apparently still hear the echoes of Steve Ballmer.

So pundits of IT's last remaining corporate Geek Tech company will not be shocked or awed by the news that the latest version of Solaris, 10, is all warm and fluffy towards the OpenSource gravy-train that is Linux.

Linux, the dream of free O/S that while is prevalent in lots of markets seems to have ABSOLUTELY ZERO impact in UK Government (a place where savings SURELY need to be made), charities or just about anybody to large to think beyond Microsoft. Now don't get me wrong. Microsoft products have come along leaps and bounds over the least few years and certainly projects like Mono bring MS technology (C#) to the Linux platform. But the costs! Microsoft, please take a long hard look at what you want to charge for software... if it wasn't so expensive, would anybody pirate it?

Tags: Solaris, linux

How much!!!!

So you've got a fantastic Sagem Axium HD45 H G4 and then 18 months go by and then suddenly... without warning (or very much warning)... nothing. Silence.... bulb gone.

Wander over to the web (if you dare) and look up the price of a replacement (projector) bulb unit. But before you do this, take a swift shot of whatever you need to calm your nerves because the news isn't good. It's bad... very bad.

In the UK at least I managed to track a lowest (that's LOWEST) price of £355.27 ($710), that's EXCLUDING VAT making the actual price around £420 ($840)!!!!. Which is even more shocking given that you can pick up a new Sagem Axium for about £1,100. So the bulb nearly equates to half it's value!

Which kind of reminds me when a mate of mine asked for an car insurance quote many years ago and was told it would be £2,000. "TWO THOUSAND POUNDS!" he replied, "I'd have to right the car off twice to get my money back!"... said insurance agent hung up.

I digress....

Here's how to save yourself £320.

Yes... £320! Sorry, but I realised I was starting to sound like an 'Info-mercial'.

The Sagem Axium HD45 (and 50 for that matter) is lit using a Osram P-VIP 100-120/13 E23h bulb. What a mouthful. Fact is, you can pick this bulb up for £100 ($200) from a number of suppliers in the UK.

But then what.

The Osram Bulb as fitted to the Sagem Axium DLP television

Step One - Shopping List

• Order you bulb, as detailed above.
• Make sure you've got some 20mm 0.5 Amp fuses. If you haven't, then order them, because they are essential to the completion of your installation.
• You'll also need either a VERY sharp craft knife or better still a Dremmel or similar. It should be noted I used a knife... and was VERY careful.
• Superglue on standby.
• Latex gloves (or similar)

Step Two - Removing the enclosure

The VERY easy bit. Remove the bulb enclosure from the TV. You open the side panel using the large screw like lock at its top. Then remove the entire door (it's not attached). Then you undo the two retaining silver screws at the top left and bottom right of the enclosure and slowly and carefully remove it.

Step Three - Removing the bulb from the enclosure.

This is actually VERY easy on a Sagem Axium as it is held in place with a simple retaining clip. What isn't so easy is the power block.

Firstly, you need to cut the power connector (pictured above) in half. this is to allow it to be removed from the enclosure without breaking the part that retains the power block. Don't panic. If you should break the top arm off, it can easily be bonded back to the main unit using Superglue.

Step Four - Re-Assembly

Using latex gloves to protect the new bulb during installation. It is essential that the glass remain perfectly clean and smudge free for best working.

Install the light first, making sure you can route the cables, don't try it the other way around.

Install the cable plug.. again... superglue as a standby.

Step Five - Before we finish!

Now it's time for the fuse. At the top of the enclosure, behind the barcode you'll find a tiny 0.5 amp fuse. It WILL be blown. Simply replace it with any 20mm 0.5 amp fuse and... wait for it... YOU'RE DONE!!

Step Six - Finishing up

While there you might want to VERY carefully clean up the inside of the projector unit which can because dusty. Always pull the dust outwards, never push in as you'll get dust on the colour wheel... which is BAD.

Pop the enclosure back in the TV. Then replace the door and turn on the TV. Then turn the TV on. After about 10 seconds it will switch on and your 10-15 minutes work will have saved you several hundreds of pounds.

Good luck!

Tags: sagem, axium, hd45, replacement bulb, dlp

I read in Ars Technica that ISP's Tiscali and BT are threatening to throttle the performance of the BBC's iPlayer service because they suggest it will suck all the bandwidth out of the UK Internet.

Which makes interesting reading. But not because I think they have a point. Because quite frankly they don't; BT has already started over a year ago to role out the NEXT phase of networking for the Internet. The '100mb' good stuff.

So, what is this really about? Well, it is Tiscali's IPTV product "Home Choice" and BT's "Vision" products being put under pressure by the BBC. Both Tiscali and BT Vision charge a monthly subscription. The BBC, on the other hand, are providing the service as part of their provision under the BBC charter. In other words, you've ALREADY paid for it from your TV licence; it's free.

iPlayer has had something of a mixed launch. Originally being an 'open' beta version. Sadly, the 'open' element being to a select few.

Clearly BT and Tiscali can see what's on the horizon, and don't like it.

Whether this is seen as an anti-competitve step on their part will be down to the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission. Interesting stuff...

Tags: bt, tiscali, broadband

Somebody at Redmond has blown a gasket. Has a screw loose. Too few sandwiches in the picnic. SharePoint 2007 boasts a host of excellent features, not least of which includes 'greater accessibility'. But what does that mean in real terms?

Well, it certainly doesn't mean that MOSS 2007 or should I say Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is accessible. Not in the slightest. It's greatest no-no is that it uses tables for format. I'm sorry, I'll say that again. It uses tables for formatting.

In a world of elegant CSS it's an unquestionably poor show on Microsoft's part and renders the use of MOSS 2007 'out of the box' in any public (or Government) organisation out of the question. More so in the UK where we have new (and justifiable) laws shunning such inaccessibility. Bare in mind that I'm currently working for the organisation in the UK that would implement such laws, and the problem is slightly more serious. As you can imagine.

Don't think that the clever use of Web Parts will save you either. Sure, you can code up such libraries, hand cranked if your like. But guess what the Web Part Page uses to site it's contents in. You guessed it; Tables. Tables!!

What is wrong with these people?

So.... the solution. Well, after quite a few conversations and secret meetings not akin (so I would imagine) to the Freemasons, what can I suggest. Simple. Write your OWN ASP.NET pages to gain full AAA compliance and simply leverage the SharePoint Server using the Windows SharePoint (web) Service. Best of both words. Content is managed in a very lovely way and you have full and absolute control over the container it comes in.

When I get more on this... I'll let you know.

Tags: sharepoint 2007, aaa, accessible

Over the last week or so our iMac has been suffering a little 'connectivity' issue with the Draytek Vigor 2800 G Wireless router we use.

Having looked at the Draytek's firmware and noting it was significantly out of whack with that on Draytek's website, I decided it needed a boost.

But here's where the problem start.

Draytek, unlike other Wireless Routers, don't have a built in function on the router itself to upgrade it. There could be a number of reasons for this, perhaps security being one of them. But the fact is, you'll need to update your Firmware using software running on a desktop machine. Mac users (like me also) this is where we have a problem. Because, despite Draytek providing a Mac version of the software, it lacks a particular feature that is definitely required.

Speed up, your going too slow


I'll get to the point. Draytek's Router tools include the Firmware Upgrade Utility. But it has an amusing problem. The time out is set FAR TOO LOW. There is no way a firmware flash of nearly 4 MB is going to get uploaded in the router in 5 seconds!

So, here's what I decided would be a good option. 13 hours or so. Plenty of time... and sure enough... up it loaded.

One last tip. If you abort at any time, it times out and you have to kill a dead upgrade... Make sure you look in your Windows Task Manager for any FrmUpg.exe that happen to be left running. Kill them all, then try again, remembering to set the Time Out value first.

Then it should work!

Tags: draytek, vigor, 2800, firmware

What the !!!

So first we had Microsoft showing off the Windows Vista on an Apple MacBook Pro. Then it was revealed that they are demonstrating Office 2007 on the same platform.

But this latest promotion image from Microsoft just goes one step too far.



Yes. That's a 12" Powerbook G4 in the picture. A lovely little laptop that's totally unable to run either Microsoft Vista or Office 2007 (Trust me, I had Virtual PC for the Mac).

And just in case you think it's a one off.. here it is again!



Obviously, Microsoft are not exactly paying more attention to how their Getty provided images look rather than the actual content. That or they are trying to absorb some of the Apple chic via it's older products. Next thing the Zune will be all white with just four buttons on it! Ohhhh. It is available in white. Hmmm. IC

See: here or here

Tags: Powerbook, apple, Office 2007, Microsoft

I've been catching up on a lot of email over the last few days. Some of which was SPAM and some of which was people just keeping in touch.

An old friend of mine Aman sent me a link to a very interesting couple of articles regarding the potential of Microsoft launching a PC. You'll find the links at the bottom.

But would Microsoft really create it's own PC? Sounds crazy.. but then five years ago would you imagine that Microsoft would create a top selling games platform in the guise of the Xbox and Xbox 360 or would try and usurp Apple's ubiquitous iPod with it's own Zune player. In the former example they got it all right (although recent details of Xbox 360 early deaths have not done Microsoft any favours) and in the later, all wrong.

But what platform would the Microsoft PC run on. You might imagine that Intel would be best choice. After all, for all those people outside Silicon Valley, Wintel is the phrase of choice.
But the reality is that Intel and Microsoft have not 'got on' in years and Microsoft still owns stock in AMD. Remember the 'design for Windows' AMD K5, K6 range?

So when Forges ran this story at the end of June it certainly made a number of people sit up. I'll cut the story down.

AMD and Microsoft have teamed up with India's Zenith Computers to launch a personal computer aimed at Indian students. How much they invested in this is something of a mystery.

But the key thing is that this is a MICROSOFT branded PC.

So would Microsoft launch a PC outside India? It's an interesting idea. But the reality is that they may face still opposition in the courts if they lock down the device. If you cannot run Linux on the unit then European anti-competition lawyers would soon be sharpening their pencils for court.

I'm going to have a good think about this.

References
Marketwatch article

Forbes article

Tags: Microsoft, PC

I read a fantastic article from Digg and decided to add mine into the bundle.

HUGE hand phone.

1. Become bankrupt. This will render all outstanding credit terms (including cellular contracts) void. This also does mean you won't be able to get your new contract. However, if you enter into a voluntary agreement BEFORE this happens you can boot off the old debt (and contracts) at a substantially lower cost to yourself and they will not be able to render you un-credit worthy.

2. Go insane. Rendering yourself mentally incompetent is the psychological version bankruptcy. You'll be sectioned under your local mental health act... but at least that small cardboard box will be your iPhone. I mean, in your head that is.

3. Have yourself declared an enemy of the state. You will be ejected from your country, potentially end up in an orange suit just off Cuba and/or end up in a desert land. However, at least Sprint will get off your case and you won't have to worry about any debts you've left behind.

4. Become a criminal mastermind but get yourself caught and sent to prison (in the UK) because you will forfeit all right to ownership of a mobile phone.

5. Assume the identity of a dead child born around the time of your own birth. Obtain a birth certificate and then use this to legally obtain over documents such as a passport and so forth. Being 'away abroad' is usually a good excuse. Use this assumed identity to obtain your iPhone and then fake 'your' own death. May I suggest drowning at sea. Worked for Julie Roberts in 'Sleeping with the Anemone'

6. If your provider equips you with an insurance plan for your phone get clumsy. Check the conditions carefully (my favourite clause from a friend's insurance policy was that the phone couldn't leave the house, but I digress) and if all is fine smash the monkey to pieces. They when they send you a new phone.. smash that. Sooner or later they will hit the limit and call it a day on your replacements. But so long as the insurance is part of your contract... in order to cancel one. You get the picture. Just don't tell Three in the UK about this.

BEST TIP

7. Send your phone to friend in another state where your carrier is forced to use another network provider. When they use up your minutes on another provider it costs your own provider a fortune. If they do call your phone, your friend could be 'you' and say your doing a lot of travelling.

Best of all, you can also have your mate send you their phone for the reverse effect. It usually takes 2-3 months before the alarm bells start going off and they want to call it quits. So far, I've heard this working in 8 out of 10 case with the other 2 being offered considerably cheaper exit costs.

No wonder Mr Potato Hear is looking pretty angry! On a recent visit to World of Disney in Downtown Disney, Orlando Florida I noticed he'd taken a tumble, system wise



And now a closer view...



Microsoft® Windows TOY isn't the most stable of operating systems.

Tags: mr potatohead bluescreen, Disney, Downtown Disney

Google success has been a tremendous.

Google is now a cultural icon to the point where in just ten years after it's launch nobody "looks up", "searches for" or "check on Yahoo or Excite"...

No, today they "Google" it.

Google, in the UK at least, seemed to come out of the gates and become the single most dominant search engine on the planet.

But is this is good thing?

Sure Google offer a huge amount of excellent free software and services for us to ow and ah at. They give us;

• Google Earth / Maps


• GMail


• YouTube


• Blogger


• Google Docs and Spreadsheet


• Calendar


• Picasa

Some are good, some are great. All are free. Which is just as well, because there main product "Google Search" actually leaves a lot to be desired.

I'll pause and let the shouting die down. Because I'm armed with facts.

Now correct me if I'm wrong. But the main purpose of a search engine is to provide results that best match the search criteria you provide. But Google's interpretation of this is that a successful match is one that has many links to it and that also matches the criteria. In that order.

It's that skewing that is my main problem with Google.

So lets say your looking for the mystery and controvesy regarding the death of famous actress Jayne Mansfield. You would enter the following into your search engine

Google query test

How did Jayne Mansfield die?

Now you would expect from a search engine to return results that contain pages that pose (and presumably answer) that exact same question. You would expect Google to do so. But it doesn't. In fact what it actually returns as the following list of links.

They appear IN order and without alteration. The search was ran 10:13 GMT 9th May 2007.

My take on the results are in red.

Jayne Mansfield
Yes, those are actual pieces of the upholstery from the Jayne Mansfield death car. Could you die? She did. HRR. Ed donated those pictures in memory of his ... www.findadeath.com/Deceased/ m/Mansfield/jayne_mansfield.htm - 31k

A good match. 8/10

Jayne Mansfield - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jayne's husband at the time, Paul Mansfield, hoped the birth of their child would discourage her interest in acting. When it did not he agreed to move to ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield - 106k

Another good match. Maybe Google IS good. 10/10

Jayne Mansfield - Internet Accuracy Project
Is Jayne Mansfield dead or alive? How and when did she die? You'll find the answers to those questions and more in the bio above. ...
www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Mansfield,Jayne.html - 26k

It's not such a great match. The details are actually pretty low. But its quick reference. 7/10

Yahoo! Answers - Did Jayne Mansfield die right after the car ...
1 answer - Yahoo! Answers - Did Jayne Mansfield die right after the car accident or did she die at the hospital?
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006050922639 - 41k

Actually quick a poor result. It's a forum and contains next to no details. In otherwords, this isn't a useful reference. 5/10

Salon.com People | Scams and lies
It was, warned AP, Jayne Mansfield's head. Another photo was of her body, ... You're relying on superficialities as much as you allege Mansfield did. ...
archive.salon.com/people/ letters/2001/08/10/scams/print.html

This site actually isn't about Jayne Mansfield at all. It's a site about internet scams and lies. 3/10

The Angry Young Man: Jayne Mansfield
You know, I don't think I've ever actually seen a Jayne Mansfield movie. ... The Angel of Death did not afford Mansfield this luxury: Her skull was cracked ...
www.theangryyoungman.com/2006/08/jayne_mansfield.html - 12

This site is actually more of a blog posting and actually contains the erroneous fact that she was decapitated. 1/10

Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and now also Anna Nicole Smith ...
Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and now also Anna Nicole Smith! ... Cause we simply did not care. We let these beautiful women die, without even trying to ... www.pr-inside.com/ marilyn-monroe-jayne-mansfield-and-r49884.htm - 21

This story is actually about Anna Nicole Smith and contains only a couple of sentences about Jayne Mansfield. But it DOES have a lot of Google Ads on the page. If you get what I'm saying. 0/10

Helsingin kaupunginkirjasto - Sanojen Aika - Authors
But they did see Jayne Mansfield, the whole family. Jayne Mansfield was on a PR tour and sat ... She was to die just like President Kennedy, not murdered,

Doesn't actually have ANY facts about her death. It's actually a blog posting from an author who in fact gets the details totally wrong. But hey, she must have lots of links to her. 0/10

- Everything you know is a lie
How did Jayne Mansfield die? Jayne Mansfield was killed in a car accident by decapitation Can (Fizz Wizz) Space Dust (Pop Rocks) and Cola be fatal? ...
www.everythingyouknowisalie.co.uk/content/all.aspx - 18k

Could it be that our question is actually answered. Look, the ACTUAL question we asked. 9 in the list! But because Google cannot navigate querystring requests I have to find the item in the list. Actual item contains details of her death and explanation of myth. Note Google ads for 'Wills'. Spooky. 10/10 (for content)

How Did Marilyn Monroe Die?
Brief and Straightforward Guide: How Did Marilyn Monroe Die? ... Who is Jayne Mansfield? Who is Andy Warhol? Who is Marilyn Monroe? What are Stilettos? ...www.wisegeek.com/how-did-marilyn-monroe-die.htm - 18k

Marilyn Monroe!?! I said JAYNE MANSFIELD!?! 0/10

Google Match Results

3 useful
1 mentioning Jayne Mansfield
6 NOT related to Jayne Mansfield's death

So in the top ten results for the search only three gave actually useful results. One contained some details. The rest were ever not related to Jayne Mansfield's death or had absolutely nothing to do with it. So that's a 33% hit rate.

Comparison to another search engine

Sooooo. How do the others fair?

Ask.com - I picked this at random, mainly because an ad for them has just been on tv.

Jayne Mansfield
Yes, those are actual pieces of the upholstery from the Jayne Mansfield death car. Could you die? She did. HRR. Ed donated those pictures in ...
www.findadeath.com/Decesed/m/Mansfield/jayne_mansfield.htm

Yes, it's that site again. But at least its accurate 8/10

Official Jayne Mansfield Web Site
News Purchase "The Jayne Mansfield Collection" on DVD 08-15-2006 20th Century Fox has released a ... set that includes three of Jayne ...
www.jaynemansfield.com/ www.jaynemansfield.com/ · Cached · Save

It's the official Jayne Mansfield website. Can you believe that Google didn't find this!? 10/10

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Movies (Jayne Mansfield)
Did the automobile crash that killed Jayne Mansfield also decapitate her? ... Claim: The car crash that killed Jayne Mansfield also ...
www.snopes.com/movies/actors/jayne.htm

Correct version of events and very useful. 10/10

New Orleans Radio Shrine - The Night Jayne Mansfield Died
Jayne Mansfield's movie career hit the skids shortly after the movie "The Girl Can't Help It" in, I ... that Jayne Mansfield was topless in ...
www.walkerpub.com/radio_jaynemansfield.html

Has the full story, and it's all accurate. 10/10

How about the future of the capitalism?
How did Jayne Mansfield die? How did Jerry Garcia die? How did Jiggs become a millionaire in the comic strip? How did John Steinback die?
www.isi.edu/natural-language/projects/webclopedia/Taxonomy-data/h...

Well, no idea what this is. 0/10

Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... ... Jayne Mansfield burst on the Hollywood scene like a rocket in 1955. One...
us.imdb.com/Name?Mansfield,+Jayne

It's the Jayne Mansfield story, staring Arnold S. But not details of her death. Although it is mention in the right ups. 5/10

Jayne Mansfield - Wikipedia
Jayne Mansfield (19 avril 1933 – 29 juillet 1967) née Vera Jane Palmer fut une actrice américaine et ...
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield

Wikipedia, all fine and good. 10/10

Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, The (2001): Reviews
Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, The Two Boots Den of Cin ... Starring Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Hargitay, and Robert Jason (narrator) ...
www.metacritic.com/video/titles/jaynemansfield

It's a review of a documentary. It does mention the death, but no details 3/10

Numismatics, Nyassa, Oceania, Ocean Views & Off-the-Wall Postcards & ...
"BIGGER THAN LIFE / DeathÔ / Is Jayne Mansfield / Really Dead" Serie 10 Die Leidenschaften des Rosa von Praunheim, unused continental, trivial ...
www.judnick.com/NumismaticsToOff-The-Wall.htm

It's a list of books. One of which is about Jayne Mansfield 1/10

Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980) (TV) .... Mickey Hargitay ... alternativ: Jayne Mansfield: A Symbol of the 50's ...
german.imdb.com/Name?Schwarzenegger,+Arnold

We've seen this before. It's that film again! But in this case, not a direct link. 3/10

So, Ask.com has managed to get five very good hits, three close but no cigars and two complete no-hopers.

Conclusion

So is Google big. Yes
Is Google accurate. Definately Not.
Is Google a useful research tool? No.
Is Google good a finding odd sites. Yes.

If your a researcher or a student or somebody who prefers speed and accuracy over advertising sponsored is your thing, look elsewhere.

Otherwise Google is super

You see, you have to realise that Google is above everything else, an advertising company. Anybody who has seen the charges they levy for click advertising is not going to be surprised about this.

But that's another blog post....

Our local computer component seller Aria has an interesting idea for a laptop cover.

It's a fury laptop cover.

That's right... a raging inferno in the making. "We've tested it on several brands and models of laptops...." .. and so far our premises are still standing

Mixed fortunes are abound in the mobile phone market as it was annonced this week that the total number of handsets shipped in the first quarter of 2007 (January to March) were 252 million handsets, up 12% from the year earlier.

At first glance this would strike you as being something of an achievement, not to mention a gigantic landfill waiting to happen. But according to the study group Strategy Analystics, this has been the first annual rate of growth in nearly two years to have fell below the 20% mark. In plain speak, 8 million handsets failed to attract new customers at the start of the year.

Furthermore Motorola's shipments fell 1.5%.

But not everybody is having a bad time of it. Sony Ericsson saw a 63% rise in its sales to 21.8 million, while Nokia had a 21% increase.

Motorola looks like it will need at least a year of recovery to gain back its lost sales while third place Sony Ericsson snaps around its heals with a seires of impressive new phones. Motorola by comparison seems content to make yet more umpteen flavours of its 'Razor' phone while licking it's wounds over the (not very) iTunes compatible Rocker. Having been kicked in the teeth by Apple as it brings out its own iPhone it must come as some solice to Motorola that Apple are entering the mobile/cellular phone market just as it takes a downturn. Especially when you consider that Global Insight predict the biggest growth in the mobile phone subscribers will be in China and India; a market not generally associated with purchasing the latest and greatest forms of technology and more included to sell the best and use last decades model until it falls apart at the seems. China on the other hand seems hell bent on pattern infringement and general lawlessness in the eyes of the west. Quite how do you expect copyright to be upheld in a country with no legal precident of ownership is anyones guess.

Which brings me to the idea that Apple is merely creating the iPhone not because it wants to innovate the industry (because it ain't) but more because it's totally ran out of ideas to do with the iPod and making a widescreen unit would look like a copy of Microsofts ever so crippled Zoon player. "Welcome to the social." (for 3 days tops).

Is it yet another case of Apple being later to the market yet again? One thing is for sure. After all the rhetoric, unless the iPhone is the best thing since bread got sliced there could be a lot more than egg on faces in Cupertino. Something I'm sure hasn't been missed on them.

Tags: apple

Just had a quick look on Digg.com and a story is making a rising star of itself in the Videos. It's from the old TechTV show 'The Screen Savers' and has Martin Sergeant and Leo Laporte pulling a site apart for it's totally false, misguided and insane 'How to tell if your son is a hacker' section.

The site the story is on is here.

Whilst the video of their mirth can be found here.

I particularly like the irony of the opening gambit of "As an enlightened, modern parent"; only to then go on to prove just how unenlightened and backwards the "T Reginald Gibbons" was (this article dates to December 2001).

Lets take a look at his list of indicators

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

It would appear that instead of potentially suggesting changing ISP for better service or lower costs; this would be a clear indicator that you 'son' is trying to get away from AOL's 'child safety filter' and trying to get onto a 'hacker friendly ISP'. Because their are ISP that are responsible and trusted (if not easy to leave).

I think the very first hacking attack I warded off was from an AOL customer. But I digress. Clearly these are the words of an idiot. But lets continue.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Clearly a would be hacker would require to install the necessary root-kit / virus / phishing development kit in order to carry out their illegal activity.

But no. According to this genius the following pieces of software are (and I quote exactly) "Popular hacker software.."

Comet Cursor was a program that allowed you to change your cursor in Windows. It has it's own story covered better here.
Bonzi Buddy was a little application that helped you search the internet. Again, it has its own controversy. But it's not a hacker toolkit!
Flash - Yes, you read that right. Macromedia Flash. That favourite development tool for hackers. Quite why Macromedia didn't sue this guy is a mystery to me. But as this is getting light on Digg... you can only hope.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

He writes "Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory."

Because hackers find it often necessary to have the latest 3D card in order to launch a DOS attack. Worse still....

"If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well."

Now clearly this guy has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. Firstly, AMD ISN'T a third-world company and it's processors should not be considered 'knock-off' copies. Even in 2001 was totally false and it's not changed today.

There are NO disabled security features in AMD chips over Intel because there are NO enabled security features TOO disable.

I've passed this page onto AMD. I hope they take this guy to the cleaners.

4. Has your child been reading hacker manuals?
And perhaps hanging around 'hacker coffee shops'. Now in case you think that he's hit on something. Lets check out the titles.

"Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson; both are works of fiction. They therefore contain little or nothing of any use... and are perhaps not even good reads.

"Neuromancer" by William Gibson; Is a complete work of fiction in which the main character Henry Dorsett Case is 'jacked' right into cyberspace in order to hack. So if you find your son with the mouse stuffed into his ear.....

"Programming with Perl" by Timothy O'Reilly; Because ALL hackers use Perl right? What a muppet.

The list goes on and none of it would prove effective.

5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your child spends more than 30 minutes a day... they might be hacking. Or doing their homework, or listening to music, or playing a game. My favourite part of this is that he thinks DOSing a site involves gaining a command prompt access to other peoples website. Where of course DOS in this sense means Denial Of Service in which a site is washed out by communication traffic from bogus zombie machines; this making the site unable to response to true users.

6. Does your son use Quake?

Now this totally blows my mind. It would appear that 'Quake' is a "virtual reality used by hackers". Has this guy actually ever SEEN a computer? According to our genius; its a training ground for hackers. Personally, I thought it was first person shooter. But then robo-brain comes up with.... "If your son is using Quake, you should make hime understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the firearms in your house are carefully locked away, and have trigger locks installed. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school." - WTF!

7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

And lets fact it, if your dad was this insane... you would be!

8. Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

Yes, you read it right. Lunix. Which he then goes on to describe as an illegal hacker operating system written by a Soviet computer hacker during the cold war. It was stolen from Microsoft who wrote Xenix for the US Goverment. It can also be used to break into peoples computer systems to steal credit card numbers and into peoples stereos to steal their music using MP3 program.

It's at this point that I think the author is either
a) Having a joke.
b) Insane.
c) Never even SEEN a computer and one of those people who writes messages on walls using their own excrement.

He, your son, might install it without you noticing (seems VERY unlikely). But you should keep an eye out for LILO during windows startup.

9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?

Watch out for glow sticks. Or perhaps he's just trying to avoid being recognised as your son mate!

10. Is your son struggling academically?

Either because he's a hacker or he's the son of somebody who wholeheartedly believes the world was created 25 years ago by a goat.

Apparently over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia and I can only assume that T Reginald Gibbons must have spent his formative years locked in a computer lab.

Two of the original names (and it IS just the names we are talk about) in home computing from the 80's are back.

First up we have Acorn. Back in the day Acorn was a byword for quality, innovation and high prices. Their team up with the BBC produced one of the best specced but highly priced machines available in the 80's. The Model B was a legend in the UK. It was a proper computer for series people, schools or the well off. But it was low on memory and Acorn was slow to up the ante against companies like Commodore with it's 64 or Sinclair's Spectrum. Much to late in the game they introduced a range of ARM RISC based machines. Extraordinarily powerful by the standards of the day, but the price was much too high and when they did return to the home market with an Amiga beating machine... the Amiga was already a high runaway success and it was desperate mistake.

But on a recent reading of CTO (Computer Trade Only) I was shocked to see that the Acorn name is back. No ARM RISC based machines; instead its straight forward PC in a box. Laptop or iMac style desktop unit. But it's nice to see the old baby oak logo again. Ahhh the memories.

Then low and behold. What do I hear from Leo Laporte on This Week In Tech? Commodore.. the company that spent itself to death by having five private jets and head quarters in the Bahamas. They are now back as a high end gaming company. Complete with the old Commodore C= logo and some pretty wild spec. machines (and presumably prices).

Top spec. Commodore GX sports Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core 2.66 GHz QX6700 processor, 4GB Corsair memory, 2x 150GB 10k SATA Raid 0 and 1x 500GB 7.2k SAT and 2 x NVidia 8800 GTX SLI with 768mb each! All in a very lovely black case.

If you really looking for a blast from the bast then why not look at the real old stuff at
The Old Computer website or perhaps the
Obsolete Computer Museum or perhaps the Californian based
DigiBarn. If you get the time, then do give Bruce Damer a call and drop in to see his barn full of relics.

Fancy a Playstation 3? Aria are selling them for £399 including vat.

Grab it while you can.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Gaming/+Sony+PlayStation+3+Console?productId=26741

Twenty years ago Sony was a force in the HiFi, TV market. They dominated personal music in a way only Apple's iPod can replicate. 20 years ago you were nobody if you didn't sport a Sony Walkman, and preferably the latest and greatest with built in whuffle tweeters and smerg smoothers or some other technologically advanced gizmo I just made up. Sony were expensive, quality and technology. A byword in how smart a company could be.

But its not all be sweet smelling roses for Sony. In the late 70's early 80's they managed to completely destroy their own good work with the Betamax video cassette, a format far superior to VHS, by being greedy. Sony wanted everybody to pay then for each and every cassette produced. The result was disaster. VHS allowed all comers to use its format. Movie studios switch to VHS, especially those not under the Sony Company control. Betamax was dead.

Ten years ago Sony produced the Playstation. It had advanced graphics (at the time), used simple technology and produced a games empire. They repeated the trick with the slightly warmed up version of the same thing (only with a DVD drive) (don't believe me, check out the 33Mhz CPU). By which time the competitors had split camps into kids go Nintendo and teenagers PLUS go Sony Playstation. Remember the XBox was late to the party.

Now we have the Xbox 360. You can add a HD-DVD to it for very little money. It's also got some awe inspiring games and worse of all for Sony. It's already in the market place.

So Sony are putting all bets on the Sony Playstation 3. Which, and lets be fair, hasn't had the greatest reception. Sub-Xbox 360 games, unit failures, poor supply resulting in a terrible opening month. It's all gone very bad for Sony.

But could it get worse? Well one of their big selling points for the PS3 is that it will play back HD content via BluRay. Which is great. But just a quick glance of Play.com or Amazon shows that MORE titles are on HD-DVD.

Sony must feel that time is on a loop and they are going Betamax all over again.

My own personal thoughts are that as broadband, especially outside the US, gets faster and faster it's going to easier to get content directly from the web. Not to mention that convenience always outweighs quality. Given the choice of download and start watching in 20 minutes for 720p or spend 2 hours going to the shops for 1080p; I think the techie is going for the easy option.

And lets face it, who is going to be getting 1080p/720p movies at present... it's the techie people.

The point being the HD-DVD or Bluray, they are just as redundant in the future as the best floppy disk is today.

Rob (on the road, via 3G broadband)

Tags: Sony

Viacom clearly hasn't a clue. While other networks grin and bear it, and reap the rewards of increased profile and free advertising; Viacom has seen red and decided to take YouTube (and therefore Google) to court for $1 billion smackers.

But YouTube DO have a problem. Unlike BitTorrent that merely acts as a transfer protocol between machines, YouTube are the host. They convert, host and present videos to the general public and it doesn't make any difference if that material is a cat climbing a curtain or Jon Stewart latest attack on the latest US Senator to put his head above the parapet.

So Viacom in a sense have a point. But the bigger picture is that without YouTube thousands of people in the US and many more in the UK would never have realised how good the Daily Show is or to be bothered to find out what channel it is on.

Just so you know, you can check out on More4 in the UK. That's Channel 13 on FreeView or if you are a Sky customer, it's 142. In fact, it's on as I write this!

So are Viacom justified in trying to clamp down on copyright infringment? Perhaps.
Are they mental for forgoing the millions of dollars of free advertising they are getting? Oh, yes. Absolutely. Totally insane.

Well done Viacom

So.. like me. You have got yourself a Sony Cybershot W30 (and I've no doubt over Cybershots have a similar issues).

Why not, it's good value. Has a decent lens and offers plenty of shots per battery life.

But here's the bad. You plug in your camera, OS X detects it fine. You can import or simply copy of movie files over.

What's more, when you open them in QuickTime all seems well. The movies play, the sound is bright and perky.

The trouble only starts when you import the movies into iMovie.

iMove, as you know, converts any video footage into its default DV format and it is during this conversion that the sound is lost.

Careful examination of the native movie format of the Cybershot shows that it is Mpeg 1 640x480 MUXED. It's the MUXED part that's causing the problems. My other camera is an Olympus C-770UZ. It sports MP4 format, with AAC sound. So it's easy for iMovie to seperate video from sound.

Not so for the Mpeg1. iMovies needs a little help.

Now there are lots of options and applications out there that will do the work, and I don't claim to have exclusive knowledge. However, I did find an excellent, OpenSource solution that does just the trick.

The application in question is MPEG Streamclip by Squared 5. It runs on both Apple and Windows.

To convert your video, simply drop the video into the Dice (you'll see what I mean when you use the software). Then to cut all the corners you can choose File -> Export to DV...

Simply select you target location and the exported DV file not only has perfect audio, but its in the correct format to import into iMovie.

Perfect!

Tags: apple, Sony, Mpeg, Audio, W30, Cybershot, Streamclip

I've been just watching the superb video podcast Diggnation, for all those without a link you can find it here or via the iTunes Podcast directory.

Firstly, another great show guys.

But just to point something out, Zelda on the NES wasn't the first version of Zelda. Sorry to sound like a complete spanner, but Nintendo knocked out a pocket LCD game in the 80's under their 'Game and Watch'

Here is the Zelda Game and Watch in its box.
The Closed system and finally.
Open system.

And yes, before anybody else says 'There's nothing new under the sun' I've also noticed how much it resembles the Nintendo DS Lite.

Zelda links for Game and Watch can be found here.

While on the subject of Diggnation from the 1st February here is some of the actual video of the 'moving' mech. Its pretty lame. But hey.

Often or not, I find myself having a quick look around YouTube now again and I somehow always manage to find the VERY worst in music.

I'm not sure if there is a specific category for this... and certainly it seems like Apple/Mac seem to be greatest inspiration.. but check out some of these pretty terrible musical tributes.

Top Seven Worst Computer Related Songs!

There would be more... but I can't be bothered looking harder

1. I'm the computer man



I'm particular keen on the bloke 'chair dancing'. But why is the 'Computer Man' dressed as an ice cream salesman.

Worst of all... after about 5 or 6 times you actually enjoying the b-b-b-biddy-bop bits. Tragic.

2. "I think we're a clone now"



This 'classic' from the old days of Apple - that's Apple MISUS Steve Jobs.

As for Intel stock crashing in response to the effects of RISC. Hmmm. Perhaps not. Think that might have been a little pre-emptive and I don't think Microsoft screamed that much. Sorry lads. Still, nice campus. Wonder what happened to the giant icons on the lawn?

One final point on this one - "Themselfes"

3. Apple tribute song - James Blunt's lawyers on stand by.



"Some would call it dorky, some would call it cheesy" - And they would of course be right. Still, nice piano.

4. Apple Song



You'll need to click through to YouTube to see this.

We touch the world... and make it deaf! Just about as close you can get to "What a feeling" by Irene Cara without having to take a visit to the nearest courts. I think the video slip with this video actually ENHANCES the soundtrack.

Apple, a company synonymous with media and good taste; long AFTER this video. Because this is just bloody awful.




Not to show biased... Here are some Windows songs.

5. Windows 386 Song... Somebody PLEASE shoot her.



This song is so shockingly misguided that it beggars belief.

Woah Woah Woah Windows 386, Woah woah rubbish ad. Woah woah dreadful idea.

Also, does Windows really remove your need to wear prescription spectacles? Quite a claim I think.

6. Windows 95 Launch Video



"Start me up!". Then about 30 minutes later when something crashes and brings down the entire OS you have "Start me up!" again. Song OK... sentiment not.


7. Expect more with Quest Software



Yes, expect 30 year old white nerds rapping. I'm sure it sounded like a VERY good idea at the time. But now... Oooooh.

Of course no computer related video would be complete without these Doom 3 guys.

Nothing to do with music... Just very funny



Can a boy REALLY scream that high? Wow...

For all those feeling just a little smug, just remember who it was who used to watch Doctor Who from BEHIND the sofa. You know whom I'm talking to. Anybody 35 years and older.

Tags: music, Microsoft, apple

Apple have launched the iPhone; at long last and so far there's a 50/50 split in the media about whether or not its the best thing since the invention of the wheel or just a fancy Blackberry.

Personally, while I can't help but have Apple envy at the style. I can't just help thinking about the market for;
a) Screen cleaners and;
b) Screen protectors

You get the idea. Any device that uses its most expensive component, its screen, as an active part of the interface is in for some stick. You can't help but wonder if Blackberry looked at the cost, the needs and thought better of it. I'm not saying for a minute that they are in the same market. But Steve Jobs seems to think so, because he said so in his big introduction. Which is odd, because I can't imagine a business, outside media, that's going to think all funky and go for the iPhone. Which is a shame, because its bound to impress at meetings.

Tags: apple

Apple's iTV has caused something of a sensation over the last few months since it was first announced. First, there was all the speculation whether or not it will be HD. Certainly the fact it sports a HDMI port seems to point towards that being an affirmative. Of course, in the scheme of things there is HD and then there's HD.

Given the general source of the output for iTV is likely to be from iTunes, it would makes sense if it was just 720p as 1080p would be both gigantic in file size and impossible to stream over wireless in a coherent way (or at all). But 720p make a lot of sense in the US where scan lines for TV are as low as 480 lines (NTSC). Probably the wow factor is less so in the UK and other PAL format countries.

All that aside and ignoring the iPhone for now; iTV has something of a problem that's not going to go away. It's the current name. Because iTV isn't just a snazzy new 'i' in Apple's current arsenal. It's also the moniker for the Independent TeleVision group in the UK. So getting that name across the Atlantic in its current form is going to be something of a problem.

But then its been noted that the name iPhone is also in trouble because its owned by Cisco/LinkSys as a Skype like VOIP device. Ooops a daisy.

Tags: apple