20.12.07
Tribute to protective plastic
Phones always come out of the box with a bunch of plastic sheets attached to the shiny plastic parts to protect them from minor scratches that can happen during assembly and bundling.
Some insane people insist on leaving this on their phones "cos it makes it look nice" or some other crap.
This video is for them...
Some insane people insist on leaving this on their phones "cos it makes it look nice" or some other crap.
This video is for them...
19.12.07
12.12.07
Cool trick in google talk
I just figured out by accident that putting *'s at the start and end of the message makes it go bold. Hazzah!
10.12.07
I am starting a new job
It's official, I am going into the world of contracting.
This is a steep learning curve for me as there are so many complexities added to your life for the sake of making life easier for the client I guess. They can just pick an hourly rate and agree to pay you that for an agreed period, whereas you need to get insurance and workers comp sorted out, and compulsory superannuation, and incorporation etc, and tax, and expense management and time reporting.... the list goes on.
Wish me luck.
This is a steep learning curve for me as there are so many complexities added to your life for the sake of making life easier for the client I guess. They can just pick an hourly rate and agree to pay you that for an agreed period, whereas you need to get insurance and workers comp sorted out, and compulsory superannuation, and incorporation etc, and tax, and expense management and time reporting.... the list goes on.
Wish me luck.
3.12.07
LAN party of merit
Went to a LAN party on Friday night and we played TF2 till 6am Saturday morning.
I brought the test laptops from work again and this provided 2 more people the opportunity to enjoy the gibbing goodness on offer.
So kudos to Chesh, Joe, and Scott for the great hospitality and ethernet.
I brought the test laptops from work again and this provided 2 more people the opportunity to enjoy the gibbing goodness on offer.
So kudos to Chesh, Joe, and Scott for the great hospitality and ethernet.
20.11.07
LAN party at my place, sort of.
On the weekend, I invited my partner's brothers around for a LAN session. She was not too impressed that I was re-inforcing a bad habit (in her opinion). I bought them both a copy of Team Fortress 2 on Steam. It almost didn't happen when I tried to buy two copies (too fast I guess) as the bank declined my purchase of the second one. Sylvia came to the rescue with her Visa and it was all on.
I brought home two test laptops from work which have pretty decent graphics cards. It was one of those moments when you get a "home truth" shaken out of you. The "home truth" in this case was my assumption that laptops never had good 3D games performance (I remember when laptops had monochrome displays after all) unless you had a Alienware one. So congratulations universe... you have suprised me again!
I added up their stats afterwards, we got in a solid 9 hours. Sunny played the engineer mainly, and Sheng sniped away after getting sick of spies killing him (he figured out the spies rarely ventured up to where the snipers hide out).
So here are some lessons learned (which makes this an educational exercise I guess):
- Everyone loves TF2 once they have a go at it (Sunny was worried that he would just get pwned the whole time like in Counter Strike).
- Wi-fi will always cause problems when you try gaming over it (even with only one client using the AP)
- Sheng learned not to play music over team speak (I told him: No, you aren't the first person to think of it. Yes, it is annoying for others on the server. No, it doesn't come through clearly. Yes, we will get banned from the server if you keep doing it.)
- Everyone loves to tell the engineer to what to do but no-one loves to hang around protecting the engineer while he builds.
I brought home two test laptops from work which have pretty decent graphics cards. It was one of those moments when you get a "home truth" shaken out of you. The "home truth" in this case was my assumption that laptops never had good 3D games performance (I remember when laptops had monochrome displays after all) unless you had a Alienware one. So congratulations universe... you have suprised me again!
I added up their stats afterwards, we got in a solid 9 hours. Sunny played the engineer mainly, and Sheng sniped away after getting sick of spies killing him (he figured out the spies rarely ventured up to where the snipers hide out).
So here are some lessons learned (which makes this an educational exercise I guess):
- Everyone loves TF2 once they have a go at it (Sunny was worried that he would just get pwned the whole time like in Counter Strike).
- Wi-fi will always cause problems when you try gaming over it (even with only one client using the AP)
- Sheng learned not to play music over team speak (I told him: No, you aren't the first person to think of it. Yes, it is annoying for others on the server. No, it doesn't come through clearly. Yes, we will get banned from the server if you keep doing it.)
- Everyone loves to tell the engineer to what to do but no-one loves to hang around protecting the engineer while he builds.
13.11.07
Accelerometer = Lightsaber
The latest phones from Sony Ericsson and Nokia are coming with built in accelerometers. And I have noticed the inevitable application for this technology is lightsaber simulators!
First there was the Mac Lightsaber tool, then the Wiimote lightsaber, and now I have just tried a Symbian app on the Nokia 95 8GB. (Get it here.)
I am yet to see one for the Sony Ericsson's, but given the sensor is part of the Java API's for this phone, it is only a matter of time.
First there was the Mac Lightsaber tool, then the Wiimote lightsaber, and now I have just tried a Symbian app on the Nokia 95 8GB. (Get it here.)
I am yet to see one for the Sony Ericsson's, but given the sensor is part of the Java API's for this phone, it is only a matter of time.
12.11.07
My kind of movies are coming again
It seems there is this cycle in holywood where they only make my kind of movies once every few years. The rest of the time is filled with lame-o crap. During this time I only seem to watch political documentaries.
But it seems things are coming up Neil! I just saw "Across the Universe" on the weekend and it was awesome! Next month "I am Legend" will be released. Then the month after is some monster flick by JJ Abrams, which is unnamed as yet.
I cannot wait to go spend $50 at the cinemas. :-/
But it seems things are coming up Neil! I just saw "Across the Universe" on the weekend and it was awesome! Next month "I am Legend" will be released. Then the month after is some monster flick by JJ Abrams, which is unnamed as yet.
I cannot wait to go spend $50 at the cinemas. :-/
9.11.07
Best snack ever.
I discovered these recently at the bakery across the road and I don't know what they are called, but they are great. They have a sausage wrapped in pastry with sweet chilli sauce and cheese and pack in more than $2.40 worth of awesome.
Daylight saving
Has landed recently... and it does my head in.
Firstly, even with all the latest updates etc... some of the test laptops and machines at work still manage to screw it up and have the wrong time. And given my job, half the phones I test will screw it up too.
Secondly... I still don't understand the point of having daylight savings this time of the year! Why do we want to have more daylight in the half of the year that already has plenty of daylight and is hot too? It makes much more sense to me to conserve this daylight for winter.
Firstly, even with all the latest updates etc... some of the test laptops and machines at work still manage to screw it up and have the wrong time. And given my job, half the phones I test will screw it up too.
Secondly... I still don't understand the point of having daylight savings this time of the year! Why do we want to have more daylight in the half of the year that already has plenty of daylight and is hot too? It makes much more sense to me to conserve this daylight for winter.
8.11.07
The problem with socialised health care
I think socialised medicine has been crippled by the actions over the last few decades by the politicians.
I think the biggest problem is the cost of new cutting-edge medicines and technology. Any budget for socialised medicine must cater for the astronomical costs for the latest cancer and heart disease treatments, the current killers in our world. These medicines cost so much because they are protected by patents held by the drug companies that developed them; and fair enough as long as they are not exploiting their position, as the research costs a lot and involves a lot of trial and error. But what happened to government funding for research? If there had been sustained government funding of medical research, a lot of these breakthrough drugs would have been developed in public institutions without profit being the motivation. The motivation would have been keeping people healthy and contributing to the economy and paying taxes which funds more research and so on.
That said... I don't have a clue how to fix this problem.
I think the biggest problem is the cost of new cutting-edge medicines and technology. Any budget for socialised medicine must cater for the astronomical costs for the latest cancer and heart disease treatments, the current killers in our world. These medicines cost so much because they are protected by patents held by the drug companies that developed them; and fair enough as long as they are not exploiting their position, as the research costs a lot and involves a lot of trial and error. But what happened to government funding for research? If there had been sustained government funding of medical research, a lot of these breakthrough drugs would have been developed in public institutions without profit being the motivation. The motivation would have been keeping people healthy and contributing to the economy and paying taxes which funds more research and so on.
That said... I don't have a clue how to fix this problem.
5.11.07
1.11.07
R2D2 cam
I did this by hanging the K850i (which I use for blogging) from Artoo's storage compartment. Hence the funny angle...
My package arrived from think geek...
Plus an extra suprise! Along with the package was an R2D2 Interactive Droid, which I guess has come from my brother or mum, as I sent them an email with a link to the ThinkGeek site and the item in question as a Christmas wish. I guess Christmas came early this year!!!
*my mum got it for me, thanks mum!!!
31.10.07
26.10.07
More tilting madness!
This is the coolest mobile game we have ever seen at work. The steering works by tilting the phone, and you can drift by holding the center button but then you have to balance it a bit like grinding in Tony Hawk Skateboarding (if you have played it).
25.10.07
Sylvia gets her birthday present
She had guessed somehow but she was still suprised, and I had convinced her that all her guesses were wrong. She was very pleased though, and is already thinking of things to use the herbs in. The list is:
- use the mint to make mint tea, which shouldn't be a problem as it is growing like crazy already so she can use that often
- use the rosemary for lamb chops, but I am not sure how to prepare the rosemary for use, or how much we can use from the plant sustainably
She already wants more plants, including dill so she can make her famous mash potatoes!
24.10.07
The love of my life returns tomorrow...
She has been on holiday for 2 weeks and it is her Birthday tomorrow too, so I have a suprise for her. I will video her reaction and blog it.
23.10.07
19.10.07
This is my phone museum
I have taken apart various dead phones and put them on display at work. The phones I have dismantled are:
Motorola A830
Motorola A920
Motorola A925
Motorola E1000
Nokia 7600 (this one was difficult)
Nokia N73
Nokia N90
Sony Ericsson K770i
Sony Ericsson P990i
LG LGC-120 (very old CDMA handset)
LG U970 (the most screws I have ever seen and they are phillips head, unlike torx used in the rest)
17.10.07
The Orange Box
I bought "The Orange Box" on Steam last Friday and it is the best bang for my buck I have ever got from a game.
Firstly, the exchange rate for USD is pretty good right now, so the 49.95 USD turned into about 55 AUD.
Secondly, I got HL2:Episode 2 which is the primary reason for my purchase as well as two other games (well three actually, but Peggle Extreme doesn't count... I mean I had never heard of Peggle and I was meant to be enticed by the fact this was an "Extreme" version!?!?) . This is in stark contrast to other game bundles you normally find, where you actually buy the pack for one actual good game that you can't find seperately.
Kudos to Valve for recognising and risking innovation by developing Portal, and not just making another FPS (are you paying attention EA?).
Firstly, the exchange rate for USD is pretty good right now, so the 49.95 USD turned into about 55 AUD.
Secondly, I got HL2:Episode 2 which is the primary reason for my purchase as well as two other games (well three actually, but Peggle Extreme doesn't count... I mean I had never heard of Peggle and I was meant to be enticed by the fact this was an "Extreme" version!?!?) . This is in stark contrast to other game bundles you normally find, where you actually buy the pack for one actual good game that you can't find seperately.
Kudos to Valve for recognising and risking innovation by developing Portal, and not just making another FPS (are you paying attention EA?).
11.10.07
I have finally set up Orb again
Orb is awesome, after about 30 minutes you are setup and able to stream all your media to your mobile phone or some other PC on the internet. It works with ffdshow which means if your PC or device streams WMV, RealVideo, 3GP you can use Orb to get your media from home. Combined with an X-Series pack from 3 you can stop worrying about the data charges too. Given you are running some service on the internet from a Windows machine though, I think some security tips are in order.
Here are my tips for using Orb securely:
1. Disable the file browser. Once you have you need to stop Orb, exit it, then start it again for the change to take effect.
2. Change the default port configuration. It will default to 554 for RTSP and 80 for Windows Media. These are both known ports, so you are going to be easily port scanned. You must hit the "Check" button before Orb will let you save the changes.
3. If possible, in the port forwarding of your router restrict the IP addresses allowed to connect to your Orb server. Restrict it to the IP's of the Orb site and the IP range of the mobile carrier. On your mobile phone go to www.whatismyip.com and then pop that IP address into www.arin.net to find what range it came from.
Here are my tips for using Orb securely:
1. Disable the file browser. Once you have you need to stop Orb, exit it, then start it again for the change to take effect.
2. Change the default port configuration. It will default to 554 for RTSP and 80 for Windows Media. These are both known ports, so you are going to be easily port scanned. You must hit the "Check" button before Orb will let you save the changes.
3. If possible, in the port forwarding of your router restrict the IP addresses allowed to connect to your Orb server. Restrict it to the IP's of the Orb site and the IP range of the mobile carrier. On your mobile phone go to www.whatismyip.com and then pop that IP address into www.arin.net to find what range it came from.
9.10.07
PC has been recovered
I have just now got things back to normal... still need to install a few crucial applications but I am back with shields up!
8.10.07
Worst morning ever...
Found my PC infested with malware this morning, and I don't know how it got compromised. I consider myself really careful, so I have no idea how this shit got here. My plan tonight after I get home from work is to run Knoppix Live DVD (so I can read NTFS partitions) and copy the important files to my backup drive and then blast way the drive and reinstall XP.
6.10.07
My new media center
I have just finished setting up a media center PC as my ex-flatmate absconded with his xbox to the UK.
It is a P4-2.8GHz running XP Pro. I made it from all those old computer parts that I never chuck out and my girlfriend whines about laying around the house. I am going to hook up an old Web-cam as soon as I buy a small microphone (which I never seem to have collected somewhere in my stash) so I can set up Skype and video-call my relatives overseas!
4.10.07
2.10.07
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