Geekzone Blog: latest posts

From Moses to Apple: The rise of the Tablet.

stuzzo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:01 +1200

For some years now I have been discussing with a friend the desire for a tablet like computer device which would allow simple armchair access to the internet, the reading of electronic books and access to newspapers. The logic is compelling that this would allow for the winding down of resource intensive manufacturing and distribution systems while providing the user with a great deal more choice, flexibility and value in accessing books and information.

Of course, what may seem logical does not always translate to consumer acceptance but, with a stable internet infrastructure in place and low power computing advances, the time almost seems right.

Why a tablet? It's a fair question, seemingly more often asked by power computer users than casuals, those that can't see themselves without a decent keyboard and the power and features that a laptop provides. To answer let me recall a survey of TV viewers in the US a while ago that found a high percentage of viewers were watching TV programs and surfing the internet at the same time. I think it is understandable to have that desire for the relaxation and escapism of TV , in a comfy chair, but still be able to access the internet when you like. Sure, many internet features are coming to TVs but "text at a distance" is not entirely satisfactory in my view nor does it cater to individual use.

Why can't this function be left to the Smartphone size? Well I love these devices and the iTouch in particular. I am a minimalist at heart and this was the first time I could do everything with one device: home control, email, internet, music. Ultimately, though, the screens are too small for a satisfactory reading or surfing experience. Not enough information is available to the eye at once. Mobile formatting helps but site adoption is patchy.

The launching of Amazon's Kindle has led to a major breakthrough in the acceptance of the reader class of device. It seems logical that multi-purpose internet devices must eventually dominate though, technology allowing. The anticipated Apple tablet has become probably the greatest rumour thread the company has yet seen. Every manufacturer (and his dog) are rushing to get their tablet version to market. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out and if this class of device captures the imagination of consumers.

Next: Some thoughts on an Apple Tablet.

Linkification v61

RedJungle — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:58 +1200

News / Web Happenings:

The new 2010 Office.com online portal enters beta
First Glimpse at Google Chrome OS
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers
Silverlight 4 Beta Announced
Fring Puts Free VoIP Calling on Android
Camino 2.0 Adds New Features to Speedy Mac-Centric Browser
Opera Mobile 10 Beta Available, Now with Tabbed Browsing and Speed Dial
Office 2010 Professional Beta Available for Download
Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Available with 90+ Bugs Squashed
Seesmic for Windows preview launching today!
The Pirate Bay Tracker Officially Shutting Down for Good
Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta Brings Hardware Acceleration to Web Videos
SyncToy 2.1 Update Speeds Up Windows File Syncing
Chromium on Linux Gets Bookmark Sync
An Early Look at Chrome's Extensions System

General / Neat Stuff:

Apostrophe.me Explains When You Really Need Apostrophes

Humour:

Academia vs. Business
Tech-support slash Designer

Apple:

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone

Development:

Announcing the Official jQuery Podcast
Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources
Introducing Mapsicle - a Street View library
ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta Released

FAIL of the week:

And the Darwin Award Goes To

GeekPost Weekly Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 6

JamesHip — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:14 +1200

Geek Post

Volume 1 Issue 6

Friday 20 November 2009

Hippolite Musings

Tena Koutou Katoa,

I learned two new things this week.

I'm the developer responsible for maintaining the internal Email Signature Builder at Telecom. I received some logo updates this week. They were PNG files. I dutifully implemented them. Some users came back and said that when they drafted emails, the logo looked fine, but when the emails were received, the logo looked "grainy."

Doing a quick poll of the water cooler, I discovered that IE sometimes has trouble rendering PNG. Not sure what relevance that has to Outlook, but I subsequently replaced the PNG files with JPG. Problem solved.
I've got a new location for by Bible Reader application. It's here: http://hippolite.grenadavillage.org.nz/
That's right, I've learned how to create and populate sub-domains. Now I'm dangerous!

Blessings,
James

Developer News

See above

Telecom News

See above

Security News

All's clear on the Western Front

Product News

Greetings from the Windows AzureT platform team!

The November version of the Windows Azure SDK and Tools was just released. New in the November 2009 SDK:

Windows Azure Service Runtime managed library: The latest version of the Service Hosting Runtime API includes support for enhanced communication between roles and for runtime notification of service configuration changes. Direct communication between role instances enables new application development scenarios, including applications that distribute state across role instances. Service configuration changes include an increase or decrease in the number of request role instances and changes to the values of configuration settings.
Windows Azure Diagnostics managed library: The new Diagnostics API enables logging using standard .NET APIs. The Diagnostics API provides built-in support for collecting standard logs and diagnostic information, including the Windows Azure logs, IIS 7.0 logs, Failed Request logs, crash dumps, Windows Event logs, performance counters, and custom logs.
Certificate Management: Enhanced support for SSL certificates in Windows Azure and in the Windows Azure SDK enables the secure automated deployment of certificates to services hosted on Windows Azure.
Variable-size Virtual Machines : Developers may now specify the size of the virtual machine to which they wish to deploy a role instance, based on the role's resource requirements. The size of the VM determines the number of CPU cores, the memory capacity, and the local file system size allocated to a running instance.
External endpoints for worker roles. A worker role may now define any number of external endpoints for HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP, and specify the desired port number for any external endpoint.
Persistent local resource storage: Developers can now choose to persist data written to a local storage resource at runtime when the role is recycled.
Windows Azure Storage Client managed library: The Storage Client library provides a .NET API for accessing the Windows Azure storage services.
Improved Development Storage: Development storage provides a high-fidelity simulation of the Windows Azure storage services in the cloud. Tables can now be created dynamically in the development storage Table service and are no longer required to be generated in advance.
Updated samples: The samples included with the Windows Azure SDK have been updated to demonstrate new features. The samples now include both C# and Visual Basic versions.

Sincerely,
Windows Azure platform team

Situations Vacant

Trainer News

Monthly LiveMeeting Sessions

This month, the MCT Virtual Summit site was redesigned and this will now be your main online MCT Readiness Resource throughout the year, we invite you to check out the new changes.

You will notice the new name and a new log in process. We are excited to now offer monthly MCT Readiness presentations: our Third Thursday Sessions will offer new content each month AND we will store all presentations, thus building an MCT Readiness library for you to use 'on demand'.

To login and check out the new MCT Readiness Virtual Event Platform, simply use your MCP ID at the log in page HERE.

Last month's sessions are now available for download. Visit the October LiveMeeting page to find all presentations and recordings to be added to your virtual backpack.

To attend the Live Meetings Login to the Virtual Event Application with your MCP ID.

The live sessions will be presented using Microsoft Office LiveMeeting 2007.

Please make sure to install the console in time on your computer (the download can take up to 20 minutes).

Installation and Testing

Important: to receive audio and video install the windows based console, as the web based version does not support these functionalities.

We hope that you enjoy exploring the new MCT Readiness Virtual Events and looking forward to seeing you online.

Kind regards,
MCT Community Event Management Team
mctevent@microsoft.com

Training News

See below (Events)

PASS News

Highlights from a Terrific Summit Week

By Andy Warren

PASS Summit 2009 is now over but still looms large in my thoughts. What a terrific week. Attending the Summit is such an immersive experience: so many people to connect with, unfettered access to Microsoft, non-stop learning opportunities and such a great spirit of camaraderie that surrounds the conference. It makes it hard to get back to life in the office again.

This was, by all accounts, one of the best Summits in recent memory. There are so many highlights to share, but here are a few of the standouts.

We had over 3000 total registrations-2232 attendees and 807 pre/post-con attendees. That's only a 9% drop from our record year in 2008. Given the economy and how other conferences have experienced 30% to 40% drops, I'm really impressed. Our community obviously sees an incredible amount of value in PASS and the Summit.

Dot Net News

SQL Server Growth in the NZ Fire Service

Presented by Geoff Laws at the Wellington SQL Server User Group on Thursday 19 November at Intergen.

Brief

Data is important to an organisation especially the NZ Fire service. We depend on accurate data to be respond quickly to emergencies, to place our fire stations in the right locations, to manager our operational rosters, and to measure our performance as a few examples.

Our use of SQL Server has grown significantly over the last 5 years and continues to support our organisation. This presentation looks briefly at the history of the Fire Service, where we are today, and covers the emergency response systems including the associated incident data.

We outline the NZ Fire Service IT technology platform and highlight the major SQL Server databases and business applications. Finally we look at how we are leveraging current technology to improve SQL Server performance and resilience, cover our SQL Server monitoring, and highlight some of our data challenges.

Bio

Geoff Laws is the Application Support Manager at the New Zealand Fire Service.

After completing a BSc in Computer Science, he started as an analyst/programmer and has progressed through various IT roles focusing on developing, maintaining, and supporting business applications.

He has 30 years IT experience including programming, analysis, help desk, application support, database administration, project management, and application management.

He currently manages a team of seven and still enjoys the hands-on experience of managing applications and databases.

Review

Adrian started by explaining this is the last meeting for the year, and he's looking for people to assist him as Treasurer, Events Coordinator, Speaker Liaison, Web Master (my job, hands off!). Contact wgn-sql-server@googlegroups.com to volunteer today!

The early part of the presentation would suit more of an in-house orientation, but the latter part and Q&A were very good. Geoff spoke about something called Double-Take, a third-party tool for replicating data. But, instead of working with SQL Server at a transaction level, it's more like an I/O mirror for SAN disks. People found this discussion to be worth-while.

Events Schedule

In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to METTLE. I'm available for bookings.

Date	Event	Venue	Speaker
24-Nov-09	After 5 Series: Microsoft Online Services	Auldhouse Wellington	Nick Bowyer
25-Nov-09	Wellington SilverLight User Group	Wellington SLUG	TBA
26-Nov-09	SharePoint 2010 Overview Part 2	Wellington SPUG	Mark and Chan
1-Dec-09	Microsoft Unplugged MSDN Sessions for Developers 1:30 - 5pm	Wellington Intercontinental	John-Daniel Trask, Mike Zeff, Ryan Tarak

Humour

Cool Physics Experiment:

Book Review

Introducing Windows 7 for Developers, by Yochay Kiriaty, Laurence Moroney, Sasha Goldshtein, and Alon Fliess

Please enjoy the Foreword to Introducing Windows 7 for Developers:

Foreword
Windows 7 is arguably the best version of Windows ever. This might sound like a generic marketing claim, and if you consider that each version of Windows has more functionality, is more scalable, and supports the latest advances in hardware, each version of Windows is better than the last and hence the best version of Windows up to that point. Windows 7, however, not only delivers things that satisfy the basic check boxes required of any new release, but does it with an end-to-end polish that surpasses previous Windows releases.

Of course, Windows 7 couldn't be the great release it is without standing on the shoulders of the major advances and innovations of its predecessor, Windows Vista, but there are some differences in how Windows 7 was developed. Windows 7 is the first release of a Windows consumer operating system that actually requires fewer resources than the previous version-something that's pretty amazing considering the addition of all the new functionality. Reducing the memory footprint, minimizing background activity, and taking advantage of the latest hardware power-management capabilities all contribute to producing a sleek, yet modern, operating system that runs more efficiently on the same hardware that ran Windows Vista.

Another change from previous releases is the way Microsoft worked with PC manufacturers and hardware vendors. Throughout the Windows 7 development cycle, it kept them apprised of coming changes, shared tools and techniques, and sent engineers onsite to help them optimize their software and hardware for the new operating system. By the time of Windows 7 general availability, most partners had over a year of deep experience with the operating system, giving them plenty of time to tune and adapt their products.

While the under-the-hood and ecosystem efforts deliver the fundamentals, Windows 7 introduces a number of features that more directly enhance a user's experience. For example, the redesigned taskbar makes it easier for users to keep track of their running applications, navigate between multiple application windows, and quickly access their frequently used applications and documents. The Windows taskbar, which hadn't changed significantly from Windows 95, had become as comfortable as an old pair of slippers; but once you've used the new interface for any length of time, you'll feel cramped if you have to sit down at an older version of Windows.

Windows 7 also unlocks PC hardware devices that are becoming increasingly common, creating a platform that empowers applications to deliver more dynamic and adaptive experiences. Mobile PCs now adjust display brightness based on ambient light and have GPS and other sensors that give Windows a view of the world immediately around it. With the infrastructure and APIs for these devices delivered in Windows 7, applications can integrate with this view to provide users with information and modes of operation specific to the local environment.

As a user of Windows and a former independent software vendor (ISV), I know how disconcerting it is when an application exhibits user-interface constructs different from the ones we've grown to consider modern by the newest operating system release or version of Office we're using. It's also frustrating when you experience the seamlessness of an application that integrates with the operating system in a way that blurs the line between it and the operating system, and then run into others that seem to flout their nonconformity or shout that they were developed for 10-year-old operating systems.

The key to great software is not to force the user to learn idiosyncratic user-interface behaviors, feel like they're in a time warp when they run it, or wish that it took advantage of their PC's capabilities like other applications do. To delight the user, you need to keep abreast of technology and user-interface trends, recognize when your application can and should take advantage of them, and deliver valued innovation to your customers. Being on the cutting edge of the platform's capabilities helps your applications stand out from the competition and conveys the message to your customers that you're hip.

This book is a great one-stop resource for learning how you can make modern applications that use new PC hardware capabilities and allow users to quickly access common functionality. From using taskbar icons that show the progress of long-running operations, to taskbar icon jump lists that provide easy access to common tasks and recently used documents; from location APIs you use to deliver the most relevant results, to library APIs that allow you to integrate with and access a user's existing document collection; from a ribbon control that exposes the extent of your application's functionality and features, to supporting a touch interface for intuitive interaction-this book is your complete guide to bringing your applications into the 2010s.

For a programming book to be worth reading in this day of instant access to online documentation and code samples, it must provide complete and coherent introductions and overviews to new concepts as well as clearly explained and straightforward code samples that are easy to reuse. Yochay, Sasha, Laurence, and Alon have delivered both in this book that's sure to become your Windows 7 programming companion whether you program to .NET or Win32 APIs. I've started adding Windows 7 functionality to the Sysinternals tools and the description and example of how to exploit the taskbar icon's progress display enabled me to enhance the Sysinternals Disk2Vhd tool literally in a matter of minutes. I know I'll be turning to this as I continue to update the tools, and I'm confident you will too, as you strive to give your applications that extra edge.

Mark Russinovich
Technical Fellow
Windows Division, Microsoft Corporation

Technorati Tags: SQL Server,Microsoft,Technical,Training,Azure,Dot Net,Windows 7,Events,Telecom

The promise of MESH networking, ZigBee

MrWestie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:01 +1200

In my case M2M (machine to machine), rather than WiFi meshing.

ZigBee is one of the options.
Hyped up, a solution looking for a problem.
Learn about it here
http://www.meshnetics.com/learning/index.php?show=24

Alternatives
http://zigbee.nectareen.com/?p=35

I had some modules lying around from a stalled project, gulp, 1.5 years ago.
Has it been that long?

I dusted them of and did some quick tests.
Results were not good.

http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/zigbee-mesh/xbee-zb-adapters.jsp#overview

1 coordinator and two routers.

I moved the routers away until they were out of range.
Then moved one of the routers into the middle.

C-RR
C-----RR
C--R--R

If the intermediate router is moved back into range quickly, interruption is minimal, 2-3s.

If it has been out of range for a while, 60s?
Then the time before it starts repeating can be up to 60s.
This might be well within spec for ZigBee I am not sure but a little too long for this application.
One alternative is to install more static nodes but this adds cost.

Looks like only Endpoints are meant to be mobile in a ZigBee network.

I also had some other modules that could be loaded with this stack.
http://www.synapse-wireless.com/
While they use the network layer of the ZigBee protocol, IEEE 802.15.4
The rest is their own.

CEL ZIC2410, EVB3 (the evaluation kit)
ZICM2410-EVB3
www.cel.com

Synapse boast quite a feature set.

The biggest advantage is allowing you to use the microprocessors on the RF modules themselves.
Normally the radio module is just that, a radio module.
You did the work with a micro, AVR/PIC, and then feed it into the radio.
Not so with SNAP.

Which is handy as most modules come with an array of GPIO's and ADCs.
They built a virtual machine in there so you can run programs.
The programming language is based on Python.
I was shakng my head, not another language.
But it wasn't so bad after I got started.

The other handy feature is OTA (over the air) program updates.
No more plugging in cables to flash the units.

So does it do what is says on the box?
Surprisingly YES.

Modules wired up for action

The all important first program, flashing light

Network view via their Portal

I also have some xBee Series 1 modules that I could load with Digi's own Mesh firmware, Digimesh.
I won't bother though, SNAP is the clear winner.

Now to order some more modules.

The Magic that keeps giving...

MyFreeviewHDReview — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:50 +1200

It's been a couple of weeks now and really I am loving the Magic TV unit. I find it simple to use and fantastic to just be able to record what I want and watch TV when it's convenient for me, not TVNZ or whoever. I have always found Friday night fantastic TV night and previously this has dictated me staying in a bit more than I would like, but having the DTR has allowed me to watch those shows whenever I want.

I have had few issues with this unit on the whole really. Although I think something funky happened last night as the picture kept cutting in and out – but I am blaming this on my television as after turning it off and on all was good in the world of Freeview again.

I have been trying to fill my hard-drive as quickly as possible to see how well it will handle it. Every time you go into the recordings it gives you the hours left to record in both standard and high definition, which is really handy. When full this unit will automatically start deleting old shows. First from your deleted items, which is really a recycling bin folder for your set top box. Once these are all deleted it will start deleting the oldest shows first. There are multiple options to save those shows you really love, so you can always protect that movie you just can’t get enough of, or a really funny episode of 7 days.

What else is there to say? I will keep testing this unit even if it means spending time watching even those terribly trashy shows, like Rock of Love, over and over again – all for Geekzone and not my own guilty pleasure of course. What I would love to know though is if there is anything that you fellow geeks are particularly interested in knowing? Let me do the testing before you decide whether this unit is for you.

About the author: Suzi Heath is a 20 year old university student studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration majoring in Information Systems and E-Commerce. As a retail electronics sales consultant, she has spent many an hour explaining the finer points of Freeview to customers, but up until now has not dabbled much in it herself. Suzi is looking forward to feeding her currently dormant trashy television habit and also showing everyone that you don’t need an abundance of testosterone and long career in IT to take charge of some technology!

Telecom and Big Time survey

manhinli — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:40 +1200

Some of you might know that we've decided to go Big Time in the next two months or so.

Some might say "noooo, it's the worst decision you'll ever make", others may say "why they hell aren't ya on Big Time already?"

Well - for the purposes of collecting that detail, I've decided to make a survey.

I'm using Google Docs with Forms to do it, with their simple interface and good selection of features. It even has simple summaries so I can view results in a glance.

Not only will it be just for myself (I'm not that selfish...) - it'll also gauge what you feel and have experienced, and results will be posted here at the start of December.

So if:

you're currently on Big Time, or
previously on Big Time

... please take a moment to fill out my survey at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEVWSFlFRENfeW5iVTFQUVFHV294ZXc6MA

Tell your friends too!

Silverlight 4 beta released, puts some heat on Adobe

paulspain — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:31 +1200

Microsoft have today made available the first public beta of Silverlight 4. Targeted specifically at developers this release brings with it dozens of new features and improvements that are likely to accelerate the uptake of Silverlight by the softwa... (more in the full post)

Some must have Mac apps

lotech — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:32 +1200

I've been using a Mac for the last 4 years and I've over time built a little list of apps that must be installed. I thought I should share them here. They are all free to download or open source so go give them a try. Feel free to share some more in the comments.

App Update - A simple application update widget, in my opinion, besides currency converter, the only good widget in dashboard. It reads you Application folder against 3 update notifications sites - Apple's official software directory, MacUpdate and Version Tracker. Best thing - it just works - and well.
http://gkaindl.com/software/app-update

The Unarchiver - an open source decompressor app. For years stuffit was either preinstalled or a must download on the Mac. Over time the the program gained the usual bloat of over developed applications. Apple has included a built in zip tool for a while but it's file support was limited really only dealing with zip's. The Unarchiver, which is open source will extract RAR, ZIP, 7-Zip, LHA, SIT, HQX and TAR files to name just a few. The app has enough options to do everything you could need. To install, just drag it into your Applications folder, run once to set associations and you're done.
http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Perian - Chances are you've already got this - if not - get it. Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. XVID, Divx, AC3, MKV, FLV and even adds subtitle support. The only thing missing is extensive WMV support - for that check the free Flip4Mac.
http://perian.org/

VLC - if you do find a video that won't play via Perian then VLC should have it covered. If you have these 2 apps installed there are few files you can't play. Personally I find VLC's interface clunky to use but as I say - it will play everything.
http://www.videolan.org/

MPEG Streamclip - Where Perian is 'the swiss army knife of video playback', Streamclip is surely the swiss army knife of video conversion. It allows for setting in and out points and will read almost every format - from malformed mpeg2 streams to xvids to quicktimes to avi's. I haven't met a clip I can't convert with this app.
http://www.squared5.com/

TextWrangler - an extremely versital text editor. Made by the company that makes BBEdit, this is a cut down yet surprisingly feature complete version. TextWrangler supports source formatting and is the one stop tool for editing HTML, PHP, plists or just about anything else.
http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

MAX - One stop open source audio converter - it will change anything to anything else. MAX can convert over 20 compressed and uncompressed formats including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey's Audio, WavPack, Speex, AIFF, and WAVE.
http://sbooth.org/Max/

VoIP, NGN and FUD

sbiddle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:06 +1200

If you were to ask some random people on the street what VoIP meant to them odds are you'll get a single word answer from the vast majority of people - Skype. While Skype has done a fantastic job of introducing people to VoIP the reality is that it's only a single product in the VoIP marketplace that revolves around a proprietary protocol, unlike the standards based solutions such as SIP that are rapidly gaining traction and forming the backbone of the world's telecommunications infrastructure.

Unlike the early days where people associated VoIP with low quality cheap phone calls, VoIP is now setting the pace and over the coming years VoIP based telephony will replace the existing phone service you have in your home. You could well be using a VoIP service now without even knowing it.

One thing that is apparent is that there is plenty of misinformation in the marketplace regarding VoIP. This isn't helped when incorrect and misleading information is put into the marketplace by vendors trying to push VoIP solutions.

This comment off the website of a NZ company selling VoIP phone solutions is a classic example of FUD.

The NGN is the biggest thing to happen in NZ Telecommunications - but existing analogue phones and systems will certainly not become obsolete overnight.

Like many telecommunications companies in the world Telecom New Zealand are currently in the middle of a major upgrade of their fixed line network. This upgrade is referred to as their NGN (Next Generation Network). In a nutshell a NGN is simply a fully IP (Internet Protocol) based network that has the ability to deliver data, voice and video over a single network. There are already plenty of people in New Zealand already using Next Generation networks - Vodafone's Red network and Orcon's Orcon+ network are both NGN networks.

The first step of this upgrade for Telecom is to complete their cabinetisation program. The goal of this is to ensure that a significant majority of households in the country are within 2km of a Telecom exchange or roadside cabinet. This ensures that broadband speeds using ADSL2+ and VDSL technologies are as fast as possible by minimising the length of copper cabling between the ISAM (the piece of hardware that provides the ADSL/ADSL2+/VDSL service) and your premises. The shorter the distance, the better your broadband connection will be.

Roadside cabinets are connected back to a Telecom exchange via fibre optic cable. This is what is known as a FTTN (Fibre To The Node) network. This cabinet (or "node") then connects to the existing copper cabling running to your premises. The ISAM in this cabinet provides the ADSL2+/VDSL internet service, however PSTN voice services are currently still provided by the NEC NEAX switches that exist in the main phone exchange building.

The second step of the NGN project is to replace their existing PSTN infrastructure. In the late 1970's The NZPO decided to replace it's old mechanical switches with Japanese manufactured NEC NEAX switches - and believe it or not these same switches are still in place today delivering a phone service to the bulk of households in NZ. Telecom plan to have these phased out by 2020 at the latest.

The whole world is moving to VoIP and Telecom will not be replacing these switches with traditional switches, they will be moving to a VoIP solution that revolves around an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network. This process is known as Class 5 Migration or Class 5 Replacement - Class 5 is the designation given to the existing NEAX switch in your local exchange that generates the dialtone and delivers this to your premises over the existing copper phone cabling. There are some fundamental issues to overcome to deliver a replacement VoIP phone service to households. The first is deciding on the best ways to achieve this out of the two main options.

1) Deliver a dialtone to your premises over the existing copper cabling to the existing analogue phones and devices in your house. This is the simplest way of maintaining backwards compatibility and ensures that end users will notice no change at all to their service and will not require any additional hardware.

2) Installing a residential gateway in your house or premises that connects back to the exchange building or roadside cabinet using ADSL/ADSL2+/VDSL or fibre in a FTTP (Fibre To the Premise) area. Residential gateways are essentially a modem providing you with broadband access as well as a built in ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) that provides analogue phone ports allowing you to plug in existing analogue phones. The ATA then connects directly back into the softswitch or IMS core network. Because the residential gateway provides internet access users could also have the option of replacing their analogue phones and moving directly to VoIP phones which can be plugged into your home network.

Both methods differ fundamentally and offer advantages and disadvantages.

The first option is the solution used by both Orcon and Vodafone to deliver voice services in the areas where they provide their own services over ULL circuits here in New Zealand with their Red and Orcon+ networks. Their hardware in the exchange delivering ADSL/ADSL2+ services to your house also connects back to their softswitch and handles the digital to analogue conversion, providing you with a dialtone on your existing phone. It's a VoIP service but the VoIP to analogue conversion is done by their equipment meaning it's completely transparent to the end user and requires no additional hardware to be installed in the premises. Telecom can deploy hardware into their existing exchanges and new roadside cabinets to deliver the exact same functionality. If your internet service was provided from a roadside cabinet your phone service would also provided from this very same cabinet.

The second option is currently being trialled by both Telecom and WorldxChange. In areas where fibre has been deployed directly to individual premises (FTTP) no copper cable exists to deploy a traditional analogue phoneline. In this situation a residential gateway has been fitted to the house that contains an optical to ethernet converter and a router with built in ATA to provide internet and support for analogue phones in the house. The unit also contains a house alarm that connects over the internet to an alarm monitoring company who provide IP monitoring, and a battery backup so that service is still available should there be a power cut.

Orcon's Homehub is also an example of an ADSL2+ based residential gateway that includes a modem, WiFi and analogue phone ports so you can use analogue phones with their VoIP product delivered to your premises over the internet.

Since I don't work for Telecom I can't say a lot about their exact plans for the future. What is clear is that both options will exist in the marketplace and play important roles. Telecom will be able to install equipment in their exchanges and roadside cabinets to deliver a dialtone over existing cabling so that all existing analogue phones will work, but many people are going to be interested in moving away from analogue phones completely to a full VoIP solution. If you're lucky enough to have fibre direct to your house either now, or in the future, a residential gateway will be required to provide you with internet and phone services.

The price of VoIP phones still exceed that of regular analogue phones but prices are dropping and the features that are available will see these becoming more common in households and businesses as people realise the benefits. These phones can simply be hooked into your existing broadband modem/router and can deliver voice quality that is far superior to that of the existing PSTN network using HD voice codecs such as G.722 when calling another device that supports the same codec. The great thing about VoIP is that you have a choice when it comes to your calling. With a VoIP device (PBX or phone) that supports multiple providers you can easily (and cheaply) sign up with a foreign VoIP provider and have a Melbourne or London phone number that people can call you on.

The growing market for hardware supporting video calling and video conferencing is also now putting this within reach of small businesses who would have simply been unable to take advantage of the technology in the past due to the cost.

It's clear that VoIP is the future of telephony. It doesn't mean that existing analogue devices will be obsolete. It does mean the opportunity is there for people to move away from analogue devices and replace these with VoIP hardware to take full advantage of the fantastic new products and services that are in the process of being deployed into the marketplace.

Thanks Hometune!

nate — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:00 +1200

I have to admit, my knowledge of cars is pretty pathetic - I know that my car has a steering wheel, the accelerator pedal makes it go, and it takes 91 petrol. My eyes glaze over when people talk about their cars. I was never into cars as a kid, and I have trusted a variety of different mechanics over the years to service my vehicle. Yes, I have no idea how to change the oil in my car, and no motivation to ever learn.

On Monday my car was up for a 10k service, a Hometune technician turned up on time, left me a courtesy vehicle, and rang me later to advise what was needed. Front brake discs had to be replaced (which I was warned about by Firestone when replacing my tyres in January), and an oil change and new air filter. The seal on the rocker cover gasket was broken causing my car to leak oil. To my dismay, oil had also splashed onto the cam-belt, which meant it would have to be replaced as well (it had only just recently been done at my 100k servicing).

Hometune straight away admitted that they should've warned me about it when I had the cam-belt done, and since they'd forgotten to tell me, they were going to replace the cam-belt and clean up all the oil free of charge. They could've easily told me that the oil leak was bad and it damaged my cam-belt and I would've been none-the-wiser. I would've reluctantly paid for the cam-belt to be re-replaced, and cursed the day when I bought my car.

I'm very impressed with what the integrity they've shown with my last service, and it's nice to know that an industry where we often here about people being ripped off through ignorance, that there are still some good guys about.

Their website: www.hometune.co.nz

Disclaimer: I gave Hometune a reference in August 2008, which we received a discount on our next servicing. I am not receiving anything for this blog post.

Big week for Microsoft: Office 2010 beta, Forefront TMG 2010 release, Xbox update

paulspain — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:51 +1200

This week Microsoft are making available new products in a range of areas this week. Of interest to many will be the beta release of Office 2010. This is available for download now for both Technet and MSDN subscribers. I have been running the 'Techn... (more in the full post)

The alarmists are in denial

dmw — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:33 +1200

I see signs of panic from George Monbiot. He admits that his side it losing the race to convince the public about Global Warming, but he is in denial (ironically) that it is about the science.

People are not as thick as his colleagues disparagingly assert ("room temperature IQs" maybe he means in degrees Kelvin?). We can see that the temperatures are flat or going down, even as CO2 levels keep rising. And the hyperbole from the alarmists is harming their own cause.

So he resorts to a straw man argument about old people.

Good grief. He should face facts.

My first day of unemployment.

sbiddle — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:18 +1200

Today is the first day in my life that I've woken up with no job.

It is a day of sadness and happiness. I've got fantastic memories of my time having had a significant management level input into a very successful business. A change of ownership has meant that my skills are not wanted by the new owners. Karma is a wonderful thing and my knowledge is their loss, not mine.

Today really is the start of a new future for me. I've got some ideas and I know plenty of people. I'm very much a believer in life being predetermined and am sure that what has happened will certainly lead to greater happiness in the future.

If anybody thinks that I might be right for a role they have then my contact details are on this page to the right. I'm always open to offers whether they be for casual/contract or full time work and would certainly be interested in any work in the VoIP, telephony or telecommunications sector.

In the meantime if you're from Wellington and ever want to catch up for coffee or lunch I've got plenty of time on my hands! You can contact me on here or @stevebiddle on twitter.

National BikeOI

rscole86 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:01 +1200

As I have already blogged about, the national protest against ACC is today. So, if you are in, or going into, Wellington today then come and see us at Parliament from around 12pm onwards. Avoid all streets around there if you are in cars, as despite there being official parking at the stadium, most motorcyclists will not want to walk in boots/leathers for 500m + Riders will be leaving from Avalon and Aotea Police College from around 1120 in five minute intervals of 200 bikes. There will be police escorts at the front of the groups, but look out if you are coming from behind, as we will be travelling at 70km/h.

Introducing Nick Parfene reviewing the JCMatthew DRV-320T

MyFreeviewHDReview — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:54 +1200

Despite the fact that I don't watch too much TV I was very happy when I was offered the chance to review a MyFreeview|HD product.

I have owned a Freeview receiver for quite some time now and moving to a MyFreeview|HD product was going to be the next step for me anyway for reasons that I will make more clear over a few blog posts.

For those who are not very familiar with the terminology around Freeview Satellite, MyFreeview Satellite, Freeview|HD and MyFreeview|HD here's a very quick reference:

- Freeview stands for free-to-air digital television. Free-to-air basically means there is no ongoing license/fee that you need to pay in order to keep watching.

- Free-to-air broadcasts (Freeview) can be received in two ways: via satellite (wherever you might be in NZ) or via UHF (terrestrial). The terrestrial broadcast is in High Definition (HD). You can check your coverage here to see what is available in your part of the country.

Regardless of which Freeview option you go for (Satellite or HD) you have the option of getting a "smarter" receiver, that can also record (even 2 programmes at a time) TV so that you can view it later. MyFreeview is the term used to specify such a device. In conclusion there are two more terms for you: MyFreeview Satellite and MyFreeview|HD.

Choosing HD (terrestrial) over standard definition (Satellite) should be an obvious choice, but it isn't. On Freeview|HD you (currently) don't have Cue, Stratos and Te Reo TV channels and George FM radio station. While on Satellite you don't get TV Central and Chinese TV. Refer to this list for up to date information. Having a satellite dish already or a working UHF aerial might also weigh the balance towards one choice or another.

Freeview (and me for that matter) recommend that you choose HD whenever possible. The investments seem to be going towards HD and the quality is much better (at least for TV One, TV2 and TV3). I have had Freeview satellite but once I installed my first Freeview|HD receiver I just knew there was no going back.

Truth be told, if you don't have a HD TV you are less likely to notice the difference, but one day you will be upgrading that TV and having a HD receiver will make your view experience a whole lot better.

But why MyFreeview|HD? The promise is that:

- you'll be able to watch your content whenever you want, rather than when it is broadcast
- you'll never miss an episode from your favourite TV series
- you'll be able to pause TV to open that cold beer that's been sitting in the fridge without missing a single beat
- you'll never have to choose between two programmes: you'll be able to record them both, or watch one while recording the other (actually, there are even more options)

Does it deliver? We'll soon find out. Stay tuned...

About the author: Nick Parfene was born in Romania and emigrated to NZ in 2005. He is a consultant for a Wellington based IT company 4 days a week and spends most of his spare time building mobile solutions for a small start-up called Tmro. He adores his partner and his Goddaughter, loves playing adventure games on his PS3, sports, sci-fi, animals (has a dog called Haiduc) and travelling. He is slowly being drawn into the field of photography but has no regrets. If can follow Nick via his Twitter account @nicktmro or his blog http://www.tmro.net/blog.

Oxelon Media Converter. Free Windows movie convertor.

hellonearthisman — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:05 +1200

Oxelon Media Converter
These blogs have written about this useful video tool.

I think it's pretty good too. Deals with TS and can covert to MPEG2 PS (.mpg)

Convert Audio And Video In The Windows Explorer Context Menu
...Oxelon Media Converter makes audio and video converting in the Windows operating system a breeze. The software program integrates itself into the Windows Explorer context menu providing users with options to start audio and video conversions right from the explorer window. It does support the conventional option of adding multimedia files to the... from gHacks tech news - Nov 14, 2009 (yesterday)

Convert audio and video files in 2 clicks with Oxelon Media Converter
...use as Oxelon Media Converter. Oxelon adds two shortcuts to your Windows context menu: one for transcoding audio files, the other for transcoding video. All you have to do is right-click on any media file in Windows Explorer and select the file format you want to convert it to. Oxelon will open a new window and ask you where you'd like to save... from 3. D/L Squad - Oct 30, 2009 8:06 AM

Oxelon Media Converter
Free media converter that supports many audio/video formats, codecs, and allows to convert several ...
from SofoTex - latest freeware downloads - Mar 20, 2009 10:22 PM

Nice - Star Trek BluRay comes with free Digital Copy that is actually useful

lotech — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:35 +1200

I, along with the many people, found JJ Abhrams reinventing of Star Trek a great time. So much so I felt it more than worthy to be added to my small physical media collection. To my surprise, the pictures studio, Paramount Pictures, has started including a digital copy of the their films free. Each BluRay copy comes with a third DVD and note with a unique key printed on it.

I thought it would no doubt involve some horrible DRM and playback system, no doubt dropped or outdated a year from now. You can no doubt believe my surprise that the code really is really just a redeem code for iTunes Store. If you brought the movie in iTunes separately you'd be looking at $24.99.

The DVD contains an autoplay menu which offers links to either to copy the film in Windows Media or iTunes, by choosing iTunes you are taken straight into the Store and where you enter your code. You'll need to download for that copy but the disc does include necessary WMV files - strangely there are 2. I can't tell you much more with Windows being Windows just before copying the file I am told that I require security component update and it was required before installing. I clicked the link and sent to a page on the domain drmlicense.one.microsoft.com which offered little information and a single button that couldn't be pressed. Shortly after Internet Explorer crashed. Good one. I spent a few minutes trying to find the update I'm looking for but its never stated and MS don't really promote the DRM side of things too loudly.

...

As far as the iTunes side goes, iTunes downloads as a 1.96GB M4V file, and uses FairPlay3 DRM which allows for syncing to up to 5 iPhones, iPods, AppleTV's and the other computers linked to your iTunes account. Video wise, the file has a frame size of 640x352, 2052kbps H264 and audio comes in 5.1 AC3 (strangely QuicktimeX lists only 2 channels though). The file also includes chapter marks with thumbnails and can be played in Quicktime or iTunes.

It's disappointing to not be a more standard 720 frame width, and of course no one likes DRM - but lets be honest, offering the movie in the first place is a good sign. Instantly I can use the film in a usable way ourside of my PS3 and couch. I doubt I will ever watch it on my phone, but offering it in more than one format, shows the studio trying to be far more inclusive in the end usage process.

GeekPost Weekly Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 5

JamesHip — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:28 +1200

Geek Post

Volume 1 Issue 5

Friday 13 November 2009

Hippolite Musings

Tena Koutou Katoa,

Delayed posting this week because of Jury Service all week. Fascinating process, which I will speak more about on my non-technical blog, TVORNZ.

Blessings,
James

Developer News

UNPLUGGED Tour, December 2009

In amongst all the launch activity around Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010, we've been busy planning our next UNPLUGGED Road Trip. This trip we will be visiting Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and Auckland (in that order). There will be four of us presenting; Nathan Mercer will be covering migrating Windows versions with the Microsoft Deployment Tools and then providing an infrastructure update (including Office 2010, Microsoft Online Services and Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation), John-Daniel Trask from Mindscape will be covering Visual Studio 2010 content and Ryan Tarak and I will be covering what's new in the Windows Azure Platform and the announcements from this year's Professional Developers Conference. For more information, including dates and locations, have a look at the UNPLUGGED event web site. These events fill up quickly in some locations so register today.

Telecom News

In my little corner of the woods.

I can tell you that the new logo has now been applied to:

Telecom Retail
Gen-i
Telecom Wholesale
Telecom International
Telecom Rentals Limited

Security News

Nothing this week

- must be pretty secure!

Product News

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 was released recently and contains a lot of new features that weren't in Beta 1. The .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 was released at the same time and again contains a lot of features that weren't in the previous beta (a lot of Windows Presentation Foundation features for example). Check out both the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 videos on Channel 9 for some good overviews and then go download Beta 2 and start trying it out for yourself. Make sure you catch JD's session during the upcoming UNPLUGGED tour as well. Download Spec Explorer for Visual Studio

Spec Explorer is a model-based testing tool that runs as an add-in to Visual Studio for modelling software behaviour and analyzing that behaviour by graphical visualization, model checking, and generating standalone test code from models.

Situations Vacant

Hello Everyone,

We urgently require an experienced ASP.NET Web Developer to join our in house Development and Interactive team to help deliver various web application and integration projects on a fixed term contract.
Click on the link below to apply now!
http://careers.thlonline.com/job=5474THL

Rajesh Shukla
IT Development Manager | Tourism Holdings Limited |

Trainer News

Course Release Announcements

Microsoft Learning releases new courses almost every month, and from now on, this newsletter will include the courses that have shipped in the previous month. In this edition, we'll play catch-up and list courses shipped in the past three months.

The following MOC titles were released between August 1 and October 31, 2009. All of these courses are available for download today from the MCT Download Centre.

Course	Title	RTM Date
5105C	Deploying Windows Vista Business Desktops (3 days)	8/17/2009
6445A	Implementing and Administering Windows Small Business Server 2008 (5 days)	8/21/2009
5115B	Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Windows Vista (3 days)	8/21/2009
5118B	Supporting Windows Vista and Applications in the Enterprise (5 days)	9/8/2009
6446A	Implementing and Administering Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (5 days)	9/16/2009
80156A	SQL Server Installation and Optimization for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 (3 days)	9/16/2009
6292A	Installing and Configuring Windows 7 Client (3 days)	10/6/2009
6426B	Configuring and Troubleshooting Identity and Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory (3 days)	10/26/2009

MCT Rewards Is Now Learning Rewards

Never heard of Learning Rewards (previously MCT Rewards)? Now is the time to find out. Did you know that as an MCT, you can request and distribute certification exam vouchers at a discount to your students, and earn points redeemable for valuable rewards?

Here are a few tidbits on Learning Rewards:

Customizable collateral can help you facilitate meaningful conversations with your students and guide them to appropriate training and certifications.
A personal dashboard lets you request and distribute vouchers and redeem your points for rewards with a simple click.
Along with the new name, there's a new Learning Rewards Web site. Bookmark the Learning Rewards Web site.
Exam discount vouchers for students are now valid for three months.

For more information, visit the MCT member site.

Training News

Explore Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 with a New Training Course on Channel 9

Dive into videos and labs that will help you get familiar with .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010. This exclusive opportunity lets developers access free courseware online for a self-paced learning experience. Windows 7 Developer Training Is Now Online on Channel 9

These videos, hands-on labs and samples are the quickest way to ramp up on the new developer features in Windows 7. Our new online offering allows you to learn at your own pace and download only those modules that interest you. Windows 7 New Features for Managed Code Developers Series

This on-demand series presents examples of how developers who write in managed code (Visual Basic and C#) can take advantage of some of the new features of Windows 7. The series includes: an introductory overview of new features, overview of the Windows API Code Pack, and individual sessions that include a demonstration of the new features in Windows 7.

Dot Net News

geekSpeak: Refactoring Tips and Tricks with Llewellyn Falco (Level 200)

Join us to learn how to build service-oriented architecture (SOA)-style services whose contracts are both defined and implemented with workflow activities and how to host, manage, and execute the services. UAC Data Redirection: .NET Framework

After completing this lab, you will be better able to troubleshoot a file redirection issue and use Process Monitor to find the root cause of the issue. Shell Libraries: Managed

After completing this lab, you will be better able to create a new library, open an existing library, add and remove folders from a library, and more. Taskbar: Managed

After completing this lab, you will be better able to provide visual progress and status indicators using taskbar progress bars and overlay icons.

Events Schedule

In this section, I highlight dates, times and venues of events either I am presenting at, or of interest to METTLE. I'm available for bookings.

Date	Event	Venue	Speaker
17 - 19 Nov 09	Professional Developers Conference	Los Angeles	Scott Guthrie
18-Nov-09	Visual Studio Team System Users Group	Xero @ Wellington	Dr Bohdan Szymanik
19-Nov-09	SQL Server growth in the NZ Fire Service	Wellington SSUG	Geoff Laws
25-Nov-09	Wellington SilverLight User Group	Wellington SLUG	TBA
26-Nov-09	SharePoint 2010 Overview Part 2	Wellington SPUG	Mark and Chan
1-Dec-09	Microsoft Unplugged MSDN Sessions for Developers 1:30 - 5pm	Wellington Intercontinental	John-Daniel Trask, Mike Zeff, Ryan Tarak

Humour

Top 10 this week from @nlnnet

I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol.
I almost had a psychic girlfriend, but she left me before we met.
Does killing time alter eternity?
A conscience does not prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it.
I plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off forever.
You know you are ugly if you make blind kids cry.
For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday.
Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the heck happened.
Questionable definitions: Syntax n., Money in the collection plate.

What copyright really means in New Zealand

freitasm — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:49 +1200

The "� kiwiright" documentary explains the meaning of copyright laws in New Zealand (and the world) and is a great introduction to the current copyright debate going on in New Zealand. Juha Saarinen talks to us about the current state of copyright in New Zealand. For more information visit the Creative Freedom Foundation.

Microsoft being a Onecare

juha — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:25 +1200

All right, I know it's good to that Microsoft provides a free malware scanning utility and that I'm being a bit of a duck to have a go at them, but nevertheless, the Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner is a bad idea that should be taken down fast.

For starters, it uses an ActiveX control - Internet Explorer required in other words - that's annoyingly hard to install. You get warnings galore from Windows 7's UAC and IE about popups and do you really really really want to install something that has the potential to roger your system well and truly?

That's not what a non-technical user wants to see, especially if s/he thinks the computer in question has been compromised via the Internet.

Does it work then? No idea yet, because this is far as I got:

Ah yes, good old error number 0x0C600C03. Of course. Tells you exactly what went wrong, doesn't it?

And why is this done over HTTP and not secured HTTPS anyway?

See that little "Love it? Tell your friends" exhortation to email your friends about the scanner? Yep, very bad idea that too, as from now on, malware writers will start spamming about OneCare safety scanner, with the payload likely to be something you really don't want on your computer.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,OneCare,security,viruses,Internet Explorer,Koobface,Windows Live

Linkification v60

RedJungle — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:10 +1200

News / Web Happenings:

Paint.NET 3.5 Released!
We've settled with Joltid - Skype Blogs
Telecom New Zealand announces plans to wholesale XT network
Flash 10.1 coming to webOS in first half 2010, says kinder, gentler Adobe page
Windows Marketplace for Mobile updates tackle piracy, adds online store for non-mobile browsers
Apple Releases Safari 4.0.4
Google Latitude, now with Location History & Alerts
Amazon free Kindle for PC application now available
Google Acquires Gizmo5 VoIP Service; VoIP Coming to Google Voice?
Google to Acquire Mobile Advertising Firm AdMob

General / Neat Stuff:

Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony

Apple:

Facebook app developer rejects App Store, irony ensues
TomTom to bring free lane guidance, text-to-speech, iPod control to iPhone GPS app
Worm Hits Jailbroken iPhones; Apple Plans Jailbreak Crackdown

Development:

Facebook Toolkit for Microsoft Developers

FAIL of the week:

Kung Fu Fail

The Internet: bad and good according to Jeff Jarvis

freitasm — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:17 +1200

Companies are still afraid of jumping on the Internet. People are terrorised their products and services will have bad reviews, or their position won't be heard.

Fear nothing... Watch this video on how to win arguments about the Internet, by Jeff Jarvis:

BikeOI - ACC protest rides

rscole86 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:55 +1200

For those of you who have not already been on a ACC protest ride, or want to do another below are some breif details on whats coming up.

Also, for all of you 4 wheeled folks, this is a heads up of where we will be, so please respect our protest, and do not do anything stupid.

AUCKLAND: Saturday 14th November
Start at Dairy Flat 10am
Finish at Auckland Domain
This should take 30mins according to google, but ride is limited to 90km/h so expect it to be 1-1.5 hours by the time the tail gets there.

CHRISTCHURCH: Saturday 14th November
Start at Cashmere Club 1030am approx
Finish at Cathedral Sqaure 12pm for meeting
This should take 12mins according to google. So maybe there will be lattes while waiting?

DUNEDIN: Saturday 14th November
Start at Mosgiel Railway Station 10am
Finish at Octagon
This should take 30mins according to google. Unsure if there are speed limits imposed.

WELLINGTON: Tuesday 17th November
Start A: Papakowhai Road (below police college) 1130am
Start B: Avalon Duck Pond Carpark 1130am
Join: Bottom of Ngauranga Gorge
Finish: Parliament 12pm
This should take 30mins, but expect it to be longer by the time the tails park up. There will be around 5000+ bikes here.

For more detailed information see, Bikers Against ACC Levies.

First test on Vodafone NZ HSPA+

juha — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:30 +1200

At Vodafone HQ with Scott Bartley from PC World and Chris Keall from NBR, trying out HSPA+. On my Dell Studio 17 laptop and a Huawei K4505 USB stick, the results are...

Pingtest:

And the hoary old Speedtest:

More tests to come with ftp downloads and uploads.

Update A few ftp tests later shows that the around 7Mbit/s sustained throughput per connection is possible, at least on a lightly loaded network. With three ftp downloads going, I hit 14-15Mbit/s sustained. Didn't have time to do upload tests, unfortunately.

The low latency is great, but Vodafone's HSPA+ network will need more tuning before it opens up for general availability. We experienced several instances of the connection staying up but with no data being passed over the link. Once the stability issues are sorted out, HSPA+ could be all the broadband many users need - provided of course that Vodafone follows through with the hints about upgrading the data plans.

On top of meaty data plans, Vodafone would need to source HSPA+ capable phones that can be used as modems as well as for voice, for the fast 3G connection to be attractive to general users looking to dump their landlines in favour of just mobile. Or, Vodafone could organise a 3G softphone to go with the USB data sticks.

Unfortunately, we weren't given any pricing for the uprated 3G service by Vodafone.

Here's Chris's take at NBR on this morning's HSPA+ session.

Some thoughts on Twitter, facebook and the dot com bubble burst.

inane — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:25 +1200

It seems to me than many of the current "Social networking" and web 2.0 sites are merging towards the same stream, which is I guess a good thing,

when you take a look at all the different offerings out there, its nice to see various applications, and social networking destinations starting to play nice with each other, as for quite a while it appeared to be quite the "them or us" type scenario,

I know that there are a variety of reasons too, lets face it, MySpace giving you the facility to log in from facebook is a move made for survival as a rearguard action, but it might save it yet,

all myspace needs to do now is focus on its strengths, if it has any (apparently this is music, I've never had a myspace account so I dont know!)

Facebook of course is doing very nicely, in fact in many ways it is the "Portal" that many, hundreds of small and large companies dreamed of creating around the first dot com boom,

of course, we all know the multitude of reasons why the various portals failed, however Facebook is certainly moving that way.

I for one, don't use facebook, it is for my own personal reasons, but I have an irknig feeling I will eventually have to again,

I have dabbled once or twice in the past, but for now I don't see me rushing back to them.

The interesting thing is though, all the different social media applications, including the big guys such as Twitter and Googles Friend feed (ok ok its not really a huge one, but lets face it, anything google does == big)

are all integrating further and further with facebook,

and with all the connecting and links thrown around the web, it'll be interesting to see how things go, one must admit, avoiding facebook is getting, much, much harder!