Fossie: The insider

The Blackout and Why it Won't Work.

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:40:00 PST

Come February 28th Section 92a will come into play and the blackout may all have been for nothing.

What is 92a? 92a, commonly called the 'Guilt by accusation law', is a new law designed to 'protect' copyright holders. If any user is accused of breaching someones copyright, their ISP will have to disconnect their internet connection. Yes you did read that correctly, you can be disconnected on accusation alone, which is crazy to say the least.

The blackout is a plan formed by 'Creative Freedom NZ', in which people will blackout their webpages, blogs, facebook etc, as a way of protesting against the law.

But will this succeed in doing anything other than inconveniencing a few people?

It could have a chance of working if higher profile websites did the same, such as Trademe, Stuff, NZHerald etc. But a day blacked out is a day less profit, which is a day too many for them. Think about it, if Trade me did a blackout for even an hour, it would bring the issue of 92a thousands of the general public and not just the tech community. We all know about it, but does Larry the 58 year old milk man from Masterton know about it? He's the guy that needs to know about this new law. I know that this is what the blackout is trying to do, but until it hits the mainstream, I don't think that it can succeed.

The blackout will raise awareness, no doubt about that. There has already been media attention thrown its way. And the more media attention it gets, the better. But will it get the attention of the short minded polititians that let it go through?

I hope the blackout works, I hope United Future is able to convince the other partys that 92a is in need of reform. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.

--

Geekzone has committed by planning a blackout on the 23rd of February.

The 2009 Freeview HD Overview

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:38:00 PST

Quite a bit has changed since my last entry, and things are much simpler than before.

Windows 7:

Windows 7, both 64 bit and 32 bit, have the ability to watch Freeview|HD straight out of the box. Just install the relavent drivers for your tuner(s), fire up media centre and you're away. Hardware acceleration also works for some video cards.

This is/will be one of the easiest solutions out there, because it is so simple.

You will need Patch 962236 to get Now/Next epg entries.

Currently there is no implementation of MHEG5, but a lot can happen between Beta 1 and RTM.

Xbox 360:

If you have Windows 7, you can stream live tv straight to your xbox. The picture quality is great, and its so simple to use.

Mac os:

Eyetv version 3 now supports h.264 video and aac latm audio. So just select 'New Zealand', scan and away you go.

For the EPG you can use an XMLTV script which grabs the shows for a week.

I think eyetv is the nicest piece of software out there, I always know that my schedules will record and that it will work whenever I want to watch tv. It does have one draw back though. It only uses CPU decoding, so if you have anything less than a 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, tv 3 will have real problems.

Windows XP & Vista:

DvbViewer & gbpvr are your best bet. Follow my previous guide for setting up dvbviewer.

The channels:

Tv One HD
TV Two HD
TV Three HD
C4 SD
Tv Three +1 (announced, will be a clone of tv3, but running an hour late. eg. News at 7)
TVNZ 6 SD
TVNZ 7 SD
SportsExtra SD
Chinese TV 4:3 SD
Maori TV SD
Central SD
Parliament SD
National Radio
Concert FM
BaseFM
Freeview loop channel HD

All in all, its much simpler to get Freeview|HD working. This post is also relavent to Sweden with their DTT setup.

-- Asher

Jailbreak your 1.1.3 or 1.1.4 iPod Touch.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:08:00 PDT

I recently restored and updated my iPod to 1.1.4, and then had the problem of Jailbreaking again.
There are a few options there for jailbreaking your iPod Touch or iPhone.

ZiPhone
iJailbreak
iLiberty+

All of these apps are pretty straight forward, take a clean iPod Touch or iPhone running 1.1.3 or 1.1.4, and with 1 press of a button your away. These all jailbreak and install installer.

I tried all three of the applications and found that iJailbreak was the easiest as it included the option to activate applications such as Mail and Maps.

As with anything, things can go wrong.

New Freeview | HD (DTT/DVB-T) Samples!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:43:00 PDT

Get 'em while they're hot. These are new samples from the Freeview | HD service in New Zealand!

TVNZ 7 Sample. This is a 576i video with the new AAC (HE-AAC LATM) audio.

TVONE Sample. This is a 720p upscaled video with the new AAC audio.

Freeview | HD sample. This is a true 720p video with the new AAC audio.

TV3 Sample. This is a true 1080i video (boston legal) with the new AAC audio.

Check here for information on setting up Freeview | HD on your computer.

Rotten Apples

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:26:00 PST

Last Wednesday, the 20th of February, I bought the base Macbook pro. Which was 2.2 Ghz, 120gb HDD, 128mb 8600gtm. Then this Wednesday Apple released an update to the MBP line, bringing the base unit to 2.4 Ghz, 200gb HDD and 256mb 8600gtm. All for $149 less.

I was aware of a 1-14ish day apple policy which lets people trade up to the newer revision. So today I walked to the local apple authorised reseller here in Dunedin 'Studentit'. Asked about it, and got a big fat NO, and was told to ring apple. After a tangled maze of phone calls, this was established.

Apple NZ offers a 7 day upgrade, when you can trade your laptop in for the new one, if you bought it in the last week (which I had). But, it only applies if you buy from the Apple NZ online store. So if your someone, like me, who bought through an authorised reseller, you are unable to get this upgrade (or a price match).

The guy at studentit was helpful, but even Apple NZ shafted him. They got him to call Australia and try contact a department which doesn't even exist.

It's just disgusting.

Freeview | HD Guide (DTT/DVB-T) New Zealand

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:48:00 PST

News!
Boston Legal, Bones, Prison Break, Underbelly, Rove, My Name is Earl, Home and Away, So you think you can dance and CSI are now in 1080i!
Maori tv is now in 16:9!
TVNZ 7 & 6 are up running their own content!

This blog is more up to date than the post in the forums.

I decided to put together a summary/guide of the DTT testing going on around the country.

There is testing in Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin documented so far. We are using 8Mhz, as opposed to the 7 used in Australia.

Software Guides Frequency Guides Samples

Hardware Required:
Basically any DTT tuner will work fine.
Find one with support from the software listed below. I have been using the HVR-900 Hybrid USB tuner, it has been flawless. It cost me $145 NZ in December 2006.
Codecs needed:
Cyberlink Powerdvd 7 h.264 codec: This makes it possible to view the SD interlaced channels.

Apparently later revisions of ffdshow are now working.
Software used to view DTT:

Windows:

Dvbviewer: This is a nice application with HE-AAC LATM implementation. Guide. It is working flawlessly with interlaced and HD channels. Files are captured in .ts format.

Gbpvr: Works with interlaced 576i and HD 720p channels. No audio support yet, but hopefully coming in the next build. Guide.

Mediaportal: Now supports LATM! Good stuff. Cranz has written a Mediaportal Guide.

Linux:

Here is a guide written by Openmedia.

Mythtv: This is being worked and worked and worked on to fully support DTT when it is released.

Mac os:

Eyetv 3: WORKS! Version 3.0.2 is required. Sound and interlaced video work!

The tests:
Here are the planned frequencies.

Auckland: They are being broadcast from Waitarua, so point your UHF aerial that way. Infill can be picked up from certain locations aswell. Current Mux's are;

TVNZ 538000:
TV ONE (720p Upscaled)
TV TWO (720p Upscaled)
TVNZ 6 (576i SD)
TVNZ 7 (576i SD)
TVNZ Sports extra (576i SD)

Mediaworks 570000:
TV 3 (1080i)
C4 (576i SD)

Kordia 666000:
Parliament Tv (576i SD)
Maori Tv 4:3 with 16:9 flags (576i SD)
3KSD TVNZ Sports extra with MP2 Audio (576i SD)
4KSD
5KSD
6KSD
Radio NZ Concert
Radio NZ National
Freeview | HD

Hamilton: I haven't seen an actual line up. These were the planned channels.

698000 TVNZ

714000 Mediaworks

682000 Kordia

Palmerston North:

TVNZ 690000

TVNZ Sports Extra

Media Works 706000

Kordia 778000

Wellington:

TVNZ 690000
TV ONE (720p Upscaled)
TV TWO (720p Upscaled)
TVNZ 6 (576i SD)
TVNZ 7 (576i SD)
TVNZ Sports extra (576i SD)

Media Works 706000
TV 3 (1080i)
C4 (576i SD)

Kordia 778000
Parliament Tv (576i SD)
Maori Tv 4:3 with 16:9 flags (576i SD)
3KSD
4KSD
5KSD
6KSD
Tv Central
Radio NZ Concert
Radio NZ National
Freeview | HD

Christchurch:

TVNZ 682000
TV ONE (720p Upscaled)
TV TWO (720p Upscaled)
TVNZ 6 (576i SD)
TVNZ 7 (576i SD)
TVNZ Sports extra (576i SD)

Mediaworks 698000
TV 3 (1080i)
C4 (576i SD)

Kordia 706000
Parliament Tv (576i SD)
Maori Tv 4:3 with 16:9 flags (576i SD)
3KSD
4KSD
5KSD
6KSD
Tv Central
Radio NZ Concert
Radio NZ National
Freeview | HD

Dunedin:

650000 TVNZ
TV ONE (720p Upscaled)
TV TWO (720p Upscaled)
TVNZ 6 (576i SD)
TVNZ 7 (576i SD)
TVNZ Sports extra (576i SD)

666000 Mediaworks
TV 3 (1080i)
C4 (576i SD)

730000 Kordia
Parliament Tv (576i SD)
Maori Tv 4:3 with 16:9 flags (576i SD)
3KSD
4KSD
5KSD
6KSD
Tv Central
Radio NZ Concert
Radio NZ National
Freeview | HD

Samples:
Brand new samples!
Captured in April, all of the samples have he-aac latm audio and are ~2minutes long each.

Screenshots:

Tv one and Tv two upscaled:

Click the image to go to the gallery and see it full sized. Unfortunately Flickr has scaled most of the pictures. The first two are unscaled.

Setting up the applications
Dvbviewer:
You will need the latest version of Dvbviewer (3.9.2) which is avaliable from the members section of the site. Any version below this won't have sound.

1. Open Dvbviewer
2. Go to 'Settings' then 'Options' and select 'Hardware'.
3. Click on 'Scan devices'
3. Select your tv tuner and make sure tunertype is set to 'Terrestrial' and state is 'preferred'.
4. I set all the others in that list to 'Do not use' to avoid any form of conflict.
5. From the list on the side, select 'Directx'.
6. Select 'Cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder' under H.264 Video decoder. I also set the Cyberlink one for MPEG-2 video aswell.

Note: When you get the option to select a Renderer eg. Overlay, VMR 7, VMR 9, EVR. If you want hardware acceleration, are in vista and have enabled purevideo or avivo, select EVR (Enhanced Vista Renderer) This will give Hardware acceleration and the best Picture quality.

7. Under 'Dvd Options' for the MPEG video decoder, select the cyberlink codec aswell.
8. Back in the main screen, From the top menu, select 'Channel' then 'Channel Scan'
9. 'Transponder list' = None 'Reception Type' = Terrestrial 'Group' = A 'Frequency Khz' 200000 'End Frequency' 800000
Select sort by frequency
10. Click 'Scan Range' If it finds nothing, check your aerial.
11. When that is done click 'close' then go up to 'Channel' and then 'Channel List' and it should have all the channels there.

Click on the image to see larger images of the settings

GBPVR:
(as sub said in another thread)
1. Start the config app
2. Create a capture source, with the recording source set to 'Digital Recording Plugin' and the epg source set to 'DVB EPG'
3. Click the Settings button next to the Digital Recording Plugin. Select your capture device, and set the country to NZ and the region to your region.
4. Click the 'Map digital channels to epg channels' button. It'll now scan for channels, and at completion should show the dozen or so Freeview channels'.
5. Tick each of the channels you want, then OK all the way out of the config app. You should be good to go now.

Eyetv:

Version 3.0.2 required.

Note: Interlaced Channels work!

1. Run Eyetv
2. From the menu at the top select 'Window' and then 'Eyetv programs'.
3. In the country drop down box, select 'New Zealand'
4. In the service box select 'DVB-T PAL-l'
5. Click 'Auto Tune' and tick 'Exhaustive Scan'
6. When it is done you should see something like this:

Hardware Decoding

(placeholder)

Hardware decoding is an important issue, if you have a fairly slow processor (single core basically).

What's required:

Nvidia 8xxx or 9xxx series card.
Ati 2xxx or 3xxx card.
Windows Vista
'Enable AVIVO/Purevideo HD' in Powerdvd
So far it seems that there has been very little/no success with AGP cards.
You must use 'Enhanced Vista Renderer'.

Confirmed working cards:

A more complete list of cards is avaliable here

Nvidia:

8600mgt (inside a macbook pro)
8600gt
8500gt

ATI: (all of the 3xxx series should work)

-- Asher

My iPod Touch 1.1.3 Jailbroken Gallery

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:32:00 PST

Here are some shots of my Jailbroken iPod Touch running 1.1.3 after using the iJailbreak method I posted about the other day.

(Click the image to get to the gallery)

Summerboard is now working
Installer 'Main script execution failed' problem has been solved by doing this in SSH
cd /
cd Applications/
wget http://repository.apptapp.com/packages/System/Installer.zip
rm -rf Installer.app
unzip Installer.zip
chmod +s Installer.app/Installer
chown -R root:wheel Installer.app
rm Installer.zip
This downloads the latest installer.app. I fixed mine another way, by setting the correct permissions via ssh then updating installer within installer.
Runs very well.
Maps, Mail, Webclips, lyrics, Weather...etc All run perfectly

How to Upgrade iPod Touch To Jailbroken 1.1.3

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:27:00 PST

Hot off the heals of upgrading my 1.1.2 Jailbroken iPod Touch to 1.1.3, I thought I'd post a how to and some of my observations.

DRM Music files work.
Jiggling icon reorder works
Maps, Mail etc work. Positioning should work.
Your music and videos will stay, but you will lose all your old apps that are in /Applications. If they are in /Var/Applications they are safe.
Summerboard isn't compatible with 1.1.3 yet.
SSH access works.

How to:
Note: Turn SSH on before doing this, if it gets stuck in restore mode, use iNdependence to sort it out.
I did this using the new iJailbreakme method.

1. If you are running 1.1.1, upgrade to 1.1.2 using the okto prep method. Using 1.1.1 with this method causes DRM and other problems.

2. Install the latest versions of BSDsubsystem and Installer

3. Add 'http://ijailbreak.com/repo.plist' as a source in Installer (sources -> edit -> add)

4. Back up anything that you want to keep. This could easily go wrong and require a restore.

5. In installer there should now be a 'iJailBreakMobile' category, from that install 'iJailBreakMobile 1.1.2'. This will put a new icon on your springboard.

6. Set the iPod auto lock to NEVER.

7. Run 'iJailBreak' from your springboard. This will take some time, it downloads the entire iPod 1.1.3 update from Apple.

8. When it finishes, it should either reboot on its own, leave you with a spinning cog, or say process completed. If you get the latter two, reboot yourself by holding the sleep and home buttons at the same time.

9. Upon reboot you should be greeted with your new springboard, which will contain the basic applications and Installer.

10. Run installer and from the 'iJailBreakMobile' category, run 'iPod Touch Software Upgrade'. Or if that doesn't work, as it did for me, add the 'Apple Repository' to installer 'http://applerepo.com' and run their preparation patch.

11. Reboot, and you should have the jiggly icons, all the 'Premium' applications and the ability to add webapps to the springboard through safari.

If installer randomly crashes when installing applications, it's because you're out of space on that partition. I was getting

mv: /bin/: terminated with 1 (non-zero) status: Cross-device link

when trying to symlink and move applications. So use this guide.

This method worked fool proofedly for me. You may get a different experience. If things go wrong, force recovery mode and do a restore.

Buy a Mac, Get a Free iPod Nano

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:41:00 PST

Right now on the New Zealand & Australian apple stores, just add a mac and a 4gb iPod Nano to your cart, and you'll be eligible for a $239 mail in rebate.
This 'rebate' can be used in conjunction with any iPod.
This offer is only avaliable to students.
Quite a good deal if you're planning on buying a mac.

The Reality of The Macbook Air

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:39:00 PST

Please, Please, Please, Step out of the reality distortion field.

I'm going to break this down bit by bit.

The footprint: The footprint of this thing is exactly that of a Macbook. This to me is really what matters in an ulta-portable, and having the footprint so large really questions the point.

The ""Thinness"": It is being advertised as the 'worlds thinnest laptop'. but really, it's only as thin as it's thickest part. Which is .76" (19.3mm in real units). I don't actually see a reason for having a superthin laptop, you may be able to slide it into nice little gaps. But it's a mac, and alot of mac users are quite pedantic, they'll put this in a super padded laptop bag.

Expandability: Seriously? You can't even upgrade the ram. This thing is sealed like an iPod. No user replaceable battery, no way to upgrade the hard drive.

The Hard Drive: 1.8" 80GB drive. If you're a fan of slow hard drives then this will be a feature, but for the rest of us...eh..?

The SSD Drive: 64GB, costs you an extra $2000. What's the point? The lifespan of SSD drives is appaling, and at the price...The Macbook Air would be costing you $5000 (w SSD). For that price you could buy yourself an iMac and Macbook pro.

The Screen: Probably the nicest part. LED backlit 13.3" 1280x800. I just hope that Apple hasn't used low quality panels again.

The Speaker: Yes, speaker. It only does mono audio, which is emitted from the keyboard.

The Keyboard: Very nice, backlit.

Multi-Touch Trackpad: Functionality is quite limited at this stage. Will be nice to see what developers come up with though.

No built in optical drive: You are able to use the optical drives of other macs on your network, or buy the external superdrive for $99 US.

Ports: 1x USB 2, 1x 'Micro-Dvi' and 1x Line out. Hope you don't need to plug anything in..

The weight: 1.36kg vs 2.27kg of the Macbook and 2.45kg of the Macbook pro.

The Battery: Apple claims 5hours of battery life...We'll see if this stacks up. There is also no way for you to swap the battery out if you carry a spare, as it's fully sealed.

The CPU: Core 2 Duo 1.6Ghz or 1.8Ghz. Hmm...if it were a true ultraportable then they would be great.

The GPU: Echo...echo...It uses integrated graphics, intel x3100.

Remote: Does it include the Apple remote? I don't think so.

The Price:

Macbook Air $2990
Macbook $1848
Macbook pro $3390.

It seems to me that the Macbook Air is really just an expensive fashion item for a niche market.
That's my take on it.

Apple Announces Macbook Air!

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:10:00 PST

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

Looks just like a super thin macbook pro.

$1799 US/ $2990 NZ (How does that work??) NZ is at 0.78265 US so 1799/.78265 = $2298NZ...Does it really cost $700NZ to ship it here?

Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz - 1.8ghz
13.3" Screen
Full size backlit keyboard
Tapered 0.16"-0.76"
Trackpad with multi-touch gesture support
Built in iSight
Uses 80GB 1.8" HDD with the option for 64GB ssd (SSD is a cool, $2100NZ more, at $5139)
802.11n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
USB (Duh)
Micro-Dvi
USB superdrive avaliable for $99 US
5 Hour Battery Life (BS)
Magsafe connector for more controlled electrocutions and explosions.

Heres some pictures 2 3

You can use the CD/DVD drives of other macs on your network!

The screen reminds me of the old plastic LCD pro displays.

I do fail to see the point of buying a laptop because it's **thin**, this thing is also fully sealed, like an iPod, so no changing the battery for you!

Apple Announces iTunes Movie Rentals, Apple Tv Finally Gets a Use.

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:50:00 PST

You can now rent movies straight from iTunes, these rentals will last 24 hours once opened, but will let you wait up to 30 days before watching. All of the big studios are in on this, including MGM, Touchstone, Miramax, Lions Gate, Fox, WB, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony.
Titles will be $2.99US and $3.99US for new releases. What more is that they will have 5.1 surround sound are DVD or HD quality.
You can now also rent movies and buy music directly from the apple tv, finally giving it a use. The update known as the 'Apple TV Take 2' is avaliable now, and is required for rentals.

Apple Announces Time Capsule

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:46:00 PST

http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/

Time Capsule lets you back up all your leopard running macs wirelessly. Prices are $299 US for 500GB and $499 US for 1TB. I wonder if you will still be able to access it as a large mass storage device, or if apple has crippled it for backup only.
NZ prices are $498 and $799. It also doubles as a 802.11n basestation with 3x 10/100/1000 ethernet ports and 1x USB port for printer.

Apple Sucks, Charging $20 US for iPod Touch update.

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:44:00 PST

That's right, apple is trying to charge $20 US for an update to include Maps, Mail, Stocks, Notes and Weather. What the hell is wrong with them? All these applications can be gained free, with a jailbroken iPod.
All iPod Touches today will include all those applications.

And a warning to current 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 users with jailbroken iPods. Don't update to the free version of 1.1.3, you won't be able to downgrade.

The downfall of HD-dvd, on video.

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:31:00 PST

This scene seems to be used for alot of things...

Dick Smith advertising error is your gain

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:10:00 PST

From dse until sunday, you will be able to pick up a 'TOMTOM ONE XL InCar GPS' for $410. Thats $175 off the normal price. This is being honoured nation wide.

You can also scoop a 26" Bravia LCD for $999. KLV26U300A

This is getting old, fast.

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:37:00 PST

When you have a keyboard that looks like this:

(you should see the other guy)
and you don't have a spare usb keyboard and you don't have a ps/2 port because your computer is Steve jobs and some guy from marketings love child. You have three choices:

1. Buy a new keyboard....What am I? Made of money?

2. Fix the old one. In my defense, I have fixed this before. So look out for my 'How to attempt to fix a water damaged keyboard but end up with a very ugly paper weight guide'.

3. Improvise. This is what I do best, and here is what I did:

That is my iPod connected to my computer through wifi, which is running vnc. So in effect, im using the ipod keyboard as my computers keyboard. And I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I wrote this whole post using it and my hand is about to fall off.

DTT Auckland 720p Sample

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:30:00 PST

Here is a 720p sample of CSI from the DTT trials in Auckland. And here is a 720p sample of batman.
--> Heres another from CSI. These will work in VLC.

Here are some other shots:

DTT Auckland 1080i Sample

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:42:00 PST

Here is a sample from TV3 (shows a csi loop) captured today from the DVT-T trial here in Auckland. It's a good way to see if your system will be able to handle it when it arrives.

LINK!

This is in 1080i, so if you can play this, you will be able to handle the 720p feeds.

DivX Pro Free!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:51:00 PST

You can get divX pro free for a limited time! Just download it, put in your email address, and they will automatically send you a serial key.

For mac and pc.

(Found this in the gb-pvr forums)

Microsoft Firefox!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:35:00 PST

Check it out!

System Requirements:

*Quadcore CPU 4.6GHz processor or higher (For the loading of Hotmail.com)
*1080i or higher-resolution screen with any 512mb SLI Graphics card. (For High Definition GIF images)

Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:18:00 PST

Well the Beta (private) of WLM9 is out, so here are a few of screenies of it.
It mostly looks the same, but new features include:

* Multiple points of presence; You can now log into wlm9 from two different locations! (any version below 9 will not work with this)
* Custom contact sounds; You can set different sounds for individual contacts.
* Status messages are clickable
* "SPIM" reporting; You can report and then block users who spam.
* Signature Sounds; The sound your contacts hear when you log in. (I guess)

These are just the features that I have noticed so far.
(Click on the pictures for a better size)

Setting custom sounds for contacts:

Sign in options with settings for multiple log in:

Setting a custom signature sound:

Contacts menu with report button:

Just the main contacts list, no changes here:

There is the possibility that these features may change and that others may be added.

How Many Apps Do You Have?

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:04:00 PST

I just thought i'd throw this out there. How many apps do you have on your jailbroken iPhone or iPod? Right now im sitting on 3 full pages (50) apps.

Barcamp 2007

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:34:00 PST

Barcamp is hitting Auckland on the of 15th December. And from what I can tell, it has nothing to do with alcohol. Taking place at Botany Downs College, with a secret start time, it should be a good day.

BarcampAuckland is a free event that is going to be held to encourage and refresh the web community in New Zealand. It will do this by encouraging the discussion (by every attendee) about design and development ideas, concepts or theories as well as practical design and development skills and examples.

New Zealand web development seems to have become stagnant and commercial and we want to bring back the passion to design by holding such an un-conference in New Zealand. We want NZ designers and developers to find working on the web fun again and to want to learn and expand their understanding of the accessible, semantic, standards based and social web.

So if your doing nothing on the 15th of December, why not come along to a FREE un-conference. Its only 10 minutes down the road, so I'll be there. (However that may scare some of you off)

How Green Is Your Site?

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:24:00 PST

CO2Stats is a site that has been setup by PHD students at harvard, which measures your webpages 'Carbon Footprint'. They give you a small widget for your webpage which counts the 'Pounds of CO2' used from people viewing your site. Im waiting for a mertic version myself...