mushion22:

Android Froyo/2.2 Bug

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 03:21:00 PDT

Just a quick post to let people know about a bug in my Moto Defy, running Froyo, that I have been experiencing and came across a fix for. Apparently it is a Froyo bug and affects many different handsets.

Had found my phone would be running very slowly and needed a reboot to come right, but would get sluggish again in anywhere from minutes to hours for no particular reason.

Turning on the 100% CPU notification in Task Manager gave me frequent 100% notifications, yet none of the apps/services showed more than a few % CPU. I tried a few different CPU analysers - they showed the same thing - 100% CPU but no app was causing it.

After a little googling, I came across this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=826507

I installed Watchtower, and bingo - /init was using all available CPU. Incidentially, I've found watchtower a lot better than the other task analysers as it shows processes rather than just apps/services so you can get an idea at the system level what is going on. It also shows usage graphs for all those processes - very handy.

I followed the instructions - enabling USB debugging, and now the CPU usage is back to normal.

Hopefully Moto will let Telecom upgrade to 2.3 some time soon!

Basic Workaround for lack of Steam download scheduler

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:12:00 PDT

For a program that downloads potentially large volumes of data (ie multi-GB for some games) - I think Steam is lacking one important feature - ability to control the times when it will download.

This feature would be particularly useful for those like me with an ISP that gives a free download window.

Alas, I have devised a small workaround for those using steam on Mac OS X. Its not overly complex, and could easily be replicated on Linux and Windows with the right commands and scheduler.

You'll need 2 things: iCal, and Applescript Editor

Fire up applescript editor (Applications > Utilities).

copy paste in the following:

do shell script "open /Applications/Steam.app"

(assuming steam is installed in the Applications folder - adjust that location as appropriate for your install).

Save that - I called mine "opensteam.scpt"

Now create a new script, and paste in the following

do shell script "killall steam"

Save that one as a different name - eg "killsteam.scpt"

Now in iCal - set up an event for when you want the download to start. Edit the event by right clicking and clicking get info, and for the "alarm" choose "run script" - then choose the first script that you saved. Then set it to run 0 minutes before the event.

Do the same for the 2nd script at the time you want it to stop downloading.

Et voila - steam will load and, so long as your downloads aren't paused, start downloading them. It will then be closed when the 2nd event is triggered.

Just beware - if you happen to be up using steam at the time the 2nd event runs - it will be closed on you :-)

Not the most ideal solution, but might be useful for some :-)

Google Chrome Imgur Extension

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:52:00 PDT

Shameless plug for a friend here, but its actually quite good. He's written a Google Chrome extension that allows you to right click and image or a webpage and automagically upload it to imgur to share with people, or you can drag and drop images.

Get it here: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ehoopddfhgaehhmphfcooacjdpmbjlao?hl=en

Slingshot NDSL + 2talk Setup Issues and Experience

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:39:00 PDT

Hello,

Thought I'd share my experience trying to get NDSL + VoIP installed for my dad. My main point is for anyone doing something similar to realise the gotchas, but also to some extent I am pointing out problems with Slingshot's inconsistently great-then-terrible customer service in this.

Background:

Dad is a real estate agent. Thus phone calls are important. Missing a phone call can mean missing a sale. He usually diverts his home phone to his mobile while he is out and about. This means paying the horrendous mobile toll charges and sometimes he forgets to divert. Likewise, sometimes he forgets to undivert.

I thought I'd kill both those problems, and add a bunch of new features by moving him over from his current Telecom Land line + Slingshot DSL & Tolls to Naked DSL + VoIP from 2talk. Unfortunately Xnet and Snap internet class my dad's address as rural, therefore were going to charge an extra $20 on top of their normal urban plans. Slingshot don't differentiate, therefore I chose to keep with Slingshot.

Problem 1: Downtime

A couple of different people, plus 2talk and Slingshot themselves, warned me that trying to transition an existing DSL connection to naked DSL and porting the phone numbers (phone + faxability number) would most likely at least result in up to 48 hours downtime, and had a chance of all going pear shaped.

The best solution was to get the 2nd physical phone cable coming into the house connected by Telecom, and then to have NDSL provisioned on that (therefore having 2 DSL connections in parallel). Then get the numbers from the main line ported to 2talk and close the Telecom account in the process.

Slingshot refused to arrange the NDSL on a non-active line and insisted I get telecom to connect it first. NO worries there - organised telecom to connect the line (required a site visit as it hadn't been connected in >3 years - we used to use it for dial up net before DSL came along years ago). That went smoothly. $49 plus at least 1 month's rental - fine.

Problem 2: Crap Slingshot service

Called up slingshot to arrange the naked DSL, saying the 2nd line had been connected. No worries they say - best thing is to sign up via the net. No problem - did that. Put in the number of the new line (which naturally had no phone connected to it because it was only going to be temporary). Also gave them a cellphone number. Called up afterwards to make sure it had been done right, and also said how they need to not disconnect the original line - just take over the 2nd line - they said that'd be fine and noted it in the provisioning request. They said it'd be up to a week - no worries.

BUT

A week later I had heard nothing and the DSL hadn't been connected. Dad had called up a couple of times during the last couple of days in that week a) to get me added as an authority on the 2nd account, 2) for some technical help. I had also called up in that time to get the account number. So after that week was up I called up to find out what was happening. Apparently they had been trying to get hold of us for the past 2 days. They mentioned nothing when we had called the other times.

They hadn't called the cellphone - no calls were received on it and there were no messages left. I'm assuming they only tried to call the landline number only, which wasn't connected to any handset!. Grrrr! Nor had they emailed.

What they had been calling about was that the second line actually needed to be on a seperate telecom account (they had said the 2nd line was fine when I first ordered the connection). They couldn't do anything about it until that was done.

Fine. I went along to telecom and got a friend who works there to create a 2nd account and move the 2nd line over to it. Called up Slingshot again and gave them the details. They were going to call me back to tell me when it would be provisioned.

That was early afternoon Friday. Its now late monday afternoon and I hadnt heard from them so called them up. They say it'll be provisioned Wednesday 5pm. We'll see.

I submitted a complaint on their website, and sent their twitter account a message - neither have acknowledged or replied, and CSRs didn't seem interested in making it happen faster.

All the equipment is installed now. Using a Draytek 2700VGN. Have rewired the phone sockets to connect into 1 of its its FXS ports. Installed an RJ45 patch panel for the exchange lines, house phones, 3 ethernet sockets and the central DSL filter to terminate on to make it easy to move and change things in the future. For now have it connected over the existing DSL connection with the phone diverted to a temp local number. Is working well.

So my lessons:

Moving to NDSL and porting to VoIP can result in downtime. It costs more to avoid this (eg extra line $49 plus rental $40 plus DSL connection $99), but may be worth it if you dont want to drop any calls.

If you are going for the parallel setup, the 2nd line should be connected on a seperate account before you order the DSL connection. This may require a site visit by a Chorus tech.

Make sure you know exactly what you need. Telecom was very easy to deal with when I knew exactly what they could do and exactly what I wanted them to do. Having a friend that works for them certainly helps. Also, the telecom-owned retail stores can do land line service as well, so can be worth going in to see them rather than trying to speak to someone in Manila.

Slingshot isn't proactive about customer service. Don't believe their promises. Don't leave it to them to call you back or work things out. They need pestering to get their act together and the CSRs are often not trained to deal with slightly non-standard setups like this.

Making a 'cut sheet' of where your plugs/sockets/wiring is going to go, and which sockets on the patch panel are what is very important!

Allow time, much more than you might anticipate, to get it all done!

Thanks to David (Cisconz) from www.3bitvoice.co.nz/ and Nate from www.3bit.co.nz for their help and advice. I'll post a photo of the wiring tomorrow - just need to finish of a couple more sockets and tidy it up with some cable conduit.

Here is the photo. Could do with a cable tidy thingy to tidy it up some more, and maybe a shelf under the panel to put the modem etc on, but it'll do for a home office job:

Edit: The saga continues:
Chorus were scheduled to provision NDSL on Wednesday the 7th. After a lengthy discussion with one of their tech support people on Tuesday the 6th, we established that a site visit was unnecessary seeing as the wiring is all done and phones are already using 2talk over the existing DSL connection. They said the tech would call when he's on his way out and that I'd just need to explain that the wiring is done. Unfortunately the tech never called and turned up when we were out and decided that no one was home so he wouldn't provision it at all (sigh).

No one called to let us know - we just found out by switching the modem to the 2nd line to find it wouldn't sync, and the phone service was still active on it. I called the next day (Thursday) to find out why it wasn't done, and they couldn't explain. On Friday the Slingshot twitter rep started replying and said the tech had visited and left. Today (Monday) the neighbours dropped off a Chorus/Transfield business card which it turns out had been left in their letter box hah.

Slingshot rescheduled it for today (Monday the 12th) but couldn't give me a time, so I called Chorus myself and got them to book it for the first job in the afternoon. Not sure why Slingshot couldn't do the same...

BUT I got a call an hour later saying that the tech's Van had broken down and now can't be done till tomorrow afternoon.

SIGH. This is what I mean when I say allow extra time.

2talk:
I'll post more about the 2talk setup once NDSL is in and the numbers are ported. Am waiting on a support enquiry from them about Faxing - the PDF and TIFFs generated by dad's Canon scanner don't play nicely with their fax servers it seems.

Thus far 2talk has been working great on the existing DSL line. Being a Callplus company, as is Slingshot, the latency is great - about 20-30ms to the 2talk servers. Am using G711a seeing as bandwidth isn't an issue, and have set up ToS markings and QoS to give VoIP priority.

Protips:

2talk can't detect when a cellphone goes to voicemail, so it's best to use a delay (I'm using 12s) for LocateMe diverts so that the phones ring long enough in the event that the cellphone is switched off (ie it goes straight to voicemail). Have a 17s delay on voicemail on top of that which is enough to make sure when the cellphone is on it rings for long enough, but goes to the 2talk voice mail instead of the cellphone voicemail. There are also options to remove your cellphone voicemail and instead divert it to a special 028 number that just rings and rings and rings so that your 2talk voicemail kicks in instead.

Test, test, and test again. Try and test all scenarios of calls. Eg cellphone on, cellphone off, PC hammering P2P, calls to/from cellphones, calls to/from landlines.

When doing a parallel setup like this, 2talk allows you to fake the outgoing Called ID (CLI) of your line. You enter the number in the web portal, then it gives you a PIN and calls that number. You enter the PIN and it confirms. That way your outbound calls can appear as if they are coming from the number that is to be ported later.

Test the latency and jittter on your connection. You may need to use a different codec (eg G.729) to allow for jitter, or you may be able to adjust the packet length to be shorter.

2talk can do Call Recording and automatically forward the recordings to email. This is very handy when you lose that darn peice of paper you wrote whats-his-face's number on, or where you have a dispute with someone you've called, eg utility co, or someone has a dispute with you.

2talk also logs all calls including local calls (unlike Telecom), which is handy for businesses where someone might dispute you calling them.

Use a decent 'buffer' of call credit. 2talk is a prepay only service. I have set it up to Auto-topup when it gets below $50. I would recommend allowing 1 - 2 months of calling credit as your base just in case something goes wrong with your credit card (ie you go broke!)

Your overall experience will only be as good as your weakest link. If you use crappy phones and crappy modems etc, your experience will be poor. Use decent stuff to get decent results.

For 2talk faxmail - if your scanner has programmable buttons that can automagically scan to PDF/TIFF and drop it onto an application: I used http://www.affixa.com/ which allows you to grab that scan and bring up a gmail (and other email apps) compose window with the attachment ready to go.

Vodafone vs. Telecom

Tue, 12 May 2009 10:18:00 PDT

So I'm not convinced as to what really went on within Vodafone and Telecom that lead to the Injunction application/settlement.
There are a few different issues:

Whether Telecom should or should not have handled interference on an individual cell site basis.
Whether Telecom actually refused to fix the interference issue, insisting that its Vodafone's responsibility
Whether Telecom should or should not have brought forward the release date, based on whether it knew that there would still be cell sites causing interference on May 13.
Whether Telecom should have switched WCDMA on at all, given it was warned by Alcatel-Lucent of the risk of it's transmissions interfering with Vodafone and NZ Communnications.
- Probably not. Whether they were required to or not, it would have been appropriate to assure that their network did not cause interference.
Whether Telecom did or did not engage with Vodafone at the earliest possible time to mitigate potential or exisiting interference issues.
- They did not. Once Vodafone and MED RSM had concluded testing Vodafone approached telecom on the issue.
Whether Vodafone neglected to act on any responsibilties of its own to keep it's network resilient to interference from other network transmissions.
- Vodafone had some bulk head amplifiers on some of the sites that were affected, but there were many affected sites that did not have those amplifiers. Therefore it was not reasonable of Telecom to blame those amplifiers for all the interference issues.
- Vodafone also performed testing on it's network to determine the cause of their network problems, and also asked MED's RSM unit to perform testing, which confirmed Telecom was causing interference.
Whether Telecom actually acted unlawfully in allowing interference to occur.
Whether Vodafone had no option but to seek an injunction, or whether it was a stunt to gain leverage and publicity after private negotiations were not satisfactory to them.
- The PR side of it was probably more coincidental/convenient. I think it's perfectly fair that Telecom should be responsibile for making sure it's network does not intefere with other networks, and that it should ensure that from the outset, not just after other networks complain. I wonder if Telecom actually did any testing for interference, or whether it just waited for complaints.
- Vodafone is totally reasonable in wanting to protect it's property and brand and if XT had launched and ramped up to full power, the property and brand would have been adversely impacted. Telecom refused to turn off the offending cell sites, and refused to install filters without proof that a particular site is causing interference (time consuming). Therefore the interference would have a) continued for some time, and b) gotten worse with the ramping up of power from the XT sites.
Why didn't vodafone try for an injunction earlier.
- Because vodafone wasn't aware that it was Telecom XT interference causing their network issues untill March, at which time they engaged with telecom to resolve the issues. It was only after Telecom refused to install filters on a reasonable time line that vodafone went for the injunction.

The picture I get from Vodafone's statements is that Telecom knew there was interference, and refused to do anything about it, and therefore was intentially degrading Vodafone's network performance for competitive gain.

The Telecom story is that Vodafone are simply a big nasty corporation and are using an insignificant detail to attempt to undermine Telecom in the face of competition.

Hopefully I can get some time to analyse this a bit, although I'm pretty busy doing some hardcore pro extreme Adobe Air javascript programming to make me a choice-as IRC client so it might have to wait a while.If you have any references to good facts about the case please drop a link.
Update: received from information from Paul Brislen so can answer some of the questions. I'll post an affidavit of the timeline and some other information later.

New focus of #blackout

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:34:00 PST

The government has delayed the commencement of S92 of the Copyright Act and made it conditional upon agreement between the TCF and Record labels, but I don't think people should give up the blackout just yet. We need to convince the TCF and ISPs that the Code of Practice is flawed and diminshes our freedoms, rights and commonsense and either force them to disagree such that the section is repealed, or get them to agree to a more reasonable policy.

Here's what we should all do (please add comments for more things):

- Make submissions on the TCF code stating the reason's why it is inappropriate
- Tell your ISP in writing that S92A only calls for "reasonable implementation" and that it doesn't require the policy itself to be reasonable nor does it require disconnection on accusation.
- Tell your ISP in writing that you will not support them if they choose to implement a policy that involves disconnection upon accusation, and that you will switch ISP if they do so.
- Continue to write to your MP stating the potential flaws of the legislation and the impacts it could lead to, and also remind them that a Code of Practice may not be followed by all ISPs and will still be costly to implement, especially for small ISPs and non-traditional-ISP organisations (libraries, hotspots etc).

S92A - Could have worked better if ISPs had more clout

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:11:00 PST

I think people have got a little carried away with chinese whispers about what S92A actually specifies.

It doesn't specify any "3 strikes" policy
It doesn't specify that ISPs must disconnect users on receipt of an infringement notice.
It doesn't specify what a "repeat infringer" is - whether its 2 or 10 or 100 infringements.
S92C does specify where an ISP will face liability for content stored by the ISP where it is aware that the material is infringing, but this does not apply to cached content nor incidental storage during transmission to customers.

It merely states that an ISP must "reasonably implement" a policy to disconnect users. One way you could interpret that is to say that they must just have a mechanism should a court order that a user be disconnected.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I guess they are probably scared of being sued by copyright holders for their policy not being reasonable, and what we can see from the drafting of the TCF CoP is that what the Copyright Holder companies think is reasonable is quite different to what the ISPs see as reasonable.

What the copyright holders see as being reasonable is the ISPs disconnecting users upon accusation even when they may not be explicity required to do so by S92A, and the ISPs are giving in to this demand for fear of litigation costs because as has been seen elsewhere, those copyright holders have plenty of resources available to keep ISPs tied up in lengthy and expensive litigation.

So this is just for those people who think it's the government that is inflicting those conditions that have come about because of S92A. S92C is quite bad in terms of Guilt Upon Accusation though.

Dont get me wrong, Judith Tizard had vague legislation drafted which is completely open to interpretation and unfortunately it has left it open for all these nasty things to come about.

All that really needs to happen is for the first person to be disconnected by the ISP to sue the ISP for their policy being unreasonable. Although thats not something I would like to see inflicted upon them but if National doesn't repeal or at least delay and rewrite this section then it may be the only avenue available.

Looking for a flat

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:17:00 PST

Hey GZers,
Just on the off chance some has or knows of a flat or house to rent in Wellington City (pref within about half an hours walk of downtown) with 2 or more rooms available for up to around $170/wk per room then please let me know. Me and a mate are looking for a place.
Cheers.

Old boys networks

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:20:00 PST

So an issue has arising with some acquaintances where one party has been threatening to use his "contacts" to destroy said acquantances' careers because his culture stipulates that he must take veangeance on anyone who croses him, or so he says.
So aside from discussing the legal issues, I'm interested to know what people think about these things and whether it is still a real thing that happens or whether people who try to use those tactics should learn not to take Shortland Street so seriously (by this I mean that these kinds of things are reserved for TV dramas).
I know that who you know can certainly aid in getting yourself ahead in life, not even necessarily in a malicious context. But do you think it's realistic that in this day and age of transparency, employee rights, legal paranoia, that a person could inflict damage on another's career because of a personal grudge?
To me I think it's scary. I certainly believe in consequences for wrong actions. But I think if someone is going inflict consequences they should be a direct response, rather than dirty and backhand tactics, and I think they should be transparent. I think it is scary that if I had some conflict with some person that they might be able to inflict such great damage on me even if I would be otherwise successful in my career.
That's different from someone being dobbing someone in for doing something wrong in the workplace, which I generally think is immature but some people like to deal with grudges by inflicting disproportionate damage. I'm talking about me having done something, most likely legally legitimate but perhaps personally insulting or disrespecful, and then the rest of my life being hampered by having a bad reputation among certain powers-that-be.
Do you think thats realistic in this day and age? Do you think its right? Do you think it's wrong?

Smartypants

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:19:00 PST

I've decided to be more eccentric and troublesome. I've done lots of caring, understanding, emo-ness-ing and stuff and while I shall retain my general compassion and sympathy for the human race, I think I should be more outwardly arrogant and pick arguments at will. Also, I shall retort in a largely unoriginal, but still midly humorous fashion when people are silly.
I insincerely apologise in advance for anyone I may offend. You are more than welcome to argue against me, but if your argument is does not meet my standards for humour and intelligence then I will simply resort to calling you names.

Here is an example of my new attitude, which is largely ripped off from the Spider-as-payment thing (10 points to the first person to comment with the link to it):

2talk Around the World

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:28:00 PDT

Hello folks,

Following on from my previous review of 2talk here I thought I would follow up with my experiences from using it via softphones and via the callback service in Canada and the UK.

All in all it's been an extremely great service. I used it mainly with the X-lite softphone and have never had any major issues. I found that using the G721 codecs gave the best quality when I was on a stable connection and didnt care about bandwidth usage. Using free softphones meant I wasnt able to use the G729 codec but apparently it is supposed to be quite good. I have also used Ekiga and SIP Communicator which both work very well.

The call quality from both Canada and here in the UK have been excellent. The latency is pretty much unnoticable so long as I'm on a semi decent connection (not too hard in North America/UK!) and I havent had any dropped calls or interuptions (bar those caused on my end by useless laptop batteries or accidental cable pulls!).

I did have some small issues with billing - their system wasnt recognising some Canadian caller IDs properly and billing them as Mobile calls, but a quick email to their support team had it sorted out quick smart with a credit to cover the issues.

On that note, their support team seems to be quite proactive and responsive, although I imagine they have the advantage of being a fairly small outfit at the moment.

The callback feature is extremly useful. Basically saves having to use calling cards etc. All I do is call my 028 number, wait for it to ring, and then it calls me back (so long as they received a caller ID which can sometimes be a bit dodgy internationally), I enter a PIN and then I get a dial tone and make a call as if I was in NZ. Its great for avoiding horrendous Telecom/VF roaming charges and to avoid making toll calls from friends' phone lines etc. I have it set up on my 028 number to call back all numbers and ask for a PIN seeing as I also have an 04 number which people call me on, but you can also set it up to only call back certain numbers with/without a PIN. The call quality using the callback seems to generally be much better than using calling cards and sometimes even better than just direct dialing on a landline from here.

The other great thing is the LocateMe & OneNumber feature where up to 3 external numbers + up to 5 VoIP phones can be rung simultaneously and you pick up which ever one you are closest to and the call connects to you. Works a treat while travelling or not at a computer. I have it set up to call my NZ cell and my temp Canada/UK cell and I give out my 2talk number instead of my 027 number so that when people call me the most I pay is 30c per min by answering on my UK cell instead of 1.50/min thru Telecom roaming!

One group of people I would definately recommend it to are either businesses or families who have staff/family members spread around the country. You can have multiple lines in different regions set up on one account, and calls are free between those numbers so effectively you can set yourself up a world wide PBX that isnt tied to particular desks or offices. There are also flexible options for redirecting calls to a head office or other staff member on no answer or busy. They also have support for 0800 numbers now.

Things I would like to see from them:
- A desktop interface/director that works with hardware VoIP phones that integrates with outlook etc to control calls (particularly useful for businesses if it could integrate with CRM type software for call tracking etc)
- Have Slingshot drop iTalk and migrate users to 2talk and offer it as part of the NDSL package
- Development or support of cell/smartphone apps that can automate dialing etc.
- Support for IP Phones to have centralised XML directories stored on 2talk servers with outlook integration and web based interface.
- Push for national (and international) SIP peering with other VoIP providers to bypass the PSTN as much as possible
- Push for IP Peering with other ISPs to make VoIP traffic free/cheaper
- Develop the faxing side a bit more with software to allow seamless faxing from desktop apps rather than via email
- Offer ADSL/Cable routers preconfigured with QoS settings to maximise VoIP experience

Job Please!

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:13:00 PDT

Hiya folks,

I'm going to be back from my OE in Canada in a coupla weeks and am on the job hunt! Ideally would like to get into some project management type stuff, with a long term goal to get into more strategic IT management. Will also consider sysadmin and software dev positions to get experience in the shorter term.

Have previous experience in IT and have just completed a Bch of IT (Hons) majoring in Info Systems at Victoria Uni in Wellington which included software dev (OOD, Java, VB.net, VBA, SQL, little C++/JS/HTML) and info managment/strategy incl project management.

Here is my CV

Give me an email, comment or PM if you have anything or know of anything on the go :D

Cheers!

Boredom

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:16:00 PDT

After receiving specialist advice in the geekzone IRC channel, I have decided to blog about my boredom.

You can blame munchkin in particular for taking the time to fax this to my 2talk fax number:

I am bored.

That is all.

Copyright Infringement Policing

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:50:00 PDT

After some amount of illustirous debate here I have decided I shall reiterate my philosphy on the matter. Top stuff from Phil (maverick) and Cecil (xnet) from WorldExchange Xnet for standing up for their company's policies in that thread.

Before people go getting the wrong idea:

I do not believe that all creative works should be in the public domain. I beleive it is appropriate to bestow the rights of distribution and use of creative works on their authors - otherwise there is little incentive for them to be creative other than for self entertainment purposes. The possibility of recognition and income from being creative is a strong incentive for someone to continue to be creative.

I do not believe that DRM software and mechanisms have no place on the internet. I thoroughly agree that, given the opportunistic nature of human beings, it is necessary to have mechanisms that ensure that content is obtained and used as authorised.

I do believe that DRM should not be restricted to certain platforms or devices. Copyright law does not exist to maintain exorbitant profits. DRM should reflect the principles of copyright - ie the protection of rights over creative expression.

There are two main issues I have with the upcoming amendment to the Copyright Act 1994 - the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008.

1) Is it appropriate to place any obligation and liability on ISPs to police the copyright compliance of it's customers?

2) Is it appropriate that ISPs are left to make a moral judgement in terms of their interpretation of the (vague) law?

We have an established judicial system in New Zealand of Courts and Tribunals. We also have various law enforcement agencies ranging from the Police, the Commerce Commission, Tenancy Services, Banking Ombudsman and so on. When I refer to "law enforcement" I mean agencies that act to ensure the law is followed and enforced.

We have the human rights commissioner. We have the privacy commissioner. Under all of these systems there is a process for complaint > independent review > acquittal or sentence.

Why, for copy rights, do we have a system that puts the onus on an ISP - a commercial entity - to decide whether a particular case is in breach of the law or not?

The only currently implemented process that I have seen discussed in detail goes something like this: Copyright holder/agent uses some mechanism such as a honey pot (please leave the morality of that to another discussion!) to detect the IP address and time that a particular internet host infringed some copyright material. Copyright holder/agent then notifies that host's ISP who look up the user using the IP address and time stamp, and fowards a Cease and Desist notice. Continued infringement results in account suspension.

According to this the provision for it being an offence to provide misleading notices was removed from the bill.
So: We have a system that involves third parties notifying an ISP of an offence, and that notification resulting in action without any legal offence being established by a judicial review.

This may not be the intention of the legislation, but it is how it is being implemented by at least one ISP. I understand the willingness of that ISP to protect itself against liability, but I believe that liability should be totally prevented by the law.

Add to the legal dilemma the fact that people are becoming increasingly reliant on internet connections for a range of activities from browsing, to telecommunications, to teleworking and so on. Assumably, ISPs also prefer to keep customers rather than disconnecting them over a trivial amount of copyright infringement. Keep in mind the current state of the population's understanding of the ethics and legality of obtaining media over the internet, as well their ability to determine whether they are actually infringing copyright.

In summary:
a) I dont believe it is appropriate for ISPs to be actioning orders to disconnect a user from anywhere other than a NZ court of law.
b) I believe that ISPs should be protected from all liability of traffic flowing over it's network and incidental storage regardless of whether it is aware that some of that traffic contains infringing material.
c) I don't believe that termination of an internet connection is the appropriate mechanism to combat piracy. Real legal fines and punitive actions are appropriate just like any other offence.

Edit: Edited some legalese that i tried to use inappropriately in the line about the onus on isps to establish breach.

Why is there little interest in new underseas cables in NZ?

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:26:00 PDT

Another /gripe.

Telecom and their partners spent around $1.3billion building the Southern Cross cable. Their bank debt was repaid within 5 years. http://www.southerncrosscables.com/public/AboutUs/default.cfm?PageID=43

Why has there been little interest from other parties in building something similar? ISPs complain about the high costs of internation bandwidth, thus high prices for data in New Zealand.

Korida is piggy backing onto the PPC-1 cable goin up to Guam, which is good, but why does no one else make moves like this, given the demand and lack of competition?! It is only only going to cost Kordia $100m to get in on the action. Screw dumping $1.5 billion into FTTH. Creating a million Gb/s connections that then try to get stuffed through SXC's 800ish Gb/s? What a waste of time.

Give us more international pipes at cheaper prices. Enforce open peering to optimise and secure (secure in terms of make robust) national routing. Cabinetise with low contention rates. Then we will be ready for FTTH, and we will be able to afford it from the profits of increased utilisation of technology which still has life left in it.

Surely there should be a business case for at least more transtasman cables, if not ANZ - Asia cables, if not ANZ - USA cables. Paying back many millions of dollars in debt so fast makes for a great return for investers and lenders alike. To me it is just another example of how telecom has NZ's communications wrapped around their little pinky no matter how much noise politicians and PR trolls make.

Media Centres - Surely they could be better

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:44:00 PDT

/gripe begin

I am generally totally unimpressed by the state of the art of digital Media Centres at present.

To me, the only creative thing they do is add a streamlined interface to more traditional media players like WMP , iTunes, and TV tuner viewers.

They dont appear to be really embracing technology to transform the way media is gathered, diseminated and viewed. We have been able to download video for quite some time. We have had Youtube and the like for quite some time. We have had TV tuners for quite some time. All the media centres seem to do is give us the ability to use a remote to do these things, but dont really do anything creative when it comes to content.

I think an important concept that Media Centre designers need to grasp is Cloud Computing.

I would like the see the following things before I get impressed by a media centre:

- Virtualise media storage:

Remove the barriers of having files stored in a particular place. This is already possible with home networks, and with better and cheaper broadband should be possible nationally if not globally. Make it possible to store your content anywhere. NASs, Media Centres, Gaming Consoles, Wifi MP3 players, Servers, PCs.

Make all of that available through any device with the same look and feel as if it was located on the device they are using to access it.

- Use a universal DRM strategy

Instead of following a "you own the licence to hold a copy of this and play that copy" model, choose a "you have a right to play/watch this item not matter where it is stored" model. This would be particularly useful to turn the pirating market around. Leave the ability intact for people to distribute copyrighted files, but make it possible to detect those files, and instead of disabling access, make it possible to acquire the rights to play that file, with the option to download a higher quality version if applicable.

- Develop an API to allow 3rd party content to be advertised without the need for special plugins or propreitary web portals (Stern look at tvnzondemand!)

/gripe end

2talk First Impressions

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:26:00 PDT

Have just signed up to the 2talk VoIP Service, thought I would make a post of my initial impressions.

Have been tinkering a little with VoIP for a while. I have used iTalk a fair bit with no troubles, but its a fairly basic service. Am interested in the WxC VFX service but I need and want to be able to use a softphone so for now they are not a contender. Have also used skype extensively for both PC - PC and PC - PSTN calls, and use Skype, MSN and GTalk for text chatting.

The signup process was fairly easy. They make you call them to confirm your details (although this may just be because I signed up a Canadian IP using an NZ physicql address, not sure). They allocate you an 028 number which is a mobile network number. It means you can get a free account, and they make money out of terminating calls from the PSTN which are charged as cellphone calls.

You can also get a local number from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier, Whangarei, Pukekohe, Kaikohe and Kaitaia, and they say they are looking to add more regions within a few months. You also get a seperate fax number to use with their Fax-Email/Email-Fax service, or to use with their seperate T.38 SIP Faxing gateway.

Number ports are available from the regions that they currently have local number ranges, however initially they allocate you an 028 number and you contact them seperately to arrange the port.

Once you have signed up and called them to activate the account, you receive an email with the login details which you can use with any SIP-compliant device including softphones, IP Phones, ATAs and IP-PBXs. For the latter they have a specific SIP trunking service.

The web based management portal is very extensive. It offers LocateMe (ring up to 3 alternative numbers at once untill I answer), and 'OneNumber' which allows multiple SIP registrations for a single number. This is on top of standard forwarding, call waiting, answerphone services. There is also the ability to assign extension numbers if you have multiple lines on the account for quick dialing the other lines. This essentially turns it into an IP centrex system. There are also business plans that allow DID blocks and multiple simultaneous calls and so on.

There are also some nice features such as the remote call back service that allows you to call your number, hang up, and you will be called back and then you can dial an number and it will be charged at the normal 2talk rate for both the call to your remote number and the outwards call. There is also a built in 'Group Room' feature which allows people to either call a 2talk number and enter a pin, or just call your number if you have it set to go straight to the room, and they are entered into essentially a Voice Chatroom.

There are also date/time services like wake up calls, and you can control the LocateMe, Call Forwarding (forward on no answer, busy or unavailable) and Call Screening based on up to 3 schedules. There is also the ability to reject anonymous and/or blacklisted caller IDs.

On top of that there are address book and calender modules as well as the ability to add credit and add additional lines from the portal. A screen shot of the settings part of the portal is here

To test it out I downloaded Conterpath's Free X-Lite SIP client and plugged in the settings and used a basic Logitech analogue headset through the onboard sound card on my laptop. Made one call to a landline in Tauranga for around 30 mins, one to a lower hutt landline for 1hr and one to a Vodafone cellphone in Auckland for a couple of minutes. All of them said they could hear my even better than they usually do for calls, and I could hear all 3 extremely clearly. There was the occaisional slight fade, but thats not surprising seeing as I am in Eastern Canada. My ping rate is fairly stable from here to 2talk.co.nz - sits mostly on 210ms with the occaisional spike to 220 - 230ms. Am looking forward to testing it out back in NZ, and also plan to set it up on my father's PC to test calling between PCs which assumably should be excellent quality.

It's hugely better than using Skype for PSTN calls, and about the same price per minute but there is no connect fee. An inbound landline number is slightly more expensive than Skype, but if you make a lot of calls its far cheaper seeing as the $15/mo plan includes 500 minutes to 40+ countries. Of course you can just use the free plan and give people your 028 number, although this will cost them the same as a cellphone call. EDIT: Turns out you can buy a local number with the free acount for $7/mo with no included minutes.

So far I am very impressed by the feature set and pricing structure. Will continue to use it and see if I run into any issues. Will be looking forward to getting an IP phone to hook up to it, and would ideally like to try it from a Wifi SIP handset as well as from a Smartphone using the data connection as well as Wifi.

I think they could set up quite a good business if they decided to become an MNVO - could provide a single number for landline and cell calls as well as texting. If they could charge the same rate, with perhaps a fixed surchage for calls from the cell that reduces for a monthly contract, they'd be onto a winner.

They also have a customised version of the Open Wengo softphone client. It also connects to MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, and Jabber. It has the advantage of built in SMS and a balance display, but functionally it isn't particularly complete compared to X-Lite and others. Its nice that you can do all the IMs in one, but as a softphone its a bit basic. It allows conferencing, but only if initiated without a call in progress (ie, you can't add a 2nd caller mid-call). It also doesnt seem to offer many codecs.

Only downside so far is that they don't 'support' emergency calling. That doesnt mean you can't call 111, but they are just shielding themselves from the liability and hassle of reliable connections to 111 and the physical location problem.

Much like following an ambulance through traffic

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:45:00 PST

Hmmm It seems I am allowed to have a blog, so I guess I should set it up. Its a bit weird though - making a blog on here alongside some well known people like Juha Saarinen and Mauricio Freitas.

However, Hello! I am Hamish. I'm not a super active member here but make a few posts here or there when something comes up that I feel like adding my 2c to. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades geek - I know a bit about a bunch of different things but there are only a few things that I know about in depth. That, with my stubborness and tendancy to speak my mind, get me into trouble a fair bit when it comes to arguments!!

I am in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the moment. Was given a grant by my (now) boss to come here and get some 'real' business research experience after I did well in the IM (no, not instant messaging. The other, nastier IM - Information Management =O ) course he lectured at Vic last year in Wellington. Have been studying at vic towards a Bch of IT - majoring in Information Systems - for the past 4 years. I've done the earlier comp sci papers to learn Java, C++, VB.net, SQL etc, but have gone down the management track instead of software development track. Mainly because I'm better at the 'fluffy' management and strategy stuff ;). Just need to finish my honours project and then I shall theoretically be eligible for a peice of paper which should trasform me from a naive kid with an opinion to a scholar with an even bigger, and occaisionally justified (!), opinion!