marxy's musing on technology

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-359018252009-07-14T13:41:09.767-07:00marxy's musing on technologyA bloke with too many hobbies.Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.comBlogger364125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-85436193205819202592009-07-14T13:41:00.001-07:002009-07-14T13:41:09.782-07:00Digital Radio in Sydney gets a signal boost

Last night I noticed that the ABC digital radio stations (transmitted by Broadcast Australia near Chatswood) had jumped up in strength. Clearly there was antenna work going on because the signal was going on and off during the evening.This morning the signal is good, full bars with the antenna up and reasonably listenable with the antenna down.One thing, you don't want to set your watch by the

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-21248637593655677222009-07-11T21:21:00.001-07:002009-07-11T21:21:23.056-07:00Lovely long weekend in the Blue Mountains

My dear wife organised a weekend away at a "bed and breakfast" at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. My Internet addiction was suppressed to some extent by the fantastic views just down the road at Govett's Leap.We did a few walks, looked a lots of "old wares" as they call them, and ate too much yummy hand made food.Having my phone point out when new mail arrived was probably a bad idea but it did

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-90537349257399961502009-07-07T01:39:00.001-07:002009-07-07T01:53:57.005-07:00Unable to read old, crummy, CDRs

This is scary. I remember, some years back, finding that old floppy disks I'd stored had become unreadable after a few years, but this is the first time I've seen it with optical disks.This disk was burnt in October 1999. I've tried two CD readers and will try more, but so far this isn't looking good. The videos on this CD are irreplaceable, well the original might be somewhere on VHS cassette.To

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-53875328437573440412009-07-01T04:48:00.001-07:002009-07-01T04:48:37.755-07:00Hey Apple, what's with these huge minor updates?

Today there was a small update to iPhoto from Apple. Even though it was a small fix the download was over 100Mb!Now, while I have a good internet connection, and the download didn't take too long, but it still costs me money:But really, not so long ago, there were installers that could make a diff between a current version and the new version that just contains an efficient difference between the

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-44039308994593138372009-07-01T01:20:00.001-07:002009-07-01T15:27:40.962-07:00Digital Radio launches in Sydney

Today is launch day and the number of stations my radio finds has jumped to 38.Many of them are giving me errors here at the moment but at last the ABC is there. My beloved ABC Radio National is there at 72kbps mono but it does sound better than most AM radios.Here's the list of what my radio picks up on a full scan with a whip antenna in the kitchen.702 ABC SydneyABC Classic FMABC Dig MusicABC

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-42308668918045124912009-07-01T01:05:00.001-07:002009-07-01T01:41:11.302-07:00Radio with pictures

The ABC is playing with all sorts of ways of getting its content out on the net. One way is by making a video of people appearing on radio. Thanks in particular to Roi Huberman for his production effort.Subscribe to the abcradionational YouTube feed and they'll write you a lovely letter.

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-57273080996175790962009-06-23T14:10:00.001-07:002009-06-23T14:10:07.764-07:00Best Python IDE for MacOS

I keep coming back to TextMate, not because it does anything intelligent with my python code but just because it's fast and simple. For some reason the speed of the text editor makes a big difference to usability.For the past few years I've purchased Komodo IDE which has great features but the editor is infuriatingly sluggish, to the extent that often when I try to select some text it misses the

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-9200344206065381722009-06-19T22:47:00.001-07:002009-06-19T22:51:10.700-07:00LED lighting for the computer desk

A few years back we made the mistake of replacing the ugly track lights in the house with halogen lights in the ceilings.These lights are inefficient, don't last long and punch holes in the ceiling causing air to leak to and from the roof space.Friend Gerald is studying energy efficiency and got me inspired to look at improved lighting for home. This morning I went out after minimal research and

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-19367532848061246222009-06-19T22:13:00.001-07:002009-06-20T16:45:02.829-07:00Making beef jerky at home

A few of my more amusing workmates last week held a "jerky off" where they brought in home made beef jerky flavoured in different ways and we tasted them all.I've tried to make jerky at home in the oven but it wasn't very successful and no doubt burnt a lot of electricity.The secret is to get a food dehydrator. I paid $54 (plus $20 postage) for one on eBay and it arrived promptly.It's a nifty

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-87194266420258032452009-06-19T18:16:00.001-07:002009-06-19T18:30:43.715-07:00Django 1.1 please finish it

For the past few months I've been re-writing a PHP application in Django.The PHP application was built on a framework called CodeIgniter which looks very good shares many similarities with Django but the stuff that Django gives me "for free" is great. I personally prefer Python to PHP which helps of course.As we move through UAT towards production I've been anxiously tracking the progress of

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-16104585148180063422009-06-19T02:30:00.001-07:002009-06-19T17:45:27.087-07:00iPhone Tethering on Telstra

Can't believe I've lived without this until now.I'm on Telstra and just as an experiment took the iPhone browser here and clicked the APN link for telstra.iph (which for me mistakenly reported it would use telstra.internet).Went to Settings, General, Network and there is was.Unplugged my desktop computer's ethernet cable, plugged the iPhone in via USB and a new network alert was shown.On the Mac,

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-41942686711507537662009-06-15T03:03:00.001-07:002009-06-20T02:36:38.629-07:00For our Tibetan readers...

We do a little podcasting around here. Just launched is a series designed to help Tibetans moving to Australia to learn some English. It's called Tibetans Talk English. This new site is the companion to the previous series which helps English speakers learn a bit of Tibetan, called Talk Tibetan.It was a surprise to me that there are hundreds of Tibetans living around Dee Why at Sydney's Northern

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-8806295537122069512009-06-14T04:41:00.001-07:002009-06-14T04:41:10.064-07:00Journalism changed tonight

I've been listening to Dave Winer and Jay Rosen talking about rebooting the news so I'm primed for this.As I write it seems that the election in Iran is out of step with the will of the people but the story has come out, not in the traditional media, but via "process journalism", where the story evolves in real time rather than being presented as the full story at the end.Despite the fact that

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-49097557898829200792009-06-08T14:04:00.001-07:002009-06-08T14:04:00.654-07:00WWDC Keynote remote experience

I really tried to stay asleep - if you can do that, but my dreams were awash with images of tablets and new iPhone hardware with front facing video cameras for live conferencing.Despite a cold night and having the cat on 3, I was fully awake at 4am and headed down to experience the keynote via the live blogs.The best experience, for me, was gdgt. Very simple, elegant and a nice stream of quality

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-91587215462556285142009-06-07T01:46:00.001-07:002009-06-07T01:46:53.698-07:00Enjoying talks on ABC Fora

The ABC in Australia has a series of TV and radio spots that bring interesting public talks to the audience who couldn't be there. It has a rather unfriendly name of ABC Fora.For a long time, I thought it was something to do with plants but over time I've, mostly accidentally, heard some fantastic talks from this program.It's on TV on Sunday nights on ABC2 at 6pm and Thursdays at 5.35pm.It's on

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-43697564449210229222009-06-06T18:01:00.001-07:002009-06-06T18:02:11.554-07:00So, why do so many tech speakers begin sentences with "so"?

So, I've been listening to lots of excellent technical talks on the internet lately, Pycon 2009 and Google IO for example. Perhaps it's just me, but one weird trend stands out for me, very often speakers either begin their talk, begin a new paragraph, or begin an answer with the word So.WikiAnswers even has an answer on this. Yes, it's not grammatical. But why is it so common? "So" suggests the

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-84074657421082535262009-06-05T04:28:00.001-07:002009-06-05T04:54:27.225-07:00HDTV it's worth it: BBC Earth

We watch a lot of low definition video around here - and while content is king, it's great to see something both content rich and high definition.For the first time, this evening, I watched the BBC Earth BluRay disk and it is really stunning.5 years to make, 45 camera people, 2000 days in the field, 204 locations, 62 countries, every continent.I have no idea how they did it or how the stabilised

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-36002437914206532442009-06-04T04:13:00.001-07:002009-06-04T04:13:48.958-07:00Digital radio delayed in Sydney

According to the Digital Radio Plus website I notice that the launch in Sydney has slipped to June 10 "due to weather".Having said that there are 17 channels showing up on my receiver although many are silent or just test recordings.The station I'm most looking forward to is ABC Radio National. Here in Sydney we only get it on AM, while places like Coffs Harbour get it on FM, I'd love to get RN

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-67594322172109623482009-06-03T02:17:00.001-07:002009-06-03T02:17:41.944-07:00Android CupUpdate 1.5 in Australia

I've been clicking settings, about, check for update every day or so and finally it's coming down. Very exciting. I had a brief play with a Google staff member's phone the other day, will report back in a couple of days.I used the G1 for about a week after I got it but reverted back to the much smoother iPhone. It will be interesting to see what Cupcake is like.More news as it comes to hand.

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-46454611845942257852009-06-03T02:13:00.001-07:002009-06-03T02:13:32.491-07:00Google Wave

Wish me luck. I attempted to explain Google Wave to a general audience this morning. Not sure if I succeeded. Audio is here.

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-24426509334283686732009-05-29T04:44:00.001-07:002009-05-29T04:44:18.745-07:00Milkshakes namespace

Lunch at Lane Cove today with a bunch of programmers. The menu made me laugh.I thought I'd have something from the Milkshakes namespace.

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-51083420330299631212009-05-29T04:38:00.001-07:002009-05-29T04:46:22.741-07:00Mac monitor calibration with Spyder2

At work I'm using a high resolution, but poor quality monitor. I've tried the manual calibration in the Monitor control panel but it just made things worse.When mentioning this to our graphic designer he said that where he works they hire someone to come out and calibrate monitors for a few hundred dollars.On the way home I dropped by Maccentric in Chatwood (a fine store by the way) and found

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-2838308507248219792009-05-27T10:31:00.001-07:002009-05-27T10:31:23.426-07:00Dell Adamo port review

On Sunday, at the mall, I had a play with the new Dell laptop, called Adamo.I'm a MacBook Air user, but this is cute. At AU$3,800 I was confused because those Microsoft ads promised me that PCs would be really cheap!Anyhow, what caught my eye was that the ports on the back edge include eSATA and a full size DisplayPort socket (I've only ever seen the mini version Apple use).Surely eSATA should

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-59340712904532900472009-05-22T17:46:00.001-07:002009-05-22T17:46:11.008-07:00Sometimes Linux is really better

I've been very impressed with the latest Ubuntu and it seems that the polish goes far deeper than just the eye candy.Next week I'm off to Melbourne and the office lent me a nifty 3G USB wireless dongle, a Huawei model E169, supplied by Optus. First I tried it on the Mac, the device has an embedded USB storage area that mounts as a disk and has the software in it. It's rather clunky but functional

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35901825.post-18259841107027084522009-05-22T00:56:00.001-07:002009-05-22T00:56:50.600-07:00RSS being ruined by huge ads

I've been thinking a lot about my use of RSS for news.Dave Winer's recent podcasts "Rebooting the news" are fascinating to a news junkie like me.One thing that is spoiling my appreciation of RSS is the recent appearance of very large, tall ads in the feeds.I can understand that the sources need to make money from their news, even Rupert does, but if the ads are much bigger than the content, you

Peter B Markshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13007012724570360389noreply@blogger.com2