Steve's Blog

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Moyles show tops UK podcast chart

2005-08-03T00:51:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Moyles show tops UK podcast chart

Podcasts are now mainstream. Chris Moyles' breakfast show is being podcast (well the best of the week) and has instantly (or at least within 10 hours) has gone to the top of Apple's podcast directory.

Users still need to sync their iPods with iTunes or another podcast client in order to realise the benefits from podcasting.

Here's an opportunity for someone to make a device that can connect over WiFi or even DAB and download RSS/Atom feeds and podcasts so a user can read/listen to information whenever they want and it will always be current.

Time support site is shut down - Desktops - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

2005-08-03T00:45:00.000Z

Time support site is shut down - Desktops - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com

Demon vs Godfrey (1999) hits another site. The tinycon.com (unofficial) site for ex employees of Tiny.com and Time Computers and customers disappeared off the Internet.

It seems the hosting cmpany SiteHQ worried about defamatory content pulled the plug.

The Godfrey/Demon case puts liability on the ISP/hosting company if they are made aware of potentially defamatory content, and they have to make a judgement call if it's defamatory or not. If they decide it isn't and a court decides it is, they can be held liable. So ISPs will just make the content unavailable so they cant be sued (or only put it up with legal disclaimers or get-outs).

BitTorrent goes upmarket

2005-08-03T00:38:00.000Z

BitTorrent goes upmarket

BitTorrent could be the answer to on-line content delivery it's demise. The latest version doesn't require centralised torrents making it difficult to shut down sites.

BitTorrent is very clever decentralised peer-to-peer (p2p) software that ensures data is actually downloaded from a variety of sources and the client puts the pieces together again, so it may only pull a few KB/s from individual peers but several 100Kb/s from the aggregated peers.

Each client then also serves the content it's pulled to other peers.

This actually makes very efficient use of available bandwidth and eases content delivery and piracy, though there are DRM (digital rights management) systems that can work with BitTorrent.

BitTorrent accounts for a large percentage of p2p traffic, if the DRM issues can be sorted it could change the way content is distributed.

802.11n rivals agree to merge | The Register

2005-08-03T00:30:00.000Z

802.11n rivals agree to merge | The Register

This is a good thing hopefully allowing network speeds of up to 540Mb/s. The proposals would still require European approval through ETSI (802.11a though an IEEE standard isn't approved for EU use so there's an 802.111h standard which is 802.11a modified to meet EU standards). So even though 802.11n sounds like a good idea, it may take a while for equipment to be available even after the IEEE ratifies it.

Techworld.com - Ofcom auction opens low-cost mobile calls

2005-08-03T00:23:00.000Z

Techworld.com - Ofcom auction opens low-cost mobile calls

Unfortunately it's not quite as plain sailing as the article makes out. Though Ofcom is auctioning between 5 and 10 licenses for national UK coverage, there's no guarantee that roaming off traditional GSM networks will happen, that would mean cooperation from the MNOs (mobile network operators) which isn't guaranteed.

Hopefully Ofcom will mandate roaming allowing existing handsert users to easily move off a GSM network onto a local pico cell which could significantly reduce call charges which would suit in-building "hotspots" within a business or local area.

Of course a licensee could elect to use the spectrum for another purpose complietely like fixed wireless (broadband) access, though the bandwidth is limited.

Reserve pricing is set at £50,000 to stop "frivolous" applications.

Microsoft to side with HD DVD for Xbox 360

2005-08-01T14:02:00.000Z

Microsoft to side with HD DVD for Xbox 360

There's not really much of a suprise in the article, MS adopting HD-DVD rather than Blu-ray. It's even less of a suprise Sony are going with Blu-ray (as the article implies) as they developed the format!!!

LINX offering 10Gb/s

2005-08-01T12:46:00.000Z

Net4Now :: News Story

LINX, the London INternet eXchange which was started when BT joined the ISP foray many years ago (as previously the 4 UK ISPs maintained a mesh between themselves and having a 5th company come along meant 4 new connections to the existing 4 ISPs) has grown at an astounding rates and is now one of the biggest (if not the biggest) peering points in the world.

They are now offering 10Gb/s Ethernet connectivity and Limelight Networks are the first company to take on a 10Gb/s port. Limelight are a content provider rather than an ISP so potentially need to have enough bandwidth to supply all the other peers taking content, which means we'll likely see 100Gb/s connections in the future.

Net4Now :: News Story

2005-08-01T12:36:00.000Z

Net4Now :: News Story

This is not unexpected, Easynet have been "pushing" their LLUStream service for a while and One.tel like every other broadband supplier will be looking to reduce costs.

Though the LLUStream is a workable wholesale offering, there could still be issues in provisioning and/or customer faults as Easynet still utilise BT for the copper infrastructure and there are potential problems when things go wrong (i.e. customer complains to One.tel/Easynet who say it's a BT fault, BTsay it's the LLU operators fault). Though most of the process is there, it's still relatively new and there will be teething issues which will be worsened with a 3rd party reseller.

VoIP provider adds virtual PBX to list of services

2005-07-29T13:27:00.000Z

Net4Now :: News Story

Another VoIP offering. It's all very well offering sophisticated VoIP services (in this case virtual PBX services) but there are many hidden costs that customers should be aware of.

Replacing a traditional phone system with an IP one is not necessarily an easy process. Firstly the LAN probably needs updating so that it supports QoS to the desk, then there's the cost of the IP phones themselves and connectivity back to the ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider) itself.

Many offerings are over standard DSL links, which don't support QoS and even leased lines may well hit the ISP on a contended backbone.

Adding all these costs up may make the service suddenly very unattractive (especially for single site companies) and traditional forms of telephony may work out much more cost-effective using IDA or CPS type services.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | BT quits race for broadband share

2005-07-29T13:08:00.000Z

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | BT quits race for broadband share

This only applies to BT Retails, BT Wholesale still accounts for the bulk of DSL in the UK (6m+ customers and LLU 60k). Cable accounts for another 2m'ish but that still puts BTW way out in front.

Stopped by the Police

2005-07-28T22:51:00.000Z

On Tuesday night I drove back from Bristol, it was late and I dropped a friend in Bethnal Green. While driving through Islington a Police car turned into the road that I was stationary on (waiting at some traffic lights) drove past, looked at me and did a U-turn.

They then proceeded to follow me for about 1/2 a mile (actually they were a few cars behind me) and then the blue lights came on.

I stopped and a nice Police woman tapped on the glass so I got out. Then a Policeman came over doing the DVLA check etc.

They did the usual of "Is this your car? Is it registered to you, name address?" etc. The woman notified me that they she was going to write down where they'd stopped me and asked if I had any ID, so I produced my driving license. I asked why they'd stopped me and was told "because of what I was wearing and I was hunched in the seat and looked suspicious".

All they would have been able to see was a black jacket and maybe my hoodie, and I'd just driven for almost 3 1/2 hours so was knackered, which I did explain to the woman.

Anyway the radio obviously reported back that the car was registered to me, so they actually apologised and sent me on my way.

Moral, don't wear hoodies and don't drive through central london late at night ...

Bomb scares in London 'burbs

2005-07-28T22:45:00.000Z

Last Saturday I was having a quiet drink in the pub for a friend's birthday when suddenly blue and white "Police Line - do not cross" tape started appearing everywhere.

It was a bomb scare. The Police guarding the area didn't know what was going on except that the area was a no go.

All in all there must have been about 50+ Police, a bomb squad unit and 3 fire engines. The bomb squad had a truck with what looked like a sealed rear section with a periscope coming out the top.

They suddenly announced that the streets had to be cleared and we were locked in the pub, unfortunately no free drinks which was disappointing.

They then proceeded to unroll a large drum of wire and connect it to what looked like a tube on a car jack (a detonator?), but quite quickly rolled it back in and declared the area safe.

Today (Thurs) it seems there was a large Police presence on the underground and even sleepy Belsize Park had two stationed there all day (Kentish Town seemed to have at least 3 or 4).

Jobs - still looking

2005-07-19T21:25:00.000Z

Still not found a permanent job. I've been doing some consultancy, but need to find some more. So if anyone is looking for someone in the Internet/telco space do drop me a line.

Fred my cat

2005-07-19T21:11:00.000Z

Fred sitting/lying on his back which he quite often does. He's cute though.

Religion

2005-07-11T23:57:00.000Z

Here's my quick rundown on religion.

Basically it all started with the Sumerians, who had a pretty decent knowledge of astronomy etc.

Along came the Egyptians, they had lots of gods, but they had a heretic pharaoh originally called Amenhotep IV but he changed it to Akhenaten (the Aten was the Sun god). He was maried to Nefertiti. They started a religion based on the one god (the Sun). Some of the prayers of this time were very similar to old Jewish prayers.

At some point around this time Egypt went back to its old system of beliefs, either Akhenaten died or fled (or his followers did). He left a son, Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamen).

The Israelites aren't mentioned in Egyptian history until several dynasties later.

So the Moses story could be followers of Akhenaten leaving Egypt (and crossing the red sea could be possible, there are various reefs that though broken now, could have spanned sections of the sea). After Moses came down from the mountains, he came to find people worshipping a golden bull i.e. the old Eqyptian religions.

The Jews went on happily for a while and then came along the Romans ("what did the Romans ever do for us?" ...). Herod was a puppet king installed by the Romans. He was worried about someone being born, why? Well if the newly born boy was decended from the line of King David, he should have rights to the Kingdom of Israel.

So potentially Jesus was really a king. He was definately jewish and probably quite pious, the last supper was "Pass Over" the most religious Jewish festival. It's also likely he was quite wealthy as being able to hold pass over in an Inn would have been difficult (imagine trying to book Xmas lunch - you have to book ages in advance and they generally charge a fortune for the privilige). There's the whole Priory of Sion that goes with this legend too.

Anyway there were lots of factions of Christianity that sprung up and follwed the teachings of Jesus (well maybe anyway, they followed the teachings of his disciples, remember Jesus was a religious Jew), but there were many arguments (and the Catholic Church doesn't particularly like early gospels or ones that don't make Jesus a deity). The Romans didn't much like all this squabbling so they called everyone together and made them agree on the various dates (and them bashed them around a bit to make them fit with the Roman pagan festivals). Jews have Saturday as the sabbath, Christians have Sunday - remember early Christians were likely to be Jewish, so the Romands imposed it because they celebrated the day of the Sun (day of Sun. Sunday). It just so happens a lot of other Christian religious days fall on Roman pagan festivals. The bible wasn't knocked together until quite a while later, after Rome had converted.

Then we have Islam, basically just another split from the original Jesus/Jew to Christian. Happened a bit later but Mohammed could well have been Jesus and went in another direction.

Of course this is just opinion ...

Michael Epstein

2005-05-24T00:34:00.000Z

Assuming there are no delays in transporting Mike from Israel, the funeral will be at Southgate cemetery (Middlesex synagogue) at 11.45pm on Friday 27th May 2005.

There will be drinks at his parents house in Highgate after.

Mchael Epstein

2005-05-19T15:01:00.000Z

My cousing, Mike died last night. He'd been fighting cancer for a while and was in Israel awaiting new stem-cell treatment. Unfortunately he was so weak from the previous chemotherapy treatment they couldn't do anything until he got his strength back, but he just got weaker.

He had a few troubles in his life, but in recent years lived a happy life in the South of France and built a beautiful home.

He leaves a wife Cathy and daugher Lea and son Ben (from his first marriage) and will be sorely missed.

Apple Powerbook 12"

2005-05-18T22:17:00.000Z

All I can say is that its a lovely machine. Since I lost my work laptop (well had to give it back) I've been playing with a JVC MiniNote, but I had to give that back too (though it was quite nice, it's not really useful as a work system).

I managed to use a contact to get a discount and took the plunge and bought a Powerbook, the screen's nice and the keyboard is perfectly adequate for typing on. It's a great machine.

It comes with Airport Extreme, Bluetooth (and an internal modem and Ethernet). It joined my home (WEP) wireless network first time, though it didn't seem to want to register my .Mac account (though it was all OK when I logged into the mac itself).

It's got Tiger, which to me doesn't seem that different from Panther - though I was never a "power user" in terms of the nice gui stuff.

Just need to install Office, and it will be a perfectly usable portable system.

Not posting much

2005-05-12T23:51:00.000Z

I went to France to see my cousin again, who's not well. He's now gone to Israel where hopefully he's going to start a new form of treatment that isn't available in Europe. Unfortunately they cant do anything for the moment as he has to get his energy up as he's lost loads of weight and is suffering from malnutrition (from the treatment over here).

I then got back and have actually started some work (only short term consultancy) but it's at least it's good work and hopefully may make a difference.

MSN spaces

2005-05-10T13:44:00.000Z

Just created one, very easy from MSN Messenger - took about 30 seconds from MSN Messenger.

Oh well another system to keep updated ... or not ...

Anyway here's my space.

AXE Shower Gel - Is Your Shower Hottie Ready?

2005-04-15T15:31:00.000Z

AXE Shower Gel - Is Your Shower Hottie Ready?

Silly Shockwave game, it will appeal to FHM readers (Lynx promotion). Needs Shockwave 10.

My first PSP bug

2005-04-12T22:20:00.000Z

I got my US import copy of Metal Gear AC!D today and put the UMD disk into my Japanese import PSP. Started the game and went through the slow game learning cycle (well it's written for kids).

I got to the 1st stage and saved the game. I then shut down and went to do something sensible (well maybe slightly more productive than playing PSP games).

Later in the evening I turned on the PSP and loaded the game, went to load the saved version which went fine, but it returns you to the "options" menu instead of the main "start" menu so you cant play the game. The only thing you can do is hit the "home" key which returns you to the PSP main menu (i.e. out of the game completely) or you can navigate from the options menu back to the game start screen but that's like starting the game from the PSP itself.

Maybe I'll have another play and start from scratch again and try and save once I've got into the game proper. It could be that as the game hasn't really started you cant restore from there, but it does look like a bug.

France

2005-04-06T23:42:00.000Z

Well I eventually have taken some holiday. It's been a couple of years now.

I went to see my cousin who lives in the South of France about an hour inland from St Tropez (it's in the mountains, not on the coast). He lives in Ampus, well he's in the commune of Ampus as his house is in the middle of nowhere with about 3 other houses. Ampus has a population of about 340.

I spent a lot of time in Tourtour which is a beautiful town about 10 minutes away (well Ampus is about 6 minutes the other way), it's much bigger with a population of about 470. I went for the Festival des Oeufs (i.e. egg festival) which was fun - I even got involved in making things.

If anyone gets a chance to visit the area they wont be disappointed, fantastic scenery wine and food.

I'll post some more pictures soon.

2005-04-06T23:40:00.000Z

View over the Gorge de Verdon

PlayStation.com - PSP

2005-03-24T23:27:00.000Z

PlayStation.com - PSP

I actually got a Japanese Import from Play Asia which was the value pack which included various extras and Ridge Racers (the game).

The PSP is lovely and the screen fantastic. To be honest I haven't played with it much, but the graphics are amazing and though obviously not real, the 3D graphics are pretty realistic.

Unfortunately though I've told the system that everything should be in English, some game bits still seem to be in Japanese, which means I cant read them.

It comes with WiFi support (again not tried yet) and can be used in AdHoc mode for PSP to PSP gaming or through an access point. There's a USB connector (though there doesn't seem to be a USB cable supplied) and a memory stick slot (supporting memory stick duo).

As soon as some UK games come out. I'll write an update, hopefully they'll work as the UK is region 2 as is Japan. I really think Sony have come out with a winner here, and though the Nintendo DS is out over here already, the PSP will knock it into insignificance as soon is it arrives on UK shores.