Happy 2006!
I just came across another useful Irish site offering recent aerial photos. They seem to be better resolution than the current Google Maps and Google Earth offerings.
These ones are at MyHome, though I presume they are originally sourced from Mapflow, as with most Irish aerial maps.
I was looking up some info on Eircom’s wall-mounted DSL splitter boxes. Opening up the box, I found “UK Reg Des No 2097942”. This led me to the UK Patents website office, which turned up this design from Pressac Communications.
Browsing around Pressac’s website, I came across their Structured Cabling System Installation Manual which is a really useful reference. It covers everything from cable trays, testing, fibre splicing, intra-floor wiring, termination methods, and even fire-proofing.
I didn’t find the info I was looking for about the DSL splitters unfortunately, so I kept on looking. A friend is having problems with DSL line which I think are related to his Eircom Phonewatch alarm system. I wanted to understand how to connect the alarm system to his DSL splitter so that the analogue POTS signal loops through the alarm cabling while the DSL signal goes directly to the DSL socket.
After some more research, I’m fairly confident that it’s just a matter of disconnecting two resistors on the PCB and looping the alarm wiring through the IDC punchdown block labelled ‘alarm’. However, my searching did uncover another interesting page: DSL Nation’s Inside ADSL MicroFilters page, which has pictures of the internals of a large number of DSL splitters, along with commentary. Useful reading if you’re wondering why one DSL splitter is better than another.
So not everything on the Internet needs to be deadly serious. I stumbled upon Marcus Ranum’s personal website today, which includes his well-worth-reading article on The Six Dumbest Ideas In Computer Security.
However, what caught my attention was his description of how to convert an obsolete satellite dish into a garden gazebo. It looks surprisingly easy (once you have the right bits and tools, of course).
I see Google is planning to offer free Wifi access to the residents of Mountain View (home of Google Headquarters) by entering an agreement with the city council to mount wireless access points on street lighting poles. They estimate 300-400 such devices will be enough to allow Internet access from anywhere outside a building. Access from inside a building will likely require a small external antenna.
This is an interesting idea, and it sounds as if Google plan to deploy the technology elsewhere if this initial project goes well. As they say themselves, Google can justify providing free access since it helps generate additional traffic for both Google and its advertising partners.
The city council proposal makes interesting reading, especially if you’re curious about the logistical details of such an arrangement (who pays for the power, what if the city changes its mind in two years, etc.)
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet is the impact of this proposed network on exising wireless networks in the area (e.g. within buildings). They all use the same 2.4 GHz unlicensed band. No doubt there are already newsgroups getting ready to meltdown with discussion of this…
Today from Steve, a very useful tip I wish I’d discovered years ago:
Windows 2000 & XP machines delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks.
Here’s how to prevent this remote search for Scheduled Tasks. Open up the Registry and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Explorer / RemoteComputer / NameSpace
Under that branch, select the key:
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
and delete it.
And just like that, your network shares will once more become instantly accessible. Hard to imagine why this isn’t the default behaviour…
Thanks to Steve for pointing me towards this Microsoft presentation showing Vista’s speech recognition and generation capabilities.
With Vista, there may finally be a good reason to start using speech to interact with your PC. Of course, a good microphone will be essential. Well worth a look anyway.
CNTs are Carbon Nanotubes, a new technology that allows flatpanel screens to be constructed from what is essentially an array of thousands of tiny CRTs, each CRT representing a pixel or so.
A friend (thanks Mike) pointed me towards this company which has been experimenting in the area. Click on Demonstrations on the left to see a nifty little animated demo of their current prototype (and be sure to read the caveats as well as to why the quality isn’t wonderful yet).
Why is this stuff of interest? Primarily because the potential exists to make absolutely massive screens using this technology. Plasma and LCD screens are limited in size, because they rely on a single sheet of semiconductors to make the whole screen – the technology to seamlessly stitch together multiple panels to make a bigger screen doesn’t exist.
For those screen types, cost increases rapidly as the size gets larger, because it becomes more difficult to get screens with an acceptably high number of working pixels.
With CNTs, this is no longer an issue – you simply manufacture buckets of tiny screens (say 4″ x 5″) and stitch them together to make as big a display as you like. Tiny screens means much higher yield which in turn translates to lower prices. Plus, as a bonus, you get all the benefits of a normal CRT (bright picture, fast refresh, etc.) without the drawbacks of massive weight and depth.
Probably another year or two to go before these hit your local electronics superstore, but it can only be a matter of time.
(On the other hand, whatever happened to bubble memory?)
Eddy
Edward Tufte’s series of books on visualisation are essential reading for anyone interested in how to clearly present complex (or not so complex) data in a way that is quickly understandable.
I just stumbled upon another Tufte innovation – Sparklines. I’m not sure if he’s invented these, or is just coining the phrase, but in any case the article is well worth a read.
So it happened yet again: I tried to be too clever with some manual sniping in an eBay auction, and ended up losing … the item in question (a DVD-based Satnav system for my car) sold for a good €60 less than I was willing to pay.
My mistake? I waited until about 50 seconds before the end before placing my winning bid. Unfortunately, eBay had timed out my account, so wanted me to login again. Very unfortunately, eBay’s login server (though not its main server, apparently) was running very slowly. It took 12 seconds to display the login page, another 12 seconds to process my login, another 12 seconds to accept my bid, 12 more seconds to accept my confirmation … just in time to tell me that the auction had ended and my bid was invalid 🙁
Why didn’t I just bid earlier? From experience, there are always a few people waiting in the shadows to place a last minute bid and pip the highest bidder, and I didn’t want to drive the price up unnecessarily. In this case, the last minute bidding went from €210 to €250, and I was willing to go to €312.
So, new strategy to avoid this extremely irritating log-in process: two minutes before the auction ends, place a minimum bid for the item in question. Also line up my maximum bid, ready to press submit. 30 seconds before the auction ends, hit Submit. I’ll still get caught by eBay’s annoying habit of letting users bid against themselves (what’s going on there?), but for an eagerly contested item, it’s worth paying an extra pound or two safety.
I just came across a pointer to this cute animated demo of George Bush in freefall:
http://www.yeeguy.com/freefall/
Use the mouse to drag the prez around; it’s strangely addictive, and quite cool.
I found it at Viktor’s Day Book (Viktor has one of the longest running MUD2 sites, among his many other accomplishments).
Does anyone remember Thrust on the Amiga? Low-gravity games are almost always fun.