Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
Single sign comes the way of upcoming.org. This time Yahoo! seems to have sweeten the deal with a free offer of a T-shirt. However its only available to America and Canada. Wouldn't it be great if Yahoo sent a load over for T-shirts for Hackday or before? hint hint…
As previously mentioned on the backstage blog. Hackday.org is now official and you can sign up and grab yourself a ticket now.
The dates are the weekend of the 16th – 17th June at Alexander Palace (yes now it makes sense why I had pictures of the venue on my flickr stream)
Its a partnership between Yahoo! Developer Network and BBC Backstage, which we've been developing for quite sometime. Matthew Cashmore, Tom Coates, Matt McAlister and many others have been involved in this from the start.
As the hackday.org site says, stimulation will be provided in Food, Drinks, Feeds and APIs. Like BarCamp, you are welcome to play werewolf sorry hack or (sleep) through-out the night. Tomski's already offered his shower for Sunday morning. Its going to be a very cool event. No I won't
be doing a live DJ session from stage 1 afterwards but nor will Beck this time around.
From Backstage
The BBC is looking for people to join a six-month trial in which 20,000 UK residents will get free access to hundreds of programmes from the BBC archive, including reports of historic events as they happened, ground-breaking documentaries, soaps, action-packed children's shows, sumptuous dramas, and comedy shows that thrilled the nation.
Interested? then you can now register your interest on the BBC Archive site
There's changes on the way for geekdinners. Starting with PPT Karaoke
So in short we're getting more organized and more regular. But expect even more…
I was searching for the new Ajaxy Xbox media centre web interface, but came across documentation for the Xbox media centre's HTTPAPI. Which means I can completely control my xbox via a pipeline interface. However there are issues.
For example here's how to get what the Xbox is playing right now.
http://xbox/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=getcurrentlyplaying
But it comes back like this.
<html>
<li>Filename:smb://stratrix/downloads/podcasts/The 1UP Show/041307.m4v
<li>SongNo:0
<li>Type:Video
<li>Title:041307.m4v
<li>Thumb:defaultVideoCover.png
<li>PlayStatuslaying
<li>Time:00:02:40
<li>Duration:00:43:56
<li>Percentage:6
<li>File size:475954023
</html>
Although this is nasty, its still useful. How many media devices under your TV have some kind of API? How many devices around our house support some addressable API?
I like what this is saying, however I'd like to see some more examples…From those good people at NewTeeVee.
“What’s metadata?,” you might ask. Think of it as a layer of data describing content. In Joost’s example this could be anything from a simple timeline to tags to a full-grown programing guide.
The notion of using this type of data for some creative mashups first came up on the Ironic Sans blog, where a Joost fan by the name of David Friedman brainstormed about a feature that he would like to see in the client: The ability to share comments on the programming based on each show’s timeline. Says Friedman:
“Imagine watching a show like Heroes once, and then watching it again with comments turned on to see what other people caught that you missed.”
The concept of annotated television is definitely intriguing – especially if you package it into an easy-to-use application. But it wasn’t just the idea itself that made Friedman’s post interesting. Notable was also the first comment, made by someone who identified himself as Matt Hall:
“We’re already working on it. So far we have a rough passive version — a few bits of content have “trivia” that pops up at specified timestamps — but we plan eventually to allow timestamped tagging, commenting, annotation, etc.”
To be fair, we can’t know for sure if this is the same Matt Hall who works as a software engineer at Joost’s offices in Leiden. We do however know that Joost also hired Dan Brickley, who is one of the inventors of FOAF – a RDF-based metadata framework that makes it possible to transform simple web pages into machine-readable social networking nodes.
We also know that Joost makes extensive use of such metadata frameworks to build the programming and community features of its service. To quote Joost developer Leo Simons: “Not a day goes by without some of our developers swearing about ‘RDF’ or ‘metadata.’”
So what can these metadata frameworks be used for? Timestamped comments and tags are certainly one interesting possibility. Combine this with FOAF-like social networking structures, and you got yourself a whole new way to explore TV programming.
Oh by the way, we're planning a little festival in Edinburgh around the end of August . More details to come but if your interested in video, moving image and storytelling in the web space and the state of TV on line, brings you out in rants and raves. Drop me a email or look out for posts soon about the Edinburgh Fringe TV festival.
Well not only eRDF but RDF generally, while reading Jeremy Keith's post about machine tags.
For now, I’ve gone ahead and integrated Flickr machine tagging here… but this works from the opposite direction. Instead of tagging my blog posts with
flickr:photo=[ID], I’m pulling in any photos on Flickr tagged withadactio:post=[ID].Now, I’ve already been integrating Flickr pictures with my blog posts using regular “human” tags, but this is a bit different. For a start, to see the associations using the regular tags, you need to click a link (then the Hijax-y goodness takes over and shows any of my tagged photos without a page refresh). Also, this searches specifically for any of my photos that share a tag with my blog post. If I were to run a search on everyone’s photos, the amount of false positives would get really high. That’s not a bug; it’s a feature of the gloriously emergent nature of human tagging.
For the machine tagging, I can be a bit more confident. If a picture is tagged with
adactio:post=1245, I can be pretty confident that it should be associated with http://adactio.com/journal/1245. If any matches are found, thumbnails of the photos are shown right after the blog post: no click required.I’m not restricting the search to just my photos, either. Any photos tagged with
adactio:post=[ID]will show up on http://adactio.com/journal/[ID]. In a way, I’m enabling comments on all my posts. But instead of text comments, anyone now has the ability to add photos that they think are related to a blog post of mine. Remember, it doesn’t even need to be your Flickr picture that you’re machine tagging: you can also machine tag photos from your contacts or anyone else who is allowing their pictures to be tagged.
I like the idea of using your blog entry url as the predicate for the N3 triple (sorry) machine tag.
The other day I was installing some new wireless points around the house. My very 1st generation Linksys 802.11b access point had pretty much had enough and needed to be put out of its pain. And the pocket Asus wireless point (smaller that a Airport express) wasn't really made for constant use.
Anyhow, I happen to flip the switch on the Belkin 10 way power supply under my desk. Off went the Desktop machine. Thought damm it, and switched the 10 way back on. Well Windows was screwed, so screwed that I had to reinstall it again. Only this time when I reinstalled it, it kept getting upset about the hardware and would restart its self.In the end I got so pissed off with the whole thing, that I threw the Windows CD across the room and went looking for my Ubuntu CD.
Within a few hours I had Ubuntu 6.10 dapper installed (had to do some data shifting with partition magic) and before you knew it all the applications I needed, thanks very much to Nat's guide to Ubuntu she sent me over Twitter. I had a few problems on the way including writing to NTFS partitions and getting Azureus to run correctly. However this evening I got all those working without too much work. Now I just need to clean things up, get Hamachi running and sort out the Samba shares.
So far, its all god…
Its been a long time coming but finally there is a London XSL user group starting. Its thankfully not run or setup by myself, instead Nic Ferrier and Otu Ekanem have taken it upon themselves to foster this user group.
We met at the Prince Regents Pub yesterday and there seemed to be agreement that a group meeting every month to discuss things happening in the XSL space outside of actual code was a good idea. No one wants to discuss the memory differences between using xsl:for-each in Xalan vs Saxon, so the group will centre around improving the image of XSL and helping people get into XSL in the first place.
It was reassuring to hear Thompson and BT were having the same issues hiring good XSL people as we are in the BBC. The fact is that most computer science university courses don't teach XSL and if they do its placed next to odd languages like Pascal (god I hope they don't still teach that) and Lisp for a couple of day.
Another interesting fact came out of the night, 2 out of the 6 of us came to XSL through a design background. Anyway expect to see more about the group at xslug.org
Sarah brought back a huge but very rich chocolate cake for my birthday. She even put numbered candles on it for me.
I do love her so dear…
I've posted my old SPV M600 to ebay for the 4th ti now. Everytime I post it up, some scam artist tries to con me out of my phone. Well I'm fed up of readying the phishing emails and so wanted to post them for others to read. So Ebay sent me this a while ago.
Dear Italic_dj
The results of the following listings have been cancelled due to bidding activity that took place without the account owner's authorisation:
160103815659 Orange SPV M600 + 2GB SD CARD Boxed and Used
We have temporarily suspended the bidding account and we are working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorised activity. Since the account owner did not initiate these bids, fees resulting from the listings in question have been credited to your account.
Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to automatically relist these items for you. Instead, to relist these items you will need to start from the beginning of the listing process, either through the Sell Your Item process or through your third party listing service. We know that this is an inconvenience and we apologise for the negative impact it may cause you. We are working on tools to allow you to relist your items without starting from the beginning, but they are not available at this time.
So the first email I got from the con-artist was this.
Hello, I am very sorry i have not been able to get back to you till now, i have taken such time because of the easter period. Just want to let you know that payment will be sent on monday or first thing on tuesday morning
Best Regards.
argentium149@verizonmail.com
Then this crafted email from the con-artist to look like it came from ebay
Dear Ian Forrester
Failure to do as we have indicated in this email will lead to your suspension on eBay due to concerns we have for the safety and integrity of the eBay community.
“Abusing eBay” of the eBay User Agreement states, in part:
“…we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies.”
This email is to inform you that you can now proceed with the transaction between you and Chris Marshall (argentium149) the buyer of your ebay item 160103815659. The transaction was initially cancelled because we noticed that someone else accessed the account and some transactions where made with the account without the owner's concept, which was complained to us by the account owner. This has been resolved and now, we are at the point of completely restoring the account back to the owner. You are expected to send out the item tomorrow because payment has just been sent by the buyer through paypal, your payment is currently placed on HOLD by us. As soon as the buyer confirms to us that he has received the shipment details from you and that everything is ok, your payment will be credited into your paypal account. Failure to send out the item tomorrow will lead to your suspension on ebay. Make sure the item is sent out tomorrow and the shipment details sent to the buyer for confirmation.
Then the conformation email from the con-artist himself
Hello There,
Just want to let you know that i have resolved all problems with ebay and that i have just sent payment for the ebay item I have also added a extra amount of money so as to cover the shipping cost of the phone to my son. I bought the phone for my son as gift. This is address where the phone should be sent to.
Name :- Okwuchukwu Ugochi
Address :- 1 Ojo Street, Off Babalola Bus-Stop
City :- Mushin
State :- Lagos
Country :- Nigeria
Postal Code :- 23401I have also attached a copy of the confirmation email that paypal sent to me confirming payment, they have asked me to contact you for the shipment details. I want the phone sent to my son via royalmail international signed for delivery(Recorded). Let me have the royalmail reference number when it has been sent so i can contact ebay and paypal to let them.
Regards.
Chris.
And just incase I wasn't certain a fake email from PayPal.com
You've Received Payment for an eBay item!
Dear Ian Forrester,
Chris Marshall just sent you a payment of £300.00 GBP for an eBay item.
Chris Marshall is a verified buyer.
Payment Details Buyer's User ID: argentium149.
Buyer: Chris Marshall
Amount: £250.00 GBP
Postage & Packing: £50.00 GBP
Postal Insurance: £00.00 GBP
Total Amount: £300.00 GBPItem Information
eBay User ID: argentium149Delivery Information
Address: Okwuchukwu Ugochi
1 ojo street,off Babalola Bustop
Mushin,Lagos
Nigeria
23401
Address Status: ConfirmedMessage:
This payment has been placed on Hold. We have asked the buyer to contact you for the shipment tracking/reference number, as soon as the buyer confirms to us that the item has been sent, your account will be credited immediately. This is the New Paypal antifraud rule, this is done in order to secure both buyers and sellers. The item should be sent out within 24 hours and the shipment details sent to the buyer.
So as you can see this is so obviously a con/scam. I didn't even need to look at the headers for the emails or check my Paypal account. The English was a mess in places, account details wrong and worst still it had all the hallmarks of a scam. That level of urgency, the tail for which to follow. I'm so fed up with scammer like this I think I might post them up here everytime to convine scammers that I'm serious about taking action.
You've been warned scammers!
Since Apple talked about the Apple TV or iTV I've been listening, but was deeply disappointed with the final product. When I was over in San Francisco I did pop into the Apple store to check out the Apple TV which I heard just launched recently. But at 299 dollars or 165 pounds I decided it was too much for essentially a iTunes extender.
That was before I came back to the UK, I started reading about the hacking which has been going on already. AppleTV hacks seems to be leading the way right now, and there certainly making the machine much more attractive to someone like me.
You can now play non-itunes videos via VLC, SSH, Apache, Asterisk and other services on the box. Joost is working on it (which even the Xbox couldn't do) and yeah a last a RSS reader.
The backdoor claim is a little worrying but actually think this is a repair script or something. Theres also lots of talk that the Apple TV isn't that powerful and can't play back 720p H.264 content let alone 1080p content. Now this may not sound like the end of the world, but actually for future proofing and remember Apple are selling this as a HD device. This could be bad news. I already own a couple of 1080p Xvids which simply won't play on my xbox right now but would play on a Xbox 360 and Playstation3.
So yeah, I'm considering the Apple TV for my replacement to the Xbox Media Centre if it can do most of the things XBMC can do. Such as stream straight from YouTube, connect to shoutcast, play all media, read from SMB and other file systems. Someone elses been thinking the same thing.
While in Columbus, we happened to pass through the Apple store, and I got my first look at the AppleTV. A slick piece of kit, to be sure, and one you'll be able to read all about at Ars Technica shortly, but not quite suited to my needs. I want to be able to watch DivX files on my TV; it's the only way to keep up with TV from back home, and legally, too (thanks, Auntie Beeb!). Apple's beautiful little box can't help me out, but give my wife a used XBox, and 20 minutes later an XBMC media center is the solution to my needs. Plus, it can stream BBC Radio 4 to boot! Sure, you can always open up and hack an AppleTV, but you do so at the cost of your warranty. With secondhand hardware that's cheap, that's not a concern.
The arrival of our XBox 360 meant that our first XBox could be repurposed as the living-room media server. Now I don't need to keep plugging my PowerBook into the bedroom TV set, and Elle can pipe her music collection from her PC to her heart's content. It's not the sort of thing I'd suggest for my parents or anyone else of a technophobic nature, but if the AppleTV won't do what you want or if you prefer rolling your own, pop down to your local used video game emporium and see what's lurking in their stockroom. Apple TV certainly has its uses, but the original Xbox is easier to hack, cheaper, and has much more support from the hacking community right now than Apple TV. If you've not looked into XBMC, it's absolutely worth it. Depending on your needs, it may be a far superior option to Apple TV, or any of the other PC-to-TV devices out there today.
Some people are looking at it slightly differently. Apple TV on Xbox anyone? And more here. Oh and theres a nice discussion about maybe porting XBMC to the mac.
Its 12:30pm GMT and I'm still awake after a night battling with my old laptop.
I made the mistake of selling my old laptop on ebay before going to America. I didn't clear anything off of it and had to get Dave and Sarah involved while I was away (thanks guys). But in the end, the buyer was happy to receive it today in completely working order. And honestly at 6am this morning I was going to call it quits and email the buyer to offer there money back.
But out of pure chance while looking for a decent Dos Boot image, I found this site which also has a version which includes Symantic Ghost client. I also finally tracked down a util which does bootable discs in Windows XP/2000, thanks to HP. Once I loaded the Recovery CD roms on to the hard drive and moved them to the right part using Partition Magic and a load of Dos commands (geez give me chmod over attrib anyday).
So now thats done and out the way, I'm going to spend the rest of my Easter Holiday with Sarah and writing my paper for Xtech which was due the day I came back from the states.
Party starts Wednesday 11th April from 6pm at Bar Kick. Straight from the ORG party site
A chance for ORG supporters to meet each other, chat to volunteers and staff and celebrate how far we’ve all come since ORG started. There’ll be 'public domain' DJs, remixed visuals and free culture goodie bags, as well as a special guest speaker to be announced.
Beneath all this revelry lies a hidden motive. We need you to bring a friend, colleague or family member who doesn't yet support ORG, but who you think would like to, if they knew more about our work.
The party starts at 6pm on Wednesday 11 April at Bar Kick, E1, and lasts until 11pm. See you there!
I'll certainly be there and who knows might be a regular ORG supporter.
I watched the demo of this recently and was wowed by the level of graphics and parciptation in and outside the game. Its on Playstation 3 only which is a shame but really shows off the power of the PS3 better that anything else I've seen to date. Theres also a level creator like you have never seen before and of course the levels are sharable. If they could make the PS3 a bit more affordable, that would be great. Right now, I'm still considering a Wii because its simply great to play and much more friendly to non-gamers.
