Episode 141

posted in: Show Notes

GLENN’S SHOWNOTES

iTWire – Future FTTH network should be buried, and shouldn’t be PON
Future FTTH network should be buried

 Ross Kelso – 40 years in telecoms engineering, management and consulting believes that rollout of the NBN presents a unique opportunity to bury Australia’s existing overhead power and communications infrastructure. Secondly he claims that what appears to have been accepted as the option for fibre to the home – passive optical networking – enjoys its popularity thanks in large part to incumbent telcos upgrading their copper networks and “seeking to satisfy their immediate commercial and strategic needs for incremental deployment.”

Kelso who was a member of the Putting Cables Underground Working Group, says: “The addition of yet another cable for the NBN will inevitably further degrade the visual environment, reduce the clearance above road and driveway levels and totally kill off any remaining opportunity to retrospectively underground all aerial cables and lines throughout Australia.”

Microsoft Windows 7 available in October | Australian IT
Microsoft Windows 7 available in October

 Windows 7 will be available on October 22,” Microsoft said in a brief statement which provided no further details.

Govt launches “change your password day” | Australian IT
Govt launches “change your password day”

 users are being encouraged to change their passwords to a minimum of eight characters, in the inaugural “change your password day”.

Senator Conroy recommended passwords of eight characters with a mixture of upper and lower case letters including at least one number and one symbol, which would make it harder for people to become victims of cybercrime.

National E-security Awareness Week 2009
http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/awareness-week

The Week, being held from 5-12 June this year, will help inform home users, students and small business about the simple steps they can take to protect themselves, their families and their businesses online.

Five simple tips being promoted throughout the Week will help Australians use the internet in a secure and confident manner:

  • Get a better, stronger password and change it at least twice a year.
  • Get security software, and update and patch it regularly.
  • Stop and think before you click on links or attachments from unknown sources.
  • Information is valuable. Be careful about what you give away about yourself and others online.
  • Log on to www.staysmartonline.gov.au for further information and to sign up for the email alert service.

Google launches new search tool | Australian IT
Google launches new search tool

 In a blog post on Wednesday, Google said Google Squared could be useful when a user needs to make multiple searches to find the information they want.

“It essentially searches the web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way,” Google said.

“If your square isn’t perfect at the beginning, it’s easy to work with Google Squared to get a better answer,” Google added.

The Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant cautioned that Google Squared remains experimental and the technology behind it “is by no means perfect.”

Microsoft unveils full-body tracking for Xbox | Australian IT
Microsoft unveils full-body tracking for Xbox

 At a star-studded event at the annual E3 video game conference that drew appearances by Paul McCartney and Steven Spielberg, the company unveiled “Project Natal,” which uses a camera to track a user’s movements via full skeletal mapping. It also recognizes voices and vocal commands.

On Monday, Microsoft also said it planned to boost its Xbox 360 gaming console by integrating music-streaming service last.fm, Web social network Facebook and microblogging site Twitter into its Xbox Live online community.

“We can leap into a new era of interactive entertainment without launching a new console,” Mattrick told reporters.

Google unveils Sydney HQ | Australian IT
Google unveils Sydney HQ

 The new office, situated opposite Star City Casino in Pyrmont is the new base for Google employees which have grown from one in 2002 to 350 current full-time staff.

the company had entered a deal with Fairfax Media to digitise historical microfiche archives of its Melbourne and Sydney mastheads, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, online.

Google also announced that it would pipe information from Sydney’s monorail and light rail, and Canberra’s bus network ACTION into its mapping service later this month.

What to expect from Apple at WWDC 2009 – CNN.com
What to expect from Apple at WWDC 2009

 

  • Hopes running high for products that Apple will unveil at WWDC conference
  • Rumors abound about new iPhones, upgraded MacBooks, touchscreen tablet
  • Pile of evidence in the blogosphere suggests release of iPhone upgrade
  • WIRED doesn’t believe Apple will be making a deal with Verizon soon

Why satellites didn’t find missing plane – CNN.com
Why satellites didn’t find missing plane

 

On board GPS systems are primarily navigation tools for the crew, and do not currently enable a constant tracking of a jet by a ground crew at all times.

Planes receive a position signal, but don’t transmit that back. This is not a problem when a jet is flying over land or in coastal areas, as it is tracked by radar. Over oceans radar does not work as it relies on line-of-sight tracking from a ground station.

On oceanic flights a flight crew will knows its exact position via GPS, but it is not able to be tracked by air traffic control. It is left to someone in the cockpit to relay information via satellite communication to air traffic control or a ground station.

 

Aviation experts have stated that the idea of GPS tracking has not been part of any safety review within the aviation industry. The general consensus has been that a trained flight crew is on hand that always has the capability to be in contact with someone on the ground should an emergency arise. In the case of Air France Flight 447, it appears that the crew had no time to relay an emergency message.

More talking, more problems: ‘Cell phone elbow’ damages nerves – CNN.com
More talking, more problems: ‘Cell phone elbow’ damages nerves

 

Orthopedic specialists are reporting cases of “cell phone elbow,” in which patients damage an essential nerve in their arm by bending their elbows too tightly for too long.

When cell phone users hold the phone to their ears, they stretch a nerve that extends underneath the funny bone and controls the smallest fingers. When talkers chat for a long time in that position, it “chokes the blood supply to the nerves. It makes the nerves short-circuit. The next thing you know, there’s tingling in the ring and small finger,” said Dr. Peter J. Evans, the director of the Hand and Upper Extremity Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Twitter tackles impersonators – Software – iTnews Australia
Twitter tackles impersonators

 Twitter unveiled plans Saturday to tackle on-site impersonators, a problem that is increasing as the microblogging site grows in popularity.

will experiment with a beta version of what it calls Verified Accounts this summer on a “small set” of users.

Official accounts will carry a tick symbol.

“We suspend, delete, or transfer control of accounts known to be impersonation. When alerted……

……”Twitter’s Terms of Service are fair and we believe will be upheld in court

iTWire – First TheMacBundle.com offer revealed
First TheMacBundle.com offer revealed

 http://www.themacbundles.com/

  • Cover Stream – Enjoy desktop Cover Flow. Pick a song from your favorite album or playlist. Control, browse, and search your music without leaving your work.
  • defaultfolder Default Folder X – Award-winning system-wide enhancement that makes Open and Save dialogs and Mac OS X easier to use by adding hierarchical pop-up menus and keyboard shortcuts.
  • dragthing DragThing – The award-winning original dock designed to tidy up your Macintosh desktop. Put all your documents, folders, and applications just a click away.
  • graphicconverter GraphicConverter – More than 1.5 million users worldwide swear by award-winning GraphicConverter — from amateur photographers to professional designers.
  • houdahspot HoudahSpot – Houdah Software’s bestselling file search tool for the Mac. Unleash the full power of Spotlight to find, manage and clean up your files.
  • iprint iPrint – Allows you to instantly and easily selectively print just the text that you want in any program — pays for itself by saving ink, toner, time, and money!
  • marinerwrite Mariner Write – From award-winning developer Mariner Software, Mariner Write is a powerful yet streamlined Mac OS X word processor designed for the masses.
  • spellcatcher Spell Catcher X – A powerful, award winning all-in-one spell checking and writing software solution — a program that’s so much more than a spelling checker, its name only hints at its capabilities.

Google Updates Street View for Easier Navigation – AppScout
Google Updates Street View for Easier Navigation

 Google on Thursday updated Street View to allows users to move through the streets by double clicking on your mouse rather than using the arrow keys.

if you hover over a certain area, a shaded box will appear – an oval if you’re on the street and a rectangle if you’re pointing to a building. Double click the box and Street View will either take you to the best panorama shot of the building or street or give you the option to zoom into the selected area by double clicking.

Pirate Party Wins and Enters The European Parliament | TorrentFreak
Pirate Party Wins and Enters The European Parliament

With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: “We’ve felt the wind blow in our sails. We’ve seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen… What do you want me to say? I’ll say anything”

“Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it,” Falkvinge said. “This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance,” he added.

Alzheimer’s patients to get GPS shoes – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Alzheimer’s patients to get GPS shoes

 A shoe-maker and a technology company are teaming up to develop footwear with a built-in GPS device that could help track down “wandering” seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Paddy the labrador sniffs out fake DVDs – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Paddy the labrador sniffs out fake DVDs A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials says.

The MPA said just-released titles such as “Terminator Salvation”, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, “Angels and Demons” and “Star Trek” were among the movies seized.

“This is a clear signal to the pirates that we will not waver in our efforts to shut them down,” said Mohamad Roslan Mahayudin, director-general of enforcement with the Malaysian ministry.

 

MARK’S SHOWNOTES

 

YouTube – ps3 motion controller
E3 2009 – PS3 Motion Controller

HOME PROJECT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU&feature=featured HOME PROJECT.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Voters steer Europe to the right
Voters steer Europe to the right

Sweden’s Pirate Party, which wants to legalise internet file sharing, won 7% of the national vote and one of the country’s 18 seats in the European Parliament.

Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics
Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics

A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.

If nothing is done, it will quickly gain momentum and rip through the student body, then jump to parents and others in the community. But officials will attempt to stymie the disease and save the school _ using mobile phones.

The sickness will be a virtual one, in an experiment funded by the Japanese government. A subsidiary of Softbank Corp., a major Japanese Internet and cellular provider, has proposed a system that uses phones to limit pandemics.

The exact details have yet to be fixed, but Softbank hopes to pick an elementary school with about 1,000 students and give them phones equipped with GPS. The locations of the children will be recorded every minute of the day and stored on a central server.

A few students will be chosen to be considered “infected,” and their movements over the previous few days will be compared with those of everyone else. The stored GPS data can then be used to determine which children have crossed paths with the infected students and are at risk of having contracted the disease.

 

Online books anger authors
Authors ready to throw the book at online pirates

The rapidly evolving world of digital books is presenting new challenges, writes Anne Davies.

FEEL like reading Australian author Colleen McCullough’s Thorn Birds , but don’t want to pay for a copy?

Then just hop onto a site like Wattpad.com and the book is available free as an electronic download. While this might be a bonus for readers, it is a disaster for authors, who get no royalties from the downloads.

Several other titles by McCullough, one of the most successful romance writers, are also available online, much to the horror of her literary agent, Capel & Land, which was stunned to learn of the pirate copies.

“I can’t believe Col would licence such a thing,” Georgina Capel said.

Like the music industry, which has fought and partly won the battle over free music downloads from sites like Kazaa and Limewire, the publishing industry is about to face a similar struggle with piracy as electronic books become a reality.

The copies of McCullough’s works were the most flagrant breaches of copyright the Herald found on sites set up to allow file sharing. But other Australian authors’ work are also available.

David Malouf’s 1985 work Five Stories from the Antipodes is available in Russian from Scribd. And for a month, John Birmingham’s science fiction work Weapons of Choice, the first in the Axis of Time trilogy, was available from the Suvudu Free Library.

 

Ubisoft merges videogames and film making
Ubisoft merges videogames and film making

French videogame powerhouse Ubisoft is building its movie-making muscles.

While pairing films with videogames is a long-running trend, Ubisoft is rising to a new level by collaborating with famed director James Cameron on a title crafted as an extension of his highly-anticipated 3D movie “Avatar.”

“Ubisoft didn’t want to just put something flashy on the screen; they wanted a soul behind the videogame,” Cameron said during a press conference with Ubisoft at a recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.

“The world of the ‘Avatar’ game is, in some ways, considerably richer than what you are going to see in the film.”

Cameron said the film and videogame teams have worked so closely together that ideas from each side have been incorporated into the other.

“We are learning from the best,” said Yannis Mallet, head of Ubisoft’s Montreal studio.

“The film and videogame industries are on lines that are not quite parallel, so let’s anticipate that the talents are converging and build collaboration so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Ubisoft was free to create its own characters, vehicles, and weapons for the videogame, as well as embellish on settings on the fictional moon called “Pandora” where the film story takes place.

“Ubisoft challenged themselves to set the bar pretty darn high,” said Academy Award winning Cameron, whose films include ‘Titanic’ and ‘Terminator.’

“We are all pretty passionate about making ‘Avatar’ the coolest new game out there; I can stand here now and tell you the guys at Ubisoft have done it.”

 

Blackout: ABC makes war on Chaser
Blackout: ABC makes war on Chaser

 

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