Cross Dominant

My Mobile Broadband setup due to Eircom's Uselessness

#“My Mobile Broadband setup due to Eircom’s Uselessness”

From midnight to 7pm, Eircom broadband is actually pretty good. I now get a solid 6.1Mbs DSL connection on a 7Mbs line after clenaing up all the wiring in the house. But at 7pm’ish every evening it collapses. I’m not talking slow, I’m talking 1993-era 14.4kbs type speeds and worse. Around 9pm we have nothing. 0bps. Contention my hole, this is a joke.

I always say that I can work anywhere on the planet as long as I have a decent internet connection. I’m coming to the conclusion that Bandon along with Ulan Bator will have to join the exclusion list.

To combat thse probelms, I finally got my Mobile Broadband antenna setup with enough bandwidth to do the basics. I switch to this at 7pm every night now. However it does makes me feel like I’m living in a mud hut in Somalia with a giant CB radio aerial trying to contact the next village to discuss water buffalo prices.

Here is the final fixed setup:

Note that every video I made on Qik today was streamed over that connection. Not fully live but not bad.

Twitter tackling potential spam/abuse hard

#“Twitter tackling potential spam/abuse hard”

I got a shock last night to receive an email from Twitter support to say that an OAuth Token we had configured had been suspended due to potential abuse.

A quick explanation of what that means: When clients add LouderVoice customer reviews to their site, we provide the ability for their users to Login with Facebook and Twitter credentials and also to send a copy of their review to their Facebook or Twitter Account. Unlike many systems, we don't force clients to use our generic FB/Twitter setup but give them the ability to have it fully branded with their logos etc. To do this on Twitter you setup an "App" there. You may have encountered these as a user where an external application requests permission in a pop-up to access your account. This OAuth system means you never have to give your Twitter username or password to external sites.

Generally we provide the instructions to the customer or their web development providers to set this up since it is very easy to do but sometimes, when under time pressure, we do it for them. Yesterday we did it for a globally known brand. And then we got the email!

I immediately guessed it was the use of the Brand name that was the problem and a quick email to Twitter confirmed it. They simply didn't see enough information in the App "About" fields to know that we weren't a bunch of spammers. I explained our relationship to the brand and offered contact names for confirmation and the Twitter guys then unlocked the app.

I'm honestly delighted that Twitter did this. Whilst the spammers/bots are still driving us nuts on normal Twitter accounts, it appears that very close scrutiny is being placed on the API/Apps side of things. And rightly so.

We'll be updating our setup instructions so that the About info makes it very clear what the purpose of the Apps are and who is responsible.

Good job Twitter!

Awesome - Posterous unveils Post Editor 2.0

#“Awesome - Posterous unveils Post Editor 2.0”

via blog.posterous.com

Posterous is the saviour of blogging for all of those who aren't hardcore committed bloggers.

We'll miss you Guy Kewney

#“We’ll miss you Guy Kewney”

Was it PCW’s Elan Enterprise I swiped (finally, I admit it), or was it What Micro’s? Whatever, publisher VNU finally woke up to the insanity of competing with itself and pink-slipped PCN. Other titles faded as the 80s home computing boom faded, but PCW and Guy sailed on, with Guy as the IT guru normal people had quite possibly heard of - and the one the vendors needed to talk to.

via theregister.co.uk

There are many great tech journalists out there but only one has stuck in my head from the early 1980s to today and that is Guy Kewney.

I devoured tech magazines all through my teens and 20s and had stacks of PCWs filling up my presses and then my attic. From that entire period, Guy was the guy. He always felt like the ultimate kindly British boffin. A style of person I will always admire.

A lovely piece in The Register from John Lettice with a mention of the legendary Elan Enterprise which I would gladly have sawn my arm off to get. The ultimate vapourware.

Guy Kewney, RIP.

Map Of Dublin 1798.

#“Map Of Dublin 1798.”

via dublin1798.com

Spotted this via @spatialireland on Twitter. Very cool zoomable 1798 map of Dublin. Core layout really hasn’t changed much in 200 years.

Nokia Shafts Millions of N95 and N95-8GB Users?

#“Nokia Shafts Millions of N95 and N95-8GB Users?”

Today, Nokia has responded making Ovi Maps 3 available for the E71 and E66 too.

People will be able to use Ovi Suite to side load the latest country maps onto their devices so they can enjoy offline map browsing alongside free navigation. The process of making the latest version of Ovi Maps available for existing devices is quite involved, but the team managed to include complete navigation functionality. Due to technical constraints in back porting the app to existing devices, unfortunately, it wasnt possible to offer further premium content such as Guide Michelin and Lonely Planet guides. These two devices will also be the last of our S60 3.1 and older devices to sport this version of Ovi Maps. But every upcoming Nokia Smartphone will come with free walk and drive navigation out of the box.

via thereallymobileproject.com

So it appears those millions of N95-* owners can go screw themselves as far as Nokia is concerned. Ovi Maps will continue to ask them for money for voice navigation whilst owners of newer crappier devices like the N97 get it for free.

I know Nokia wants us all to upgrade and if they had a phone that was worth upgrading to, we probably would. But 399 for an N900 upgrade on Vodafone IE is a joke. And in any case, you can't get the new Ovi Maps for the N900.

Well done Nokia, unless that story is wrong, this confirms my upcoming purchase of a HTC Desire.

Android need some hardware standards

#“Android need some hardware standards”

Anyone who knows me is sick of my bitching and moaning about the closed nature of the iPhone. But that closed nature has one huge advantage; a global ecosystem of accessories has built up around it. From cases to speaker docks to headphones, suppliers work with fixed form factors and interfaces.

That ecosystem must now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. It strikes me that Android could achieve the same thing but in an open way and with a focus on interfaces rather than form factors.

The first and most critical thing needed is an audio interface. This could be a software overlay on USB, it just needs to be defined. Currently Android phones can only connect to docks by 3.5mm jack and with no ability to change tracks etc.

Google (and Moto with Droid?) have created phone-specific modules but surely that defeats the point of Android?

Whilst A2DP could be the solution, it's still Bluetooth with all the pairing bullshit that it entails. Maybe NFC could sort that out?

I spent the weekend testing an iPod and iPhone dock. We used 2 generations of iPod and 2 generations of iPhone and they <em>just worked</em>. The poor HTC G1 dangling off the back on an audio cable looked like something from a previous century.

So how about it Google? Android should enable business opportunities, not get in their way.

Innovation, inspiration & ideation workshops with Cork Open Coffee and YCYC

#“Innovation, inspiration & ideation workshops with Cork Open Coffee and YCYC”

Your Country, Your Call is pleased to announce a series of innovation, inspiration & ideation workshops designed to inspire creative thinking and help people bring their ideas to life.

The workshops, which are open to the public are free of charge and one will take place in Cork as follows:

Cork: 9th April 11.00 am, National Software Centre Campus, Mahon.

via corkopencoffee.org

I'm thrilled to see YCYC come to Cork OpenCoffee and talk to the startup community in Cork.

Fantastic job by Gordon Murray in putting this together with everyone involved.

I also think it's a great opportunity for everyone who has issues with and criticisms of YCYC to express them out in the open and have them addressed clearly by those involved in it.

I'll definitely be there and I hope to see all of you too.

JumpBox - Open Source as a Service on Amazon EC2

#“JumpBox - Open Source as a Service on Amazon EC2”

Once you’ve created your JumpBox account and entered your AWS Security Credentials, you can launch a polished and easy to manage application with just a few clicks.

via aws.typepad.com

I haven't used JumpBox in anger yet but it's has been brilliant for quickly deploying Drupal, Joomla etc to test things out. I was literally up and running with a configured system in minutes.

HTC Desire Android phone coming soon to Vodafone Ireland

#“HTC Desire Android phone coming soon to Vodafone Ireland”

via comingsoon.vodafone.ie

From recent Tweet by @VodafoneIreland to actual announcement in under two weeks. Nice job VF, for real.

Think of it as a Nexus One with snazzy user interface and optical "trackball".

Or think of it as an iPhone where you are in control, not someone in Cupertino.

All things being equal, this will be my next phone. The only things that might prevent that are:

Vodafone being stupid and charging a fortune for it on upgrade. *cough* N900 *cough*
Vodafone being stupid and locking it to O2-style iPhone price plans
Google congratulating LouderVoice for launching the first ever Irish Android application and giving me a Nexus One for free
Vodafone congratulating LouderVoice for launching the first ever Irish Android application and giving me a HTC Desire for free
Sony Ericsson magically fixing multi-touch on the X10 and it being available at the same time for the same price with Android 2.1. I really would like an 8MP camera.
Nokia somehow pulling a rabbit out of a hat in the next couple of weeks and announcing a N900++ with 12MP camera and capacitive touch screen, for the same price.
Someone else announces yet another Android phone with just enough knobs on to make me wait even more.

Head on over to the Vodafone site to sign-up for notification when the Desire is launched.

Mixed laterality since 1968

10 Apr 2010, 18:10

10 Apr 2010, 11:38

09 Apr 2010, 19:40

09 Apr 2010, 06:49

07 Apr 2010, 18:50

06 Apr 2010, 14:15

04 Apr 2010, 18:10

31 Mar 2010, 17:48

31 Mar 2010, 09:40

31 Mar 2010, 08:28