Justin Dunlop heard on RetroMacCast

Guest panelist and friend of Tech Talk Radio Justin Dunlop recently featured on the popular RetroMacCast.

Programme hosts James and John spoke with Justin about their “Retro Mac of the Week”, the 7300.

Visit Justin’s Apple Orchard.

Is ISP Content Filtering just political point-scoring? Surely they can’t be serious!?

For those of you fortunate enough to be spared the current onslaught of political rhetoric in the lead-up to the Federal Election in Australia, you might be unaware of topical, technological hot potatoes like the state of broadband (aka “fraudband”), Telstra’s Next G vs CDMA and the sale of the incumbent telco.

Another issue with which political parties seem content to bamboozle us is child safety online; that is, how to protect children from inappropriate content, unmoderated chatrooms, messaging systems and predatory behaviour.

Minister for Communications, Technology and The Arts, Senator the Honorable Helen Coonan has recently launched a Government initiative called NetAlert, which “is part of the Australian Government’s ongoing commitment to providing a safe online environment for all families, especially children.” (Source: NetAlert website.)

Call me cynical but apart from the usual observations about wasting taxpayers’ money, and the fact that the launch coincides with a Federal Election only a few months away, content filters on home PCs are only really useful up to a certain age. Depending on the child, beyond 10 or 12 years old, these types of systems are easily bypassed as Adam Turner discovered when he recently put a NetAlert package through the hoops.

It’s also a case of too little, too late for the Australian Government especially since good content filters like Net Nanny have been around for years. Why would this issue have suddenly become a “priority commitment” for the Australian Government? Oh yes, now I remember….

Despite this shallow effort made by the Office of the Minister for Communications, Etc., Senator, The Honorable Etc., it was a comment made by the Family First party’s Steve Fielding that left me completely gob-smacked this week.

According to AustralianIT, Mr Fielding has become “downright angry” about what he perceives is the Government’s abandonment of an ISP-filter trial, and has sought technical advice on “how a ban on internet pornography could work” with ISP filtering.

Huh?

Is this just argument for the sake of argument? To quote the man in Monty Python’s infamous argument sketch, which does seem somehow apprioriate, What a Stupid Concept.

Mr Fielding, there is no future in ISP content filtering.  While such systems may filter-out particular words, internet addresses, email messages and services, it would have little or no effect on the transfer of images, audio, movie files and instant messaging.

Unfortunately what it would do is add to ISPs’ overheads, ultimately pushing prices up for consumers.  It would also have a direct impact on internet speed, usability and complexity.  False negatives would undoubtedly degrade browsing experience (if I tried to buy a pen, for example, from the popular online store PenIsland), and helpdesks would be inundated with perceived problems from confused subscribers.

In a Media Release on the 20th of August, Mr Fielding said, “Family First still wants mandatory filtering at the ISP level, which adults can opt out of if they want, so that all children have some protection against Internet pornography and violence regardless of whether their parents know about the free filters.”

Get a grip, Mr Fielding.  Everyone in IT is silently hoping that the Government’s trial of ISP-filtering is all but dead-and-buried.  Please don’t make nonsensical suggestions for the sake of a petty political point-scoring exercise.

Dr Ron.

Other References

• “Pressure builds for censorship” by James Riley, AustralianIT, 28/03/2007
• “Coonan denies cancelling filtering” by staff writers, itNews, 26/07/2007

Mobile phone base stations destroyed in army tank rampage

News story: CNET

Photographs: Anonymous TTR contributor

A man who destroyed seven mobile phone towers in a stolen tank claimed he had been affected by radio waves emitting from the cellular base-stations.

John Robert Patterson, 45, of Dharruk, allegedly stole the tank and used it to attack seven mobile phone towers over the weekend. Patterson will face Penrith Local Court today, charged with numerous offences including predatory driving and malicious damage.

It is believed Patterson used to be a telecommunications worker and he thought he had been damaged by mobile phone radio waves.

In refusing bail at Parramatta court yesterday, Magistrate Terry Forbes recommended Patterson receive psychiatric attention.

Morris told AAP that Patterson used to do telecommunications work for the army and he believed mobile phone waves had “harmed his head”.

Three Optus towers were damaged at Mt Druitt, Blackett and Minchinbury. A company spokesman said repairs had started when “it was no longer a crime scene” and there had been only minimal disruptions to services.

Telstra had four towers brought down in the western suburbs.

A spokesman said other towers had “picked up the slack”.

Read more.

TTR Ep 24/2007 … Full Steam Ahead!

Crikey, what a truck-load of work over the last few days! Andrew has run away to join the circus, and taken Mark with him. So I will be hosting tonight’s episode of Tech Talk Radio on 3WBC.

In actual fact, Andrew and Mark have gone to Mt Gambier in South Australia, on special assignment for Tech Talk. I expect they will have a full report next week.

In the meantime, Graeme and I have been left to do the production work for the show. Andrew made it easy for us by setting up a lot of the pre-production last week. But I’ve never put a show together from the ground-up before. This has contributed to the workload… that is to say, if (when) I do all this again, a lot of the setup has been done and it shouldn’t take me nearly as long.

Graeme has been very helpful and will be working into the wee-small hours of tomorrow morning to get the podcasts done.

Then Andrew will return and normality will be restored.

Enjoy the show! Over and out.

Dr Ron.

Neil Mitchell hatchetted by cross-hatch?

Neil Mitchell is a popular and well-respected radio host on Melbourne’s 3AW morning programme.

Usually I enjoy his light-hearted banter as I’m driving around town, but yesterday he had a bee in his bonnet about automated telephone answering systems, and specifically the need to press hash when you’ve finished recording a voicemail message.

You know the type of system I mean: “Please leave your message at the tone. When you are finished, simply hang up, or press the hash key for more options.”

Unforunately I wasn’t in a position to call his talkback number, or I would have talked back, in an effort to set the record straight.

He couldn’t understand why anyone would press hash when they’ve finished recording, instead of just hanging up.

Then he got worked up about whether or not that telephone key below the number “9” is called a hash or a cross-hatch.

Well Neil, there’s a simple technical reason, and a more complex technical reason. The hash key (which looks like this: # ) has been used by developers of Interactive Voice Response systems for years, as a non-numeric input tone, signifying the end of a numeric input.

If an IVR needs to know that a caller has finished entering a number of arbitrary length, (for example, a callback telephone number,) then the hash key is ideal because it won’t be confused as part of the numeric input.

The same goes for the star key – although this is traditionally used to cancel a selection or move back a menu level.

It follows that the hash key is also used to indicate that a caller has finished recording, and wants an additional menu for more options. For example, the caller might want to review the message that they’ve just recorded, or change their callback number.

Yes Neil, you can just hang up. Go ahead, don’t press the hash key. No-one will care and the world won’t come to an end. HOWEVER this does lead me to the second, more technical reason as to why callers are prompted to press a key prior to hanging up.

Back in the bad old days of analogue telephone systems, crossbars and Central Office Tumbleweeds, IVR systems had no way of knowing if a caller was still on the line. The poor IVR had a complex series of tables which told it how many times to repeat a prompt, what to say if there was no DTMF response, how long to wait before repeating prompts, the “noise versus silence” ratio of a busy tone, and so on and so forth. The IVR had to scrutinize these tables for the duration of each call before it could assume that a caller was no longer there.

This was (and still is) extremely unscientific, and largely guess-work on the part of the IVR. It also locked-up IVR ports for ages-on-end and caused unneccessary congestion.

In an effort to avoid this condition, it was considered good practice for IVR developers to elicit a response from a caller, even if a caller was about to hang up. (For example, “To quit, press the star key.”) This signalled to the IVR that it could take the initiative and disconnect the call, that the caller had finally had enough and immediately reset the port for the next incoming victim caller.

Now in the 21st century digital revolution, we don’t have this problem any more (… *cough / ahem* …) so prompting people to press a key before logging off isn’t necessary on digital systems.

It’s a legacy programming technique which will be around for a long time to come.

For Neil Mitchell however, it was a very emotional issue and occupied a significant proportion of his talkback programme. A number of listeners added to the confusion by ringing-in and emailing all-manner of weird and wonderful suggestions as to why callers were prompted to press hash. Or is that cross-hatch?

Uncertainty, upset and confusion. I guess IVR systems can have that effect on people.

Dr Ron featured on this week’s Ploycast

Australian internet personalities Ben May and Mike Beckham produce a weekly program full of comedy, talk and music. Their podcast features an Australian perspective on the latest news from around the world.

In this week’s episode, Dr Ron joins The Ploy to talk about the state of Australian broadband, the Federal Government / ACCC / Telstra “bizarre love triangle”, and … what exactly is Dr Ron a doctor of, anyway?

http://theploycast.com/

HD-DVD vs BluRay

This report featured in Episode 10 of 2007.

So, what’s it to be? HD-DVD or BluRay, that’s the big technology question of 2007.

And already, the major players are forming alliances with manufacturers and retailers in what’s being touted as the biggest format war since Sony’s betamax took on JVC’s VHS in the mid 70’s.

So what’s BluRay, and what’s HD-DVD? Well they’re both video formats for the next generation of high-density optical disc, and they’re both intent on replacing the DVD player and VHS tape machine in your living room.

Like the VHS vs betamax saga of the 70’s and 80’s, BluRay and HD-DVD are competing formats, and both want that valuable lounge room real estate beneath your television.

HD-DVD is capable of storing 15 or 30 GB of storage, for single and dual-layer versions, while BluRay can hold 25 or 50 GB for its single or dual-layer versions… in other words, between three and ten times the capacity of current DVD technology. Both formats use a blue laser to read from, and write to, the disc, and both are designed for data storage, in particular, high-definition video.

 

HD-DVD is backed by some well-known and respected brand names. In fact the HD-DVD standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics companies a few years back, lead by Toshiba. Microsoft also hopped on the bandwagon in November 2006, releasing an external add-on HD-DVD drive for its popular Xbox 360 games console.

Other companies backing the HD-DVD technology include NEC, Sanyo, RCA and Intel.

For movie titles, HD DVD is exclusively backed by Universal Studios, and is non-exclusively backed by Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, Warner Bros. Pictures, and the Warner Music Group.

Well .. this all sounds like a tough act to follow, wouldn’t you agree? Let’s look at BluRay, and see what this format has to offer.

 

BluRay has been championed by industry heavyweight Sony. Other brands like JVC, Philips, Samsung and Panasonic have also backed the BluRay fomat, releasing domestic players and recorders in Germany, Japan, the United States and also Australia. Large corporates like Hewlett Packard, Apple and Dell have also backed the format.

In response to Microsoft’s adoption of the HD-DVD standard in its Xbox 360, Sony decided to include a read-only BluRay drive in its PlayStation 3 games console.

 

Technical Differences

Well, which format is better technically?

In terms of audio & video compression, Blu-ray and HD-DVD are similar on the surface: both support MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3), PCM, and DTS for audio compression.

The first generation of Blu-ray Disc movies was released using MPEG-2, which is the standard currently used in DVDs, although encoded at a much higher video resolution and a much higher bit rate. Initial HD-DVDs used the VC-1 codec. Due to greater disc capacity, the Blu-ray Disc could use higher video bit rates in the future.

In terms of audio, there are some differences. The Blu-ray format allows conventional AC-3 audiotracks at 640 kbit/s, higher than HD-DVD’s maximum of 448 kbit/s, but Dolby Digital Plus is mandatory for standalone HD-DVD players, while optional for BluRay players.

Both HD-DVD and BluRay machines do (or should) support HDMI into your television. HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface and replaces the older component and S-video connections between your television, and DVD or tape machines. HDMI carries digital video and audio all in one cable, and is designed for 1080p high-definition video; and high-quality, lossless audio formats.

 

Domestic Equipment

So where are we with domestic equipment? What’s on the shelf and what’s it worth?

The first HD-DVD Player & Recorder is available from Toshiba: the RD-A1 (shown below) retails for a cool AU$4,500 and includes a massive 1TB hard disc. The budget DVD producer Lite-On is also manufacturing a no-frills HD-DVD machine which should be available to Australian consumers soon.

In the BluRay camp, big names like Samsung have started churning out domestic products. The BD-P1000 is now available in Australia for around AU$1700, but early performance reviews have been disappointing. The world’s so-called no. 1 gadget magazine T3 recently reported Samsung’s domestic offering as having slow start-up time compared with a DVD player, sluggish menus and not worth the price tag.

But if you don’t have a spare $1700 to spend on a menu-sluggish, slow-startup BluRay machine, you’re not alone. Many are waiting for the March release of Sony’s PS3. Even though it’s being marketed as the ultimate games console, the integrated BluRay drive is expected to have a big impact on the home entertainment business.

 

T3 also reported that the new Maestro Pro-V Media Centre, containing a blue-ray drive and Twin HD Tuner (shown above) was anything but flawless. Microsoft’s support of the HD-DVD format is evident with Windows Media Centre not supporting BluRay in this machine; additionally the HDMI output on the Maestro was an optional extra. For around AU$3,500, T3 recommends waiting for a version running Vista Media Centre if you’re after BlueRay compatability.

 

Movie Titles

So what movie titles can we expect on these competing formats?

HD-DVD titles heading this way include Land of the Dead, Mission Impossible III, Serenity, Apollo 13 and T3: Rise of the Machines. Other HD DVD titles include The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, The Phantom of the Opera by Warner Home Video; and Serenity by Universal Studios. So far 163 titles have been released in America and 61 in Japan.

BluRay titles now being produced include Tears of the Sun, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Into the Blue and SWAT. All in all more than 157 titles have been released on Blu-ray Disc. The first movies using BluRay dual layer discs (50 GB) were introduced in November, 2006, but single layer discs are currently far more popular with developers.

 

So what’s the verdict?

While we’re still in the early stages of these technologies, HD-DVD appears to be cheaper and easier to produce. Certainly the hardware is more affordable, and the picture quality on early discs has been excellent.

Unfortunately for HD-DVD, there’s less storage space than BluRay and the format isn’t supported by as many Hollywood studios. HD-DVD simply hasn’t managed to secure the support of as many companies as BluRay.

In Australia, the prices of domestic machines are still comparable, and still hideously expensive by DVD player standards. BluRay has more capacity, supports a higher video bitrate and has better industry support, but until those prices come tumbling down, the battle is anything but over.

Telstra Announces Next G Boost … *sigh*

For 20 million Australians, the 6^th October 2006 was an important day. The way we live, work and play began to change forever.ⁱ

How, I hear you ask? An act of terrorism? A natural disaster of unprecedented proportions? Or maybe a scientific breakthrough to revolutionise our busy lifestyles?

Well, no. Sorry to disappoint. It was just Telstra announcing an increase in the data rate of its mobile phone network, that’s all. The bit about “Australians’ lives changing forever” was a part of CEO Sol Trujillo’s speech at the launch of “Next G”, Telstra’s new wideband CDMA telephone network.

Similarly bold claims were again made yesterday by the incumbent telco, in a Media Release entitled “Telstra super-charges Next G network”ⁱⁱ. Yesterday Telstra apparently “super-charged” the speed of its Next G network from 3.6Mbps to 14.4Mbps, and boosted the cell range up to 200km for more than 40 rural and coastal sites.

Sigh. I took a deep breath and decided to “clarify” some issues on behalf of Telstra. For those of you confused about this monumental announcement worthy of a Telstra media release, here are some home truths about their Next G network.

Telstra is desparate to match its existing CDMA coverage, servicing regional and rural Australia, before turning off this legacy network next January.ⁱⁱⁱ The smoke-and-mirrors announcements (the likes of which we saw yesterday) are designed to distract customers from the millions of dollars they were forced to invest in a CDMA network, after the AMPS system was switched off about 10 years ago.

Additionally, Telstra’s laboratory tests have little bearing on reality. Telstra’s media release says that speeds on Next G network have been “super-charged” from 3.6Mbps to 14.4Mbps and cell range has been boosted up to 200km for more than 40 rural and coastal sites. So for those sites, I can be sitting 200km from the cell and get speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps on the data card in my laptop? Sorry to break the bad news, but no. This is misleading for a number of reasons.

One, these data speeds to the base stations accommodate all voice and data traffic for that base station. 14Mbps is a maximum data rate and only achievable sporadically, not continuously, under extraordinarily good radio conditions. Additionally, the base station is a shared resource. Multiple simultaneous users each take a share of that 14Mbps. Put simply, the fastest data speed is only achievable when there are no other subscribers using the base station and you have a “perfect” radio path with no signal degradation or interference.

By its own admission, Telstra have said data rates of 2.3Mbps had been recorded during testing at distances of 200km.^iv 2.3Mbps is a far cry from 14Mbps.

On top of this, voice traffic is always prioritised above data. So the more people that are using the base station for voice calls, the less likely you are to maintain high data speeds on your laptop or mobile device.

There are other technical limitations too. Radio power is shared amongst all subscribers, so that “cell-edge users” needing, for example, a 20-watt signal from the base station might be consuming half of that base station’s possible power ouput. Upstream network traffic is also a consideration, which is a measure of how many calls or data connections the base station can support back to the network. A base station might only be provisioned for 8Mbps, for example. Remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and Next G is no exception.

Bear in mind that products supporting these speeds aren’t even available to the Australian market. We won’t be seeing 14Mbps cards for at least another 6 months.

What we’d like to see from Telstra’s media machine is an announcemnt about high-speed broadband being available over the fixed line network. Australians are screaming for fast, reliable internet connectivity to their homes, not “super-charged” bandwidth to their mobile telephones. Telstra needs to break the bizarre love triangle with the ACCC and the Federal Government, not only in the interests of its shareholders but, just as importantly, in the interests of its customers, and start investing in landline infrastructure to support true broadband to Australian homes and businesses. This, however, is a rant for another occasion.

 

Dr Ron

i Company announcement from Telstra to Australian Stock Exchange, 10/11/2006, re the launch of Telstra’s “Next G” 3^rd-generation WCDMA telephone network on 06/10/2006.

ii Telstra Media Release “Telstra super-charges Next G™ network” by Peter Taylor, 15/02/2007. http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/release.cfm?ObjectID=39138

iii From “CDMA switch-off in 12 months” by Michael Sainsbury and Richard Kerbaj, Australian IT News, 06/02/2007. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21179897%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

iv From “Next G claims range record” by Staff Writers, Australian IT News, 13/02/2007. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21219295%5E26559%5E%5Enbv%5E15306%2D15320,00.html

Coolest Google Rumour

Late January, Michael Eisenberg, partner at Benchmark Capital – (and he should know, Benchmark Capital are one of the investors in Second Life) mentioned this on his blog:

 “Google is working on turning Google Earth into a virtual world a la SecondLife”

Google Earth ( a 3d mockup of the planet generated from satellite photo’s) is terrific, but Google want you to do more than just zoom through it, it wants you to add to it too.

Google recently released version 6 of its popular 3d modeling program (free) sketchup. 

Late January 2007 Google put out a competition for college students to model their campuses in sketchup.

They even provide the 3D warehouse – a website where you can demonstrate what you’ve build in sketchup

The Metaverse entrance? 

Jerry Paffendorf, research director of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a futurist organization says “I would expect to see someone using Google Earth as a virtual social space by the end of the year.  He is working on the “Metaverse Roadmap Summit” – a gathering of programmers of virtual worlds