michaelwyres.com » Geekdom

Outside Broadcasting 20 Years Ago

mwyres — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:09:24 +0000

Given the value of auctioning off unused broadcast spectrum for mobile communications platforms, administrative bodies in most nations of the world are moving towards digital television and radio services. The more efficient allocation of the RF spectrum that digital broadcasting affords, allows huge swathes of particularly the VHF and UHF bands to be freed up for auction to the highest bidder.

Digital also allows the production of television – particularly live sporting events – to be performed far more efficiently. With digital recording, fault prone mechanical tape systems for instant replays may see events missed, because a limited number of tape machines may result in some cameras not being supported by a tape machines for the purposes of replay.

With digital, as long as you’ve got enough disk space – and these days, it’s dirt cheap – you can cover as many cameras as you wish to use – making for a more complete experience of the event. Magnetic tape also has a propensity to degrade over time.

As a bit of a flashback, here’s a segment from the excellent “Beyond 2000″ television program of the 1980′s and 1990′s, documenting how Channel Seven covered the 1991 Bathurst 1000.

Times certainly do change!

Google Pac-Man!

mwyres — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:19:12 +0000

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original release of Pac-Man, Google has added one of its famous anniversary banners.

The kicker is, the banner is actually a playable version of the game! Way cool.

Funny Spam of the Day

mwyres — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:46:10 +0000

I run my own mail server, behind my own router and firewall in my own home. My filters work perfectly, and I get no spam. Some of the stuff my filters catch is hilarious. For example:

Dear user of the michaelwyres.com mailing service!We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (xxxxxx@michaelwyres.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link [removed] Best regards, michaelwyres.com Technical Support.

Remember of course that I process my own email. I don’t seem to remember doing a “security upgrade”. I also don’t have my own “Technical Support” department.

I don’t live in Poland – the removed link pointed to a .pl domain name – but I must pay more attention to my mailbox settings, in case I do any more security upgrades while I am sleep walking!

I’m still laughing.

Melbourne Under Attack from Japan!

mwyres — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:04:34 +0000

Well…perhaps not REALLY. But this rain radar image from today shows a heavy band of rain, shaped very much like the country of Japan!

Similar?

Error Error?

mwyres — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:25:50 +0000

I noticed the following Microsoft patch applied itself to my laptop this morning.

Interestingly, without the patch “Control Panel will incorrectly display an error message”. Incorrectly display? As in, in error?

So that makes it an erroneous error. It reminds of the message I saw on a Sun Xterm many moons ago – “Error – an error did not occur”. Us nerds are so helpful with our error messages sometimes!

Do Not Use Twitter!

mwyres — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:58:43 +0000

Interesting commentary on just how pervasive Twitter is becoming in modern culture – particularly in the culture of the tech savvy.

Leo Goes Flat

mwyres — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:07:01 +0000

I get my tech news from a lot of different places – including TWiT.tv. Many of Leo’s fans will know that he does the shows sitting on an exercise ball.

Ever wondered if he’s ever popped the ball?

The answer: Yes!

(NOTE: Leo posted this video himself, and trimmed some of the audio out, but there is audio!)

Uniting Against Australian Internet Censorship

mwyres — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:49:16 +0000

Australia’s Rudd Federal Government is planning to introduce compulsory internet censorship on Australia. While some of the content they intend to block might be questionable and worthy of blocking in some people’s eyes – I have only one question.

Who are they to decide what Australians can and cannot view on the internet?

We did not vote for this. This was not “listed policy” at the last election. I have started a Facebook group to start a force against this policy.

The Rudd Government was one of the loudest critics of China’s censorship of the internet during the recent Beijing Olympics. I find it more than ironic that they now intend to do the same “for” Australians.

Knight Rider Exposed?

mwyres — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:44:13 +0000

Possibly my favourite TV show of all time was Knight Rider. Aside from the fact that it starred David Hasselhoff – please don’t hold that against it – it was a pretty cool show for it’s time.

One of the regular stunts was having KITT drive on and off FLAG’s roving workshop, in the back of a truck. Some people thought this was rigged, but here the guys from Mythbusters try and prove once and for all if it was possible.

Spam Decreasing?

mwyres — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 07:12:36 +0000

This article suggests that spam on the internet might actually be decreasing. Running my own mail server, I get the chance to look at statistics as to how much mail I get, and how much appears to be spam.

Month to month, the amount of email passing through my server rises and falls, and while there is no definite trend in the terms of sheer volume, the percentage of “good” email versus “bad” email is about the same.

So while there are months where the spammers appear less active, overall, it’s still about the same percentage of all email, based on my own server’s statistics.

Incidentally, not a single piece of spam has hit my inbox in months – if you know how to filter properly, it’s achievable!