Walking robot at Dubai Gitex 2009

HT @mattspangler Sooo while you had your coffee this morning the real Terminator began in Dubai http://bit.ly/Z6oqB



Doesn't count as a real robot until it's has a pair of aussie designed MetalStorm rail guns.

Lol i can just see some of the sheiks in the background thinking how do i buy one of these to patrol my fence line for this weekend.



Cheers,
Dean

Phillies at the Yankees Game 2

Here is a summary of Game 2's chat from www.LiveBaseballChat.com

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/chat/churlchat.do?id=2825



Cheers,
Dean

Droid dock is a 'let down'

I got all excited about the DROID docking systems with auto application popup;

(about the 7 minute mark)


until i read this.

- http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/28/how-to-hack-your-own-droid-dock-with-magnets-and-cardboard/

Thats a shame, i was hoping it was some as yet undisclosed rfid reader functionality.
Just using magnets means their various location placement are going to be limited (eg you cant create your own version of the docking device to bring up other apps).


Cheers,
Dean

Interesting 'development' insider article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/technology/companies/29moto.html?_r=1&ref=technology

P.S. I've since picked up my own Droid and have been posting comments about it here;
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/bought-droid.html

P.P.S. I wonder if i can modify the 'dock screen' to have multiple panels so when i'm watching the game online i can have http://www.livefootballchat.com/ streaming while sitting in the dock?

Phillies at the Yankees Game 1

Here is a summary of the Game 1 chat from www.LivebaseballChat.com

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/chat/churlchat.do?id=2824



Cheers,
Dean

Mad Men

Mad Men is THE best show on television at the moment, the underlying depth of this show is phenominal.

Check out this review for some of the subtext: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116291

Only two more episodes for the season.... OH NOOOOOOO.



Cheers,
Dean

Game 1 of the World Series

If you dont have tickets to the game and are watching on tv, join us live for online chat at

http://www.livebaseballchat.com/CHUrl/2009-10-27/2824/650

Starts 8pm est tonight.


Cheers,
Dean

USA Stats

I was watching a news story talking about how the USA is slipping in stats for maternal death from childbirth so i went and did some research.

Death of the mother in the USA during childbirth is around 600 a year or approx 13 per 100,000 births.

Whilst sad and devestating i personally thought thats a pretty reasonable number a more outrageous number is "Number of deaths in the USA during 2004 from gunfire..... 29,569 !!"


Cheers,
Dean

Too Geek?

Thats funny, someone wrote an online article with "Cupcake" in the title....and i opened the article thinking "Android".

Too geek much?

lol

neat way to temporarily fake external ip addresses

I found out this weekend that if you connect your cable modem to a new ethernet mac address that Time Warner will change the ip address of the device pluggged into of your cable modem.... weird considering the 'cable modem' hasn't changed at all, it's just what... it was plugged into changed.

Now the cool part is i also found out that if you 'fake' the mac address using some cool software that you can swap around your address ad-hoc and when you 'turn off' the software if will go back to your original address... :)

Check out http://www.technitium.com/


Basically Technitium fakes the mac address change, you then simply power the cable modem back on, 30 seconds later you'll have a brand new ip address. As far as any sites are concerned you are a brand new visitor.

Turn off the software (eg mac address goes back to what it was before), power modem on....same old address.

Of course Time Warner will still have a record of who you are so dont go using this for anything illegal - but it certainly opens up some nefarious possibilities.

Also I'm not sure how long you can leave your fake software mac address on before the Time Warner dhcp server 'allocated' your old address to someone else though.

Also if you use this in conjunction with No-Ip domain registration/DNS software you can even setup websites on 'fake' ip addresses temporarily.

lol - like i said time warner will still have a record of who you are so dont do anythingyou shouldn't be.


Cheers,
Dean

The AHIP "Public Option" Singers

Wow how freaking cool is this video, I want to shake the hand of whoever thought of this publicity stunt, what a viral hit.


AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them - with song.



Please pass this video on to everyone you know who you think would care.


Cheers,
Dean

google wave/asterisk/skype robot

Tim Panton’s 5 minute webcast showing the google wave/asterisk/skype robot that he demo’d at astricon.



Cheers,
Dean

Google re FCC

Google Re: net neutrality.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_13631149?source=rss

in other words..... "We like what you are doing this time with your net neutrality but we dont trust you wont screw us over next time".......

Brooklyn promenade park

Just took a snap on my phone of the trees on the promenade from my cell phone. These are just in a temporary location but I think this park is going to look amazing eventually.


Cheers,
Dean

Al Franken for President!!

I cant believe we almost missed out on this guy becoming a Senator.

I'm calling it now - Al Franken for President !!

Cheers,
Dean

Pre-existing Conditions

Can you belive this crap from health care companies

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/insurance-companies-rape-_n_328708.html

Sigur Ros - Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa - English subtitles

wow i cant tell you how many times i've listened to this song on their 2001 Ágaetis Byrjun cd and had no idea what it meant..... the 'lyrics' in both icelandic and english actually enhance the music and make it even sadder than i once thought it was.



Cheers,
Dean

Top 10 requested iPhone Features

Ha ha ha, I hate to continue this argument and contribute to the signal to noise ratio but……

http://pleasefixtheiphone.com/

Problem 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 can all be done by my 2 year old Windows Mobile HTC 8525 handset.


Cheers,
Dean

Add external devices to your iPhone using just the audio jack

Eddie on the newtech-1 mailing list posted this article

"CNET: "Twitter co-founder's 'Square' comes into focus"Looks like a neat iPhone attachment that turns your phone into a portable credit card reader."

To which my reply was;
Hmmm “that fits in to the headphone jack of an iPhone” Oh really?
I wonder how they are achieving that?


Calvin was able to provide this link; http://bit.ly/iPhone_Serial_Hack

So technically I could build a keyboard for the iphone using it’s ‘audio jack’ or any other type of external device as long as it didn’t need anything more than a 1200 baud data rate.

Very interesting, wonder if anyone else is planning things along this line.


Cheers,
Dean

Mobile App Store

was doing some research this morning and came across this great spreadsheet on the various mobile app stores;

http://distimo.com/uploads/mobile%20app%20store%20overview.pdf



Interesting to see the explosion in this space over the last year. Is it going to get even bigger?
I own the 4 domains http://www.mobileappstore.com/ .net .org .mobi though i've kind of been sitting on the sidelines.

Cheers,
Dean

CSIRO's Wi-Fi patent $200m and counting

http://www.crn.com.au/News/158194,csiros-wi-fi-patent-victory-earns-200m-and-counting.aspx

A lot of people dont know that WiFi came out of the CSIRO in Australia.

Great to see the royalties rolling in. Will be interesting to see what other technologies this money gets to fund.


Cheers,
Dean

What no Norman Mailer?

Came across this article this morning


5 Authors More Badass Than The Badass Character They Created
http://www.cracked.com/article/152_5-authors-more-badass-than-badass-character-they-created/


What no Norman Mailer?


Cheers,
Dean

Beer run

Guy going for a beer run...... lol at this rate he'll be sober before he gets home.

"I'm not drunk, just flip me over a give me a straw will you :)"

My kind of party animal, note the time.... it's 10am on a tuesday morning.


Cheers,
Dean

Rosetta Stone

Jodie wanted to brush up on her German as she hasn't done German language classes in at least 8 years or more since she was last in Berlin so i bought her a copy of the Rosetta Stone German Level 1, 2 & 3 that she has been using for the last month or so and loves it.

Considering I haven't studied languages since failing 8th grade French i was wary about having a go myself.

All i can say is wow.

After playing with it for just a few hours or so I've been totally hooked. The way they use audio and pictures is fantastic. I cant believe how easy it is.

If you are thinking of trying to learn a language definitely check out Rosetta Stone. It's pricey but way worth it in comparison to studying languages in a formal class.


Cheers,
Dean

User-Authentication Services

Yahoo Is A Surprising Second Among User-Authentication Services
No surprise: most chat participants opting to use a third-party authentication service go for the popular Facebook Connect. More of a surprise: signing in with a Yahoo account is the second most popular choice.


hmmm - wondering if this going to turn into a service provider war?

How much would Facebook/Yahoo/Twitter pay me as a website content provider to have my users authenticate against their services exclusively?

Surely there has to be value associated to Yahoo that you 'have' to use a Yahoo username in order to authenticate to my website.

Do you think Yahoo would pay per user per month or maybe even per user per login?


Cheers,
Dean

rhino batteries suck

Whatever you do dont buy Rhino batteries.

I used these batteries in my APC UPS and this is what they looked like after 6 months....oh and that BS from their resllers about warranties, wait until you see the fine print.

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Rick Flanigan wrote:


Once you pay to ship the batteries to us, they will be tested. If we determine the batteries are indeed bad we will replace your batteries less shipping costs. We cannot be held responsible if the batteries have failed because of your faulty UPS.
Great so i've paid for shipping to me originally, back to them because their crap failed in less than 6 months, and then back to me again...... plus my UPS (and therefor all the computers) have to be offline for 2 weeks at least - yeh right.
 
Rhino batteries suck.
 
 
 
Cheers,
Dean

Chile Wants Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses, Your Tech Entrepreneurs

Comprende Espanol?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/10/chile-wants-your-poor-your-huddled-masses-your-tech-entrepreneurs/

DOS on telephone numbers

hmmm this is unfortunately something we are going to see more of.

if you think email spam is bad imagine 20 automated phone calls a day with robots on the the end of them trying to sell you viagra.

Someone is 'cooking' something here as a test for something bigger (and racking up bills for unsuspecting people at the same time).


Citibank is or has been under a telephone calling attack latest 12 hours. Here I will explain the attack and how it was done.
Have you seen the movie “lawnmower man”, when in the end, all phones rings in the who city? This was the aim for todays attack on Citibank in UK. The attack was simple, but probably effective when it was active. Send SIP INVITE to open SIP gateways and PBXs, who then will actually use the traditional phonesystem (POTS) to call the target. Suddenly you need DoS protection on your traditional POTS lines….
The SIP INVITE looks like this.
http://www.honeynor.no/2009/09/20/citibank-uk-number-was-target-for-a-lawnmower-telephone-attack-today/



Cheers,
Dean

Time Warner NYC SUX!! - Samsung 3090

I used to have a scientific atlanta 8300 dvr in harlem for the last 2 years and it was great.

When we moved to brooklyn heights for some reason the 8300 kept having vod issues. After 3 different technician visits and even swapping out the box with another 8300 didn't solve the problem.

Eventually the technician replaced the SA 8300 with the new samsung 3090.

The VOD problem went away which is great however the new box DOESNT work with the esata drive that i purchased last year that WAS working with the SA8300.

I called the call center and both csr's i spoke with didn't even know what esata drives were let alone how to help me get this working/explain when it would be available.

Time Warner NYC sux and the CSR's are clueless.

I dont know if Fios is any better but it cant be worse.


Cheers,
Dean

Yet Another Software Patent

Are you freaking kidding me?

A software patent on the concept of a "User Profile Page"


Tele-Publishing filed the complaint in US District Court in Boston last Wednesday, alleging that Facebook’s “computer network and method of creating and sharing a personal page’’ is covered by one or more claims of a patent issued by the USPTO in June 2001.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/09/another-day-another-lawsuit-against-facebook-well-two/


Yet another reason to kill software patents.

Cheers,
Dean

Public Enemy - Sellaband

Public Enemy are asking fans to help fund the recording of their next album.

The rap collective have signed a deal with fan funding engine SellaBand, and are aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25 in order to record and release the as-yet-untitled album. In return, fans who invest in the album will receive a share in the revenue of the album, as well as a numbered copy of it.

http://www.nme.com/news/public-enemy/47686

http://www.sellaband.com/publicenemy

How could you not want to fund these guys, they are "The Originals" - what a great idea.

33% of album revenue returned to investors, sounds like a free cd with potential upside for my $25 investment.

If they sell enough cd's top generate $757,576 in revenue then $250,000 will be returned back to investors.

Sounds like a great opportunity to me.

(BTW I'm loving track 2, already played it like 3 times).


Cheers,
Dean

N900 and Maemo 5

Love the circular zoom motion (about 3.20) and the back swipe for 'history views' (about 4.10)

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/10/07/nokia-shows-off-n900s-sweet-web-browsing-skills-on-video/




Cheers,
Dean

TWIT insights

Some very valuable information in this video.

I really belive his statement about speciality niche ad revenue. In fact im betting on it for http://www.livechatconcepts.com/


Cheers,
Dean

Customs House

Yes this is 'the' customs house from The Score


lol i couldn't believe it when we stumbled across it and of course Jodie had no idea why i was so excited to get a photograph in front of it.



And yes it does look like it's an actual government building inside. lol.

Why canadians are nicer

Q. Why are Canadians nicer than Americans?

A. Because in their subways instead of public service announcements for NY Terror watch and report suspicious packages ...... they had ads for an art exhibition that was running next week.


Oh and in case you didn't know this is what a clean subway station looks like :(

Diese Onze jazz club

We found Diese Onze while out walking in the afternoon and made a mental note of where is was.

When we asked the concierge at the W hotel for a recommendation on a hip Jazz club he recommended "House" (lol 2 mins inside the door before we even got to the bar we knew House wasn't our kind of place and jumped into a cab to hunt down where we saw Diese Onze earlier in the afternoon).

Diese Onze is everything you want from a jazz club. It's downstairs in the basement, it has comfy tables and chairs that you dont mind hanging out in for more than a few hours, and has super friendly staff.

I reccomend grazing on the tapas menu; between the two of us we had 3 dishes and saved room for 2 deserts.

Although they only made straight up instead of creamy chocolate martinis the music more than made up for it.

(I've uploaded a short video clip here)

Met some super friendly Canadians who we got talking to about Australia and living in NY etc - all in all the night couldn't have been better.


Cheers,
Dean

Canada's answer to the American health care problem

We found Canada's answer to the American health care problem this afternoon... Bixi Bikes.

As i mentioned in the other post it was noticable how skinny and hot the people in Montreal are; now i dont know if this is because more of them ride bikes or good diets but i saw more people riding bikes (both hire and privately owned) than anywhere, and considering they get more snow than New York does..... what excuse do we really have?

The price is totaly reasonable at $3 for up to a 90 minute trip or even better $78 for an annual flat fee.

And they are literally everywhere.Each of those red dots are an automated pickup or drop off location.

I would totally love it if they came to New York. All it takes is one smart politician to make it happen, you could probably even leverage some of Obama's healthcare money in order to fund it.

Cheers,
Dean

Found this video online about a month later, thought it might interest some people

Sexy Montreal Women

This is why all the women in Montreal are so sexy.

When you order a small coffee you get a small coffee. Not the American size 'Grande' would you like a shopping trolley for your coffee to go, megafat calorie stupor inducing swill buckets that get served in the USA.

Oh and for all you fashionista women in NY who think you wear nice clothes..... Montreal girls are way ahead of you in fashion as well (Actually for the fashion capital of America I'm often dissapointed with how dull most New Yorkers dress). If i ever get divorced again I'm moving to Montreal. I could be single there quite happily for a very long time.

lol.

Méchant Bœuf Bar & Brasserie

Méchant Bœuf Bar & Brasserie





Found this lively restaurant on a wet Friday night while checking out Montreal's old port area.

Once we saw the funky DJ and heard the eclectic tracks he was laying down we knew this was our kind of place.

The food was unpretentious while still being good. I haven't had calamari as good as this in a long time.

Highly recommended.

The W Hotel in Montreal

We stayed at The W hotel in Montreal for the weekend. Loved it.

We stayed in one of their funky "Mega Rooms" where the bath/shower area is open to the bedroom area.

It sounds funky but it really works. Makes the space feel so much bigger and being able to watch the tv from the bubble bath.

Of course like all of the W hotels you can hardly see anything in the lobby because of the dim lighting;

Would definitely recommend staying there.


The one big negative was the concierge. (both of them).

On Friday night we asked for recommendations on funky restaurants in the Old Port area, and although we were referred to 3 or 4 really nice looking restaurants they all looked a little boring.

Ended up asking a bar tender we met for advice and they recommended the perfect restaurant "Méchant Bœuf Bar & Brasserie" which was much more our style.

On the Saturday night i asked a different concierge for advice on a 'funky jazz club', he recommended 'House', lol i knew within 2 mins before we even got to the bar that this wasn't our kind of place and went to find Diese Onze.

Apart from this if you are young and hip, wouldn't recommend staying anywhere else.

Montreal

Went to Montreal this weekend with Jodie to celebrate my 40th birthday.

We've never been to Montreal before so was really surprised how fantstic the place is. It's definitely the perfect place for an 'adults' getaway weekend.

It's small so you might not need more than 3 or 4 days to get around but we had a blast checking out the place and had some real surprises.

1/ Montreal people are skinny compared to New Yorkers.
2/ Montreal people are way more fashionable than most New Yorkers (the guys there as well), I was stunned with how good most of them looked in comparison.
3/ The cars are all normal size and very similar to what you would find in Sydney (lots of asian cars as well).
4/ Restaurants are way cheaper, our night in the jazz bar only cost $110 for both of us including music cover charge, meal, deserts and more than a few cocktails.
5/ I was surprised that i think i might actually miss the hustle and bustle of New York...... not sure how that bodes with me moving back to Sydney.


I've uploaded a heap of photos and videos here along with some blog posts following this one about individual places we found and liked.

http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/w-hotel-in-montreal.html
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/mechant-buf-bar-brasserie.html
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/canadas-answer-to-american-health-care.html
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/diese-onze.html
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-canadians-are-nicer.html
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/customs-house.html

Cheers,
Dean

Layers

New York is such a multi layered city. I'm not sure i like all of the layers but it makes it interesting when you stumble into something you never knew existed.

Cheers,
Dean