Learn about Open Source at LCA 2010 Open Day
There will be 30+ exhibitors from business, education and community groups demoing some of the software they have written, along with a number of other activities including:
- Activities for kids with the One Laptop per Child laptops in the Little Blu Kids Area
- Demonstrations from the Wellington makerspace group
- 2 New Zealand Electric Cars run with open source software
- 3 sessions about free and open source software
"Open Source for Newbies" - Cat Allman & Leslie Hawthorn (Google Open Source Office)
"50 ways to love your project" - Josh Berkus & Selena Deckelmann
"Geek my car" - Jon Oxer
- And more
Check the PDF poster for this event for more information.
Registration for linux.conf.au is still continuing and the organisers expect 600 delegates for the main conference alone (with a split of 40% New Zealand, 40% Australia, and 20% from the Rest of the World).
Prizes for Geekzone Freeview Pizza evenings 2010 rolling in...
This year events are sponsored by Freeview and Telecom New Zealand. Other sponsors are participating with prizes - full list after the pictures of the swag I am holding here for you...
Mobile handsets, USB modems and SIM cards - courtesy of Telecom New Zealand (four handsets, two USB modems) and Sony Ericsson (three handsets).
Freeview|HD DTR (Digital TV Recorder) and three digital satellite receivers, courtesy of DTVS.
Three EVA2000 courtesy of NETGEAR.
Polycom Communicator courtesy of Asnet Technology.
And here is the complete list (so far):
- 2degreesmobile (three $200 SIM + three $150 SIM or topup if existing customer)
- Air New Zealand (three tickets, one for each event)
- Altaro (21 licenses for Oops!Backup for Windows)
- Asnet Technology (three Polycom Communicator)
- BigHammer (three Kingston 16GB USB DataTraveller)
- Data centre limited (3x 1U colocation plus unlimited bandwidth for one year - you must register your interest at www.datacentre.co.nz before the meeting, drinks AKL)
- DTV Solutions (Homecast HT9200DTR WLG, three DTVS-1B satellite receivers)
- Microsoft New Zealand (three Windows 7 Ultimate retail)
- NETGEAR (three EVA2000 )
- Nutshell Leather Cases (one leather case matching each of the Telecom handsets below)
- NZ Internet Shop (Aeropress coffee maker WLG)
- NZS.com (online advertising packages)
- Quay Corporate (24" LCD WLG)
- sniff (drinks AKL/CHC/WLG)
- Sony (three NWZA840 walkman)
- Sony Ericsson (three W705 mobile phones, suitable for XT network)
- Stickemen Studios (concept art for King Fu Funk, Doc Clock, Dragon Master Spell Caster and Shadow Rising videogames)
- Symantec (six copies of Norton Antivirus)
- Telecom New Zealand (two sierra wireless 885u USB mobile broadband modem, two Samsung Ultra Touch S8300T, one Sony Ericsson W995 and one Sony Ericsson W705)
Note that to be in to win the colocation hosting and free bandwidth from Data centre limited you must be register your interest on their site and be present in each evening.
Please consider visiting these sponsors sites to show our appreciation!
AT&T LG eXpo Windows Mobile Phone with pico projector
It's powered by the phone itself, so I guess for longer sessions we will need the phone plugged in for power. It can be used to project presentations from Powerpoint mobile, or training - or any video really, including movies you might have on your device. Any sound comes out of the speakerphone (or your Bluetooth speakers) - I will try and get some external speakers plugged in if possible.
It adds only 50g to the phone and has a manual focus. You slide the lens cover to turn the projector on, and use the camera button to switch between landscape and portrait.
Here are some first pictures of the phone with the pico projector attachment and some projections at daytime - I will try and get a picture of a night time performance later:
Both the AT&T LG eXpo Windows Phone and the pico projector were supplied by AT&T for my review.
AT&T LG eXpo Windows Mobile Phone first impressions
UPDATE: Very impressed! This is the first Windows Mobile phone I've used that actually shows Internet Explorer Mobile under a good light. Probably because of the fast processor, Internet Explorer mobile actually performs really well on this handset - unlike the HTC Touch Pro 2 which seemed too slow for Internet Explorer mobile.
It's now charging and I will then configure ActiveSync, the fingerprint scanner, and all other options. Some just-out-of-the-box pictures:
Not happy with the outcome of knee vs smartphone
Not happy with the outcome. But waiting for a couple of new smartphones to arrive here today (AT&T LG eXpo and HTC Snap) so in the meantime I am using an Acer F900 I have around.
Please fill the Victoria University of Wellington mobile survey
I am told many of you filled the mobile data in business survey but the team at the Victoria University of Wellington still need some more answers to get to the 300 answers (or more) needed to make it statistically correct.
This is a survey on smartphones and mobile data usage and respondents will be in to win $200. It is part of a Victoria University of Wellington research project on the use of mobile information systems in the workplace.
If you are currently using a mobile device enabled with data capability (e.g. mobile email, mobile Internet, mobile business applications etc) for work purposes, then we invite you to complete a survey questionnaire. It should take you approximately 12 minutes to complete the survey, which is anonymous and will be available until the 25th of December 2009.
By completing the questionnaire you will be entered in draw to win a prize of $200. Please use the following link to access the survey:
http://vuw.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_cBko9uZySNCz9Zi&SVID=Prod
Your participation is important and will help to improve the understanding of the adoption and use of mobile technology. Should you require any further information about this project, please contact Eusebio Scornavacca at (04) 463 6697 or email eusebio.scornavacca@vuw.ac.nz or Professor Sid Huff at (04) 463-5819 or email sid.huff@vuw.ac.nz.
New Zealand is in good company TUANZ
Earlier this week Telecom XT network had extended outage, apparently the result of some software update gone rogue. People from all over commented on it (including myself) but one of the most strongly worded comments came from Ernie Newman who commented to NBR's Chris Keall:
Telecommunications Users Association (Tuanz) chief executive Ernie Newman said, "From here, it looks bizarre. Even third world countries don't experience outages of that magnitude and length.
I have news: New Zealand is not a third world country. Or perhaps the U.S. is one too:
- 3rd March 2009: Vodafone 3G returns after three hour Auckland outage;
- 12th December 2009: AT&T 3G service disruption in San Francisco, lasting for two hours and fifteen minutes;
- 13th December 2009: Verizon Network down in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and California, with a six hour ETA for full services restoration;
- 14th December 2009: Telecom XT outage affects half of New Zealand;
- 17th December 2009: AT&T outage leaves Alaska without 2G service for most of the day.
Is TelstraClear sitting on its YouTube problem?
Using some "techniques" that work with other ISPs which cache YouTube content locally won't help - refreshing the page on your browser for example won't get a "local" version from your ISP, since TelstraClear doesn't seem to offer this kind of service.
This has been happening for about a month now, and it seems to affect both cable modem and DSL customers. I have seen reports of this on Geekzone (1, 2) and from people following me on Twitter who confirmed the same affecting them.
I've heard a rumour that TelstraClear is investigating this, but no official confirmation was received. I've tried contacting TelstraClear's spokesperson via email, but received no reply.
It seems only YouTube is being affected, and overall I am quite happy with how other services perform on TelstraClear's network (in my case the cable modem service).
Don't worry visiting their status page. This issue is not recognised by the company. And calling their help desk will get through someone that will imply the problem is on your side (and just forcing the customer to move away).
UPDATE: the official TelstraClear response to this issue is "We intend to speak with Google to try and improve the experience of our customers since their move to more HD content."
That's it. No problem acknowledgement, no explanation.
The Telecom XT network outage (14 Dec 2009 updated)
I won't go into the gory details of today's XT network outage. There's enough "experts" around - and a lot of them seem to gather on this Geekzone discussion.
But here is just some background information you ought to know regarding the Telecom XT network.
There are two RNCs in the XT network. One in Auckland and one in Christchurch. These are Tier 0 sites - Tier 0 sites have the highest levels of availability (power, connectivity etc) and the strictest change control procedures.
A network of similar size to Telecom XT could quite easily have been built with one RNC but two RNC provide added resiliency into the network. A single event would not affect all customers.
And that's what happened.
A RNC is a platform made of multiple redundant components. You can imagine that a total RNC failure means quite a serious issue. It appears the issue cascaded to affect the way cell sites restart which is what happened during the day. It was the establishment of communications to each cell site turn took its time and delayed recovery for the part of New Zealand affected - those living south of Taupo it seems.
I am told this issue is being "analysed" at the highest levels of both Telecom New Zealand and Alcatel-Lucent, the technology provider.
There's only one thing I want to tell you:
![blog85d0656287d8dabc09b7f13a70104ce2[1]](http://www.geekzone.co.nz/imagessubs/5daeb240fc26446bb3dd4e133f17e44c.jpg "blog85d0656287d8dabc09b7f13a70104ce2[1]")
(For those of you who don't get it.)
Smartphone and mobile data survey: Victoria University needs your help
I was contacted by a professor who is looking for help with getting 300 answers (or more) for a Victoria University of Wellington survey on smartphones and mobile data usage - respondents will be in to win $200.
This is a Victoria University of Wellington research project on the use of mobile information systems in the workplace.
If you are currently using a mobile device enabled with data capability (e.g. mobile email, mobile Internet, mobile business applications etc) for work purposes, then we invite you to complete a survey questionnaire. It should take you approximately 12 minutes to complete the survey, which is anonymous and will be available until the 25th of December 2009.
By completing the questionnaire you will be entered in draw to win a prize of $200. Please use the following link to access the survey:
http://vuw.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_cBko9uZySNCz9Zi&SVID=Prod
Your participation is important and will help to improve the understanding of the adoption and use of mobile technology. Should you require any further information about this project, please contact Eusebio Scornavacca at (04) 463 6697 or email eusebio.scornavacca@vuw.ac.nz or Professor Sid Huff at (04) 463-5819 or email sid.huff@vuw.ac.nz.
