Emoda Technology Group

hsNW :: (hack space for the NorthWest)

2009-04-06T14:00:00.002Z

Getting rather excited about the prospect of a "hack space" for the North West of England. Looks like possible events are to be set-up in Liverpool, Manchester and Stockport (at the time of writing).

Some discussion at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/NW-hack-space

Liverpool specific venues being proposed:

[LSC] http://liverpoolsocialcentre.org/
[STATIC] http://www.static-ops.org/complex.htm
[CUC] http://www.novasscarman.org/contemporary-urban-centres/

Might be a useful re-cycling point for all the old-tech I've accumulated along the way - bit more creative re-cyling than down the local tip :-) I can just imagine the old components/PCs/Devkits and other Steptoe-esque items being beautifully combined into the latest 3D printing grid array bio-computer... or maybe not!

Just who the hell was jezar@cix anyway?

2009-01-28T21:19:00.001Z

BLah blaH bLAh.

meh.

http://christianfarrow.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/just-who-the-hell-was-jezarcix-anyway/

Shmeep :-)

Google Chrome for Linux please!

2008-09-23T09:25:00.005Z

Come on Google - get your coding finger out! Can we have a native version of Chrome for Linux please? Codeweavers (using wine from wine HQ) have already proved that they can get the Win-Chrome running on Linux... see CrossOver Chrome - how about a real native Linux version from the google dev team?

I've been using the dev branch of Chrome on my work PC and have become used to its clean interface and speed - both things my latest install of Firefox 3 lacks... Chrome is a pleasure to use, is feature-rich and speedy at page-rendering.

So come on you Google code-monkeys - get your Linuxisation hats on...

emoda

iPhone 2.0 bashing

2008-06-16T10:54:00.004Z

...or why iPhone 2.0 isn't really 2.0. So I thought I may as well jump on the bandwagon and have a dig at Cupertino's latest.

So, the usual fanfare and quasi-religious fervour reached fever pitch and culminated with Jobs' anti-climactic announcement of "iPhone 2.0".

So what? Big wow. So they fixed a few things that they should have included in the initial release - that does not warrant a major version increment! iPhone 2.0 really should have been 1.1. We got: 3G, GPS, better battery life, flush headphone jack, more storage and lower price. Not really a 2.0 feature set, would you say? Lots of people wanted more.

Let's look at my Top Ten list of what the iPhone still DOESN'T do...

No decent camera - still puny 2MP
No video capture (what? the youtube generation ignored?)
No front facing video camera - no video calling
No landscape Keyboard - wasting valuable screen real-estate making using prod in portrait only
No choice in Networks! Still locked to a handful of operators! How 1990's is that. C'mon get with the program
No Bluetooth Audio streaming - wake up! A2DP is here! No Bluetooth File-Transfer!
(laughable) No "Copy & Paste". What? Even my Psion Series3 from 1991 did that seamlessly across applications!
No MMS. Again, something the rest-of-the-world has been crazy about since around-2000 but again, apple have chosen to ignore.
No way for the iPhone to act as a 3G modem for Laptop. D'oh!
No expandable storage.

Still better off with an N95 8GB on any network you choose!

Google AdSense - Sense or NonSense?

2008-02-11T10:16:00.000Z

Received some post from Google the other day - which was a first... turns out I'd added Google Adsense to a few of my websites in 2005, and then promptly forgotten about it/them!

Anyway, Google wrote to me because they "need to verify my identity" before paying me! Yippe I thought! $1,000,000 thank you very much. Well, no. when I logged in, I found a not-too-earth-shattering account balance of $25.42. Wow - for nearly 3 years imprints/clickthru's!

Back to the day job then.... :-(

Japanese Spam Hammer

2006-10-09T22:23:00.000Z

"My eyes have turned to toast, and my ears are bleeding" - surely one of the all-time greatest lyrics, ever. I've just discovered it on Japanese Spam Hammer's "Bra Hair" - a debut album from 1998 that still sounds fresh today. But more than fresh - it will knock into a cocked hat any "made for TV" X-Factor style "manufactured" artist. This is pure originality. Buy it. Download it. If you can find some mp3's, look out for the very rare "It's snowing in spam hammer land" taken from the minidisc only release of "Xmas in various shapes of Spam"

Pure Genius!!!

Dinosaurs - prehistoric & post-war

2006-09-24T23:18:00.000Z

Had a trip to two interesting places in Texas today:

1. Dinosaur Valley State Park, near Glen Rose, Texas and
2. Pate Museum, near Forth Worth, Texas.

Both places contained evidence of Dinosaurs.

The first, the Dinosaur Valley State Park, has real dinosaur footprints in the rock of the river-bed. The footprints were made about 111 Million years ago in the mud flats of what was once a sea shore. They've been preserved by a layer of clay and then turned into rock by the following 111 million years!

The second, The Pate Museum of transportation, contains dinosaurs of a different kind - most notably the Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar" and the "Flying Banana" twin rotor helicopter. Both Dinosaurs of the 1950's and 1960's era of aviation.

Some photos in the IONGNSS folder on picassaweb below.

(and before anyone asks, the folder's called IONGNSS because I'm here for the 2006 ION GNSS conference!)

IONGNSS

Sep 24, 2006 - 18 Photos

EMOS Heaven

2006-09-20T12:21:00.000Z

EMOS what? EMOS who? It's a phrase from my days in the Marconi TAC24 (Technical Assistance Centre - 24 x 7). EM-OS was the GPT/Marconi SDH Element Management Operating System - basically an SDH Network Element manager running on HP-UX on HP J2240/J210 and similar workstations. (Later EMOS was merged into Marconi's "ServiceOn" product portfolio, and EMOS was always lovingly referred to as "ServiceOff" - see what we did there?).

EMOS was the bain of out support lives. The usual response from the EMOS on-call so-called "product specialists" was invariably "Reboot it mate" - leading to the creation of the adage "RFA" = Reboot Fixes All. To be fair these guys got more sophisticated as time went on - the most eloquent of thier suggested fixes broke down into three phases:

Re-seat the comms/network card - if that doesn't cure the problem then:
Re-boot - if that doesn't cure the problem then:
Replace the Hardware (meaning another HP Workstation couriered to site and built/configured to replace the ailing machine.)

Pure Genius!

Anyway, I digress. "EMOS Heaven" was a term that randomly appeared on a filing cabinet spelt out in broken pieces of magnetic strip...

Pneumonia + Pleurisy = NOT GOOD

2006-07-17T10:34:00.000Z

Well, what do you know? You're happily plodding along, doing your usual day to day stuff, and life goes and throws a spanner in the works! Reminds me of the John Lennon quote "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". In this case my other plans included a business trip to Indonesia, to present a training course with 20 delegates flying to Jakarta from all over Asia.

What life threw at me started as a pain under my left collar bone, that spread over the course of one day to a pain round my ribcage so severe I could hardly breathe. A couple of trips to A&E later (with a trip to the GP in the middle) and I'm diagnosed with "community acquired" pneumonia and pleurisy. Anyway, after a night in hospital the pain was under control and I was allowed home.

Just the fallout to deal with from the disgruntled asian travellers, having to cancel their collective travel plans. Some sweet talking from one of my colleagues, and the promise of a days extra consultancy when the course is re-scheduled seemed to do the trick.

And then, when you think that's it for spanners-in-the-works, my five year old daughter comes down with chickenpox! And that was one of the childhood diseases that I didn't catch! So, now there's a risk of chickenpox too, which by all accounts is horrendous when you're an adult.....

So, being forced to stay at home and "relax" what does a techy geek do? Well, I was hoping to tweak my little NTP baby but the combination of pneumonia/drugs/little-girl-at-home-with-chickenpox just meant it was an unproductive stint of lounging around, reading and consuming the staple diet of daytime-TV trash.

NTP server - what time is it?

2006-06-07T23:53:00.000Z

Well, my quest for world domination from the back bedroom continues...

Latest project - a dedicated stratum 1 NTP server for Farrow HQ! Got the 1PPS, ToD etc. coming out of the Symmetricom TimeSource 3100 (see previous post!) so all I need is a 'puter to do the NTP bit ;-)

Fancy one of these - Soekris net4501 - boards. "cos the boffins who know reckon they're well suited to serving time.

I've been running a couple of test/evaluation servers for a while now, both on bog standard Dell Optiplex motherboards. One FreeBSD and one Fedora Core; I'll probably go with the Fedora build on the Soekris (if I can get it to fit!) as it's what I know best. I've had a little play with FreeBSD over the past weeks and couldn't get the PPS interface working, whereas it worked first time for me on the Fedora setup.

...but realistically getting a working Fedora on a 512M or 1G CF card? Think I might have to trade up to a net4801 instead! Inbuilt IDE i/f for 2.5" hard drive.... and more firepower. Not that I'll need it - serving NTP to a handful of clients on the home network!

Moved upstairs

2006-05-25T20:27:00.000Z

OK, so this working from home lark - not really possible when your home-office is in the dining room which is right next to the front door, at the front of the house. Everyone that comes through the front doot wants to say hello, and then there's the postman, and all the other distractions just outside the window. (Living on a main road doesn't help either...).

The solution - move the home-office upstairs, to a spare bedroom at the back of the house... only garden to look at, and away from the traffic (both on the road and through the house)

Slight problem in that the only spare room is tiny - just about big enough for a 3/4 bed and a desk and some shelves. But don't forget, this home-office is also a home-lab!

And the bedroom used to be a nursery, hence the "charming" wallpaper & curtains!

The next challenge will be installing this Timesource 3100 GPS antenna and getting the cable from high off the roof into the spare room! (The Symmetricom TimeSource 3100 is the black box right on the top of the shelves - it's a PRS - Primary Reference Source - and when it's locked to GPS it's accurate to 1x10-12. This is the type of thing that you might find synchronising a Telecom Network - at the top of a hierarchy of SSUs/SASEs/BITs etc. My plan is not only to have PRC quality 10MHz & 2.048MHz clocks for testing, but the 1 PPS and/or the ToD code is going to drive a stratum 1 NTP server! World domination from my spare room. Well, not really...)

gone over to the light side :-)

2006-03-28T19:12:00.000Z

well... I've gone and done it.

ebay was truly my friend, and produced a mini-mac mini (mac) and now it's living in my house. Un-ceremoniously dumped on the floor for the time being (study/office move to upstairs pending...).

So now there's a mac living in my house! And it's great.

Just plug in and go. Just plug things in and go. Just go.

:: emoda ::

(publishing via the gift of mac :-) )

Working from home....

2006-02-24T16:08:00.000Z

Well, things on here went kinda quiet for a while, all because I went and got one of those pesky "new job" things! Lots of travelling and working and other distracting things....

But things have settled down a bit now, and I'm lucky to be able to work some days from home...

But I'm not sure this kind of use of the dining room table is entirely appropriate! The long term plan is to clear out the spare bedroom, and have a desk (and a lab-bench!) in there.

I'm working for a company called Chronos Technology, based in the Forest of Dean, which is about 170 miles away from home. But with the aid of brodband, VPNs etc. it's just like I'm in the office!

You can see me on the company website here! (Warning: cheesy photo)

Anyway, the Qosmio made it back to life - I managed to coax the old hard-disk into life long enough to image it on to a new one, so there was no rebuilding/re-installing required. Phew. Bet you're all releived anout that!

:: emoda ::

Goodbye Qosmio....

2006-01-12T22:55:00.000Z

just days after the warranty expires, the hard disk in my Toshiba Qosmio decides to do impressions of a chug-chug clunk-clunk fan with rattling loose bits inside! Yeeeeeeuch!

And even though I've got back ups, since the last one I've done a mammoth amount of work... ouch!

At least it's only £50-ish for a new disk and we're off again..... but it's the hardship of it all! Having to re-install XP MCE, all the apps and stuff... eugh I'm dreading it! I've added a whole load of post Christmas CDs to iTunes too... boo hoo!

[sneaky laugh] Maybe I should bite the bullet and buy a new mac instead! Ha! 'Cos that would cost not-a-little-bit-more-than-£50-ish??? [/sneaky laugh]

:: emoda ::
emoda technology group

Hi-Tech/Low-Tech

2005-12-27T23:24:00.000Z

You know, all this computer geekery is sometimes a bit too much, and what you need is a good dose of low-tech.

I love a good drill, and this B&Q own brand one is a corker! And it's cheap. AND it's got a completely useless LED light.... genius.

:: emoda ::
emoda technology group

Switched off... on to wood.

2005-12-15T11:59:00.000Z

Hmmm. Things don´t always go to plan do they? My euphoria at being in Mac OS X land was short-lived... that portion of my pennies earmarked for a venture to the light side has been diverted to.... wait for it.... a new dining table (a monster!), 10 chairs and a dresser/sideboard thingy!

So no shiny white maccy thing for me. Well, not yet anyways.

....sniff

:: emoda ::
emoda technology group

Switched?

2005-12-06T10:19:00.000Z

I think I´ve found computing Nirvana!

Mac OS X is such a nice place to be I don´t think I ever want to leave! I´m now officially on the hunt for a Mac!

So impressed was I when I tried OS X, that I think I´ve been converted! There´s no clutter in OS X´s GUI - and it just does what you want - with no fuss. No right clicking, selecting properties and changing things - no having to activate ¨Administrative Tools¨, navigating through ¨Computer Management¨.... bliss!

And, due to the Darwin (UNIX) core - there´s Apache, ssh - all the things I need to satisfy my inner-geek that´s grown from years of playing with Linux.

Now, the next dilema is - do I go for a Mac mini and re-use my existing display, keyboard etc. or go the whole hog and get an imac? Decisions, decisions....

:: emoda ::
emoda technology group

2005-12-06T00:25:00.000Z

And I quote....

"I came to this company a couple of years ago, all eager to be a part of the "team", got a nice lift up from my last job and a cool office with a view of the river. Yeah, that was a good day, came into work with my pictures and stuff, degrees, put them on the wall, called my secretary and....yup, she was hot. I was wired. Not yet forty, making money and real people asking me my opinion about professional stuff.

It's hard to mark the moment when this turned into a living hell. It was pretty gradual, though I would have to say last Easter was a turning point. I worked the whole weekend, putting stuff together on a deal that had gone south but was being hopelessly backrigged to pass for done in hopes of saving a massive account that some management arsehole had buggered beyond repair. I was on a conference call, with 1. A guy in the car park of a football stadium for a cup game, 2. a woman in Colorado in a chalet taking a break from the slopes, 3. a guy on a boat going under London Bridge. I was the only one at work. And, big point here, I was not the one who fucked up the deal. He was in Bermuda, and couldn't be on the call because he was probably being rubbed down by cabana boys on the fucking company expenses."

To Switch or not to Switch...

2005-11-28T17:34:00.000Z

aka the pondering of the Apple

OK, so first there was Apple's own switch campaign. If money was no object, then I would gladly add some Cupertino goodies to my technology stable (currently full of Windows, Linux, Symbian and Solaris mongrels) - BUT - cash resources being finite, Macs have always been on the wish list and no more...

But then, IBM decide to concentrate on other things, meaning that Apple's h/w platform in the guise of the PowerPC chip will very soon start to look like a poor relation to the all-conquering Pentium. So I guess some Apple bod thought "If you can't beat 'em join 'em!" and Apple decide to move over to Intel h/w architecture.

Earlier this year things get a little more interesting with the release of Apple developer kits containing the first attempts at porting the critically acclaimed OS X to "x86" hardware.

Cue the inevitable leaks of the OS X on x86 install DVD, add a dash of the bittorrent and voila - hackers aroud the world get in on the act trying to get Apple's "locked to their Dev kit" OS X to install on any old Intel Box (read - any old PC).

All this got me thinking - why not try OS X on a PC to see if it's worth buying a pukka Mac, h/w an' all! Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

Although undeniably illegal, you gotta agree, it's tempting! Gotta get reading the OSX86 project wiki to find out what's what...

Maybe the next slice of emoda:blog will come via OSX - who knows?

:: emoda ::
emoda technology group

Marconi and Rabbit clear out!

2005-11-24T14:07:00.000Z

Since Marconi has died (or about to be swallowed up by Swedish Giant Ericsson!) I thought I'd auction off my remaining Marconi branded items, before it's too late! Or look at it another way and perhaps I should be holding on to them for thenext 50 years until they're really valuable?

Who knows?

And in other news - anyone into calssic italian Enny bags? Or Classic English Spode pottery? Check here for bargains on both!

Oh yeah - nearly forgot - you can check that link too for a geek-cool retro-phone classic from the early 90's - a Rabbit CT2 digital cordless phone! The Rabbit was the Original Portable Digital Phone and has a retro chic that is becoming popular again thanks to the likes of Pokia, Hulger, Mockia et al.

That's all for now....

:: emoda ::

Skype on Symbian

2005-11-17T10:37:00.000Z

eagerly looking forward to this...

With the introduction of wi-fi enabled smartphones like SonyEricsson's P990, running the beautiful Symbian v9.1 OS and UIQ v3.0, it surely can't be long before we get a version of skype for Symbian? Please. Pretty Please?

If this is true, then it must be in the offing. We can't have gloating like this from the Microsoft following idiots...

Saving my pocket money already :-)

:: emoda ::

I´ve seen the future - and it´s retro!

2005-11-16T01:20:00.000Z

What a slice of genius! Saw these things a few months ago but only just managed to get my hands on a Hulger P*Phone..

Pure Class!

Can't wait to try it out walking down the street...

And with the Hulger Y*Cable you can plug it into your PC and skype away...

:: emoda ::

Bluetooth Proximity Detection

2005-11-12T20:27:00.000Z

First really useful application of technology I´ve come across for a long time - combine bluetooth with a VOIP PBX and now I can receive VOIP calls to a phone on my desk when I´m there or receive them on my mobile when I not - automagically!

Following an inspiring article here I was able to configure my already installed Asterisk VOIP PBX to divert calls to my SonyEricsson P910i when it´s not within 10m or so of my desk.

This has to be one of the most genuinely useful implementations of VOIP & bluetooth combined! I was so geeked out when I got it all working I had to tell someone!!!

Marconi is no more...

2005-10-25T12:27:00.000Z

Well, whaddya know? Just 25 days after I left 'em, they fall to pieces! Who am I takling 'bout?

Talking bout:

Marconi! How the mighty have fallen. It's announced today that 75% of the business and the name are to be swallowed up by Swedish giant Ericsson. If only I'd have stayed behind, maybe I could have helped them out! Seriously, it's sad to see the last British Telecoms manufacturer disappear.... time to get all the old Marconi stuff on ebay, whilst it's in the news!

But anyway, on a more positive note, at least the calls from the job agencies are starting to come in... :-)

emoda´s here!

2005-10-21T22:33:00.000Z

ah, the wonder of copy/paste!

from http://www.emoda.co.uk/ :: emoda technology group ::

Welcome to the home of the Emoda Technology Group.

Providing innovative solutions to complex problems...

Specialist Technology firm established by experts.
Track record in practical solutions that actually work.
Extensive, un-rivalled experience across a wide range of technological disciplines.
The client is always at the centre of our approach, ensuring total saitisafction.

... a new way of thinking about and implementing technology to help you -

- technology to help you at home or in business

... from a single plug, to a whole new network, the Emoda Technology Group has the solution that's right for you!

have a browse around the site, if there's anything you need that's not mentioned, try us anyway!

please use the contact us link, drop us an email or call us directly on 087 087 90909 to discuss how we can help you get more from technology.

emoda

Bloggity Blog Blog, Blog...... ....Blog?

2005-09-05T23:11:00.000Z

Time to look for a new job. After 17 years at Plessey/GPT/Marconi the time is here to move on...

But where to?

Anybody looking for an all round techno-guru?

Hire Me!

2005-01-05T09:41:00.000Z

Happy New Year 2005! Can't believe it's the beginning of another new year.
I can't begin to comprehend what it must be like for the unfortunate souls affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami...

Just in case you're feeling a bit skint after Christmas, try this link http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php to see how much better off you are than probably 99.5% of the world's population!

Simply Genius

2004-12-31T16:57:00.000Z

Just rediscovered Simply Red's "Stars" album from 1991 following a "Classic Albums" show on BBC2 last night - Hucknall == Genius!!! Voice of an angel!

Welcome to Shmoolog!

2004-12-31T04:46:00.000Z

Shmoo's Log, stardate 2004.12.31.04.47 GMT

Errrrrrm. A blog post? Surely not.

Oh yus!