stumblelog

Inception timeline (spoilers).

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:01:00 +0100

Inception timeline (spoilers).

Photo

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:00:17 +0100

Photo

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:57:49 +0100

Pub Standards Wallpapers for iPhone 4

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:02:00 +0100

For those with an interest in Pub Standards, I’ve made a high-resolution version of my old iPhone wallpaper, which you can download here. Also included is a non-busy version for the home screen, without the beermat.

Photo

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:12:21 +0100

BT Openzone, BT FON and the iPhone

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:30:00 +0100

O2 have published their new tariff details for upgrading customers using smartphones, and following the trend with carriers in the US and Canada they no longer offer unlimited data as part of any package. As O2 points out however, the 500MB data allowance bundled with the cheapest package is more than enough for the vast majority of users. I’m not concerned that this is going to be a problem.

What I am annoyed about however, is that O2 still claims free access to BT Openzone wifi hotspots is part of the package. Since BT launched their BT FON service, urban areas are now littered with what claim to be BT Openzone hotspots, but in actual fact are BT FON hotspots in disguise, and as such don’t work with O2 smartphones.

Why is this a problem? Well, on an iPhone for example, if you happen to be in the vicinity of such a hotspot, it will recognise the SSID of BT Openzone as one you want to connect to automatically, and connect. It won’t, however, actually work: your browser will redirect you to the login page if you try surfing the web, but worse, other applications that require an Internet connection will fail to connect after a protracted timeout period.

It’s usually only through doing this that I’m aware I’m connected to a bogus hotspot in the first place, and have to manually disconnect and fall back to whatever network coverage I happen to have. As more and more of these BT FON hotspots appear around the country, I’m having to manually ignore each hotspot in turn, or find myself in an effective Internet black hole.

BT’s use of the BT Openzone SSID is an obviously disingenuous attempt to make it appear they have more hotspots than they do. I don’t object to them offering the BT FON service (it’s a neat idea) but it either shouldn’t use the BT Openzone SSID, or it should be included in the wifi networks O2 provides as part of their smartphone packages.

Updated 21st June 2010:

BT have now announced that all BT FON and corresponding BT Openzone wireless hotspots will be available with unlimited access to all O2 mobile customers. Great news.

How to remove duplicate items from the “Open With...” contextual menu in the Mac OS X Finder

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:18:50 +0100

Run this in a Terminal:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Then relaunch the Finder (Command-Options Escape, click Finder, click Relaunch).

The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a fifteen page...

Tue, 18 May 2010 17:12:29 +0100

The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a fifteen page story about the MMR vaccination controversy.

On finding phones

Sat, 15 May 2010 11:04:22 +0100

When I was a kid, I found a mobile phone once. It was the early ‘90s sometime — maybe 1990 or 1991 — and mobile phones were still seriously valuable and rare gadgets. In fact, when I spotted it sat in the middle of the road my first assumption was that it was a novelty pencil case (since phones back then were big enough for there to be pencil cases the size of the original subject).

Nervously stepping into the road, I picked it up and feeling its heft quickly realised that it was the real deal, a Motorola DynaTAC, which sold for somewhere in the region of £2,500 at that time. I felt nervous and excited; even back then I had a strong love of gadgets (regardless of whether or not I really had any idea what they were used for), and this was possibly the quintessential gadget of its day.

Sadly, it didn’t appear to work — it would turn on, but with only a limited LED display and no manual I struggled to work out how to place a call with it, and so I put it in my rucksack and walked in to school.

During the day I showed it to a few friends who were immediately drawn to it. I had so many interested parties enquiring about it in the gym changing rooms (one of them offering £5 for it) that I got nervous and asked a teacher to look after it for me until the end of the gym session.

The repeated attempts to ‘buy’ the phone from me made me nervous, and so I hurriedly made my way home after school and showed it to my mum. On her recommendation I took it to the local police station, where I was told that if the owner didn’t come forward within a certain period the phone would be mine to keep.

But the owner did come forward; obviously a £2,500 phone isn’t something you be unconcerned about losing. He wrote me a small note in a thank-you card which he sent me after collecting it from the station. The phone, he told me, had been stolen from the front of his house after he’d been overseeing some building work being done there, and he was very grateful for my honesty. He enclosed a £20 note as a reward.

At the age of 11, I already knew that it was wrong for me to keep or sell this thing I’d found. I’d like to think that most people would have done the same as me, but apparently not. What strikes me with this recent episode is that Brian Hogan had the opportunity to do the right thing when his flatmate suggested he hand it in, but chose not to. If I’d sold the phone I found, I’m sure there would have been repercussions even for me as a child, but nothing like what he’s facing right now. Hopefully even if he doesn’t learn his lesson, others will.

Photo

Fri, 14 May 2010 20:09:57 +0100

"At Milan, Arrigo Sacchi got fed up of players moaning about his obsession with team shape, and so..."

Wed, 12 May 2010 17:51:51 +0100

“At Milan, Arrigo Sacchi got fed up of players moaning about his obsession with team shape, and so proved its worth with a simple drill. “I convinced Gullit and Van Basten by telling them that five organised players would beat 10 disorganised ones,” he said. “And I proved it to them. I took five players: Giovanni Galli in goal, Tassotti, Maldini, Costacurta and Baresi. They had 10 players: Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Virdis, Evani, Ancelotti, Colombo, Donadoni, Lantignotti and Mannari. They had 15 minutes to score against my five players, the only rule was that if we won possession or they lost the ball, they had to start over from 10 metres inside their own half. I did this all the time and they never scored. Not once.””

- The Question: How important is possession?

Patent Absurdity

Wed, 12 May 2010 17:03:58 +0100

Patent Absurdity

Web Directions’ State of Web Development 2010.

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:44:55 +0100

Web Directions’ State of Web Development 2010.

Volcanic ash plume originating from Iceland, Thursday 15th April...

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:11:00 +0100

Volcanic ash plume originating from Iceland, Thursday 15th April 2010.

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:44:37 +0100

Video

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:41:26 +0100

Photo

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:12:44 +0100

Photo

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:50:42 +0100

Dan: A wild Antitrust Lawsuit appears!

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:45:30 +0100

Dan: A wild Antitrust Lawsuit appears!
Dan: Apple uses OH GOD OPEN ALL THE FUCKING APIS
Dan: It's super effective!

"Nobody needs to program an iPad to enjoy using it, except those who have no capacity for enjoyment..."

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:15:00 +0100

“Nobody needs to program an iPad to enjoy using it, except those who have no capacity for enjoyment other than programming and complaining about same.”

- Joe Clark eloquently sums up how I feel about the dull ideologue posts from the likes of Cory Doctorow