Gold Class IPTV

Anyone who has a modern TV capture card in their computer will probably be aware – (depending on software) – that whatever your card is capturing, can be streamed onto the network.

Some do it well, some not so well.

In the midst of the project I’m working on at the moment, here is the “gold version” of how to stream TV over an IP network:

There’s a range of different encoder cards in this chassis. There are cards to turn terrestrial free-to-air channels into IPTV streams, cards to turn Foxtel channels into IPTV streams, and cards to turn analogue inputs into IPTV streams.

In the end, each stream can be access as required, such as shown below, clockwise in order – FOX8, Sky News Australia, Discovery World HD, and Fox Sports 3.

Tiny little set-top boxes are configured to access the streams, and be attached to televisions anywhere on the network via HDMI connectors.

Seriously cool, but not cheap.

But I still want one.

More Corporate Fail

It must just be my week for encountering pointless corporate behaviour. Hot on the heels of the Hewlett Packard packaging debacle, I received the following statement from GE Finance today:

Thank you GE Finance!

Thank you for wasting time, money, effort, and paper to send me an account for such an amount!

HP Shipping Fail – You Just Have to See This!

The large project I am working on at the moment requires a great deal of hardware to accomplish. Over the last few days we received a large – (or so it seemed) – shipment from Hewlett Packard.

Several pallet loads of equipment arrived via Qantas Freight from HP’s regional facility in Singapore. Let us go through the opening of one of the boxes on the pallets, shall we?

Here is the unopened box:

Here is the opened version of the same box:

Here is the same box with the first layer of bubble wrap removed:

Here is the same box with the rest of the bubble wrap removed, revealing two small boxes:

Here is one of the small boxes removed from the outer box:

Here is the same small box opened:

Here is the same box with the first layer of bubble wrap pulled back, revealing a small bubble wrap bag and contents:

Here is the same box with the outer bubble wrap removed, leaving only the final contents:

Here is the final item in the box, a simple power cord:

Seriously – what the fuck, Hewlett Packard? You sent two simple power cords, in a great big box, with all that packaging around them? That’s just………wrong.

Why don’t we have a look at your environment policy?

HP’s Environmental Goals and Policies

“To be exemplary global citizens, we strive for leadership by addressing the areas most critical to our stakeholders and our business. We place particular emphasis on our three priorities: climate and energy, product reuse and recycling, and supply chain responsibility, these issues have strategic importance to our business, stakeholder concerns and our ability to make a positive impact.”

One of your stated goals is to:

“Reduce the ratio of total packaging weight to total packaged product weight to 28%.”

The boxes with the power cables in them were marked, as freighted, at 2.2 kilograms, and the two powers cables weighed about 200 grams, about 9% of the weight of the box.

That is 91% packaging, or 3.25 times your target of 28%. Further more, the three pallet loads of equipment we unpacked today were consolidated down to this small pile:

Here is the amount of packaging – (the stuff on the floor, and the stack to the right) – that you, Hewlett Packard apparently believe is required to ship it to us, in line with your environment policy:

If your goal is to be “exemplary global citizens”, I’m sorry HP – you fail.

Hard.

Spelling Mystery…Unsloved

Stumbled across this impressive piece of proofreading fail via Claudia Aitch at claudiaaitch.wordpress.com:

The mystery of Channel Seven’s missing spellchecker is, umm, “unsloved”.

Or unsolved.

One or the other.

Chicken What?

I’ve long been a fan of Engrish.com. It is probably somewhat politically incorrect, but it is often so funny, that not laughing is a very difficult task.

“Engrish” is the term given to the use of English words and phrases as decorative fare on products and services in non-English speaking countries, in particular in Asian countries. It is much like how in the Western world, we might use Japanese, Chinese, or similar writing to decorate products we want to give a particular look and feel to.

It is also often just a bad translation from the native language – as in this example I could not stop laughing at this evening:

Too. Damn. Funny.

New Link Shortener!

As the next stage of a series of updates and changes I will be making to my site, tonight I unveil my new link-shortening URL. Shortened links will now appear with the “mwyr.es” domain, adding a little more personality to my ramblings.

Stay tuned for more updates over the coming weeks.

Google Street View Face Recognition Fail

In the wake of claims from Senator Stephen Conroy a little over a year ago about Google committing the biggest privacy breach in history in the midst of collecting updated data for their StreetView service – (which the Privacy Commissioner later basically dismissed as rubbish) – as a goodwill gesture, Google promised to make sure that people’s faces and other identifiable markings such as vehicle registrations would be blurred out.

Take a look at this image from Street View I just found here, click for larger version:

It’s funny enough – (but fair enough, since the face detection algorithm is ultimately designed to detect faces) – that it blurred out a face on a poster, but curious that it didn’t blur out the identical face on the identical poster immediately next to the first one.

Now, of course algorithms like this are never likely to be “perfect” – but I do worry a bit when two – (for all intents and purposes) – identical pieces of the image are treated differently, and it does make me wonder how many “real” faces got missed.

Food for thought.

Shitty Facebook Follow

Buying a bag of our usual cat litter this evening, I was somewhat perplexed by the invitation on the outside to follow the brand on Facebook.

Really? Do I really want to follow our preferred brand of cat litter on Facebook? So every time one of our cats follows through, I can follow too? Or they can follow up, and report on the experience to their cat friends?

What a shitty idea!

Bomber Chapters Of My Life

Having pulled off a series of inspirational wins in 2011, Essendon supporters have definitely gotten value for their money this year – and none was better than the gutsy defeat of the previously unbeaten Geelong several weeks ago, as shown below:

Sitting in my usual seat, it came after a couple of difficult weeks in my life, and lifted me so high.

Wandering through my memories over the years, I have a collection of games that I’ve attended where the same has happened. When I’ve been low, my team has come through for me.

I will never forget our record comeback from 69-points down against North Melbourne in 2001. I was there.

Darren Bewick kicking two huge goals right in front of me to get us home against St Kilda at Waverley Park in 1998.

Coming back from over forty points down at three-quarter-time against Melbourne in 1992. I was there.

All massive, all emotional, and none of them I will ever forget – and almost all of them coinciding with a time I needed an emotional lift. They sometimes feel like they did them for me.

Here’s a short compilation of some of the miraculous moments I have been lucky enough to witness live:

  • Steve Alessio – “A Kick for the Ages” – we’d been behind Sydney all night, played like a second rate team – but lifted in the last quarter, with Alessio putting us in front with a few seconds to go – the first time we’d led all night.
  • Gary Moorcroft – “It’ll be on CNN!” – regarded by many as the greatest mark of all time – (and certainly in the top two or three) – I was at the far end from this huge one, but just remember the complete sense of euphoria that spread around the ground. And it did get on CNN. And he did it on Brad Johnson’s back, which made it more special.
  • James Hird – “You Are A Genius” – a remarkable see-sawing game against West Coast, following a week in which James Hird was penalised for publicly criticising an umpire, and under pressure from many angles. Fifteen possessions in the final quarter and the miraculous final goal. I was sitting directly behind the line of this kick, and it was unforgettable.
  • David Zaharakis – “Zaharakis! Zaharakis!” – fighting back after looking completely beaten, David Zaharakis kicks his first goal in football. To beat Collingwood. On Anzac Day. If he never did another thing in football, it would never been forgotten.
  • Adam Goodes – “He’s Missed!” – not actually an Essendon player of course, but last night another memory was added to the list – the best point I’ve ever seen an opposition player kick. Goodes needed a goal to give Sydney the win after the final siren, and he missed. One of the best games of the year. Elation.

Never say die, Essendon.

NBN: The National Barnaby Network

Whilst reading this excellent article from David Havyatt in regards to the piecemeal alternative to the National Broadband Network (NBN) offered by Malcolm Turnbull yesterday, I followed a reference David provided to a 2005 report prepared by the Page Research Centre.

Future-proofing Telecommunications in Non-Metropolitan Australia

Most interestingly, the deputy chairman of the research panel that prepared the report was “Senator-elect Barnaby Joyce” – of course, one of the chief critics of the NBN plan on behalf of the opposition in the senate. The chairman of the panel was another incoming National Party senator, Fiona Nash.

It is a fairly bland report overall, but given the staunch opposition Senator Joyce loves putting up, I thought some of the recommendations and statements in the report were most interesting.

It recommended that “that government commission a feasibility study into the cost of laying fibre optic cable to a majority of consumers in non-metropolitan Australia”, stating that by rolling out fibre (specifically in regional areas), regional consumers would have access to:

  • “Voice over internet telephony.”
  • “Cable television.”
  • “Access to future commercial television video on demand services delivered over IP – already available overseas, most notably in select Asian countries such as Hong Kong and South Korea.”
  • “Video conferencing.”
  • “Greater access to telemedicine, even if it is via a simple and tremendously inexpensive voice over IP telephony or preferably video webcam link to the ‘local’ doctor, who could be anywhere in Australia or around the world.”
  • “Broadband internet access.”
  • “Online services – online banking, bill payment, online shopping, buying and selling in online auction websites, access to Government services and much more from any location, when desired.”
  • “Weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology.”
  • “Access to streaming media, letting you listen to online radio stations and watch online TV stations and other audio and video programming. An example allows rural and regional users of mobile broadband to tune into the online broadcast of ABC NewsRadio.”
  • “Access to educational materials and all levels of schooling, from primary to tertiary studies.”
  • “Access to all of the information available on the Internet, when desired, at high speed.”

Is it just me, or is this pretty much exactly the list of things the opposition – including Senator Joyce, who makes a massive song and dance about it during Senate Estimates hearings relating to the NBN – say that we DON’T need fibre for?

Yet six and half years ago, this is exactly what Barnaby – (and friends) – recommended to then Howard government.

Though the report goes on to recommend a similar study be done to investigate the feasibility of wireless broadband in these areas, as opposed to fibre broadband, the opposition which initially stated that wireless was the answer, now states that a combined fibre to the node (FTTN) / xDSL network is the answer – which is the one solution the report DOES NOT recommend!

Please explain, Mr Joyce.