ArthurGuy

Social Networks and Desktop Clients

There seem to be a huge number of social networks around today, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Yahoo! Mash, Orkut, Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, Flickr, just the few I could remember while writing this. There are probably as many desktop clients and aggregation sites for these services, things designed to make your life easier by putting everything in one place.

One of the more popular ones is FriendFeed, I use this service a bit but not much, I have a widget on the right displaying my feed but as I don’t have any friends using the service its a bit limited for someone like me, that’s why I liked Socialthing when it came out. Socialthing doesn’t require friends to use the service it simply pulls data off existing services and displays it, I used Socialthing for a couple of weeks when it came out but stopped checking the site after that, I guess I just got bored.

I then started using Twhirl, it was a simple desktop application written in Adobe Air that brought together my Twitter feed as well as my FriendFeed, although just my updates so that bit was a bit pointless.

Recently I have started using Digsby, this is more like an IM application and aggregates MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Google, ICQ, Jabber and Facebook Chat. It also incorporates my Twitter feed as well as my Facebook Updates, it also supports MySpace, the only thing its lacking is FriendFeed support.

I have no idea if I will be using Digsby in a week or not or if I will find something different, for now it seems to do the job.

One final thing I want to get of my chest is how awful MySpace is. I created an account last year, a while after I started using Facebook and I found it so confusing, I can normally pick things up very quickly but this was different. The other thing that really annoyed me was the huge amounts of advertising, there are 3 big ad units on the front page; I was also going to mention how many there were on my profile page but I can’t even find a link for that or any links even relating to an account. A disgusting site.

Posted in Internet | Comments

OpenID - Good or Bad?

OpenID is an interesting idea, one that has the potential to solve one of the most annoying issues of today’s websites, multiple accounts.

I like to try out lots of the new websites and services that keep appearing and the first thing I have to do with almost all of them is to create a new account, another user name and password. Most of the time this isn’t to bad as I can use the same details but inevitably there are some sites who think my password is to insecure or my user name has already been registered. OpenID aims to solve this by allowing users to log into and register on websites using an existing account, this way you will only have one user name and password that is independent of the service you are signing up for.

OpenID has been around for a while but only recently has it started gaining traction, the big companies have started providing there existing users with an OpenID which they can use with other sites but most of these companies have yet to start accepting OpenID’s as a logging option on there site.

Around Christmas time I enabled OpenID logins on my company site a star solutions, the implementation is fairly straightforward and I believe it has been implemented in a reasonable way, the only problem I encountered and still have a problem with is Yahoo’s logins which don’t seem to work with the JanRain OpenID library I am using, I am sure the library does work but I have yet to get it working properly.

On the surface OpenID seems like a perfect solution but there are critics of the service, I recently came across a blog post by a guy called Kyle Neath, he makes some interesting points, some I agree with some I don’t. For example he points out that if your OpenID provider decides to shut down you locked out of multiple services, this is easily overcome by using a large reputable company which provides OpenID’s such as Yahoo! Two of his points seem to relate to the unfriendliness of the whole OpenID implementation and I agree with this, when using an OpenID you get redirected around and moved to different sites, for an average web user this is going to be confusing as they wont know whats going on, despite this its not a reason not to use the service. A company called ClickPass has attempted to solve this problem by hiding the redirects in the background, the process is a lot easier and smoother for the user but it does rely on websites implementing this service as well as implementing OpenID.

Over the next few months/years I hope to see more sites starting to use OpenID, hopefully we will eventually reach the point when we only have the one login for all the various sites and services out there.

Posted in Internet | Comments

Environment Monitoring

I have a number of computers which run various things such as email, websites (including this one), databases and a telephone system, these computers are kept in a secure room with very poor ventilation so every year when summer roles around I start to panic as the temperature starts of pass 30 degrees.

This year I have done something about it, a few weeks ago I installed a 12,000 BTU air conditioning unit as well as an environmental monitor, the sensor is a networkable temperature and humidity sensor from a company called Omega. The sensor is monitored using a company called Server Monitoring which I have been using for a couple of years for my main websites, they record the environment conditions every 15 minutes and send me a mice graph each day. Unlike the website monitoring this isn’t as critical so I got wondering why don’t I build a system to monitor it myself, something that records the temperate and humidity every minute and would allow me to process the data myself.

I normally use php for programming websites and the various automated scripts that I have running but this time I decided I would try something different, for some reason I settled on python so below is my simple script that requests the data and stores it in a database.

import socket
import MySQLdb
import time

data = ''

while 1:
        temp = 0
        hum = 0
        HOST = 'sensor'
        PORT = 2000
        s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        s.connect((HOST, PORT))
        s.send('SRTC\r')
        data = s.recv(1024)
        s.close()
        #print 'Received', repr(data)
        print 'Waiting for Data ...'

        if data[0:2] == 'TA':
                temp = data[2:7]
    �
        if data[0:2] == 'HA':
                hum = data[2:7]
    �
        if temp != 0 and hum != 0:
                print 'Temperature ', temp
                print 'Humidity ', hum
                print 'Saving Data ...'

                # connect
                db = MySQLdb.connect(host="?", user="?", passwd="?", db="?")

                # create a cursor
                cursor = db.cursor()

                #Store Data
                cursor.execute("""INSERT INTO environment (temp, hum, loc)
                         VALUES ("""+temp+""", """+hum+""", "SF1")""")

                print 'Data Save Complete'

                print 'Sleeping for 60 Seconds'
                time.sleep(60)
                print 'Awake'

This is my first attempt at making a script to store this information and my first attempt at programming in python so its not going to be perfect but it does work, I used a couple of other websites to collect several snippets of code to put it together.

The plan now is to build a reporting system into my intranet site that pulls the data of the database and makes some graphs for it

Posted in Internet, Miscellaneous | Comments

Viralcom - The truth behind YouTube Videos!

A couple of weeks ago I came across a trailer for an up and coming show called Viralcom (embedded below).
The series follows Viralcom and takes you behind the scenes to see how all the classic YouTube videos are made, or would be made if a large organisation was behind them.

A new 5 minute episode is released every week and its a great watch, they have even got the actual guy who did that awful Chocolate Rain song.

As of this post there are 4 episodes up there and you can see them on the Viralcom channel

Posted in Internet | Comments

ENUM - DNS for VoIP

I was at Internet World today and went to a very interesting talk by a guy from Nominet; it was about ENUM a VoIP server resolution service, DNS but for telephone numbers. ENUM effectively allows a user to lookup a telephone number like you would a website and find out the server responsible for managing it. At the moment if one VoIP server wants to call another it has to use the existing telephone network; most servers are technically capable of communicating with each other but until now they had no way of finding each other.

This service has been around for a while but it has been subject to a slow rollout, it won’t be available in the UK until the summer. This service has the potential to be very disruptive to the existing telephone network operators. I use a VoIP server in my home office, if I wanted to call another company which also uses a VoIP server my machine contacts my VoIP provider which then passes the call onto other machines which route the call to the destination, this costs as there are lots of 3rd parties involved, with this new system my VoIP server could talk directly to the other companies system, for free!

As this system roles out more and more calls will become free, it will also eliminate geographic boundaries making international calls free as well.

This system may sound perfect but it does have its problems, for example this will only really benefit business or those with a VoIP server, the big telcos have control of home user’s phones and they will be reluctant to offer calls for free. The way around this is for home users to start replacing their home phones with VoIP devices, these would connect to a service provider over the users internet connection, the service provider would then route the call. The provider could charge a rental or service charge and manage things such as multiple numbers, internal extensions and voice mail services. The existing telephone operators such as BT could provide this but I would expect them to hold the rollout of something like this as long as possible so they can secure their existing revenue stream as long as possible.

Another problem is with the numbers, you wouldn’t be able to register any number, in the UK you would need to own the number already which will have an associated rental fee, at least until the system gets completely shaken up.

The other potential problem I envisage is with premium numbers and the markets surrounding them, as calls will be direct and all types of numbers will be treated the same there will be no telephone operator to collect a fee.

I am looking forward to summer and implementing this on my Asterisk (Trixbox) server, hopefully over time I will see my phone bill slowly drop.

Posted in Internet | Comments

Crayon Physics

This morning I came across one of the most amazing games, it was linked to from a user on Pownce and its called Crayon Physics and involves moving a circle across the screen to the star on the other side. The website describes a version that is still in development but the original game can be downloaded. The games uses a physics engine to control drawn shapes, for example if you draw a circle it will fall down under gravity and interact with other objects. The game ideally needs to be placed on a tablet PC as the pen interface seems essential.

For example in the level above you can draw an oblong between the two towers and then knock the ball along, the video on the website describes it better.
I can’t wait for the deluxe version, you can make a car!

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments

Technology and TV Shows

I have been watching the past Spooks shows recently and I came across one of the stupidest things I have seen in a while. TV shows and films commonly mock up gadgets and other high tech devices, sometimes these are done well and sometimes they are not.
The image below is supposed to be of a recording device or data device being connected to a computer to transfer the information off.

I

As you can see someone is putting a microchip with parts of its legs cut off into a card reader! I guess this type of thing goes unnoticed to most people but its a stupid unnecessary thing for the shows producers to do and in my opinion spoils things.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments

Dopplr

I have just come across another social network called Dopplr, this seems to have been up and running since September last year, I guess I just missed it.

First impressions aren’t good but it doesn’t mean I don’t like it; firstly the site is very slow, I can’t get it to load in IE so had to switch to Safari, no idea why this would help. The other problem is entering trips, for example I tried entering “Internet World, Earls Court, London, United Kingdom” and look what it does.

It seems to work off the first thing you enter, so Internet World becomes Top-of-the-World, it ignores the country entirely. I ended up entering the location but even then it defaulted to a nearby place, that would be alright if it allowed me to enter an even or location name but it doesn’t so I end up with a trip to Kensington, completely meaningless. I would like this service to be more about the actual location or event rather than the journey that would make it more interesting. The other bit that would be nice would be automatic twitter updates based upon your travel plans, someday maybe.

Posted in Internet | Comments

Grangemouth Oil Refinery Closure

The BBC have just reported that the Grangemouth refinery has closed, this is as the result of industrial action this weekend by employees. I first saw this story on the news last weekend when they were I believe interviewing the refinery boss. From watching the news coverage then and listening to him I formed the opinion that the refinery was right and the employees were wrong in there demands.

The industrial action was due to changes in the pension scheme, it was being changed from a final salary pension and the employees were being required to make contributions to there pension scheme where previously they didn’t. To me this seems very reasonable, there are stories all the time about companies dropping there final salary pensions and as far as I was aware pensions usually worked by employees making contributions and there employees matching it.

The refinery shutdown is going to cause a big impact on the local economy and possibly affect the UK as a whole, it is also going to cost the company a lot of money, more than they will make from the pension scheme reforms, this has left a lot of people asking why the company which makes a decent profit is not giving in. Well I think this is fairly obvious, the cost savings from the reforms aren’t one off, they will save the company money in the long term, most people only seem to be considering the immediate impact. I also imagine the company is insured against loss of profits due to a shutdown outside of its control, so it may loose a lot of money but they will probably be able to get this back.

In order to get a balanced point of view I read some of the comments on the BBC’s website, most of them seem to be by workers or those sympathetic to them. The comments are mostly emotional reactions and the main point they make is that the company and its bosses make a lot of money and they can afford it, this is one of the most stupid arguments you can make, so what if they can afford it, I am sure a large number of business out there can “afford” to pay there employees more but it doesn’t make business sense to do so. Companies need to make healthy profits, this allows them to develop and invest in there business and to ensure the company survives in the long term.

Assuming this strike goes ahead and the talks don’t work out there will probably be another strike in the near future, if this is within the 3 week period the plant is quoting it takes them to start up it probably wont be possible for them to do so, this will then turn a potential shortage into something more serious.

Posted in News | Comments

Facebook Chat

Well, its finally here, for me at least.
Facebook’s long awaited chat program was ready and waiting this morning when I loaded up my browser. I haven’t used it yet so can’t comment on its stability although according to the odd twitter post it has been turned on for everyone today so the next few days will be the real test of its stability.

Update:

Facebook chat has been down for me most of today, it was up for a few hours this morning but I am now stuck with this “Could not connect to Facebook Chat at this time” message and exclamation mark. Perhaps the introduction of FB Chat to the world was to much for there system!

Posted in Internet | Comments