wan.to.blog

Not what you expected?

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:26:00 +0000

http://www.dealextreme.com/feedbacks/browseVideos.dx/sku.29431~id.5794

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What happens when you fly in a $28m Jet.

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:31:00 +0000

Take a ride on the wild side. Did you see the reporter pass out for a couple seconds. In air shows the pilots can pull about 5-8G's w/o wearing a pressure suite because there used to it. A normal person isn't. If there going supersonic 8-14gs they wear the suits.

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/blueangels/blueangels.swf

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How social facebook games are changing the playing field.

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:35:00 +0000

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

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Headlines!

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:40:00 +0000

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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The world explained by graphs

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:25:00 +0000

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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What an AWESOME video!

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:44:00 +0000

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New Yacht

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:42:00 +0000

Some people just have way too much money.....

A famous French shipbuilder ship company and one of Monaco joined hands together to build this yacht with enormous dimensions for their friend, Jo Ann. the WHY 58x38. (58meter long and 38 meter wide) After the first pictures of this project.

The yacht, an area of 3400 m2 with seating for 12 passengers and 20 crew.

This is a "green" yacht.

Wally et Hermčs use green energy to 20 to 30% fuel savings and 40 to 50% electricity consumption on board. Therefore there are 900 m2 equipped with solar panels, producing a daily output of 500 kW.

equipment:

Three decks, a 25 meter pool, a spa helicopterpad a 100m2 with hammam, sauna, gym and massage room, a promenade of 130 meter, a music room, a dining room, a cinema, sun decks, suites, terraces, a lounge, a bibi . The luxury is at the rendez-vous.

The decks are connected by stairs but there is also an elevator.

The suite of the owner (ie ikke !!!!!): Who needs a motorhome?????

With an area of 200m2 and completely covers the third deck. (This is the bedroom) The sea view is great and there is a private terrace of 25 meter long.

A sea of light.

The yacht has the shape of a horseshoe and has a roof so everything is bathed in a sea of light.

The spacious lounge.

On the lower deck are the common premises, such as lounge, piano bar and dining area .....

Dining Room

The dining room opens onto the sea view.

Suites for the guests

For the guests, 5 suites with sea views (on the middendek). There is also a reading room equipped.

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Carrier Landing

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Download now or watch on posterous

CarrierLanding_homevideo1.wmv (2545 KB)

LOOK CLOSE AND YOU CAN SEE THE GREEN LIGHTS OF THE BALL WHEN ABOUT TO LAND

Putting you in the co-pilot's seat up close and personal!

Here's some video footage of an A-6 approaching an aircraft carrier and landing. It was taken from the cockpit by the co-pilot. The conditions are ideal..... Calm sea, daylight and a stable aircraft. This is for all of us who have not had the privilege -- With the volume up, you can even hear the power changes necessary to maintain precision glide slope and prepare for bolter (a.k.a.. Abort the landing) in the event the arrest wire is missed. Feels like you are in the aircraft. Imagine what this would be like at night in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions - a..k.a. Pea soup)!

This is a very neat video. If you look very carefully, shortly before the plane touches down, you can see the 'meatball' to the left; the orange light between the row of green lights that tells the pilot he's on heading and on glide slope.

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Map of the human body

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:48:00 +0000

Sam Lomen's Underskin charts a transit map to the human body. And no matter what the locals tell you, don't take the pink line to the yellow line. That's nowhere you want to go.

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formspring.me

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:31:00 +0000

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/brennanbabb

Nexus one and mobile TV

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Google had a press conference a few weeks ago to introduce the "not so secret" nexus one to the world. They kindly gave all Google employees one of these phones for christmas and asked them to keep quiet about it until the announcement.

All the specs and press questions were asked and sort of answered live and streamed on ustream (very smoothly) with 15000 concurrent viewers. I must say I was very impressed by the stream and less restrictive access to the stream compared to Apple.

So let me get to the nitty gritty. The Qualcom chip inside the Nexus one is the following

Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

And on the Qualcom site this chip has the following specifications:

http://www.qctconnect.com/products/snapdragon.html

Technical Features for QSD8x50 chipsets

The QSD8x50 platform consists of the QSD8250™ which supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA networks while the QSD8650™ supports CDMA2000 1X, 1xEV-DO Rel 0/A/B, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and HSPA networks. Both chipsets include:

1 GHz CPU
600MHz DSP
Integrated 3G mobile broadband
Support for Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® connectivity
Built-in seventh-generation gpsOne® engine with Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes
High-definition (720p) video decode, and multiple video codec support
High-performance 3D graphics – up to 22M triangles/sec and 133M 3D pixels/sec
High-resolution up to WXGA (1280x720) display support
12-megapixel camera support
Multiple audio codecs: (AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, FR, EFR, HR, WB-AMR, G.729a, G.711, AAC stereo encode)
Support for mobile broadcast TV (MediaFLO™, DVB-H and ISDB-T)
Support for Windows Mobile®, Android, and a number of Linux®-based operating systems
Qualcomm’s hybrid mode alternative solution

So highlighted above is a great feature of the chip. The big question remains has HTC/Google attached an antenna to the TV portion of this chip or have they just decided to neglect it?

Who can tell me this? I want to say after reviewing the dissection of the device how an uncanny antenna circles the chips. Could it be the antenna for all the radios?

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus-One/1654/2

This shows the teardown of the N1 lets hope some clever techie can give us this answer!

If it will happen the next questions is software and API middleware within android to access this chips feature set.

Is anyone working on this middleware? is there a team of go(o)ggles working making the software layer? anyone? anyone?

On lighter news, as of today I have witnessed DVB-H in south africa on an iPhone working!

Who is with me on this one? Rah! Rah!

How you say? um sorry cannot tell you just yet!

I just need to bask in the glory of the above discovery.

Mona Lisa!

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:34:00 +0000

Three thousand Six hundred and four cups of coffee

jailbreak security

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:55:00 +0000

In the past few weeks 2 instances of worms have been discovered for iPhones that have been jailbroken.
Namely here : rickroll

and here: worm report

One thing that jailbreak instigators did not take into account is the common password to access the secure shell connection to the iPhone, which is login: "root", password "alpine"

Being in south africa and the high use of Data Cards Vodacom and MTN are issuing prublicly viewable IP addresses to its iphone or data card users.

What this potentially does, is expose your iPhone to the internet. In doing this it exposes the SSH port which is open on the jailbroken iphones.

With this in mind we need to secure our iPhones from hackers.

To do this it is relatively simple if you have rudimentary computer skills by following these steps:

1: Connect your iPhone and Laptop to the same WiFi Network.

2a: (windows) In Google type "putty", dont hit search, hit "I am feeling lucky"

The top download link is "putty.exe" download this file.

The above 2 lines can be replaced if you have a better way to get an SSH client onto windows.

When downloaded run putty.exe

2b:(mac) Top right click magnifying glass, type terminal into the text box and click on the terminal .app file.

3:On your iPhone, goto Settings, click Wi-Fi, click on your active Wifi access point(same as laptop/PC network)

4:Click on the active Wifi network ">" icon

5:under the DHCP tab there should be an assigned IP which normally starts with "192.168.#.#"

6a:Take that number and connect to that IP address using Putty in SSH mode with username "root"

6b:In the terminal window type "ssh root@192.168.#.#" ( where the 192.168.#.# should be replaced with the IP address on your iPhone and press enter

7:The text box will ask you to accept the key, Click yes as below:

"The authenticity of host '192.168.239.124 (192.168.239.124)' can't be established.

RSA key fingerprint is 8e:a9:e1:ef:f2:20:d0:db:90:aa:ec:43:c9:dd:0b:b4.

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?"

8: You will then be prompted to enter a password in the following format:

"root@192.168.239.124's password:"

9: Enter the password "alpine"

10: Brennan-Babbs-iPhone:~ root# should be displayed, replace my name with the name of your iphone you named in itunes.

11: At this point we are ready to change root password to one of your own passwords type the following "passwd root" <>

"Changing password for root.

New password:"

12: Enter a new password that you will remember that is not "password", "god" "sex" or anything obvious. Choose a password that looks tricky to remember for anyone else but you.

13: You will be asked to repeat it.

Congratulations you have just protected your Jailbroken iPhone from malicious hackers.

Give yourself a big noddy badge, a pat on the back and smile at yourself in the mirror for an uneasy amount of time.

You are now on your way to becoming an iPhone security expert and can teach others how to do this.

Do you feel good? I would, you deserve it! Now go get a coffee and boast about it to your peers phones who are still behind the Apple iron curtain of dictatorship.

-Brennan

iPhone tethering and thoughts on MMS

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:19:00 +0000

ok here is my 2 c worth.
I have created a tethering link for vodacom and MTN here
I have tested vodacom tethering on iphone.vodacom.za and internet APN's
and they both work for vodacom, and the internet APN works fine for MTN.

From your iphone use the below link.
wan.to/iphone

One thing that this script does do is it replaces the Defaul APN settings for your phone in the MMS settings, which is an issue, but can be manually updated.

apple just released a firmware upgrade to the macbook/macbookpro/imac/macpro line for the bluetooth hardware in order to make bluetooth tethering work easier.

The USB tethering picks up the iphone as an additional Ethernet port and connects seamlessly on both mac and windows. Absolutely genius.

With regards MMS I am experiencing intermittent success and I can only assume the vodacom guys are working on the solution.
My guess is they will allow mms traffic for iphone over the iphone.vodacom.za APN allowing all iphone traffic to travel down a specific route.

Marc Forest has added a few tips on MMS and tethering over here:
http://www.marcforrest.com

Anyway
-eel

Samsung projector phone SPH-W7900

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:32:00 +0000

Samsung projector phone

The boss came back from korea with this little puppy.
Extremely cool, locked , no wifi, but otherwise fully functional? :>
Thoughts?

Big Brother Live streaming

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Hello! yes I am saying hello to you.
I thought I would do a recap of the events, around the Big Brother Africa 3 live streaming oh and some techie stuff too!
[idiot] what the hell do you know about it?
[me] well I architected and planned it!
[idiot] who cares!
[me] me, it was fun okay so leave me alone!

So in the initial spec for BBA3 was "No live streaming" however being the ever optimist we decided to put the infrastructure in place in the event the powers that be changed there minds (which inevitably always happens).

20 odd days into the production there was a need to stream live footage online.
but but but ... Wouldn't that cannibalize the the paying subscribers on DSTV? Sure! :)

The plan was to create a "CROTCH CAM" ... I hear you say " a what?" yes I am not going to re-type it!

Yes a crotch cam online.
Seeing that Nigeria's legal system prevented M-Net from doing a decent shower hour show with copious amounts of Nudity! Nigeria Vetoed it! Was it because of the nudity?
yes , it's really just Nigeria's communist zipper that is hanging down, and we just happened to notice it!

a very regulated country!? Nigeria? never!

That is a bit of an obscure analogy *glances around nervously* anyhow.
But think of it this way, DSTV has loads of nudity on many many other channels but when its "Real People" and loads of publicity and *gasp* a Real naked Nigerian, then the authorities pull in and start laying down the riot act.

So the plan was to have a cam at crotch level, in the shower, filming the participant's crotches, streaming it on an online, 24/7 and try monetize it.
Well the idea was great, but to my knowledge(I stand corrected) _Koos_ (if you don't know who this is, try google his name and the holding company) said something to the effect of 'we cannot charge africans for video content', so it had to be free.
Woah we cannot give away free porn, that would be just like ..um ... (insert free voyeur porn site name here)

So the sex sells idea got toasted!

What about a garden camera! Whoopdeedoo how exciting... and lets make it free!
boom! smallsignofexcitement GONE!

The lets-rather-ask-for-forgiveness-than-permission motto was toasted!

So the tedious task of streaming a wide angle camera of a garden to the world for free.
How do we do it? pleasenotethesubtelboringundertone!

My initial instinct was to stream it using Flash (this was a relatively new concept) Flash is a great tool, We all now that site with all the video which I will not mention its name here at the risk of lifting its SEO rating on .... oh who am I kidding?
They do oodles of streaming video, but they do it on-dee-mah-nd, not live, which is what I am trying to do here!

So Adobe has this great server called "flash media server" which can cater for just that.
New media being the ever envelope pusher bought this product a generation too early when it had a limit to the number concurrent connected users to 100! yes, this model did not succeed. Any guesses why? *snigger*

So with an ever looming live deadline time frame *TVWAITSFORNOONE* and many emails back and forth to adobe to try sweet talk them into giving us a free upgrade to the unlimited (read: more than 100 simultaneous connected streams) version of flash media server.
What? adobe ? you don't want to get some free promotion on a Tv phenomenon? No worries, Windows Media is Free. :)

I must admit though that Adobe _DID_ come to the party, but alas after my deadline on the decision.
So easy decision lets download this free tool, to push our video feed to millions! *insert Dr Evil Laugh here* that will be branded with this funny waving flag that has 4 smaller disconnected coloured flags in primary colours.

So here is how it worked in a nutshell!
- {video feed from garden camera}
- {Osprey video capture card}
- {wintendo media encoder}
- {dual redundant internet connections}[neotell 2 meg][telkom leased 2 meg]
- {terminates at mweb}
- {windows media server}
- {frikinexpensivededicatedinternationalbandwidth.for.now}
- {akamai}
- {Akamai'sContentDistributionNetwork}
- {world distribution} now please replace the word distribution with domination!

So thats the nutshell for live streaming.
Ill save the on demand nut for another blog post when I get time.

On the stats side of things... lets just say that We would have had to have had one heck of of a lot of old Flash media licenses to cope with the onslaught of the connected norway hitting that live feed.

Norway brought the web servers to a grinding halt, which gives me some indication that the web developers need to be a lot smarter when building websites for next years world cup!

If you want to know why Norway brought our webserver to a grinding halt!? Our wonderful BBA producers decided to pull a Big Bro participant out of our house and swap him with a Big Bro participant in a Similar Norway production! Gripping stuff! well apparently it was for Norway!

I could make the next blog more technical and less satirically witty. Any takers?

MediaZone Rugby widget

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:02:00 +0000

Nice little rugby app

Phone battery flat?

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:32:00 +0000

Very cool little device that allows you to charge your phone, ipod, or pretty much any portable device and while you leave it there , there is a sterilization uv light which kills germs

Not sure if this would work in south Africa as there is no security for your phone, however great idea.

What your seat can do?

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:23:00 +0000

So I have a small gripe about the klm biz class seats, but I will get to it after I list what it does
- three preset settings, namely seated , half leaning back and bed mode
- the "M" does a great back massage
- they are perpetualy heated
- then all the arrows move things around to your liking
- there is even a canopy that scoots over your head

However I could not frikken get comfortable as the bed mode does just not go flat and you keep slipping down, which is infuriating

I should have taken the sleeping tablet my wife gave me
Crap!!!

The odd things that pop through my mind!

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Gadget-aholic-anonymous.
I have a problem! :)
Right, like a guys can have too many gadgets.
I had toys growing up, the toys never go away, they just get more expensive.
I will be 80 soon, ok ok, in 48 years I will be 80.
I will still have toys, hopefully the toys will be bigger, and better (no honey the toy will not be a cute 18 year old girl) *coughofcourseitwillcough*
When I am 80 I will have some sports car that can fly me to my card evening.
By then the idea of living forever will be a reality?
Teleportation will be a reality?
Will time be the only ball and chain of the physical universe?

If what they say about technology is that it is on exponential curve upwards, what do you think might be a reality then?
Will we have colonized another planet by then?
Is this planet a prison?
Will nuclear technology be this planets downfall?

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, how is it the population continues to grow? more prisoners?
Can I occupy 2 bodies at once?
Why do they wipe our mind at the end of each life?
Who are "they"?

If you don't believe the hype will it still be a hype?

Will you live long enough to be a problem to your kids?

Does a duck with one leg REALLY swim in circles?

If you travel at the speed of light will time actually slow down ?

Jeepers I can ask weird questions, It must be the coffee.

Ants and Tenants

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:26:00 +0000

Firstly ants are cool, next tenants SUCK!
now you can get the just of what this rant is going to be about.
Let me paint a picture.
I have this here tenant in my house in Hout Bay.
Just letting aproved him back in September of 2005.
Veggie distributer, biker, just recently divorced, a kid, an asshole...
His deposit an last months rent was handed over, all seemed well, we delivered an impecible house.
I should have kicked him out the first time his rent was late, but being the nice guy I am I nudged him a bit and he paid. In the entire 2.5 years he has been in that house he has paid once on time. Just once. today he has not paid in 2 months and 20 days.
In the contract it stipulates, look after the garden.(the garden does not exist.)
In the contract it stipulated 1 dog only. He came back and pleaded with me to have 2 so I agreed. I did no agree for the place to be a dog breeding business.
In the contract it stipulates no subletting. Yes you guessed it he sublet it, takes the sublet income and does not pay me.
I am told by my lawyers(if anyone knows any cheap lawyers please let me know)
After a brief walk through of the house in March, he has done the following to the house which is in need of repair.
:broken drawers out of the kitchen
:destroyed a birdbath
:managed to rip out 2 steel poled out of the gate.
:dogs have chewed through all electrical boxes
:guest suite room's roof is black
:Toilet seats are missing
:A newly laid earthcoat floor is ruined from poor care
:carpets are ripped and dirty
:blinds are broken
:hardwood floor is scratched to hell
:tiles in the bathrooms are cracked and broken
:toilet seat is missing

While walking through the house there was dog? feces on the floor.
The lawn I dont think has been mowed since we left
the retaining wall is not maintained and growing wild.
I attempt to send repair people round to get repairs done but they can never get in because he never answers his door or his phone.

There has never been less than 3 dogs on the property.

The Sherif is goign around this week to attache assets for auction. Then 1 month after that he will be forcably removed by the sheriff and some cops.
All the dogs will be taken to SPCA, all the items will be auctioned and hopefully I will get some remedy on this TWAT!

The neighbour has called the cops and noticed drug activity(nigerian drug dealers)
The neighbourhood watch has now been put on alert at the house.

He has conveniently moved his veg business across the road from the house, where he is about to be evicted aswell.
We need ot get this asswipe out of Houtbay and into the slums (or jail) where he belongs.
Perhaps I can lay a claim against Just letting?

My Alpha male instinct tells me to get a base ball bat and the house keys and go show him what marks a round wooden stick can do to people that don't hunour their contracts but, my lawyers have advised me against that.

It is going to cost me a small fortune to get that house back in to shape, garden, floors, walls, ceilings, bathrooms, kitchens, doors, ... .ARRGG the list goes on.

Has anyone experienced anything simalar?
please do share!
*slams laptop lid closed*

Cents and sensibility

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:44:00 +0000

Ahh a short break! Amazing what it does to the soul. I am writing this from the edge of the Pilanesberg game reserve just above Sun City.
We have had a collective time of around 4 hours riding around the park looking for the big 5 and numerous other wild 4 legged creatures.
We have seen perhaps 3 or 4 of the big 5 including a pride of lions with about 7 or 8 little cubs, very unique to see that.

Its off back home this afternoon, check on the house and see how the finishes are going. Getting security put into the new house.

Anyhow game drives are soul cleansing and if you have a good seat you can catchup on those minutes of sleep lost when the kids wake you up.

If by chance you are a foreigner and wanted to do a week in a game reserve, the locals will rip you a new one. Unless of course you can afford it then well thats ok then!

The magic word here is "TimeShare"

Ok I can hear the buffet calling my name!
*wave*

fly times when fun you are having

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:13:00 +0000

Well it has been a while since I had a good rant!
Life is moving on quite fast in the Babb lane. It was only last week when we started building and will probably move into the house at the end of January.
I have been happy snapping photos with my phone and posting them here without comment.

We Started building a house in Craighall Park. Something where the kids will have a fun in.

So Last Sunday Philippa decided she would have a horse riding competition and low and behold the horse tripped and fell on her leg snapping it in a few places. I posted some pics on my facebook profile.
The best part about it is on friday I get to film them taking the staples out of her leg. for those of you who like a bit of blood and gore I will be sure to show you :)

Lets see what else is new! I have taken on all the duties that Phil had with the kids which means feeding, fetching and frikkin cleaning crap that has smeared down the legs and up the back! Aaah parenthood, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Its hard to explain to anyone who has never thought about kids that the joy one experiences from experiencing their growth far outweighs the most stinky and messy dump.
Trenton and Zane are currently going through the cutest develoment stages in life, they are sponges right now, everything you do they learn and repeat, so our language needs to improve and they learn by example, so I need to remember not to dig that itch out the inside of the nose infront of the kids. Although it doesn't help much when you drop them off at creche and all the other kids are doing it. You can only do so much to make an impression.

Facebook phenomenon. OK time for a little rant.
Do you facebook?
yes
no

Don't worry you don't have to click, but my guess is if you are reading this, the answer is yes! you Facebook! It has had unbeliveable growth in this country and globally. Am I addicted to facebook? The answer I give all my work friends: Naah, not really. The answer I try keep to myself: "I wonder what my friends are up to"

Business opportunities are everywhere in Facebook, the question is how to make money, other than advertising?

Ok I need to do some power point programming, and figure out how to spend some of Mnet's money to make things a little more comfortable for us.

Totsiens!

04082007255

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:49:00 +0000

09082007257

noreply@blogger.com (Brennan Babb) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:47:00 +0000