Troy Kelly

This is amazing,I have been convinced to go the Sumida River fireworks. Think more of a festival then just fireworks, its bigger(much much biger) then just taking the kids to the school oval and yelling “green… blue… red…” as light fills the sky.

There are tens of thousands (seriously) of people just sitting the streets, none of them will really see much of the fireworks, the buildings are too tall. It is though a great oppertunity to get dressed in Gimbei and spend some time with friends or family.

It is actually really great to be a part of, there is every kind of person here, all sitting and enjoying the (sound of the) fireworks.

I currently have a handheld Linux device to play with which is quite cool. I have been able to install a heap of different packages and play with different things - it is a great concept. The one thing that it has brought to my attention is the exceptionally liberal approach to the term VoIP.

I guess it is a little more then just VoIP - it is the use of SIP along with VoIP that is really getting me annoyed. There are many references to this particular device supporting VoIP, and in particular SIP, which got me very excited. So I grabbed the packages, only to find one for for Google Talk, and the other for Gizmo.

Whilst you could argue that both these projects are transmitting Voice over IP, neither of these projects deliver what I see as true VoIP, well - true VoIP + SIP. I see it as allowing you to connect to your own VoIP provider - be it on that PSTN terminates, Internet routes, or even your own asterisk box.

I suppose it is a case of buyer beware, but if I were to purchase this particular device - reading the marketing material that it supports VoIP and SIP, I would (wrongly) make the assumption that it can connect to any truly SIP enabled service - not a closed and in my opinion just as proprietary VoIP service (regardless of the back-end using an open protocol or not) as Skype (please don’t get me started about how much I hate skype and how much I think it is doing to damage the true potential of VoIP).

In a recent article on Network World by Paul McNamara the problem of unsecured access points was discussed.

There are many access points around Tokyo with no security at all, normally Buffalo AP’s that have not been secured as it is not part of the default Japanese install wizard. I know quite a few people who make use of these open AP’s from time to time.

One particular problem here is that there are many open access points that are meant to be open; coffee shops, business, local chambers of commerce and even train stations all offer free access to the Internet via wireless all over this great city.

I don’t think you can mandate the requirement to secure an access point, to do that you must dictate a type of technology to be used. Should it be WEP, WPA, or WPA2. What about 802.1x, maybe VPN’s? There is any number of different technologies that people have at their disposal to selectively secure all or part of their network - and it needs to be up to the individual to make that appraisal.

What I would like to see however, is more pro-active action by manufactures to get their end users to at least put basic security in place. Make it the first part of the wizard, before you even connect to the big bad world - or do something equally as prominent. A key thing that many people fail to understand about unsecured networks is that it really is just hanging an Ethernet cable out your window and asking anybody to plug in and see what they can find…

First of all - I would like to welcome a good friend of mine to the world of blogging. He is studying language and writing, so I look forward to his posts. His online persona is arrian18 and his blog is here, whilst he has a MSN space - you will have to forgive him - he is only fresh

Whilst my friend has decided he needs a blog, he made that decision not knowing what it actually is. There are exactly one-million sites that can tell you what blogging is, so I am not really going to go into that much detail beyond this - you are currently reading a blog. The term blog comes from Web Log, or weblog it is a place that started being something for people to treat as a diary or journal - but now for many it has become a place to update friends and family on their life, spread news, or even (as in my case) rant about things that piss you off.

In a recent statement Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, has said that holiday makers using air transport are sinners.

Whilst I may be simplifying things a little - this statement above is still accurate. Mr Chartres’ comments were part of an address he made about Christians being more environmentally aware, and that it is so important that it should be considered a sin to not respect the environment.

Many people know my views on religion, and the place that I feel it has in our society - but is this one not just a little too obvious? Whilst I do not on any level disagree with somebody trying to make people more environmentally aware - fear of being struck down with great vengeance from a furious God is on the way out. I think more and more people are beginning to make decisions for themselves, and the good of their kind - not because the church is dangling eternity in a pit of fire over everybody\s head.

Read more from the Sunday Times on it being a sin to fly…

So, I am sitting here in Japan - hearing about this great Australian movie Jindabyne and more then just a little bit disappointed that I can not see it.

Why is it that in this day and age of high speed connectivity for all (well - “some” but you know what I am getting at) are most people having to resort to slightly under-hand methods of getting the things they want to watch?

I am exceptionally disappointed that the larger studios have still not embraced what technology has to offer, and publish movies online as soon as they are released in cinemas. It can’t be because they are worried about revenue - I mean honestly, charge $2 a viewing and you will make your money back - without the middle man.

Perhaps it is because they are worried about pissing off the “middle man”? That can’t be it either, for two reasons - (a) What the f#%$! to they care? They are still getting their money; and (b) I for one will still go to the cinema if I feel a movie warrants it.

I don’t think I am that unique, I think if offered quality viewings of movies in your home - as they are released around the world - most people would be prepared to pay 25% or less of the ticket price at a cinema. Think of it as a teaser… with the spoiler too I guess - but if I see a movie that I want the cinema experience for - I will go and see it in the cinema. Perhaps movie makers are too worried that their movies aren’t good enough to get people to watch more then once?

News Corp owned MySpace.com is finally back online. This post is not really to inform anybody that would use this blog, as I know most of you (like me) find little purpose to it.

I was data centre manager for a large aussie hosting company for quite a while, and while I was supported by some brilliant minds (thanks for making me look good guys) - it really wasn’t that hard to keep the power on.

I am amazed that a company - that generates what must be nearly 100% of it’s revenue from the online presence that they maintain - could allow their systems to be configured in such a way that it is even conceivable that there be an outage of this magnitude.

There are very few details about the outage as they have only just come back online - but pretty much anything short of the earth opening up and swallowing their data centre and their DR site (if they had one) would be inexcusable.

The only problem is now there will probably be another data centre manager out there looking for a job…

Maybe it is because I am a geek, maybe because my friends are geeks too - but there are a lot of people who use more then one computer in their day to day lives. Add to this my goldfish like memory, and my browsing experience can sometimes be lacking.

It is all to common for me to be seen sitting at my screen, looking intently at my browsing history or bookmarks - searching for that ellusive site that I was sure I had saved into my bookmarks somewhere - if I only I could remember where… Or looking towards the ceiling, blank expression on my face - trying to remember a password for a site that I was sure I had asked to save my log in information.

Now, Google has again made my life more enjoyable. Call me a fan boy - I don’t care. But my cookies, bookmarks and everything else between my firefox browsers are all in sync.

The “Google Browser Sync” is still a labs project, but man it is cool. If you use more then one computer, and I know you are already using firefox - get this plugin!

In Japan, they will find a job for anybody who wants it. There are what I would consider “extra” people everywhere, I think it is great. It has made this country by default very service oriented. It seems though that there are some jobs that just can’t be serviced by your average person - and so Japanese ingenuity has saved the day…
I wonder if they need 6 other mannequins to stand around them and supervise