Newspeak

I wonder if this is targeted advertising and they actually want people like me.

Today I got my grubby hands on an openmoko neo1973. It’s cool.

It is lacking wifi networking and there doesn’t seem to be an interface for reading SMS messages although there is a basic one for sending SMS, written in python, that you can install yourself. Also there is no Preferences interface, so you have to know a bit about linux to be able to do things like set the data and time. But the Neo1973 isn’t currently intended for use by the general public but by developers.

I’m hoping to be able to get a bluetooth networking working so I can control it and it can talk to my computer within a reasonable distance.

This is a photo somebody took for me of the jukebox whose software I have been editing recently. I didn’t create the software or it’s interface, my involvement mostly centred on allowing the software to display non-ascii characters such as ñ as the machine is being sent to Costa Rica.

I also translated some of the text into spanish as the translations I had been given were woefully poor, saying things along the lines of “You have no credit on the left”, which would be fine if the machine was intended for use by right wing dictators. I also cleaned up the database so that the music categories made sense and allowed the Costa Rican colon to be used in the machine, previously there had been a limit on the value a coin could have which was not appropriate when 500 colons is the price of four jukebox tracks.

SmarterChild is an “automated service agent” that, since October 2006, is owned by Microsoft. You can talk with the bot in a fairly normal fashion and over time you learn certain commands for finding out information that you can get from Google anyway, for example

Sanity Strikes says:
what's the weather in Melbourne like?
- SmarterChild says:
Current weather conditions for Canberra, Australia:

Currently: 73 F
Condition: Clear
Heat Index: 71 F
Dewpoint: 39
Humidity: 29 %
Visibility: 6.21 mi
Wind: WNW/7 mph

as well as offering information on the weather, SmarterChild gives you the occasional adverts, quite how well these are targetted is questionable. It knows how old I am, and a few other things.

Sanity Strikes says:
what do you know about me?
- SmarterChild says:
Well, let me see... Your profession is Programmer. Your favorite hobby is bicycle
riding and your next favorite hobby is photography. You live in Canberra, Australia.
You really like Linux... That's about it.

“I can’t believe you’re not so into killing innocent women and children…”

I think it knows more about me than it is admitting to, but it certainly didn’t take what it knows into account when inviting me to join the US army.

Sanity Strikes says:
are you still here?
- SmarterChild says:
Yup, ready as I'll ever be.

>>> Join The United States Army! - Gain experience and skill in the US Army.
Visit today. --> http://web.smarterchild.com/ct?1077622225/0 (sponsorship)
Sanity Strikes says:
I'm not american, i can't join the US army
- SmarterChild says:
Really? That's fascinating.
Sanity Strikes says:
I'm not so into killing innocent women and children like american soldiers either
- SmarterChild says:
I can't believe you're not so into killing innocent women and children like american
soldiers either.
Sanity Strikes says:
you make me sick!
- SmarterChild says:
Yeah, I guess I make you sick.

Mosnews.com is reporting that Russia has toughened its internet piracy laws. It also says that operators of illegal music sites will have two years to registers with Russian authorities to acquire licences for the music they’re distributing.

I’m not sure whether allofmp3 will be affected by this or not, but presumably if it is it means it will be able to keep running for another two years as it has been doing.

Russia, the largest and richest nation outside the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is being pushed towards tighter intellectual property controls as a condition of future membership. Russia is also being blocked from entry over the high tariffs it places on foreign airlines to protect it’s own airline industry. Russia is also threatening to block imports of meats from the USA if it continues to try to block Russia from joining the WTO. Some are claiming that Russia won’t be joining the WTO in 2006 and maybe not in 2007 either, it has already been negotiating for 13 years so it doesn’t look like there’ll be any rush to shut down Allofmp3 just yet.

Allofmp3 says that it is perfectly legal in Russia and pays royalty fees although the recording industry denies this. This hasn’t stopped the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) from trying to sue the site.

Tony Blair took some time off from yachting in New Zealand to say that what the world needs is a “technological revolution similar to the internet” in order to slow global warming.

What I suspect Mr. Blair doesn’t know is that the internet didn’t just pop up overnight. The first TCP/IP network (arguably the start of the internet as we know it) was born in 1983 but this was building on technology that had been developing since the 70s which in turn had been born out of the US DoD’s DARPA which was started in 1958. So if he means similar in timescale I don’t think it’ll help with hitting the emissions targets for 2010.

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On eBay I was the high bidder for a camcorder that I did not want. The auction’s title was “CANON MINI DV CAMCORDER”. The description offered only sparse details about the camera. Lured by Canon’s brand name I emailed the seller asking what the model number was so that I could check the features elsewhere. The email back just said

mvx10i
mx30-7000

After finding the genuine Canon mvx10i has “DV in” by reading an online review I decided to enter a low bid and see how the auction went. Then I googled for “canon mx30-7000″ and found only one result, which was Polish, not being a Polish speaker I didn’t read the website, but wondered why there would be so few results for a camcorder, so I googled for for “mx30-7000″, the results quickly led me to a blog post with a picture of the same camera badged to look like a Sony camera. I then confronted the seller in an email asking which model number was the real one and why the megapixels quoted on the auction description didn’t match the details on the Canon website. His response was.

hi on the lens cap itsays mvx 10i on the screen you pull out it says canon mx30-7000 i realy dont know mutch more about this camcoder as i took it in payment of money owed to me it says 4.1 mega pixels on the front of it. it works and also you can connect to the pc by usb i was owed 120 pounds and it looked like it may be worth the amount thanks

How to spot a counterfeit camera

After looking through ebay some more I have found there are a few other auctions on their selling the same camera but badged slightly differently.

If you look carefully at these two pictures you can see they are the same camera, the only difference is the lens cap and the sticker with the fake brand name. If you’re going to buy a camcorder off ebay, make sure the picture looks nothing like this. In one auction I saw a series of pictures of this type of camera and then one picture of the camera it said it was when they clearly looked nothing alike. You should compare the picture on the auction page to a photograph from the manufacturer’s website.
It is probably also worth checking the feature list from the manufacturer’s website to the feature list, if any is provided, on the auction page. The description of the camera I bid on said it was 4.1 megapixels, whereas the mvx10i has only 2.2 megapixels.

If you find anything strange in an auction either don’t bid or email the seller. If you are convinced that an item on ebay is counterfeit you should report it, this should help protect other less astute buyers and hopefully make ebay a less risky place to buy from.
If you have already bid on an item you think is counterfeit, retract your bid and report the item to ebay. Read this to learn more about retracting bids on ebay.

With that all in mind you should be a little bit safer, don’t be put off by the unscrupulous sellers, there are some good deals on ebay, but, as with most things in life but especially on ebay, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.