Four Candles and Teletext..

Posted by Ronan on Nov 27, 2007 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

The four candles/fork handles sketch is up for sale
For those who have never seen it..

Over coffee we were wondering how Sky can control their boxes over the air and how teletext works.. Well here is how teletext works:

Teletext information is broadcast in the vertical blanking interval* between image frames in a broadcast television signal. Teletext uses a numbered page metaphor to present its information, all of which is broadcast in sequence; when a viewer keys in a page number, the receiver waits until that information is broadcast again, typically within a few seconds, and retrieves it for display on-screen. More sophisticated systems use a buffer memory to store some or all of the teletext pages, for instantaneous display.

Sky use the Ka band in the downlink so maybe they are using a separate part of the band for control/configuration. I’ll do a little further digging and post the results.

*The time difference between the last line of one frame or field of a raster display, and the beginning of the next.

30 Thousand Thanks

Posted by Ronan on Nov 26, 2007 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

A big thanks to everyone who came to limerick on Saturday night to attend the Suhrprise! party.. A good few people came a long distance to attend and I was so surprised to see everyone. I really appreciated the effort.

There were two conspirators who did a wonderful time in organizing everything, Shelly and L-man. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.. you got me good!

Bad things happen in 3..

Posted by Ronan on Nov 23, 2007 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

I fear something bad is about to happen. Last night I played astro soccer and a guy nearly broke my leg with a stupid and needless tackle (nothing near as bad as a Binya tackle see below) but it was bad enough..

Then this morning cycling into work, with my big bright yellow builders jacket on, I positioned myself just off the centre line of the plassey park road to turn right into UL (via the east gate entrance). Just as I turned in a taxi driver decided he wanted to turn right and try drive through me. I avoided getting hit by a couple of inches. Breaks screeched and both parties came to a sudden stop.

so thats two bad things in the space of 12 hours.. what’s number 3?

new arrival..

Posted by Ronan on Nov 18, 2007 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

There is a new arrival on the farm. It’s red, shiny and powerful. It’s a Massey Ferguson 4325.

new phone..

Posted by Ronan on Nov 18, 2007 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

I got a new phone about a month ago from eBay. It’s the k550i from Sony Ericsson. I have to admit it’s pretty cool and a million times better than my old Motorola L7.
The pros:

• Battery lifetime (nearly a week with moderate usage!)
• Symbian software (it’s really nice and fast)
• Radio
• MP3/Data (usb 2.0)
• Better antenna / reception

The cons:

• Non standard connection for headphone/usb connection.
• Lack of Linux support (SynCE doesn’t work )

easter eggs

Posted by Ronan on Nov 14, 2007 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

for ubuntu users.. hit Alt+F2 and type
free the fish

if you get sick of wanda try Alt+F2 and type
gegls from outer space

ps to kill wanda try Alt+F2
pkill gnome-panel