Freak Enterprises

Zeroconf / mDNS / Bonjour

freakent — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:30:16 +0000

I have just discovered a whole area of IP based LAN technology I knew nothing about until this week! It’s known by various names including Zeroconfig, mDNS and Bonjour and I think this has the potential to completely change home networking.

I have been toying with setting up a DNS server at home to resolve all the host names for the machines on my local LAN, but in my research I spotted a suggestion to use Zeroconfig instead. After a bit of digging I realised this stuff looks very good.

What ever you call it, it essentially does 3 things: IP address allocation without DHCP (in the range 169.254.x.x), host name resolution without a DNS server or local hosts files (Multicast DNS) and dynamic service discovery (which is more than just IP address lookups, this is IP address, protocol and port so a machine can advertise it has a camera feed available via http on a particular port – very slick).

It appears that Apple are leading this effort and brand it under the name Bonjour. So Mac’s have this technology built in. If you’ve used iTunes and accessed a shared iTunes library on another machine then you’ve already used Bonjour.
On Linux there are a couple of implementations, howl (which seems to be almost dead) and avahi/nss-mdns. I installed this on my ubuntu server and it works perfectly.

For Windows, Apple have released Bonjour for Windows. It looks like it just does printer sharing but it definitely also does host name resolution via mDNS. The other good thing is that it a free download. I don’t suppose Vista has it built in, it would be so unlike Microsoft to actually follow a standard espcially since this one is designed by Apple.
The architect behind the whole thing is Stuart Cheshire from Apple, and there is a good video of him presenting Bonjour and zeroconfig on Google Video.

Some other good links are :
http://www.ifcx.org/wiki/LocalNetworking.html (good overview)
http://avahi.org (Linux)
http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/nss-mdns (Linux)
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bonjour (Mac and Windows)
http://files.zeroconf.org/rfc3927.txt (IP address allocation)

Pandora – Free Personalised Web Radio

freakent — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:37:33 +0000

Another recomendation from the BBC’s Click tv show is Pandora. Pandora is very clever. You start by telling Pandora the name of an artist or a track you like then Pandora starts playing a stream of music which is similar. The concept is very simple but the technology behind it looks quite sophisticated. Once your “station” is playing you can train Pandora by adding extra artists or by using the thumbs up and down buttons as each track plays.

So obviously I created a station based on Massive Attack and then added Portishead and Faithless to it. I have called my station “The Trip Hop Lounge” and it can be accessed by anyone (just click the link). Pandora really works because before long it also played tracks by Dubstar, Cabaret Voltaire and Tricky.

The really interesting thing about Pandora is that it is playing music that I like from many artists that I have never heard of before. I have already ordered two CDs by Curve just because they keep playing on my trip hop Pandora station.

Hello world!

freakent — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:50:50 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Collected – The Best Of Massive Attack

freakent — Mon, 01 May 2006 23:06:57 +0000

My top three favourite CDs are all by the same artist Massive Attack; Mezzanine, 100th Window and Protection. I’m rubbish at describing music but I will say that it’s very electronic, often with very moody atmospheric vocals and some times just a little bit dancy – I think the young people call it “trip hop”. Basically if I had any musical talent at all, this is the kind of music I would want to make. So if I have all their albums why did I buy this ? Well I was in an airport again on my way to the USA and just had to have something to listen to in my hire car (which by the way was a new convertible Mustang). If you haven’t heard Massive Attack before then this “greatest hits” collection is a great introduction to the band. If you like this then make sure you also check out U.N.K.L.E, Tricky’s Maxinque, Portishead and maybe some Faithless too.

Canon IXUS 55

freakent — Mon, 01 May 2006 22:47:08 +0000

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Canon Powershot G2 but often it’s just too big and bulky to carry around. I’ve had my eye on the little IXUS range of Canon cameras for a while and during a recent trip abroad spotted this new IXUS 55. Being stuck in an airport waiting for a delayed plane is a great opportunity to check out a new gadget. One thing I really like about the G2 is that it’s digital camera shutter lag is much better than many other digital cameras, i.e. when you press the button it takes the picture very quickly and you don’t miss too much of the action. However I was amazed that the lag on the 55 is almost non existent. In fact it was the speed of this little thing that made me decide to buy it there and then.

Despite it’s small size, the IXUS 55 has a surprisingly sturdy feel. It has a 5 mega pixel resolution which is good for prints up to A4, or blowing up areas of a picture and still getting a decent 10×5 out of it. Remember high mega pixels doesn’t necesarily mean good pics, a good lens is just (or may be more) important and for a compact, the lens on the 55 delivers some pretty good pictures. Canon make some higher mega pixel IXUS’ but they start to get bigger and it’s size that matters here.

What struck me imdeiately about the 55 is ,despite its tiny size, is its back screen is huge (2.5″ to be precise). It also has this cool trick of knowing if you’ve taken a picture in landscape or porttrait (i.e. which way round you held the camera) so that when you view the photo on the back screen it always rotates the picture the right way up.
Like the camera, the battery is tiny too. It’s a proprietary Canon Li-ion battery but with normal use can go a few days between charges (a lot longer than my iPod). To charge it you have to remove the battery from the camera and place it in the supplied external battery charger. Whilst I suspect this helps keep the size of the camera small, it is a pain to carry around the charger and another power cable. Luckily the power cable has the same connector as my Toshiba laptop so that’s half the problem solved.

Overall I am very pleased with this great little camera. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good quality, simple to use and very easy to carry around digital camera.

Depeche Mode – Playing the Angel

freakent — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:24:24 +0000

I have been a huge fan of Depeche Mode since I was a teenager. In recent years they have been going off the rails a bit, but this new album is brilliant. It’s the CD that is constantly played in the car now. Reiss’ favourite track (and mine) is John The Revelator, he just keeps playing it over and over again – I’m scared I might end up getting sick of it !

Goldfrapp – Supernature

freakent — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:15:41 +0000

I first spotted Goldfrapp on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny on NewYears Eve (yes I know I’m sad watching TV on New Years Eve – I had the Flu so TV was the only option this year). With their great synth pop they sounded just like they had fallen out of the 80′s – absolutley fantastic. Although the whole album is great, there are three tracks that really stand out; Ooh La La, Ride A White Horse and my favourite Number 1. I’m looking forward to check out their 2 earlier CDs.

Philips SBA290 Compact Travel Speakers

freakent — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:02:53 +0000

I spend a fair amount of time travelling and staying in hotels so I really enjoy having my iPod with me. It’s not always convenient to wear the head phones – have you ever tried shaving with head phones on ? I looked around for a small pair of speakers for some time until I found this unit from Philips.

The SBA290 is a relatively small all-in-one stereo speaker unit with a head phone jack that can plug into any MP3 player or PC. Despite it’s compact size, the sound is actually quite good; there’s even some bass. It comes with a travel pouch and it’s really easy to carry around in my bag. It can be powered by 6 AAA batteries and it also comes with a power adaptor.

I did get caught out on a recent trip to California with the SBA290, I plugged in the power adaptor and the sound was all broken up and unlistenable. I checked the adaptor and it needs 230v – the US uses 110v. I have put 6 Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries in it now and will make sure they are fully charged before my next US trip. It’s a shame the rechargeables don’t charge when they are in the unit and the unit is plugged into the mains, but you can’t have everything in life.

Scott’s back with the podcast novel Infection

freakent — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 22:35:59 +0000

My favourite podcast author, Scott Sigler, just released his third podcast novel called Infection. His previous novels, Earthcore and Ancestor, had me on the edge of my seat so I have high hopes for this story too. I am now on a mission to get as many people as possible to experience Scott’s work as possible – so if you are reading my blog, I insist you go to http://scottsigler.podshow.com/ now and start listening!

Scott Sigler’s Ancestor

freakent — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 19:15:59 +0000

Hot on the heals on Earthcore, Scott Sigler is Podcasting his next book, Ancestor. I’ve been batching up a few episodes at a time and listening to them in the car on the way to work. Earthcore was really good, but this story is even more exciting. Great job Scott, can’t wait to see the movie