ZinZam

Libertyvasion 10 Years in the Making

August 23, 2010

It was 10 years (17 June 2000) ago that James "The Finn" Atkinson posted the first preview of phpBB, at the time a UBB clone to an online developer community for feedback.

Since that day not the interest in the project has only grown. Developments in PHP and the inevitable re-discovering of good programming style and secure code development methods by the PHP project and community have shaped phpBB as it grew feature wise and userbase through the 1.x series until it was eventually supplanted by phpBB2.0.x.

phpBB2.0 made use of a concept new to PHP developers (but long since known about by Windows desktop developers) MVC, that is model-view-controller. This removed the spaghetti arrangement of having the HTML (view) mixed with the PHP code (model and controller portions). phpBB2.0 was not a true MVC arrangement and suffered from repetition, and uncesessary complexity, while being simple to understand made it difficult to extend elegantly.

Next came phpBB3.0, which started life as the phpBB2.0 codebase extended. Because of this inheritance, phpBB3.0 inherited many of the same problems of the phpBB2.0 code base. phpBB3.0 did introduce new concepts such as a semi-modular design, but missed the boat on introducing a true MVC design like its contemporaries.

Three years after the release of phpBB3.0, it has proven itself as a worth secure contender, leaving the security record of its predecessors behind it. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of phpBB3.0 is the new proSilver template. The proSilver template features a true separation of concerns CSS based design.

This brings us to where to from here? In the 10th year of the project, phpBB Software Limited held a conference in New York City, Libertyvasion to reflect on the past and discuss the future. phpBB3.1 is the immediate successory, but phpBB4.0 is being discussed. phpBB4.0 will be built on the Symfony framework, and being based on PHP5.3 will finally allow true use of classes and namespaces to introduce a MVC approach.

The question is now, can phpBB catchup and continue to innovate in the areas it successeds to survive as it has in the past. In an era of Social Media, forums will need to market themselves as being part of this new phenomenon to avoid being drowned out by the large brands in social media.

The libertyvasion event was a great way to meet old friend, make new aquaintences, and to listen to and become involved in the future development of the phpBB project.

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Terrestrial Radio is not an Epic Fail!

July 18, 2010

I know that the Motorola Milestone (and other Android phones) do not have an FM radio. However being interested in the Milestone due to it's inclusion of a physical keypad I have been searching the Internet to see if there is an third application for it. The reason this could be possible is that because feature phones have had FM radio for nearly a decade and with the reduction in components (and thus component cost) of a feature phone, many features are always bundled on a chip. It turns out that all these Android phones use chipsets that include an FM tuner, however none have FM tuner applications.

This could be for several reasons including Google concentrating on other areas of Android before developing the software components of an FM radio. This is quite important because often a reduction in component list will involve moving components from hardware land to software land. I believe that by this token mobile phones use a software FM radio (thus why they instantly tunes between channels).

Moving back to the Android land, there are two phones which are actually one phone, the HTC Desire, and the Google Nexus One. So while they have the same internal components, the HTC Desire has an FM radio application while the Google Nexus One does not. This must mean that google have so far not allocated resources to developing an FM radio application, requiring third parties (like HTC) to supply their own, with many not (I'm looking at you Motorola).

The Android platform is not the only platform to be guilty of skimping on the features as the iOS platform does not include FM radio (yet the iPhone supposedly has the hardware to do so, I guess that it would negatively compete with the iPhone store).

So why did I say terrestrial Radio is not an epic fail? Every thread I have read on an Android or the Motorola forums asking if Motorola will provide and FM tuner application the first reply inevitably says "just use XYZ internet streaming application" and "FM Radio = Epic Fail!". This kind of posting is far from mature and smells of North American arrogance, let alone being far from helpful.

There are four terrestrial radio bands worldwide, AM (Amplitude modulation), FM (frequency modulation), DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast), and DAB+. In Australia we have AM, FM, and DAB+, where DAB is used in parts of Europe. In addition to this radio is streamed via Satellite Radio thanks to Sirius in the USA, and via the Internet. It is of my opinion that in the USA due to the regionalised licensing of terrestrial TV and Radio broadcasting system that a lot of people find the content sub-par. In Australia we have radio networks, I frequently listen to the Triple J youth network, (and sometimes the DMG Nova network). Various posts to forums have hit the nail on the head, it's not always about the music and some people tune into specific programmes on the radio such as Hack on Triple J. Let me put it this way, many people still tune to AM broadcasts on the car radio, for the content despite the audio quality.

So what about internet radio? I know that a majority of terrestrial radio services in Australia offer an internet radio stream. However the quality of the FM feed often exceeds the quality of the online feed. Not only this unlike in North America where many mobile networks provide unlimited data on phone plans, in Australia many plans include no data with the highest caps providing a measly 1 GB of data. This equates to 17 hours of 128 kbps quality radio. Not only that, to maintain the stream you need to be in a good 3G reception area, stray into a 2G or EDGE zone and find your stream struggling. I know most internet streams are 64 or 96 kbps and not 128, but that does not improve the situation. You still only get two days of 9 to 5 radio enjoyment per month using the internet, unideal for something that would otherwise be free. On the other edge of the sword, go on an overseas holiday (let's say to New Zealand) and miss out on all the local radio programmes.

So this is a call out to smart phone manufacturers, you have a long way to go to produce phones that are as smart as many of the feature phones currently on offer. You have slowly implemented copy & paste (except Windows 7), multi-tasking and the like, now you need FM radio to truly be a replacement to a feature phone. Perhaps including DAB+ support would greatly help justify the extra cost of purchasing a smart phone.

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The World is Real

April 03, 2010

It is good enough to make blanket statements, and to hold your principles and values with an iron fist. But that is not the real world.

Antitrust" wrote:

This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked!

And in the real world, your prejudices hurt people. It causes some to fall into depression, and yes, people do die. Some people are so deeply held in their prejudices they cause other people to die, but that's ok because it's not them.

But that isn't their principles, their values, to have people dying, so what causes this? A lot of people follow the perceived popularised values in their community in setting their values and principles that leads to them instilling other peoples values on others, not their own.

So before you say something insensitive, find your values and face the truth, in the real world, with your prejudices people die, for real. But don't forget to respect other people's values.

Step outside, take a deep fresh breath, and be yourself. If people won't accept you for who you are, your values, your personality, fuck them, and ignore them.

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Soundwave 2010 Wrapup

February 25, 2010

I went to Soundwave 2010 last weekend.

Although My Chemical Romance pulling out was disappointing, I was very pleased with the replacement act as Jimmy Eat World. Although they played more from their Futures and Bleed American albums, I have now ordered three other albums, Clarity, Chase This Light, and Static Prevails as they played some tracks from Clarity and Chase This Light that I liked.

Anyway here are my comments I posted on the soundwave forum.

smithy_dll" wrote:

I had a very enjoyable day, I ate lunch on the way there and had dinner on the way home. I was unable to meet up with my friends who turned up later due to the phones, but oh well.

I saw,
Taking Back Sunday, good
Eagles of Death Metal, were ok
Emarosa, didn't stick around too long, stage 5/6 was horrible
Alexisonfire, they were pretty good
Paramore, sounded tight, just like a CD
Placebo, kind of meh as expected,
AFI, didn't stick around too long
All Time Low, felt out of place with all the kids with white wristbands, a little flat sound, but a good energetic set, involved the crowd, Zack kept throwing away picks and collecting bras
Janes Addiction, can't say I'm a huge fan
Jimmy Eat World, Was near the front, amazing
Faith No More, only stayed until they started playing poker face, crowd near the front wasn't as friendly as jimmy eat world.
HIM, couldn't be bothered sticking around, right sound, wrong stage
A Day To Remember, Sat under the tent listening to the set, some random let a kid sit on his shoulders for a song

The tent at the metal stage was very welcome, last year it turned into a mud bath.
But they messed up with stages 5/6 and 3 being so close. The cold water in the chillout room was very welcome.

And now for some (very out of focus) pictures from my phone.

more...

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New Skate Shoes arrived

February 15, 2010

My new skate shoes arrived today, Nike SB Paul Rod.

Check them out.


Aren't they great.

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Replacement Motherboard on the way

February 14, 2010

So a couple of weeks ago I got sick of the "bugs" in my DFI motherboard and returned it to the retailer under warranty. The replacement is finally in the post so I will be able to install it next weekend after it arrives on Monday or Tuesday.

There is no sign of even an ETA on my laptop, so I am still waiting on news from Lenovo on that one, but I doubt I will be able to get it before my Birthday.

With these new toys, I will be able to continue testing the new version of zinzam.com and hopefully move faster in being able to get something fresh online.

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Ordered a new laptop

February 09, 2010

I ordered a new laptop, so it should get here in a few weeks, hopefully before my birthday. Happy Birthday me.

Anyway here are the specs...

• Thinkpad T410
  
• Intel Core i5 540M 2.53 GHz
  
• 320 GB 7200 RPM HDD
  
• 8 x DVD Burner
  
• NVidia Quadro NVS 3100m 256 MiB
  
• 4 GiB DDR3 1066 MHz (two DIMM)
  
• 1440 x 900 pixel WXGA+ LED backlit display
  
• Legendary thinkpad keyboard
  
• Thinklight
  
• Ultranav trackpad/trackpoint, multi-touch
  
• Finger print reader
  
• 2.0 Mega pixel web cam
  
• Qualcomm Gobi 2000 WWAN PCIe card, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM, Ev-Do, 1xRT aGPS, GPS
  
• Bluetooth
  
• Intel Centrino 6200 802.11a/g/n WLAN
  
• 5 in 1 card reader
  
• 4 USB (one powered)
  
• Intel QM57 chipset
  
• eSATA
  
• Displayport
  
• 56 kbps modem
  
• 802.2ab gigabit ethernet
  
• IEEE1394 firewire 400
  
• 6 cell battery
  
• 2.27 kg
  
• VoIP optimised with mute button and array microphone
  

This will replace my current Z61t, same size, same weight class, a lot more powerful. I need to think of a name following along in the Yu-Gi-Oh theme, I had reserved mokuba, but assigned that to my desktop.

The only things missing from my z61t are IRDA (now use bluetooth), mic and headphone port are combined (I have logitech USB headset, G330), and S-Video (did anyone ever use it?).

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A little Synergy

October 04, 2009

Playing with a programme called Synergy, it's generally OK until you need to use UAC on the computer without the keyboard/mouse attached. It also supports simple clipboard sharing which is pretty darn cool.

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Life with 64 bit

September 25, 2009

Being back in Maryborough means two things. Firstly back to the grind of work, but secondly I am now using my core i7 machine running RC of Windows 7 64.

While I realise that Windows 7 has reached RTM, it hasn't been released as GA yet. I am looking at getting Windows 7 professional as OEM at the end of october, and at the same time upgrading my core i7 box with an antec P180 mATX mini-tower case, and an A(md)TI HD5850 video card. I am also considering getting a Creative X-FI Titanium FATAL1TY sound card just for the awesomeness.

Being able to use the computer after it sitting in a box for 6 months is completely awesome. I am able to do things that I simply could not do on my two and a half year old laptop. Blender and Vegas movie studio run smoothy, Full HD video from my handycam is handled effortlessly, and dual display mode is a lot snappier.

Unfortunately while 64 bit allows the computer to support all 6 GiB of installed RAM, current versions of Blender and Vegas movie studio are only 32 bit which I am sure will change, it just means I can multi-task them effectively.

I am currently playing with Blender 3D to create 3D flyover titles for videos. I am picking up the basics pretty quickly which is awesome, but I don't think I'll be able to animate complex objects anytime soon. It is a fair bit different to using 3D CAD packages, but I am far more confident in working in 3D thanks to using CAD at work, so learning Blender has been a whole lot easier this time around despite it's unintuitive UI.

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Upcoming concerts and festivals

August 15, 2009

As I get bored of the current high rotation play list on Triple J, I realise that there are a number of music festivals coming up.

Firstly I owe Richard the cost of a ticket to see Green Day in Brisbane in December. I will need to take a day of leave or two to go see, but that's what I get for living in Maryborough (here's hoping that I won't have to fly from Sydney or Melbourne).

But also this week the lineup for Soundwave 2010 was announced. I saw Soundwave this year in 2009 and it was amazing. I went with Richard, saw some acts I had never heard of, met some people I hadn't seen in a long long time, and generally had fun. So I would love to go again in 2010 considering the following acts are on the lineup:

• AFI
  
• Janes Addiction
  
• My Chemical Romance
  
• Paramore
  
• Alexisonfire
  
• and more...
  

So that's it, plans for the next bit, if I can get tix that is.

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