Mike's MSN blog – migrated | Ye olde blog from when I worked at Microsoft

Repost: Old podcast from 2005

Posted on October 6, 2011 by mseyfang

Here is a blast from the past. Just uttered the words “Post Linguistic & Sub Symbolic” language when talking about video remix. Turns out I first heard that back in 2005:

LearnDog REMIXED – New Language

Posted: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 01:18:59 PST
LearnDog Remixed 003 – New Language

I’m wrestling with the concpets of language which underpin the ReMix culture that is thriving on the read/write web2.0. For LearnDog to be relevant, we need to figure some of this stuff out. This podcast is an attempt to do just that.

Download ldrpoc002-003-NewLanguage.mp3 (9032.3K)

Stephen Downes eLearning2.0 PodCast – ReMixed
While listening to this PodCast on my by bicycle near Glenelg beach my brain went into ‘overdrive’.

I made this blog post about Free as in Freedom

New Language

Post Linguistic and yet Sub Symbolic
Words – digital artefacts

WTC Guy – a Visual example

The ‘Words’ in this case are pictures – remixed to tell a story
NewYork times on ‘Pew Survey’

Article by Tom Zeller ’The lives of Teenagers Now: Open Blogs, Not Locked Diaries’

Example of teenage kids speaking in this new language – remixing content, constructing online presence. A girl mourning the death of her stepfather, a boy trying to expose his faith-based music creations to the world.

TripleJ’s subversive response to a harsh interview

Listen to a remix of a harsh interview with a rock-star and a rather cathartic (and somewhat subversive) response – which is itself a remix! From TripleJ’s excellent podcasts.
Challenge for LearnDog

Help kids develop their ‘Voice’
Attract positive attention (recognition)
Maybe just a little subversive
Links

http://www.downes.ca

http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=21557
http://spaces.msn.com/members/mikese/Blog/cns!1p6t4igVZ5-R-npCeqnrN2MA!508.entry

http://del.icio.us/mseyfang/wtcguy
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LearnDogPup?m=85
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/podcast.htm

http://triplej.net.au/listen/jcast/jcast.xml

http://www.learndog.com
http://feeds.feedburner.com/learndogpup

MEDIA ENCLOSURE: http://learndog.typepad.com/ldr/ldrpoc002-003-NewLanguage.mp3

Mentions: “Free as in Freedom – not free Beer“

Posted in blog | Tagged downes, language, linguistic, remix, symbolic | Leave a comment

Futaba 12FG with Spektrum DM8 FUT MZ air module: howto buy, setup & use

Posted on October 1, 2011 by mseyfang

After (way too) much fecking about I just got my Futaba 12FG model airplane radio transmitter to work with the spektrum AR500 that came with my Radian foam glider. I am writing this blog-post so I can remember how the hell I did it, and hopefully to help the next poor bugger who tries to do the same.

Setup: Futaba 12FG TX version 3.0 firmware. Spektrum DM8 FUT MZ Air Module. Spektrum AR500 RX.

Method:

Create a MODEL setup with settings you require and go SYSTEM->TRAINER->[ON,STUD,8CH,PPM] with whatever module you have been using prior to fitting the DM8.
Fit the DM8 FUT MZ module, antenna and plug as per instructions
Follow the BIND procedure as per instructions [RX system hookup incl bind plug, Power RX on (flashing), RX sticks to fail-safe, Press & Hold BIND button on back of DM8 module while powering on the 12FG TX. (RX led goes solid).
Now when power up 12FG should see "TRAINER STUDENT MODE" then FASST 7CH 2.4GHZ trainer student on the home screen.
Setup some velcro to stop the barely seated module from falling out while flying!

*more Photos

ISSUES: Could not find a single piece of documentation that explicitly told me which part number (or even model) goes with the 12FG. The closest I got was that the "SPEKTRUM DM8 FUT MZ" model works with Futaba 12MZ and 14MZ. I am happy to report that this "SPEKTRUM DM8 FUT MZ" model works with Futaba 12FG. As this (and this) forum post suggest - one needs to press on through various warnings, go thru the bind procedure and make various counter-intuitive menu changes in order to get it to work!

My first purchase was a "Spektrum DM8 FUT" (not the MZ version) which is physically bigger and does not have the wires with plug for the Futaba trainer socket (PPM Signal). Luckily a mate wanted that for a different Futaba TX and bought it from me.

My second purchase dsm2 air module fut mz - without rx (From Esprit model - cost me $45 with $13.95 postage) arrived just over two weeks after purchase. It all went together as advertised, although the fit of the module is rather flimsy & no lights came on in my first attempts causing me to worry that it wasn't seating properly. When following either the 12FG or DM8 manual instructions for selecting PPM MODE (Only after much fecking about with binding sequence & menu settings in the 12FG did I see the big orange light come on & the "trainer student mode" message on power up on my way to the main menu with "FASST 7CH TRAINER STUDENT" message.

Error messages:

"RF MODULE IS NOT ATTACHED. CONTINUE? YES" on power up 12FG (prior to selecting TRAINER->STUDENT->PPM)

"NO MODULE" under "FASST 7CH" on Home Screen.

"RF MODULE IS NOT ATTACHED. CANNOT CHANGE" in FREQUENCY menu after clicking on FASST 7CH. Same error message when attempt to select PPM modulation [PCM-G3, PCM1024, PPM] under LINKAGE ->FREQUENCY as

Overall: a great idea, reasonably executed with piss-poor documentation and bog-ordinary distribution (especially if you dont want to by another spektrum RX).

Fang – Mike Seyfang

Posted in blog, Hobbies | Tagged 12FG, 12FGSpektrumDM8FutMZ, DM8, FUT, MZ, SPEKTRUM | Leave a comment

Check one two

Posted on July 27, 2011 by mseyfang

is this thing on?

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Two dollar ‘AMAYSIM’ sim card from service-station delivers the goods

Posted on May 12, 2011 by mseyfang

On advice from a mate, I decided to try an ‘AMAYSIM’ sim card while my trusty NodeMobile Data MiFi from Internode is on loan to a friend in hospital. The plan: see how the prepaid data service compares to my trusty $14 per month plan from internode. The result: I have dumped my old Vodafone pre-paid and ported my number over to AMAYSIM.

The basic deal from AMAYSIM is $10 per month for 1GB data (compared to $14 from Internode) with .12c SMS TXT and flat rate of .15c per min phone calls. Both use the Optus 3G network. I generally use less than my 1GB per month in my MiFi which provides access to my iPhone, iPad, laptop when travelling and up to 5 strangers whenever I am out in public! Therefore I do not expect to use more than one 1GB data pack per month in my iPhone.

The short story of my trial is that the user experience provided by AMAYSIM was so slick, and everything I tried just worked. It all worked so well that I ended up putting one SIM in my wife’s iPad for an interstate trip, then buying a second one, porting my old Vodafone number and ditching their pre-paid deal I had been running since leaving Microsoft in 2005 ($30TXTer prepaid every 60 days).

The long story is provided (in note form) below partly to jog my memory next time I need to fiddle with USB modems, APN names and other TELCO-dazzlery parameter matching.

Instant Gratification: hit amaysim.com.au for the basic deal & signup. Thought I would have to order and wait for shipping of a sim card. Found I could buy one in a service-station less than 500m from my home for $2. Got off my arse, went to servo and purchased one. Got home, followed activation process & it was ready to go in minutes. Phone worked instantly (including automated call from AMAYSIM to set up voicemail). Had a slight glitch with DATA on iPhone due to a profile I had previously created using APN Changer from http://www.unlockit.co.nz (to get NodeMobile DATA sim working in iPhone).
Data on iPhone: would have worked immediately if I had not previously created a profile to munge the APN settings for Internode NodeMobile DATA on that phone previously. Once I deleted that old profile (iPhone settings->general->profiles) everything worked a treat. Took me a few minutes to figure this out. At first I tried iPhone settings->general->reset->Reset Network Settings which did not work. Tried to setup my iPhone (3GS) as a Personal Hotspot. iPhone settings->personal hotspot->ON. To my horror and dissapointment, I find that iPhone3 (with IOS v4.3.1) won’t create a WiFi network to share my AMAYSIM data connection. (Has lame-arsed BlueTooth / USB network sharing). I fecked about with Bluetooth between another iPad and my iPhone for a few minutes but couldn’t figure out how to share the iPhone data connection. Lame.
USB Modem: I ripped the AmaySIM card from my iPhone and stuck it in the old (Huawei E169 3G) USB Modem that came free with my Internode NodeMobile Data 2year contract. THen I stuck said USB modem into an old Mac OSX laptop and installed the ‘Wireless Broadband’ application that showed up on the built-in USB drive of the modem. A quick google search for amaysim + nodemobile data USB gave some clues as to configuration parameters. At the end of the day all I did was create a new service in the app, enter ‘internet’ as APN name and *99# as the telephone number to dial. (see image: it worked). I was surprised that no username / password was required and I have no idea if the APN parameter actually does anything.
iPad microSIM: when you punch your AMAYSIM sim-card out of the plastic enclosure, the SIM itself becomes an enclosure for a smaller micro-sim as required for iPad (what an evil engineering decision for a device bigger than a phone, but I digress…). Punched the microSIM out of the middle of the SIM and shoved it in the iPad. It works!
iPhone4 personal hotspot: you tell me! I don’t have an iPhone4, couldn’t get a clear yes or no via google. Seems Optus does NOT support it, don’t know about re-sellers of their network like amaysim etc.
MiFi: when I get my trusty MiFi battery operated wireless router (Novatel MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot) back I will throw the AmaySIM card in and let you know how it goes. Anyone tried this?

Links:

http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/2010/06/26/ios4/

http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=750

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aFineLine 26mar – 8may 2011 – Science Art exhibition

Posted on March 25, 2011 by mseyfang

Tonight is opening night for ‘aFineLine’ exhibition at the JamFactory in Adelaide, South Australia. The exhibit is a collaboration between glass artists from the JamFactory and scientists from Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) at the University of Adelaide (for whom I work part-time).

I will be at the opening between 6.30 and 7.30pm – would love to see you there & introduce you to some of those involved in this fascinating collaboration. Even if you can’t make it to the opening tonight be sure to drop into this free exhibition some time & check out my handy-dandy video editing skills on the middle screen of the exhibit! (some screenshots from same at the bottom of this post).

From the JamFactory site:

A Fine Line

Opening: Fri 25 March at 6.00pm

Scientists within the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensingat the University of Adelaide join forces with glass artists Nick Mount, Danielle Rickaby and Janice Vitkovsky and the JamFactory Glass Studio in a dynamic display of art meeting science.

Exhibition Talks | 11.00am | Saturday 2 April 2011