Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

There's one thing about winter in the high deserts of the American West: the clarity of the sky. It's a deep, open, endless blue, nothing like the washed out pale colours of London.

At 6000 feet up, you're high above the pollution and the smog of the low lying cities. And as the moon rises in the cold blue afternoon sky, you can almost reach out and touch, a piece of silver in the deep sky.



Petrified Forest, Arizona
November 2009

Google's just added the Sky to Google Earth, using images from various sources, including the Hubble. Sadly it doesn't just switch on - you'll need to download a new version of the application first.



There's some fantastic imagery there, and it's well worth exploring the bundled KML files. I rather enjoyed the "User's Guide to Galaxies"...

Airliner on its final approach to Heathrow, flying through the sunset clouds over southwest London.

Putney, London
July 2007

Yesterday I hooked up a Slingbox to our Sky+ system.

The Sky+ lets us time shift our TV watching, and the Slingbox adds a new dimension: place shifting. It turns the video output from the Sky+ into a stream of IP data that we can watch anywhere in the house, or anywhere there's an Internet connection (once I punch the appropriate holes in the firewall). It also means I don't have to run extra cabling round the house, or spend money on additional Sky subscriptions.

It's a fine example of appliance design - simple software, easy to understand instructions, just a few connectors, and underneath it all a device that's doing something rather complex.

All I had to do was plug the box into the house network, hook up a couple of IR emitters, and plug the Slingbox into the Sky+'s S-video output. Once I installed the software on a PC (Mac and mobile versions are available), a wizard walked me through configuration and video stream optimisation, and, well, there it was, working.

One neat feature is the on-screen remote, which looks just like, and works just like, a Sky+ remote. So I can use the EPG, and even watch stored programmes (even if I keep trying to click on the screen). I'll even be able to program the box when we're on the road...

So has someone cracked the security on Sky's broadband video on demand service? Or is there another explanation for this email I received this morning?

We’re currently carrying out an essential update to the Sky by broadband security system, and unfortunately this means we’ve had to temporarily suspend access to movie downloads and some sports content. But don’t worry, this won’t affect your computer and you can still bookmark content for when it’s up and running again.

We aim to restore full access to all Sky by broadband content as soon as possible and we’ll keep you posted on progress. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this disruption may cause, and hope you’ll continue to enjoy using the Sky by broadband service.

Inquiring minds and all that...

Just got the first part of the latest identity theft scam going round. I knew what it was, so hung up straight away...

From The Register's description of the scam:

In the first part of the ruse, a pre-recorded telephone call asks members of the public if they subscribe to Sky TV. A week or so later, the prospective mark receives a telephone call from a fraudster, posing as a Sky employee, claiming the customer's Sky subscription is unpaid and warning that their subscription will be suspended unless they make credit card payment.

The call I had was a recording of a woman's voice, posing as a maintenance company, wanting to sell support for satellite systems.

So be careful out there!