Well.

Where do I start?

I’ve been joking recently about having three full-time jobs. I’ve been employed by the Victorian Government in my current role for nearly seven years. This has been hugely rewarding and I have enjoyed the job immensely. It’s a job which involves shift work, overtime, on-call duties, and accounts for a large portion of my life. It also pays the bills, lets me buy clothes, food, that sort of stuff. I will refer to this as Full Time Job #1.

Also about seven years ago, I caught-up with a long-time friend who I had known since high school (let’s call him Andrew). Andrew has worked in the television production industry for many years. We’d been chatting over coffee about computers, mobile telephones and the state-of-the-fledgling internet. We marvelled at Pentium-powered desktops, the brilliance of Microsoft Office 2003, and how you could access email from your mobile telephone using a technology called GPRS, without making a phone call.

Andrew had, at the time, been speaking about technology on Melbourne radio station 3AK with Brett de Hoedt. Andrew suggested we continue our coffee-talk in front of microphones at a community radio station. I thought that sounded like fun, and on the 29th of November 2004, Tech Talk Radio was born. Tech Talk Radio is a lot of fun, but it’s very time-consuming. It’s akin to a full-time job, which for the purposes of the exercise, I shall call Full Time Job #2.

I’ve always wanted to do a lot more with Tech Talk Radio, in terms of production, interviews, sponsorship, syndication, guests and research. I think we all do as much as we possibly can at the moment, but tempered (and rightly so) with a view to maintaining our sanity, our families, our other full-time jobs, a healthy amount of fibre in our diets, and so on.

Recently, the opportunity arose to help Andrew with a small television project*.

“But,” I said, “This sounds like another full-time job. I already have a full-time job. I’ve got two, in fact.” I shall call this fledgling proposal Full Time Job #3.

So a decision needed to be made.

After much soul-searching, spousal negotiation and visits to the accountant, I’ve devised a cunning plan; just how cunning, only time will tell.

FTJ #1 has been good enough to let me take leave without pay, while keeping open my existing position. The leave period is effectively until the end of this year. I started leave at FTJ #1 yesterday, which was Friday the 27th of May. I will have to go back in for a few days here and there, but that’s part of the deal. I am effectively now on leave from FTJ #1 for seven months.

FTJ #2 will now combine with FTJ #3. I have registered a new company, and will be working until the end of the year doing full-time Tech Talk.

The mind boggles. Am I serious? Yes. Am I insane? Probably. I’ll be doing some freelance I.T. and telecommunications consulting as well, to keep the bills paid and food on the table.

It’s a nervous and exciting time. I’m in an extraordinarily fortunate position of being able to return to FTJ #1 if things don’t work out. But I’m feeling very optimistic about things, and I’m looking forward to the next seven months with copious quantities of zeal.

As one learned colleague said to me last night, “You don’t want to die wondering.”

Words of wisdom indeed. Stay tuned.

*to be continued....

social media · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

Over the Christmas / New Year break, Tech Talk panelists are taking time away from the studio.

During this time, we’re running a “best of” series which showcases highlights from the last few years.

So far, we’ve heard from:

Georgia Simmons, representing the Telstra Foundation;

Graham Henley from GetData;

Michael Crimean, a professional audio engineer;

Adam Turner attending the launch of the HTC Magic in Sydney, as well as the launch of Apple’s iPad and the opening of Apple’s Bondi store in Sydney;

George Pongas, the COO of ISP Domain Central;

Dr James Chon, representing Swinburne University;

Alan Eade from St John Ambulance (Victoria);

Mark Mayer, retired QANTAS airline pilot;

Jeff Alexander and David Glover from Microsoft;

Closet Tech Geek Sally Cockburn (aka “Dr Feelgood“);

Sandrina Branton from BMC Software;

European Correspondent Matthew Robinson;

Gaming expert Leena van Deventer;

Luke Durham from Switch Media, and Adrian Britton from HostWorks;

Independent technology journalist Anthony Caruana;

…as well as select Panel discussions, websites, gadgets and Odd Spots, and entertaining and informative Views from the Couch.

Next week we’ll re-visit the last episode of 2010, and Tech Talk’s inaugural Outside Broadcast, which went to-air live from the Sofia Family Restaurant in December.

We’ll all be back live in the studio on the 14th of February.  Rumours that former Tech Talk panelist Mark Diggins is back in the country are largely founded… stay tuned!

adam turner · apple · Microsoft · Outside Broadcast · social media · Social Networking · Summer Series · Tech Talk Radio · telstra · TTR · Twitter · windows 7

And they said it’d never happen!

After much speculation, rumour and conjecture, it all become a reality on Monday the 6th of December.  The first Tech Talk Radio Outside Broadcast took place at Sofia Family Restaurant in Burwood East.

We were all blown away by the massive turnout.  It was a lot of work, but heaps of fun.  For the first time we could put faces to names, and had a chance to meet “the regulars” who lurk in the chat, post on the forum and send email contributions on a weekly basis.

View from The Panel. OMG... who *are* all these people?!

Importantly, the O.B. was a successful proof-of-concept for us, from a technical standpoint.  We were using traditional audio equipment (a mixing desk, headset microphones, wireless microphones, effects microphones, speakers, amplifiers, compressors and limiters) as well as new linking equipment that we tested for the first time on the 22nd of November in Episode 47.  We used professional STL software called AudioTX Communicator.  This software provides bi-directional high quality audio over any IP-based network.  A laptop in Sofia was our “transmitter” and this connected to a computer in the radio studio at 3WBC via the Telstra NextG network.  The entire 2-hour programme used about 200 MB of data each way.

Graeme's mixing desk, microphone switch and CD players

Long-time friend of Tech Talk radio, and US correspondent Lidija Davis was hooked-up via Skype on Andrew’s laptop.

We even installed some impromptu lighting to brighten-up The Panel:

DIY studio lighting, the Tech Talk Radio way!

Thankyou

There are many people that need to be thanked, and without whose help the O.B. would not have been the success that it was:

• Stephanie Stewart, at NetComm Australia, for donating the magnificent MyZone Hot Spot door prize, as well as truck-loads of pens and jelly beans;
• Microsoft’s Michael Kordahi, from popular technology podcast Frankly Speaking, for donating a copy of Microsoft Office 2010; and
• 2K Games for the massive swag including copies of Mafia 2, as well as keyrings, pens, matching cufflinks;  Bioshock; copies of The Bigs 2 Baseball; copies of Carnival Games; Sid Meier’s Pirates; Super Game Day; Civilization V; NBA 2K11; and much, much more!

The Swag - thankyou to all our sponsors for their support and generosity

Thankyou also to Phil at the 3WBC studio, for pushing faders and pressing buttons, and making sure the programme went live-to-air.

And, of course, everyone that rolled-up to make the evening what it was.  Without you, there would be no programme.

We’ll be back in 2011.  In the meantime, enjoy the Summer Series, which showcases highlights from this year’s episodes.

OB · Outside Broadcast · Social Networking · Sofia · Sponsors · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

It’s horrible.

In Episode 47, which went to air on Monday this week, we were testing some new audio equipment and linking software.  We’ll be using this equipment for the Outside Broadcast at Sofia Family Restaurant on the 6th of December.

There were two main issues.

(1) To-air: the quality of Graeme’s microphone audio.  Graeme was trialling a new headset-microphone, using a portable pre-amplifier.  The Panelists will be using a very similar model of headset at the OB.  It sounded a bit hissy, but we’re confident we can fix this with some diligent EQ’ing on the night.

(2) Recording / podcast version:  we always record two independent outputs from the studio’s mixing desk.  One is a recording of the programme that goes to-air (the “A” bus), while the other is a clean recording of panelists’ microphones (the “B” bus).  We use M-Audio MicroTrack II recorders, which write to compact flash cards, to record the show each week. Graeme then edits these recordings to make the podcast and syndication versions of the shows.

Unfortunately, because I was pre-occupied with setting up the new linking equipment, I made the cardinal error of not checking input levels to the recorders.  As a result the input settings for the “A” bus recorder were just completely wrong, and the “B” bus recorders were horribly clipped and over-driven.

Graeme did an excellent job of recovering what he could, but the audio quality is not up to our usual high standard.  This is extremely frustrating for all of us, because we pride ourselves on Tech Talk’s production quality.

Ironically, the actual linking equipment worked very well indeed.  This was the main reason that Graeme started the show from Sofia on Monday night: to test the new link hardware and software.

Next week’s Tech Talk will be back to our usual high standard; and the OB on the 6th of December will be even better!

audio · awkward moments · podcast · production · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

It would appear, prima facie, that we’ve all lost our minds.

Notwithstanding:-

We will attempt to broadcast the final Tech Talk Radio for 2010 LIVE from Sofia’s Family Restaurant, in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Burwood East.

Everyone’s invited! Join us for Sofia’s world-famous pizza/pasta; meet the panelists; heckle the panelists; meet like-minded listeners; and be part of the final Tech Talk Radio for 2010.

You can point and laugh at our attempts to run a 2-hour radio programme, built on nothing but a few extension leads, a Sony Walkman, a Bluetooth headset and a pile of pizza boxes.

BOOK NOW! by calling Sofia on (03) 9803 5299 and asking to reserve a place for the Tech Talk Christmas Special on Monday the 6th of December 2010. Get there around 7:00 P.M. and we’ll aim to start the show at 8:00 P.M..

It’s okay, we told Sofia that we’re lobbing on the front doorstep.  They were pretty good about it, actually. (Just wait until they find out we’re turning their restaurant into a radio studio for a few hours.)

Cost is just $17.50 per person for the set menu. Entertainment, as always, will be courtesy of The Panel.

Andrew has put the details on the website here.

See you at the Christmas bash!

awkward moments · Christmas Special · Outside Broadcast · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

Dear Microsoft,

Please don’t send ninjas to Adam Turner’s house, to abduct and torture him in some secret facility.

On Tech Talk Radio tonight I said something akin to, “Adam was in here a few weeks back, and had Windows Phone 7 and it was really cool.”

What I meant to say was, “My brain is switched off, and I’m talking on live radio, and what Adam actually had was a WinMo 6.5 device running HTC’s Sense UI.”

These are the show notes for the episode I was thinking of, which went to air on 2nd August 2010.

And this is a photo of Adam’s menagerie, taken by me on the night:

See… no Phone 7!!

Apologies to Microsoft, and to Adam. I’ve rechecked my medication, it’s all good.

As you were.  Carry on.

adam turner · awkward moments · conspiracy · Google Phone · HTC · Microsoft · Phone 7 · Tech Talk Radio · TTR · WinMo 6.5

Over the course of last week, long-time Tech Talk Radio contributor Adam Turner found himself in the middle of an “election-night social networking scandal” because of comments he posted on the popular micro-blogging service Twitter.

Or so the ABC’s Media Watch would have you believe.

In Episode 30, which broadcast on Monday the 30th of August, Adam received a lambasting from the programme’s host, Paul Barry, for making personal remarks about the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.  In the context of the Opposition Leader saying this:

“There should be no premature triumphalism tonight, there should simply be an appreciation that this has been a great night for the Australian people…”

…Adam duly described Tony Abbott as a “cocksucker”, and an “arsehole”.

Here’s the Media Watch segment in question.

Put simply, Adam made some comments which he now regrets.

Unfortunately for everyone, a Liberal Party supporter saw the comments.  The same supporter also complained to Media Watch.  Someone then complained to Fairfax, who Adam writes for.

The very same Liberal Party supporter then posted this on Twitter:

Hahahaha – I reported @adam_turner to media watch, and they’re playing it! #mediawatch

I think there are a number of issues at stake here:

• A journalist’s right to express a personal opinion;
• The issue of Media Watch running a story, driven by somebody’s political agenda;
• The issue of what is, and isn’t, newsworthy; and
• The hypocrisy of someone complaining to Media Watch about two offensive tweets, then gloating/tweeting like a child because they got someone in trouble.

It’s impossible for me to make an independent, objective comment about the situation, because I know Adam well, and he writes weekly for Tech Talk Radio.  So anything I say won’t be independent, and probably won’t be objective.

What I will say is that it must have been a slow news week.

Also; that mainstream media clearly still doesn’t understand the function of social media, and its place in our lives. Just because someone writes independent product reviews, or publishes objective commentary for a living, doesn’t mean that they don’t have, or can’t have, personal opinions.

Here, then, are some independent websites and blogs which offer opinions about (what I think is) a storm-in-a-teacup:

• Woolly Days blog, by Derek Barry, blogger and journalist working for Queensland’s The Western Star;
• IT Wire blog: Twitter becomes the new oracle of the media by Stan Beer;
• Wolfcat’s Random Rants: when does a freelance tech journo’s point of view on politics matter;
• Machine Gun Keyboard: Portrait of a douchebag: how Media Watch got used to grind an axe;

…and I’m sure you’ll find more yourself, with some judicious Googling.

Yes, of course Adam will continue to contribute to Tech Talk Radio.  His weekly opinions and insight are highly valued, by our audience and the rest of The Panel.  He is an important member of the team.

I think a popular Melbourne Twitterer summed it up well with this 140-character insight:

One day mainstream news will understand the context of social media. That day is not today.

abc · adam turner · Media Watch · Paul Barry · Robert Candelori · social media · Social Networking · Tech Talk Radio · Twitter · View from the Couch

Someone in the chat last night mentioned the Google Nexus One Android-powered smartphone.

It won’t be sold here, and it won’t work on Telstra’s Next G HSDPA network. See this article in The Australian for more details.

For our brethren abroad, here’s a nifty comparison chart courtesy of Tech Talk Radio’s US correspondent, Mark Diggins:

Apple's iPhone 3GS vs Google's Nexus 1

android · Apple iPhone 3GS · comparison · Google Android · Google Nexus 1 · Google Phone · HSDPA · Next G · smartphone · Tech Talk Radio · telstra

What’s happening?

Andrew’s arrived home after a productive trip to the United States, and Tech Talk Radio’s executive producer is back at the wheel.

According to our historical archives, Andrew has only missed 5 episodes, out of a total 282.  What an appalling track record.

Actually, I wish mine was that good.

The last two episodes can be downloaded here (Ep 15/2010 – with special guest Anthony Caruana) and here (Ep 16/2010 – with special guest Matthew Robinson).

Matthew Robinson, Tech Talk Radio's European correspondent

I’ve listened back to these episodes, and The Panel certainly has a different “feel”. Not sure if it’s for better or worse, but very different.

We’re all looking forward to hearing Andrew’s war stories tomorrow night, though.

More soon.  Over & out.

3WBC · Matthew Robinson · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to cable a network socket to the lounge room, and a network socket to the bedroom.

This would enable me, in theory, to stream audio and video from my network to the television and sound system in my living room; and to stream audio and video from my network to the television in the master bedroom.

Why not just use wireless?

I’ve been using WiFi to the lounge room Media Centre for some time (well, years) now. It works adequately. But wireless technology is designed for portable devices, and in the case where I’ve got a Media Centre PC which never moves, the better option from a technical standpoint is to connect to the network using a wired network port. A fixed network connection is faster than wireless, more reliable, and my Media Centre won’t be competing with other wireless devices for bandwidth, using the same hotspot ‘legitimately’ (e.g. net books, smart phones etc.).

Conspiracy theorists that obsess about security will also agree that a wired network connection is a better option than wireless. I, however, do not obsess about such things. Honestly.

Yesterday I got out the fashionable white overalls, retrieved my toolbox from a bygone era and proceeded to cable new network points to the lounge room and the master bedroom. This involved much swearing, grunting, bashing-of-head-against-low-floorboards and grazed elbows, but I got there eventually.

In Australia, make sure any infrastructure cabling, at work or at home, is undertaken by a licensed cabler.  Like me.

Lounge Room – wired for internets!

I plugged the Media Centre into its new network port, and was pleased to see a noticeable improvement in network speed. I’ll keep using the PC as a Media Centre in the lounge room. It makes a lot of sense to me to have a networked PC connected to your television and sound system.

The Bedroom Solution

- or -

“How to browse internets and network file shares in your bedroom without a computer”

A PC in the bedroom, however, is a bit excessive (IMHO). So what’s the best way to access content on the network and stream it to the television?

I had my eye on a fashionable media streamer from Western Digital which Andrew spoke about on Tech Talk Radio in November. After seeing a demonstration, viewing a Blu-Ray rip over Andrew’s network in his lounge room, I was sold. The quality was great.

There are three versions of these little boxes, and I bought the most expensive one, the WD TV Live, which supports networking. This set me back $198 from JB Hi Fi.

Western Digital's WD TV Live

The WD TV Live is a small unassuming box which provides an interface between your television and your computer network, with a nifty little remote control (yes, batteries are included!). All the WD TV Live needs is power and a nearby network connection, which I now have, thanks to yesterday’s wrangling.

The WD TV Live outputs to composite or component video (cables supplied) or HDMI (cable not supplied), in full HD 1080P video. When it powers-up, the WD TV Live finds shares on your computer network and lets you watch video and listen to music. It also has 2 x USB ports so you can connect external drives, memory sticks and the like.

Rear of the WD TV Live - from L to R: power, USB, HDMI, optical, LAN, composite out & component out

To get it going, all I needed to do was connect HDMI to my television, connect the blue network cable and plug-in the power. The WD TV Live did everything else, and the default settings are very usable. It found my network’s DHCP server, assigned itself an IP address, found my network shares and just started working.

Format Support

According to the documentation, supported video formats include AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG 1, 2 & 4, WMV9 & VC-1), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (H.264, X.264, AVC, MPEG 1, 2 & 4, WMV9 & VC-1), TS / TP / M2T (MPEG 1, 2 & 4, AVC & VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4 & H.264), M2TS & WMV9.

Supported image formats include JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP & PNG.

Supported audio formats include MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital & DTS.

The WD TV Live also supports common playlist and subtitle formats, and it’s got the DLNA stamp of approval.

Andrew says he’s had huge success with MKV video formats, in terms of quality.

User Interface

Nice.  Fast and smooth.

WD TV Live - User Interface

There’s also a nice interface which streams content directly from Google’s video-sharing website YouTube, popular photo-sharing site Flickr and Live 365 internet radio. You can login to YouTube if you have an existing account.

WD TV Live - browsing YouTube with the built-in UI

My only gripe is the on-screen keyboard, which is clunky and frustrating. You’re driving it with the up/down/left/right arrows on the remote control, so I’m not really sure how Western Digital could improve on this. You only need to use the on-screen keyboard if you’re entering custom network settings, or user names and passwords for network shares and such things. Fortunately the WD TV Live remembers these settings, so you rarely need to use the on-screen keyboard.

Problems with HomeGroup Networking

Tech Talk’s Graeme Callaghan also purchased one of these little boxes some weeks ago. He told me that the only difficulties he has experienced have been with Windows 7 “HomeGroup” networking, which apparently does strange things, e.g. causing network shares to disappear, reappear then disappear again. Graeme said that after he disabled HomeGroup networking, in favour of traditional Windows workgroups, everything worked consistently and well. I’m sharing content off a Windows 7 Professional machine in traditional ‘workgroups’ mode and everything with the WD TV Live has been smooth-sailing.

The Verdict

Good.

Easy to set up; reliable; intuitive user interface; excellent playback quality. High WAF*. This is a media streamer which fills a fundamental hole in the digital lounge room.

Or, in this case, Dr Ron’s Digital Bedroom.

* Wife Acceptability Factor

Digital Living Network Alliance · digital lounge room · DLNA · HomeGroup · media streamer · Tech Talk Radio · video streamer · video streaming · WD TV Live · Western Digital