In keeping with their market strategy of ensuring that kiwi motorists pay as much as possible for their fuel BP lead the market by raising petrol prices 4c per litre yesterday afternoon. This was a decision made without hours of the price of oil breaking through the US$100 mark for a barrel of crude. As of this morning no other fuel company has raised their price or made any announcement in regards to price movements.

BP have been the price leaders for some time now, every petrol price increase in the NZ marketplace over the past 15 months has been lead by them and they have not been the first to drop fuel on a single occasion. BP do not deserve the support of Kiwi motorists and I encourage people to look elsewhere for their fuel requirements. If you're in Auckland I recommend visiting Gull, a privately owned company who have had the way on many occasions. If you're elsewhere in the country then you're stuck with the other major chains but it's worth remembering that Shell have lead the way with price reductions over the past few years.

While surfing the interw3b this morning I came across this very cool new Symbian S60 application. Once installed it allows your phone to act as a WiFi hotspot sharing it's GPRS/3G data connection via WiFi.

Now you might think this is nothing special but if you have an iPod Touch, PDA or laptop that has WiFi built it it allows you to connect to the internet when you're not within range of a WiFi network. WiFi is also significantly faster than Bluetooth for data transfers so if you're somebody who connects their laptop to their phone via Bluetooth there could be significant speed increases moving to WiFi.

This software is only very new and currently lacks any security which means your WiFi connection is wide open for anybody to leach but certainly shows a lot of potential!


www.joikuspot.com

There has been quite a bit of discussion on Geekzone lately discussing structured cabling for voice, data & TV. There is a great thread here that talks about home wiring with GZ's resident expert cyril7 providing some great advice on the topic. As my family are currently building a new house (that is for sale if you're after a place in Lower Hutt!) I thought I'd give a quick DIY guide for anybody who's looking at options for a new house or renovating an existing one. 

Now I must confess that I am no expert when it comes to wiring and I don't do this for a day job! I'm sure there are probably a few others out there who can probably give me a few tips or advice and correct me on some things! :-)

So why install a structured cabling system? My answer? Why would you not install a structuctured cabling system! Telecom have recommended now for several years that all new houses be wired with a minimum of cat5e cable in a star configuration back to central point to replace the conventional method of running phone cabling in series between jackpoints. There are still a surprising number of "experts" in the trade who are still stuck in the dark ages and continue to stick to this but the reality is no new home should be wired like this any longer.
 
With multiple phones, multiple internet connected PC's and cable or satellite TV now the norm in many homes a structured cabling system is a logical approach and also doesn't need to cost the earth - for an average new house the cost of an entire fitout consisting of cable (cat 5e and RG6), patch panel, and all sockets shouldn't cost you more than $500. Right now wireless is still nowhere near as fast as Ethernet for computer networking and cat5e cable can also carry a myriad of signals ranging from phone, ethernet right through to component video and HDMI with appropiate baluns. With the VoIP era also about to approach you've got to be crazy to not be prepared while you have the opportunity!

This is a 3 bedroom house with open plan kitchen and lounge with a semi detached dining room which could easily be used as a study or kids play area or converted into a bedroom. My plan has been to use 12 cat5e jackpoints around the house and F connectors for RG6 for TV in all rooms. This is all run back to a 16 way patch panel in a hallway cupboard. The lounge has 3 RG6 sockets allowing for a terrestrial aerial, satellite dish and a return feed so the output from your STB can be viewed on any other TV in the house.

Master bedroom: TV + dual RJ45 + single RJ45 next to bed for a phone
Bedroom 1: TV + dual RJ45
Bedroom 2: TV + dual RJ45
Dining/Study: TV + dual RJ45
Kitchen: Single RJ45 for phone
Lounge: TV + dual RJ45

The choice of a 16 way patch panel allows 12 sockets wired back to jackpoints with the last 4 jumpered back to the incoming phoneline so they can be patched as required. The incoming phoneline is terminated in a standard jackpoint on the wall (which also serves as a test point as required by Telepermit regs) and this is then connected to port 16 on the patch panel and jumpered across to 15,14 and 13.

This house will have TelstraClear cable service provided to it so there is no provision for a central ADSL line splitter however this could obviously easily be retrofitted if needed. If you're like most of the country and rely on ADSL for your broadband this is something you will want to factor in as it's so much simpler and tidier than requiring filters on every jackpoint that will have a phone on it.

This layout is probably about the bare minimum you would want to install in a house, it's certainly much cheaper to run extra cable when a house is being built than later on wish that you had done it so! 

Choose a logical place to wire all your cable back to. A garage makes a great place but a hallway cupboard is really your only choice if you don't have an internal access garage. Remember to also install a power point nearby as you'll need this for your modem/switch and things such as a VoIP ATA. A wall mounted rack cabinet makes things look nice and tidy if you have space and remember that you may want to have your network running off a small UPS since they are so cheap these days so factor options such as this in when you're working out the dimensions.


So on with the pictures. First up is a quick view of the inside of the house with most of the electrical wiring now done.







Use 25mm drill bits for all wiring holes. Be wary of any structural walls if you're drilling multiple holes in the same beams - ask a builder for advice if you're unsure. Also remember that flush boxes need to be flush - if they stick out you'll have trouble attaching the jib to the wall. Also try and avoid running cable near power, if at all possible try and stay a minimum of 200mm away with the main cable runs. Running plugs on the opposite side of a stud is an easy way to keep cables seperate at the jackpoints. If you do need to cross power cables (and there are times where this can't easily be avoided) ensure the cables cross at right angles and do not run parallel to each other.






Use electrical tape to bundle cat5e cable together. While solid cable is fairly robust it is not invincible. Do not staple this cable or run it at extreme angles. Cable ties stapled to beams are a good way of attaching cable but again do not tighten these up fully as it could easily damage the cable.




Cable all running back to the hallway cupboard. RG6 coax and alarm cable is still to be run back to this same wall.







Well that's about it for part 1 - I'll update this as the work proceeds.

If you're in Wellington on the 30th January how about popping along to the Unlimited Potential event that is on? You'll get the chance to hear Mauricio along with several other bloggers talk about their predictions for 2008!

To finish the night off there is always fre beer and pizza. What more can you ask for? :-)

http://www.up.org.nz/predictions-2008/

Back in November Mauricio did a quick roundup of Anti Virus solutions and came out liking Norton 2008. Despite being a great product several years ago many people have criticised NAV over the past few years for being bloated and slowing down fast PC's to a crawl. My experience with Norton Anti Virus has been very similair but when it comes to virus protection Norton has cosistantly rated at the top. There are plenty of reviews out there now saying that 2008 is a brilliant product and many of the issues such as speed seem to be resolved!

I couldn't help but notice when I was in DSE today that they are selling Norton AV2007 for $40 with a $40 cashback by redeption from Symantec and a FREE upgrade to Norton AV 2008.

That's a deal that's hard to beat! I'm sure stocks won't last long :-)

An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the richter scale and centered 50 km South East of Gisborne occured at 8:55pm this evening. Initial reports indicate that some damage may have occured in the area.

More details as they come to hand.

2115 : Reports of loss of power in some parts of Gisborne and broken windows in some houses

2145: A civil defence emergency has been declared. Reports indicate there have been some buildings collapse. No word on injuries.

2230: USAR Task Forces 1 & 3 have been activated and being deployed to Gisborne.

Further details available here

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007ldas.php

From reading the newspapers and listening to the radio today the latest beatup campaign launched by our media seems to be targeting ACC who have today announced increases in the levies paid for motor vehicle registration (approximately 25%) and fuel (2c per litre) to cover the increased costs of providing healthcare and rehabilitation to those people injured in motor vehicle accidents.

NZ is unique anywhere in the world in that everybody in this country has automatic no fault accident insurance no matter whay they're doing. If you have a car accident then ACC will pay the bulk of your costs. If you get in a fight when you're drunk and end up needing an ambulance and spending time in hospital you're also covered. Rather than needing to insure ourselves privately as is the case in every other country in the world we are lucky enough to have this accident insurance provided to us automatically.

So why pick on motorists?

The reality is that motor vehicle accidents are one of the biggest costs to ACC. If you look back 15 years ago our road toll was far greater because it was far more common to die in a motor vehicle accident. Due to increased safety features in late model vehicles it is now common to survive accidents that would have killed you in the past. The result is a significant increase in the costs of rehabilitation which in some cases can easily cost $10 million or more over the life of an individual if continual care is required. Cross subsidising care costs from other other parts of ACC simply isn't fair either, why should somebody who doesn't drive a car have to pay increased ACC levies?

Rather than trying to pick faults with ACC questions should really be asked about the future of ACC. Do we need automatic no fault accident cover for every individual in this country? Many would argue that we should have and that nothing should change. Should ACC be privatised again and competitors be allowed to provide policies to companies and individuals who may choose to take cover from another insurance company? There are plenty of things that should be discussed in an open forum rather than critisising ACC for doing nothing other than what they are tasked to do.

If you're after one of these for Xmas then today is your lucky day!

Right now on Ferrit these are available from Hill & Stewart for $218 incl free shipping. That's a deal that's hard to beat! I have no idea how long this price will last for so it would pay to get in now!

http://www.ferrit.co.nz/?ObjectID=7755803&utm_source=ipodStuff&utm_medium=Textlink&utm_campaign=ipod

I've been using Vista Ultimate as my PVR/HTPC machine for several months now after upgrading it from XP Pro. I run GB-PVR as my main PVR application and use this for all my TV recordings.

One thing I had been meaning to do for some time however was hook my PC up to my amp for 5.1 audio, I had this hooked up previously but when I changed motherboards I had not got around to making a SDDIF output cable to hook up to the motherboard pinout as my motherboard had no external connector.

My aim was to have both 5.1 and 2ch PCM stereo output via SPDIF and stereo audio simultaneously output via the 3.5mm line out which is hooked up to my TV. This means I can hear the audio my TV without running it through the amp but also allows me to turn on my amp for full 5.1 or 2ch stereo audio when I'm playing a DVD. This is easily done under XP but Vista is another story.

After spending numerous hours playing with my system configuration I did a quick Google search to find that this can't be done under Vista with a Realtek audio chipset. Infact it can't be done with most soundcards. Microsoft have changed Vista so that it's only possible to output via SPDIF and analogue simultaneously if you want stereo PCM from both. It is not possible to have a 5.1 feed via SPDIF and 2ch PCM stereo via analogue. This is one of the great new DRM "features" built into Vista that MS didn't tell is about!

So now I'm stuck unable to do what I want to do which I don't believe is an unreasonable configuration for anybody who uses a Vista machine as a HTPC/PVR. I don't always want to turn my amp on to watch a simple TV show and am happy with my TV's audio for many shows.

My only option is to find a cheap SPDIF->analogue converter so I can split the SPDIF feed both into my amp and adapter which will give me a stereo analogue feed. Unfortunately these aren't cheap. Even better would be for MS to fix this "bug" and restore the configuration that has worked for years but I don't see this happening. They dropped their pants for the motion picture and music industries to impose tough DRM and don't seem to care how these can affect end users.

If you're a a retail outlet and want my business in the leadup to xmas then steer clear of the carols.

I guarantee I'll be walking out of your shop at the hint of away in a manger and will support stores who are interested in keeping their customers and not scaring them away! :-)