it.gen.nz

Writings on technology and society from Wellington, New Zealand

Thursday, February 25, 2010

On the radio today: the tribulations of Telecom mobile

Today on Radio New Zealand National I’ll be talking primarily about the recent failures of Telecom’s XT mobile network. I’ll be trying to uncover just what a radio network controller is, and how Telecom managed to ballyhoo a network which then kept failing.

After that, if there’s any time, we’ll have a brief look at a new theory of physics that may integrate gravity and quantum theory. Gosh. And, of course, steam cars.

I’ll be on air after the 11am news. If you don;t want to listen live, shortly after the programme, you’ll be able to get it as a podcast or just download the audio as ogg or mp3.

posted by colin at 8:18 pm  

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Starlight

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talk about stargazing, and how you can use cheap or free technology to help you understand what you’re seeing when you look into the night sky. I’ll be on after the 11am news.

Read on for my speaking notes, or after the broadcast you’ll be able to download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

posted by colin at 7:14 pm  

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Invisibility – fact or fantasy?

Today on Radio New Zealand National after the 11am news I’ll talk about the science of invisibilty, and whether it could ever be made real.

Read on for my notes, or after about 11:30 you can download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

posted by colin at 10:53 am  

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Off to Foo

Tomorrow I’m going to Warkworth to the third annual Kiwi Foo Camp.

Foo is an amazing experience. It’s so energising to be there with scientists, geeks, and artists. And Nathan, Jenine and Russell do a fine job in organising it.

Part of the deal with Foo is that everyone presents (“no passengers”). I’m going to talk about “Hacking Government”. It seems that the geek community is quite bad at telling government what it wants, in a way that government actually responds to. Perhaps we can start to deal with that.

posted by colin at 2:54 pm  

Friday, February 6, 2009

Wacky web headline of the week

Immortal Dr Who jellyfish poised to rule Earth

Go on, you know you want to.

posted by colin at 8:02 am  

Thursday, November 27, 2008

1,000 mph. On land.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I celebrated the British attempt to break the land speed record. The British broke it last time it was broken as well, back in 1997 when ThrustSSC took the record to 633mph – a massive 20% increase on the previous record. ThrustSSC was the first car to go supersonic on land, hence the name. And every day, the project posted a huge amount of information on the Internet so armchair record breakers could follow it from around the globe. And its Internet supporters were there for it when it ran out money.

Now, the same team has started a new project – BloodhoundSSC. They want to break their own record and get up to 1,000mph on land. Wow!

Read on for my speaking notes or download the audio as ogg or mp3. (more…)

posted by colin at 1:12 pm  

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Some of the tech in the Large Hadron Collider

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about the difference between technology and the kind of hard science that the Large Hadron Collider is doing, and about some of the ways technology is supporting that project.

Read on for my speaking notes, or listen to the audio download as ogg or mp3.

(more…)

posted by colin at 11:14 am  

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Weird but interesting…

…in a geeky kind of way. Over in the hill in Featherston, Rowan Smith has posted a video of the Huygens lander hitting Titan. There was no camera crew, of course – this video is part live feed from a camera on the bottom of the probe, and part visualisation from the instruments. And there is sound from a mic on the lander.

Go on, you know you want to.

posted by colin at 12:01 pm  

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Quantum computing

This week on Radio New Zealand National I talked about the strange world of quantum computing and its more surprising implications. Read on for my notes…
(more…)

posted by colin at 10:50 am  

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