Running late. Massive cost overruns.

And never an answer as to why.

Sensible people asked why Victoria didn’t simply implement a proven system similar to London’s Oyster Card or Hong Kong’s Octopus card. Both are far cheaper, off-the-shelf and proven solutions that cater to volumes far in excess of what Victoria has in the foreseeable future - and do so at an much cheaper price.

Well now itsNbits has an exclusive insight: Victoria’s State Government is attempting to roll out a world-first technology, and is so desperate to success that cost and time are somewhat secondary considerations.

The planned system will enable public transport users to travel on trains, trams and buses without the need to swipe their Myki card. The card can stay in the user’s wallet or handbag, and the card readers will still be able to read the cards. All the user has to do is walk between or near the reading devices.

No need to fumble in your wallet to find the card. No pulling out cards and holding them near card readers.

Simply walk on through, and, in what is alleged to be a world first, the system will locate and identify your card, and bill you appropriately using the cheapest applicable fare. God knows where else they might stick readers to unknowingly track people, just like the silent (no beep) channel on E-tags used to track cars at various points around Melbourne they also tend to forget to tell us about.

At least some Mykis will offer an anonymous purchase option.

And that attempt to roll out a world first, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to the reason why there seems to be an insane cost-and-time-is-no-option logic being applied by the Victorian State Government. They have gone so far and it’s cost so much, that its likely they desperately need the glory of a world first to justify it all. And if they fail, then they pretty much have to admit that they spent an unnecessary fortune on a system equal to or potentially worse than any other similar system in the world.

Personally, I’d rather we get a $1B refund to the state coffers, spend $100M or so on a proven solution, and in return simply have to hold our Oyster card near a reading device. We could have done that several years ago. On time. On budget.

Instead they have wasted hundreds of millions of state money, have a solution that’s potentially still a fair way off before full and successful implementation, is likely to have significantly higher upkeep costs due to it being so heavily customised, and all so there are some bragging rights about not having to take your card out of your pocket.

Check it out!

A small download of software from Google is needed, but it takes only a minute.

You can log in with your existing Gmail/Google login information.

Why not drop on in and remodel the room a bit for me while you learn how to add and move things?

To kick it off, simply click on “Click to enter room” at the bottom of the image below!

Melbourne (Australia) scientists have built and demonstrated a tiny 5mm per side CMOS chips (pictured above) that can transmit 5Gbps over short distances - about 10m - featuring a tiny 1mm antenna, a power amp that is only a few microns wide, and a low 2 watt power consumption . “GiFi” appears set to revolutionise short distance data transmission, and transmits in the relatively uncrowded 60GHz range.

Best of all, the chip is only about a year away from public release, and will only cost around AUD$10 (US$9.20) to produce.

A security issue has been located that enables a specifically crafted request to allow a valid user to edit any post on the blog.

Wordpress has released a fix.

The recommended action is to update Wordpress to 2.3.3 (which includes a couple of other minor tweaks) or for those seeking a quicker, easier to implement solution to fix the security flaw only, download an updated xmlrpc.php file from Wordpress and over-write your existing xmlrpc.php file in your Wordpress root folder.

Anyone familiar with the amazing qualities that old style vacuum tubes have will understand the amazing prices 40, 50 and 60 year old tubes fetch on the internet. Its just as amazing that so many brand new but very old tubes are available in the first place.

Millions of dollars of tubes would be traded on Ebay alone each day, with many tubes fetching hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

The sound they produce can be absolutely amazing, and most people will be very impressed when they hear a well made amplifier with 1950’s tubes sounding much better than their latest solid state high tech amplifier.

Well, a French amateur radio operator goes one step further than making his own valve-driven radio - he also roles his own tubes!

This 17 minute video gives an amazing insight into this incredible talent, something I would love to be able to do!

Sit back and watch this genius at work - its amazing!

What a great idea. And its obvious that I’m not the only one that thinks so!

BlogRush has just been launched, and it’s a refreshing take on the old ad-banner exchanges which took off way back in the Geocities days, for those who have been on the internet long enough to remember that.

By adding a sidebar widget like the one you can see on the itsNbits sidebar to the right just under Categories, you display links to other interesting blogs in the Blogosphere.

Best of all, it tracks both the number of ads shown on your site, and points gained from friends who you have referred - and credits you with points which then get your blog’s articles advertised on similar sites that are members of BlogRush.

The idea is visitors to your site will generate more advertisements for your site on other blogs, building upon your success, gaining you more ads and thus more visitors - and on the cycle goes.

What’s also cool is that the BlogRush ads for your site that are displayed on other sites are auto-generated from blog posts grabbed from your site’s existing RSS feed - so the ads are dynamic and quite up to date with your site content - no manual intervention or ad tweaking required.

Check it out! While they are a startup they have been hugely successful very quickly, with a near instant massive hit of visitors to their site as popular blogs such as John Chow have been quick to sign up and take advantage.

Come on, be one of the early adopters - and get the current benefits of extra credits while they iron out system bugs - go check out BlogRush for your blog now!

November 9 is the big day when the iPhone is officially released in the UK, handcuffed to O2 as the exclusive, multi-year carrier. Customers will be forced to take out an 18 month plan with O2 for £35, £45 or £55 pounds (US$70-$111) - meaning customers will be up for at least £900 (US$1811) over 18 months.

The 8gig version will sell for £269 (US$542).

Customers will again be forced to unlock their phones using software and hardware hacks, but it remains to be seen if Apple and O2 will change the sale model so that you dont physically get the phone until you sign up to a plan. It is definitely expected that models that go on sale in the UK (and in the US) will start to implement new attempts to mitigate any unlocking of the phones.

Apple are believed to have negotiated to receive 40% of all call/data revenue from each handset.

The iPhone yet again disappoints with its inability to run on a modern 3G network, using legacy 2G technology instead. Many people were expecting the release of a 3G version soon, but are again disappointed.

As per normal, Apple blames others for any product shortcomings, and this time its the 3G chipsets which are labelled “real power hogs”. Its interesting how every other phone manufacturer manages to get OK battery time out of them. Apple say given the other things they want you to do on the iPhone like listen to music, surf the net, there isnt enough battery life. Amazing, because not only can you do those things on most other 3G phones, but it would seem that the issue is caused by things OTHER than 3G normal phone usage - ie music and the internet.

A 3G model is set for release late 2008 (cut a few months off that as they are always conservative so they arent put under pressure).

In a side benefit not related to Apple, O2 have said free WiFi will be available at over 7500 hotspots around the UK.

A few more European countries are expected to have the iPhone released next quarter including Germany (Deutsche Telekom AG), Spain (Telefonica which is the parent of O2) and France (Orange).

The hardware unlocks are not for the faint hearted, so for those keen to try something simpler, check these instructions out. Why pay to unlock your iPhone when you can do it free by following these instructions?

Soon an easier, graphical unlock will be coming, but in the mean time:

Note: Playing with software, firmware or hardware on an iPhone is at your own risk. It is not an operation that is risk free, especially if you make a mistake.

Whilst this solution is safer than a hardware unlock, it is not without risks. Tread carefully. If in doubt, don’t do it! If any of these steps don’t make sense to you, it may be an indicator you dont have enough knowledge to safely do it.

In addition, there is no information on what will happen if you flash your phone to a newer firmware at a later date, nor whether any other steps by Apple or any Telco may have an impact on your phone after unlocking it. I would consider not upgrading your firmware to later versions until it is well proven they work or can also be unlocked.

You have been warned! Do this at your own risk.

Instructions

Firstly, you must confirm you are running version 1.02 firmware.

Settings → General → About → Version.
Modem Firmware should also say 03.14.08_G

Your phone will also need to be jailbroken you can use iBrickr for this!

When you have iBrickr running install the following.

• Community Sources
• OpenSSH
• BSD Subsystem (might take some minutes)

Next Use WinSCP (root/dottie) and copy the the following files to /usr/bin

• iUnlock
• ICE03.14.08_G.fls
• nor
• minicom
• bbupdater

You can find your iPhones ip address by using the wifi settings and picking your network and hitting the blue arrow will reveal your ip.

Now make a folder under /usr/ called local/etc

So you upload minirc.dfl to /usr/local/etc

Now using putty log back in with your login root/dottie

and run the following commands :

cd /usr/bin/

chmod +x iUnlock

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

iUnlock ICE03.14.08_G.fls nor

Wait a while usually around 20minutes.

After this is complete in putty run

bbupdater -v

You should see issuing +xgendata… and a lot more stuff this is good!

now still in putty type

minicom

When everything loads ok type AT it should respond with OK

If all is good issue these commands next

AT+CLCK=”PN”,0,”00000000″

AT+CLCK=”PN”,2

if it gives a response with 0 your unlocked!

Now run this command in putty:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

Et voila! You are unlocked.

[Source: Adapted from information produced by freeiphoneunlock: fantastic effort guys!]