The yacht Skat in Gothenburg in November 2008.
Panorama over Marseille December 2008.
Section from the panorama in natural size over the Viex Port area.
Photos from the inside of two of the churches in Marseille.
tisdag 17 februari 2009
Panorama and HDR photos
The yacht Skat in Gothenburg in November 2008.
Panorama over Marseille December 2008.
Section from the panorama in natural size over the Viex Port area.
Photos from the inside of two of the churches in Marseille.
onsdag 11 februari 2009
Four and a half month and nothing to show for it
Today we had a meeting with the contractor for the upgrade of the A/V and IT systems onboard. Since I joined the yacht two months ago I have asked the contractor company how they are supposed to provide the solution to our TVRO switching since I didn't understand how there proposal would work with our equipment. In two months they have not been able to produce any details and every time I have asked them they have had a new excuse and insurance that I would get the details shortly.
During the meeting today one of the senior managers from the company again ensured us that they would solve our request during a morning meeting and that a college had the drawing of how the system was supposed to work and that I would get a copy of it this evening or early tomorrow.
Around 17 o'clock he was back onboard and told us that they are abandon the contract, and will not do the work that has been agreed and payed for. This is four and a half month after the requirements was presented to them at the Monaco Yacht Show and more then two months after we went into the dry dock and the work was supposed to start. So here we are half-way through the dry dock period and have to get new contractors onboard.
The reason that they gave to abandon the contract was:
1) That they could not guarantee the function of the system since we still have problems with the domes onboard.
2) That they couldn't meet our expectations.
When he told me that they couldn't meet the expectations I asked him which of my three expectations that they couldn't meet:
1) Provide a reliable change-over for the RF signals from the different domes in case of failures.
2) Upgrade the distribution of A/V onboard from composite to component.
3) Do a tidy and nice looking installation.
He was unable to tell me which of these expectations that they where unable to meet. And I find it hard to see what has changed with the dome situation during the day. To leave a customer in the middle of a contact when they are on a tight deadline is not a good way to do business. I really wonder what their real reason to abandon the contract was. I surely hope hope that not all companies in this industry operates in this way...
During the meeting today one of the senior managers from the company again ensured us that they would solve our request during a morning meeting and that a college had the drawing of how the system was supposed to work and that I would get a copy of it this evening or early tomorrow.
Around 17 o'clock he was back onboard and told us that they are abandon the contract, and will not do the work that has been agreed and payed for. This is four and a half month after the requirements was presented to them at the Monaco Yacht Show and more then two months after we went into the dry dock and the work was supposed to start. So here we are half-way through the dry dock period and have to get new contractors onboard.
The reason that they gave to abandon the contract was:
1) That they could not guarantee the function of the system since we still have problems with the domes onboard.
2) That they couldn't meet our expectations.
When he told me that they couldn't meet the expectations I asked him which of my three expectations that they couldn't meet:
1) Provide a reliable change-over for the RF signals from the different domes in case of failures.
2) Upgrade the distribution of A/V onboard from composite to component.
3) Do a tidy and nice looking installation.
He was unable to tell me which of these expectations that they where unable to meet. And I find it hard to see what has changed with the dome situation during the day. To leave a customer in the middle of a contact when they are on a tight deadline is not a good way to do business. I really wonder what their real reason to abandon the contract was. I surely hope hope that not all companies in this industry operates in this way...
fredag 6 februari 2009
The Kaleidescape experience - more than just cover art
This week I visited Integrated System Europe (ISE) in Amsterdam for two days. I took the oppertunity to go to some of the Kaleidescape training to get more details about the system. The training was quite basic because of the time constraints but the interesting parts was the Q&A and the presentations of how Kaleidescape operated as a company.
There are four things which I like to share:
1) Kaleidescape consider it their problem if the system doesn't work as a user would expect. An example of how they apply this is when importing DVD or CD:s which are not recognized by Kaleidescape. Instead of telling the user that they should enter the details themselves Kaleidescape offers to provide the user (or dealer) with shipment boxes so the disks can be shipped to them so Kaleidescape can enter the details for the user into the system.
2) Developed the system from the ground up. Kaleidescape have built everything in their system, from their OS - Keaos, to the hardware all within the company. Both the software and the hardware was designed just for their own purposes and the complexity has therefor been minimized which in return has maximizes the reliability.
3) Dedicated services, Kaleidescape is more than just the hardware that you buy, it's the experience from using their meta data of DVD:s and music, all freely available to the user.
4) Full support, this is something that I actually got verified just as I came back from ISE. Kaleidescape has a 24/7 monitoring service of all their equipment, if any problem is reported by the hardware Kaleidescape will be notified and they will contact the user (through the dealer) to handle the problem before the user even have noticed the problem. As I came back from ISE I had an e-mail waiting for me that there might be a problem with one of the drives in the server. They asked me to verify that it was properly sealed and if that was not the problem they would go ahead and send a replacement unit out to the dealer. I checked the drive and just as they had expected it was not properly inserted. This really improves the trust in their system and you are probably thinking like I did that this must be how Kaleidescape get their concurrent income - was I wrong, Kaleidescape does all of this free of charge, the user would not even have to pay for the replacement unit if it had to be sent out. And in the extremely rare situations that the data would be corrupted Kaleidescape will restore the data for you. That is what I would call a full commitment!
I can only say that my impression of Kaleidescape so far is nothing but great, you surely pay the big bucks for the gear but there simply is no comparison to the value that you get with it. If you like to get satisfied customer make sure that you consider their problems to be your own and than build your organisation around that idea, I believe that is one of the reason behind Kaleidescapes success, besides their grate products of cause.
There are four things which I like to share:
1) Kaleidescape consider it their problem if the system doesn't work as a user would expect. An example of how they apply this is when importing DVD or CD:s which are not recognized by Kaleidescape. Instead of telling the user that they should enter the details themselves Kaleidescape offers to provide the user (or dealer) with shipment boxes so the disks can be shipped to them so Kaleidescape can enter the details for the user into the system.
2) Developed the system from the ground up. Kaleidescape have built everything in their system, from their OS - Keaos, to the hardware all within the company. Both the software and the hardware was designed just for their own purposes and the complexity has therefor been minimized which in return has maximizes the reliability.
3) Dedicated services, Kaleidescape is more than just the hardware that you buy, it's the experience from using their meta data of DVD:s and music, all freely available to the user.
4) Full support, this is something that I actually got verified just as I came back from ISE. Kaleidescape has a 24/7 monitoring service of all their equipment, if any problem is reported by the hardware Kaleidescape will be notified and they will contact the user (through the dealer) to handle the problem before the user even have noticed the problem. As I came back from ISE I had an e-mail waiting for me that there might be a problem with one of the drives in the server. They asked me to verify that it was properly sealed and if that was not the problem they would go ahead and send a replacement unit out to the dealer. I checked the drive and just as they had expected it was not properly inserted. This really improves the trust in their system and you are probably thinking like I did that this must be how Kaleidescape get their concurrent income - was I wrong, Kaleidescape does all of this free of charge, the user would not even have to pay for the replacement unit if it had to be sent out. And in the extremely rare situations that the data would be corrupted Kaleidescape will restore the data for you. That is what I would call a full commitment!
I can only say that my impression of Kaleidescape so far is nothing but great, you surely pay the big bucks for the gear but there simply is no comparison to the value that you get with it. If you like to get satisfied customer make sure that you consider their problems to be your own and than build your organisation around that idea, I believe that is one of the reason behind Kaleidescapes success, besides their grate products of cause.
lördag 27 december 2008
Initial TViX comparison with Kaleidescape
Well to start with the TViX and the Kaleidescape is in two completely different leagues but they can still complement each other in some ways. And that was the reason for me to get a TViX setup when I already had a Kaleidescape system that to manage. The TViX is a multipurpose media player and should hopefully eat what ever it's feed with. Kaleidescape on the other hand handles your DVD and CD library for you in a sophisticated way but it doesn't do much else.
What I needed was a simple and not to expensive (compare with Kaleidescape players if you like) media player that could be used and administered by the crew onboard the yacht which I'm currently working on. I wanted to give the users as much freedom as possible while I still had to ensure that the system would continue to work. An option would ofcause been to get a media PC but this felt like it could introduce more troubles and support issues for me than it would ease anything. The solution which I'm currently are trying out is instead a TViX M-6500A player with a QNAP 109 Pro II for content storage.
I initially had some trouble to get the QNAP to install properly on the new drive but a full reset and to start from scratch seams to have getting it all working as expected. When coming from the Kaleidescape with their well described ethernet control protocol it was a bit of a set back to realise that the TViX natively only had IR control. Using a hacked firmware (see http://www.binary-art.net/) I did get some elementary ethernet to IR control over the box, still not quite two-way communication but a step in the right direction. Lets hope that the people at Dvico enables a proper two-way protocol for the TViX shortly, perhaps this could make it into an actual contender with some Kaleidescape installations.
Configurations continue and if everything goes well I might write about my experience as the system starts to get used for real.
What I needed was a simple and not to expensive (compare with Kaleidescape players if you like) media player that could be used and administered by the crew onboard the yacht which I'm currently working on. I wanted to give the users as much freedom as possible while I still had to ensure that the system would continue to work. An option would ofcause been to get a media PC but this felt like it could introduce more troubles and support issues for me than it would ease anything. The solution which I'm currently are trying out is instead a TViX M-6500A player with a QNAP 109 Pro II for content storage.
I initially had some trouble to get the QNAP to install properly on the new drive but a full reset and to start from scratch seams to have getting it all working as expected. When coming from the Kaleidescape with their well described ethernet control protocol it was a bit of a set back to realise that the TViX natively only had IR control. Using a hacked firmware (see http://www.binary-art.net/) I did get some elementary ethernet to IR control over the box, still not quite two-way communication but a step in the right direction. Lets hope that the people at Dvico enables a proper two-way protocol for the TViX shortly, perhaps this could make it into an actual contender with some Kaleidescape installations.
Configurations continue and if everything goes well I might write about my experience as the system starts to get used for real.
fredag 28 november 2008
First Swedish review of G1
What better way to get a proper review of the G1 than to lend it to a reporter?
Feel free to read the first Swedish review of the Google Android phone T-Mobile G1 at: http://www.mobil.se/ArticlePages/200811/28/20081128115759_MOB313/20081128115759_MOB313.dbp.asp (Swedish only)
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As a response to a comment to the article above I'm posting this image of the back of the phone, see earlier post for more pictures.
Feel free to read the first Swedish review of the Google Android phone T-Mobile G1 at: http://www.mobil.se/ArticlePages/200811/28/20081128115759_MOB313/20081128115759_MOB313.dbp.asp (Swedish only)
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As a response to a comment to the article above I'm posting this image of the back of the phone, see earlier post for more pictures.
fredag 21 november 2008
One year of waiting - 5 minutes of work
It is now a year ago that I first started coding on the Android platform. While this is the first mobile platform I'm developing on there has been few hurtles during the year, much thanks to the good documentation and other developers on the forums. I have followed the improvements of the SDK with much interest since the initial preview and was delighted when they finally released the source of the platform together with the G1. And now there is something unreal with watching that application on the phone that for so long only has been another window on the computer.
When the SDK first came out, and until the G1 was released, many developers with experience from other mobile platforms complained that you can't develop for a mobile platform without having the physical device to ensure everything works as expected. Today Google proved, for me at least, that everyone that has been skeptical where wrong. Until about an hour ago I have only seen my application in the emulator on the computer. I did expect to get a similar result on the phone but I could not have dreamed of it being this simple.
Here are the 4 steps to get the applicatiton on the phone:
1) Check Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging
2) Connect the USB
3) Run your project in Eclipse
4) Select the phone from available devices
That's right, it wasn't more to it!
The application is working great on the phone and the only real differences I can identify so far is that I have a touchscreen and not a mouse to work with and that the DPI is much higher. One thing that didn't work straight away however was debugging against the device, but I'm to excited to care about that now.
For the last month I have been using a G1 skin on the emulator and like to give credits to Jeffrey Sharkey for the great skin he has produced, check it out at: http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/10/10/leveraging-the-android-emulator/
One year of waiting is now over and I like to hear what the skeptics should complain about now.
When the SDK first came out, and until the G1 was released, many developers with experience from other mobile platforms complained that you can't develop for a mobile platform without having the physical device to ensure everything works as expected. Today Google proved, for me at least, that everyone that has been skeptical where wrong. Until about an hour ago I have only seen my application in the emulator on the computer. I did expect to get a similar result on the phone but I could not have dreamed of it being this simple.
Here are the 4 steps to get the applicatiton on the phone:
1) Check Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging
2) Connect the USB
3) Run your project in Eclipse
4) Select the phone from available devices
That's right, it wasn't more to it!
The application is working great on the phone and the only real differences I can identify so far is that I have a touchscreen and not a mouse to work with and that the DPI is much higher. One thing that didn't work straight away however was debugging against the device, but I'm to excited to care about that now.
For the last month I have been using a G1 skin on the emulator and like to give credits to Jeffrey Sharkey for the great skin he has produced, check it out at: http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/10/10/leveraging-the-android-emulator/
One year of waiting is now over and I like to hear what the skeptics should complain about now.
Two of a kind...
The G1 have arrived and I must admit that I'm happily surprised so far.
I don't really like everyone that compares Android with the iPhone. Android is so much more than the iPhone can ever be but since I'm an iPhone user for over a year back and really like that phone it simply is my point of reference.
List of things that I like:
* The size was smaller than I had expected, it's not as wide as the original iPhone (and 3G). It's about the same length but thicker.
* The screen slides away nicely for the keyboard. But the screen can wiggle a little bit when pressing on it.
* It's really responsive, after the 2.0 firmware update I have constantly been irritated on the delay on the iPhone (currently using firmware 2.1).
* The speaker volume is actually loud enough to be used, or so I think.
* The home screen is just great with the customization that can be done.
* USB STORAGE, after a year with the iPhone I didn't really think that I would get access to the storage on the phone by simply puttin in the USB cable. Not having to use a specific program to access my information is just the beginning of what an open handset can offer us.
* Memory card slot, with MicroHDSD now at 16GB there isn't really any reason not to use replaceable cards for all of your media. And why stop with 16GB just bring an other card with you!
* Paying mp3 files, I know I have a friend how love Ogg but I haven't tried those yet. But with the open platform and the ability to replace any program for your own favorite that can hardly be a problem.
The weak list so far:
* No onscreen keyboard, as soon as something should be typed the keyboard has to be opened which can be quite irritating if you using portrait mode.
* The camera is just as bad as the one on the iPhone.
* Smaller screen than the iPhone but the same resolution so Steves "IT'S AMAZING" should be valid for this one also.
Unsettled whether I like or not:
* It uses physical keys for the back navigation and many other functions, going from the iPhone this feels a bit strange but on the other hand it's nice to always have the buttons their and save the screen area.
The final remark after playing with the phone for less then an hour must be that it is a nice product and as Android continues to improve this could very well be the iPhone killer that we untill now have been waiting for.
Finally some comparison shots with the iPhone.
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