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Last night, we checked out the now institutionalized Top Gear Live show at the Northgate Dome. This is my third visit, and I must say that the show is somewhat formulaic. Instead of Hammond, Clarkson had Captain Slow in tow, as well as local petrolhead wannabe Martinengo.

Let’s say my five year old enjoyed the show immensely. Here are some photos of the performance and the display area, starting with the interior of the Nissan GT-R.

The Koenigsegg.

Clarkson’s here. And so is Martinengo…

Car on fire.

James May on his front-wheel drive motorbike. The front wheels are driven by two weed eaters.

James May inside the cage of death with a motorbike. Later on, four motorbikes would be whizzing round and round. Minus May, of course.

Clarkson riding a model jet engine powered bicycle.

Car display. Better than in years gone by. This time, a McLaren Mercedes made it to our shores.

A crowd favourite. Car football.

Finally. The Stig.

For the first time, Lego has publicized its official colour palette. All elements in the Lego range can now be identified by their official colour code and colour description. The palette covers solid, transparent and so-called effect elements.

If you want your Lego building experience to include the difference between transparent bright orange and transparent reddish-orange, the colour palette details for the 2010 Lego range may be of interest to you. Get the PDF from the Brothers Brick.

Germany’s away jersey for the 2010 World Cup tournament has been unveiled by the Deutscher Fussball Bund and Adidas. In a break from the red strip the team wore in the past when playing away from home, the new shirt is black. An interesting colour choice for a rather warm South African winter in the months of June and July…

Red and gold complement the base colour, whilst the badge contains the DFB logo and three gold stars, one for each World Cup win (1954, 1974 and 1990).

White shorts with black and red strips round out the away wear.

Germany will test their Adidas kit against Argentina in Munich on 3 March 2010. The announcement can be read in more detail at the DFB site.

Sometimes honesty is the best policy:

An error has occurred

Sorry, this site is not available to render the service you requested. A bug in the system has caused an error to occur.

Honesty may not be the best way out when you’re dealing with a product that is IT-based.

Thankfully, the activation and recharging of a Mascom data-enabled SIM worked without too much of a hitch. Better than paying the hotel about BWP 50 for one hour’s use of their crappy wireless network. The MiFi is doing quite nicely…

By providing your logon credentials to this version of the ABSA banking site you’re likely to reduce your banking charges quite significantly. Once the scum behind the email address onirekedouglasdale@webmail.co.za gets hold of your logon details, there’ll be little in the way of cash left in your account to charge banking fees on…

Documenting these scams is a bit boring, since they all rely on the same mechanisms: an end-user’s blind trust in technology, the promise of quick and easy transactions and an ability to dupe many people by showing them something that looks just like the real thing. I add this one here simply because it adds another twist to the usual provide your password routine. Played through, the spoof site indicates that an RVN (one-time password) has been sent to the user and that that message may, or may not, arrive due to an apparent system congestion.

The obvious play is that the RVN is never sent, requiring the user to click on a link to the actual ABSA site to retrieve a valid RVN.

I assume onirekedouglasdale@webmail.co.za next sends an email to the user requesting confirmation of the true RVN. Since an RVN is valid for a reasonable time period and because the user has already been duped once into providing personal data, it’s no stretch to believe that the RVN may well be sent to the scammer.

Like most modern scamming methods, the fake website looks like the real thing. A few things to notice: the address indicated in the browser is http://207.204.1.180/log/, not https://ib.absa.co.za/ib/ib.jsp. The image for some embedded content in the logon button indicates that something is amiss.

The message at the bottom right indicates system downtime scheduled for November 2009, most likely the time the real ABSA site was initially scraped and deployed for the fakery.

The site is not yet marked as a scam in Firefox, but has been reported to ABSA. Regardless of whether or not this site is blocked, continued vigilance is an absolute key in online system use. The sophistication of such enterprises is on the increase. Take care, check at least twice before entering anything into any website and as always, contact the organization if you have any doubts.

One way of verifying the veracity of the site is to initially enter incorrect logon credentials on purpose. Since a fake website can’t tell you whether or not your user name and password isn’t valid, the lack of an error message is one indication that may be used as a protective measure.

The iPad is still some way away, but that hasn’t made me worry any less about the micro SIM card the device is purported to require to access a GSM network. Whilst I may initially decide to go ahead and purchase WLAN only model, the real deal is obviously a device that can reach the Interwebs via 3G or HSDPA. Micro SIM cards are not yet readily available and may not be available for some time in certain parts of the world. Some informal digging has resulted in me deciding that the micro SIM can easily created by cutting a current mini SIM down to size.

Based on information found on the ETSI site and Wikipedia, it seems that the only difference between the two SIM cards is the actual size of the cutout. The contact area is apparently identical.

The Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil provides an interesting paper that compares the different form factors.

PDF link here.

That would mean a simple bit of cutting on an existing mini SIM card would suffice to enable the iPad to go online. I wouldn’t suggest anyone try that with their one and only SIM card required for use in another device. But prepaid cards can be had for about ZAR 0.50, which is cheap enough to allow for a bit of trial and error. I’ll definitely give this a go, but that’ll only be possible in another 90 days or so. Or is that already 88

The much anticipated iPad has been presented by Apple and, overall, responses seem to be favourable. To me, the iPad as it has been shown is exactly what I would want. Ever since I’ve become reliant on the iPhone, I’ve been hankering for a device with the same functionality, but a bigger screen. A bigger screen for reading books and magazines and for browsing the web. And that’s really all there is to it: the iPad is an oversized iPod Touch with the possibility of adding 3G network services. The barrier to entry has been set to permit a good number of users to experience the device without having to spend a huge amount of money: USD 499 is not bad for a WLAN only device and in combination with a MiFi, the iPad can easily be taken on a road trip without worrying too much about wireless hotspot availability.

Some responses to the iPad announcement have indicated disappointments with the iPad. The lack of a camera is a frequent point that is raised. No radical change to the way the user interface functions. Lack of Adobe Flash support. To all these I say not important. For me at least. How long did iPhone users cope without the ability to cut and paste text? Quite some time. On a device the size of the iPad, a built-in camera would be handy but not essential. In my usage scenario, I don’t even video call using Skype or iChat when I’m on a decent Internet connection. Would I want to maneuver a 25cm x 18cm chunk of kit to take a photograph of something? Unlikely. It’s impractical and unnecessary. A change to the user interface would have necessitated a new operating system and possibly new applications. The iPad runs a flavour of the iPhone OS. All existing applications will run on the iPad, and newer applications will support the bigger screen. I have tons of applications I’ll simply be able to sync and run. The Zinio magazine reader will function, Amazon’s Kindle reader will function, as will all the photography apps (not requiring a camera) and games I have. That’s significant and means I can get going straight away without considering and learning a new style of interaction. Do I need Flash? I avoid that even when using a full-size desktop machine. HTML5 is a better alternative and existing content from YouTube and other sources is quite widely available for the iPhone without a reliance on Flash.

The battery life is significant even if real-world tests don’t meet up with the claimed 10 hours. 6 hours or more of constant usage would be great. A long standby time a great asset. But where the iPad breaks new ground is in its ability to connect to a Bluetooth or docked keyboard. Better still, Apple has also announced the ability to attach a camera or storage card using special dock connectors. The ability to add external devices and interact with them is now a reality. First promised a year ago when the iPhone 3GS was announced, we may finally see a slew of devices that may be connected to the dock connector to extend the usage possibilities of the iPad. With regard to the camera dock – suddenly editing a large image or creating high-definition HDR images without reliance on a notebook computer is a reality. Tons of applications are already available, and many more will take advantage of this – Photoshop for the iPhone OS may become a far more useful tool to many in this regard. With Apple having taken the lead in producing hardware interfaces, there is no doubt that other manufacturers will take the initiative to produce their own.

Apple’s online book store may compete with Amazon’s Kindle store. I have a Kindle and enjoy using it. The iPad means I will no longer use the Kindle. Not because I’ll necessarily purchase content from Apple’s iBook store. I’ll be able to read all my Kindle books on the iPad using the Kindle Reader. The iPad has a colour screen and is backlight. There is no way the Kindle can compete with that. Concerns about iBooks not being available immediately in countries other than the USA are of no concern: I’ve been using a US-based iTunes account for ages with full access to all content it provides. I’m able to purchase Audible books from the US store even though I don’t physically reside in that country. Similar access will be available to the US iBooks store. It takes a bit of obfuscation, and that’s it. Nobody’s really perturbed about that, least of all the guys accepting cash for their services.

The only reservation I have is the use of the micro SIM card instead of a standard one. It’s obvious that this is a lock-in to AT&T in the USA. The 3FF SIM (micro SIM) is about 50% smaller than a regular GSM SIM card. Instead of a 15mm x 25mm card the dimensions are 12mm x 15mm.

The availability of the 3FF micro SIM in South Africa is not yet known.

Apple has created a device that is instantly recognizable to millions of iPhone users the world over. It’s easy to use, provides a great feature set and is responsive. Migration of existing applications is a no-brainer, and the addition of special applications such as Apple’s own iWork for the iPad will lead to greater use of the device in areas where the iPhone previously couldn’t perform. The device will mature, and as it does, those features that irk users will be accepted (like the lack of cut and paste) and possibly rectified. The iPad is an appliance. Easy to use, limited in its functionality to enable it to perform at its peak. That’s the Apple way. In my opinion, the iPad in its current guise is the evolution of a new platform. Subsequent updates to the iPad will enable more features, better and more compelling applications and interaction with various external devices. In a similar way to the iPhone, the iPad will become widespread as its features are discovered by more and more users, possibly in specific vertical markets.

In my opinion, the iPad (at least on paper) is the device I’ve been waiting for. I can’t wait to get my hands on one…

I finally got around to updating the 5D Mark II’s firmware to the new 1.2.4 version. A simple procedure that worked without a hitch. I prefer to use the CF card method.

The update corrects a phenomenon that visible noise may appear in images taken by continuous Bulb shooting. This firmware update corrects a phenomenon that if the [C.Fn II-1 Long exposure noise reduction] setting is set to [2: On], noise may appear in images that are captured while the previous image is still being generated.

Whilst on the Canon USA site, which I consider a spectacular resource for all things EOS, I had a look at the new content that had been added to the Canon Digital Learning Center. Needless to say that I spent roughly five minutes completing the firmware update to the camera and almost four hours browsing the content available on that site. With the rest of the house asleep, I was able to read a number of articles and assimilate a significant amount of information without interruption.

If you haven’t checked out the content Canon provides, I urge you to have a look. Videos, articles, technical discussions and more. It’s all there, regardless of your level of proficiency or technical ability. In particular, there are some great resources on HDR photography and the use of flash lights. On entry point is this link, but there is tons of other content accessible from the main site.

Steve Jobs didn’t disappoint at his presentation of the new Apple product announcement.

The iPad will be available in the next month, with international availability pending. It’s little more than an oversized iPod, but that’s exactly what I was hoping for.

The 9″ device is powered by Apple’s own A4 chip, running at 1GHz and able to execute the entire library of iPhone applications natively. A choice as to whether the app is run in full screen mode or centered on the larger iPad screen is available, until applications for the iPad are developed. A variety of options regarding configuration are available and the pricing starts at USD 499. The ideal model is the one containing both 3G and WLAN with 64GB of storage. That’s the one to get.

The unit accepts optional accessories, including a stand and keyboard stand. For those with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, that can be connected to the iPad. It will be possible to upload photos from a camera and possibly use an application to edit and process those. A new version of iWork runs on the iPad.