iChat (again) – “Failed to start because the other party cancelled”

I’ve been having a weird problem with iChat for the last month – I couldn’t get voice or video chats to connect (either making outgoing, or accepting incoming).

I’d start a chat, the other person would accept and I’d get an error “Failed to start because {other party’s name} cancelled.” The other party would then get this error: “Failed to start because Diggory Laycock did not respond ”

The errors would be the other way round if the roles were reversed . It looked just like a NAT or Firewall issue – but I knew it wasn’t (because I don’t use either.)

This morning I just figured it out – my VOIP softphone (X-Lite) which I have as a startup item was using the same ports (they both use SIP.)

So – if someone calls you on iChat – or you plan to call someone else – make sure that your softphone is not running.

dotMac storage upped to 1/4 Gig (from 100Mb)

.Mac’s storage has been upped to 250MB.

“The combined storage for your .Mac Mail and iDisk has been increased to 250 MB. That means you now have additional room for your email messages and mail attachments, web pages, and backups. Need even more storage? You also have the option of upgrading your .Mac account to 1 GB for US$49.95 per year.”

I was seriously thinking about letting my .mac sub lapse this month – but with the increase in storage seems to be less of a rip-off.

It’s not that much more space though, is it… The common comparison is with Google’s “free” 1GB of Mail storage.

I’m not so sure that it’s such a good comparison though: These services rely on the fact that not every user will fill their space to capacity (my GMail account is currently at 0% capacity!) – so the service provider can actually have less total capacity than would be theoretically required to satisfy all their customers. (Broadband ISPs do this too.)

Even geeks have problems filling a gig of Mail usefully, but your average Joe (or Joanna) could easily stuff a gig of Video onto dotMac for streaming.

Plus with dotMac you don’t get Scary Ads that may or may not be relevant to the email you were just sent.

It seems that you have to specifically divide the space yourself.

My Flickr Photos

My Flickr account.

“But I don’t even like spam.”

Ah – they joys of spam….

When I ran MovableType the comment spam was rampant – when I installed MTBlacklist (and auto-updated the blacklist) it was a bit better. MT was a bit of a monoculture – most people ran it – so it became a worthwhile target for spammers.

Then I moved to WordPress – and for two months not a single spam. A couple of days ago it started again – and this morning there were three new spam comments. I’ll take that as an indicator of the success of WordPress as a blogging solution.

I’m afraid that I’ve made it so that comments must be authorised by me – and I’m looking at using the WordPress Blacklist.

(Incidentally – Poker seems to be the new Viagra as far as spam goes.)

{Edit – }

I’ve had a go with some plug-ins for WordPress – and comments now will not appear until I have moderated them as OK.

Also – here is the source for a file I just hacked to generated an RSS feed for unmoderated comments – just put it in your WordPress Root (and get rid of the .txt extension)

http://www.diggory.net/grazing/wp-unmoderatedcommentsrss2.php.txt (This is for WP version 1.2)

iChat Black Screen

I post this in case anyone else finds themselves with the same problem.

Recently (not sure when) my copy of iChat stopped working properly – it would not accept video from my FireWire webcam. All that was shown was a black screen:

Strangely the camera worked as expected in other QuickTime apps:

I tried re-installing iChat and trashing prefs – but nothing helped.

It turns out that the problem was with an old version of a bit of software called SIMBL. (SIMBL is installed as part of the PithHelmet Ad-Blocker.)

Install the new version of SIMBL and all is well again.

Polyphony Digital – why hast thou forsaken me?

Online dropped from Gran Turismo 4 so that it hits Christmas release.

Apparently there will be another version next year with Net Play….

Very disappointing – I suppose Sony’s Quarterly results rather depend on a GT game actually leaving the garage…

Meanwhile: Are they really going to put the monkeys from Ape Escape into Metal Gear Solid 3? – See here for hot monkey/snake shots.

QuickSilver

QuickSilver

I’ve been meaning to write a post about QS for a long time (about a month) – but didn’t think that I could really do it justice with my rather bad, terse, prose style.

Sod it – I’ll never do it justice – so I’m posting about QS now. I won’t explain it very well – but you (dear reader) can find out more by Googling or reading the docs.

QS has become an addiction for me – if I find myself using a Mac without QS installed I get very frustrated.

It all started (for me) about a year ago when a friend showed me LaunchBar which allows you to open files by typing parts of their names. I thought “wow – that’s clever, but I’m not paying for it” (I can be rather cheap like that.)

Then early this summer I found out about QS. I can’t even remember where from now… At first I thought it was just a free version of LaunchBar – but I quickly discovered that it is so much more flexible than just a file locator.

Now I use it for almost everything.

The QS Interface:

iTunes Integration:

OS X System Services Integration:

I shall add to / edit this post later…

Home Computer for the year 2004

(from DayPop top 40 RSS feed)

A Home computer for the year 2004. Slightly different from the G5 iMac.

PSTwo Announced

“While inheriting the basic functions and design philosophy of the current PlayStation 2, the internal design architecture has been completely overhauled, resulting in a slimmer and more lightweight design. Internal volume has been reduced by 75%, overall weight has been halved, and thickness trimmed down to 2.8 cm (thickness of current model is 7.8 cm). Its size is almost as small as a hardcover book, making it easier to carry around and enjoy games and DVD videos anytime, anywhere.

Equipped with an integrated Ethernet port for network gaming, the new PlayStation 2 sets new standards in the fusion of design and functionality. In North America, approximately 40% of the PlayStation 2 on-line game users connect their PlayStation 2 to the networks through analog modem and reflecting the American users’ preference, the North American model is equipped with both Ethernet and modem ports. The launch of the new network ready PlayStation 2 will further expand the universe of on-line gaming, as more and more on-line titles become available worldwide.”

(BBC News article states that it’ll be the same price as the current model (i.e. £99 / €150))

Interesting pics:

Flip-top Disc Lid:

External Power adapter:

Nice size comparison:

Many acronyms

A very Big WiFi network.
HDTV – We maybe behind on this front in the EU – but we’re getting there. (see also Sky planning HD delivery).
That lead me to this site: Which has interesting articles about DAB and DVB-H and more on HDTV.

Mac OS X drivers for Vodafone’s 3G hardware

Mac users get Vodafone 3G data access

Nice to see 3G finally coming on stream in a useful way…

The Economist also has an interesting article on 3G Economist subscription required – (not sure if bugmenot works with economist.com)

Alas – 3G is stupidly expensive: “Subscriptions vary from £75 a month to £127, with bundled data totals from 5MB to 450MB. Roaming is extra.” Yikes!