Sculpture By The Sea 2010

The fourteenth annual Bondi to Tamarama Sculpture by the Sea.

See the spectacular Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk transformed into a giant sculpture park of over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and across the world.

Got there about 5:45 am, wanted to capture the sculptures with the sun rising but unfortunately it was heavily overcast his morning so no sun as hoped. This year’s exhibition was rather sparse compared to last year. According to the news report it was due to the world financial crisis.

There was not too many people at such an ungodly hour which was great for taking photos. The walk between Tamarama and Bondi gets rather packed from 10:00am onwards with joggers and visitors to the sculptures. We’ve had enough by about 09:30, so we headed off for some large cappuccinos and then home.  

 

Sculptures

 

                                       Leaf Vessel - Virginia King

This was my favourite piece from this year! I reckon it should have won first prize but then what do I know about art.

                                         M.100901 - Toshio Lezumiz

      

 

 

                                   Entering the Exit - Braddon Snape

                                      Anguish - Gangadhar Mahato

 

                                           Coastguard - Greg James

                              Transfiguration 'link' XXI - Mitsuo Takeuchi

 

                                            Untitled - DLN Reddy

 

                                       Initialis - Tim Macfarlane Reid

 
                                           Splash - Tomas Misura

 

                             From optimism to hope - Andrew Rogers

 

                                      Sitting Hen - Tae-Geun Yang

                                      Long Neck - Benjamin Gilbert

 

                                       Sitting Hen - Tae-Geun Yang

Tamarama Beach, Sydney, Australia

 

Flickr Tags: Arts,Australia,D700,New South Wales,Nikon,Nikon 16-35mm f/4,Nikon D700,NSW,Sculpture,Sculpture by the Sea,Sculpture by the Sea 2010,Sydney,Tamarama Beach

VoIP on an iPhone

I recently decided to move to naked adsl2+ from a normal adsl2+ with iiNet. I didn’t want to pay line rental anymore. Anyway, as part of the package, I get VoIP for free which includes free local and STD calls.

So I dug up my old ATA box from Linksys, PAP2-NA, basically what the unit does is enable you to use your existing analogue phones as VoIP handsets. It was rather straightforward configuring the PAP2 to work on iiNet’s  VoIP network.

I then wondered if there was a SIP client available for the iPhone so I could use it for VoIP calls as well. A quick browse of the Apps store found a couple of promising SIP apps, iSipSimple and Acrobits softphone. I decided to try iSipSimple first after reading some positive reviews. I was able to get it up and running after a bit of fiddling with the setup. I was able to make and receive calls using both Wi-Fi and Telstra’s 3G network.

iSipSimple

However, after a few days of usage I found two issues:

It doesn’t automatically reregister itself when going between 3G/Wi-Fi networks and vice versa, I have to manually reregister the app.

The other issue is that it would not receive any incoming calls if it was in the background.

Apparently, IOS4 does not support UDP running in the background mode rather they suggest using Apple’s push notification. I couldn’t get it to work for me so if it was in the background I don’t get the call.

These two issues are a deal breaker for me so I decided to purchase and Acrobits and give that a go and see if it would be the SIP app for me. After punching in the necessary details, it worked first go! The setup was way too easy.

Acrobits

Everything was much simpler and intuitive with the Acrobits app, I just bring it to the foreground and it automatically reregisters itself with iiNet. I was also able to get it working in background mode. Apparently if your VoIP provider’s SIP server supports TCP instead of just UDP (port 5060) it will work in background mode and alert you if when there is an incoming call.

Issue when moving between 3G and Wi-Fi

One small issue is that if the app is in the background and you go between 3G and Wi-Fi or vice versa it loses connectivity, you need to quickly bring the app to the foreground, it then quickly reregisters itself with iiNet/Telstra and you are back in business. You can switch it back into the background. This would be the perfect SIP app if it could reregister itself whilst in the background when going between 3G and Wi-Fi.

The voice quality is pretty good with both G.711 and G.729a codecs. I limited uplink to a maximum of 20kbps (bittorents) and moved all the VoIP related rules to the top on my firewall to give it priority. I have not had to resort to any traffic shaping yet.

I also purchase the G.729a codec as it uses less bandwidth than G.711 codec, especially when using it on 3G to minimise cost.

Configure Acrobits for iiNet

Select Settings



Select SIP Accounts Select “+” symbol


Select Generic Account

 

Settings for iiNet:

Username: Your_ID (iinet provided phone number)

Password: iinet provided password

Domain: iinetphone.iinet.net.au

Display Name: Your_Name

Incoming Calls: In Background (Default: On)

Incoming Calls, Background Options

Select Background Options

Transport Protocol: tcp (required to receive calls whilst in the background)

Expires: 1700

 

Advanced Settings

Transport Protocol: tcp

Proxy: sip.nsw.iinet.net.au

Proxy Port: 5061

RTP Port Start: 16384

RTP Port End: 16482

Quickdial

Quickdial allows to you to contact people that you call on a regular basis. You can add you contact’s photo which is a cool feature, especially whilst driving, it is easier to spot their faces instead of trying to look for their names in the tiny fonts.

 

History

It also has a log of all your recent calls, both incoming and outgoing including missed calls too.

Contacts

Acrobits uses your existing  iPhone

 

contact list, which is pretty cool. So you don’t need to keep

a separate list of contacts

 

. Recording

It is also possible to record your phone calls but it emits a beep every few seconds to let the other party know that the conversation is being recorded. 



Just tap the red record button if you wish to record the call. I have tested it a couple of times and it worked really well. The recording is on by default but I turned it off as I found the constant beeping annoying. You can change it in Settings>Preferences>Call Recording.

 

A little tape symbol under the caller’s name denotes that the conversation or call has been recorded. If you wish to listen to it, tap on the little blue arrow. Tap on the blue arrow, again, on the second screen.




Tap on the “Play” button and listen to the recording of the conversation. You can either email to the other party or delete it if you no longer need it.

Conclusion

I love this app, I have had it for a few weeks now and it has perform flawlessly. I highly recommend this app to anyone looking for a SIP client for their iPhone. It will also supports Google Voice when it becomes available in Australia.

Now anyone can call my home number and I am able to answer it on my iPhone anywhere in Australia and they are none the wiser.

All my testing was done on iiNet’s VoIP and Telstra’s 3G network. My assumption is that all other ISPs/Telco in Australia will have the same QoS and therefore should have no issues but I cannot guarantee that this will be the case.

 

Technorati Tags: VoIP,iiNet,SIP,SIP Client,Acrobits,Naked ADSL2+,G.711,G.729,iSipSimple,Telstra 3G,Australia

Williamtown 2010 Airshow

I attended the 2010 Williamtown airshow a couple of weeks ago. I have never been to an airshow so I was quite excited. It is a 2.5 hours driver by card near Newcastle. We left Sydney at 6:30 and got there about 9.00 am. It was rather cold and windy and there was a massive queue already waiting to get in.

 

RAAF F-111 Strike Aircraft

The Royal Australian Air Force F-111 is a supersonic long-range strike aircraft. It is operated by No 1 Squadron and No 6 Squadron of the Air Force's Air Combat Group from RAAF Base Amberley, near Brisbane.

RAAF F-111 Dump and Burn

This was the last time that anyone in the world will witness the F-111 performing its signature "dump and burn" manoeuvre at an airshow.

 

 

RAAF Roulettes - Pilatus PC-9/A

The PC-9/A is best known to the public as the aircraft flown by the Air Force Roulettes in aerobatic displays at major events throughout Australia.

Central Flying School pilots fly six aircraft that comprise the team as a secondary role to their instructional tasks. Central Flying School trains Navy and Air Force pilots to become flying instructors.

 

The RAAF F/A-18 Hornet

The F/A-18 Hornet is a multi-role fighter designed for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. It is capable of air interception, air combat, close air support of ground troops and interdiction of enemy supply lines including shipping.

RAAF /A-18E/F Super Hornet

The Super Hornet is a combat-proven strike fighter with built-in versatility. The Super Hornet's suite of integrated and networked systems provides enhanced interoperability, total force support for the combatant commander and for the troops on the ground.

RAAF AP-3C Orion

An extremely versatile aircraft capable of maritime surveillance, anti-submarine, anti-ship warfare, naval fleet support and search and survivor supply.

 

Other RAAF Aircrafts

Gloster Meteor F.8

RAAF F/A-18 Hornet, RAAF F-111 strike aircraft, Gloster Meteor F.8, Lockheed Hudson

 

RAAF CA-27 Sabre, RAAF Hawk 127 fighter trainer, RAAF F/A-18 Hornet fighter

 

RAAF CA-27 Sabre, CA-13 Boomerang, Mustang, Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII

 

Conclusion

It was harder than I thought, definitely wasn’t easy shooting fast moving jets. It took a quite a few of blurred shots before I managed to get the settings on my D700 right. I also managed to test out my recently acquired Sigma 1.4x TC, from a friend, on my Sigma 70-200mm. All the shots here were taken with it. I think you need at least a 400mm lens for shooting airshows but overall, I am happy with the results.

It was a long day and when we wanted to leave we discovered that the runway was closed due to the airshow. The only way across was by a shuttle bus but the queue was about a kilometre long. We waited for about another hour before they opened the runway so that we could get back to our car. It took us another hour to get out of the car park. I am not really sure if I would come to another airshow.

 

Williamtown, NSW, Australia

 

Flickr Tags: RAAF,Willamtown,Airshow,NSW,New South Wales,Australia,F-111,Sigma 70-200mm,Sigma 1.4x TC,Dump and Burn,RAAF Roulettes,Pilatus PC-9/A,F/A-18 Hornet,A-18E/F Super Hornet,AP-3C Orion