Monthly Archives: December 2008

What happens in Edinburgh… Generally ends up on the internet.

What happens in Edinburgh… Generally ends up on the internet. So they claim. Here’s my input.

Many times through the weekend the iPhone with its data access provided the answers to many questions, most of which I have forgotten, but on Sunday night Sarah McF asked me to prove the iPhone could answer all questions. That which was posed: what weight was the original Wispa bar? Wikipedia and Google could not, for all their worth, tell me anything other than that the re-released Wispa bar is 36g and supposedly slightly smaller than the older. However…

New Wispa weighs less than the original?

Thanks for your enquiry about Cadbury Wispa.

I can confirm that we have not changed or altered the size/shape or recipe of Wispa bar.

The bar size matches exactly the same size as when it was last on the market (for info 125.0(L) x 30.85(W) x 16.7(D)mm).

The recipe is the same – it was matched to what was last on the market and tested by a taste panel internally. It is a blend of Cadbury dairy milk and a little bit of dark chocolate.

Thanks for your feedback.
Cadbury Consumer Relations Department

So there you go, Wispa bars are the same size and weight as the originals. And what happens in Edinburgh ends up on the internet.

Pushing or playing videos to uStream

For several legitimate reasons I have occasionally got the need to push a video ustream, one of which is the Giants Live webcast which is our live game night broadcast and DVD shop for the Belfast Giants.

Now that the plug is over, back to the topic.

Pushing Video or Music Files to Ustream

It’s really quite easy. As most of you (5,6?) know uStream is an on-demand free web broadcasting solution which takes the usability of youtube and makes it live. One thing it isn’t made to do is broadcast ‘content’ just live material.

It is however fairly simple to spoof uStream into thinking it is receiving a webcam and a microphone respectively for vision and sound. Two simple applications are all you need: CamTwist and SoundFlower. CamTwist manages videos, slide shows, flickr sets and desktop views into a pretend webcam which uStream automatically picks up as an option. Soundflower is an Audio Driver which presents itself as an output option for your sound applications, and an input device for uStream to recieve from.

Using ustream with file upload: camtwist and soundflower
So to play a movie file (your own or non-copyrighted content of course) open it up in CamTwist and it will probably play automatically. Choose ‘SoundFlower 2ch’ as your output device in ‘Sounds’ and away you go. Broadcast your uStream channel and the two apps should appear as Sound/Video options.

VoilĂ .

Oh, and it’s my birthday tomorrow. Possibly going to the empire for Blues/Jazz some night this week as an ‘event.’

Is this line secure?

# Brrrr-ing brrrr-ing

Hello David speaking

> Stephen?

No, David

> Oh, well don’t pretend to be your dad

I don’t tend to

> Is this line secure?

As much as you’d expect

> That one usually throws people

I’m used to answering it

> OK. So is your dad there?

No

> Well, don’t answer the phone.

I don’t tend to.

#Click.