Goodbye

Posted by: Minh Nguyen on 03 June 2015

Time to say goodbye to those that I have become acquainted with during my time on this forum.

It appears that people can openly discuss their experiences with Chord STA and other third party accessories but my contributions seem to be censored and deleted.

I will now find another home to share my experiences. My user name will be the same.

Thank you to everyone who has been of assistance and I wish you all the best for the future.
Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Steve J

http://youtu.be/-0u3NM8rd1U

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Huge

Minh, I'm glad you decided not to leave for good, your colourful (in the creative rather than profane sense) use of language has often brightened my day.  Although my kit is only at the XS level and so many of the products about which you write are out of my league, your posts are still interesting and fun to read (even if we sometimes disagree technically!).

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Adam Meredith
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
Man can only try in earnest to create a machine in his image.

Seems a little unimaginative.

 

A good toaster - on the other hand.

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Johnell
Originally Posted by Bruce Woodhouse:

Bunny? BUNNY?

 

God people are so ignorant around here. Why is it only I seem to know everything?

 

Bruce

 

http://uploads6.wikiart.org/im...rer/a-young-hare.jpg

So, as you are off does that make you a leaveret?  I'll get my coat.........

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Bruce Woodhouse

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Huge
Originally Posted by Adam Meredith:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
Man can only try in earnest to create a machine in his image.

Seems a little unimaginative.

 

A good toaster - on the other hand.

Watch 'Red Dwarf' - you really need a hyper-intelligent toaster!

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by dayjay
Originally Posted by winkyincanada:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
 


I received a post on my wall 

What exactly is your "wall" in this context?

 

Edit: Never mind, found it. I've never had a reason to look at "my wall" in the 8 years I've been on this forum. But I learnt something today! Who knew we had "walls"?

What did you think kept the roof up?

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Huge
Originally Posted by dayjay:
Originally Posted by winkyincanada:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
 


I received a post on my wall 

What exactly is your "wall" in this context?

 

Edit: Never mind, found it. I've never had a reason to look at "my wall" in the 8 years I've been on this forum. But I learnt something today! Who knew we had "walls"?

What did you think kept the roof up?

It's well known that energy effectively creates a positive pressure (that's the reason given for the continued acceleration in the expansion of the universe).  Well there's so much energy expended in these forums that the virtual roof is easily suspended by the pressure!

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Adam Meredith
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
I started a thread about my experiences with Clearer Audio cables. I have read over the past few months of people's experiences with SL. These people have not even taken the time to consider the alternatives. Naim should be grateful that I did not intervene on any of those threads.

I think many members have tried, and several use, Chord's cables.

 

Chord is but one manufacturer among many.

 

It has, mildly, perplexed me that those who have preferred Chord's products over Naim offerings are then happy to camp within Chord's limited range.

 

You have discovered Clearer Audio -  well done, big deal.

 

As with any other opinion here - yours is the opinion of one person, in one system, in one room and as valid and persuasive as that might indicate.

 

I would have more respect for the man who invented the "a 'red button' appears on the screen to allow users to load interactive content" and now bodges Burndies if he had a range of products available in one of his extensive fields of expertise.

 

Much as I hold Uri Geller in contempt for bending spoons while the world cries for leadership.

 

 

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
Originally Posted by Adam Meredith:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
I started a thread about my experiences with Clearer Audio cables. I have read over the past few months of people's experiences with SL. These people have not even taken the time to consider the alternatives. Naim should be grateful that I did not intervene on any of those threads.
I think many members have tried, and several use, Chord's cables.

Chord is but one manufacturer among many.

It has, mildly, perplexed me that those who have preferred Chord's products over Naim offerings are then happy to camp within Chord's limited range.

You have discovered Clearer Audio -  well done, big deal.

As with any other opinion here - yours is the opinion of one person, in one system, in one room and as valid and persuasive as that might indicate.

I would have more respect for the man who invented the "a 'red button' appears on the screen to allow users to load interactive content" and now bodges Burndies if he had a range of products available in one of his extensive fields of expertise.

Much as I hold Uri Geller in contempt for bending spoons while the world cries for leadership.



It is not within my remit to discuss modifications on this forum but since you insist on satisfying your curiosity, I shall let you know that I expend a great deal of thought on every endeavour that I choose to pursue. 

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Massimo Bertola
Originally Posted by Adam Meredith:
 

the world cries for leadership.

 

 

You are probably right, but I shiver at the idea.

Posted on: 05 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
Originally Posted by Huge:

Minh, I'm glad you decided not to leave for good, your colourful (in the creative rather than profane sense) use of language has often brightened my day.  Although my kit is only at the XS level and so many of the products about which you write are out of my league, your posts are still interesting and fun to read (even if we sometimes disagree technically!).


It has come as a surprise to me to learn that my use of language has on occasion brightened your day. I learned my times tables before I could speak a word of English. I was reading comic books until the age of 10 and it took me several months to read my first novel at the age of 13. I had a preference for mathematics during my time at secondary school and I only put pen to paper because I was inclined to produce coursework for English Language and Literature. I was not taught English grammar but my love for computer programming languages allowed me to express my thoughts. I soon realised that I could apply the same principles to prose and this forum became my platform for self expression. I will try to entertain you with my choice of literary combinations whilst you educate me with your  technical details.
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
I have postulated whether it is possible to design a connector that pertains to complete decoupling. I will have a  After leaving university I joined the emerging digital interactive television industry where I designed and implemented a trigger scheduler for the UK broadcasters: a 'red button' appears on the screen to allow users to load interactive content. The design was based on Alan Turing's concept of the finite state ..

Minh I am not sure if you are still here or gone.. It's been a bit confusing to follow.. But this caught my eye.. Because I was also involved with the group of people that developed, implemented  and launched the red button interactive technology for the UK TV broadcast industry in the 1990s.  My role at the time was head of System Integration and Test for interactive services  on the then new Sky digital platform.

Its probably fair to say the red button is actually a culmination of severeal enabling technology areas each with their own development teams.. Obviously made my and my team's job all the more interesting/challenging 

Out of curiosity  which 'red button' development team were you part of? Open Interactive, BSkyB, NDS, OpenTV or Oracle? 

 

PS the Turing state machine reference is a bit left field... The whole STB was effectively based on the principles Turung developed.

Simon

 

 
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
Hi Simon

With regards to the Red Button, I don't recall which development team I was working for but it was along the lines of OpenTV. At the time Sky had a system that was developed by NDS. The company I worked for acquired a company that had gone into administration and inherited a contract to supply Channel 4 with a trigger scheduler. I was asked to fix their software but I suggested it was better to rewrite it from scratch because their code was a spaghetti mess of conditional statements: it was impossible to predict the behaviour. I actually refused to work on the project unless it was rewritten. The inherited software would play out a few triggers and then crash. The internal state of the machine would become so confused and it was necessary to restart the machine after a short period of time. I suggested that it was possible to redesign the system using finite automata theory to produce a system that was 'bullet proof'. The general manager laughed. He said he had 30 years experience in the field of computing and he considered it to be impossible to design such reliable software. He even said he would eat his hat if I developed such a system. I was really looking forward to seeing him eat his hat. Four months later I finished the scheduler. It worked as I expected. My project manager was proud of my achievement. The general manager decided it was convenient for him to slip away into the shadows without having to eat his hat. He was not a man. He was a mouse.

There are companies that become comfortable with their operations. They no longer want to innovate. They use old technology that does not work. They expect it to be normal for software not to work. They consider these failures to be features. They patronise the young. I was young. I was fresh out of university. I showed them what was possible. They did not want to listen. I handed in my resignation. I decided to work for myself. I hoped that I would never have to work for someone ever again.

Is it possible that our paths could have crossed all those years ago? I worked for the Digital Interactive Television Group (DiTG) and before that I worked at Caiman Technologies.

ATB Minh
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Minh

 

We may have crossed - your name is not familiar to me - but it was a long time ago. If you were with  OpenTV, were you based in Palo Alto in the US at that time?

 

Yes the SI system was provided by NDS along  with the STB security services. The decryption  was literally military grade .. fascinating at the time... and was spurred on by the absolute determination to eliminate the hacking and pirating that plagued the previous analogue satellite TV services.

 

The SI was, I seem to remember, based on the DVB SI standard at the time with NDS private extensions. However - and what makes it strangely resonant with some of the forum threads here.. the STB had very limited resources and limited computing power. The architecture was written in such a way that there the interactivity and consumer oriented software was written for a virtual machine on top of the locked down driver layer and virtual machine interface of the STB. These layers provided a common security layer and an abstraction layer to allow software to be theoretically ported to different STB manufacturers and machine types with minimum effort (theoretically). It was probably quite progressive at the time.

 

However the environment proved challenging with the limited box resources, and bugs with application code, virtual machine layer code and drivers.  I had to develop a method of service validation suitable for the constantly churning consumer service updates across a range of box types such that validation typically was a matter of days. We didn't always succeed - as sometimes we needed to wait for firmware updates as work arounds were just not possible  and so we had to delay software / service releases and features.

 

However the now possibly common place  'video wall' for application service validation was developed - I based this idea from my limited time I previously had with TV Studio Engineering at the BBC - and an earlier interactive TV trial with BT.

 

They were fascinating times and I remember them fondly - it felt very cutting edge-  and its the only time in my career where I had to deliver a method of high churn consumer software validation with limited resources - both the target hardware and human testers - I sympathise with Naim ....  I certainly didn't get it always right - far from it.........

 

Simon

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
Simon

Those were good times and it's a remarkable coincidence that we are able to reminisce. You entered the industry when it was being founded and I entered when it was in its infancy. I can appreciate your feelings towards being on the forefront of an exciting development for the future of TV. We have both made significant contributions. It is with regret that I passed on the opportunity to be stationed in the US because my family is here in the UK.

Those early set top boxes were so slow. It was a real challenge to produce an artificial intelligence engine using the limited resources that were available. I have worked with brilliant people. We worked as a team. It was the management that was short sighted.

Challenges allow the mind to become more creative. Innovation is fueled by the desire of passionate individuals. Maybe our paths will cross one day. I look forward to that opportunity.

ATB Minh
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Adam Meredith
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
I joined the emerging digital interactive television industry where I designed and implemented a trigger scheduler for the UK broadcasters: a 'red button' appears on the screen to allow users to load interactive content. The design was based on Alan Turing's concept of the finite state ..

 

I was also involved with the group of people that developed, implemented  and launched the red button interactive technology for the UK TV broadcast industry in the 1990s.

 

PS the Turing state machine reference is a bit left field... The whole STB was effectively based on the principles Turing developed.

 

Because it may be expected of me.

 

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by count.d

Kirk never owned up.

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Huge
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
...
I have worked with brilliant people. We worked as a team. It was the management that was short sighted.
...

That happened in some of companies for whom I worked - I think it's a common failing in UK companies.  Sadly there are few naturally talented managers, and the UK commercial environment encourages short termism, just tactically seeking the next pound without any true vision.

 

It seems to be the techies who manage to keep focus on the present while also keeping an eye on the future.

 

Sadly many of the professional managers I have met have an unshakeable faith in their own limited view: they refused to learn the technicalities of the business (I've been told "I don't need to understand the technology to be able to manage it!") and wouldn't even take advice.

 

The other mistake is to "promote" techies to line management positions - then they understand the technology but are useless at managing the people!

 

On the other hand, I've have also met a few good managers, willing to get the techies in a room and trust them to bash out a working solution; then take the time to listen to the techies and understand the implications of the solution - those meetings are FUN!

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
It has been said that Daffy Duck has a dry sense of humour. I appear to lack the prerequisites needed to decipher the arid. Did the Duck have his wings clipped? I once recall it being able to fly with super power status.
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Huge
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
It has been said that Daffy Duck has a dry sense of humour. I appear to lack the prerequisites needed to decipher the arid. Did the Duck have his wings clipped? I once recall it being able to fly with super power status.

Better ask Adam.

 

Adam, you a sense of humour that wouldn't be out of place in the Atacama, but do you have superpower status?

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Originally Posted by Huge:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
...
I have worked with brilliant people. We worked as a team. It was the management that was short sighted.
...

That happened in some of companies for whom I worked - I think it's a common failing in UK companies.  Sadly there are few naturally talented managers, and the UK commercial environment encourages short termism, just tactically seeking the next pound without any true vision.

 

It seems to be the techies who manage to keep focus on the present while also keeping an eye on the future.

In my experience, many of the startups I was involved with that appeared in the early online commerce and digital TV broadcast industry at that time had often good and usually inspiring management leadership  - such managers were often directly involved with the operations along with everybody else .There was not really too much of an us and them - 'we are all in together' did genuinely seem to ring true. Perhaps not dissimilar to Naim in the early days??  The main issues for me came from the funders and investors, who could be quite interfering and perhaps didn't have the same passion and vision of those directly involved - other than seeing a healthy return (or any return.....) . I can't really be too critical - its a fair expectation - but it did cause some conflicts.. but thats another story.. As far as short termism, my worst experiences have been with US tech companies... but on the positive side they often know when to stop.. the British affliction IMO is that we sometimes don't recognise when we are flogging a dead horse....

Simon

 

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Minh Nguyen
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:
Originally Posted by Huge:
Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen:
...
I have worked with brilliant people. We worked as a team. It was the management that was short sighted.
...
That happened in some of companies for whom I worked - I think it's a common failing in UK companies.  Sadly there are few naturally talented managers, and the UK commercial environment encourages short termism, just tactically seeking the next pound without any true vision.

It seems to be the techies who manage to keep focus on the present while also keeping an eye on the future.
In my experience, many of the startups I was involved with that appeared in the early online commerce and digital TV broadcast industry at that time had often good and usually inspiring management leadership  - such managers were often directly involved with the operations along with everybody else .There was not really too much of an us and them - 'we are all in together' did genuinely seem to ring true.  The main issues for me came from the funders and investors, who could be quite interfering and perhaps didn't have the same passion and vision of those directly involved - other than seeing a healthy return (or any return.....) . I can't really be too critical - its a fair expectation - but it did cause some conflicts.. but thats another story.. As far as short termism, my worst experiences have been with US tech companies... but on the positive side they often know when to stop.. the British affliction IMO is that we sometimes don't recognise when we are flogging a dead horse....
Simon


The first company that I worked for was a startup called Caiman Technologies. I shall never forget the charisma of the CEO: he  inspired me to become the person that I am today.
Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Originally Posted by Adam Meredith:
Because it may be expected of me.

 .

Posted on: 06 June 2015 by Tony2011
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:
Originally Posted by Adam Meredith:
Because it may be expected of me.

 .