Monthly Archives: March 2012

JT65 on Ubuntu, finally

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I’d been trying to get JT65 to work in Ubuntu for a long time. K1JT’s package is fiddly to set up, and the version in the repositories is ancient. I’d had minor success with the Windows version of JT65-HF under Wine, but it wasn’t very stable, and any attempt to switch programs (something I, Capt. Micro-Attention-Span, do a lot) caused it to crash.

Thankfully, I found W6CQZ’s compiled version for Linux, which installed and ran almost without hitch. What you need to do is make your rig’s audio interface the default sound card, and then JT65-HF should pick up the interface and use it straight off:

That’s gnome-control-center confirming that JT65-HF is using the sound device. You do have to be a bit careful not to send computer audio across the airwaves when you do this, though.

The one good thing that is built into Ubuntu is that you don’t have to worry about clock synch like you do on Windows. Ubuntu pretty much keeps the system clock on perfect time, and Jt65 expects everyone to be synchronized. Doing this on Windows is much harder than it needs to be.

It’s a great mode. This is how I was heard earlier this evening:

They heard me in Australia, on 12W!

Update, 2012-06-17: W6CQZ’s binary won’t run under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, so I had to bite the bullet and build from source. I grabbed the SVN repository, and followed M1GEO’s instructions Compiling WSPR. It’s still fiddly to choose which audio device (I use Pulse, and can use the same number for both input and output). See, lookit; signals!

 

What if you build it, and they leave?

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City Hall is currently tearing itself apart over transit. You’d think that in a city with a downtown that’s pretty much gridlocked for three hours of the day, the answer to the transit question would be “More please everywhere”, but in this precious city, it’s less than that.

We have a mayor who is obsessed with subways because he thinks they’re fast and will keep the automobiles running. Unfortunately, Toronto is a big sprawly city with less than infinite cash, so we’re not going to get subways everywhere. Our last venture into subway building — the Sheppard line — has been a bit rubbish, running a stubby distance to nowhere in particular, and being quiet enough that you can always get a seat.

Though I live in Toronto, I’m originally from Glasgow. Glasgow has a subway; in fact, it’s one of the world’s oldest. It was opened in 1896, when Glasgow was at the height of its “Second City” fame. Glasgow made the ships and trains that maintained the empire, and trained the engineers of the world. We were pretty hot shit at the time, and we had a bunch of workers we needed to get around every day from the shipyards and offices of the city. Lots of people moving in to work. Ergo, subway!

Just one problem: cities change, subways don’t. Even though shipbuilding was never a hugely lucrative industry (according to my grandfather, who worked at John Brown’s, they never cleared more than 7% even at the best times), Glasgow and environs would probably have never thought that its industries would change and contract the way they did.

So what’s the subway that Glasgow’s been left with?

  • The industry has gone, so has most of the ridership. There’s an awkward mix of residential stations and, well, nothing stations. I mean, West St? C’mon!
  • Both of the major rail hubs that the subway serves — Buchanan St and St Enoch — are long gone. I just remember the shell of St Enoch station used as a car park in the very early 1970s, but no trains.
  • Given that Scots were a bit squat in the 19th century, the subway’s not built for 21st century people. I could never stand up in the trains.
  • Ridership is frankly pants; indeed, even Toronto’s Sheppard line carries more people every day than the Glasgow subway. Riders are pretty much now park ‘n ride office drones, students (bored [on the way to uni], drunk [doing the subcrawl; a pint at the pub nearest ever station] or daredevil [the subway challenge]) or huns.

Glasgow used to have quite an extensive tram network. Of course, you wouldn’t know now, ‘cos it’s all been ripped up, but you can do that with street-level transit. Subways you’re stuck with.

Cities and cultures never know when they’re at their height. Glasgow had it going on when it built its subway, yet I’m sure the city planners never thought that the city would change the way it did. At least Glasgow made stuff that everyone needed; Toronto, what do you do that keeps you anchored here?

Clever, but annoying

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I bought an Eye-Fi memory card after hearing about ladyada’s Internet of Things Camera. Neat idea; SD card which transmits across wi-fi to your computer. It would be nice if it didn’t go via Eye-fi’s servers, but it’s a start.

What is annoying is the huge packaging which contains a fake cardboard SD card just to take up space. The fake card even has a little plastic cover. Dear me.

“There is somewhere an abandoned house”

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There is somewhere an abandoned house
With cracked walls and sagging roof
In its yard the grass unmown
Unswept dust the door unmoved

Guarded by a dog

A small forgotten man
With unshaven beard and unkempt hair
Paces back and forth like a madman
Lost face hope abandoned

Looking for his dog

— Eqrem Basha, “Introduction to the meaning of solitude”

shrunky dunk

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I didn’t know they still made SHRINKY DINKS. Indeed, I didn’t know they were ever really a thing outside something you got free in Nabisco cereal boxes in the 1970s. Or something you did with Hula Hoops packets, then stuck a safety pin on the back so you could wear it as a smashing badge.

To be appropriately retro, I printed this with a dot-matrix printer.

a very quick guide to using a remote release with CHDK

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CHDK allows your Canon P&S to do nifty things. One of them is to rig up a USB Remote Cable. Someone on Metafilter asked how to set this up, so here’s what worked with me and my PowerShot SD790is (Ixus 90).

!!! Warning: this requires you to apply unauthorized voltages to your camera. If in doubt, don’t. Check the CHDK camera-specific page for notes on voltages. Don’t hold me responsible if you let the magic smoke out of your camera !!!

You’ll need to install CHDK first. What you download and how you install it depends on your camera model and the memory card your using. This might help.

The good news is that CHDK comes with the remote script built in, so you don’t need to download anything else. You will need a suitable remote trigger, or a cannibalized USB Mini-B cable.

First, call up the CHDK menu. On my camera, that’s the Direct Print button (looks like this: ), which puts CHDK in Alt mode. Hit Menu in Alt mode, and you should see this menu:

Scroll down to Miscellaneous Stuff and select it:

Scroll all the way down to Remote Parameters (or, more quickly, scroll up, and the menu wraps round):

Now Enable Remote:

Go back to the main menu, and scroll down to Scripting Parameters:

Select Load Script from File …:

Enter the EXAM folder:

Select REMOTE.BAS:

Now you’ll be taken back to the Script menu, and the bottom of the menu shows that you’ve enabled the Remote button script:

Exit the menu, and hit the shutter button to extend the lens. You’ll get a normal display, a bit like this:

To allow the remote script to run, hit Direct Print/Alt, and the bottom of the display will show that the remote script is running:

Now you’ll need to rig up a trigger. I cannibalized an old USB Mini-B cable, and connected the black wire to ground, and the red wire – momentarily – to +5V. You will likely come up with something much more elegant.

And here’s me triggering a shot (you can see the amber focus/flash LED lit) by touching the red wire to +5V:

That’s all there is to very basic remote work in CHDK. Note that USB Remote V2 is in development, which allows finer control and many more options.

the crapcam is alive; why?

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I found the crapcam again, which first and last saw use in June 2006. It’s still as bad as it was. macam still works on OS X, but hasn’t been updated in a while, so expect it not to work before long.

ColorHug

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I got my ColorHug calorimeter the other day. You can’t tell, but this laptop display is a bunch warmer than it was, and there are now colours springing out of what was formerly murk (sproing!).

It’s still very much in beta (and I mean that the way it used to mean), so it works but is a bit fiddly. It currently has to boot from a Linux live CD; there’s no native OS X or Windows support. There’s a very active user group, and issues are being found and squished daily.

still rather more proud of this code than I should be

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Years ago, I wrote this tiny subroutine in PostScript:

/box { % draw a box given lower left and upper right corner coordinates
  2 copy moveto
  3 index exch lineto
  3 -1 roll 2 index lineto
  exch lineto
  closepath
} def

All it does is define a rectangular path given by four numbers. So to draw a box from (0,0) to (100,50), you’d say

0 0 100 50 box
stroke

This code still pleases me because:

  • it accepts arguments in a sensible order
  • it uses no local variables, relying purely on the stack
  • no spare values have to be popped from the stack at any time.

A bit too much Randy Bachman

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Richard “Friendly Rich” Marsella noted that CBC Radio’s Vinyl Tap with Randy Bachman features a lot of music by … Randy Bachman. If you’ve got your own radio show “to play [your] favourite songs and tell stories from [your] life on the road and in the studio“, you might want to be a bunch heavier on your influences than your own actual work. It doesn’t seem that way with Randy Bachman, though.

In the 49 unique editions of Vinyl Tap broadcast in the last year, 27 of them feature his own music and/or performances. So in addition to his CBC pay for the show, he’s getting royalties, too. Rich puts it a little better, if a lot more invective filled:

Bring back quality broadcasting from people behind the scenes who are hard-working and informed…not merely has-been rock stars with egos larger than Winnipeg.

Given that Mr. Bachman constantly plays his own music on this show, receives royalties for the theme song, and might also be receiving ACTRA payments for incessantly wanking on his guitar between songs, CBC should consider whether or not this is a conflict of interest, as a public broadcaster.

Richard’s started a petition: Let’s petition to remove Randy’s Vinyl Tap from the CBC: No more BTO on the CBC! I’ve signed it, and I hope you’ll consider signing it too.

I ran some stats on the show’s playlists (thanks, CBC!), and Richard sure has a point. Here’s a list of all the shows from the last year, showing just the first Bachman-item on the show:

Broadcast Song Performer Album/Concert Randy Bachman credit
2011/03/04 Takin’ Care Of Business Bachman-Turner Overdrive Best Of Bachman-Turner Overdrive Live Composer
2011/03/05
2011/03/12
2011/03/19
2011/03/26 When Friends Fall Out Guess Who American Woman Composer
2011/04/02
2011/04/09 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer
2011/04/16
2011/04/23 We Gotta Change Playlist For The Planet Composer
2011/04/30 Repo Man Repo Man Composer
2011/05/07 I’m Happy Just To Dance With You Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar
2011/05/14 Who Do You Love Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar
2011/05/21
2011/05/29
2011/06/04 Laughing Guess Who: Anthology Composer
2011/06/11
2011/06/18
2011/06/25 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer
2011/07/01 Raise A Little Hell Trooper Hot Shots Producer
2011/07/09 Takin Care Of Business Randy’s Vinyl Tap – Guitarology 101 Composer
2011/07/16 Blue Collar Bachman-Turner Overdrive Anthology Producer
2011/07/23
2011/07/30
2011/08/06
2011/08/13
2011/08/20
2011/09/10
2011/09/17
2011/09/24
2011/10/01 Closing Time Closing Time Composer
2011/10/08 Lenny’s Warmup And Improvisation Of Autumn Leaves Lenny Breau Cabin Fever Producer
2011/10/15 Suite Theam Composer, Performer
2011/10/22 No Time Guess Who American Woman Composer
2011/11/05
2011/11/12 Undun Kurt Elling Nightmoves Composer
2011/11/19 Shotgun Rider Bachman-Turner Overdrive Freeways Producer
2011/11/26 Blue Sky Day Lindsay Ell Consider This Composer
2011/12/03 Day Off Michael Carey Composer
2011/12/10
2011/12/17 Geh Zoag Ma Doch Die Ding Spider Murphy Gang Geh Zoag Ma Doch Die Ding Composer
2011/12/23 Takin’ Care Of Christmas Takin’ Care Of Christmas Composer
2011/12/30 You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet Bachman-Turner Overdrive Anthology Composer
2012/01/14
2012/01/21 Any Road Randy Bachman Any Road Composer
2012/01/28
2012/02/11 Walk Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar
2012/02/18 Who Do You Love Bachman Cummings Jukebox Guitar
2012/02/25
2012/03/03

Of course, when anyone mentions BTO, I can’t help but think of

… which is a whole heaping helping of morissettian irony unto itself. The whole Smashie and Nicey thing was supposedly a factor in Matthew Bannister’s decision to fire the ageing and irrelevant DJs from BBC Radio 1 in the 1990s. I wouldn’t dream of making any inference from that …

yay! a completed SSTV QSO!

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Yay! KA4UPI in Dublin, GA heard me, and replied.

Thanks to KE5RS‘s Live SSTV page, I can see what I was sending – or at least, how it was received in Leander, TX by KE5RS:

This was sent in response to this:

Here’s what I send:

compared to what was heard in Texas:

Choosing images to send is difficult. The number of cheesecake images is a bit distressing. For good, free images, I use Wikimedia Commons; the one I’ve used for my CQ call is File:Burrowing owl smile.jpg.

SSTV is a fun little mode. I was saddened to hear that its creator, Copthorne Macdonald VY2CM, passed away late last year.