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Saturday, February 23, 2008
And Now for Something Completely Different
My wife bought me one of the latest albums from Tom Petty, Highway Companion. Before the Traveling Wilburys,
I was ambivalent about Tom Petty. About all I could say is, he doesn't do disco or rap, which is good, but that is really
faint praise. But when combined with my heroes, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, Tom Petty is quite palatable.
So Highway Companion sat on top of my CD player for a couple of weeks without a listen. Today I had the opportunity to
put it on, and I must say it is quite good. The most striking thing about it is how much of George Harrison I hear in it.
I suppose it is no coincidence that Jeff Lynne (who has been with George since Cloud Nine) produced Highway Companion.
But there is the 12-string electric (Rickenbacher?), the kind of hyper-musical lead riffs that I have associated with George
since the Beatles days, slide work, and so on.
Ok, so this is Tom Petty, and it is a Tom Petty album. It is a good album. Tom knows how to turn a phrase. The lyrics
are clever (stuff reminds me of the line "she had a tattoo too". Still, there are worse things that could happen than George
Harrison living on in Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.
I am surprised at how much I still miss my old pal George, whom I grew up with, but never met.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
WxService Update Available
- WxService ow4j080217
- Updated the CWOP host rotation list to include the most recent recommendations: cwop.aprs.net:14580; cwop1.tamu.edu:14580;
cwop.fuller.net:14580; sip.tssg.org:14580
- Added support for user configurable wind speed display in Miles per Hour, Kilometers per Hour, Meters per Second and Knots.
- WxMonitor ow4j080217
- Added support for user configurable wind speed display in Miles per Hour, Kilometers per Hour, Meters per Second and Knots.
(download ow4j080217)
Giving up on HIH-4000
At $26.00 a pop, I cannot afford to keep replacing the HIH-4000 humidity sensors in my hygrometer. So it will report
what it reports, and I will not worry about it anymore.
The sensors are shielded from direct sunlight (in fact, they are dark) and they are shielded from driving rain. Nevertheless,
they fail when exposed to > 90% humidity for any length of time. In these parts, that is most of the time.
In the failure mode, the sensors start reading decreasing humidity as the humidity increases past
90%. Some sensors become erratic, but all eventually end up stuck reading below 50%.
I am not replacing another one until Honeywell introduces a new model.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
WxService Update Available
This release implements the much discussed CWOP Connection Specifications Draft Revision #3.
- WxService ow4j080209
- Post time is de-correlated from clock time.
- The host rotation list includes the new host name, cwop.aprs.net:14580. If that connection is unsuccessful, WxService
then tries first.aprs.net:14580, second.aprs.net:14580, third.aprs.net:14580 until a connection is successful or the host
list is exhausted. The host rotation list is user-configurable.
- Status logging and error reporting is improved.
(download ow4j080209)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Time to Change aprs.formatter.interval
It has been a while since I viewed the CWOP Frequently Asked Questions, and I discovered a change to item 1. How often should I send data? You should go read it, then come back here and see what you can do about it.
The WxService task scheduler does not have the ability to offset scheduled tasks by a fixed amount, and I have no plans
to add that feature any time soon. To help reduce the load on the APRS-IS servers, you can select a time interval of 9 or
11 minutes.
You can do this in the WxMonitor Configure panel. Scroll down to aprs.formatter.interval
and set the value to 540000 milliseconds (9 minutes) or 660000 milliseconds (11 minutes). Remember to set your wxservice.administrator.key if applicable. Then click Apply.
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Welcome!
This site is dedicated to my interest in engineering. I use it as a place to just put stuff "out there" for anyone who
might be interested, as well as a job search tool. This page contains my engineering web log (to your left). Anything that
seems timeless enough, or too involved for a log entry may get it's own page as a full-blown article. And, of course, my resume
is here for anyone who might be considering hiring me to do something. Email me.
About Me
I have worked as a broadcast engineer, electronics designer (analog and digital) and software developer. I especially
enjoy audio engineering, although I've been writing software for the last several years, since that's where the opportunities
are in the Pacific Northwest (this is Microsoft country after all). I'm currently working as a Senior Staff Engineer -- Resume at another large independent software vendor in Washington State.
I majored in mathematics and physics in college. Other interests include music appreciation (baroque, classical and early
romantic, ragtime, and 60's and 70's rock & roll), high fidelity audio electronics, meteorology and of course, computing
hardware and software. I tend to think a lot like this guy.
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