Found a new site dedicated to staying in contact with other members of the armed services, Together We Served. I was squid back in the early 1980s, and a brownshoe at that. I’m in the second row from the front, fourth from the left. I am humbled by the privilege to have met and worked with a fantastic group of men.

Crewmembers of HelAntiSubRon Fifteen

To all former and current members of our US Armed Forces, I bid thee fair winds and following seas!

Yeah, yeah. I rarely post. I have a job that keeps me busy flitting about the US from Miami to Syracuse to Seattle to San Diego and most major metros in between.

I now have on order a new toy called a ybox2 and so a new post.

ybox2

LadyAda says it shipped today, so I hope to have it by Saturday. It’s kinda like a Chumby, but mostly not. It’s similar in that it outputs PAL or NTSC composite video to a display using widgets, but not as it doesn’t come with an AC adapter, a display, or a furry cover. Nor are there many widgets as of yet. Hopefully, with time, more will come. But not from me, alas. I took many, many coding courses back in my college daze - assembly, basic, pascal, pl1, fortran, c, and one or two others - but didn’t understand that I needed to focus on becoming fluent in just one, then move on to a new language, one better suited to what I wanted to accomplish. I was young, petulant, foolish, wasteful of time and money, and so cannot code worth a damned in any language. While I’m no longer so young…

I ordered a display, a PSOne screen which runs anywhere from $40 to $100. I considered the Pyle 7″ widescreen which is 2″ larger and more versatile, but settled on the PSOne due to price. Besides, I can hack the PSOne to be portable using ExtremeTech’s tutorial on how to substitute white LEDs for the high voltage backlighting bulb, thus allowing it to run on just 5V. I’ll eventually find an enclosure and drop in a LiPoly battery and charger circuit I got from SparkFun some time ago. I picked up a couple after selling a number of MintyBoosts, deciding to develop a self-contained rechargeable version. However, I gave it second thoughts upon realizing exactly what the warning “Vents with Flame” means after watching this video of a LiPoly pack “venting.” Most decidedly an understatement.

I’ll update after getting it assembled.

UPDATE II: During the original build, I apparently over-torqued the display mounting screws to the point that the plastic cracked. I was up until the wee hours of the morning rebuilding it using a black, brushed aluminum project box I saw on one of M3’s Customized Kits pages. I ordered from Fry’s Electronics. While it looks okay in the photo, I probably should have gone with the silver box as the scars from a clumsy fabricator (that’d be me) are pretty evident. It was a bit more difficult than I anticipated to cut the display slot. If I have time, I’ll stop by RadShack, see if they have black grommet material to cover the rough edges in the display slot and the wiring holes.

After completing the project in Syracuse, I was directed to travel to Wilmington, Delaware. It was such short notice that no flights were available to Philadelphia, just a 30 minute drive from where I needed to be. I’m such the trooper that even though I’d had less than two hours’ sleep, I volunteered to drive five hours it’d take during good weather. Unbeknownst to me there was a fairly severe snow storm headed my way. That five hours turned into an eleven hour battle with the elements, other cars, and ten ton tractor trailers.

At one point I was attempting to pass a tractor trailer. I couldn’t see that just ahead there was a car on the right that’d spun out and the left front corner was blocking part of the right hand lane. Visibility was around 50 yards at best. I was half the length of my crappy rental car from passing the truck when we both saw the problem. I pushed on the gas as much as I could to make the pass, but I couldn’t gain speed. In fact, I lost traction and actually slowed. The truck driver had no choice but to move into my lane, else he’d have crushed that guy like a bug. I pulled my foot completely off the accelerator and edged as best I could toward the concrete divider. The truck just barely missed smashing me against the divider. White knuckles, baby, and lots of swearing.

I decided the saying was true, “Prudence is the better part of valor,” and slowed to a much more manageable pace. However, that wasn’t a cure-all. Somewhere between Allentown and Philly, just as I was approaching the I476 (?) toll booth, I rounded a corner that put the headlights of all opposite-bound traffic in my face. The streaking of the dog crap wipers made it impossible to see. I got out of the tire ruts I’d been following and the front wheels broke traction, pushing me toward the concrete barrier. All I could do was let off the gas, turn the wheel gradually to the right and hope I didn’t crash. Normally my contract company pre-pays all rentals, but because this was a one-way, Alamo wouldn’t allow it — I had to use my own credit card and get reimbursed. In a split second, I remembered the gal at the car rental desk asking if I wanted extra insurance, “It’s only 9.95 per day.” “That’s okay, my personal insurance will cover it.” “Do you have a deductible?” “Of course. I don’t think my company reimburses extra insurance, though.” Then a movie of the accident ran through my head and I regretted not getting the extra coverage. Fortunately, the tires hit a dry spot and I veered away from the barrier.

Wow, that was dangerous. Next time, I think, I’ll keep my mouth shut. If I can’t get there, I can’t get there.

I’m in Syracuse to do an E911 WLG swap out - Netra 240s replacing Netra 20s - for AT&T. Got here late (for me) last night, around 10pm. I was routed through Detroit. How do I hate Detroit’s airport? Let me count the ways! There are many, but first and foremost is that of all the connecting flights, not once have I ever gotten where I was going on time. In fact, I’ve missed my connection twice. It’s loud. It’s dirty. It’s convoluted. I hate it.

It’s bitterly cold here, but the people have so far been quite nice. When I pulled into the hotel parking lot a 4×4 was behind me, a guy making a food delivery in a University of North Carolina hat. I walked in behind him and was still waiting at the empty check-in counter when he was on his way back out. “Still no one here?” “Not yet.” “You can dial 600 on the courtesy phone. They carry a cordless.” “Ahhh. Cool. Thanks! I’ll give ‘em a few more minutes, then call.” I almost commented on his hat - being that I’m from Lexington, KY and a UK Wildcats fan - but didn’t. The gal showed up a couple of minutes later. She was friendly and said that even though they didn’t have the smoking room I’d reserved, she’d give me an ashtray and I could smoke anyway. She also was the first to mention my $20-off discount code for making the reservation on-line. While I’d rather stay in a Holiday Inn Express or a Candlewood Suites, but they’re typically too expensive, I keep booking Extended Stay Suites. No mention of the discount in Miami or Raleigh or Baton Rouge nor was it forthcoming. Not a big deal. Had I remembered to mention it at check out, I’m sure it’d have been applied, but I’m usually anxious to get to the airport and back home.

Another thing I noticed was that Syracusians (?) don’t have much of an accent and certainly not a stereotypical NYC accent. I suppose if I had to categorize the modest accent, it’s more Canuck than anything. Sort of like a very mild, just barely noticeable Minnesota accent.

Hopefully everything goes well tonight and I’m nearly home this time tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Lady Ada of Adafruit Industries sold me on yet another kit, the MintyBoost. It’s a USB charging device that fits into an Altoids chewing gum tin.

I ordered one entire kit, plus five extra PCBs and MAX756-CPA+ power regulators from Adafruit. From other vendors such as Maxim IC, Mouser, DigiKey, and Futurlec, I bought parts enough to build at least 25. Looks like I’ll have to either make my own circuit boards or order more from Adafruit.

So far I’ve built five of them - the original yesterday afternoon and the other four in the past three hours using parts I already had on hand. Her instructions to “Case It” make use of sheet metal snips and cut through the rim. I don’t like this as the tin’s structural integrity is now compromised:

I have a Dremel, so I used a cutoff wheel to make three incisions: two parallel with the top edge and one diagonally, making a “Z”

The two resulting flaps can then be bent inwards a bit and snipped off and pressed tight against the inside wall. I need to practice a bit more making the cuts as I made the hole too large four of the five. On the fourth, I tried to get as close as possible to the correct dimension, but it was too small. I made it too large by over-correcting.

It still works just fine, though. I have successfully tested each with the portable electronics I have:

• Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS
• Lexar 1GB LDP-600FB MP3 player
• iPod 2GB Nano
• Sony Ericsson 750i cellphone (reportedly must be pull-down resistor configuration; further testing required)
• Sony Ericsson W800 cellphone (reportedly must be pull-down resistor configuration; further testing required)

The difference between using a pull-up or pull-down resistor is due to the fact that the USB standard is just a document and therefore interpreted in any number of ways when a manufacturer implements it. As such, some devices are designed with the need to see a particular voltage on the data bus even though it’s merely charging while others don’t care one way or the other. It seems that the newer iPods, in particular, need to see that voltage.

I think one of the modifications I will make is a slightly larger tin such that the USB jack will be flush with the tin’s wall and two sets of batteries in parallel for a longer run time. Perhaps a Penguin tin for a super dweeby Linux theme, or an Altoids mints tin? If I can contain the costs, a rechargeable LiPoly will be in the works.

However, as built, they’re inexpensive, fun and easy to build, and work exactly as advertised. Highly recommended!

I’m back on the road again doing TruePosition Enhanced 911 stuffs. Since early ‘04 I’ve been a field test engineer setting up 911 network overlays for Cingular and T-Mobile in South Florida (Miami), Orlando-Tampa, Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Oregon, and Washington.

The time has come for End Of Life hardware upgrades, so I’ve been back to Miami to replace the gateway servers from Netra 20s to Netra 240s, and SMLC-Vs to SMLC-Ls (GSM E911-specific hardware). I just now finished replacing the Netra boxes in Raleigh.  Rumor has it I’ll be headed up I95 doing upgrades in northern Virginia, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philly, Jersey, Boston, etc., plus some overseas work.  Gotta get my passport ready!  Schedules are rarely adhered to for various reasons, so only time will tell.

I really miss not being able to play around with my Arduinos and completing new projects — I recently bought the PCBs to make four Boarduinos, but haven’t had time to get more than one assembled. I’m considering designing a protoshield (or an entirely separate board) which will allow me to burn bootloaders and do general programming on a number of different microprocessors such as the ATmega series, ATtiny series, AT89 series, and a few others.

UPDATE: I’m an idiot. Once I removed the protoshield, I saw that the board has clearly marked these pins as PWM! D’oh!  I guess I got too comfortable using the shield and never bothered to actually look at the Diecimila itself.

I’m using this particular prototyping shield (others can be found here, here, here, or here) and ran the tests again on the bare Arduino, but found nothing wrong with the shield. I need to research this to find out why. I’ll update this post when I discover the reason.

TigerHawk rips the NY Times for, yet again, not doing simple research before blathering and making utter fools of themselves. Look, I don’t give a rat’s ass about the run up to the primaries and even less about Mitt Romney, but it is positively moronic to attempt to associate Romney and the phrase “In God We Trust” to McCarthy for at least two reasons: 1) McCarthy was right, there were dozens of communists in the highest levels of US government; and 2) it takes mere seconds to Google “in god we trust history” then select the US Mint hit. Less than half way down the page you’ll find this:

The Congress passed the Act of April 22, 1864. This legislation changed the composition of the one-cent coin and authorized the minting of the two-cent coin. The Mint Director was directed to develop the designs for these coins for final approval of the Secretary. IN GOD WE TRUST first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin. [emphasis added]

Using that same Google page, I searched Images for “1864 two-cent coin” and within a few seconds found this image:

“IN GOD WE TRUST” is right there, as obvious as a NY Times writer the ass on a monkey! This research took all of about 75 seconds.

As has been pointed out time and time and time again, if these assholes can’t be trusted with the easy stuff, how can they be trusted on something that actually requires knowledge and the competence to use that knowledge? I’ve forgotten which blog had a link to Michael Crichton’s speech, Why Speculate?, but there you find

Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I call it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.)

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. [emphasis added]

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I’d point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all.

Reminds me of a guy I served with in the Navy back in the ’80s. He was an officer, a pilot of an SH-3H helicopter. I was enlisted, a search and rescue swimmer and anti-submarine warfare operator (sonar operator in a helicopter). The officers and enlisted aircrew alike used to rag on him for getting a degree in physical education. It’s generally agreed that a B.S. in phys ed is perhaps the easiest, but while he might not have known much in the way of calculus or physics, he damned sure could tell you about exercise physiology. Does a degree in journalism require knowledge of anything? It makes me believe that, were it not for the fact that 99.99% of journalists aren’t just ignorant but cowards as well, all those active duty phys ed majors can exclaim, “Hey, fuck you! It isn’t journalism!”

By the way, TigerHawk’s post was inspired by James Taranto of WSJ’s OpinionJournal. Taranto guts the editorial with surgical precision.

Econ professor Mark Perry, University of Michigan, has on his site this map of the United States. Instead of state names, the name of a nation whose gross domestic product (GDP) is equal to that state’s.

I came to this by way of the sidebar in Coyote Blog, to Houston’s Clear Thinker’s post.