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As the entire Northeastern United States is getting blanketed by upwards of a foot of snow today and tonight, then another 7+ inches from a different storm tomorrow night, my dad made an interesting observation:  He's not receiving any Severe Weather Watches via NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) VHF weather radio.

I only realized it after he mentioned it, but even through the ice storm last week and the snow this week, I haven't received any watches or warnings either.  However my wife has been thrilled not to be woken up by the shrill alerts.

My dad called the NWS field office in Buffalo, where an unnamed meteorologist told him they were under a directive not to issue watches via the weather radio.  We both remember receiving watches during the summer thunderstorm season, but it's been very quiet the past few months.  Too quiet.

I emailed Raymond O'Keefe with the NWS Albany field office about this, and confirmed that while they do issue watches via weather service radio (as in, they announce them via voice), they do not SAME encode them.  He also said this isn't a new policy for them.

This weekend I will be digging into this issue while digging out from the snow while we impatiently await for our new arrival.

A big bug in Vista Media Center that I have encountered twice in the past two months, which required me to completely wipe and reconfigure my channel list guide and scheduled recordings has been fixed.  But only in Windows7, according to mikehayton, a Microsoft MCE Team Member:

"This is a known bug fixed in Win7. At this stage there are not sufficient instances of it reported to warrant backporting the fix (and then doing the full test pass to ensure that in this version of the code that it hasnt broken something else)."

Seriously? Is Microsoft even supporting Windows Vista with bug fixes these days or what?  When I purchased Vista Ultimate two months ago, I didn't realize that I was buying into an end-of-life product.  (I know, I'm not even supposed to have TV Pack 2008, but it was applied to a fresh Vista install, per Microsoft's instruction to OEM's).  But seriously, this really can't bode well for users of Vista hoping for fixes to their documented bugs. 

How many other issues will only fixed in Windows7?  For me, it doesn't matter... For my last remaining home Windows OS, Media Center, Mac/AppleTV can't come soon enough.

This is just one more, and likely the last, nail in the coffin for Microsoft operating systems for me.  Since buying a MacBook last week, I've only needed to boot into XP once, and that was to Remote Desktop into a client's workstation.

EDIT: After a quick Google search, I've eliminated my last reason to boot into XP.  Thanks Microsoft!

Full text of the error log, for search engine indexing is below:

With my wife and my expected addition (T minus 6 days!), we needed to procure a portable video capture device (video camera) with video quality at least better than our Canon SD800 point & shoot. 

In phototography as in life, timing is everything.  Very recently, the pocket high-def (HD) camcorder market started heating up, most recently with Creative Labs' VadoHD.

I ordered on Monday, 12/8/2008, the day they were offered on Creative's website... 720p for $200 delivered, and in a form factor that's about the size of my iPhone?!?  Sure, don't mind if I do!

So by Friday, 12/12 when I didn't recive any shipping notice, I emailed customer service. 

"We were expecting to have the Vado HD's in our warehouse on the 8th, however, there was a delay in the delivery. We received them yesterday and immediately shipped out the orders."

OK, no sweat.  I received the VadoHD tonight, and immediately put it to use with the requisite cat snaps.  Luckly, Chairman Meow (aka Evil Kenny) was feeling camera happy.  However the results were less than encouraging upon reviewing via included HDMI cable to my 1080p 40" Bravia: Two dead/stuck pixels, about two pixels apart, near the center of the screen.  Stuck on green.  I hate green.

Of course, you can't see the dead pixels on the YouTube vid:

I am a digital photographer and archivist.  At work, my digital photography workflow is largely dictated by a multi-user networked environment. In addition to myself, I have at least one (sometimes as many as three) people adding and editing metadata on a collection of over 45,000 images, growing at a rate of 1,000 images weekly.

Adobe Lightroom won't work because it cannot handle more than one person editing photos and metadata at a time.  Lightroom also doesn't particularly play nice with networked volumes, either.  Our tool of choice was iView Media Pro (IVMP), but that puked once our collection reached around 30,000 images (it cannot handle a database larger than 2GB, including thumbnails).  IVMP also isn't really a multiuser editor, we used it via Remote Desktop (RDP) on the server, allowing one person at a time to do work.  It was really kludgy and I was rather happy when it broke.

Now, we are using IDImager, a very reasonably-priced photo metadata editing and import/export package that is truely multi-user, via a database backend.  It feels slightly laggy at times, but it is fantastically aware of external metadata changes (made via Bridge, for example).
 
Anyway, back to my personal digital photography workflow, which I have largely ignored over the past year as we refine things at work. It should be much easier to deal with, at least in theory.  With my recent purchase of a MacBook, I am taking a fresh look at my own personal work habits.

Goals:

It looks like I'll have to add a new tagging keyword for blog posts:  Mac.

Last Thursday, after years of frustration with the state of Windows operating systems and the poor build quality and support of laptop hardware, I decided to give Apple a shot.

Increasingly, Windows XP has felt like the wrong tool in my digital photo arsenal. From the lack of real DNG thumbnail and metadata editing in Windows Explorer, to kludgy network fileshare support in Lightroom and iViewMediaPro (now Expression Media), I wanted something new. Something easier.  Vista, the current upgrade path offered by Redmond, is what I have been trying out on my Home Theater PC (HTPC) media center. The 10 foot interface in Vista Media Center is arguably the best user interface (UI) Microsoft has ever released, but the desktop feels like a new wrapper on the same old backend that will invariably become more laggy as it ages.

Steve Jobs' strategy of getting iPods and iPhones into the hands of Windows users as an evil gateway drug was a success for me.  I'm drinking the Kool-aid, smelling the coffee, or whatever mixed metaphor you want to use.  After four days and probably 20 hours of use, I completely get it.  OS X's layout is logical, and it makes sense, once you know where to look for stuff, and once you learn the basic operating system and application shortcut keys.

I pitty my wife, pets, friends and family who will now be subjected to those "a-ha" moments and the overall evangelism that will undoubtedly occur over the next few months.  I apologize in advance.

Thanks to my MacGeek friends for helping me on this journey, including MrLint and PJP.  I'm archiving links to the software tools and general infos which I found most useful, in the hope it will help others along the way:

In 2006, after five years with my venerable first-generation TiVo (HDR112), the hard disk died. Thanks to the efforts of the very active TiVo hacker/cracker community, it would be short work to reinstall the TiVo operating system to a new disk. But it's been five years, surely there was a better DVR experience out there. Better graphics and user interface, multiple tuners, ability to recompress/stream recorded content on the fly; All things my old TiVo hardware sadly could never do.

After a few nights of research and an install of MythTV on a spare PC, and after dismissing BeyondTV, I was shocked when I read about Windows XP Media Center Edition. 10' interface, driven by a remote control?!? DVR functionality built on top of a Windows XP operating system! Now we're talking!

Two years later, I decided to finally upgrade to Vista, not for the (terrible) desktop user interface, but for the very elegant Media Center features. More importantly, the ability to receive the non-encrypted digital signals that Time Warner Cable sends for free to its customers, also known as clear QAM.  Of course, installing the Vista 2008 TV Pack (Fiji) broke Orb and DVRMSToolbox, but hopefully they will update their software.

The Ray Pickens Memorial Newbie Net podcast has been accepted by Apple's iTunes Music Store! Ham and non-hams can find and subscribe to the Newbie Net podcast in iTunes by browsing the Technology podcast category, or by searching "Newbie Net", "Ham Radio", "Amateur Radio", etc.

Alternatively, folks with iTunes installed may subscribe to the podcast by hitting this link.

Thanks to Paul K2FX for his weekly efforts in discussing topics of interest to both new and old hams alike, and Brad KB2CHY / RRRA for use of the flagship repeater, K2RRA 146.880 MHz in Rochester.

My computer and technology milestones are usually imprinted on my brain by the purchase of a new hard drive. For geeks that have what I call the "Archivist Gene" (like myself) tend to be digital packrats. We file, store, organize, and keep safe from entropy information because we can. In the case of the lossless live music guys (etree.org, Furthur), we, or at least I, felt a cultural and historical obligation of preserving digital audio. Geographic redundancy just happened to be a happy happenstance. But that's offtopic.

I vividly recall the family's first computer, some 8088 clone, and it's fantastic 20MB harddisk, circa 1988. I think the pricetag was still on the bottom of the drive, $350.

I can remember the joy of having a separate 6GB D:\ drive on my FTP server, sparkle.etree.org, dedicated to sharing only SHN files, back around 1998 or so. I could literally hosts five or six shows at a time!

When hard disks broke the $1/GB barrier around the end of 2002, I can remember telling non-geek friends what an important milestone it was. I remember getting the phonecall from a buddy in spring 2005 telling me to get my ass over to CompUSA because they had 400GB Seagate drives for $150 without a mail-in rebate. Walking out of a store with over 1TB under your arm was a big deal!

As Richard Garriott W5KWQ starts to go through his checklists and rounding up his stuff after a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS), he's still finding time to make contacts and send down the occasional slow scan TV (SSTV) images.

He's really been a fantastic ambassador for amateur radio and space tourism.

Here's a collection of the sights and sounds I've collected during todays passes.

I talked to Richard again during the 12:40 UTC pass, here's the audio (all 19 seconds of it). This time around, he said my full callsign, so I have confirmation it's correct in his logbook.

Below is additional audio I recieved from Richard Garriott aboard the International Space Station (ISS) from today, 21 Oct 2008, while passing over the East Coast of the United States.

I'm new to satellite work, but is it considered bad form to call a bird twice in the same pass? Or each pass? I'd love to hear from the ham community on this.

Audio

21 Oct 2008 12:40 UTC

• AA9LC
• KA1AS
• KE5OIK
• N1LJZ
• N2QDK
• VE3JBL (Another QSO? Going for the WAP (Worked All Passes) award?)
• W0PD
• W8BYC & W3ADO
• W9TRF
• W9VNE
• WA3EOQ

21 Oct 2008 11:06 UTC

Some more slow scan TV (SSTV) images I recieved via amateur radio (145.800 MHz), from Richard Garriott, W5KWQ while aboard the ISS, NA1SS on 20 Oct 2008 while passing over the East Coast of the United States.

I will post more as I recieve them throughout the day. Amateur radio operatiors and shortwave listeners around the world are submitting the images they recieve to the AMSAT SSTV gallery.  Additional reading on this whole crazy thing over on the ARISS-SSTV Blog.

Update 10/19/2008 @ 7p: Here's the MP3 file of Richard Garriott, W5KWQ / NA1SS, acknowledging my call from aboard the International Space Station! Thanks to Doug KC2PCR and the guys over at the Central New York Amateur Radio Association (CNYARA) for getting in touch. It was recorded this morning, 29 Oct 2008 at 13:29 UTC. Since Richard didn't say my complete callsign, only my suffix (QDK, or quebec delta kilo), I'm not sure if this technically counts as a completed contact (QSO). I'm awaiting a ruling from the judges.

On Friday when I was preparing Amateur Radio Newsline for playback on the K2RRA repeater for Sunday night, I heard a story about Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, the sixth private citizen to fly with the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) for a short-term mission on the International Space Station (ISS). He was to become the first second-generation human in space, and, following in his father's footsteps, make amateur radio contacts while aboard the ISS.

While I have no experience tracking or making satellite voice or slow scan TV (SSTV) contacts via amateur radio, I had the requisite hardware to give it a go. So I started following the passes of the ISS via the web, downloaded Mmsstv software to the laptop to decode the data, set my Yaesu FT-857D to the downlink frequency of 145.800 MHz, and hoped the Bozak 2 Meter vertical antenna would be enough to receive the bird. The typical setup to communicate with passing satellites is a directional beam antenna pointed towards them. During the first pass at 9:00 AM local time (13:00 UTC) 18 Oct, I was shocked to receive the image to the right.

I just posted some snaps from the Porter, Batiste, Stoltz featuring Page McConnell show at Revolution Hall from 9/24/2008.  A very funky time had by all!

A very apt show to get my feets wet with shooting live music again.