YBox 2 - DIY Set-Top-Box

Lady Ada has a great reputation for creating DIY projects that are fun and easy to build. A couple of years ago, I built her MiniPOV kit which is a Persistence of Vision toy and I quite enjoyed the project. It was very easy to build with wonderful directions and was a kick to play with too.

Now Ada (working with Robert Quattlebaum) have come up with the YBox 2 kit based on the YBox from the Yahoo Hack day. The YBox2 is a network connected set-top-box based on the Parallax Propeller microprocessor. The YBox 2 supports NTSC or PAL, Ethernet (with DHCP), IR remote, and a network bootloader...and it all fits in an Altoids tin! This looks like it could be a great platform for those looking to learn about the Propeller and you end up with something that's usable...not just a pile of generic parts and a protoboard.

My great new clock. It uses Persistence of Vision to make your eye see a whole clock where only a spining row of LEDs exists. Most cool.

Mary Margret wonders why I wont leave her alone.

It's a dog's life. Tucker enjoys a bit of rest after a hard day of sleep.

Goat country in Lancaster PA

Weather, weather everywhere!

I've been away from blogging the last month or so as my free time has been taken with a couple of new projects...not least of which is launching my new weather station! After hours of research, I settled on the Vantage Pro 2 weather station from Davis...purchased from Ambient Weather. Ambient had a great selection and the best web prices I could find.

Unlike the cheaper (and more widely available) systems from La Crosse and Oregon Scientific, the VP2 makes the step up from hobby/curiosity to semi-professional. What separates these two levels is the precision of their instruments. My goal was to get a system that had enough precision that I could join the NOAA Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP). Through this program, NOAA collects data from weather stations all over the country and supplies the data to weather services and homeland security. There are over 4,500 registered stations world wide...and I'm CW5491...the only station in the northern suburbs of Wilmington, DE. A huge collection of historical information is available for, scientists to study trends in our weather, for homeowners to decide if wind or solar energy is appropriate for their area and for planners to prepare for disasters like chemical spills or terrorist attacks.

Besides the hardware investment, it's necessary to find the right software to do something with all the raw data. I chose a package called Weather Display. Not only does this software help you view your data, but it helps you share the data with others. I currently feed the CWOP, Weather Underground, Anything Weather and my own site. This software makes it so easy to share my data with others. I haven't even begun to tap all of its features...like uploading webcam images in sync with the raw weather data and real-time data viewing.

I've got big plans for the future as well. In addition to what I already have, I want to add a web cam that will display the current weather conditions, a lightening detector (already purchased...I'm just working out the deployment) that can detect strikes out to 50 miles, a heated rain bucket so that I can accurately report snow fall and a solar sensor to accurately detect sunlight levels. All of this is expensive, so it'll have to happen over time, but I think that there are some practical applications for the expenditures as well. With all the monetary pressure that rising fuel prices are adding, I'm serious about finding alternate means to provide heat and electricity. We've already gone to a wood pellet stove to heat our home in the winter, so wind and solar are the big two in alternate energy forms left for us to explore. The data I collect over the next months and years will help us decide if either is appropriate to our location.

AT&T---They're Back

AT&T, Cingular and Bell South are set to merge into a new telecom giant that could bring a huge showdown with Verizon. The last few years have seen some real consolidation in the telcom industry...IMHO due to very poor planning during the .com boom that left many telcoms holding huge debt loads when the .bomb hit. Now, the Baby Bells that were formed when AT&T was broken up have mostly found their way back together in one of the two giants.

The whole idea of the telcoms consolidating is a bitter-sweet pill for me. On one hand, the US cell phone industry is third world compared to Europe and Japan. We have too many competing standards that keep us from truly reaching the potential that ubiquitous communications could bring us. As it is, we have telcoms spending huge sums of money to build cell infrastructure two or three times in the same area to support the different standards. Think what we might have if that money was spent on upgrading instead of competing.

On the other hand though, I'm not a fan of big business consolidating to two or three giants. As we've seen this year in the oil industry, there is just not enough competition to keep them honest. Exxon/Mobil raped the American public for record quarterly profits (while crying about the scarcity of oil and the money grubbing Arabs). Drive down the road and look at the gas prices--chances are, they're within a few cents of each other. If that isn't price fixing , it's at least lack of competition. Our government has shown itself incapable of controlling the oil giants (or more likely they choose not to endanger those huge campaign contributions) so I'm not at all confident that they'll control the telecom giants either. We're already suffering the rising cost of heating our homes, driving our cars and price increases due to the higher cost of shipping goods. The last thing we need are raising telcom prices on top of all that.

I'm not convinced that the good out weighs the bad, but if this merger follows recent history, this merger is a done deal. Open your wallets America.

courant.com | Phone Merger Rings Bells

Pain Management

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I have some serious back problems. I had surgery 4 (almost 5) years ago to repair a disc at L5. After the surgery, I never recovered. I now have scar tissue around the spine that causes terrible pain in my lower back and down my legs into my feet. I've tried injection therapy, spinal cord stimulator twice (inserting a series of electrodes against the spinal cord and passing current through them to over-ride the pain impulses) and a morphine pump (drips a tiny amount of morphine directly into the spinal fluid). None of these procedures was successful so the only way that I can function is to control the pain with narcotics.

I guess this has all made me especially sensitive to politicians who try to portray legal narcotics as a scourge to make political hay. I ran across a like mind recently in Radley Balko, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. Radley writes on many civil liberties issues, including the governments intrusion into the use of legal narcotics. I found this blog entry regarding a district attorney for Middlesex County, Mass who is crusading against the use of legal narcotics because users might get "accidentally" addicted. Radley's response was well thought out and right on the money--so much so, that I had to write a thank you. There is a long way to go, but we have to keep fighting the good fight to keep our civil liberties--glad to see someone fighting on my side.

British Robbers Trained by Hollywood

Well ok, not really. But a break-in to a security depot in Great Britain seems to follow the plot of "Firewall"--the new Harrison Ford thriller. Just like in the movie, the robbers held the depot manager's family to force him to aid their caper. The crooks posed as police and stopped the manager on his way home from work. Another group went to his home and took is wife and young child into custody.

At 1:00am, they forced the manager to open up the depot for them. They spent 75 minutes loading up a truck with a boatload of money and made off. So far, I've heard estimates of 25($59.23) and 40($94.78) million pounds. If confirmed, this would be the largest bank robbery in UK history.

Unfortunately, the depot manager was no Harrison Ford and he hasn't tracked down and disposed of the criminals behind the robbery. I guess the robbers are training with Hollywood, now we just need the good guys to get the same training.

• Top News Article | Reuters.co.uk


• The Age: Fake Police Grab Huge Haul


• The Courier-Mail: Armed Gang Steals $59.6m

UPDATE: The police in GB are now saying that as much as 50 million pounds were stolen and that the cash would weigh around 900 lbs. ABC is reporting that an arrest has been made an more arests are coming shortly.

$118m stolen in Britian's biggest heist

Space Elevator Progress

Space Elevators have long been the purview of science fiction authors, but maybe the reality isn't too far from catching up. The LiftPort Group conducted a second round of tests this month in the Arizona desert where their prototype climbing machine was able to top more that 1500 feet. That's a long way from orbit, but a definite step in the right direction.

The idea of creating an elevator that would allow easy, cheap access to Earth orbit is very compelling. Instead of spending thousands of dollars per pound to push materials to orbit via rocket boosters, thousands of tons could be lifted in via elevator for a tiny fraction of the cost. This could be the true gateway to the stars for humanity. Prices could drop far enough to make space tourism something besides a rich mans distraction. How about a hotel and casino with an Earth view?

There are, however, a number of obstacles to be overcome. First, the tensile strength of a material capable of holding up under its own weight from such a height is beyond most of our current materials. Some materials, such as carbon nanotubes, look good for this application, but creating sufficient quantities in a reasonable time is still beyond our current science. Beyond materials, we must consider the social barriers. All too recently, the tallest buildings in the US came under attack and were brought down by terrorists looking to make a statement. What better target could be had than a space elevator? Fly into it, shoot rockets at it, smuggle bombs into the cargo--whatever the method, a space elevator would be at extreme risk.

I'd like to believe that this could all come to pass within my lifetime. I'm 37 (almost 38) now and can expect to live 40 or 50 more years (assuming no accidents or illness cuts it short). Will we be able to hop on an elevator to hotels and casinos in orbit before I'm gone? I sure hope so. Go LiftPort!

LiftPort: News

Office 2007 due by years end

Microsoft has another version of its cash cow franchise--MS Office--due out by years end. The prices are $399 for standard and $499 for professional. There will be a $149 home edition for those who are on a budget.

In another shot across Rim's bow, they also announced that Groove software that they acquired last year will be available as a 'run-it-yourself' option or via subscription for $79/year. RIM is getting hurt whether or not they finally get shutdown. The uncertainty has many corporations looking for an alternative should the worst happen...and when you start shopping, you often buy.

Microsoft in Office 2007 shocker | The Register

Incredible Homeless Home

Police in San Diego have uncovered what I think is one of the most amazing makeshift homes I've ever seen. Inside a culvert designed to handle floodwaters during San Diego's infrequent storms, a homeless couple had made themselves at home by damming off the flow with a waist high masonry wall. In the walled off space, the couple had a TV, VCR and DVD hooked up to battery power, kitchen and pantry and mirror over the bed. Less fancy were the (un)sanitary facilities. But you have to give them credit for ingenuity.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Furnished home found in storm drain
(via Boing Boing)

UN backs terrorists---again

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has released a report that accuses the United States of "torturing" prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay holding facility. They are recommending that the US immediately close the facility.

This would all be meaningful if it didn't come from a council led by Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe. These countries are poster children for human rights violations. Murder, rape, genocide, terrorism...Their list of violations read like a list of man's inhumanities to man. Even now, the UN is requesting US military forces to try and stop the genocidal killing in Sudan's Darfur region.

Now, the UN, led by these paragons of virtue, wants to tell the world that prisoners who are "shackled, chained, hooded, kicked and stripped" are being tortured. Or that prisoners who are on hunger strikes and are force fed are being treated inhumanely. Perhaps these do gooders should be forced to spend some time in the prisons of their own homelands? Or perhaps, they should be subject to questioning by their own police or military? Of course, they probably wouldn't survive to write nonsense like their report.

Once again, the UN would rather take a pot shot at the US than seek justice. The prisoners still held at Guantanamo Bay are enemies of the US...enemies behind acts of terrorism around the world...but largely targeting Americans. As such, they're lucky to be held in an American facility where they're taken care of, given food, medical care and religious freedom. If we treated them the way they treat Americans they capture, they'd all have been beheaded after the first week. In the meantime, perhaps the UN should look to clean their own house before trying to clean ours.

• U.S. Wants Rights Abusers Barred from U.N. Human Rights Council


• UN report recommends closing Guantanamo jail - Yahoo! News


• Annan needs U.S.help with UN force for Sudan

Google (i)Tunes

According to the investment analysts at Bear Stearns, "Google is in the midst of creating its own iTunes competitor." Google has been using the money it raised in last year's IPO to blitz the Internet with new services that have included a news feed reader, desktop utilities, video search, instant messaging and now a competitor to Apple's award winning music download service. With the incredible amounts of cash that Apple is pulling in from iTunes, and with the number of competitors snapping at their heels, it was only a matter of time before Google set their sights on grabbing a chunk of that revenue.

I think that just as important is the huge amounts of publicity and good will that Apple has been garnering from iTunes. Google has been getting the 'darling' status themselves from their dominance in the search market and it puts them in a unique position to attack the 'hearts and minds' of iTunes users. While other music download sites seem to have the "johnny come lately" feel, it seems like a natural extension to Google's push to provide a "complete" web experience.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it's enough to support Bear Stearns' $550 target for Google's stock. How many web companies have been able to hold those kinds of numbers? Not many.


Google May Be Close To Developing iTunes Competitor - Forbes.com

Eminent Domain - Phooey

Governments have historically used eminent domain to re-vitalize areas that might otherwise slip into dis-repair, but recently that same law has been used to let governments throw low to middle income people out of their homes so that private developers can profit.

When I was a kid, my father and I hiked through the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and it wasn't an infrequent occasion when we came across the ruins of a family farmstead or cemetery deep in the park. I later found out that the US Federal Government had moved families out of homes that had been in their homes for generations so that they could set aside the area for a park. Those remnants of peoples lives left a bad taste in my mouth.

Now years later, that same law is being used to let wealthy developers build golf courses, ocean front condos and one national discount brand uses eminent domain to make sure their stores are located in prime locations. I can't imagine that they'd get away with doing the same thing to a wealthy neighborhood where the residents could afford the fees to battle in the courts, but funny enough, I'll probably never find out, because the developers target the low to middle income neighborhoods where folks can't afford the big dollars a court battle would cost.

Probably the biggest travesty to come out of the Supreme Court in recent years was the Court's 5-4 decision to uphold governments rights to use eminent domain to benefit private developers. In response 40 States are looking to limit eminent domain. Now is the time to call or write your State Senator and Congresscritter and tell them that eminent domain for private development has to go.

40 States Re-Examining Eminent Domain - Yahoo! News