tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22665156140064953212024-03-20T11:53:20.759-07:00Karl Uppiano -- EngineeringKarl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-53852784793661536702023-01-20T21:51:00.005-08:002023-01-25T18:53:38.142-08:00WxService Update Available<p></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><ul style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></ul><p></p><h1 style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">WxMonitor ow4j230125</h1><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Switched to darker gray background for wind image display. Darker gray provides better contrast and readability.</li><li>Display wind direction when wind speed is zero. Users would like to know which way the wind vane is pointing even if the wind isn't blowing.</li></ul><div>(<a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j230125.zip">Download...</a>)</div><p></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-5459907516495864722022-02-21T18:45:00.002-08:002022-02-21T18:49:40.351-08:00WxService Update Available<h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>WxService ow4j220221</b></h3><div><ul><li>Updated to OWAPI 1.2 (One-Wire API 64 bits)</li></ul><h3><b>WxMonitor ow4j220221</b></h3></div><div><ul><li>Switched to default Java platform look & feel (from system L&F)</li></ul><div>System look & feel was too unpredictable between Windows, KDE and Gnome desktops. Using default Java makes it look the same everywhere (it looks like Java everywhere).</div></div><div><br /></div><div>(<a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j220221.zip">Download...</a>)</div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-24386146911435458202022-01-17T15:33:00.003-08:002022-01-17T15:33:33.802-08:00COVID Vaccine Risk AssessmentDr. Campbell goes over the official COVID vaccine health risks, and then describes one specific way to avoid risk: Aspiration (pulling back the syringe to check for blood before injecting). Aspiration will indicate whether the needle has entered a vein or artery, which dramatically increases the risk of adverse effects. Note that Denmark is the only country with aspiration as part of the protocol. Not the UK, and not the US. <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7QVAXZPNaMI" width="478" youtube-src-id="7QVAXZPNaMI"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-35552346656574309452022-01-16T16:04:00.006-08:002022-01-16T16:07:48.052-08:00End of the Line for COVID?<p>UK Physician Dr. John Campbell has been analyzing the actual data on his YouTube channel. He seems to be more objective and informative than the mainstream media. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="325" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U3W84wb5jKo" width="486" youtube-src-id="U3W84wb5jKo"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">How long will it take public policy to respond to the actual data? The writing has been on the wall for quite a while, but mandates remain in effect.</div><p></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-19889151939655542382021-10-02T12:42:00.007-07:002021-10-02T12:42:57.662-07:00Journalists and Research Grant Grubbers Setting the Wrong Expectations<p>These people ought to be ashamed of themselves. </p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJ4W1g-6JiY" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-85941721910169890502021-09-22T23:40:00.010-07:002021-09-23T23:24:02.977-07:00WxService Update Available<h3 style="text-align: left;">WxMonitor ow4j210922</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Modified Wind Image rendering for faster updates</li></ul><div>When WxMonitor is downloading the backlog of data from the previous 12 hours on startup, it animates the display so you can see what transpired while you were away. However, the Wind Image display takes quite a lot of resources to animate at the full incoming data rate, so I made it update at 10 frames per second. It still looks smooth and you can see everything. The full dataset still gets pushed through all the filters, so the highs and lows are accurately recorded. The goal is to get to real-time data display quicker.</div><div><br /></div><div>(<a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j210922.zip">Download...</a>)</div><p></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-22532775411436308452021-08-21T13:44:00.005-07:002021-08-21T13:45:28.561-07:00Physics Isn't PrettyBeauty should not be an objective for a scientific theory. I think the idea of beauty comes about when we look at a successful theory, and its elegance and its consistency with nature strike us as beautiful. Sabine gives us a summary of the state of physics as it exists today. <br /><div><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OFZpo9IyjqA" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-73983560030420454282021-07-30T22:51:00.002-07:002021-07-30T22:52:24.788-07:00Boston -- More Than a Feeling<p>We were in the depths of disco hell in 1976. I was a sophomore or junior in college, and most pop radio was just a pain to endure. Even Paul McCartney & Wings were jumping on the disco pukewagon. </p><p>But there were a few bright spots: Heart, Queen and Boston. In the midst of all the same-tempo repetitive disco drivel, along comes this amazingly well recorded, sophisticated music -- harmonically, sonically, and the vocals were just superhuman. </p><p>I was (and still am) an audiophile, and even on heavily compressed & peak limited FM, this song sounded great. Maybe Tom Scholtz mixed it for the FM medium. I don't know. But it was one of the few times commercial FM radio actually sounded like high fidelity.</p><p>Producer Rick Beato lays it out for you. By the way, Rick's 12-string acoustic sounds gorgeous in this video.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ynFNt4tgBJ0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>I'd like to have lunch with Rick Beato sometime. What a musical mind.</div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-44047531496624846812021-07-30T15:43:00.009-07:002021-07-30T16:53:03.897-07:00How to Use Auxiliary Storage on Windows<p> A lot of newer development and desktop Windows machines are equipped with a barely adequate solid state drive (SSD) as the system drive, and an auxiliary hard disk drive (HDD). Out of the box, Windows is barely aware of the auxiliary storage. There's a drive letter, but that's about it. If you want to actually <i>use </i>the HDD, you have to manage it yourself.</p><p>You can tell Windows to change where new content is saved, and it lets you select your 'other' drive(s), but that can cause other problems. First off, it doesn't seem to follow the /Users/username/Documents pattern, but rather just goes /username/Documents. So finding things is confusing. It doesn't change your home directory, so if you open a command window, it will be in e.g., C:/Users/username. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo47PEjg_9zlDV60AMBOrLxMczuBv0KpQ5qJovQY3M6WxqxmiAlkJrbDQsegWXbYpIAREkFHn4sHVETRugjCV4tPMuV-tW_7u6zHq16E8Bjbo_JofdMPbFs2eM4UvlYtRc9Yvpf33Sdvw/s886/SaveContent.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="648" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo47PEjg_9zlDV60AMBOrLxMczuBv0KpQ5qJovQY3M6WxqxmiAlkJrbDQsegWXbYpIAREkFHn4sHVETRugjCV4tPMuV-tW_7u6zHq16E8Bjbo_JofdMPbFs2eM4UvlYtRc9Yvpf33Sdvw/w293-h400/SaveContent.png" width="293" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Start Menu > System > Settings > Storage</td></tr></tbody></table><p>This feature actually seems to make matters worse. I would much rather that Windows copy all user data to a new location (wherever that is), and create a symbolic link in the original location that points to the new location. That would prevent existing apps having to be updated with the new location. Windows could keep the same C:/Users/username, but it would go to the new location.</p><p>A lot of apps will keep saving their user data in C:/Users/username. Some of them put <i>lots </i>of data in there. For example, Netbeans, Audacity, Maven, Office 365...</p><p>The Windows file system has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_links">symbolic links</a>. A few different kinds, but for this discussion, you want a 'junction'. You might be tempted to copy your entire C:/Users/username folder to another drive, and create a junction to it. I think it would probably work, for the most part, but I have heard of problems with this approach. A better solution would be to create links to specific folders that are notorious for hogging a lot of space. </p><p>For example, the Maven repository, .m2, can become incredibly large, since it contains the downloaded libraries of all the dependencies for software projects. I moved it to D:/Users/username/.m2 (D drive is my HDD, and I just mirrored the '/Users/username/' part, for consistency). I could have told Maven where I want the .m2 repo to go, but I have several tools that use Maven, and between installs and reconfigurations, I invariably find .m2 on my C drive. It's easier just to make a junction and forget about it. Then everyone gets the same standard configuration.</p><p>OneDrive has to get into the act, and it can really discombobulate things. OneDrive sees your standard 'libraries' (Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Pictures, Music, Videos, etc., and literally <i>moves </i>those from their usual location, to inside the OneDrive folder. I'm not kidding: if you go to C:/Users/username/Documents, and OneDrive got ahold of it, your Documents folder will be empty. </p><p>This can cause confusion, and still hog the C: drive. But don't use a junction for OneDrive. The recommended procedure is to go into your OneDrive account settings, and tell OneDrive to unlink the computer. Once OneDrive logs you out, copy the OneDrive folder to the desired new location. Then 'set up' your new-old account, and tell OneDrive where you want it to keep your stuff. When OneDrive warns you that your specified location already contains data, just say not to duplicate it.</p><p>I think an even better approach, if OneDrive has finished syncing, is to sign out of OneDrive and just delete the old OneDrive folder. Then log back in to OneDrive and tell it to use the new (empty) location. OneDrive will simply download all your content from the cloud. </p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-72058927359251006292021-07-28T19:10:00.002-07:002021-07-28T19:10:12.339-07:00Correlation Does Not Imply Causation, and We Have Very Little Correlation at That<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwqIy8Ikv-c" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-45709123595686709682021-07-24T12:09:00.006-07:002021-07-24T12:10:40.141-07:00Falsifiability is King<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f23eWOquFQ0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><div>Note: philosophy and science used to be considered about the same thing in Newton's time. </div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-30449647541298365842021-07-17T11:06:00.001-07:002021-07-17T11:06:40.188-07:00The Big Giant Piano<p>Ever since I was a baby, my grandparents had a baby grand piano sitting in the corner of their living room. While I was growing up, I used to noodle around on it from time to time. One thing I noticed was that the middle of the keyboard sounded very musical, but the bottom octave basically just growled. It was hard to tell which note was being played. Each note sounded different, but the actual pitch was indistinct. </p><p>It wasn't a bad piano. It's just that the bass strings were too short to sound the fundamental very well. And uprights and spinets, well, forget about it. The problem is made worse by the fact that the hammers hit the strings close to the bridge, which tends to excite more harmonics than fundamentals. </p><p>Even concert grands lack really clear fundamental bass notes. It's basic physics, captain. </p><p>When I was in high school, I learned to play 'Joy to the World' by Three Dog Night on our family's little Wurlitzer Spinet. I didn't think anything of it, until one Christmas, I was at my Great Uncle's house, and he had a concert grand in his living room. (He was a session musician in Hollywood, so of course he did!) I sat down at that piano, and started pounding out JTW by TDN. I was blown away by how good it sounded on that piano. For $40,000.00 in 1960s dollars, it better sound good!</p><p>Well, here's a piano that would put that tinkle box to shame! Fundamental bass, baby! It's all about that bass.<br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sOILiAIwwFM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<div><br /></div><div>Oh and JTW by TDN, yeah. This is how boy bands sounded when I was a teenager...</div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kyI1OImD7ow" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/alexander-piano-longest-in-the-world/">Here's the story about that fabulous piano, by the way</a>. </div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-13618682574926118452021-07-11T15:41:00.002-07:002021-07-11T15:41:42.706-07:00Why the Alleged Gluten Pandemic?<p> I thought this was interesting. It wasn't a problem when I was growing up.</p><p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5FpdqsBntNM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-19052043153900014982021-06-29T22:56:00.007-07:002021-06-29T22:56:40.962-07:00I'm Just Putting This Here for Reference<p>Whenever I need a short refresher on the fundamental particles of the standard model, I always have to track down this video. Now I'll have it until it scrolls off my backlog.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="316" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mYcLuWHzfmE" width="481" youtube-src-id="mYcLuWHzfmE"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-21416997221893541022021-06-29T20:49:00.002-07:002021-06-29T20:49:27.859-07:00One of the Best Explanations and Demonstrations of the Double Slit Experiment<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">His description of superposition and the 'wave function collapse' finally explained in a way that doesn't defy reason. The wave function is a prediction, and a prediction is pointless after the fact. It doesn't mean physics or reality has changed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="278" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h53PCmEMAGo" width="481" youtube-src-id="h53PCmEMAGo"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-74826873877091387122021-06-26T18:19:00.005-07:002021-06-27T20:00:40.754-07:00This Will Blow Your Mind. And Then AI Will Read It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rA5k2S8xPK8" width="482" youtube-src-id="rA5k2S8xPK8"></iframe></div><br /><div>Remember George Harrison's song from Yellow Submarine, "It's All Too Much"? Well, this is all too much. I didn't think I would like this, and I still don't, totally. But the technology really is interesting.</div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNC_0runs0nyhFpoZH7IK9aUO53deT9lWNJ1letjhMN2S4kPsCsn_T2W538DFqz2-G4RlEPLYXFww2DXitcoqpDbF5c87_BL-TgygPs8XhCCje357jq9XMzNX1p3ftVNqRNqa2jZU0n7E/s1200/SpocksBrain.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNC_0runs0nyhFpoZH7IK9aUO53deT9lWNJ1letjhMN2S4kPsCsn_T2W538DFqz2-G4RlEPLYXFww2DXitcoqpDbF5c87_BL-TgygPs8XhCCje357jq9XMzNX1p3ftVNqRNqa2jZU0n7E/w400-h210/SpocksBrain.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Brain and brain! What is brain?</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-3783851410496460302021-06-26T12:00:00.005-07:002021-06-27T19:57:25.347-07:00A Day Late, and a Dollar Short<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOM4wRNlSbd9QraJqyMt_BGz_pxpu1eVuaXiaf4W_mX4wiNMcf_TtoKJCUmrpW5bnoFxlhoqPZofw64AyILsUFnOj74LSLbVP7KCocm-cIVW5V6Lg1QRf1xyrAHLmrmZNXIo77OI2OU0/s1500/DarkSideOfTheMoon.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOM4wRNlSbd9QraJqyMt_BGz_pxpu1eVuaXiaf4W_mX4wiNMcf_TtoKJCUmrpW5bnoFxlhoqPZofw64AyILsUFnOj74LSLbVP7KCocm-cIVW5V6Lg1QRf1xyrAHLmrmZNXIo77OI2OU0/w200-h200/DarkSideOfTheMoon.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>How many of you have grabbed a handful of CD jewel cases to go in the car, and when you open them up, one or more of them are empty? So annoying. My invention would be to have some kind of window in the cover art, so you can tell at a glance if your CD case has a CD in it. <div><br /></div><div><div>This didn't seem to be as much of a problem with record albums, perhaps because vinyl records were less portable in the first place, and a record sitting on your turntable was pretty obvious. But a CD pretty much disappears into your CD player drawer. </div><div><br />It's too late now, since CDs have become more or less obsolete anyway, and millions of CD cases already don't have my brilliant invention. Too bad. So sad.</div></div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-5829124119187379512021-06-26T10:44:00.009-07:002021-06-27T20:06:45.310-07:00Tau Day 2021<p>If you've ever struggled with trigonometry, or wondered why we always use 2π for engineering, physics and calculus, it's because π is half as big as it needs to be. We used the wrong definition for the circle constant. If you haven't seen this video before, you're in for a treat.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="331" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H69YH5TnNXI" width="512" youtube-src-id="H69YH5TnNXI"></iframe></div><p>His coverage of Euler's identity actually brings tears to my eyes. It is so elegant. Okay, I'm a geek.</p><p>All joking aside, I think the choice of π=C/D is one of the worst and most profound cock-ups in all of mathematics and geometry. And the reason is simple. Diameter is not a fundamental property of the circle. The radius is. </p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-41734068284713622912021-06-25T23:08:00.004-07:002021-06-27T20:08:05.673-07:00Most Annoying Computing Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="317" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HuF4NfU0k3Q" width="481" youtube-src-id="HuF4NfU0k3Q"></iframe></div><div><p> I think this guy hits the nail on the head, although I would add two more.</p><p></p><ol><li>Micro HDMI is bad enough, but micro USB is at least as bad. You can lose the function of an entire smartphone if your phones micro USB socket goes bad. </li><li>Those infernal pop-over pop-ups on websites. You know the ones: you start reading the article you came to read, and about ten seconds in, the screen darkens, and some bloody annoying advert, or sign-up, or rating form pops up, obscuring your view of the content you're in the market for. This one's a deal breaker for me. I invariably dismiss the dialog while deliberately not reading it, and sometimes, I'll simply hit the back arrow, or close the tab entirely. They have actively lost at least one pair of eyes.</li></ol></div><p></p>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-30856337023112821972021-03-15T20:55:00.004-07:002021-06-27T19:44:13.529-07:00WxService Update Available <h3 style="text-align: left;">WxService ow4j210214</h3><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Updated to 64 bits OWAPI library by default</li><li>Java 11 LTS support</li><li>Single executable jar (all self-contained dependencies)</li></ul><div>Everything else is pretty much the same as it ever was... same as it ever was... because over the years, the code has just become pretty solid, and there's no reason to change it further.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>(<a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j210214.zip">Download...</a>)</div>Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-32353957336574761662019-09-22T11:09:00.003-07:002021-06-27T19:47:36.303-07:00Neutrinos Have Mass! (And Not Just on Sunday)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="675" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVI1pdSiBrmJlhi5aWVDqcS-FZemQOl9p_7-5ch9zliyVZpDP5VOZE5fDifoYxG2JfYqMl46bzvIVk4vZJHaZ9ZKUxICMrIcSxArEPn2ZDE1kQAcG_U4QcfAMWfu_jCa5uU2ThJkUrjs/s320/FirstNeutrinoEventAnnotated.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory</td></tr>
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We used to think neutrinos were massless, because from what little we knew about them, they appear to travel at the speed of light. Massive particles cannot do that, because it would take infinite energy to accelerate them that much.<br />
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Neutrinos don't interact with matter very much at all. It has been estimated that a ball of lead the size of our solar system would only affect about half of the enormous stream of neutrinos emitted by the sun each second. Those babies fly through everything at nearly the speed of light, as if it were nothing. Consequently, they're very hard to measure.<br />
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Somehow, we figured out that <a href="https://neutrinos.fnal.gov/types/flavor/">neutrinos come in three flavors</a>: electron, muon, and tau. Yeah, whatever. They just do. And yes, particle physicists call them 'flavors'. But recently, scientists discovered that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_oscillation">neutrinos can change flavors on the fly</a>. Apparently, this can only happen if neutrinos have mass.<br />
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This is the part that mystifies me. All the articles I've read simply say that the ability to change flavors requires (or implies) that neutrinos have mass, but they don't say why. That's understandable, I guess, when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_oscillation#Theory">the explanation looks like this</a>. I'm going to have to study mass eigenstates for a while, I guess. Yowsa!<br />
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Recent experiments have <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/new-neutrino-experiment-results-give-us-a-better-idea-of-the-ghost-particle-s-mass">established the maximum range for the mass of a neutrino</a> at about 1eV. This is still a miniscule mass-slash-energy, and neutrinos of such a small mass can still move so fast that for all intents and purposes, they appear to be moving at the speed of light. The difference is negligible, and neutrinos are hard to measure anyway.<br />
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It's a strange, strange world, quantum physics is. A great deal of it has been experimentally verified to very high precision, with reproducible regularity. But if you're into weird, you can't make this stuff up.Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-89077184281669833802019-02-25T14:18:00.005-08:002021-06-27T19:48:03.419-07:00Space Aliens Cannot Hear Our Radio Broadcasts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjse7TeBk7m8CuYje8FB8iDPKIg-sITIReBcMfxa0w0rTwbhJTImN_7aPN2Q3PTiPT4LP7jxOe0ce0V2PQiRZjoXVtMkNm68G4Qjff6IkGv7t0XE_AgGyomu3TEraqHVTLYw37ZOhyP-44/s1600/rko.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjse7TeBk7m8CuYje8FB8iDPKIg-sITIReBcMfxa0w0rTwbhJTImN_7aPN2Q3PTiPT4LP7jxOe0ce0V2PQiRZjoXVtMkNm68G4Qjff6IkGv7t0XE_AgGyomu3TEraqHVTLYw37ZOhyP-44/s320/rko.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teBV0EoJJY8">Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft</a> was a song by Klaatu and popularized by the Carpenters way back in 1975. It explored the idea that we've been broadcasting radio signals for about 100 years, and those signals are now about 100 light years away. The idea being that remote intelligence could be eavesdropping on our goings on by listening to these broadcasts. Classical, jazz, swing, rock'n'roll, The Honeymooners, Lucy, Star Trek, General Hospital, Mary Tyler Moore, Friends, Seinfeld, and so on.<br />
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Except none of that is even remotely possible. A spacecraft orbiting our earth might be able to pick up short bursts and squawks, if they knew the details of our modulation schemes. Maybe analog AM and FM would be decipherable, but digital is highly unlikely. What's more, our terrestrial commercial broadcasts are designed for terrestrial pickup. A very small amount of power is accidentally beamed up into the sky, and even less makes it outside of our atmosphere. The ionosphere reflects most of it back to ground. But it gets worse. Anyone outside earth orbit would receive a hodgepodge of signals from all over the planet: nothing but a scramble of noise and interference.<br />
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We do beam some signals out to satellites, spacecraft, and once upon a time, to men on or near the moon. But those transmissions are beamed specifically at the target, with tracking antennae. And remember, the earth is spinning on its axis. The radio signals we beam out sweep across the sky as the earth rotates. The farther away it gets, the faster it sweeps. So someone 100 light years away would only get a blip of a single station for a fraction of a second every 24 hours. If they were trying to listen to a conversation, or a newscast, let alone decode our picture format, forget about it. If they could receive us at all, we'd look like a noisy radio source; a pulsar.<br />
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Keep in mind that our signals would get weaker and weaker as the beams spread out, the further they get from earth. Besides, there would be natural and alien made interference near the alien's receivers that would drown out our feeble squawkings.<br />
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The idea that anyone could actually receive, decode and listen to our stupid broadcasts is absolutely ridiculous. That's why I cannot take anything Carl Sagan says seriously.<br />
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<br />Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-76107145407129150932018-07-22T21:14:00.003-07:002021-06-27T19:45:01.709-07:00WxService Update Available<h3>
WxService ow4j180316</h3>
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<ul>
<li>Modified WxMonitor display to make the wind vector easier to read, and display peak wind speed as red dots, while the average speed is still a blue vector. The direction is now a white line on a gray background. </li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 15.4px;">(</span><a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j180316.zip" style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #898989; font-family: georgia, utopia, "palatino linotype", palatino, serif; font-size: 15.4px;">Download...</a><span style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 15.4px;">)</span></div>
Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-83959620900194918982018-05-30T14:53:00.003-07:002021-06-27T19:48:31.616-07:00WeatherBug Personal Weather Stations Phased OutWeatherBug was purchased by EarthNetworks, and the personal weather stations WeatherBug Backyard system has been phased out. 1-Wire Weather Service for Java has not deleted support for reporting in this format, but there is no longer any reason to attempt it.<br />
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If your 1-Wire system is reporting errors while attempting to send weather data to http://data.backyard2.weatherbug.com/data/livedata.aspx, you can remove the weatherbug formatter from wxservice.formatter.task.names and apply your changes.<br />
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For more information, see <a href="https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2749.0">Changes to the WeatherBug Backyard/Earth Networks PWS Program</a>, and <a href="https://www.earthnetworks.com/weatherbug/">What Happened to WeatherBug?</a><br />
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1-Wire Weather Service for Java includes support for CWOP NOAA MADIS, so you can migrate your backyard reporting over there if you wish. Most of the default settings are already configured, so all you need to do is obtain a station ID <a href="https://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=2749.0">as described here</a>, and configure your station ID, latitude & longitude, and add the aprs formatter to the formatter task names.<br />
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Changes to the WeatherBug Backyard/Earth Networks PWS ProgramChanges to the WeatherBug Backyard/Earth Networks PWS Program</h3>
Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266515614006495321.post-14927903323803246692017-12-10T11:42:00.006-08:002021-06-27T19:48:45.780-07:00WxService Update Available<h3 style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
WxService ow4j171209</h3>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Modified WxMonitor wind vector display to clean up a problem I've had since day one with 'crawly' wind direction display. The problem is, even when I retain precision and round properly, trying to display a short direction indicator line on the outer circle, the graphics resolution simply isn't good enough to draw a line with the proper slope and length. When I draw a line at the full radius, the problem goes away, because the resolution error is spread out along the full length of the line, instead of a short line segment. This is easiest to visualize if you imagine a two-pixel length line. The length and slope errors become overwhelming. When the line is thousands of pixels long, the length and slope errors are usually negligible. </li>
<li>Changed the way WxMonitor displays UI updates. The monitor will now 'animate' each sensor update, instead of coalescing them. This improves the behavior for historical markers, such as the wind vector memory. It is also entertaining to watch the last 12 hours of data being animated when first starting WxMonitor. </li>
<li>Modified the default command line behavior. The backlog default is now set to 12-hours, and the polling interval default is 5 seconds. If these values are acceptable to you, there's no need to specify anything on the startup command except for which weather server you want to connect to.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 15.4px;">(</span><a href="http://uppiano.dynalias.net:8081/wxservice/download/ow4j171209.zip" style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #898989; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 15.4px; text-decoration-line: none;">Download...</a><span style="background-color: #eff8ff; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 15.4px;">)</span></div>
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Karl Uppianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857875236624845139noreply@blogger.com0