I have a saying, paraphrasing The Man With No Name: "when a business forgets what business it is in, that business is a dead business."

For example, Polaroid made their money on instant photography - that was their business. They forgot that, and got the idea they were in the self-developing film business, and so chose to ignore the digital photography business, because it wasn't self-developing film. Kodak moved in, and look where Polariod is now.

Likewise, the various intelligence gathering agencies - the NSA, the CIA, the FBI - were in the business of "Protecting America". However, they have lost sight of that, and now believe they are in the "intelligence gathering" business. And just like a miser who just amasses wealth for wealth's sake, and lives in a hovel and eats beanie-weenies, they have lost sight of the idea that the reason we gather information is so we can use it!

Instead, the spooks are so busy "gathering information" that they never share it, nor act on it - "My God man, if we act on this information, we might compromise our assets! We might not be able to gather any more information! No, we will just protect our assets, kept this information secret, and see what happens."

Yes, if the spooks have some double-aught sooper sekret spy stuff that lets them read the bad guys' brains, and they read that a guy is planning on flinging some poo at an embassy, and revealing the intel will compromise the secrecy of their brain scanner, they SHOULD site on the information - flinging poo is not worth losing that intel asset. But there is a world of difference between flinging poo and flinging PETN guys! - screw the secrecy of your "asset" and DO YOUR DAMN JOB!

In short, intelligence agencies: YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT GATHERING INFORMATION - YOUR BUSINESS IS PROTECTING THE US! IF YOU FORGET THAT YOU WILL GO THE WAY OF ANYBODY WHO FORGETS WHAT BUSINESS THEY ARE IN!

And I, for one, DON'T want to see what happens if you should go out of business!

It's a good thing I'm not on any of the several medications that react badly with Grapefruit juice, as it is one of my favorite drinks. However, something I cannot explain has happened: I can't get the stuff here in Wichita!

None of the stores at which I shop are carrying it anymore. I have some left over from my trip to California over the 4th, but that obviously won't last.

Since a statistical sampling of 1 isn't very valid, I'll throw this question out: what about anybody else, can you get it where you are?

Zogger, since you are a bit more plugged in to things agricultural than I, do you have any insights?

Also, the local stores no longer carry the "lots of pulp" versions of the Florida's Natural Orange Juice either.

Maybe the stuff isn't selling (while I buy a lot, obviously I don't buy enough to justify a store carrying it all by my little lonesome).

OK, I think I've been fair in trying out Alpha, but I just don't see it being useful - let me give you my use cases and see what you think:

Use case 1: I wanted to know the change in elevation from Moriarty, NM to Albuquerque, NM. OK, this should be easy for WA, right? "(elevation Moriarty, NM) - (elevation Albuquerque, NM)". Result? "I don't understand your question".

Use case 2: I wanted to know the energy of a red light photon in electron volts. "energy red light photon in eV". FAIL. OK, let's help it a bit: "energy 638nm photon in eV". FAIL.

The sad thing is that Use case 2 was answered by Google on the first question.

So, what was WA supposed to do for us again?

NOTE: "for us", not for "it's hype feeding creator."

I'm looking for a good source for some gears.

Background: I have several antennas on my tower, for various purposes (wideband receive, VHF omnidirectional, VHF directional, HF, etc.). I'd like to be able to switch those onto my radio as desired. Now, there are remote controlled antenna switching boxes out there, but:
1) Most of them are for HF only - not VHF. This is because
2) Most of them use relays to do the switching, and co-axial relays to switch VHF and UHF get VERY pricy.
3) Notwithstanding the use of cheaper HF only relays, most of those switch boxes are DAMN pricey.

Now, compare that with the cost of a simple antenna switch like an MFJ-1702. Simple, relatively inexpensive, good through UHF, good isolation, and not very expensive. However, it is a manual unit, so I'd either a) have to run down to the basement where all the feedlines enter the house and switch it there or b) run all the feedlines into my operating station.

What I want to do is set up a simple gear drive on an MFJ to select the antenna - I'm thinking something like a 3 inch diameter gear on the box, a 120 RPM or so gearbox and motor combination driving the gear, a couple of optical interruptors looking through holes in the gears to provide position sensing, and I should be able to make a switchbox that would do the job. Heck, done right I don't even think it would need much more than a couple of relays and transistors to control it - no microprocessor needed.

But I am having a time finding gears that would do - again, what I'd like would be a gear, preferably metal, about 3 inches in diameter. Anybody got any good sources?

"OK, Mr. Fox, you are applying for the 'Hen House Guard' position, is that correct?"

AP Sources: Obama wants Fed to be finance supercop

Unbelievable.

I am sure this would enrage the various neo-liberals on this board, save it is unlikely any of them are my fans.

The most "liberal" states are the least free.

Well, it looks like I will be able to get to Dayton Hamvention this year - at least for Friday and Saturday.

So, anybody who follows my Journal want to try to arrange a meet-up there?

VP Biden has stated he wants to see Amtrak get money as a part of the stimulus bill.

I agree with him on this - of the various things that are part of this "stimulus" bill, improving our passenger rail system seems to have a better than average probability of improving our nation's ability to be able to pay off the debt the stimulus bill represents - which I assert should be THE sole metric of whether something gets "stimulus" money or not: "Will spending this NOW help us pay it back LATER?"

However, I am cynical enough to wonder how much of the Amtrak stimulus will go for improvements in the areas nearer Washington, DC and Los Angeles, how much will go for improving the long distance rail service through "fly-over" country, and how much will go to helping create passenger rail service here in the unfashionably "red" states - such as helping re-instate the "Heartland Flyer".

I would love to see the AutoTrain service expanded to a cross-country run like the Southwest Chief, rather than just servicing the East Coast as it does now.

However, I am too addicted to oxygen to hold my breath until it happens.

I used to say that the wonderful thing about the GNU software stack was that idea that you could design a brand-new microprocessor, implement a GCC and binutils backend for it, make a few changes to the Linux kernel, pull down the sources, do a "for * in packages; do TARGET=mytarget make all install; done" and have a working set of software for that new processor.

That may be the ideal. The reality - not so much.

Consider what ought to be a very simple case: Build binutils, GCC (C and C++), and glibc for the OMAP3 processor, so that you can cross-compile applications on your nice quad-core i7 CPU box and run them on your Beagleboard.

Ought to be a snap, right? Especially if you are running Debian Lenny on both your workstation and the Beagleboard, right? It ought to be just an "apt-get" away to get the crosscompile packages, no building required, right?

<sarcasm>
Come over to my house - after we do the install I'll show you the ocean view from the high-rises in downtown Wichita. The mountains are really breathtaking.
</sarcasm>
(For the US geographically impaired, look here.)

First of all, you cannot install the GCC cross-compiler for ARM, as the packages are busted right now. (In fairness, these packages are not in the main Debian repositories, but they are in the Embedded Debian repo).

OK, so, let's cross compile.

Building binutils and the first pass on GCC (C compiler only) is pretty straightforward.

Now, go look at all the articles/web pages/books on cross compiling, and you will see them usually pointing you toward ulibC, or other C libraries other than GLIBC. "Yes, so what? They are targeting small embedded systems and GLIBC is so large, plus there are the issues of licensing."

No, that's not the reason. The reason is that building GLIBC in a cross-compilation environment is well-nigh impossible.

First, there is the inconsistency on the cross-compilation setup itself. For binutils/GCC or just about any other package, you specify TARGET="your-target-arch" to say "Yes, I may be BUILDING on an x86, but I'm going to be RUNNING on an armel-linux-gnu". Not GLIBC - there you either specify HOST="your-target-arch", or better still you specify what compiler, linker, library archiver, such you want to use and GLIBC "figures it out itself" (because specifying several different but related pieces of information isn't error-prone or anything like that). Indeed, setting the TARGET= for glibc won't do ANYTHING (not even throw a warning that it won't work). Nice, guys. Way to be consistent.

Then there is the fact that as of glibc-2.7, even when you get that right it WON'T BUILD. You get the following errors:
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/USER/src/arm-linux-gnueabi/build/glibc/dlfcn/libdl.so.2', needed by `/USER/src/arm-linux-gnueabi/build/glibc/elf/sprof'. Stop.

Go ahead, search the web for that error (you'll want to strip out the "/USER/src/arm-linux-gnueabi/build" part as that is specific to where I am building it).

This problem has been around since 2000. This is not a problem that I alone am seeing. Do you see any solutions to the problem listed in that search? I don't.

This is a pretty severe issue. If you cannot build glibc, you cannot build the C++ compiler. You cannot link programs. You are dead in the water.

And don't bother asking on the crossgcc list. I've done so, and I got one basic response - "you can't do that".

Now, there is a tool called "crosstool" that purports to handle all the patching, hacking (in the pejorative sense) and general screwing around to allow you to build glibc. Pity it doesn't have support for the latest compiler and glibc.

Doesn't it say something when you have to have a tool that patches and generally fiddles about to make the glibc compile? Something like "THIS NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP!"?

"Oh, but GLIBC is *special* - it has to know about the kernel, and the C compiler, and lots of other things. It's going to be tricky to build." Tricky, yes - if there were GOOD, step by step instructions on how to build any given revision of GLIBC I could forgive that.

Search the Web - I've not found any.

OK, skip it. Like some of my college professors would say, "Assume the existence of the compiled library." So, let's cross compile some programs.

Nope. While many programs can be compiled on a wide range of architectures, they cannot be cross-compiled at all. They MUST be compiled on the same architecture as they are being built for.

Look at the Openembedded project. They way they purport to work around this is to have "recipes" that tell them how to build given programs - some get cross-compiles, many get compiled under qemu emulating the target processor.

(Not that I've been able to get Openembedded working, either. All my questions have been met with "Oh, the released version of the tool is busted - get the good version from Subversion" Of course, the Subversion version doesn't work either. And we won't talk about the fallacy "Fixed in $REVISION_CONTROL_SYSTEM := fixed" - that's a separate rant.)

Does it seem crazy to YOU to spend the time coming up with kludgey work-a-rounds for broken Makefiles? Why not simply identify the areas in the Makefiles that are making the broken assumption that the CPU that will run the code is substantially the same as the CPU building the code?

"oohhh, but that's *hard* - and some upstream package maintainers won't accept our patches because they don't feel it's important."

In my opinion, what needs to happen is that *somebody* - Redhat, Debian, Canonical, IBM, Google: I don't CARE who! - needs to make cross-compiling a priority. Imagine what would happen if Canonical said "OK, as of Limpid Llama no packages will be accepted for Ubuntu that don't cross-compile successfully for x86, ARM, PPC, MIPS, and x86-64. Just compiling ON those platforms is not enough - you HAVE to be able to cross-compile FOR those platforms from a different platform as well."

Consider the emerging non-x86 netbook market (which also will include things like the Dell asymmetric processor laptops with an OMAP and an x86) - do you REALLY want to have to build all of Debian on an OMAP just to get that platform supported? Shouldn't it be possible to do the builds on a nice many-core i7 box instead?

I think many of us who follow Free Software have fooled ourselves about the state of support for different architectures for far too long. I think that needs to change.

What happens when a Google camera vehicle needs a fill-up?
Google Gets Gas

There's an old comic that appeared in Dragon Magazine, of the DM to the players:
"... and that passage leads to the unfinished part of the dungeon you feel strangely compelled to avoid."

Sometimes you find that on web sites too. And what's more fun than finding such a site on Google?

I backed into a way to find some street level data that evidently is NOT yet linked into the main data base. Here's how to see some of it:

Follow this link - it will set up a route from one of the repeaters I maintain, just outside of Hutchinson, KS, to KCK. The important bit here is that one endpoint of the journey ends where there is a street view available.

Next, make sure you have the "street view" enabled.

Then, re-calculate the route. You should now have a camera icon at the first turn of the route. If you click it, you will be right outside the gate of the site. That's a 1400' tower, by the by, and my antennas are up at 1200'. Also, that road is a muthaphucker of a washboard - I feel sorry for the poor Googlites going down it.

You cannot zoom into the Hutchinson area and keep the street view yet - I'm guessing they are in the process of loading the data and linking it in, and haven't finished yet.

I've found quite a few areas that are in this "Schroedinger's Cat" state - it looks like there is going to be a drop soon.

Looking at the area around my house (no, I'm not giving a link) I've been able to data this sometime last fall (i.e. September to October, 2008).

(Google folks: If you read this, take US160 from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater, and take US166 from Arkansas City to Riverton. We actually DO have scenic roads in Kansas, they just aren't the major ones.)

This is a repost of a story I've put up on Technocrat:

As a variant of the old "tree falling in a forest" question, if a radio DJ blabs for an hour and nobody hears him because he forgot to hit the "Live" button, is he still annoying? Well, an intrepid DJ in the UK has tried to provide an answer.

This is a pet peeve of mine, and I'll address this to the (probably very small) set of DJs that might read Technocrat:

I don't listen to FM radio to hear you yap. I don't care what you think of the previous song, the next song, the weather, politics, the latest Hollyweird scandal, sports, the latest sports scandal, local events, or anything else. I don't care to hear you braying like a jackass over your not-funny "jokes" - no matter how much you horselaugh, you aren't going to make me think the joke's funny.

To put it bluntly: You suck. Every second you talk sucks. If you talk for more than a couple of seconds I will change the channel. If I wanted to listen to talk radio I'd be down on the AM dial. All I want to hear out of your gob is

• The artist and title of the previous "N" songs (where "N" should be larger than 3)
• The artist and title of the upcoming "N" songs
• Any news of critical importance: severe weather alerts, traffic alerts, and matters of world altering importance (hint: if kids won't be studying the event in history class fifty years from now, it isn't important.)
• Station ID *when required by the FCC* (as in, I don't need to hear that I am listening to "Bob FM" every five seconds - I am a man, not a goldfish.)

The only reason I am listening to radio rather than my MP3 player is that I've listened to my music collection until the edges are worn off the 1's. So have a nice frosty glass of shut up and play the next song.

Well, we are T-5 days and counting to Route 66 On the Air 2007, 8th Sept. 2007 to 16th Sept. 2007. I will be out in Riverton, Kansas, representing the fine state of Kansas and reminding everybody that, yes, Route 66 does go through Kansas.

I'll be operating as W6M, an official Route 66 On the Air station. Any Technocrat readers who want to make the trip to The Eilser Brothers General Store, please do!

Also, if anybody cares to head over to Wikipedia and state that you feel that this is at least as notable as every minor character in Yu-Gi-Oh, be my guest.

The frequencies this year are:

. 80 meters | 40 meters | 30 meters | 20 meters | 17 meters | 15 meters | 12 meters | 10 meters | 6 meters
CW 3533 kHz | 7033 kHz | 10110 kHz | 14033 kHz | 18080 kHz | 21033 kHz | 24900 kHz | 28033 kHz | 50033 kHz
SSB 3866 kHz } 7266 kHz } N/A | 14266 kHz | 18164 kHz | 21366 kHz | 24966 kHz | 28466 kHz | 50166 kHz

I'll be operating SSB mostly, probably in 20 meters, but it will depend upon the band conditions. Hopefully, this year I should have a G5RV up about 50 feet for the whole event, rather than operating most of the event on the screwdriver on my car like last year. I may have a few other operators show up as well (I sure HOPE so!), but I'll try to operate as much as I can.

Here's the sponsor's web page, as well as The Wichita Amateur Radio Club's page (my club's page).

I am a professional software engineer. I make my living THINKING - long, hard and deeply. Interruptions are very expensive, and I don't suffer them lightly. Magazines, email, and things like this journal entry aren't interrupts: they are tasks I run when I am blocked on my main tasks (e.g. during compiles and downloads to the target.)

Phone calls, on the other hand, are interrupts. And since I don't know who is calling me until I take the call, I cannot leave that particular interrupt masked most of the time.

As a professional, I can get a very large number of professional magazines free of charge - EDN, EE Times, and the like. They get their money by selling ads, and their revenues are based upon their circulation.

And I have no problem with that - I will look at the ads that relate to my current situation, and ignore those that don't. They don't cost me time.

Now, when a magazine wants me to renew, and sends the renewal form on the front of the magazine, and they pay for postage, then I will renew the magazine if I find it valuable. If I don't find it valuable, and they pay for postage, then I will do them the courtesy of sending them the renewal with a "No thanks".

If they think I am going to chase up a stamp to send the response back to them, they are stupid. I am not going to spend 39 cents to tell them I am not interested - they can infer that from my lack of response.

I *also* do NOT give out my fax number, telephone number, or email to magazines - if they wish to communicate with me, they can do so by the US postal service. Again, I don't want to be interrupted.

Long ago, I decided upon a very simple rule with respect to magazine that call me on the phone about renewals: I cancel them. Immediately. I waste no time on the phone - I say "I'm sorry, I don't take magazines that call me on the phone at work. Goodbye. <click>".

That's a pretty clear "NO", isn't it?

Evidently, not for EDN. They have been calling me about once a week for the past month. They called me yesterday. They got the standard response.

I also decided that the next time they called me I was going to be "smart lazy" rather than "dumb lazy": I would spend more time on the line to insure that I wasted no more time in future.

Guess what happened a few tens of minutes ago? If you guessed "they called me again" then you are paying attention, which is more than I can say for the phone monkeys employed by the company that EDN employs for "circulation retention".

So, I made it very plain that:

1. I had no interest in any magazine that called me on the phone.
2. EDN was such a magazine.
3. I was NOT going to renew.
4. I had so informed them on multiple previous calls.
5. I wanted my name removed from their calling list.
6. I wanted my name and number ADDED to their DO NOT CALL list.

Now, I know how these telemarketers (and that is who I am dealing with, telemarketers) operate. Anything less than a clear "FUCK OFF AND DIE NO I DON'T WANT YOUR CRAP STOP CALLING ME" is ignored - these guys are judged on their "retention rates", and paying heed to a NO that doesn't fit their narrowly defined parameters will hurt those rates.

I don't give a shit about their rates. I said NO. Honor it.

Of course, this being a business line, it is NOT eligible for the Do Not Call list.

So, instead, I will pass this on:

DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO EDN (Electronic Design News).
DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, GIVE ANY "FREE" MAGAZINE ANY CONTACT INFORMATION BEYOND YOUR ADDRESS.
SHOULD THEY GET YOUR EMAIL, FAX NUMBER, OR PHONE NUMBER, TELL THEM IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS TO REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION FROM THEIR DATABASE AND NOT CONTACT YOU AGAIN.

Well, where I work we just bought a new DSP development station, to evaluate a potential chip for our RF signal processing. Any chip that can spit out a 16 million point complex FFT in 43 milliseconds is well worth investigating.

And it was a steal at the price: most such platforms cost several thousand dollars, this one cost less than US$700.

It was really fun, calling our IT department and saying "I need a monitor and network drop for my PS3" and it really being work related.

Now, we just have to get a screen on it and install Linux.