time to pull the plug

This is a subtitle. There are many like it, but this one is here.

go-libnecpp

I’ve been working on a golang wrapper library for libnecpp from nec++, a C library interface for a C++ rewrite of nec2c, which is a C rewrite of the original FORTRAN NEC2. That wrapper is in a pretty good state (although like so many projects not “done”, as such), and you can find it on github at https://github.com/ctdk/go-libnecpp. There are godocs for the library as well. Areas for future work include:

modern-xiafs updated for 4.9.6, 4.10.1

Once again, the modern-xiafs kernel module has been updated, this time to cover kernels 4.9.6 and 4.10.1. (Strictly speaking it was updated a few weeks or so ago, but only now am I getting around to noting that fact.) These kernels each have separate branches (linux-4.9.6 and linux-4.10.1, respectively) that need to be used to build the right module for that kernel. As usual, even if your current kernel doesn’t exactly match one of the kernels modern-xiafs has been built against, a branch that’s close to it may work.

moxoncalc

As a little learning exercise, I’ve written a calculator for Moxon antennas in Java as a command-line utility called moxoncalc. Given a frequency in megahertz and a wire size, moxoncalc will spit back to you the dimensions of a Moxon antenna designed to work at that frequency. By default it includes a diagram of what a Moxon looks like, but there are also optional formats with a short display that merely lists the dimensions of the sides and elements and a JSON rendering of the short display.

modern-xiafs updated to 4.7.10, 4.8.7

The modern-xiafs kernel module has been updated to work with (at least) the 4.7.10 and 4.8.7 versions of the Linux kernel. That code is in the current master, but also lives in the linux-4.7.10 branch. There’s also a small fix for mkfs.xiafs - there was a bug with setting the umask (or, at least, there was a typo in the original program and it was trying to set the umask in a totally obsolete way) that made it so any filesystem created with it would have totally open permissions.

modern-xiafs updated to 4.x series kernels

It’s rather been a while since I’ve worked on the xiafs module, but while I was flying to NYC last week I ended up working on it some on the plane and got it caught up with more the recent Linux kernels. Specifically, kernel version 4.0.9 still works with the 3.16.4 branch, so there were no changes there. Kernel version 4.1.3 and kernel version 4.4.0 had very small updates, so they have their own branches.

Astro Log: December 30th, 2015

Equipment: Orion Skyview 6 Deluxe EQ, Nikon 10x50 binoculars (new item), 32mm TeleVue Plössl eyepiece (new item), 9mm Planetary eyepiece. Previously viewed objects: Messier 42, Messier 45, Messier 31 Not much of a night out, but I did get to try out the TeleVue 32mm Plössl eyepiece I picked up a couple of months ago finally, along with the 10x50 binoculars I got for Christmas. Both were very nice, but while it was a reasonably clear night it was awfully humid.

Astro Log: July 17th-18th 2015

Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope, 55mm, 32mm, 25mm, 12mm TeleVue, 9mm & 6mm Edge-On Planetary eyepieces, Paracorr, 12mm illuminated reticle eyepiece. New objects observed: NGC 6426, NGC 6118, NGC 7142, NGC 5976A, NGC 5981, NGC 2403, NGC 2655, NGC 2715, NGC 6356, NGC 6342, NGC 6217, Previously viewed objects: Venus, IC 4665, Messier 7, Saturn, Titan, NGC 5557, NGC 5866/“Messier 102”, NGC 5907, Messier 31, Messier 32, Messier 110, NGC 404, Messier 33, NGC 6633, Messier 51, NGC 5195, NGC 7000, NGC 7009, Messier 13, NGC 6207

Astro Log: June 7th 2015

Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 55mm, new 9mm & 6mm Edge-On Planetary eyepieces, Paracorr New objects observed: Iapetus Previously viewed objects: Saturn, Titan, Tethys, Dione, Rhea It’s been a pretty brutal time for trying to get viewing time in for a while now. It was finally “clear” last week, so I took the Dobsonian out to try out the Edge-On Planetary 6 and 9mm eyepieces from Orion that I got a while back.

updated bsdgames-osx formula for Yosemite

I hadn’t gotten around to updating my Mac to Yosemite yet, so I hadn’t updated the homebrew formula for bsdgames-osx yet. Happily, though, some enterprising person went and did so. There’s now an updated homebrew bsdgames-osx formula for Yosemite. BINOWN and friends need to be set for bsdmake to work right now, which is why the old formula wasn’t working anymore.

Moving along

I am sad, but also excited, to announce that after 11 years I am leaving Daily Kos and joining Raintank, where I will be working on monitoring software and doing devsy-opsy. It’s been a long and interesting ride at Daily Kos. I went through many election cycles, met lots of interesting people, learned a lot of things, had to solve a lot of difficult problems, and worked with some amazing people.