iPhone APRS

Steve Dimse, K4HG, the brains behind findu.com, is planning to do a version of APRS for the iPhone. (That might push me over the brink to buy an iPhone myself!)

Here is what Steve posted this morning on the APRSSIG:

Just curious if anyone else will be getting an iPhone at the end of the month.

It seems that Steve Jobs backed off from the closed architecture he initially proposed, and rumors abound that Apple will release an SDK next week at their developer’s conference. I’m an Apple developer, and I will be writing an APRS version to run on the iPhone if it is possible. Whether it is web based or APRS-IS based depends on what the SDK allows. One rumor is that the SDK will be a modification of Mac OS X widget, which does not allow access to ports to connect to the APRS IS stream, in which case a web app will be the only option.

If anyone gets an iPhone and wants to beta test whatever I develop email me privately.

Steve K4HG (steve@dimse.com)

APRS tracking on a cell phone... Would be great for bike races and the like....

iPhone APRS

Several chickens died in a school prank that trashed Tullahoma High School.

Tullahoma police say the high school seniors stole the chickens from a Tyson chicken farm.

Three seniors are now in serious trouble with the law.

Principal Mike Landis said, “This was a senior prank that went way over the top.”

Landis said this is the worst senior prank he has ever seen.

He said, “They took the live chickens and threw them around lockers, put them in lockers. Obviously when we came to school Friday morning, we had quite a mess.”

Police say the chickens were kicked and thrown down the...
...hallways like bowling balls.

Others were stuffed into lockers.

About 13 chickens were killed; others were left bleeding and hurt.

A school surveillance camera captured the gruesome images.

Three Tullahoma High School seniors are charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, burglary and vandalism.

Eighteen year olds Ronnie Dale Glasglow and Paul Andrew Mitchell turned themselves in to the Coffee County Jail Monday morning.

The third senior will face charges in juvenile court.

Robert Taylor said, "I have no idea what would make somebody do that, I really don't."

The surviving chickens are now being cared for at the farm of Public Works employee Robert Taylor.

Taylor said, “All you can say is they were traumatized.”

As for the boys involved no word yet on whether they'll graduate with the rest of the senior class.

Principal Landis said, "Why they would do that? My uninformed opinion is that it’s the work of a disturbed mind.”

The high school hired a cleaning crew to clean up the mess because chickens can spread diseases through their blood and feces.

F()king assholes. I went to high school at THS and find this down right sick. I think that the kids should be held back another year for doing this and not allowed to have anything to do with the school for one year. Also some jail time would be in order. I talked with someone who had kids that go to THS and they said that they used the chickens as bowling balls down the long main hall and stuffed them in groups in lockers. And anyone who knows chickens will kill each other when confined and allowed to move, they panic.

This is the work of some sick kids that need some real mental evaluation before being allowed to return to school and a part of normal society.

Oh and force them to watch the new tapes and video of chickens getting killed for 8hrs a day for a week. Lets toss this to some creative sentencing.

Tullahoma High Students Charged With Animal Cruelty | WKRN.COM

Manchester, TN - Thousands of Ham Radio operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities on June 23rd and 24th. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing
critical communications in emergencies world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio
often called Ham radio - was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of
volunteer hams traveled south to save lives and property. When trouble is brewing, ham radio
people are often the first to provide critical information and communications. On the weekend of June
23rd and 24th, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for
themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Showing the newest digital and satellite
capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be
holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.

This annual event, called "Field Day" is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week"
sponsored by the ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power
supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back
yards around the country. Their slogan, "When all else fails" is more than just words to the hams as
they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any
other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators
across the country participated in last year's event.

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather's radio anymore,"
said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. "The communications networks that ham radio people can quickly
create have saved many lives in the past months when other systems failed or were overloaded.

In the Coffee County area, the Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society will be demonstrating Amateur Radio
at Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park, on June 23 and 24, 2007. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

There are 660,000 Amateur Radio operators in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world.
Through the ARRL, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for the DHS Citizens' Corps,
the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA and thousands of state and local agencies, all for
free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org. The public is most cordially
invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can
even help you get on the air!

Check the ARRL website for a club near you. http://www.arrl.org

Public Demo of Emergency Communications June 23rd and 24th

The richest man in the world can now also claim a degree from the college he dropped out of three decades ago.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivered the commencement address at Harvard University here Thursday, and was awarded the L.L.D. honorary doctorate bestowed upon Harvard's commencement speakers.

"Our speaker is known as the most influential entrepreneur of the personal computer revolution. He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004, 2005, 2006 and again in 2007," said Harvard's interim president, Derek Bok, who presided over the ceremony. Bok then spoke more directly to Gates: "Just think what you could have achieved if you had stayed another two years."

Even though the school has said that it considers him to be a member of the Harvard College Class of 1977, Gates dropped out of Harvard as a junior in 1975 to run Microsoft full time and never got his bachelor's degree.

Gates told the students, many of whom will soon be launching into full-time careers, that work isn't the only thing of significance.

"Judge yourself not on the professional accomplishments but on how well you have addressed the world's inequities, how you have treated people who have nothing to do with you other than a shared humanity," he said.

"...how you have treated people who have nothing to do with you other than a shared humanity..."

What? Can someone tell me what he has done for people "who have nothing to do with you other than a shared humanity?"

Gates to Harvard grads: Pay it forward....

A mushroom found embedded in a 100-million-year-old piece of amber is about 20 million years older than other known mushroom fossils, an Oregon scientist says.

The ancient mushroom is especially interesting because it contains two parasites, one feeding on the mushroom and the other feeding on its fellow parasite.

"I was amazed enough with the mushroom," said George Poinar, a retired entomology professor in Corvallis. "But then seeing the parasites was astonishing. No one has ever seen this three-tier association before."

Poinar, formerly of the University of California at Berkeley, said the mushroom was spotted about a year ago in Burma by Ron Buckley, a registered nurse, photographer and collector of amber fossils from Florence, Ky.

Oldest Mushroom Found, With Parasites

Meraki Networks, pioneer of the first consumer wireless mesh Internet network designed to “unwire the world,” today announced the new Meraki Outdoor repeater and the Meraki Solar accessory, that together can cover entire neighborhoods with Wi-Fi access.

Priced at just $99, Meraki Outdoor can send a signal up to 700 feet. Paired with Meraki’s existing indoor $49 Mini, the Meraki Outdoor repeater can power access for dozens of households sharing one high speed connection. Meraki Outdoor can be easily installed on a wall or even a pole outside the house. It marks another step forward in Meraki’s efforts to change the economics of Wi-Fi access, driving the cost per household of high speed connections to $1 to $2 a month.

Adding the Meraki Solar accessory kit will allow the repeater to broadcast a signal without being connected to any electrical source, making it an ideal solution for any community, even emerging markets where electricity is scant or unreliable. Once connected, Meraki Solar’s power usage can be distributed throughout the day and managed by the Meraki Dashboard service ensuring the repeater is powered during peak usage times. The Meraki Dashboard is a web-hosted management tool designed to make monitoring, configuring, and monetizing a Meraki Network easy and is included with all Meraki products for no additional charge. The solar kit includes a solar panel, battery pack and an outdoor Ethernet cable.

Cool I am thinking about trying to snag one of these to use for internet access in outside garage.

June | 2007 | Meraki

ARRL to FCC: Shut Down "Grossly Noncompliant" Ambient BPL Pilot Project (Jun 1, 2007) -- The ARRL has again demanded that the FCC shut down Ambient Corporation's broadband over power line (BPL) pilot project in Briarcliff Manor, New York. On May 21 the FCC called on the BPL equipment maker and system operator to demonstrate it's complying with all terms of the Part 5 Experimental license authorizing the system, or face possible enforcement action. In a May 31 letter to FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Kathryn S. Berthot, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, contended that it's "long past time that the Commission enforce its own rules," and again objected to the Commission's "inexplicable inaction" in the face of evidence the system is noncompliant. Imlay pointed out that the FCC's May 21 letter made no mention of Condition #1 of Ambient's Part 5 Experimental license.

ARRL to FCC: Shut Down 'Grossly Noncompliant' Ambient BPL Pilot Project

While the FD focus is on setting up temporary portable stations operating on emergency power, stay-at-homes and mobiles also can participate. Since 2003 there has been a special category for stations operating from established Emergency Operations Centers. The goal is to show that we can communicate with one another, no matter what, without the need for any infrastructure. This is a capability that we tend to take for granted, but that is increasingly rare -- and increasingly valuable -- as the world becomes ever more dependent on complex telecommunications systems to cope with daily life. Cell phones are ubiquitous these days, and it's natural to rely on them -- but what do we do when they don't work? Most people have no answer to that question. As radio amateurs, we do -- but only if we keep our batteries charged, our equipment ready, and our operating skills honed.

So look up your local club and get to it. It is fun and educational... and you don't have to be a ham to come and have fun.

Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC Saturday and ending at 2100 UTC Sunday. Field Day 2007 will be held June 23-24, 2007.

It Seems to Us: The Field Day Bug

A Channel 4 viewer’s complaint about a towing company brought that company and its history into focus recently.

On May 18, the judge revoked City Towing's license for good.

Good! They have done this to me before. Here is what gets my goat. PMC (might have been sold recently) is now booting cars which I think is even worse than a tow-in company. Because now there is no legitimate way to tell if you have paid and someone booted your car. You are now at the mercy of someone who could be a low-down ass hat.

Investigation Reveals Towing Company's History

The groups, including Google Inc., startup Frontline Wireless LLC and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. television stations move to all-digital broadcasts.

We need to have a better choice than big carriers eating up all the spectrum. The airwaves are cramped enough...

Groups call for competitive spectrum auction