| All | Electronics | Software | Security | Personal | Scouting |
Tue, 13 Dec 2005
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A year or so, I was given a mirror dinghy for free. For those who don't know, the Mirror is a single class wooden sailing dingy. About 11 feet long, and a dream to sail (even for kids)
My friend Peter was the last to sail it with me (just after I brought it home), and I vividly remember him bailing out the water that was coming in through the split bottom seam, while we were sailing back to shore.... Well, the boat only had a little wood rot, so I started the process or repairing it. I have so far replaced - 2 pannels, both gunwhales, and all of the fibreglass tape. and last night, I applied the last coat of paint to the outside of the hull. Next task, now that the front deck is back on, is to replace the fiberglass tape on the top of the deck, cut 2 pieces of ply for the curved part of the front (there is probably a sailling term for that...), and paint the inside. Should be on the water in a week or so. Here are some pictures during the restoration:
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Hmmm Having spoken to Icom, they are unable to get me a new microprocessor for my stuffed IC-2SAT. They do, however, have a replacement 'logic' PCB - Logic Unit PCB Assembly 8888800115 in stock $270 I have emailed them, suggesting that the $270 is slightly outlandish, given the fact that a new dual band radio is available for not much more than that. They are yet to respond.... On a happier front, checkout the http://www.alinco.com web site. Their devices dont cost that much, and sure are feature packed. I suspect that I may give up, and part with about $200 or so shortly, just to secure a decent frequency agile UHF handheld. My Motorola HT220 is crystal bound, and it appears as though the Canberra Ginin repeater is no longer on 438.525. |
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Lots has been hapening that I haven't entered. So the next few entries will be out of order. I purchased an Icom handheld cheaply the other week. It was sold as being faulty. It arived on Friday, and I have spent the last couple of nights working out the problem. I have downloaded the service manual (for the IS-2SET) which is equivalent. So far:- 1) I am getting older. The 1mm x 2mm components are very small - tricky dick sold me a really neat magnifier to sort that out. 2) The PSU is shot. The +5V rail drops to 2.4v when it is on. Truns out to be a shorted diode DA114 and Open Circuit Collector on a PNP transistor - 2SB798 in the PSU. I have substituted normal sized components in the short term, and the PSU voltages come up fine. 3) The Microprocessor oscilator is not running. It's either a) The micro is held in reset, b) the micro is stuffed, or c) the ceramic resonator (800kHz) is stuffed. A couple of quick measurements has confirmed that the device is not in reset, so I will work on the last option. - The interesting measurement is the both of the resonator leads (from the micro) are held at approximately VCC...(4.7 and 4.2v). I was expecting one to be high, and one to be low.... 4) Mouser electronics in the US http://www.mouser.com/ is my friend. They have all of the spares in stock. 5) ICOM Australia is not my friend. They came back to me with some very interesting information - They can provide all of the silicon (except the CPU) at only a couple of dollars each. They can not provide a resonator, nor can they sell me a new microprocessor. (Peter - No, I will not develop a PIC controller for it...) Pleasingly enough, they can provide me with a new micro board for a mere $280.00 Hmmmm. Let me see now, what's a new dual band handheld worth...... No.  We will wait for the new parts to get here from mouser. |
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I was looking at http://www.theregister.co.uk the other day, and came across the story about the UK techo who caused a train station to be evacuated by "wearing a coat, and carrying a bag" see http://www3.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324024.html
Reading his story actually quite frightened me. Especially the bit about the search of his flat... During my life, I have had jobs in various electronics and computing fields. I am a security professional, and have spent many years in data centres owned by various telco's. I am interested in many fields, including crypto, access control technologies, physical security technologies, radio and the like. Let.s have a think about what you could find if you visited my garage (Translated: Male cave...) Ex WA Police UHF handhelds - currently waiting to be converted from 490 MHz down to 430 MHz for the UHF HAM band. Purchased at auction. EX Defence Handhelds - Ditto. Credit card swipe reader - So I can examine security data stored in swipe cards. Purchased at auction. Smart Card Reader / Writer - Silicon chip kit for working with Gold PIC cards. Old Security passes - RFID tags for door access, legitimately obtained by talking to the security guys at an old employer. Waiting for me to write a white paper to prove that access control on most commercial swipe card doors is not as effective as it could be. Never under estimate the effectiveness of the old fashioned brass key. I am working on a PIC based PS/2 key logger. I have lots of reference information, including items like the CIA World fact book, and just like thousands of other Internet users, I have downloaded the "Hackers Handbook", and the "Anarchists Cookbook". You will also find books titled "The problem of Chemical and Bioloical warfare (vols 1, 2, and 3)" and "Propellants and exothermic reactions in solids" - I used to work at the department of chemistry at ADFA, and they were being thrown out. I have a milling machine, various machine tools, and stocks of metals. I pride myself in being able to make and repair most things (Including my loveable EF Falcon station wagon.) I have many chemicals in my garage. Many flamable, and *lots* of chlorine, and I fertilise my garden twice a year. I have worked for universities and served in the defence force. I have camping gear, and if you looked in my cupboard, you might even find the camo gear I was issued with when I served in the RAAF. So, what is this rant about? Where are the lines? What defines a Terrorist? I suspect that the Terrorists may be getting close to winning; they are causing Governments to limit personal freedoms, and to issue laws without the necessary protections, in the name of "Terrorism". If you use the measure of wearing a backpack, wearing a coat, talking on the phone, and failing to make eye contact as a test for .Are you are Terrorist?., then you may make a mistake. How about us amateur radio operators who use VHF handhelds, clearly, we are co-ordinating something big. The actual tragedy happens when you start to forensically analyse hard disks, and discover that your terrorist googled for .Neck, Snap, Break. (Because it was slash-dotted as a story, and you just had to..) If you go to make up a story, then, gosh, there is tons of material you can find. What protections are the Government putting in place to protect people like me who use their garage as a workshop, not for putting a car into? In reality if I were in England, and my house was searched, I would be in exactly the same pile of poo that David Mery is in, perhaps even deeper. My biggest issue is that it appears as though the UK police have not quashed the arrest, they have simply labeled it as "NFA", No Further Action, citing "Insufficient Evidence" -- Well, we arrested you, possibly incorrectly, and could not gather enough evidence to make a case.... Makes you think, doesn't it? The people we have to look out for probably look just like us, and the really nasty ones probably wear overalls, have a lot of gear to deliver and carry a clipboard. I have posted a blog entry with my name and the word terrorist....That's probably enough to set off a couple of alarms somewhere. Am I an activist now? |
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All this working with old handhelds has reminded me that I have a Kenwood TH-205 with a stuffed VHF amplifier brick (M57732L). Unfortunately, that part costs a fortune ($80USD) A quick web search showed that it has been replaced with a new brick called RA08H1317M which is smaller, cooler, etc, etc. I found a NZ Company (http://glyn.co.nz) who will supply them for $20AUS each. Just ordered 2. Wo Hoo, another handheld working |
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Well, It has hapened. I suggested that Sony's little rootkit DRM thing could be used by malicious software: The World of Warcraft cheating system cant find cheats hidden using Sony's software. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/04/secfocus_wow_bot/ Gosh, isn't that predictable. |
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I have just had a great thought... There will be many people who have had systems 'value added' by Sony et all in the new quest for DRM that ensures that your Pee Cee is only suitable for playing media from them (not for use as a general purpose platform) There's money to be made from fixing the problems that they cause. Hmm $80 per time? Mikal.... Is this the step between stealing underpants and profit that you have been missing? |
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I finally have pictures of the Silicon that my sister Suzy designs for a living. She works for the National Telescope, and her most recent toy is a CMOS 400 - 1700Mhz receiver that fits on a tiny wafer. Check it out at: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Suzy.Jackson/NTD_chip_with_match.jpg |
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I was having a look at another blog: http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html Looks like Sony has added a new trick to their DRM war, modifying your PC silently to install their DRM software, and hiding the installation in the process. Looks like we can all releaseviruses that hide under their all to heavy handed cover. I think that I might re connect the old analog CD player connected to the PeeCee via an analog cable into the sound card. DRM that one guys! |
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"http://www.hearnet.com/at_risk/risk_at_risk.shtml" says; "One way to reduce hearing damage is by paying attention to noise levels and realizing when they are too high. According to the United States Safety and Health Standards, workers should not be exposed to more than 90 dB over a period of eight hours. Most audiologists would like to see that standard modified to 85 dB. If you work in a noisy environment, check out the decibel level you are being exposed to and take the proper precautions. Have your hearing evaluated at least once a year by a hearing health professional. Turn down the volume, or remove yourself from the noise area when possible." 92 is pretty close to 90. |
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I have been looking at installing a SUB under the passengers seat of my new car. A quick survey has discovered that most commercial subs are kind of vase shaped, and will *not* fit under any circumstances. In the garage, I have a 10" subwoffer I purchased a while ago for an instrument amplifier. It is much thinner than the subs I am seeing now, so it should fit. What actually worries me is that the Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) that kids today are exposing themselves to are actually quite scary. I did a quick test the other morning (as one does), and discovered that the audio system is comfortably loud at 92db, and uncomfortable at 98db. I have read of 'soundoffs' where they measure 127db +++..... What did yor say... I cant quite hear you..... he? Protect your hearing, it wont come back. Now, to do the research to ses if 92db is likely to damage my already damaged hearing further. |
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I am very carefull when blogging not to blog about every aspect of my life. As a person who used to employ people, I used to use information obtained from blog searches to decide whether to employ or not. [ You get a real insight into somebody, who at 10am is posting on his blog that his employer is an ^%^## and how he thinks that his job is crap] In this particular case, as a thoughtful individual, I make an exception... Those who know me know that I used to work for a Managed Services Provider (MSSP) here in Australia. It was a job that was fun and rewarding, until the management started to do strange things (like fail to pay super, and be tardy with the monthly pays.....) Today I learnt from a friend of a friend or a friend, (the grapevine) that the person who took my job when I left had to be paid 30% more than me.... I never thought of asking for that kind of raise... This is a simple case of do the right thing, and keep costs down, or screw up, and increase costs. I believe that employment satisfaction is not about your raw salary, but about the quality of the workinhg environment. I am with a new employer now (at a pay rise again), doing work that I enjoy, and leaving the ofice at between 4 and 5 pm every day. I also rarely work weekends. Kinda makes you feel loved.... Looking back, the cut and thrust of solving the worlds problems at 3am went past it's use by date. So, in summary, for all employers out there, look after your employees, and your corporate knowledge wont walk out the door. (It was kind of nice resigning, and saying "no amount of money wont keep me here, it is about the quality of the employer...") I could hear the fuming in the silence. By the way, Chris, I really hope that you enjoy the discussions with the officials who are chasing you. |
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Wo Hoo. I got a new Mazda 3 recently, and have dicsovered all sorts of interesting things I can do with it's electrical system. So far, I have added an ambient temp sensor to a socket behind the bumper bar. Now, the car tells me what the temp outside is (8 deg C). The trick to that was the the manafacturer was very carefull to put a blanking plug into the socket, so it looked like the part I purchased wouldn't fit  . I have also modified the radio so I have an AUX input. I plan to document the protocol that the modular radio talks so that I can do a propper AUX module. ( I know that they are available commercially) What gets my goat up is that in another forum, somebody was being helpfull, then went silent - with a post saying that any further information will affect the comercial vaibility of their product....) Hopefully, I can determine the protocol data required to put text onto the display, not simply say "TAPE" when the AUX module is used. Finally, the car has a CAN bus. This means that there is lots of scope for adding a car computer to calculate MPG, etc... Yes, I know that I could have spent $10K more when I puurchased the car, but thats not the point... |
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I dicsovered a company called Netgate today http://www.netgate.com They sell all sorts of pigtails for wireless cards, as well as antennas and cards. After much web research, I have determined that the wireless connector at the back of my ipaq h5550 is a U.FL. Pigtail to type N is on its way. Should arive just in time for my new antenna. I was a little surprised that the range of cards from them was poor. |
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I spent last night building an antenna as per the instructions in http://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/helix/
Hmmm.... It didn't work too well. Further research discovered that the design presented there didn't factorthe dielectric effects of the PVC, and incorrectly labeled the pipe size. 1. I used pressure pipe 2. I used piped marked as being 40mm dia. This was the worst problem, as it's OD is closer to 50mm.... Anyway, I am off to the hardware store with my tape measure to find some pipe that is about 35mm diameter, and we will see where that takes us. I'll connect to your network next door Mikal, just wait!!! |
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It's been quite a while since I entered anything. To me, this is quite like keeping a diary - I tend to get busy and have a heap of partially completed diaries around the place. All of them were started with the best intention, but faded as other priorities crept in. In the last little while, I have changed employers. My old Employer (Securix) is not very well off at the moment. The side effect of this is that while at my last place, I was comfortable completing a blog occasionally (as long as it didnt take too long), I am not that comfortable at my new place. - Something about mucking around on the internet. Anyway, off to work I go. PS, I joined IEEE recently. The application process was very simple, and it gives me access to tons of usefull material. So, mikal - Join IEEE, and give the Australian mob a miss. |
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I have a new XP machine, which is a Toshiba A4. While installing Debian in a VMWare machine, I discovered that if you use the vmware-tools, everything operated corectly. - Sweeeet. 1. Create a new partition 2. Install a base Debian system 3. Apt-get the kernel + headers you actually want 4. Create a symlink from /usr/src/linux to your real headers. (This will probbaly shoot me in the foot when I load up the kernel sources for a kernel re-compile) 5. Fix the lilo issues. *** REMEMBER TO RUN LILO BEFORE YOU REBOOT, 6. reboot 7. reboot with a rescue disk and run lilo... 8. Apt-get dist-upgrade 9. In VMWare, click on VM -> Install VMWare Tools... 10. mount /mnt/cdrom 11. Extract /mnt/cdrom/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz somewhere. 12. execute ./vmware-install.pl in the directory you extracted the tar archive to. 13. Follow the bouncing ball. 14. Update the mouse in /etc/X11/XF86Config to be /dev/psaux, not /dev/mouse. 15. Ensure that you have pcnet32 loaded to elloy network access under vmware. then X should start up. |
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I was having a chat with some help desk guys from my hosting company. I run 3 domains, and was impressed that all I needed to do to add a domain was to add a directory structure under my www directory, and arrange to have a domain registered. I was actually expecting to have to go and have the help desk guys edit the apache configuration for me. (Thats how I would have done it at home). Here is their response: ------------------------------------------------ We use the apache module "mod_vhost_alias". If a browser requests a domain that points to 63.111.27.87 and that domain has a directory in ~/www, it becomes the DocumentRoot. Your VirtualHost section looks like this: ServerName drj-electronics.com ErrorLog /home2/username/www/logs/error ServerSignature off VirtualDocumentRoot /home2/username/www/%0 VirtualScriptAlias /home2/username/www/%0/cgi-bin User username Group users DocumentRoot /home2/username/www ------------------------------------------------ Boy, hasn'y apache grown up while I wasn't watching. |
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Projects - Some of my projects
DRJ-Consulting - A site focused on saving energy. Dougs Word Clocks - I make my own clock that tells the time using words. we Just Dont Talk About That - A site for sharing funny family stories. Megan's weblog Email me at doug@stillhq.com |
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