I have an Iridium 9505A and a MacBook and the necessary hardware and software to tether the two and use the phone as a modem. I can now make voice and data calls from anywhere in the world where I have a clear view of the sky. It took a while to get it set up so I’ll document it here…
As I’ve said before I will have limited bandwidth from the boat. I’d like to send not only text but images of the boat, icebergs, Antarctic wildlife, and anything else worth photographing, so I’ve been experimenting with ways of getting images off the ship. Based on the results below, I think I’ll stick to text descriptions rather than text graphics, and perhaps a very low quality (but decently sized) image every once in a while.
Here is a an image of the boat. This image is 77K, which would use 3 days of bandwidth quota to transmit:
The Nathaniel B. Palmer. Image courtesy of NSF. Image size is 77kb
If I shrink the image to 25k, or one day of bandwidth, it is this size
Nathaniel B. Palmer. Same image as above but resized so that it is 25 kilobytes in size, or 1 days bandwidth quota from the ship.
Or I can reduce quality rather that size, in which case it looks like this. The only real difference appears in the now-blurry name of the boat:
Nathaniel B. Palmer. Same image as above but quality reduced so that it is 25 kilobytes, or 1 days of bandwidth quota.
However, if I convert it to ASCII art, it looks like this, and takes up a mere 1.6k. I could transmit 15 of these a day before I reach my quota.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~--------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~-~---------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~-----------------------~&---------------------------~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~--------------------------++---..-----.-----------------~~~~~~~ ~~--~-----------------+&-&~--~*PRR~........-..----------------~~~~~~ ~~-~--------------------+.---*&&P##.............----------------~~~~ ------------------------+-...-~*++-...+..-.....-...----------------~ ------------------~+----+~~+*+$+P$+++*+-~--.....-......------------~ ----------------.$&#+##R&&&*~*+++++++++&&$&--...-.....-------------- -----------------~&&PPP&$+~~~R+~*$**$&&&PR&+**..P.....-------------- ----------------.......+~~++++++~+~~~~~~~~~~~$.&.....--------------- -----------------....-.~~~-~~+~~~~#+&~+~~~~~~PRPPPPPP*-------------- -------------------~#-~+~~+****$*&PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP----------~~ --------------+~-*P#+PP~~~PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP+--------~~~ --------------+$PRRP#$&&P&PPPPRPRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP~-------~~~~~ -------------$###R#P&$&&PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP-------~~~~~~~ -------------*~PPR#R&&&RPPPPPPRPPPPPPRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP~------~~~~~~~~ ---.....-......~&&$&&&PPPPPPPPRPPPPPPPRR#PPPPPPPPPPP---------....-.. ---.--.................. ~+. ... .+#R. &PP- --.-........... --------....--............... . . . . .. . . ...............-. -------..--...................... . .. .. ................----- ----------............................... .....................-----
Here is an image I took last time I was in Antarctica, and the ASCII art version too. Image size is about 20k (a day of bandwidth). Text size is less than 2k (I can send around 15 per day):
Penguin in Granite Harbor, Antarctica
---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- -------------$PRRRR#RR#RP--------------------- ------------------########-------------------- -------------------R#R#P*+R&------------------ -------------------+++++~~~P------------------ -----------------~~~++##P&PPRR---------------- -----------------~~+~#RPRPRRRRR--------------- ----------------~~~~~&#RRRPRRRR~-------------- ---------------~~~~~~~#PPRPRPRRR-------------- ---------------~~~~~~~~RPPRRRRRR-------------- ---------------~~~~~~~~RRRRRRRRRP------------- ---------------~~~~~~~~+RRPRRRRRR------------- ---------------~~~~~~~~PRRRPRRRRR------------- ----------------~~~~~~+RRRRRRRRRR------------- ----------------~~~~~~*RRRRRRRRRR------------- ----------------~~~~~~PRRRRRRRRR&------------- -----------------~~~~~&RPRRPPRRR-------------- -----------------~~~~~+PPRRRPRRR-------------- -----------------~~~~~~RPRRRRRRR-------------- ------------------~~~~~~RR~+RRR--------------- ------------------+~~~~~~~~+PRR--------------- ----------~~~----RP&~~~~~~*RRRR*~~~~~~~~~~~~-~ --------~~~~~~~~~~+RP+~+~+PRRRRPRRRRRR+~~~~~~~ -------------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --------------------~~~~--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------~----~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tags: Photos
Desire: I want to keep in touch with people during my upcoming trip to Antarctica, and I want you to get updates in whatever format you prefer (via email, on my site, with RSS, text messages, on a custom map or in a standard Google Map). Last time I went to Antarctica I blogged quite a bit (see 64 entries in ANDRILL category), including photos and videos.
Problem: I’ll be on a boat with no internet connection and a twice-per-day satellite connection limited to 25 KB/day of email. So for a 60 day cruise, I’ll be allowed slightly less than 1.5 megabytes transfer over the entire trip. The text of this post is around 1 KB, so I can write roughly 10 times this and read about 10 times this each day. I guess it isn’t that bad…
Solution: I’ve set up a system that provides the following behaviors, given that I can send email to one or more entities via To: Cc:, and Bcc: fields. Recipients can be individuals, this blog, or Twitter. Emails sent to individuals will go to their inbox. Email to this blog will be posted on the front page and show up on RSS. Emails to Twitter can be read on Twitter, your phone, or RSS. Any emails that end up in RSS that have geographic coordinates in them will be geocoded on my map.
None of this requires any programming skill except the mapping. I’ve written a small python script that will track an RSS feed and update the map if any posts contain geographic coordinates. If you are a programmer, read on to learn how it was done. If you aren’t enjoy the map…
Remaining Issue: All this is one-way, me-to-you. I won’t see comments made on this site, and they won’t be seen by anyone else because I moderate them (unless you’ve previously commented), so this site will be a one-way communication while I’m on the boat. If you want to communicate with me, the only way is by doing a direct Tweet (@mankoff) or private Tweet (d mankoff). Any emails will be read when I get off the boat in March.
Price of broccoli (from FreshDirect) converted to equivalent value in barrels of crude oil
If you are interested in sustainability and reducing your oil consumption, you should install the Oil Standard Firefox Plugin. It converts all prices on all web pages (Amazon.com, Airlines, your online bank, FreshDirect, etc.) to the current equivalent value in barrels of crude oil. Note that this doesn’t know anything about the actual oil usage of an item (production, transport, etc.)
I’ve recently started developing code with the Python programming language. Prior to coding I had to install the language (Python) toolkits (wxWidgets and wxPython) and tools (py2app, py2exe, wxGlade). I have a *nix computer background so rather than downloading a binary installer I opted to build everything from source on my OS X box. It took quite a while to get it all set up correctly, so I’m documenting it here in case anyone else finds themselves in the same situation.
Just a note and a thank you to NYU for their Coral Content Distribution Network. It allows a small bandwidth site like this to host large files that require large bandwidth. All I have to do is change links from http://spacebit.org/some_large.file to http://spacebit.org.nyud.net/some_large.file. The first viewer still has to wait while CCDN gets the file from me, but all subsequent requests for the file get automagically served from the CCDN servers, at almost zero access cost to my site, for free.
If you want to have all your data served via CCDN, add this to your .htaccess:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^CoralWebPrx
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !(^|&)coral-no-serve$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com.nyud.net/$1 [R,L]
For further examples (between outsourcing just one file via HTML and the entire site via Apache) read more here and here.
If you author scientific publications using LaTeX and OS X, there is a useful tool chain you should know about. Even if you write non-scientific papers in MS Word on Windows you might find something useful in this post. If you don’t write, or you already use Zotero, BibDesk, zot2bib, and LaTeXiT or EquationEditor, then you should probably skip this post.
Tags: writingApologies for changing the domain name so soon after launch. I see where this blog is heading and I’ve decided to host it on a domain name I bought several years ago, http://spacebit.org. I chose that name because it is two things I like: Space (space) and computers (bits). Either you are reading this on that domain or this site will exist there shortly. Redirects will remain in place for a while, and then this site (fiftyfour) will be taken down, and your RSS feeds will stop working.
I just found some old (1973) global climate model (GCM) documentation lying around the office. The document describes the GISS GCM at some stage between the UCLA parent and Model I. Model I evolved into Model II which became the foundation for EdGCM. I have scanned the document and submitted it to the History of Atmospheric GCMs website.
It is a beautiful document describing all aspects of the GCM: Numerics and dynamics, punch cards, grid schemes, physical equations, tables and tables of variables and units, etc. These two images (click for large version) show the punchcard order for the old GCM, and the grid scheme at the poles. I like the pole graphic because it reminds me of last year when I was at the South Pole.
The oldest paper I know of that discusses human induced climate change is from 1896, by Svante Arrhenius, titled On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground (PDF, 4413KB).
@article{Arrhenius:1896b,
Author = {Svante Arrhenius},
Journal = {Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science},
Month = {April},
Number = {41},
Pages = {237 -- 276},
Title = {{On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air
upon the Temperature of the Ground}},
Volume = {5},
Year = {1896}}
@manual{Tsang:1973,
Author = {L. C. Tsang and R. Karn},
Month = {October},
Institution = {Goddard Institute for Space Studies},
Organization = {Computer Science Corporation},
Title = {{A documentation of the GISS nine-level
atmospheric general circulation model},
Year = {1973}}
Tags: model, NASA In order to have a website I have to have a computer on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I try to be aware of my energy usage and in general try to minimize it (except for that one little habit). A webserver uses energy, but in my case it is wind powered.
If you want to calculate the cost of some electronic equipment there are some simple tools you can buy such as a Kill-a-Watt or someday the EnergyHub product line. Rather than buying yet another product, I decide to calculate the costs myself. I got the idea from http://smallnotebook.org.
You need to know two bits of information. The first is the average price per kWh on your electric bill. It should be something around 15 cents. The second is the Amps the electronic device draws. It is printed on the power brick or bottom of every product. Look for this line:
Input: 110-240V ~ 1.5A
In this example the number 1.5 is the Amps. Given those two bits of information, can calculate how much it will cost to run the device. The equation is:
A * V / 1000 * hours * cost V is 120 in the U.S.
Plug in the numbers. This webserver uses 1.5A, time is 24/7, and NYC electric rate for wind power is 18 c/kWh. The equation becomes:
1.5A * 120V / 1000 * (24h*365d) * 18c = $283.82 per year.
Which is a bit more than I expected. Maybe even enough to end this experiment. (If you can’t read this I’ve turned it off). For comparison, the Roomba uses 0.3A and charges for 3 hour/week. The equation becomes:
0.3 * 120 / 1000 * (3*52) * 0.18 = $1.01 / yr
The old vacuum used 9A, but was used much less (maybe 10 minutes every other week) for a cost of ~$3.
The equations are simple. Figure out which devices cost you the most. If you plug it all in and the numbers don’t make sense, post in the comments below.
Tags: website
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