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AMPRNET - Internet network 44.

Did they just now figure out that IP, and thus the Internet, can be routed over ham radio? Have they never heard of AMPRnet? How about AX.25? I was able to get (very very slow) Internet access back in 1997 with a KPC-3, an old Yaesu HT, and the Linux AX.25 stack.

Methinks some PHB at France Telecom just got wind of it and is throwing a hissy fit.

Dr Gerard Bord is a beaut person. He's at the Plasma Research Laboratory (PRL) at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

He agreed to do two talks at an Amateur Radio conference OneTech'02 that I organised a year ago: one on BushLAN (actually delivered very ably by a graduate student, Ben Heslop) and another on "Using plasma to produce dynamically configurable antenna and lens structures". (i.e. turning what amounts to a flourescent light into an antenna)

I've met him several times since then at various meetings, and he is always approachable and very helpful with his knowledge.

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise I think. The main menu for the Linux kernel has "Amateur Radio" options in it. So they have taken the time to add support for AX.25 (a variation of X.25 used for packet radio) and added it to the kernel as well as drivers for a bunch of interfaces.
Last time I played with it (about kernel 2.2.12) it worked fine and connected to the rest of the packet users without any problems. Made it really easy to pass packets destined for the AMPR out from my network at home.

Of course, it is largely isolated from the main Internet, since there are a lot of restrictions as to what can be done with Amateur Radio (no commercial use, no swearing, etc.) as opposed to the Internet at large.

Actually I thought the domes didn't so much protect the antennas from the elements as hide which direction the antenna was pointed. With satellite photography what it is now, it becomes very easy to see things as big as antennas and see exactly where they are looking. The domes probably did a little bit of both.

The NWS puts protective domes around their NEXRAD dishes. Since they have no reason to hide the dishes from spying eyes, one can assume that its purpose is protecting the dish from inclement weather. Of course, they're not entirely successful.

The biggest obstacle to amateur radio being used for this purpose is licensing. Everyone who operates a transmitter on this theoretical network would need to be licensed. It might be possible for your kids or wife to use the system if you are present (third party traffic), but that's no good when you're not around.

I'll reiterate that no encrypted connections would be tolerated, but if you send your music in MIDI form, some people would consider that acceptable. As far as "commercial stuff goes," recent rulings have suggested that everything except the actual sale may be conducted online; some clubs run "Swap n' Shops," etc.

Yes, I am a licensed amateur radio operator. No, do not take this as gospel; I have study books from various years that contradict each other. Amateur radio frequencies likely won't be up for grabs anytime soon; they are used for emergency management and are partially regulated by the International Telecomuncations Union.

For more information on Internet and ham radio, visit ampr.org. Everything 44.*.*.* online has been an amateur radio station since the 1970's. Note that most of these (to be legal) do not allow you access to their systems. That could qualify as unauthorized operation of a radio tranmitter on their part.

And if you want to know how over 350 amateur radio operators worked over 5000 man-hours helping in the aftermath of September 11th, go here.

And boy, do I use it. When my cable access in Toronto goes down, and I am in Asia or at the office, I telnet to a nearby TCP/IP gateway, then telnet to my hambox node via packet!

And all my email goes out: the gateway is also a mail gateway. Anyway, see www.mvw.net/radio

Oh, and I connected to the ISS (Space station) for the first time recently.

The ampr. org (44.) has plenty of IP's left. So all hurry up and get your ham radio license!

Michael

I believe that a touchscreen is a good replacement for a mouse; and a trackball would also be an even better replacement under certain circumstances (such as smooth navigation, as opposed to point-and-click). Inspired by the non-existent technology of the Starfire project, I've been pondering the idea of using a combination of a large screen for viewing documents, with no controls on it; a small touchscreen for application-specific controls; a trackball for smooth motion; and a keyboard for typing text. I could operate GIMP entirely via the touchscreen, or a combination of touchscreen and trackball. The trackball could be the 3-axis type which would allow some interesting 3D navigation (but Linux is short on apps which would make use of it, so far). Eventually the keyboard (and some other input modalities) could be gradually replaced by voice recognition.

The metawidget idea (that link is getting old, I need to write about my more recent ideas) would be useful in such a system to separate "control" functionality from the document and view parts of the MVC pattern. GIMP for example would keep a socket connection open with the touchscreen display software, on which it would exchange messages about which controls to make available, and receive messages about which controls were selected. So the palettes, the toolbox, and some context-sensitive stuff would be the main things on the touchscreen, and there would be enough real estate to have many more of them available at once, so that most actions can be done with fewer clicks. Cascading menus should be replaced with something more appropriate for punching a touchscreen (when you "dive in" to the next level, the next level replaces the current level; or perhaps with a menu structure that resembles the NeXT file browser). Eventually I will get around to putting up a website at www.metawidgets.org to discuss these ideas.

In short, I think improving ergonomics ought to be done in a holistic way rather than just putting more bells and whistles on existing devices like mice and keyboards. And there is more than one path to experiment with. I like touchscreens but they are not practical in every situation.

Now, I'm going to go ramble on a bit here about my ergonomic workstation idea, in case you haven't already had enough...

I believe that a touchscreen is a good replacement for a mouse; and a trackball would also be an even better replacement under certain circumstances (such as smooth navigation, as opposed to point-and-click). Inspired by the non-existent technology of the Starfire project, I've been pondering the idea of using a combination of a large screen for viewing documents, with no controls on it; a small touchscreen for application-specific controls; a trackball for smooth motion; and a keyboard for typing text. I could operate GIMP entirely via the touchscreen, or a combination of touchscreen and trackball. The trackball could be the 3-axis type which would allow some interesting 3D navigation (but Linux is short on apps which would make use of it, so far). Eventually the keyboard (and some other input modalities) could be gradually replaced by voice recognition.

The metawidget idea (that link is getting old, I need to write about my more recent ideas) would be useful in such a system to separate "control" functionality from the document and view parts of the MVC pattern. GIMP for example would keep a socket connection open with the touchscreen display software, on which it would exchange messages about which controls to make available, and receive messages about which controls were selected. So the palettes, the toolbox, and some context-sensitive stuff would be the main things on the touchscreen, and there would be enough real estate to have many more of them available at once, so that most actions can be done with fewer clicks. Cascading menus should be replaced with something more appropriate for punching a touchscreen (when you "dive in" to the next level, the next level replaces the current level; or perhaps with a menu structure that resembles the NeXT file browser). Eventually I will get around to putting up a website at www.metawidgets.org to discuss these ideas.

In short, I think improving ergonomics ought to be done in a holistic way rather than just putting more bells and whistles on existing devices like mice and keyboards. And there is more than one path to experiment with. I like touchscreens but they are not practical in every situation.

Now, I'm going to go ramble on a bit here about my ergonomic workstation idea, in case you haven't already had enough...