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Build Your Own Weather Balloon
Leeji writes "Here is an interesting read about one geek's project to build and launch a weather balloon. The flight recorder is a small $200 Soekris Engineering computer running Bering Linux. It also uses a Garmin GPS, HAM packet radio, an automated Aiptek Pencam Trio digital camera, army surplus batteries, and lots of geek duct tape."
or if you really wanted to know the weather, you just could just look outside, or even watch the weather channel..
Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
prost. suckaz.
PS - first post
This might not be the best idea during the Orange Alert.
Amazing magic tricks
If it weren't for that damn twenty second rule. Blah.
Just like the US Military!
This is a dupe of the creators original post http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/1 5/1829244&mode=thread
just the website is on a different server (tho the original one exists)
This is a dupe from a month or so ago.
Build Your Own Fake UFO Sightings?
And don't forguet to drop one in roswell...
rm -rf /home/leia
Linux is on the rise.
=)
I want one that can stop Number 6 escaping by air, road or water in a bad-special-effects kind of way
this is a repost. which begs the question, is a first post on a dupe article really a first post?
Why don't you just change your nick to DupeNazi, huh?! That's what you are, you dupe nazi!!!!
Interesting story, but it is essentially a dupe of this story. Still a really neat thing to do though.
_
Best Windows Cursors Ever!
I have one and it eats power as if it were popcorn, as it keeps it's CCD in an "always on" state so it can respond instantly to requests for picture takage.
One enhancement I would suggest would be to modify the camera in some way so that its power drain was less, even if only for the engineering challenge (he hooked it up to some great big huge massive LiIon cells that would keep a cyclotron going for a while)...
-Mark
for Taco et al.
The photo gallery of the launch has close ups of the launch director's butt crack! Warning, please! Blech!
Why do they call it HAM radio anyways?
With this progress it won't be long until the larger baloon clubs can launch something like this. "We choose to go to the weather baloon.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Correct me if I am wrong,
I think it is just a bunch of hot air.
"The point isn't that it is running Linux, the point is that he made a really cool project that floated to 80,000 feet and took pictures, AND he got the whole thing back to retrieve the pictures. To me that is awfully impressive. The fact that it runs Linux was just one cool part of the project." -- chris AT massconnections DOT com
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
So one day the weather wasn't right, and this guy decided to build and launch a weather balloon to fix it?
Let's make some weather-balloons, crash them in the desert, send a bunch of military personnel wearing spacey looking nuclear suits to guard the weather-balloons, and then tell the world they are weather-balloons, not alien spacecraft and that UFOs do not exist!
Who will we get mad at when it's wrong?! We need someone to blame, that's the whole point of a weatherman!
I suggest you read Slashdot
That one would've gotten groaned out of existence in real life. The interweb sure is a funny place! ;)
"Linux is for geeks, beos is for nobody, Mac OS is for actors, XP is for people" - Anonymous Coward
The radio hams have been doing high-altitude ballooning for years. The original poster will probably be quite interested in the site that maintains the unofficial records. Perhaps the most active organization in the area is Edge of Space Sciences, which has conducted 63 amateur balloon flights to date, and knows well how to grease the skids with the FAA.
...I'm so tired of these 'clever' puns and half-witted comments on linux and it's sub-culture from people who installed mandrake last week and have a degree in business managment.
So, one thing is for sure this rant has helped me immensly, because it sure ain't stopping these sheep to keep posting 'we're beating M$ guys, yay!!' and 'does it run linux?' from some dolt who has never had....ahh fuck it -- i'm done
The weather channel gets their data from hourly
observations taken by weather observers. Every hour
on the hour, everywhere around the world, weather
observers all go outside at roughly the same time
and measure temp, dewpoint, wind direction and
speed, cloud coverage, ceiling, etc. and put it
into an "observation" that is sent to one of the
weather hubs. Then big computers generate surface
charts. Other big computers run analysis on that
data and spit out forcast models. Those models are
then sent out to people that want them. There are
usually really lame errors like weather fronts
being truncated or way off. The "forecaster" then
modifies these projected models and incorporates
then into his forecast, then sents his forecast
for his area back out to the big computers. The
weather channel then pays to steal that forecast
information from the big computer, and put it on
their screen doing little to no actual work in
the process. They also buy their pretty satellite
images from someone like kavouris probably.
Weather balloons, along with PIREPS or "Pilot
Reports" fill in some of the blanks in the upper
atmosphere and over the oceans, but I'd hazard
to guess that doppler radar technology that allows
you to know wind direction and speed at a great
distance away and great altitude is slowly filling
at least part of that.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
http://www.weather.com/
or if you really wanted to know the weather, you just could just look outside, or even watch the weather channel..
--pardon the bad spelling--
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
this is god damn old.
Ham radio geeks have been launching baloons [and rockets] with smart payloads for years. Launching is the easy part. Tracking it down and recovering it is the hard part.
if a dupe falls in the forest and nobody is there to first post it, was it really a fish in the first place?
A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. - Tennessee Williams
From the archives...
Visitors to the website slashdot.org will by now have surely heard of the act of Moderation. This is where a contributor's post can be 'Moderated' either positively or negatively, depending on how the Moderator perceives the value of the post. There is a sliding scale of total moderation points, from -1 to 5, along with snappy summaries of the reason for moderation, such as "Funny", "Insightful", or the ever popular "Troll". An additional benefit offered to Moderators is the ability to ban a poster from contributing, by negatively moderating enough of his postings in a 24 hour period.
In order to retain some level of fairness for the Slashdot population, the Slashdot Editors (adopting the role of 'Benevolent Dictators') have implemented a scheme whereby regular users of Slashdot, chosen essentially at random, are given the ability to act as Moderators.
This underlines an inherent flaw in the system. Psychological studies have shown that in any community, no matter how small, should a random sampling of people be given the slightest grasp of power, they will immediately abuse it. There is a primal, evolutionary desire in Man to place himself higher than his peers by whatever measurement they can muster. Slashdot Moderation provides the ideal means for which a man can prove himself more equal than others.
At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law at such an early point in my thesis, I have no choice but to compare Slashdot Moderation to the systematic genocide of the Jewish community in 1930's Germany.
A bold statement, I admit, and deliberately designed to shock, but I feel the statement is necessary. I shall now offer a more rational explanation, as well as a comparison of the parallels between Slashdot Culture, and the National Socialist regime.
First, some history. National Socialism did not spring up overnight. It grew from a feeling of national bitterness and resentment at the war reparations Germany was forced to make after World War One. Germany was a broken country, populated by desperate starving people. And to the desperate, an extreme ideology begins to seem like a rational choice.
The advent of new technology forces a paradigm shift in the way the beholders of that technology think. The Christianity Meme was made wide spread by the invention of the Gutenberg press. And the rise of National Socialism was made popular because of the invention of Cinema. Here we had a new means to control the flow of information to the populace, that they are willing to unquestioningly listen to due to the 'novelty factor' of moving pictures. It is no coincidence that some of the best Cinematography of the early 20th Century came out of the National Socialist propaganda machine.
Why is this the case? It is yet another fault of man that a new means of distributing memes is perceived, due to the 'newness' of the medium, to have a greater 'validity' than older media. Those harnessing new inventions have the power to win control of the hearts and minds of others.
With the tools in place, who should the National Socialists target? Clearly, as a counterpoint to Man's desire to hold power over others, there is also a desire to resent the success of others. If someone is successful, they reduce the self-worth of their beholders. Although times were harsh in Germany in the prelude to World War II, there were still successful inhabitants of that country. Possessing shrewd business acumen as well as the contacts in other countries needed to maintain support in such a poverty stricken and broken land, who else should deserve the wrath of the populace more than the Jews?
Fast-forward to the latter quarter of the 20th Century. Computing technology is focused in niche markets, and limited to big successful companies like IBM and Microsoft. As the markets were limited, there were also limited opportunities for employment. This gave rise to a rising number of college dropouts, seething with resentment and unable to relate to society beyond the staccato clatter of keyboards and the pallid green glow of an 80x24 text display, and lacking the basic business skills (and a smart suit) needed to secure employment at one of these companies.
At this time, a new invention was beginning to take hold in College campuses throughout the world. The Internet. As with the Gutenberg press and Cinema beforehand, this new technology would grow to spread one of the most virulent memes of the modern age - Open Source Software, created as the antithesis of successful business practise.
So, the parallels between the birth of Anti-Semetic National Socialism and the birth of Open Source Software have been made. Of course, it is easy to claim that A=B without providing further logical evidence in support. So, the next task of my thesis is to provide further parallels, and bring this discourse back to the initial focus on Slashdot Moderation.
Slashdot was conceived, in it's original 'Chips 'n' Dips' incarnation, as a vehemently anti-corporate Open Source website. Roughly 10-15 years down the line from the birth of Open Source, it has become saturated with propaganda, and now forms the centrepiece of the Open Source Development Network. An authority in it's field, Slashdot's success is in no small part due to the ability of the editors to 'pick and choose' valid news articles submitted by users, and present the same old tired "Open Source Good / Closed Source Bad" rhetoric time and time again, dabbling with anti-copyright and the right of the 'common man' to remove an artist's ability to gain compensation for the work. In essence, this is similar to the 'paring down' of artistic worth in 1930's Germany. If no-one is willing to contribute valid and vibrant art to the community, then all art shall become harsh and functional, possessing a certain intimidating aesthetic.
Which leads onto Open Source's shining achievement - Linux. This diatribe is not aimed towards Linux in particular, as it is a well-oiled, well-tuned machine. A technically adept Operating System, it is worthy of admiration by any rational man. The point of this thesis is not to attack the art produced by Open Source coders, which in itself is worthy, but to enlighten all as to the political processes behind the OSS movement.
By the same scale, it is hard to fault Mercedes for the technical excellence of the vehicles which were used by the National Socialist party. But the politics behind the party are what taint the image of Mercedes' vehicles of the era. The Swastika itself is a benign symbol, found this day in such diverse locations as Pokemon cards, but is permanently tainted with the history of the acts made under its auspice. In the same way, companies switching to Open Source solutions will begin to regard the Penguin with the same trepidation as their profits fall.
It should be worth noting at this point that IBM, previously one of the world's greatest companies, has begun reporting servere financial losses, no doubt due to its adoption of Open Source practises. This epoch-making event was NOT reported on Slashdot, even though articles were submitted.
And what of the other great company mentioned above? Microsoft, aka Micro$oft, Mickeysoft, Microshaft, Kro$oft, and many other derogatory and undeserved names. Throughout the previous 25 years, Microsoft has grown from strength to strength, again possessing shrewd business acumen as well as providing products that people want. This makes them the number one target for the OSS movement. Incapable of standing by their own merits, the OSS zealot would rather attack Microsoft as a priority than produce anything of worth for their community.
Slashdot Moderators, crazed with their limited new-found power, exhibit this behavior. It is a sad state of affairs that the majority of article moderations are negative. Where is the positive feedback and sense of social contribution? Nowhere to be found. Moderators are too focused on putting their peers down to make themselves appear superior, rather than doing the hard work and becoming better on their own terms.
As the National Socialists required a scapegoat, Slashdot Moderators require a constant stream of Postings to label '-1, Inferior'. Once a posting is reduced to the score of -1, it becomes invisible to the casual user. Again, this is a parallel to the Ghettoization of Germany upon the election of Hitler.
In essence this would not be so bad, were postings to be evaluated on their own terms. However, alongside the moderation of their postings, each user has a 'Karma' value, namely the sum of their worth to the Slashdot community. As a user's posts are moderated up or down, so their Karma fluctuates. As Karma becomes negative, a user's default posting score is reduced, until they are posting at a default of -1. Again, ghettoizing PEOPLE, not just their opinions.
This ghettoization is reinforced with the often fake belief that a negatively moderated post, and therefore the poster, is a "Troll". (Is it any wonder that such a name has been chosen to describe these people, invoking mental imagery of facial disfigurement and hooked noses?) As the Jews were accused of fraud, dishonesty and being subhuman animals, so too are Trolls accused of FUD, Crapflooding, and obfuscated goatse.cx links. Quite often, these 'undesirables' are capable of providing a valid insightful comment on a topic, but because it is in opposition to the Political dogma of Slashdot they are moderated back into their ghetto. The person becomes moderated, not their opinion.
This is just the thin end of the wedge. Although, as memes are transient, it is difficult to silence an opinion, it is trivial to silence a person. Upon the rise of National Socialism in Germany, the populace were motivated by propaganda into entering the Jewish Ghettos en masse with the sole purpose of causing as much damage as possible to Jewish businesses and residences. The infamous Krystalnacht. This parallels far too accurately with the Slashdot Editor's non-discouragement of the act of IP-banning. As mentioned above, this occurs when an individual user's postings are repeatedly moderated down in a short period. They then become incapable of posting any contributions themselves. In essence, they have been silenced, regardless of the worth of their postings.
Of course, the editors claim that Meta-Moderation is the panacea to solve this clear abuse of moderating privledge. But if a Meta Moderator is presented with a list of moderations that they disagree with, such as this targetted 'silencing' mentioned above, they cannot note them as such without in turn becoming an 'Undesirable' themselves, as too many Disagreements with the Moderation groupthink also result in loss of Karma.
Throughout all of this, the Editors have claimed a false level of detachment from the acts of moderation. In a same way, as the National Socialists gathered their power and began working on their Elite Political wing, The SS, they too remained detached from the civilians working in their name. Why? Because after inspiring the populace to such acts of violence through their propaganda, they could then claim that they were only giving the people what they want.
And then began the next stage of the atrocities. The Gestapo, Germany's secret police, were recruited from the best and the brightest of Germany's elite. As is the case now, the best and the brightest of society were often shunned and ostracized in society. In essence, the Gestapo were a tightly controlled 'Geek Army' of intelligent young men with a burning, seething resentment of normal society. The perfect psychological profile for the cause.
After all, give a normal man (with an active sex life) a gun and he will use it responsibly in self defence. Give a geek a gun and he will behave according to his sociopathic logic and hatred of the world he arrogantly presumes to be distant from. Ask yourself why Slashdot flat-out justified the murder of innocents at Columbine. And then ask yourself why, even for a brief moment, you almost began to sympathize with the killers after Jon Katz' manipulative and pseudo-emotive Hellmouth articles.
How this relates to Slashdot is clear. The majority of Slashdot posters are Sociopathic OSS zealots, unable through lack of social finesse or personal hygiene to mate regularly. Sexually and emotionally frustrated and with grudges to bear, incapable in their blinkered sense of self-righteousness of accepting any dissenting opinion than the OSS cause. Now give these people the opportunity to Moderate these dissenting opinions. Of course they are going to want to silence them, by any means necessary.
Now, the Slashdot Editors have admitted taking this silence of opinion into the next stage, by moderating whole swathes of 'undesirable' posts negatively. And then permanently banning anyone who moderates said posts back up from moderating EVER again! The result of this new policy? The few Moderators with any sense of fairness and decency are removed from the moderation pool, leaving the power ENTIRELY in the hands of the zealots. Clearly, positive moderation is discouraged under this regime, which is a direct parallel with the way the National Socialists moved their own sympathisers into positions of power throughout Europe.
So how does this compare to the genocide performed in Auschwitz and their ilk? I would like at this point to explain that in NO way do I wish to belittle the horrors that were performed in the name of National Socialism. The six million innocents killed were a cry of anguish from which humanity may never recover. And a vast distance in time and scope from a few banned posters on some shitty "My Favourite Links - now with comments" website. But these stories need to be retold before the horror is lost forever.
For the only thing that we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history. Time and time again, the St. Vitus dance is played out, we make the same mistakes, and we perpetually fail to see the warning signs.
So, moderators, the next time you moderate a rational, insightful post down, maybe because you disagree with it or because it's posted by a 'Known Troll', just ask yourself this...
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
The Mobile GPS Demonstration Platform project, which has even more geek coolosity than weather balloons. ;-)
Chaeron Corporation
You'd think people that actually WORK for a website would know more than the people that read it. Michael is a fucking idiot though, so.
I hope this thing comes down close to my backyard, or maybe I could shoot it down. Thats some free hardware!
Oh wait, gps, so he would know where it was when it disappeared...
Seriously though, sounds like a pretty expensive wad of cash to just throw into the wind.
what with the US government being suspicious of anything metallic (much less airborne) which beeps, whirs, clicks, or buzzes. unless, of course, they made/bought it, in which case, it's forced upon us for our own safety, regardless of our own opinions about big brother ramming GPS in every citizens ass.
"Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
Actually, :)
:) I'm considering this radar as it's the
Doppler weather radar works for wind speed and
direction pretty much always because there is
always enough reflective material in the air no
matter how much water vapor is present. It works
across a "volume coverage pattern" that is made up
of many "cones" made through repeated 360 degree
scans at varying angles. This is how you can nail
with extreme accuracy what distance and height
air is moving at what speed and direction.
Granted, I'm basing this on real world experience
as a certified Unit Control Position administrator
on the WSR-88D NexRAD doppler weather radar for
3 years.
one that is in place at most official reporting
stations. The military loves the thing.
You were close though.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
No, Orange Alert is the best time to send up a weather balloon.
P.S. If I hear that George W. has hired a mute midget butler, I'm moving to Canada.
but can you build your own internet bubble?
no text
Amateur ballooning can be quite a bit of fun. There is a small but active ballooning sub-hobby within the ham radio hobby. Ham radio is an ideal medium for transmitting telemetry from balloons, since we have access to cheap high quality (and high power) equipment.
:o It was still cool IMHO. Check out this kick ass map of the balloon's track.
:/ At last check, it was at 00.000N 000.00W. They didn't launch any more balloons that day.
I participated in a balloon tracking experiment not too long ago. The students of Timberlane Regional High School of Plaistow NH launched several high-altitude balloons carrying APRS transmitters, as a part of their CAPSAT (Coordinated Algebra (II) & Physics Simulated Satellite) project. I was able to track two of them. The balloons carried GPS receivers and ham radio Automatic Position Reporting System transmitters.
The launch was from Hopkinton NH. The first launch went well, and we received good signals from the balloon all the way out into the Atlantic ocean. This was quite a bit farther than they expected the baloon to travel, they had planned on recovering and reusing it
The second launch was also a success, and the baloon only traveled about 50 miles before touchdown. Map is here.
The third launch went up with the GPS receiver turned off
My tracking station consisted of a Kenwood TH-D7 radio and a PowerMac 7500 604e-180 running XASTIR on Yellow Dog Linux. The full results of the day (and APRS logs for the entire hamfest) are here.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Current event dupes, and anytime dupes. The first, where an article is posted twice within a few hours is pretty inexcusable. All that takes is look at the site. But, if you're talking about a month or six months or even a year, yeah, it happens. We're humans and don't have perfect memories even if we did see every story on the site.
Will my score show ''Redundant'' if I say that this is a DUPE.
Open source development is my way of competing with the low-cost programmers in India...
I liked this story a lot, even more the second time I read it =]
...well written, quick to load, and it gave me several ideas (that I probaly won't act out on).
/. - "privatly launched satelite runs Linux"
However, it seems like the gear he used should be lightweight and robust enought to pack into a rocket - espesially if you take off the strobe and beeper. Maybe upgrade the radiotransmitter (and check the reciver before launch), and send it into orbit?
Just an idea... but what you think? That would make an interesting article on
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
I've never really understood how so many dupes show up on Slashdot. Until now.
I stumbled on this site when I was trying to figure out how many solder points would go into a home-made modem for a bbs. I thought it was cool, and didn't recognize it as a dupe even though I read /. The page-views were in the low hundreds, so I felt safe that it hadn't seen much traffic. So I submitted it.
Feel free to troll in response to this, because I won't reply to them anyways. But for those with an open mind, you might like to know one way a dupe can legitimately happen.
It all goes downhill from first post
More importantly, does he have plans to make a few of them and strap them (and himself) to a lawnchair? (seriously - google "lawnchair pilot")
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
This is a fcuking repost you idiot
What happens if the thing comes down on a street, a house, or a human??
a dupe
will the government come and confiscate the wreckage and bodies, then tell the public that it was just a ... oh crap.
[If you tell anyone you saw our balloon flying over the Walmart, we will castrate each of your relatives] and suspend your driving "privilege" as well as ...
-U.S. Department of Helium and Aluminum Foil
I am the nightmare of nightmares.
This site is a hoax! I mean really, an unemployed slashdot reader who can spend $1000 on a computer to send up in a balloon? And his girlfriend lets him?
Girlfriend? yeah, right.
and transmit the live photos back.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
at a common air plane 'highway' route in the sky
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
destination a sports field or the white house, and a relay to relase the payload and you could have a mighty weapon if you made 100 of em.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
What short memories we have!
1 /1 5/1829244&mode=thread
This was originally posted 15 Jan 2003:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/0
I was wondering - wouldn't it be possible
to use cell phone for communications? Perhaps
with some antennae booster. Will simplify some design. If you take smart phone, like Handpsring Treo, it could be flight computer as well.
So this geek pulled this off with a minimum of thought. I admire the fact he did it, and was able to recover the baloon. But really, if he had put a little more thought into this, he'd probably have a much better geek experiment. That's why its version 1.0
:-)
The first time he ever tried assembling the whole thing was sitting in a park the morning of the launch. He had never weighed the whole thing until then, and then just randomly filled the balloon until it "seemed right", but that only got him about 60% of the lift he wanted.
Aligator clips on batteries. Ugh. Plus a quick run home to solder up a permanent connection while his friends hung around the park. Some staging for the week before the flight would have eliminated lots of these little problems.
He didn't check his ham frequency to see if others were using it, and his QRM walked all over other amateurs in the area, and their chatter kept his unit from receiving commands. Bad ham, no cookie!
Obscure perl bugs. Wouldn't be a geek experiment without them.
Bubble wrap for electrical insulation. ZZZZzzzzaaaaapppp!!
Here's to hoping Balloon 2.0 makes it into slashback soon (or just another dupe from CT). With more hacked up sensors, better photos, and a flight track out past Kansas
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Maybe it's not about the weather. He's already used it as a repeater station for ham radio. I'm just imagining a fleet of small disposable ones of these floating over a city to leech of 802.11 access.
h tml
He must be stopped, but what can match the power of a linux weather balloon? Only a linux powered koolfruit cannon!
Fear the Bane of O'donoghue
http://robots.net/robomenu/999305224.
On this page:
;-)
http://www.soekris.com/products.htm
something like this (emphasis mine, &
I've removed "available" a few times):
FreeBSD most -powerful- x86 open source Unix
OpenBSD most -secure- open source Unix
NetBSD most -portable- open source Unix
Linux most -popular- open source Unix
Does anybody have a different idea on this?
&, on non-x86 hardware, what's the most powerful UNIX?
Joshu: What is the true Way?
Nansen: Every way is the true Way.
J: Can I study it?
N: The more you study, the further from the Way.
J: If I don't study it, how can I know it?
N: The Way does not belong to things seen: nor to things unseen.
It does not belong to things known: nor to things unknown. Do
not seek it, study it, or name it. To find yourself on it, open
yourself as wide as the sky.
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...