The very first project I assigned to my students in 2008, my first year teaching the digital media course at the Anacapa School, was a documentary film. “Paratrooper” is an incredible yet touching account by two Santa Barbara-area veterans, Art Petersen and Robert Forties. Today being Veterans Day it seemed appropriate to share this gem once again.
Since writing the blog entry “Digital broadcast TV & the spectrum famine,” I have been thinking about the way the power to communicate has been acquired through the years. There is a great Ken Burns documentary titled “Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio” which takes viewers on a journey through the ruthless early days of radio broadcasting. It makes the backstabbing surrounding the birth of Facebook shown in the movie “The Social Network” look like child’s play.
Today broadcasting, both TV and radio, has become nearly totally consolidated among a small group of national broadcasting conglomerates (save for NPR and the few community-based broadcast outfits), leaving few independent voices to be heard. Even cable TV, once a bastion of alternative entertainment, is now an expensive dumping ground for Viacom, Universal and Disney.
Will the cycle repeat itself with the Internet? Will the Web go from the Wild West that radio once was to the sterile, corporate mouthpiece that is broadcasting today? Early radio had its off-shore pirates, dissidents who were eventually quashed. Today it is the MP3 pirates who are in the corporate crosshairs. But all of the legal wrangling over the years begs the question: Who are the real radio pirates?
The image attached is a design I cooked up while staying up nights worrying about such banalities. Contact me if you would like to order a 24″ x 36″ poster print.
This is the second and final installment of my blog’s gubernatorial endorsement series.
RHODE ISLAND — LINCOLN CHAFEE
In 1999, then-Mayor Lincoln Chafee was thrust into 
national politics when he was appointed by Governor Lincoln Almond (yes, two Lincolns) to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Chafee’s father, veteran Republican Senator John Chafee. Although the junior Chafee maintained his affiliation with the G.O.P., he continually bucked party expectations and voted as a moderate on many key issues. Calling himself a “traditional conservative” Chafee was the only Republican (and was among the few Senate Democrats) to vote against the invasion of Iraq. He declined to vote for President George W. Bush during his re-election and endorsed then-Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy for President. In 2007, Chafee officially left the Republican Party to become an independent.
The 2010 gubernatorial election is the first time since 1786 that one of Rhode Island’s two leading candidates for governor is an independent. Unlike his Democratic challenger, Lincoln Chafee is not polished or slick or smooth, but the record shows that he is honest. Honest not only to his constituents, but honest to himself. He sat alone at the lunch table (quite literally–see his interview with Jon Stewart) as the independent man, determined to vote his conscience on principles he believed were best for Rhode Island. While he has taken some heat from his opponent for it, he is the only candidate brave enough to propose concrete and viable fiscal reform, even if part of that reform means introducing a modest and temporary sales tax on presently-exempt items (a sales tax increase is generally agreed to be the least harmful to economic growth). Chafee’s opponent, Rhode Island General Treasurer and Democrat Frank Caprio, has harped on Chafee for his sales tax proposal. However, as a Rhode Island state senator, Caprio himself voted to increase sales tax from six percent to seven percent, along with votes for increases to dozens of fees on businesses and taxpayers, including taxes and fees on over-the-counter drugs, drinking water and motor vehicle registration.
Lincoln Chafee’s candidacy has been endorsed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, numerous environmental groups, and teacher and nurses unions among others. While his opponents claim these endorsements put him in the pockets of special interests, Chafee clearly owes his own vote to no one, as evidenced when he bucked his former party in U.S. Senate and stared down the G.O.P. on several divisive issues.
If you have been following my Twitter feed or Facebook wall for the past couple months you have undoubtedly seen the links I have passed along for the Jerry Brown campaign in California and the Lincoln Chafee campaign in Rhode Island. As November 2 draws nearer, I thought it was important for me to share why I have chosen to support these candidates so vocally. This is the first entry in a two-part multi-state governor’s endorsement series.
CALIFORNIA — JERRY BROWN
California faces crises on virtually all fronts. 
The nation’s most populous state has highly unbalanced tax policies, increasing unemployment and a state budget slinking ever closer to bankruptcy. Both major party candidates for governor have made some variation of the phrase “getting California working” a campaign slogan, and have stumped on the issue.
Current California Attorney General, Democrat Jerry Brown will bring 40 years of statewide political experience to the governor’s office. As the first governor to succeed Ronald Reagan, Brown was considered, even by many on the right, to be more fiscally conservative than Reagan. Although he is currently endorsed by the Democratic Party, he is fiercely independent. During his campaign as an independent for the mayor’s office in Oakland, he called the two-party political system “deeply corrupted.” In a state where a two-thirds majority vote required to pass a budget in the State Assembly (the issue of votes needed for budget passage is before voters in November as Proposition 25), his independence, experience and political savvy could help advance the stalemate that has brought legislative progress in California to a near-standstill under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Brown’s endorsements run the gamut from woman’s rights groups to environmental groups to county sheriffs to nurses and teachers. Even the hometown newspaper of the Republican challenger Meg Whitman has endorsed Jerry Brown’s candidacy. Whitman, the former eBay C.E.O., argues that her business sense, rather than government experience, will help her lead more effectively. But Whitman has so little government experience that she did not even register to vote until eight years ago at the age of 46. By that age Bill Clinton was already President of the United States. Whitman’s claim that her business experience, and nothing more will turn California around is simply wishful thinking. California isn’t a business. It is so big it barely qualifies as a state. The Golden State is more like a mini … make that a medium-sized nation. A nation that Jerry Brown’s experience, tempered yet liberal ideals and outspoken character is better fit to lead.
You might have noticed that the K6LCM Weather Camera has been offline quite a bit recently. I have been having some difficulty keeping a connection to the Wunderground FTP webcam server with the DCS-920 WiFi camera. Out of the box, the camera has an FTP client that can be configured to automatically send still images periodically to an FTP server.
I had originally configured this client to send images every 90 seconds to Wunderground. This would work for 2-3 hours and then quit, giving me an error that it could no longer connect to the server. Only restarting the camera would allow it to reconnect. I thought that there might be something wrong with my aging LAN router so I replaced that. No dice! After exchanging the camera for a new one I am still experiencing the problem. One thing that has me suspicious is that the DCS-920′s FTP client doesn’t seem to have a problem with any other FTP server except webcam.wunderground.com. I have no problem uploading images for days without interruption to my own FreeBSD-based maaia.com server.
If anyone out there in Blogland has any suggestions, I am open to them. Right now I have reduced the number of image uploads to once every 360 seconds. Maybe I was overloading the system (shot in the dark).
Updates to follow …
UPDATE November 5, 2010: While the DCS-920′s internal FTP client seems to be unreliable when set to the Weather Underground FTP server, the FTP client built into the software package EvoCam 3.6.9 ($30) is able to maintain a reliable image upload schedule. After two weeks of using the wireless DCS-920 with EvoCam I have had good results. EvoCam gives you many additional options including the ability to save time-lapse movies, add time and date stamps as well as record video when motion is detected. View live video from my camera at the K6LCM weather page.
The IEEE has a great article online about the radio spectrum shortage we are facing as demand increases for mobile broadband products. Here is a quick response:
The article mentions the glaring inefficient use of radio spectrum by broadcast digital TV (DTV). Even after the DTV transition, broadcast TV still occupies nearly 300 MHz of radio spectrum to directly deliver signal to just 10% of TV viewers. However, most cable and satellite operators also get signals from local TV stations over the air and then retransmit them through their respective systems. This is an abysmally inefficient way of delivering video to consumers and a waste of valuable spectrum. Our current scenario is a point-to-point delivery (TV station to cable provider) using a wide-area broadcast model which blankets the region with signals that few actually tune directly.
We need to develop a cost-effective point-to-point delivery system (either microwave or IP) for cable and satellite operators if we are to replace the out-dated model of VHF/UHF broadcast TV. Given that nearly no one receives mobile DTV and less than 10% of TV viewers watch fixed DTV from their home, it makes sense to begin to reclaim this spectrum for broadband applications. The best solution would be to require stations to share multicast frequencies and begin the process of spectrum reclamation. Begin this reclaimation slowly at first and then as the 10% shrinks even further, get more aggressive. Given current trends toward IP mobile video, in 5-10 years there will be nearly no one – except cable and satellite providers – receiving broadcast signals over the air.
Instead of providing low-cost DTV tuners and subsidizing the wasteful DTV transition, the Feds should be subsidizing broadband development in rural areas and providing free, very basic Internet and IPTV to qualifying homes.
The new weather webcam has been up and running for less than a week and it has already captured some interesting phenomenon. On the heels of a record-breaking heat wave, a stationary low pressure system hanging over northern Mexico has been steering subtropical moisture into Southern California. This moist and unstable airmass is a perfect incubator for thunder storms which have popped up in SoCal over the past day and remain in the forecast through Sunday.
The K6LCM weather station and webcam uses a simple image capture system called iCam to recognize motion in the frame and capture it. Designed for home security, iCam alerts my iPhone of the activity via push notification and saves the image frames in question (presumably in the hopes of catching a robber red-handed).
In my case, the result for the past week has been an interesting collection of images of birds and bugs flying across the weather webcam’s field of view. Today, however, the convective activity over the mountains put on a show this evening and iCam snatched a few cool shots the moment the lightning struck.
A Minotaur IV booster carrying a military space surveillance satellite lifted off from Vandenberg AFB this evening from South Base at 9:41 p.m. PDT.
A first-of-its-kind military tool to monitor satellites and space junk is aboard the rocket. According to the U.S. Air Force, the device will help keep better tabs on the more than half a million pieces of space junk that pose a potential hazard to operational satellites and manned spacecraft.
These photos were taken with a Canon 50D from Santa Barbara’s Westside. Both exposures were more than 10 seconds long.
Live view from the Santa Barbara webcam
After several months of mental planning I finally set up a companion weather webcam for my personal weather station. Over the summer I ran a few tests with a cheap USB webcam pointed out the front window, but the view of the yard proved to be rather uninteresting. What I really wanted to do was to capture the mountain-view I noticed from the roof while setting up the weather instruments. This view is not available from any interior portions of the house so I set out to design an outdoor wireless camera system for less than $100.
There are several options for outdoor cameras online. A simple Amazon.com search revealed many choices, but all of the all-weather WiFi units fell outside of the budget that I had restricted myself to. My requirements were that the camera and weatherproof housing be under $100. Given that the unit was to be mounted on the garage and the computer and wired Internet connections are in the main house I was also limited to a WiFi solution. I decided on the D-Link DCS920 Wireless-G Internet Camera
The DCS920 is not an outdoor camera so I needed an enclosure that would both keep rain out and allow the camera lens to poke through. Camera in hand, I set off to Home Depot where a helpful employee knew right away what to use to keep it dry. He directed me to the electrical department and the Cantex Inc. 6 X 6 X 4 Junction Box. I was able to drill the necessary holes to mount the camera, make the power connection, and allow the lens to see the light of day. An additional make-shift clear plastic covering lets the lens see out, without letting water in. Home Depot also stocks a extension cord which was a near-match for the beige house color and made a less conspicuous power source than a traditional orange extension cord. The camera’s power adapter fit nicely inside the Cantex box alongside the camera, concealing the electrical connection from the rain as well.
The DCS920 has a Web interface that can be setup via Ethernet beforehand in order to enable the wireless connection to a secure 802.11g network. The interface is very basic, and does not readily allow one to keep local archives of images easily (there is an option to email a photo as well as upload it to one FTP server). Aftermarket software is available that allows for greater flexibility over nearly any webcam including the ability to add on-screen captions and time stamps, however I have opted to keep it simple for now.
After plugging in the settings for my Wunderground.com account my weather camera was up and running with a view of the Santa Ynez Mountain range above Santa Barbara. You will find time-lapse videos of the images gathered in the Wunderground archive.
Update October 2, 2010: It should be noted that the D-Link manual notes the following environmental specifications:
Update November 5, 2010: The DCS-920′s internal FTP client seems to be unreliable when set to the Weather Underground FTP server, however the FTP client built into the software package EvoCam 3.6.9 ($30) is able to maintain a reliable image upload schedule. After two weeks of using the wireless DCS-920 with EvoCam I have had good results. EvoCam gives you many additional options including the ability to save time-lapse movies, add time and date stamps as well as record video when motion is detected. View live video from my camera at the K6LCM weather page.
A couple weeks back I saw a flier in a local shop advertising a day trip on a vintage railway car. The classic 39 seat first class lounge was built in 1949 by the famous Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Company for use on the old San Francisco Overland Trail line between Chicago and San Francisco on the now defunct passenger service of Southern Pacific Railroad.
We arrived at Santa Barbara’s Amtrak station on Sunday morning as the San Luis Obispo-bound Amtrak train pulled in the station. The familiar sight of Amtrak’s polished steel train was interrupted by what I would soon learn was the trademark “Daylight” paint scheme of the old Southern Pacific line. Our Pullman car dropped off a trainload of Los Angeles day-trippers bound for Santa Barbara’s urban wine trail – a prearranged combination train ride and wine tour – and we boarded the classically luxurious streamliner.
Our scenic trip on Southern Pacific railcar 2981 took us through the rarely seen Santa Barbara County coastline, obscured by private ranches, rugged terrain and the implicit secrecy of Vandenberg Air Force Base. As photo opportunities whizzed by the large, crystal-clear windows, I tried my best to snap my shutter. The train’s antique windows had an odd effect on the digital exposures, giving each shot a sort of vintage look and coloring. All of the photos in the gallery were taken on Sunday August 29, 2010, but have a strange quality that, at a glance, might be mistaken for August 29, 1950.
The tracks wind past the infamous Point Conception and Point Arguello where the mostly southern facing coastline of Santa Barbara jogs northward toward the notoriously sharky and perilous waters of the California Central Coast. Past Vandenberg the missile launch sites are clearly visible on the leeward side of the tracks, as is the gigantic 15,000-foot long runway on the base.
While the Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo trip is relatively new, the Overland Trail car was purchased 23 years ago by Bill Hatrick and his wife Debbie. They restored the train to its original splendor, complete with stewardess’s quarters and a on-board barber shop. The Hatricks claim that they are just one year away from being the car’s longest-term owners, as their records indicate that Southern Pacific itself owned the 2981 railcar for 24 years. Bill serves as conductor and host for the rides. He beamed with pride as he explained the process of restoring the classic railcars to Amtrak’s modern specifications, complete with sanitary holding tanks, rendering quaint the original posted lavatory warnings about not flushing while the train is standing in the station.
When not gliding up the coast hitched to an Amtrak locomotive, the Overland Trail sleeps in Los Angeles Union Station where it is available for charter for a variety of occasions. The Hatrick’s 2981 railcar was even featured in Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers,” among other productions.
Visit the complete photo gallery for more images of our journey up the coast, including photos of the launch facilities at Vandenberg. More information and a complete history on the Overland Trail Club Lounge Car can be found at larail.com. For booking information on the Santa Barbra to San Luis Obispo route call Terry at 805.680.0397.
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