Categories
Fitness Science

Happy leap day 2024

I earned a badge on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday #garmin

Categories
Life in lockdown Science

Building Asterisk from Source

Today is Sunday. I am building Asterisk 18.9 from source patched with cisco call manager features. See this website for more details: https://usecallmanager.nz/patching-asterisk.html

I’m doing this on a proxmox Linux ubuntu container. This is so I can get my Cisco 9971 phones to work with Cisco call manager features like voicemail button support and BLF (busy lamp field). Why am I doing this? Well, my Cisco phones have been laying dormant for many months while my gaze has been elsewhere. On a lark I plugged them back in and low-and-behold I had 5 voicemail messages. All were from my healthcare service provider trying to sell me stuff. I deleted all the voicemails but it got me thinking that the voicemail button doesn’t work and that’s a shame — I can fix that. Anyways, this is my attempt to fix by building Asterisk from source in a Linux container that has been patched from usecallmanager.

Categories
Science Weather

Storms Marco / Laura

What does the 12z data show? Several models have made slight adjustments eastward today, but the most significant movement has come from the UKMET model, produced by the United Kingdom. This is not the world’s best global forecast model, but it is competitive, and something we often look at. In the case of Laura, it has had some of the best performance to date since tracking began a few days. This meant we have weighted it a little bit higher for this storm.

One of the things that has concerned us is that the UKMET, although an outlier, had been frequently bringing Laura to the central or upper Texas coast. This would have placed Houston, Galveston, and the upper Texas coast on the powerful right side of the storm. However, in a just released run of the model, the storm’s landfall location has made a sizable jump east, from near Corpus Christi to the Texas-Louisiana border:

Categories
Life in lockdown Science

Stargazing

I read an article yesterday that there was to be a meteor shower for the next two nights that would be visible without the need for a telescope. Given I’d got myself all worked up about an issue at work, I thought a nice reminder of how unimportant it all is would be just the thing I needed. I went out after 10pm to have a look as the sky was clear, I couldn’t see any meteors, or indeed the satellites which everyone else seems to be spotting recently but I did see what I think is Venus shining brightly in the sky. I tried to capture it, but it’s a bit blurry:

Anyway, today is a new day. I’ve downloaded an app to my phone which helps you identify which stars/constellations you’re looking at & I’ll try again tonight.

UPDATE: Still couldn’t see the meteor shower but the app (Star Tracker) did at least show me where the Lyrid constellation was so I could be confident of looking in the right place. Rose and I had some fun using the app to try and find the names of the stars we could see.

Categories
Science Weather

Arduino Weather Station

Because of Covid-19 we are all home and we most likely will need to stay for many, many weeks. Abby and Ella are home schooling and I’m working from home. Both girls have a science component to their learning. Ella’s Science curriculum includes the following “Students are currently working on life Science concepts. Students are expected to investigate that most producers (plants) need sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make their own food”. I purchased an Arduino based weather station kit a few years ago to build with the girls. I figure now is a good time so I built it today. My soldering is below average but it does work. I’ll check it more tomorrow. Today was a long but good day..

Categories
History Science

Tough Day

My mom texted me today to suggest that we cancel her planned trip to Houston in April. I admit I was thinking the same thing but she said it first. I would worry for her health if she were traveling. I’ll work with the airline tomorrow to reschedule the trip. I told Abby and she was sad. I used the word cancel and Abby asked if we could reschedule. My mom said she was so excited to come and I know Abby and Ella were too. All in all a sad day. The world is still panicking due to coronavirus; school is canceled for a month. Restaurants, bars and gyms are being shuttered. God speed to this planet so that we can find some resistance to coronavirus soon.

Categories
History Science

Coronavirus & the Global Time-Out

The Coronavirus is currently gripping the world with fear; flights are restricted, all sports shutdown and schools are closed. It almost seems like the world is on one big time-out. Today I went for a bike ride with Ella and I saw loads of people out enjoying the beautiful day. My work has authorized global split teams (team blue and team green) to limit the effects of a spread of infection on a team. I worked from home a bit last week & it was fine. I do miss the room and the camaraderie of the staff. While I’m at home I have the girls; Ella has been really good and is getting herself cereal and such. Abby for her part is staying in her room and coming out for food, ha. The weather was very nice today; I did all my yardwork yesterday and today — mow, edge, weed, sweep up. I also cleaned up in the house and did the dishes and laundry. At least in my neighborhood folks are enjoying this time with family and loved ones. Fathers and Flashlights has officially been cancelled (the camping trip) and we got no refund! I sorted knew it would get cancelled and I started prepping Ella for that fact. Todd (Paiges dad) invited us to go with him to do our own fathers and flashlights. In many ways I think this one will be better! Anyways, god speed to the world and hoping this all blows over some time soon.