Today I received confirmation that my request to become part of the Tier2 APRS-IS network was successful. So what does this mean for fellow Amateur Radio operators that use the packet mode refereed to as APRS? Well not much really! only that I'm now part of the Oceania rotation network, so should you be using aunz.aprs2.net for your connection within the APRS client software then you may get forwarded to my server to obtain your APRS-IS data.
Please should there be any issues that you happen to notice please email mail me so I can rectify it ASAP!
Today was a day away from the house! with a drive to Richmond then followed by a visit to ZooDoo Animal Park. Although the weather was "supposed" to break up around the middle of the day, it held out nice and sunny (all be it a little windy!) So I thought I had taken more images, but I didn't! So here are a few of ducks & bridge (c1823) and the tigers at ZooDoo…
With 2010 almost behind us, 2011 just around the corner, what's going to be greeting you into the new year?
Well for me nothing really exciting or new, just a continuation from the current way of things…
The application for becoming a T2 APRS server is under way (just awaiting confirmation) so hopefully that will be accepted and up & running in the new year. The static IP has been implemented, so they are the two main changes to this server, I'll most likely ponder carefully the re-implementation of Debian as the OS of choice for this server, but I've discovered that most of the current configuration isn't backward compatible, so I may have to simply backup the essentials and start afresh. Not really the course of action I want to take, but maybe necessary…
So to all of you out there in Internet land, have yourself a safe new year and make sure that you make it into 2011 in one piece! 😉
Soon I will be applying to become a T2 APRS server as Australia currently has two active T2 servers I'm sure that by me adding to this network will provide some more redundancy and assist the APRS community.
The process is quite straight forward, and for some time now the only requirement I was lacking was a static IP. I've just applied to my ISP (no extra cost to me!) for one, this should be activated on Xmas day (December 25) so if my server goes offline for a short period, that is most likely going to be the cause.
I've been running my iGate now for almost 4 years and during this time there's been many changes in both the software used and hardware.
If you would like to contribute towards the running costs, you are welcome to make a donation…
A week or so back I mentioned that the SDK (Software Developer Kit) had been released and that the AOSP would follow ( see that blog post here ) Well the moment that all Android uses have awaited for… the official release of AOSP 2.3 GingerBread has now been made public for all to download, however there was a note attached to the release asking for people to refrain from getting the source immediately but to consider both the servers and other users as to not cause a DDoS!
So no glossy pictures in this post, but there will be once some ROM's hit the web to show off the new functions of Android!
I was going to do this last night but I got distracted and simply didn't get around to writing, anyhow it is just as well because overnight there was another release of OxygeN. and I've had some really great Quadrant scores from this ROM that have simply left some other custom ROM's lagging behind! Yes, I do realise that its not always about speed, functionality and stability rate high as well, after all what's the point in having your phone freeze or simply misbehave when you need to use it!
In the last two images I have used the stock stetting of 998MHz (first result) then in the second I've used SetCPU to over clock the CPU to the maximum allowed by the kernel and as you can see there is an increase, but at a sacrifice to both the battery & CPU life. I keep my phone CPU at stock speed for general use, as it provides both the better battery and of course it doesn't put the strain from the heat generated, and I can say the phone gets very hot QUICKLY! so if you choose to over clock your phone be aware that you are essentially shortening the life by doing so! you have been warned 😉
In the early hours of this morning Google released the much anticipated update for Android, version 2.3 code named GingerBread. This release has had so many predicted release dates it was kind of like a game of cat & mouse as to when it was going to actually happen! Well it's now out there for developers to start playing with. I've set-up the SDK for Android and I'm able to provide simulated images of what this update looks like, but as yet I don't have it on my HTC Desire to test.
Please note all images are click-able to make them bigger…
Obviously the grey panel to the right of the screen it to control the function keys whilst testing and the actual image is the screen image on the left. Although this is pure Android AOSP the ROM's that will become available soon will either feature the ADW Launcher, Launcher Pro or Zeam Launcher (amongst others) I am keen to see how this compares to the current ROM that I'm using (Oxygen by AdamG)
So who will be the first to update their ROM to Gingerbread, and who's going to miss out all together? (branded tel-co ROM's)
Our thanks goes out to all who contribute in some way to make the Android OS what it has become and where it's going to go…
When I'm doing tests on a ROM I tend to run Quadrant (Advanced) 3 times to get an average rather than just a one off result.
Well I've just broken the 1600 points barrier! no other ROM that I have used since getting my Android HTC Desire has come close to this score.
So what ROM's have I tried?
* Stock HTC Sense (Telstra)
* OpenDesire Team HTC Sense
* LeeDrOiD HTC Sense
* T-mod HTC Sense (LeeDrOiD mod)
* Cyanogenmod nightly (AOSP)
* Oxygen (AOSP)
Ok so you say but that's only 6 ROM's… well yes, but for each of them there's been a learning curve as I've gone from HTC Sense to AOSP. As much as I like some features of HTC Sense, AOSP has proven to be the fastest and stable, where Sense is rather sluggish by comparison!
On my quest to seek out new ROM's for my HTC Desire I've recently stumbled across Oxygen, created by AdamG (creator of Opendesire) So on first impressions the download size is only 48mb! yes that's right only 48mb. So if you're aware most AOSP ROM's are around the 70mb size so what's missing? well I'm not exactly sure! but I did notice that the Gapps (Google applications) package that you need to flash with Cyanogenmod includes both Facebook & Twitter however they are not included in Oxygen. I suppose that because these are updated regularly it's better to leave them out as not everyone wants the social networking applications!
I ran Quadrant just to compare the figures that I had from using Cyanogenmod nightly (build #205) and well I'm just scratching my head because the result from Oxygen is close to 300 points higher than Cyanogenmod and that is without any CPU overclock or manipulating of the results. Just to prove that I'm not misleading you here is a screen capture of the Quadrant score…
