This week, Surfin’ looks to the Mac OS X for a Software Defined Radio.
Did you know that Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb that features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general? If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
This week’s Surfin’ looks back on radio and electronic history via vintage Radio Shack catalogs.
Did you know that Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb that features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general? If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
Last week, I wrote here about how I bought a 1-Tbyte external hard drive for backup after I noticed how low the prices had dropped on external drives.
I also noticed that the prices of USB memory sticks had dropped considerably. Since I was in the market to replace my well-worn 1-Gbyte memory stick, I hit the “Add To Shipping Cart” button as soon as I saw an 8-Gbyte stick for $16 on Amazon last week. The stick arrived on Wednesday and I immediately put it to good use.
Back in 1978, I paid $599 for 16-kbyte of RAM for my Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer. Adjusted for inflation, that $599 would buy me 124 Tbytes of memory today! Amazing!
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| wa1lou’s LaCie |
Daily, Retrospect runs automatically to back up my Mac at 2 AM to two 160-Gbyte SmartDisk external hard drives. I inherited one of the drives, so I put it to work and on even days, Retrospect backs up to drive “A” and on odd days, to drive “B.”
Problem is that some days, depending on what projects I am working on, Retrospect cannot do a backup because there is not enough space on Drive “A” or “B.” When that occurs, I delete some of the project files from my Mac and when 2 AM rolls around, Retrospect can do its thing.
This occurs about once a week and has gotten old fast, so every once in awhile I consider buying a larger external hard drive. That once in awhile occurred again last week and when I checked online, I was amazed how low the prices for hard drives have fallen. So I bought one: a LaCie 1-Tbyte external hard drive that includes a slew of interfaces including Firewire 800, which is the interface I was after. (The SmartDisks only had Firewire 400, while my Mac supports both 400 and 800.)
The LaCie arrived yesterday and I connected it to my Mac last evening. When I made the connection, my Mac asked me if I wanted to use the new drive with Time Machine to do backup. I clicked positively and my Mac informed me that Time Machine would do a backup on the hour.
I finished some work, then went downstairs to clean the litter boxes and walk the Pies. After I finished my sanitation assignments, I returned to my Mac to see how the backup was going. A progress bar indicated that there were over one million files to backup and that Time Machine was about one-third of the way through.
The Harmonic phoned and I talked with her for a half hour or so, then I checked my Mac again. The progress bar was nearly at its end and less than a minute later, the progress bar disappeared and the initial backup was complete.
I was impressed! Firewire 800 is fast. I expected that the initial backup would take the better part of the evening, but I estimate that it took no more than 90 minutes.
By the way, the new hard drive (specifically a LaCie 301827U d2 Quadra) is soundly constructed and not much bigger than the SmartDisks. It includes a bundle of software that I have not explored yet.
This week’s Surfin’, Skimming the Code, has a bad link, which may be fixed by the time you read this. If not, the bad link is the word “tutorial” in the last line of the third paragraph. The link should be http://www.dxatlas.com/CwSkimmer/Files/Skimmerintro.pdf
By the way, the link was OK when I wrote the column, but Murphy changed it in the meantime!
And one more thing, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
In this week’s Surfin’, we consider Google Docs as an online Amateur Radio application. After you read that, come back here to post your comments, if any.
By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
This week’s Surfin’ explores the Earth’s ionosphere via Google Earth. After you read it, come back here to post your comments, if any.
By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
In this week’s Surfin’, read about Web sites I found to load my new computer with Amateur Radio software. After you read it, come back here to post your comments, if any.
By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.
Over a year ago, I wrote about the defective LCD on my 17-inch Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz Mac.
Last count, there were over 100 vertical lines on the LCD. They did not pose a problem using text-based applications, but they did make graphic-based applications very hard on my eyes, so much so that I stopped using my Mac for those applications.
Meanwhile, I had been following the situation closely. I had become resigned to the fact that Apple seemed to be ignoring everyone with the defective LCD and that I was stuck with a bad apple.
My daughter felt my pain and decided to call Apple in late February to fight for my cause. After 90 minutes on the phone, Apple agreed to fix my Mac for the cost of labor, $325, which was a bargain since the replacement part alone cost about $1000. Next day, Apple sent me a box to ship my Mac to their Texas repair center and I sent it on its way.
Day after day, I checked the status of my computer online and day after day, the status was that the part was on order.
Tuesday, Apple called to tell me that the part was expected on Friday and if it arrived on schedule, I would have my Mac back on Monday.
I was pleased with the news.
The man from Apple then said that if Monday was not soon enough, they would ship me a brand new Mac that was equivalent to my defective one. The equivalent is the brand new 17-inch 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro with 2 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. I jumped at the proposal; it is not often that someone offers me a $2800 computer for $325.
The new Mac arrived yesterday. Last night, I decompressed the backup files from my old Mac and began installing software.
I am still in shock over my good fortune!
This article compares the OLPC XO with its competition.