golden age

It is hard to not be nostalgic for the golden age of air travel after a visit to the Airline History Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. I'd share a hyperlink with you but the Blogger interface for iPad is so poor that it doesn't seem to support embedding links. Thank heavens Blogger supports the camera directly. That way I can just take a picture of the URL for you and save you a bunch of trouble. This must be the multi-media I've been hearing so much about.

An URL
Photo Credit: Your correspondent

The Museum's centerpiece is a beautiful Lockheed Super Constellation. Everything about that plane is gorgeous. I think Claire McCaskill, the senior senator from Missouri, must have visited recently. Her office put out a press release yesterday in the form of an open letter to the FAA administrator.


I would just go with a chant -- '2 4 6 8 10 / make flying fun again' and a fist pump. McCaskill singles out restrictions on electronic device usage and then rambles. I haven't read anything duller or less coherent since I proofread my last post on smart homes.

Here's my favorite part:

"As you surely know, the public is growing increasingly skeptical of prohibitions on the use of many electronic devices during the full duration of a flight, while at the same time using such devices in increasing numbers. For example, a traveler can read a paper copy of a newspaper throughout a flight, but is prohibited from reading the same newspaper for major portions of the flight when reading it on an e-reader. The fear of devices that operate on electricity is dated, at best. Importantly, such anachronistic policies undermine the public's confidence in the FAA, thereby increasing the likelihood that rules of real consequence will be given too little respect. The absurdity of the current situation was highlighted when the FAA acted earlier this year to allow tablet computers to replace paper flight manuals in the cockpit, further enhancing the public's skepticism about the current regulations."

This is a damning criticism of our current copyright rules by a senior lawmaker. Progress! Why should it be a big deal that you want to read some text on an electronic device of your choosing? Sadly, the topic is not copyright reform.

Here's a new argument based on McCaskill's reasoning...

---

the public is growing increasingly skeptical of prohibitions on the use of fire during a flight. The fear of fire is dated, at best. The absurdity of the current situation was highlighted when the FAA acted earlier this year to continue to allow fiery jet engines to be used during every phase of flight.

A traveler can read a paper copy of a newspaper throughout a flight, but is prohibited from filling the same newspaper with tobacco, rolling it up, and smoking it for major portions of the flight.

---

The ashtrays at every seat in the Constellation speak to Lockheed's position on fire in the cockpit.

I get it. Newspapers are dying. Easing them out of the airline cabin, a traditional stronghold, is really an act of mercy. Still, McCaskill's position is absurd. The existing rules, sane or not, are not actually about newspapers.

I welcome new and better rules. Here's what I fear from McCaskill's office:

The Omnibus Air Travel, Patent, and Copyright Reform Bill of 2013

Whereas the hoarding of Intellectual Property is the engine of our current prosperity and the principal basis of the new American Economy ...

Whereas airplanes are also powered by engines ...

...

... that neither the FAA nor the FCC nor any Executive Instrumentality shall make any rule restricting the freedom of air travelers to consume the properly licensed intellectual property of their choosing during any flight portion on any patented device whatever nor restrict their ability to contact a DRM licensing server of their content provider's choosing throughout flight.

...

smart waste

This week's ewaste is actually a grab bag of broken and obsolete junk from Smarthome.

Here's an old one: Anything with 'science' in the name isn't. I know few computer scientists who would disagree too strongly. Here are two more: Anything with 'open' in the name isn't. Run from anything with 'smart' in the name.

Smartphones seem to be thriving in spite of their name. Some things do. Not 'smart homes'.

I never really understood why large retailers private label otherwise popular products. I

recall the Sears Video Arcade II. This was a VCS-compatible box with bad controllers.

Casual users would never know that it wasn't a lame knock-off. It was actually a rebadged

Atari 2800. It wasn't cheaper than the VCS. Users were never quite sure that it would actually

play VCS games. Sears never offered a large collection of games for sale in stores anyway.

Sears has been rebranding power equipment for almost as long as they have been selling it. For years, they let shoppers in on the ground floor of home automation by rebadging X10 modules and switches. Sears wasn't alone. Stanley, Radio Shack, IBM, and others all slapped their labels on X10 products at one time or another. Only in the case of Radio Shack could this have been a pick-up for brand image. These products were not good.

X10 wall switches were especially bad. I've included a explanatory illustration. The fact that it required one was not good news. They advertise that it works with your standard switch plate. That was worth a mention. It made it easy to gloss over other details. It looked nothing like a wall switch. It didn't work in a very obvious way. It didn't feel good.

Classic X10 wall switch (explained)
Photo credit: X10.com
Used without permission

The X10 protocol itself may have been dodgy and the X10 wall switches may have been confusing. I never had any actually die. Though they are now more than thirty years old, they are still compatible with X10 controllers. They are still for sale on Sears' site though they are now sold through sears.com by X10 itself.

In 1992, a California company decided to actually wear the 'smart' mantle. It seems to be working. smarthome.com is still in business. Smarthome did and does sell X10 gear through a catalog and over the web. They eventually decided that there was a market for an X10-compatible wall switch that looks and feels like something a human would understand. I owned about a dozen of these. The last came out today.

Smarthome sold these as 'switchlinc' switches. They were available as dimmers for dimmable lights and relay switches for other loads. They improved on X10 gear in form and function. Not only were they operable without training, they had EEPROM instead of plastic code wheels. They were (nominally) bi-directional. Smarthome sold a related product called a 'keypadlinc'. These have six or eight buttons to trigger home automation actions. Some of these modules include a local module and can use some buttons to control a local load.

In my experience, these smarthome X10 modules were much less reliable than their actual X10 predecessors. Of the dozen or more that I owned, all failed in less than eight years. Light switches are not supposed to fail.

I recently installed several new switchlinc modules from Smarthome as replacements. These speak a new protocol 'Insteon' devised by Smarthome. I have been using these newer Insteon switches since about 2008 and have had no failures so far though I am on my third Insteon modem.

Wall (switches) of Shame
Photo credit: Your correspondent

X10 would never have appealed to me without a computer interface. I think I have owned almost every X10 computer interface ever produced. I had the original CP-290. I connected it to a Commodore 64. It was terrible. For a time I regretted only being able to throw it away once. I got another chance when I got a second CP-290 to connect to an IBM PC clone. I had the TW523 two-way interface module. That was reliable but very timing sensitive. I got an X10 CM11a bi-directional computer interface directly from the company and I wrote some bad Linux software for it. That flaky module had several flaky variants. I tried all of them.

X10 actually managed to get an interface right some years later with the CM17A 'firecracker'. This was a cheap and nasty little RF dongle that sat on your serial port. It transmitted commands to one of the old fashioned X10 RF bridges used by remote controls. The device itself was reliable. It absolutely could not hang -- partly because it had no state to speak of. Driver programs had to bit-bang X10 RF packets

to it directly through DTR and RTS.

I threw away modems because they died or they sucked. I have only recently started throwing away modems because they became obsolete and I'm not happy about it.

I ordered a new Insteon appliance module this year to replace a twenty five year old X10 appliance module that controlled my Christmas tree for many years. I plugged it in and tried to pair it with my Insteon modem and 'Indigo' controller software. Failure. I bought an upgrade to Indigo. Failure. Failure with a better message that told me my modem was not new enough to control the firmware on the appliance module.

Huh? The appliance module has been basically sorted out as a concept for thirty four years.

I bought a new modem from Smarthome and life appears OK for THIS MOMENT. Insteon was obviously never fully baked if we're still having a think about how to build an appliance module or a modem capable of talking to one.

I now have a 2413 modem. It appears to be working with Indigo. It uses a reliable FTDI USB to serial bridge. The FTDI drivers for Mac are mature. I just replaced a 2414U modem. I have no idea why it had to go. How this thing couldn't speak to a christmas tree is bafflement incarnate. It weighed 280g! It should speak with gravitas! The 2414U had earlier been replaced by a 2412U modem. I don't know what modem lockup problem that was intended to solve but I don't think it took. The 2414U went back into service when the 2412U died. The modem instability may have been caused by one of the last of the original switchlinc switches on its way out.

I tried the 2412. I tried the 2414. I'm hoping the 2413 is the Goldilocks modem. I'll put my numerological superstition aside and I'll keep you posted.

I'm more concerned about upgrade's evil handmaiden obsolescence. With each modem upgrade, I unplug a box from the wall and throw it away. I haven't yet been told that I need to replace an Insteon wall switch because it is obsolete. This most recent appliance module experience makes me think that day is coming.

carbon

It's hard for the laity to know just what to make of Curiosity's carbon find on the red planet.

I flew into DC for business for a couple of days and caught this view of the next Mars rover in front of NASA headquarters.

If this treatment is anything to go by, I think contamination is likely.

Perhaps this is not the next rover. This may simply be a re-purposed runner-up from the design competition for the current mission. In that case, Curiosity killed the (bob)cat.

A future Mars rover? Notice the NASA 'meatball' just below the flag.
Photo credit: Your correspondent

grout

My childhood dreams are reduced to a grout color.

Pre-mixed grout
Photo credit: Your correspondent

woolrich

It was chilly here today. I was out with the kids. I wore my favorite red Woolrich shirt. That shirt reminds me of the company every time I hang it up. You can't beat a heavy cotton flannel assembled in Sri Lanka when you want a reminder of a small Pennsylvania wool mill and America's lost textile economy.

I've had the shirt for many years. Still more years ago, I went to a Woolrich factory outlet in California and bought a brilliant windbreaker from them. Plastic fiber. The kind of jacket that can be folded, still damp, into its own pocket and left to mildew until you need it again.

My windbreaker never made it to that part of its life cycle, at least not in my care. I like to think it was sucked out a convertible somewhere on some twisty segment of the Pacific Coast Highway. It was probably left on the back of a diner chair instead.

I learned a lot about outlet shopping with that windbreaker. I had thought that the real trick was to inspect merchandise carefully before you bought to avoid visible manufacturing errors. I realized soon after that an outlet garment with no visible flaws must have either hidden flaws worse than a simple missed stitch or marketing flaws that left it unfit somehow for general consumption.

The jacket may have been just the wrong color of blue/green that year. I think it was consigned to the outlet for a deeper flaw. It had a velcro closure over the zipper. I soon found that the velcro was installed the wrong way around. The stiff, hooky part of the velcro faced in toward your body . If you happened to be wearing an actual wool sweater of the type formerly made by Woolrich, it would happily engage the jacket and serve as surrogate velcro loops. The sweater usually lost those encounters. I ruined a couple that way before I figured it out.

All of this came to mind today when the ACLU called.

I don't have a lot of outlets here where I live. I do have MicroCenter. They serve a similar purpose. They remainder lots of products with hidden flaws. The Philips DECT phones I bought from them a couple of years are a good example. Their chargers absolutely destroy the rechargeable batteries in the phone. I have to replace them every year. The last one died during the election season this year. There didn't seem to be any good reason to get the phones back on line until well after the robocalls subsided. Today was the day to bring them back. If I had thought more clearly, I would have waited till after the year-end giving people hung it up.

Not ten minutes after I got the phone reconnected, the ACLU called looking for more money from me. I've never given them my private, unlisted home telephone number. There are lots of reasons not to. The most compelling is that I don't even know it. Nobody does. My wife has it buried in a phonebook entry for me somewhere. She never dials the actual number manually. She probably only saw it once, a decade ago, when putting it into her cell phone.

The ACLU called looking for me by name.

Somewhere along the way, my local telco sold my unlisted number to some database types who thought that the cleverest thing since the gateleg table would be to fuse this info with their existing donor contact info so that they could reach out in new and unwelcome ways.

I only pay my telco $2.50 per month for not printing my name in their directory. They could hardly be expected to make ends meet on that alone. It must cost them at least $4 per month just to not print it!

The ACLU is not the only guilty party. Since this privacy breach, I have received lots of calls from organizations that I support that suddenly have that number. The call center drones all insist that I must have furnished the number. It is on their screen, is it not? They dialed, did they not? I have given generously in the past, have I not?

The Free Software Foundation, bless them, has not pulled this trick yet. I hope the fused dataset can only be read with non-free tools. They survive to get money from me for another year.

Thomas Wolfe says you can't go home again. Certainly not if you lived in most US mill towns. My local telco says you can still call.

blog by reference

I started reading The Register's archaeology piece on the British 'Liberator' laptop last night and I blew my entire time allowance for original reporting. Go read that piece instead. Their entire history series is uniformly readable. Better, it is surprisingly non-conspiratorial. That's a difficult trick to pull off when looking back on dead, incompatible machines.

If you are looking for a way to keep your houseguests civil over the long holiday weekend, I suggest the game 'Chronology'. Players maintain a timeline of cards. On each turn, they must place an event, like invention of the safety pin, correctly in their timeline. Gameplay stops when a player builds a timeline of some predetermined length. If you buy one of the more deluxe editions then you can remove all the sports and popular culture cards and still have enough decent technology cards left over for a game!

Many of the best cards are dated from patent applications. I can imagine a free, online version of this game that just draws patents from USPTO. You would probably want to exclude any patent filed in the last thirty years.

I'm sure that The Register merchandising team is already hard at work on a special edition 'ROM expansion pack' for this game. I hope it available in time for Christmas. I think it should come in either a collectable colorburst crystal tin or a reproduction of the Liberator's pleather case.

Colorburst Crystal
Photo credit: allelectronics.com

brace

Text entry remains a challenge on mobile devices.

Apple's iPad provides an on-screen keyboard that is better in many ways than real keyboards on real computers I've owned. It is not good at punctuation.

The keyboard supports multi-touch. This means that a user can hold 'shift' plus a letter or '#+=' plus a symbol and get a shifted version of the key. This is certainly more natural than the modal on-screen keyboards on several earlier systems.

Unfortunately, the 'ABC'/'.?123' button remains quasi modal. You cannot hold it down with one finger while selecting punctuation another.

Fortunately, Apple provides a completely unnatural alternative. You can press 'ABC'/'.?123' and slide your finger across to the (shifted) key you want. On release, the keyboard returns to its original state. If you never need a piece of punctuation more adventurous than '@' then you shall never want.

If you should ever need any of the Holy Punctuation reserved for Programmers then you will certainly want. The 'ABC'/'.?123' is not properly multi-touch aware. You can press '.?123','#+=',and '{' together and get a curly brace. Your keyboard will not return to its original state on release. Worse, you cannot use the funky 'electric slide' gesture from the alpha keyboard to get a curly brace at all.

The C language was developed not that long before the famous 1972 break-in at DNC headquarters in the Watergate. Little evidence exists to support a link between these events aside from persistent rumors that 'C' is, in fact, a programmer's pun for 'Water'.

Well connected C programmers in 1972 might have used a VT05 video display terminal from DEC. They had access to the glorious range of ASCII punctuation right at the keyboard though some shifting was required.

Years later, affluent home hackers at their Apple ][ machines were early victims of Steve Jobs' War on Punctuation. That keyboard supported enough punctuation to enter C trigraphs and not much more. No curly braces, no square braces.

Apple II+ keyboard
Photo credit: Bilby

Even the Commodre PET's crude calculator keyboard and the Atari 400's appalling membrane keyboard supported square braces. Modern scholars see that Jobs didn't invent keyboards without punctuation. He merely perfected them.

Quick 'C' punctuation can be brought to the iPad in just about the same way it has been brought to the masses for forty years -- with multigraphs.

In 'C', users with censored keyboards could use '??(' for '[', '??<' for '{', and so on. The idea, at least, still makes some sense in the iPad era and many shortcuts can be entered as quickly as with the iPad's own keyboard.

Go to 'Settings'->'General'->'Keyboard'->'Add New Shortcut...' and you can build modern di-,tri-, and n-graphs for your favorite missing marks. I frequently use the four following shortcuts:

lcb -> {
rcb -> }
lsb -> [
rsb -> ]

Apple could fix this situation easily by making the '.?123' key a multi-touch peer of 'shift'. They could do it without introducing any of the virtual silkscreen frenzy of contemporary Android keyboards. Not a single pixel on-screen need change.