The MacAlba

I previously wrote about my first attempt at a Google Earth (GE) “mashup” where I’d overlaid a Bureau of Meteorology rain radar image over a panel from Google Earth.

I’ve now modified the mashup to overlay two rain radar images side-by-side. I’ve taken the Grafton and Moree images and overlaid them over their respective ground areas. Writing the KML code was trivial; most of the time required to do this was in manually registering (aligning) the radar image over the ground area. while it’s not perfect, it’s adequate for my purposes.

To view and manipulate my mashup, download the KML file, save it to disk, then double-click it (or “open� it directly from GE).

Here’s what it should look like:

It might take a while to actually see some rain on this image - we don’t get all that much at this time of year.

I’ve only recently begun exploring Google Earth (GE). The Google Gods haven’t yet blessed the pane in which we live, it’s still in low-res, but the panes around us are in magnificent hi-res detail. I can even see a few graves in the neighbouring Hillgrove Cemetery now.

I’ve also been reading about people creating “mashupsâ€? - the combining of information, maps in this case, from more than one source.

My first attempt at creating a mashup involved mixing the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) rain radar image for this area with Google Earth’s view of New England and surrounding area. My mashup updates the radar image every 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t rain around here that much at this time of year so it might take a while to view the results at their glorious best.

One benefit of overlaying the rain radar image on GE is that the viewer can take advantage of the 3D and pan, tilt, and zoom features to look at the rain from every conceivable angle
To view and manipulate my mashup, download the KML file, save it to disk, then double-click it (or “open� it directly from GE).

This is what you can expect, rain permitting:

Having managed to get a reliable digital TV signal, I’ve been looking at the additional content that’s now available to me. One show that’s available on the ABC’s digital only channel, ABC2, is music program Dig TV. A segment that I caught was an interview with South Australian band “The Audreysâ€?. This band is described, on their web site, as being “alt-country popâ€?. It’s not a genre that I could say that I’m intimately familiar with, but after listening to them performing a single piece, “Banjo & violinâ€?, I’m hooked.

A couple of days later I nipped into the ABC Centre in town at lunchtime and purchased the only copy of The Audrey’s CD that was there (to be honest I was surprised to find that they had a copy at all - given that there’s not a huge selection of music available in that particular bookshop in the first place).

As inadequate as my music vocabulary and reviewer experience is, that’s not going to stop me having a go at writing a mini-rewiew.

Now, having had the opportunity to listen to all the tracks several times, I’d class this CD as having a higher than average number of tracks that I rate highly (compared the other CDs in my collection).

Taasha Coates’s voice is described as being “smokyâ€?. Personally, I think “smokyâ€? has connotations of roughness and stinging - I’d suggest that “mellowâ€? and “sultryâ€? would be better adjectives (albeit not on every track). Perhaps the banjo of Tristan Goodall has swung the sound towards alt-country (and/or bluegrassy?) - I’m not one for rigorously classifying music into genres, though, I just like what I like. My musical taste is quite eclectic as a result.

The CD is called “Between Last Night and Us�, and my favourite tracks, thus far, would have to be “You & Steve McQueen�, and “Banjo and violin�. The former and a few other tracks can be sampled on their web sites. Why are they my favourite tracks? No idea. I enjoy music based on the total sound rather than, say, what the lyrics are saying to me.

The Audreys are currently on a European tour, then they’re off to Canada. They tour Australia during July/August/September 2006.

The booklet that accompanies the CD has some very nice, quirky, faux-1960’s(?)-Australia photography accompanying it (I’d suggest that may not have been photographer Wend Lear’s goal though, just how I interpret the style).

Resources:

• ABC2
• Dig TV
• The Audreys
• Banjo and violin (Real player, broadband only, perhaps only for 7 days after broadcast)
• The Audreys infoblog (low signal to noise ratio)
• The CD “Between Last Night and Usâ€? at the ABC Shop, and at Amazon

I bought a cheap standard-definition digital TV set-top box (STB) about six months ago when it was “on specialâ€? at the post-christmas sales. I wanted to find out a bit more about such a thing. Once home I tried it out only to discover that the TV antenna masthead pre-amplifier kept overdriving to such an extent that the digital TV channels (only one channel removed from the analogue TV channels) were useless. I couldn’t get a strong enough signal on the digital channels because the analogue signals interfered with them.

Now, some months on, I switched the STB inline again. To my surprise it now works perfectly. I’m working on the theory that the problem is temperature related and that now, because it’s winter, there’s no cause for the pre-amp to act badly.

So, with a working STB, I began to work examine what digital TV is all about. We only currently get two TV stations transmitting digital signals in this area - ABC and SBS. The ABC is transmitting its analogue service plus its relatively new, digital only, ABC2 channel. SBS transmits its normal analogue service plus a foreign TV-news service. In addition, SBS also transmits a high-definition version of its analogue program - I can’t view this though as my STB only handles standard-definition services.

Both the ABC and SBS also transmit two radio stations. SBS relays its two analogue radio services; the ABC transmits its digital-only “Dig� and “Dig Jazz� services.

According to the STB I’m receiving the signals at about 40% of full strength - nevertheless neither the audio nor the video show signs of loss of data. We’re just under 40 km from the TV transmitter which explains the low signal strength. That and the hundreds of gum trees above the height of the TV antenna.

I suspect, however, that unless I replace the masthead pre-ampifier, I’ll experience problems again once the temperature starts to rise in 4 or 5 months time. I’ll need to research higher-quality masthead pre-amps rather than the common but cheap amplifier that was installed when the house was built a few years ago.

References:
ABC
Dig radio
Dig Jazz
SBS
Digital Broadcasting Australia