Bravo November

Tonight myself and some of the people from my sinister anime overlord agency were over at Dave & Buster’s, and were playing various games on their ‘Million Dollar Midway’. (The i, d, w, and a were missing from ‘Midway’, so it just said ‘Million Dollar M Y’. I wish I’d brought my camera.)

There are basically two areas to the ‘Midway’ - normal games, and ‘redemption’ games, the ones that award tickets or other prizes as a result of skillful play. I had an old card from a Power Combo that had about 2 credits left on it (where most of the games want 2.2… or 2.5… or such.) Along the line I found a crane machine full of candy, which claimed that it would NEVER leave you without a prize after playing! In fact, if it failed to grab a prize, it would add another credit and let you try again! Wow, I would have my sugar NO MATTER WHAT!

And lo and behold, I got a pack of Sweet Tarts, and these… very curious… “X-Men Candy Sticks”.

(The box was originally in quite pristine condition, until it spent some time being transported in one of the pockets of those which I refer to as my ninja pants. Yeah, maybe ninjas don’t wear these specifically, but they’re the most comfortable and wonderful black cargo pants I’ve ever owned and I would certainly wear them if I was a ninja. Moving right along…)

Yes… the sticks themselves look like something purchased right off the street in Opa-Locka.

Well then.

If this is what crack is like, I am sorely disappointed. It was quite tasteless, and barely even sweet. Remember kids, don’t even bother with crack. Le sigh. Here are the apparent ingredients of CRACK, should you be curious:

Remember to tell the cops you got the secret ingredient list off the INTERNET!!!

Alright, I’ve just had some major cellular issues, and resolved ‘em all.

First off, if you have a Nokia 6010 (Cingular Wireless seems to be giving these things out with new plan activation lately) and it likes to drop calls or just not place them at all, it may have a defective antenna connection. Either return it to the store, or open it up and check the connection. The connection to the antenna is a spring loaded metal tab that presses against the circuit board. The tab has a small spoon-shaped extension on the end. If that’s touching the circuit board as well as the little knuckle before it, it’ll short out the antenna altogether and keep the phone from working! The solution is simply to bend the spoon shaped bit back away from the board (while keeping the whole thing in the right shape so the ‘knuckle’ still lands against the appropriate pad).

Second, if you have a Nokia 6010, you can unlock it in MERE SECONDS to work with any US wireless provider! No cable’s required, and the code is free from a website or code generator software! Go to this site for the code. The procedure works like this: First, remove your phone’s battery and SIM card, enter your IMEI number and current provider, set the model to Nokia 3510 on the web form and ignore the “GEN” field (trust me on this… I randomly found it on a forum and it WORKED!), put the battery (but not the SIM card) back in the phone, and enter the *first* code given on that list. Supposedly, any of the 7 will work, but I had the first work… so why not?

The code is entered like this: #pw+123451234512345+1#. The p, w, and + characters are entered by repeatedly pressing the * key.
A couple of caveats on the process: First, if you enter an incorrect code, the phone will display “Code error” and turn off. You only have 5 chances to enter a correct code, or the phone will disable this method of unlocking it. (It can still be unlocked using a data cable and appropriate software, though that’s so much less fun!)
Second, if you pause for more than some unknown number of seconds (3?) between digits while entering the code, the phone will clear the entry. (This will not use any of those 5 attempts; the whole thing has to be entered up to the # to do that. It’s merely ANNOYING, not harmful!)

You should be greeted by a cheerful little check-mark icon and “Phone Restriction Off”, followed by the phone very lazily powering down. Reinsert your SIM card and you’re ready to go.

NOTE: This WILL NOT allow overseas use of your phone! The Nokia 6010’s a lousy custom job which only works for GSM 850 and 1900 networks, which are a lousy USA-only implementation of GSM. If you are looking for a phone for worldwide use, or just one that’s actually manufactured in a facility where they implement even the most basic of quality control, LOOK ELSEWHERE! (’Quad-band’ is the keyword you’re looking for.)

Also, if you’ve got a 6010, congratulations, you have the worst phone keypad I’ve ever had the misfortune to lay fingers upon. Fortunately, there should be a bunch of cheap ‘n’ nasty replacements available, most of which will have a better feel. You can greatly improve the factory keypad’s feel by removing the black plastic layer of the keypad, and I found, quite by accident, a great way to do this with the keypad overlay off of the phone: Non-acetone nail polish remover, applied to the black plastic layer while flexing the keypad, will cause it to almost instantly crack into a bunch of easily removed pieces.

And now, a warning about a feature I found in the 6010’s firmware: The keypad lock (Menu + *) has a bypass! It will allow any of the following key combinations to be entered without unlocking the keypad:
0 1 1 Talk [I'm calling it Talk, really it's just an unlabelled green key]
0 8 Talk
9 1 1 Talk
(Note: I haven’t tested the last one fully, as I didn’t want to place an unneeded call to said emergency number - 011 and 08 just do nothing on US phone systems. It will, however, at least allow “911″ to be entered.)
If any other key is pressed in sequence, the phone will treat the entry as garbage keystrokes and clear itself. However, should something in a pocket or otherwise press against those keys in the appropriate order, it WILL place a junk emergency call.

A few years back, Nextel had a serious problem with junk 911 calls being placed accidentally from their Motorola iDEN phones, some of which had the unfortunate combination of no hardware or software keypad lock and a feature that placed a 911 call automatically if the 9 key was held for a few seconds… I haven’t heard of this happening on Nokia phones with this… curious… bypass, but you may want to be a little more careful about how you carry around the non-flip varieties.

You know, I just don’t think the Internet wants to be helpful in my search for a career anymore.

For those of you out there who enjoy listening to weird crap on the airwaves… you may note that E22 now uses “Bravo November 2″ as a call-up.

Let it be known that we here at Bravo November are most amused.

(We? Yeah… me, and my multiple personalities. Yes.)

Or, “How to repair the mirror box squeak on a Canon AE-1″.

NOTE: This procedure is applicable to ALL Canon A-series cameras, however, each one differs. Be sure to get the service manual for the proper model before starting!

I regret not taking more photographs of this procedure… however, I do have another AE-1 around that could use it, so this post will probably be updated with more photos when I do it on that one.

Background: The Canon AE-1 was one of the most advanced cameras made, at the time when it came out. It was one of the first cameras to use digitally timed shutter speeds, replacing a whole pile of mechanical linkages with a ‘microprocessor’ timing circuit (more like a bunch of shift registers, if you ask me… but hey…) and electromagnets to control the shutter curtains.

Unfortunately, there’s one part in there that wasn’t lubricated with the most advanced lubricant available at the time… the mirror damper.

To reduce the ‘mirror slap’ which otherwise occurs when the mirror assembly is flicked up and down by the springs, Canon fitted a rotary damper, which works a bit like the governor on a music box. The last step of this mechanism is a small brass flywheel, which runs on a metal shaft. Over time, the lubricant on this shaft dries up and the wheel squeaks. It will initially just be a slight squeak, eventually, in severe cases, becoming a horrible squelch and finally throwing off the camera’s timing, or even jamming it completely!

There are instructions on the web for lubricating the mirror damper using a needle - I could not see ANY possible way this would work on the AE-1 Program I worked on!

Anyway, here’s my advice. If you’ve got the time and money to send the beast out for repair, do that.

If you don’t want to spend the money on the repair, or it absolutely must be working by tomorrow… set aside about four hours, a nice clear workbench, and a calm state of mind.

Tools required: Small Phillips screwdriver, soldering iron, synthetic lubricant, sewing pin/needle/small piece of wire, spanner wrench. The first three are available at Radio Shack; the fourth should just be lying around. The fifth is pretty exotic, but you can substitute the tips of a small pair of needle-nose pliers. If they aren’t small enough, you can use a grinder to reduce them to points.

Warning: If you’ve never soldered before, practice on a dead piece of gadgetry. The flex circuit boards in the AE-1 take VERY little heating to solder and desolder wires on, and WILL be damaged by excessive heat! It takes much less than 1 second to solder or desolder a wire connection on them.

First step: Get the appropriate service manual for your camera! For the AE-1 Program, the service manual is on this great page of information. (Thanks!) Put a battery in the camera and release the shutter, if it isn’t already.

Remove the camera back. On the AE-1, it comes off with a small latch at the hinge, as it was made to be user-interchangeable. Otherwise, just leave it on. Be careful not to hit the shutter curtains with your fingers or anything else!

Follow the service manual’s instructions to remove the top cover. On the AE-1 Program, the front fascia around the lens mount has to come off first, followed by all the gadgetry on the top of the camera. The wind lever has a strange nut on it that requires a spanner or pair of needle nose pliers to unscrew. The snap rings can be dealt with carefully with a small (jeweler’s-size) flat-blade screwdriver. Carefully peel off the leatherette on both sides. Lift up the top cover, desolder three wires to the flash shoe and PC connector, and you’re in. The bottom cover should be removed as well.

Then go through the service manual’s procedure to remove the mirror box. (I’m not going to try to describe it here.) You’ll be desoldering two more wires.

Finally, you’ll be able to remove the mirror box.

The small brass flywheel is the only thing you should lubricate. Apply a small amount of lubricant (I used the Teflon/silicone stuff that comes in the Radio Shack ‘precision lubricator’ tube) to the ends of that by sticking a droplet to a needle or pin, then transferring that to the shaft at the end of the flywheel.

Before putting the mirror box back in, make sure the large electromagnet on the bottom is in its released position, and that the mirror release tab is in the right place. Otherwise the camera will not wind correctly. Before reinstalling all the screws/wires/etc, hold the mirror box in place, put the cam and lever back on the wind shaft, and make sure it winds correctly. (The wind lever must lock at the end of the stroke.)

Finally, you’re done… in one easy for me to say step… put it all back together again, and enjoy!

Most of us have used a radio reciever to listen to music, news, and entertainment programming. Worldwide, there are broadcasters keeping the airwaves alive 24 hours a day, and there’s almost never a lack of anything to listen to in the AM and FM broadcast bands.

Somewhere between, notably, in the area between 3 and 30 Mhz, there’s a strange parallel world of signals. In that band, known as shortwave or HF (High Frequency), the radio waves are reflected off the Earth’s surface and ionosphere, allowing them to sometimes travel all the way around the world.

Occasionally, a distant station will be heard with a strange echo as it is recieved first from a rather direct bounce off the ionosphere, followed by a bounce that went all the way around the globe!

As for the content of these signals, just about anything can be found on shortwave; news and music from your own country and others around the world, ham radio operators and captains of ships and aircraft speaking to each other, and any number of digital signals carrying everything from text to weather charts. Morse Code, still quite alive and well, continues to be used there worldwide.

Explore the world of shortwave radio long enough, though, and you will run into one of radio’s oldest mysteries. Among the static, ionospheric whistes, lightning crashes, man-made electrical noise, and other background radiation, voices, Morse code, and electronic tones send out mysterious messages consisting only of numbers.

There are any number of theories as to the intent, originator, and recipients of these messages, and quite a large number of different transmission formats which would suggest different organizations as their sources. Some of them are known to have been used to send encrypted messages to spies in the field, some may be messages destined for foreign embassies, and there are rumors that some are even used by drug smugglers and terrorists. The only thing that is certain is that only one organization knows the meaning of these messages, and they aren’t sharing.

A typical transmission from one of these stations consists of two parts; a preamble, and a message. The preamble is a call-up with a distinctive sound and content, intended to allow the station’s recipient to easily find the signal by ear. This is necessary as the station may need to change frequency due to interference or jamming, or the recipient in the field may be limited to using very simple and inconspicuous radio equipment that doesn’t have a well calibrated tuning indicator.

These call-up sequences are quite intentionally unique, and are sometimes very interesting. Musical sequences, repeated call signs in voice or Morse code, and electronic tones have all been used by various stations. Listeners worldwide have heard everything from repeated callsigns or simple beeps to musical pieces by Jean-Michel Jarre preceding messages.

One of the most well remembered of these would come on the air with a snake charmer-like flute melody, to which a voice repeated the words “Papa November”, over and over. Well, in case you were wondering what inspired the odd title of this site, there you go…

A couple of stations even have interval signals that run continuously. One, known as ‘The Squeaky Wheel’, sent a squeaking set of tones every few seconds for several years before pausing temporarily for a voice to read out numbers. Other similarly repetitive beeps or ticks may be similar operations.

The messages themselves are generally numbers grouped into blocks of 5 digits, which are deciphered using either a written code book or by computer software. The means by which they are sent varies by the station; some use synthesized or recorded and replayed voices, some use manually or automatically sent Morse code, and some use digital codes. One of the creepiest sounding stations uses an electronic polytone system, in which a tone is assigned to each number from 0 to 9, and they are sent sequentially at about 3 digits per second.

Much has been speculated, observed, and written about these stations, but the only way to experience the truly mysterious, magical, and downright chillingly creepy phenomenon that they are is to listen in. These stations are located all over the world, and there may even be some practically right in your backyard. I’ve actually found a few in my hometown of Miami!

Here are some links for further information:
The Enigma 2000 group, dedicated to the study and observation of these strange creatures.
Spynumbers.com, with some information and schedules
Stations that may be on the air now, or in the next hour
Simon Mason’s site
A recording of a Cuban numbers station. This one’s rather famous for its poor transmission quality and technical glitches. Birds have even been heard squawking over the woman reading numbers over the horrendous AC hum over the Morse code leaking in from another transmission over the Morse code leaking in from yet another transmission. (*phew*)

I just spotted here, in the university center at FIU, a bling-equipped electric wheelchair.

It had short red neon tubes underneath providing underbody lighting, chrome spinner rims, and the silliest part of all? It had those skate wheels with the little magneto/color LED hubs and clear rubber surround for the small rollers at the back that prevent it from tipping backwards when running over curb cuts. It kinda reminded me, perhaps, of Craig Johnson’s wheels, but with less “cool” and more “oh dear gods that is WRONG”.

Like any such modifications, these were aesthetic only. The chair could still just barely make 2 mph.

And it is moments like these, OF COURSE, when I find my excellent Spotmatic II out of film with no spare roll handy to document the pure WEIRD.

Le sigh.

Anyone who lives in South Florida knows that it’s a great madhouse of development and redevelopment. Wetlands are being replaced with housing developments and shopping centers, land once used for agricultural purposes is disappearing in massive, multi-million dollar land grabs, and the over-stressed network of roads is nearing total 24-hour gridlock due to the steady increases in traffic.

A recent Supreme Court ruling probably won’t help one bit.

Dear America: GO TO YOUR ROOM. You DISGUST me. … that’s it, go to bed with no dinner.

The U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled that municipalities may sieze land used by existing homes and businesses to fulfill commercial land acquisitions for private use. In short, this means that a developer can go to the city or county and ask them to swipe your land with very minimal compensation to you to build a new residential or commercial development.

Those of you living within about a block of any of the major roads in south Florida, take note. You may be moving out before long…

The VIA C3 is a neat low-power processor, available in Socket 370 versions as well as on embedded motherboards (including the tiny Mini-ITX series). It was also, from what I’ve seen elsewhere on the web, used in some of the “Microtel” Lindows PCs sold by Wal-Mart.

Update, to disambiguate things: The Nehemiah core and later fully support the CMOV instruction mentioned below! As far as I know, you can use i686 as the CHOST for those. (Please let me know if this isn’t the case.)

Unfortunately, it’s got one serious oddity that will trip you up under some conditions when attempting to install Linux on the C3 system. The C3 identifies itself as being an i686-class processor with MMX, SSE, and 3DNOW feature sets. Pre-’Nehemiah’ core C3s are missing an instruction that is present on proper i686 chips! The instruction in question is CMOV, which may be present in code compiled for an i686 platform.

I first discovered this when using the Gentoo Linux LiveCD to install on a C3 system. The core in mine is the older Via Samuel 2, on a Syntax brand board. (A sticker on top of the cooler calls it a “1.3GigaPro” or such oddness.) On this CMOV-less core, the kernel booted ok, the proper init dance was danced, but attempting to chroot led to an illegal instruction error!

A quick search revealed that some other users had run into this same problem. It was mentioned on the Gentoo forums how to fix it on an already running system, but not on one that hadn’t been installed yet!

From searching around on the web, I saw that newer versions of Redhat were built to avoid CMOV on these chips, and just on a hunch, guessed that such a fix might have trickled down to the newer Fedora Core releases. I’d already had the 5-cd set downloading via Bittorrent so I could burn it off for a fellow follower of the great penguin, and the rescue disc of the set (about 100 megs) had already finished. I burned that to disc, and it allowed me to get up in a bootable LiveCD environment like Gentoo’s CD does.

At the point where it asked whether or not I wanted to mount the existing partitions (I had sucessfully partitioned it *before* running into the CMOV bug), I selected Skip. Voila… I had a shell with networking functional. From there, the usual steps of creating /mnt/gentoo and mounting the partitions worked, and I was able to chroot into the new environment set up from the Stage 1 x86 tarball. (NOT the i686 tarball, of course.)

Excellent! Things were looking up so far. I found some various suggestions for the choice of CFLAGS for this system, and there seemed to be some disagreement over whether it’s better to use -Os to minimize cache misses (64kb cache? Ow!) or some other optimization level. I chose -Os… I can always play with this later.

Here’s what I wound up with:
CHOST=”i586-pc-linux-gnu”
(This is very important - you MUST use i586 or the system will attempt to use CMOV, which is, of course, broken!)
CFLAGS=”-march=c3 -mmmx -m3dnow -fomit-frame-pointer -Os -pipe”
(Yes, it really does appear to support 3dnow. Newer ones do SSE as well. And, if you’ve got GCC 3.3 or newer, you can use -march=c3 - otherwise, use -march=pentium-mmx. Gentoo uses 3.3 by default on new systems, so there’s no problem there.)
CXXFLAGS=”${CFLAGS}”
(since there’s really no reason to have different flags for C and C++…)

Things appear to be working well so far - it’s in the bootstrap stage, and nothing’s exploded. Now, if only I didn’t have the guts of two computers spread across my bed, I wouldn’t have to go to sleep on the couch this morning…

—

Ahh, just when I thought I had it easy…
Ran into a stupid portage bug that stopped glibc from emerging during the bootstrap stage. The solution appears to be here (along with exactly the same error I recieved). Once I got past that, it’s been smooth sailing from there on out.

I’ve almost forgotten how nice it is to have a system that doesn’t require utterly exotic CPU cooling. My, this thing runs quiet!

Now, there shall be… MADNESS!

The original version of this site with its tiny bit of content will remain over here for convenient viewing. This, however, is the next generation of automagically updating fun.

Let the madness begin.