Campaign Statement 21 June 2019 - AMSAT-NA Board of Directors 2019

21 June 2019

Martha at AMSAT told me my petition for nomination for election to the AMSAT-NA board of directors election was accepted. Thank you to both Martha and all currently serving board members and AMSAT-NA leadership. It's an honor to be nominated and I will run for a position on the board.

I am part of a slate of candidates. Some of us know each other and have worked together before, and some of us are meeting for the first time on this particular project. We come from a variety of backgrounds, we live in different states, and we work in different fields. We have the same views on the need for organizational transparency, and we all greatly value volunteer service.

Part of the deal with putting yourself out there in front of others and asking for votes is to explain yourself, your motives, and your intentions. That is what this letter is about.

I said I was open to questions and I have received some very good ones. First of all, thank you so much for the support! It means a lot and is deeply appreciated.

There are some changes that need to be made. There are many things that need to stay the same.

Here are the questions I've been asked so far.


Information Technology Infrastructure

Multiple people (11) have contacted me about the IT situation. Most often mentioned is the website. Maintaining a useful website with multiple complex functions is difficult. The current website is not perceived to be easily modified or updated. Issues flagged and communicated about by individuals have not been resolved. Explanations have not been given. Assertions have been made that the hardware needs to be upgraded and that the situation can be improved. Requests for service and corrections and inclusion from a variety of people, including myself, have not been acknowledged or answered.

I'm familiar with the history of the AMSAT website. It's been, and is today, a *very* useful resource for not just the AMSAT community in the United States, but also for the rest of the world.

Identifying problems, explaining them, and fixing them is what I do. Developing and maintaining a website is not high profile space work, but it is a central service to the community. The website, and the way social media is used, needs some attention. The way forward is to inventory what we have, evaluate the shortcomings compared to organizational goals for the website, design any needed upgrades, plan support and maintenance, propose it, vote on it, and then make sure it gets done.

Social media is challenging, even for organizations with paid staff that do nothing but produce and curate content. AMSAT-NA needs a review and an update of how it uses social media. What is the goal? What are the policies? Where is the fun? I believe it should be accessible, informative, and fair. When it fails to be accessible, informative, and fair, then there needs to be remedies. Adopting existing industry-standard codes of conduct is a start. The other half of the recipe is a willingness to enforce them.

Infrastructure, websites, and social media are not high profile space work, but it's important to ordinary operators and enthusiasts.


What to do about ITAR/EAR

The second largest set of questions I have received is about space work. What is our future? Why can't we see what is going on?

The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) are two very important United States export control laws that affect the manufacturing, sales and distribution of many different types of technology.

I most enjoy working on ground systems. I do have space industry experience with Globalstar. I know my way around ITAR. I understand what it takes to comply. I believe that the public domain carve outs in ITAR and EAR are the right way forward for an amateur radio satellite service. Yes, it is true, my heart is in ground systems. Nothing makes me happier than supporting those that want to work on and operate spacecraft.

Here is what I know. Complying with ITAR/EAR regulations that are designed to serve proprietary interests, and are rooted in 1980s thinking, are not what we should be using as a framework for very precious volunteer hours for amateur satellites. We have a much better option available to us, and that is the public domain option in ITAR 120.11. This provision is also available in EAR.

Converting AMSAT-NA to an Open Source and Open Access organization is my priority. If you want that, please vote for the slate that supports this goal.

The incumbents have turned down two different closely related proposals. They rejected a proposal to bring AMSAT-NA in compliance with the current proprietary ITAR/EAR regulations. Currently, AMSAT-NA does not comply with ITAR in terms of data storage or business communications. The proposal to use specific third-party ITAR-compliant services was rejected because it would cost money. The incumbents' board also rejected a proposal to convert to an open source organization under ITAR/EAR public domain carve outs. I care very much about the members and the mission. I will work to make it a safe and fun place to volunteer with international collaboration once again possible.


Respect for All Volunteers

Third, I have received a lot of questions and some very pointed comments about how volunteers should or will be treated. Clear guidelines for volunteering, identified volunteer coordinators, a enforceable code of conduct, an application process that doesn't necessarily go through a single person or position at AMSAT-NA, the ability to coordinate outside projects and organizations as valued and included Member Societies, and a positive friendly welcoming atmosphere is what we should prioritize as an organization.

I have experience with attempting to use the Member Society section of AMSAT-NA bylaws. Open Research Institute, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to open source and open access research and development, was founded in order to be the open source R&D service for AMSAT-NA. This would have dramatically reduced risk to the traditional ITAR projects, provided an alternative management structure to the top-down, opaque, authoritarian style that was dominant in the engineering team, and had proven fundraising and engineering vitality.

If you want full and open collaboration with groups like Open Research Institute, Libre Space, SatNOGs, IEEE, TAPR, Universities, companies, and more, then that is what we are after and that is what we will work to make happen.

There is no guarantee that every project will work flawlessly or every group will work out. But, a failure in good faith is substantially better than being insular.

Open Source is not a silver bullet. It doesn't solve all problems nor is it the right answer for every technical challenge. However, an open source redirect for AMSAT-NA is well past due. AMSAT-NA needs a default of transparency, modern technology, open source, and open process.

That is what you will get with this slate.

We have tried to effect change from within. We have presented options, made offers, protested bad decisions, collaborated, accommodated, compromised, consistently volunteered, followed through, showed up, demonstrated working hardware and software, and made multiple proposals to the board to fix pressing problems.

We've won launches, made working hardware, contributed to working satellites that are currently in use, and persevered.

We will not succeed without your support.

Just the process of converting membership numbers, engineering documentation, and finances from opaque to transparent will take substantial time and effort.

If you truly believe that an opaque and authoritarian leadership style is working magic behind the scenes, then we are not your candidates.

Fear and secrecy do not make great art or engineering. We commit to opening up the process and making AMSAT-NA accountable to membership. It's time to "do the chores" and get things renovated.

Questions and comments welcome and encouraged. Please mail me at w5nyv@arrl.net.

-Michelle W5NYV

$2,449.44 Donation to ARISS from PARC, ORI, and ARSS

Palomar Amateur Radio Club and Open Research Institute Donate $2,449.44 to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Palomar Amateur Radio Club (PARC) was founded in February of 1936 and serves the San Diego, CA, USA amateur radio community. PARC hosts monthly membership meetings and hosts several annual events. PARC repeater system serves individuals and groups and provides opportunities for recreation, emergency preparation, and technical experimentation.

http://palomararc.org/

Contact board@palomararc.org

Open Research Institute (ORI) is a non-profit research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research.

https://openresearch.institute/

Contact Michelle Thompson w5nyv@arrl.net

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio.

For more information, see www.ariss.org.

This donation is given to support the Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS). ARISS needs to replace the current aging ISS amateur radio station power supply. ARISS has a fund-raising campaign throughout 2019 to help with the expensive space-rated parts required to finish building the MVPS units.

Kerry Banke N6IZW has been a core volunteer in the effort to design, build, and test the flight, training, and spare models of the MVPS. Inspired by his commitment, expertise, and mentoring throughout this project, individuals organized a fundraiser through the Amateur Radio Satellite Service Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amateurradiosatelliteservice

Palomar Amateur Radio Club agreed to be the 501(c)(3) of record. Open Research Institute handled logistics, publicity, and secured a corporate match from Qualcomm Incorporated.

The $2,449.44 donation was made to ARISS from PARC on 28 May 2019.

A substantial amount of additional funding is needed to replace the amateur radio power supplies on the ISS. This donation is a small part of a much larger effort to keep amateur radio in space, upgrade and update equipment on the space station, and promote peaceful international cooperation and the unparalleled educational opportunities enabled by ARISS.

Candidate Statement - AMSAT-NA Board of Directors 2019

Greetings! I'm Michelle W5NYV. I'm an engineer with a MSEE in Information Theory. I'm a specialist in error correction, signal processing, and communications theory.

I co-founded Open Research Institute. ORI is a non-profit (501c3) research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research. My fellow officers are Bruce Perens and Ben Hilburn, President of GNU Radio Foundation.

I'm a Distinguished Visitor for IEEE. I lecture on open source amateur satellite technology and algorithmic music composition. I'm founding an information theory chapter of the IEEE in San Diego, and have spoken at and organized demonstrations to showcase AMSAT-NA at multiple IEEE conferences.

I was awarded the 2018 Don Hilliard award from Microwave Update for service to and innovations in amateur satellite communications.

I am a life member of AMSAT-NA. I have written and mentored many articles about satellite communications. I co-designed the FOX DUV telemetry with Phil Karn and Paul Williamson. I contributed to AMSAT Eagle engineering. I ran the Ground project for the AMSAT-NA GEO proposal from 2007-2009. I currently run Phase 4 Ground, a multiple-user microwave digital amateur radio system that supports both space and terrestrial use. This project implements a fully open source DVB-S2/X protocol for amateur radio. The air interface allows any payload to use Phase 4 Ground radios. This project has produced several "world's first" amateur radio implementations of various technologies. Our companion project is Phase 4 Space, an open source HEO/GEO 6U payload project.

I'm a member of AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-DL. I am active in JAMSAT and actively support and promote SatNOGs, Libre Space, and many other open source projects that benefit amateur radio and the satellite service.

I am co-chair for the 2019 GNU Radio Conference, which has a special focus this year on amateur and space communications. I lead a project to add Japanese and German language support to GNU Radio Companion, for greater use in amateur satellite communities across the globe. I have been instrumental in representing amateur radio and ensuring that space communications remains at the very forefront of framework development.

I ask you to vote for me and the slate of candidates that is running with me. The slate is myself, Patrick WD9EWK, Howie AB2S, and Jeff WE4B.

We believe we can make significant positive changes in the organization that will benefit all members.
We do not believe that the current direction, policies, politics, and engineering accomplishments are up to the standard that members expect and deserve. If you want open source, open access, international collaboration, modern digital as well as all analog communications supported, and if you want a friendly and supportive club that is not opaque, authoritarian, or insular, then I am here to serve you and make that happen.

Trust
My highest priority is addressing the current proprietary-focused, secretive, and destructive ITAR/EAR policy at AMSAT-NA. I believe AMSAT-NA should take full advantage of the public domain and open source carve-outs in ITAR/EAR. Compliance with this appropriate and useful part of the regulatory framework would allow greatly increased participation, international cooperation and collaboration, relieves unnecessary compliance burdens, and fulfills the mission and motivation of the amateur satellite service. Repeated efforts to redirect AMSAT-NA towards this useful, legal, and relevant regulatory approach have fallen on deaf and hostile ears. If you want this aspect of AMSAT-NA to improve, please vote for our slate.

Technology
Next is firmly establishing a design framework for higher orbit payloads using modern satellite technologies and systems. There is a wealth of readily available open source options that are substantially farther ahead of GOLF and GOLF-TEE baseline designs. Being able to openly share and review AMSAT-NA engineering decisions and designs would dramatically improve our technology position from where it is today. I would like to be proud of what my home country AMSAT is doing. I believe open source is the best possible way to get us there. Things done in secret or out of fear are rarely done well.

Transparency
Members of AMSAT deserve to see what is going on in engineering. Members deserve to know the financial and membership numbers. Members deserve to be able to communicate with and, when necessary, critique board members, without threats of retaliation and retribution. Members deserve to be treated fairly. Members should see problems acknowledged, explained, and addressed reasonably quickly. Whether the problem is a failed satellite or a failed website function, we need leadership that views questions as opportunities and not existential threats.

We on the slate are fully aware that the organization is composed of and is successful due to the volunteers. Excellent volunteer service experience from AMSAT-NA is achievable with competent leadership, improved policies, and clearly communicated expectations. Our slate is devoted to delivering a very successful future for AMSAT-NA. Your vote is appreciated and valued! Please get in touch with any questions or comments. You will be listened to.

Edit: Questions answered here. Thank you for the support!

-Michelle W5NYV
w5nyv@arrl.net

Maker Faire 2019 - Bay Area

Maker Faire 2019 Notes

bit.do/sagro
agri-bot

mybar.io
Kick out Keurig!

The Rockafire Explosion
this is the animatronics from Chuck E. Cheese, reborn and playing all their old hits and what appear to be new one for passers by at Maker Faire. Kind of creepy, but Chuck E Cheese where everyone had at least one birthday party during elementary school where I grew up. They had both Tron games, Moon Patrol, Galaga, and lots more.

Takashi Kaburagi
Crafted paper models and musical robots. Plus, a robot that will draw your fortune on the blank side of a paper. On the other side is the interpretation of the fortunes. From Japan. Musical robots were playing hauntingly familiar tunes but we just couldn't place them. Table-top in size, cleverly decorated and really well done.

Meccano is making some sort of comeback with updated designs of their parts. Colors and different fasteners. You could make a small project and take it with you from their tables.

Dassault was there. They were featuring Solid Works. Dassault has gone on a buying spree recently and has acquired several software packages ranging from 3D modeling to radio frequency modeling. Not all of the experiences recently with Dassault have been good, as the hobbyist license for the RF design software was curtailed without much notice. But the fact that they are at Maker Faire is very interesting. Maybe it's an indication that more open and accessible hobbyist licenses are in the works. Action Item: find out.

The shop tools area was crazy off the hook cool. Shopbot, Lightburn, Tormach, Avid. All demos had working robotic CNC machines doing all sorts of amazing things. Some of them are affordable. Some are financeable. All of them put powers into your garage or shop that simply were not available before. Long conversations occurred with Lightburn about Fashion Freedom Initiative work.

There are some faultlines here with what laser cutters they can support. For the one operated at colaser.org, Lightburn isn't really a solution right now. For the efforts at Fashion Freedom Initiative, it might be the exact right fit for the job, especially for leather cutting. We also learned about how water jets can cut many layers of denim at once.

There was a neat videocast called "Frank Makes" playing above the Avid booth.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3_VCOJMaivgcGqPCTePLBA

It's enjoyable!

Several things were being cut in the booths on the various tools as demonstrations. A Tori gate, furniture, plaques, and more. The larger machines all had at least fourth axis controllers installed.

Warhammer 40k Adeptus Sororitas Cosplay was in force! Nicely done. One little boy was too intimidated to have his photo taken with them.

I learned about Thingergy http://www.thingergyinc.com/ They do giant robots, space suits, makeup, trophies, and props. Several of their projects are things I've seen on television and in the movies. There was a contingent of prop makers in the Cosplay section, and all of them seemed to be professional outlets. One had a vacuum former in the booth and was showing how to make the components of a science fiction themed helmet.

One of the must-do items on the list for Maker Faire was to find and talk with everyone in the amateur radio section. It was marked on the map, and we found what we thought was the right place. The first table was Themis, a GSPDO for HPSDR. That was it. Or so we thought. We were wandering away from the corner in disappointment when we noticed an antenna through an open doorway past the Themis booth. This was the ARRL VEC where the amateur license exam sign ups were happening. It also turned out to be where people took the exam. Past the ARRL booth area was WW6BAY, the "Bay Area 21st Century" amateur group. They had a great demonstration with a variety of people volunteering behind the tables. SDR-based test equipment was the next table, with CalQRP and QRPGuys stuffed in on the edge. Bay Area Raspberry Pi Ham Radio Group was next with a lot of projects out on the table.

Elecraft was there, but no one was at the booth the first time I went through.

North Texas Microwave Group had a footprint and slide show, Bitx40 construction demos were out, K3s set up showing some sort of activity, and some low frequency gear. KX3 backpack deployment was shown with all the tricky bits done up with cord, so it looked ready to roll up and walk off with.

Finally, KH6WZ and "Not your grandpa's Ham Radio" was there. They had plenty of microwave and audio quality content, and were doing their usual promotion and explanation of modern amateur radio. I believe they had a HackRF set up and were explaining SDR, but that may have been the next table over.

I talked with Wayne Yoshida (KH6WZ) for a while about Maker Faire and the amateur radio scene. He's a familiar face to me since he's practically local to me in SoCal.

The amateur radio exhibits were off in their own room. The floors and walls and ceilings were solid concrete and the lighting was faint fluorescent. There was no signage and the event map made it look like the Themis table out in the main hall in the corner of the building was the only ham exhibit. We agreed that this was a huge step down from the location that the ham radio exhibits have been in the past. Compared to outside in the main space, it was practically deserted.

While disappointing in location, the content was pretty good. The booths were draped in SDRs and embedded processors, and did show how fun modern amateur radio can be - while there were people at the booths. There was not an obvious connection to the soldering workshop. Making waves was emphasized over making boards or circuits this year.

The "Maker Movement" seems to offer a huge opportunity for amateur radio. There are several organizations and publications in the ham radio sphere that have identified Makers and Maker Faires as new audiences. The Maker scene, as measured by Make Magazine in surveys, is young, well-off, and well educated. It's also overwhelmingly white and very male. There has not been, in San Diego, much traction between the Maker Faire scene and the traditional club scene. People that identify as makers and do anything with radio are quite often hams, but it's interdisciplinary. Amateur radio supports and is included within their maker activities. They are not going to join a club and comply with the traditional club scene activities and customs, especially when it's proscriptive and exclusionary or rigid.

The growing number of interdisciplinary hams in communities like GNU Radio and the Maker scene means that modern, digital, innovative ham radio is alive and well. But, these hams are not going to "save" any traditional pure ham radio organization with membership numbers, time, or dollars. The reason could be that people that make things in the (very) broad maker community are there because they have a focus on making and doing, and not being or belonging. Negativity towards digital electronics, digital modes, software, involving the internet, and an almost complete lack of interest in what's perceived to be "traditional operating procedure" are some additional factors. Traditional club scene ham organizations are perceived as not "doing" anything or "making" anything. This is not universally true, at all, but there are a lot of clubs that are monoliths devoted to passive consumption of commercial gear and only operate traditional modes. The largest "club" in the US is ARRL. They are perceived as publishing safe books about safe activities, and seem devoted to a silo of single-sideband HF. They are ponderous and slow and stay in their lane. Makers, if they know about ARRL at all, know them as the old white men in ball caps that administer the exams at Maker Faire (exams are good!) and lecture them about things like incentive licensing and ancient technology and "rag chewing" (this isn't great).

The non-traditional radio amateur is already familiar with and part of the Maker Faire scene. In some ways, the traditional club scene isn't really a great match with the makers.

After ham radio, I went back out to the main floor. The light was superior, everything was crowded, and the energy was completely different. I hope the hams get back out on the main floor. The closed off and dim room would be a not-bad support or logistics area for the Faire, or maybe a good place for a volunteer lounge. For exhibits? It's terrible.

Sugar Plush Sewing Kits zomg so cute I wanted all of them.

There was a robot booth that looked like it was Mr. Potato Head with LEDs.

Codermindz was next: "CoderMindz - A STEM AI board game invented by a 10-year-old girl to get everyone excited about AI and coding in a really fun way! Are you ready to challenge yourself and be a Code maker? Come play CoderMindz and learn AI and coding concepts!" Ok I tried it and lost.

Vintage Computers and Games exhibit from the Computer History Museum was next. It was mostly game consoles from the distant past, but there were some gems, up and running.

Midnight Science Club had a LOT of demos and kits and things to do. It had the vibe of "this could be part of your STEM curriculum" but for once that didn't take away from the feeling that it might be fun and involve at least a little bit of risk. Which, is my primary complaint about STEM-approved-worksheeted-to-death curriculum. No risk.

ReFLO "magic box" is on Crowd Supply right now with the tagline "The compact, open, and smart PCB reflow oven. Bake your dream!" Home reflow, people! I have two different ways to do reflow at home, or I'd be a customer I'm sure. This one is run from your phone.

Oh, what's that? Another reflow oven? Contraleo3. Oh and another! Well. Good!

Full size Nuka Cola power armor was next so I admired it for a long time.

Dark Angel and Ultramarine full size props from another of the Cosplay company exhibits really made my day. Warhammer 40k for the win.

It was raining hard but we braved the drops to head over to the "Homegrown" exhibit hall. This turned out to be all homegrown end products. Small batch fermentation, soap, pickling, micro greens, kombucha, and so on. I was expecting "how to grow" not "what I grew and want you to buy". There was one aquaponics demo outside when traversing to the next building, but the rain made it hard to stay, and it was a familiar design.

Chatterbox was next. It's an open source clone of Alexa that is safe (doesn't require internet) and aimed at teaching kids how to take over smart speaker assistants for learning. Learning what? Not clear.

The next thing was voted Most Likely to Be Done Here at Home. This was modular clothing. Basic shapes (rectangles, triangles) of fabric. Each panel ranged in size from about 1 foot to about 4 feet. All edges of the fabric panel (lightly quilted) were lined with snap fasteners arranged to where every other snap faced the same direction.

See where this is going?

Stacy Scibelli is the designer.

Look at this: http://stacyascibelli.com/

The shapes snap together however you like to make whatever you like in terms of clothing. Outerwear is the most obvious, but anyone making anything and putting it on the mannequin at the booth got their photo taken with their creation with a really nice setup. The one I saw a girl make was a full-up dress with structure. This was awesome and I am going to experiment and try it. The snaps were the same that I used for the reversible jacket I made for burning man. The kit comes with the tooling to punch down the snaps. Tedious but effective. I bet there's a better tool than "place snap here and hit with hammer then use other doodad to do the other side and crush inwards".

Seriously, this was a really *really* neat innovative and cool maker approach to textiles. More on this next time I sew.

Bionika Labs
This was cyberpunk fashion house stuff with actual glowing panels. I couldn't get close enough to see if it was really functional or just for show but it was darn cool looking. Either this booth or the one next to it had clothing made from pop tabs from soda cans woven together like chainmail with crochet binding them up in a really nice fabric with superior drape.

Next booth we saw of note was Jedi Training Device. You whack balls that come at you with a toy light saber and the scoreboard keeps track. There was a line across the front and around the side to try it.

"If you can't make it perfect at least make it adjustable" -seen on a t-shirt

Massive rain, all day.

We went to the Dark Room and wow Myriapoda! How did I miss this at Burning Man? It's an enormous millipede robot that walks across the playa. It was "on blocks" and "safely wiggling" at Maker Faire.

"While studying steam engines, David Date discovered a mechanism which mimicked the kinematics of walking insects and became the inspiration for Myriapoda Robota." They don't name the mechanism in the Indie Gogo page, but it's a familiar one from the mechanics handbooks. "Flat step, quick recoil". Trying to find the right name, but you can see it in the videos at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/myriapoda-robota-burning-man-honoraria-2018#/

The rest of the dark room was really great. "The Next Great Maker" had dolls with glass globe heads with textures on the bottom that were magnified by the sphere. Some had user-controllable LED lighting.

Axis Mundi was a small house with laser cut filigree wood sides backlight with huge numbers of diffused RGB LEDs. Inside was a kaleidoscope. Look at this: https://makerfaire.com/maker/entry/70103/ Very Burnery.

On to the other building! And Experiments in Space! ISS Above was there and we talked with them for a long time. Spheres is an ISS monitoring station. new updated versions going up soon. NASA, DARPA, etc. There's a code challenge for the space station sensor. People can enter their code idea and if it passes muster then your code operates the sensor pod on the ISS.

There was a booth with Electronic Cats. It was the closest thing to #badgelife that we saw. JACDA.

Next was IchigoJam. We ended up buying this. It's a small embedded board system from Japan that runs BASIC.

Beaglebone was there and will have Beaglebone AI in September. Yep! Artificial Intelligence. It's largely sort of taking the place of the X15. Also, there's a Beaglebone Blue for $67 tuned for robotics. Looked useful! They had "Exploring Beaglebone" new book out on the table (2019).

Are they giving up on the X15? "Not really". They say it's just the next generation. It's smaller - it's the same form factor as the rest. If you remember the X15 is larger. The AI is more versatile. Dual band Wifi and BlueTooth are included.

Microchip had a demo at the Arduino booth. It's "not wifi, not bluetooth, not LoRA". Yep, you guessed it. It's 6LowPAN. It took some asking to get that clarified, but it's 900MHz 802.15.4.

It's called MiWi and has lots of proprietary goodies from Microchip. The engineer showing it off was Bob Martin.

We're interested in 900MHz here in San Diego for a variety of reasons. In general, it's an underutilized band (as Faraday RF can attest) with excellent propagation. LoRA is wonderful, but tops out at something like 120bps. Gateway is required. The 6LowPAN stuff can (and does) mesh right up.

The board is a SAMR 30 with an M0x and a 900MHz transceiver. The UHF is done with a chip antenna. There was a small vertical on the board.

Hack-computer.com was there showing off their Chromebook competition. Looked really really nice. We got to meet the CEO. It's up for pre-order on amazon. Way nice demos and dashboards for some sort of scratch like programming. Kids were cluttered all around playing with the ones out at the booth.

Phase Dock "Project Dev Kit" was next. This is a way to make your breadboard circuit look nice for showing to (we presume) nontechnical people. https://www.phasedock.com/ Lots of 3d printed mounts, acrylic laser cut and engraved boxes. It was all very nice but not really something we would use.

Movi Arduino Shield is a speech synthesizer and speech recognizer. Speaker independent. No cloud, does it all on board. 150 full sentence commands. I bought one to see if it could help with radio accessibility on Phase 4 Ground. https://www.audeme.com/movi.html

GG Labs retro computing! Fun! Recognized everything they had to show off. https://gglabs.us/taxonomy/term/6

Nvidia Jetbots and Nvidia Nanos were prancing around at the Nvidia booth. So we asked to buy a Nano. They weren't selling! Nvidia had decided to come to the Faire only a month ago and didn't get their vendor stuff done in time, or had decided not to. We asked how many people had asked about buying the Nano and it was "a lot" with a grimace. Heh heh heh. Seeed had Nanos out but weren't selling any either. They were sold out on line. It's good because I bought a pile of other things and had yet to see the Spresence from Sony.

Phiz 3D Scanner was there but didn't look finished.

Itty Bitty City! Fun with robots!

Pockit Meter (pokitmeter.com) is a very very very small multimeter, scope, and data logger. It's narrowband so we admired and moved on.

Mozilla Webthings wants to remove all of your proprietary hubs for all your smart home devices and run them from your router. Great demos. Not convinced this is going to survive grumpy companies making it super hard to do this, and given the Nest collapse, this space is treacherous at best. We listened carefully for a while and there's a lot of thought going into this. Zigbee IoT at home but you control it.

Next was the "Product I Came Most Close to Buying Their Entire Line". Sony Spresence. Completely pro'd out booth with lots of Sony staffer types explaining all sorts of details with documentation and full demonstrations that were overbuilt in every possible way. The slide show looked like it had been honed from 12 or 13 industry presentations and the machine learning content could have been an ad on the back cover of IEEE Spectrum. https://dl.sony.com/

This is edge computing with lots of bling in a very small, very low power form factor. With lots of stuff like camera modules and the usual expansions. You can code up separate cores using Arduino IDE instances. This got some attention from us. It's called Multicore Development Environment.

https://developer.sony.com/develop/spresense/

nScope is a lab for every laptop https://www.nscope.org/ I meant to go back here but did not get a chance. It's a portable electronics lab, but it wasn't immediately clear what you get that something like the Red Pitaya doesn't already get you. Maybe more general case or less expensive.

The Piper Kit from Seeed was one of the more visually arresting things. The case is laser cut wood.

Moddable - more IoT. https://www.moddable.com/overview.php Their niche is Javascript.

We rounded out the Faire with Drone Training and Battles. This was fun because I made friends with a very young boy and girl there with their parents. We discussed all the finer points of drones, flying, shapes, repercussions, and potential mishaps. The drones are in a big net area. There were Ball ones, VR drones, and quad copters. The ball drones and all the others did somersaults and had trailing cords and stuff to ruin other drones' days. If you can drape a cord into another's props then down they go. It took a long time for them to get organized for the last battle of the day, but it was worth it when the larger drones smacked each other out of the sky. There were a lot of self-owns of course, and the scissors lift came out at the end to disentangle a drone from the net way up high.

Of course had some Paella and visited the steam tractor. I recognized it from the playa. They had it hooked up to a generator that was running some Jacob's Ladders, but it wasn't going to fire it off in the rain. Flaming Lotus Girls were there with some recent fire art. The outdoor shopping booths were all buttoned up against the rain, so we unfortunately had to skip those.

The rest of the time we met with Phase 4 Ground and Fashion Freedom members, decompressed in the fancy hotel, and did some decisioneering about boards and parts lists for various things.

It was a great weekend with friends celebrating all things made. :+)

Why Was This a Great Week?

This has been one of the best weeks ever for working in high tech amateur radio. I'm really looking forward to bringing all of it to the community over the next year! This is a golden age for SDR, cognitive, microwave, and advanced digital modes. Why was this week good? Here's why.

This year, I co-founded a research institute devoted to Open Source and Open Access in research and development. It's called Open Research Institute (ORI). Our site is here: https://openresearch.institute/

Most of what we do is for amateur radio satellite and terrestrial use. Why start a research institute? We wanted a formal structure for the work we all had been doing all along, and existing clubs were either unsupportive, unresponsive, full up with their own work, or not aligned with open source and open access. The last significant part of setting up ORI was getting the 501(c)(3) approval. That happened 6 March 2019.

ORI gets work done through projects. The list currently include Phase 4 Ground, Phase 4 Space, GRC Localization for Japanese and German, and Open Cars. There are several other projects in the initial investigation stages. There's room for plenty more! Phase 4 Ground and Space produces work that benefits all amateur radio space organizations. Libre Space, AMSAT-DL, JAMSAT, AMSAT-UK, TAPR, and more have been wonderful partners.

The Breakthrough Listen GNU Radio workshop coming up in mid-May is another big step forward. I got news I was accepted to it as a participant this past week. While not primarily an amateur radio event, the participant list has a lot of hams! It's quite thrilling to see how many really smart and amazing amateur operators there are in the GNU Radio community. There are SDR people coming to the event that I cannot wait to meet and work with. Things we talk about and work on at this workshop will be available to and will benefit advanced digital modes and their implementations in amateur radio.

I am the co-chair for GNU Radio Conference 2019 (Huntsville, AL) and have volunteered with the conference since 2016. It's an honor to be involved with and support event. Our ham exam session has been very successful, with 40-50 licenses or upgrades each year. Amateurs are a big part of GNU Radio. We decided to feature space communications as our conference theme for the Apollo landing anniversary year of 2019.

We tried repeatedly, starting in 2017, to get amateur radio conferences to co-locate and collaborate with GNU Radio Conference. The proposal was, they would each have their own space and track and keep all their identity and branding and whatnot, but share vendor space, food and meeting room costs, and get free proceedings, program publishing, schedule, shipping, and a variety of logistics support from us. The traditional organizations all flatly refused or ignored the proposal. One simply cut and pasted the city and venue to 2018 after perusing the proposal. I got confused phone calls from the venue we'd gotten quotes from for weeks. Two other bad experiences with other amateur organizations deliberately scheduling their conference on top of GNU Radio Conference have happened, despite a lot of effort to communicate, coordinate, and cross-promote. 

On the surface, this isn't great news or a good experience. But digging deeper, we realized that getting doors slammed in our faces by leadership hostile to change opened up a series of much better opportunities for us. The right response to the initial disappointments is gratitude.

And now, there is cause for hope. Over the past couple of weeks, one of the organizations that responded with grumpy indifference has changed direction. In another two years, I expect a drastic improvement in collaboration and cooperation between the two communities. There is substantial overlap. It's silly not to work together.

Another silver lining has to do with sexism and bigotry. Sexist and racist crap happens in tech. There is not a lot of good news here. Amateur radio organizations are very homogenous. Much more than the ham population as a whole. In the US 15-20% of hams are women. In more traditional organizations and clubs, it's at or below 3%. In many cases, it's literally 0%. Traditional organizations are stacked with people that don't like working with women and will pull a lot of underhanded garbage to make sure women who show up and volunteer are made to feel lesser, smaller, and unwanted.

Speaking up and speaking out against bad experiences is difficult. If you speak up or speak out, you will be punished for it, every time. You can assiduously document, you can follow all the rules for complaining about it, you can simply work twice as hard and try to "lean in". None of this will work. If sexists have any power over you in any way, you are doomed.

These experiences aren't the biggest problem. Yes they suck. But, the much bigger problem is the almost complete failure of any bystander men to deliver any repercussion, at all, to the men who behave in sexist, demeaning, bigoted ways. When the behavior is documented, when complaints and testimonies given, when it is observed and reported, men in general do absolutely nothing about it. If you're lucky, they'll wring their hands in private and commiserate.

The most outspoken men, who argue technical details with energy and force and commitment and devotion, fall completely silent in the face of sexism or bigotry. Even when it's obscene or explicitly illegal, they will do nothing. Poke or prod a bit, and then they get irritated, annoyed, or angry. "What do you expect ME to do about it?!" Any inconvenience at all is just too much to ask. They're generally ok with women being shut down, shut out, ignored, or their work erased. Gaslighting is normal.

This stuff is a cultural disaster that will not get even slightly better without men stepping up and enforcing repercussions for acts of sexism and bigotry. Just enforcing repercussions is the first step. The fact that most amateur operators won't bother with taking even the first step is telling. It is a big reason why women show up for one meeting, one project conference call, one email thread, one tour of HF with their new privileges, and then they either leave or get eliminated by men who just can't stand women speaking.

When you are the butt of jokes or comments that assume you are non-technical, are not really a person, are preventing men from enjoying themselves, are "spending husband's money", are "nothing but trouble", don't belong, are equated with children, or will suffer violence for expressing an opinion, the community in general has failed you. This stuff is common on HF and repeaters. It goes almost completely unchallenged on the air.

This is a root cause of why many, if not most, women express a fear of operating an amateur radio in voice modes. But there's an even deeper issues here too. Women suffer an enormous amount of violence at the hands of men that personally know us. We are socialized from birth to not offend or upset men in any way. Speaking as equals is offensive to many men, because we are *supposed to be* only supportive and only agreeable and never ever "right", on our own. Embarrassing men in any way is just not allowed. Being right in even the friendliest and gentlest way about math or science or engineering or leadership or financial opportunities or fundraising doesn't matter. Asserting an opinion that isn't strictly agreeing with a man results, worst case, in violence. This violence is real and even in "polite" and "civil" hobbies like amateur radio, it profoundly shapes the casual communication patterns.

Women in amateur radio consistently explain a reluctance to get on the air with "I'm afraid I'll say the wrong thing". Pay attention at the YL forums and YouTube videos where we are asked about this. Read the essays. This is a permanent refrain. Fear.

Men hear this, and hear "mic fright". No, this is not mic fright. Being afraid of operating on the air is a rational and justified response to the violence delivered from men to women in our society. Women police themselves in ways men simply do not have to. This is observable in general amateur radio operating, let alone technical volunteering.

Women therefore, in general, are expected to cede the communications space to men. Amateur radio is so heavily dominated by men, that the fear and subservience effect is easily observable. Break the "rules" and enough men will be truly enraged, and they will exact revenge.

I've been very active in amateur radio for almost 20 years. I've volunteered in advanced digital communications for over 10. I've been very successful in a variety of projects. I'm not a bad volunteer or leader. Some amateur radio organizations are hopelessly broken in terms of sexism. I choose to speak up and speak out and assert technical opinions. I am not an asshole about it, but I'm not Wimpy Wanda, either. I choose to pay the sexism tax on my work. Sometimes that tax means that effort sadly goes into the red. I'm kept out or attacked while mediocre men get to stay or are rewarded. There is really no appeal that works when this happens.

But. Sometimes leaders and fellow volunteers negate that tax! This is how you know who to spend your time working with. And this week, spending more time with those types of people and a LOT less time with proven sexists and bigots has paid off enormously. I felt obligated for many years to conform, serve, and respond within organizations that treated me like garbage. The last little bit of that "good intentions, terrible results" type of thinking evaporated this week. I'm late to the party, but better late than never to get rid of unnecessary baggage.

This is where starting our own organization (ORI) has made the most difference. It's a night and day difference to work with people that are unafraid to enforce basic standards of fairness. I cannot understate how truly important it is to have people with privilege go to bat for you. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my fellow ORI co-founders, Bruce Perens and Ben Hilburn, for simply being equitable and fair.

Does your (amateur or other) organization have a code of conduct? Is it enforced? Does your favorite event make it clear, through written policies and clear procedures, that everyone is welcome?

Things like a Code of Conduct are the minimum standard. They are not really that hard to implement. There's lots of resources to get up to speed here as an organizer or leader. This isn't a new issue. There's a metric ton of electrons devoted to endless essays about sexism and bigotry, and the huge cost to homogenous organizations as a result.

Phase 4 Ground has made substantial technical progress in our test plan, application layer, link layer, radio architecture, and user interface definition. One of the most difficult aspects of Phase 4 Ground has always been recruiting enough people for the FPGA/HDL/ASIC work. People that understand radio, coding, and reconfigurable digital logic are rare and in great demand from industry. But, we've never been in a better place in terms of human resources than we are right now, and I got additional contacts this week.

For big ambitious open source interdisciplinary designs, recruiting continues throughout the entire life of the project. Phase 4 projects welcome anyone, regardless of how much time they can commit, and we meet people where they are technically. One of the goals of Phase 4 is to give people a friendly and supportive place to learn advanced digital techniques. That's one of the purposes of amateur radio in general, and there's a great need for anything past the "hello world" type of FPGA design.

This means that some volunteers will benefit from ORI more than ORI benefits from them. This is on purpose. It's paying it forward to the community.

ORI takes risks that other organizations do not. ORI deliberately chooses difficult work that has a higher degree of failure. This is on purpose. Someone has to say the things and take the risks.

So, this week, the practice of risk taking and generosity paid off. Some weeks it doesn't go as well! There are a lot of setbacks when you take risks and try things that are new or challenge the status quo. Defending friendly, inclusive, supportive, collaborative work styles in a world that rewards opaque, authoritarian, discriminatory work styles can feel no-win. Unfortunately amateur radio has a lot of opaque, authoritarian, and discriminatory aspects. ORI provides a deliberately different alternative, and this week it paid off in several ways. No, I can't list them all, but if even half of the steps forward that happened this week pan out, then the next few months we will have a lot of happy announcements.

-Michelle W5NYV

Badge Hacking from DEFCON 17

Our badge hacking report from DEFCON 17, held in Las Vegas, NV.

Pie crust cookies "I Love Christmas Trees"

Pie crust cookies "I Love Christmas Trees", originally uploaded by Abraxas3d.

Pie crust mix prepared then rolled thin, then cut into hearts and tree shapes. Excess rolled into small balls. All of it cooked at 450 F for 12 minutes. Store-bought icing applied to hearts, then trees (sprinkled with allspice) placed on top of icing. Small balls placed on icing as well. Yum!

Smithville

Happy Thanksgiving!

A pleasant restful day with relatives and great food. We worked on cub scout belt loops, watched the Space Shuttle/ISS pass, and I received some feedback on the Neon-test tutorial. I corrected the typos and republished the document.

Smithville – Amory

Day 4

The first order of business was to work out at the gym. The gym is across the parking lot from the hospital in Amory, which is about 7 miles away. I listened to POTUS, a satellite radio channel, in the rental car on the way. POTUS was launched to cover the 2008 presidential election, but remained on in lesser form as a political news channel. The degradation in quality, from my point of view, is the current domination of daytime programming by a dreadful talk-format program called Stand Up with Pete Dominic. It’s hours and hours of a tepidly presented and superficially informed blowhard-style call-in, with the host always “running out of time” on his way to talking about nothing in particular.

This racing to nowhere style talk radio (and TV) is the bane of my existence. I can’t stand it. I don’t like it. Have I mentioned that I find it irritating?

“Blah blah blah and in the 9 seconds remaining, can you recommend a solution for mid-east peace?”

“Well, host person, it’s a very complicated issue with great historical and cultural –“

“I’m sorry! We’ve run out of time! Up next, we’ll ask our next guest about Afghanistan!”

“Welcome back to our show!

“Blah blah blah, and in the 9 seconds remaining, should we sent more troops to Afghanistan?”

“Well, host person, it’s a very complicated issue with enormous political and economic consequ-“

“I’m sorry! We’ve run out of time!”

Rinse, repeat, all day long.

If it’s not patchwork crazy quilt pseudo conversations, it’s yell kings baiting guests to snap and bite at each other like clever children. This is why I watch about 3.7 hours of this stuff per year. Just to check and see if it’s still as bad as I remembered.

I know I sound like a total grouch. I’m not, really. I just prefer a real conversation, where you put your opponent and your comrade in the one and the same most positive light; where you direct your remarks to the most intelligent person in the audience, and not the most base or partisan.

Anyway, the gym was great. I covered three miles and had some good coffee there in the small café overlooking the pool. I’m updating the Livescribe smartpen (I highly recommend this tool) and have some work to do today in terms of packing up things in the storage room in downtown Smithville and in continuing the interview process for the writing project I’m here to start.

Smithville - Aberdeen - Smithville

Day 3

I got up after it turned light outside. The bed is really comfortable here, so it took a while. It was still pretty early. My son was still soundly asleep and wasn’t going to get up. I didn’t blame him – he played pretty hard yesterday, and probably still needed some beauty sleep. Upstairs seemed deserted. My relatives are true morning people. While I may be at my best in the morning, they have already had a good head start on being productive and such by the time I get around to thinking about getting dressed.

Eventually, they noticed I was up and Atom, and I got some coffee made for me (yum!), talked about global warming deniers and the latest news about Palin, had a small very tasty cheesy-egg breakfast, went to the gym, jogged 3 miles with a few huff-and-puff walking breaks on a treadmill while listening to the beginning of Ayn Rand’s “The Art of Nonfiction”, came back home, took a shower, had lunch, got a tip about a document I need to read, checked in on the NEON/FFTW Google wave, headed out to visit more relatives, went to storage site where I’m supposed to pack up a bunch of stuff for the movers to take back to San Diego, packed up a bunch of old hardback science fiction from decades ago that my grandfather had collected as a science fiction book club member, had cheese and merlot for dinner, then talked about all sorts of things before settling into the first big book interview.

The task ahead is to gather, gather, gather information and then try and define, define, define the story for this project. There isn’t any way to really summarize the complexity of the engineering project that I’m trying to talk about. The most important thing, to me, is to try and make it possible for people to feel what it was like to work on a particular, large, complicated engineering project during the cold war, and to provide some understanding of how the context and justification for the project shifted over time.

Olive Branch - Memphis - Smithville

Day 2 of travel

We got up and strolled over to help-yourself-to-hot breakfast. A seated and nearly-done-with-breakfast party of four was the only other non-staff people I’d seen in the hotel since we checked in. The television in the lounge was blaring what appeared to be a soap opera. It made the room feel like a bad meeting at work.

When the female lead on the show threatened another with a gun, I asked the party of four if they were watching it. None of the middle-aged and British-accented people admitted to being interested in the program. They had been trying to talk over the Shatneresque dialogue for a good minute or two, which is the classic sign of not really being into a show.

I walked over to the set, which was a nice new flatscreen mounted high on the wall, and failed to find a power switch. Waving my hand along the side, searching for any buttons, caused a staff person to magically appear.

“Do you want to change the channel?”

“Not exactly,” I said politely. “I want to turn it off.”

“Well!” she said, her eyebrows raised as high as they could go. “I don’t know if we should do that. I mean, these people might be watching it!” She seemed surprised at the very idea of shutting off the television.

“They said they were not. I would not do that without asking,” I said quietly. The foursome interrupted me to enthusiastically agree about shutting off the set. She retrieved a remote control from an Undisclosed Safe Location back in the kitchen and shut the TV off.

We resumed breakfast and it was a lot more pleasant. The atmosphere seemed to clear, volume-induced stress melted away, and violent acts weren’t looming in my peripheral vision. I talked with my son about all sorts of funny things, since I can finish my breakfast way faster than he can play with his. The other folks finished their post-breakfast conversation and cleared their table, ambling off down the hall. I made a cup of coffee, and was expounding on some fact or another to him when another staff person whizzed through the room, checked the coffee, the egg tray, the oil-soaked bacon, and the untouched grits and gravy, and asked if I wanted the television on.

“No thanks,” I answered, turning from my son to the staff person.

“But what about the news? Or cartoons for your boy?”

And interrupt a great conversation? Are you kidding? I said, “No thanks, we’re enjoying the quiet.”

You should have seen the look I got.

After breakfast we packed up and headed out for the Pink Palace Museum. I’d been lured there by talk of a fashion/sewing exhibition. The museum, overall, was great. The sewing exhibition was somewhat of a disappointment.

http://www.memphismuseums.org/mu-event_program-13252/

The clothing hinted at on the website was indeed there… with a big “Coming Soon” sign in front of all the clothing (on manikins), which were crowded onto a small dais in the center of a room dedicated to other stuff. There was limited placard verbiage. There was no interpretive elements, diagrams, explanations, definitions, or even the fabric content of the clothing. There literally was more content on the website teaser than there was actually in the exhibit.

Another minor annoyance was that one of the exhibits required an additional ticket. I must have missed the part at the ticket counter. They have an IMAX theater, and I didn’t get that ticket either (on purpose). However, when you sell an “exhibits” ticket, then I guess I sort of expect to be able to see all the exhibits.

Regardless, it was worth seeing – if only for the Indycar themed Christmas tree in the decorated Christmas tree exhibit hall. It was garlanded with slot car tracks! Photo set to follow.

There was a space science exhibit, minerals, natural history, and New Madrid Earthquake area. There were lots of fossils, plenty of really good regional history exhibits, and an animated hand-carved enormous circus model. It was larger than HO scale, but smaller than G, and was pretty incredible. One guy spent pretty much his whole hobby life working on it. His particular style reminded me of a ceramic monkey statue that Ken won for last place at a charity golf tournament at work. It had that pre-Mattel toy vibe, with a palette of colors from the 1930s, and wonderful hand-lettered signage. The track was unique - the horse-drawn carriages and traincars are actually drawn by the teams of hand-carved horses. Along one side of the room (the entire center was the circus animated model) was a case detailing the process the artist used. Quite the exhibit all on its own! And, there was more.

The Pink Palace is a mansion that was being built by the guy that came up with the idea of self-service grocery stores. Before, it was like oldschool libraries, where you were not allowed back in the stacks. You had to bring your list to a clerk. Grocery stores were like that too. The guy that founded Piggly Wiggly (the most awesomely named store ever) was named Clarence Saunders, I believe, and a full-sized model of the first self-service grocery store in was just down the hall from the giant animated circus.

After my son couldn’t stand it anymore – literally, his feet were aching – we got back in the car and headed for the Wal Mart supercenter. We got a gigantic lego set and clothes. This would be the first time that I’ve ever attempted to live off the land, as Ken puts it, as existential frontiersmen. Frontierspeople. Frontierspersons? Whatever.

Anyway, this was a travel experiment. Money saved by not checking baggage: $40. Money spent at Wal Mart (minus the legos) buying the same stuff I would have packed if I had checked the baggage: $200.

Ok, existential-frontier-travel-light-live-off-the-land-plan version 1.0… #fail.

And, this was shopping selectively – mainly from the sale and clearance racks. I got pants for $3. Running shoes for $20. Shirt for $8. Wal Mart is in-your-face cheap. It pulls no punches. There are no questions about where the decimal point is in these prices, and it’s almost always further to the right than you expect.

But, 5 days worth of clothes for two people, a workout set for me, and a jacket for the son adds up. Oh, I also bought bacon, two things of cheese, breakfast sausages, and cheddar wurst sausages. I probably wouldn't have packed that. But still, those things didn't cost the $160 difference between "would have spent" and "spent".

The checkout clerk complimented me on my savings, so I didn’t feel too bad. Let my experience be your guide. Go ahead. Pack heavy for the plane. Pay the fee. It’s really hard to buy a suitcase full of luggage for the fee they charge, unless you buy half-off fabric and have a sewing machine, time, and skill at your destination. Oh, and did I mention time? It took a good 1:45 to achieve shopping nirvana. The good news is I actually got some new clothes that I didn't sew myself. It was kind of fun. I might do it again someday. Not anytime soon, though, because I love sewing.

We arrived in Smithville after a leisurely drive, and visited all evening. We went out to Mel’s Diner and had a pleasant late dinner. My relatives know everyone there, and we wrapped up the evening in the lab, talking about the decline of newspapers everywhere, comparing and contrasting newscasts (San Diego Channel 10 and the local news received in Smithville), standardized testing in Mississippi and California and all the fallout thereof, political scandals, all the recent photography projects, and a bit of the philosophy concerning doing photography for free, which is pretty much what I do with a large fraction of my time.

Looking forward to the gym and packing up stuff to ship to San Diego, and research for a book project, all things I hope to do tomorrow.

San Diego - Dallas - Memphis - Olive Branch

Today my son and I traveled from San Diego, California, through Dallas, Texas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Olive Branch, Missisippi.

We were dropped off at the airport early in the morning. I was able to teach my little one about airports, security, carry on luggage, tickets, boarding passes, jetways, terminals, and concourses. We had a wonderful time watching all the parts of the wing move. I explained pitch, roll, and yaw, and we went over every square millimeter of the Boeing 757 emergency exit guide in the seatback pocket. We had our escape routes totally memorized.

The plane change in Dallas afforded two opportunities to take the tramway, since there was a gate change in between then time they announced it on the plane and the time we showed up at the gate. This gave me another opportunity to emphasize the importance of checking the monitors because "things change".

Michael bought his own Subway sandwich, and got a drink on the house for being a gentleman in line. He successfully negotiated a window seat with the gate agent for the flight from Dallas to Memphis.

We took the bus to Alamo rental cars and picked up a nice car. I used the new phone (Droid) to navigate, and experienced a few setbacks. The database didn't know about one-way entrances, and roads that were marked as "no left turn". This resulted in a detour through some really sad looking neighborhoods. Several boarded up houses and an entire apartment block boarded up and busted up, with "KEEP OUT" spray-painted ineffectually on the plywood. It looked pretty scary, and it was still daytime.

We got back on track on Union Avenue, and parked on Beale Street. Our destination was Hard Rock Cafe, Memphis, and we had stageside seats for our big dinner.

We bought t-shirts, we spent a lot of time looking at all the items displayed on the walls, we talked at length about Elvis, Beale Street, rock and roll, and playing the drums, since my son started playing the drums in the school band this year. In the gift shop, we were able to buy "Memphis" flame-decorated drumsticks!

While walking to the car, after a stroll around the somewhat-down-at-heel Beale Street Drag, I told him that his drum teacher would be quite impressed with his fancy new sticks. To this, he declared that he wanted to keep the drumsticks as a souvenir instead of using them! Alas, he takes after me. I might have to buy a second pair - one for keeping and one for using.

We're now in the hotel room. He's watching a football game and cheering for Chicago, and I'm working on various documents that have to do with understanding the NEON processor better, so that I can help add NEON support to a software package called FFTW. We're looking forward to more travel and adventure tomorrow.

Something Really Ought To Be Said

Something Really Ought To Be Said
30 October 2009

On the 28th of November, I took my 8-year-old Bear Cub to his Pack Meeting. It's held in a multi-purpose room at a nearby school. We arrived about the same time we always arrive - a few minutes late due to soccer practice getting out a scant 15 minutes before the start of the Pack meeting. Since I make him change into his scout uniform before going in to the meeting, we arrive just at the close of the opening activities and the beginning of the meeting itself.

This particular Pack meeting had a special guest. The email announcement said:

"This month's theme is Jungle Safari! We have exciting guests this night.

* Master So and So, 6th Degree Black Belt
* Boy Scout Troop ###
* Mrs. So and So to help prepare for Holiday Caroling"

Hey! Neat! A 6th degree black belt! This was going to be interesting. Maybe he would talk about martial arts, culture, and history. Maybe he would demonstrate a form, or break boards with his bare hands, and talk about the power of the individual to rise above limitations with hard work and diligent practice.

Mr. So and So and his able student assistant did indeed demonstrate martial arts techniques. And, he did speak about discipline. However, something unexpected happened. He linked discipline and martial arts training to material success and made fun of people living in Aguanga and El Cajon, which are two nearby towns here in California. The focus of the entire presentation was fighting back against "predators". This was, in essence, a paranoia-drenched safety seminar about what to do if you, the cub scout, are kidnapped by a pedophile.

But, first, let's analyze the message about materialism. The reasoning went something like this. People that live in Carmel Valley, San Diego (where the Pack is located) are successful. Not everyone can live in Carmel Valley. Discipline allows your parents, and therefore you, to be successful enough to live in Carmel Valley. Not like those people in Aguanga, or El Cajon. They aren't successful enough to live in Carmel Valley.

Aguanga was described by the martial arts speaker as having a population of 25. That's off by two orders of magnitude. As of 1990, it had a population of 2,309. It's an unincorporated small town in Riverside County.

Drawing the obvious conclusion, people in Aguanga and El Cajon don't have discipline. People in "those other places" are not successful. It's ok to make fun of people that are less-advantaged than you.

As of the 2000 census, there were 94,869 people, 34,199 households, and 23,152 families residing in the city of El Cajon. According to estimates by the San Diego Association of Governments, the median household income of El Cajon in 2005 was $47,885.

According to the San Diego County Assessor's Office's 2006 estimates, there were 42,047 people residing in Carmel Valley, which is an increase of 49.2% from 2000. The median household income was $120,886. 17.8% of the households made $200,000 or more and 12.3% made $30,000 or less.

While the median household incomes are different, with Carmel Valley being higher, this really should not be held up as proof that people living in Carmel Valley are "more disciplined" or even "more successful" than people living in El Cajon. At least, not without an awful lot of careful definitions of terms and a recognition that different people value different things.

Importantly, El Cajon isn't impoverished. The median household income for El Cajon is right about at the median household income for the entire state of California. Therefore, El Cajon is a very good representative of material success in the state of California. Poking fun of El Cajon, as if they were a bunch of backwards, lazy, hayseed, no-accounts, doesn't make much sense, since it's equivalent to making fun of the entire state of California.

Carmel Valley, by comparison, isn't even a city. El Cajon was incorporated in 1912. Carmel Valley, being a master-planned neighborhood, mooches off San Diego for services and other expensive things that El Cajon has the discipline and focus to provide the citizens that live there.

I wonder who Rancho Santa Fe cub scouts make fun of at their Pack meetings? Could they possibly be making fun of phony, high-maintenance, new-money Carmel Valley set?

Where does a scouting organization get off promoting the idea that the most important things in life are material success? Is this a core value of scouting? I wonder if the organizations that help fund scouting, say, United Way or other agencies, would be happy about scouts talking down to disadvantaged persons at their meetings?

Is this the only time this year that this sort of thing has happened? No, it is not.

Several months ago, when each scout at the Pack meeting had to stand up and answer the question "What do you want to be when you grow up," nearly every older cub scout, the two groups of Webelos, answered "I want to make a lot of money" or "I want to be rich". My own Bear Cub later admitted he felt kind of silly saying he wanted to be a Lego Designer, but first work at Souplantation (his favorite restaurant). This made me feel sad. Here we were, confronting the corrosion of a natural desire to grow up and do productive things that made him feel good about himself and others, and it happened at a Pack meeting - the sort of place where I'd hoped we could find the opposite environment. In the face of a series of smarmy "I wanna be RICH", the simple statement of serving food to others at his favorite restaurant became something to be emabarrassed of.

There is nothing inherently wrong with having money, earning money, or spending money. Much of the time, things worth doing are paid well enough to make a good living. If you are lucky, prepared, willing to sacrifice and work hard, then you might be paid more than the average. However, there are plenty of cases where wealth came from being in the right place at the right time, or from being the children of wealth, or from giving up happiness, or from stealing wealth from others, or from taking advantage of a loophole in the law or a fad or a shortage.

There is no guarantee that discipline and grace will make you wealthy. Ask any priest.

The lessons on how to handle a predator and the message of paranoia are controversial, and I have no good answer. An 8-year-old is no match for a full-grown adult. Putting the idea in their minds that they can resist or win a physical confrontation may or may not be a good idea.

The demonstrations consisted of the martial artist pretending to be a stranger kidnapping a boy from Toys R Us. The message that strangers are the real danger is categorically wrong. "There are a number of commonly held misconceptions regarding child sexual abuse in the United States. [such as] ...the perpetrator of the sexual abuse is always a stranger" ("Sexual Abuse of Children" Renee Z. Dominguez, Ph.D., Connie F. Nelke, Ph.D., Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.)

Children are far more likely to be abused by a family member or someone already known to them. By emphasizing the danger of strangers, we both erode civil society and we also set up a false expectation of where the danger really lies.

Why do I care so much about the message of materialism?

About 20 years ago in Arkansas, I earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do from the exact same organization that the speaker represented. In no way, shape, or form, was the message presented back then that discipline would make me financially successful. It doesn't hurt, but it wasn't presented that way. Those that were less-advantaged were actively respected, especially if they made what was quite often a larger sacrifice to come to class and work hard on developing their skill, self-confidence, and poise. It was dishertening to see the difference that 20 years and living in a different part of the country can make in the presentation of the meaning of martial arts to youth.

Quilt Project Part 1

Quilt Project Part 1



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Conclusions of MIssissippi Travel

The adventure to Mississippi that me and the three kids took concluded yesterday with a drive from Monroe County to Memphis in a rented minivan, a short shuttle bus ride to the airport, a four-hour plane ride to LAX, and a long ride home in our own minivan with a diversionary visit to grandparents and Giovanni's pizza in Fullerton.



Here is baby in her carseat on the airplane, about to land back home in San Diego.

The visit to Smithville was quite enjoyable, although the heat made for cabin fever. An editorial in the paper compared the situation, where one cannot go outdoors for more than a few minutes after the sun is up, and the evening cools down only slightly, to being snowed in. The comparison is quite apt. Keeping three small children entertained indoors without their own toys and away from all the Big People Stuff was very tiring. It was like some sort of parental boot camp.

I think I learned multiple new Mommy Skills on this trip, but so far I have not been able to form them from the murk of wrong-time-zone sleepiness. Maybe after a few days back here in the paradigm-schedule-shift of the new school year, the bones of the lessons will be revealed.

With this school year, the two oldest will be going to the same school, which is very nice, while the baby is still here at the house with me. I am very much looking forward to some increase in uninterrupted time. My resolution is to take full advantage of it while continuing to provide as much "homeschool style" interaction as possible with the children.

I'm happy the summer is over, and that feeling somewhat surprises me, since I did enjoy it. Being quite comfortable with ambiguity, I've been giving this sort of dichotomy a somewhat mistrustful look out of the corner of my mental eye.

Up with the Vertical, Out with the Dancing, Down with the Solar

I have a grid-tie solar system here at Silver Home, and the household had noticed an increase in our very small electrical bills and a decrease of the power being created by the solar panels on one of the two inverters. The inverter was suspected as source of the problem, but with a bit of assistance from someone that works with solar power all the time and a voltmeter, the problem was narrowed down to one of the four strings of daisy-chained solar panels.

There are 40 panels up on the roof. They're divided into 4 strings of 10. The bad string was removed at the inverter, so 30 are now in use. Unfortunately, none of my records easily show which 10 are connected to that particular pair of wires! The only way to find out is to go up on the roof.

Speaking of the roof, a ladder was climbed by a very helpful someone who assisted me in getting the 2m vertical installed on the solar panel side of the house. The antenna is as-yet-to-be tested, however, so I can't declare victory quite yet. In order to test it, I need to connect a radio up to it and give it a spin. That will happen today.

Finally, I went out dancing at Club Montage last night. I'm none the worse for wear, but I did experience an interesting effect which was due either to eating a whole bag of carrots the afternoon prior or my innards getting reverberated with the exact wrong frequency of bass from the speakers-taller-than-I. Regardless of the cause, a fun time was had by the both of us that went out dancing. San Diego Pride is going on this weekend, so the place was festive and gay and the energy quite enjoyable.

A highlight of the evening was an exotic dancer (male) who performed on a pair of long red diaphanous curtains suspended from the ceiling. It was quite acrobatic and dramatic.

Magic Rocks by Geneva

Check out this video: Magic Rocks by Geneva



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Geneva Crystal Experiment 1 - Citrine

Check out this video: Crystal Experiment 1 Citrine



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Quote of the Day

"damn, I should have bought that hundredweight of unclaimed canary yellow cardstock."

19 June 2007 Fire in Mira Mesa, CA

19 June 2007 Fire in Mira Mesa, CA



Add to My Profile | More Videos