Scratchpad — reminding myself of the steps needed to remove the pulley and key in order to drop the blade hub out of the mower. Really boring, don’t read any further..
Reset IFS variable in Mac OSX
I know, nobody could be so stupid as to set IFS directly from the command-line on their Mac whilst following a tutorial to learn how to split variables.
But just in case you’re just as stupid as me and you want to set it back to the Mac OSX default, here’s what I did.
First handy item – a command-line to display exactly what IFS is currently set to Continue reading
Scaling Jack (and Jacktrip?) by using section-routing
This is really fast/early draft stuff.
The puzzler: Building a 20-person mix-delete audio routing template in my Pretty Good Jacktrip Toolkit crashes (moderately-sized) Linode servers. They seem to crash when automating large numbers of Jack-connection adds or deletes — issuing a delete-all with JMESS for example.
The hypothesis: Jack works OK, it’s the number of connections per endpoint that’s causing the trouble.
The idea to get around this (so far): split the mix-minus routing in two by putting players in sections.
PerformaX 16×32 sander – reduce burning – improve airflow
Clogged sandpaper leading to burns in the wood has always been a big problem with my PerformaX (JET) 16-32 drum sander. I’m hopeful that this is the fix — replacing the cover to provide a connection for a 4″ dust collection hose (from the current model) rather than the original one which connected a 2.5″ hose. Here are the pictures — which started just before COVID and end… today, almost a year and a half later.
Starting point — March 1st, 2020 — the old cover
The new cover arrives – March 7 2020
Loopback: routing Jacktrip audio
UPDATE: September 2023
This post is for a person using command-line connection to Jacktrip and Qjackctl to manage Jack (which is the way we did it back in March of 2021). It creates a single virtual device to route audio to and from Jacktrip. This makes Qjackctl a lot easier to manage by providing a single interface that can be used for both input and output.
These days JackTrip has a terrific graphic user interface (GUI) that can manage audio input and output devices directly through RT Audio (eliminating the need to use Qjackctl). In that case I would suggest creating a separate Loopback devices for audio being sent to Jacktrip and audio being received from Jacktrip. It’s much easier to keep things straight and just as flexible.
Here’s a step-by-step post about routing Jacktrip audio using Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback software. Loopback is a for-money successor to Soundflower and similar to BlackHole. I like it because it is more visual and does more stuff.
The goal of this post is to get a person with a 2×2 interface going with a setup that will let them join a Jacktrip session reliably, without having to “rewire” things each time. It also covers things like routing audio into and out of other audio software like Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Max and Zoom.
Alas, this is for Mac folks only. Windows audio puzzles me. I don’t have a clue how to do this on a Windows machine.
There are links to short videos that “animate” each of these steps and examples. Click on the pictures to embiggify and read them.
Step 0: Assumptions – Click here for video
Continue reading
A micro photography rig for Marcie
Here’s the rig that that Marcie uses to take pictures of things at microscope scale. We took a long journey through a lot of attempts that were unsatisfactory — perhaps this post will save you some steps.
Here’s a picture of the whole setup (click on the photos to embiggen).
Here’s the recipe: Continue reading
WORT memories — for the 45th anniversary
dear WORT.
happy 45th!
many thanks for the invitation to throw a few words into the virtual gathering. here’s a collection of WORT memory-jogger photos, starting off with a few pages from early program guides, that tell a lot of the story of the early days. clicking on the newsletter-page photos brings up bigger versions.
. . . .
here’s Numero Uno – volume 1 number 1. my writing style in those days was a completely-hopeless attempt, by an illiterate geek, to emulate my hero Lorenzo Milam. Milam was guiding light for a gaggle of us who started stations all over the country — we lost him this year (2020), along with so many others.
a pretty good exposition about why most of us did all that work – it was fun, we made lots of good friends and we kinda took care of each other. Jeff Lange did a lot of the graphics for the first-generation newsletters including everything on this page (i think). Continue reading
JackTrip — Hub-Mode server options
Here’s a scratchpad on how Jacktrip Hub Mode does audio routing as of early September 2020.
Starting the server in Hub Mode (capital-S instead of lower-case S) with the “-p” option offers four ways to configure the server. Here’s an example launch string that would fire up a server in Mode 2:
jacktrip -S -p2
Mode – 0 (the default – my machine hears everybody and everybody hears the mix that I send them)
Add OBS (and optionally Syphon) as a video source to Zoom
Here’s a video and a recipe for musicians who want to display something other than a web-cam of themselves when performing in an ensemble. Maybe graphics, or animation. Especially interesting is to insert a Syphon stream into the mix. Here’s one way to do that. Sorry — I only cover Mac software here. Continue reading
Configuring, starting and running a multi-client Jacktrip server with per-channel mixing
This post is intended for several audiences. It’s a checklist for me when I want to host several people in a multi-client Jacktrip session and provide them with mixing, both to the final feed and among themselves. It attempts to be clear enough that it might provide an example for others. And it’s a demonstration of many aspects of this approach that could be improved with revisions to software and hardware
These examples are configured for an eight-way session between the host and seven remote participants. It provides a separate mix for each participant (in this case deleting them from the mix they’re monitoring — but with the option to be added back in if they choose). Continue reading
Origin of the “Waumandee” in Waumandee Creek
We here at Prairie Haven live on Little Waumandee Creek in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. We’ve always wondered about where the word “Waumandee” comes from and what it means.
Listen to these blackbirds and see if you hear them saying “waumandee!” the way I do. Maybe that’s where the word comes from?
Battery power-storage system
This is a scratchpad post about the battery power-storage system. Another in the “Prairie Haven Operator’s Manual” series of posts.
Right now there are just a series of documentation diagrams that I made — I’ll add explanations as time permits.
Just for fun — here’s a picture of the Submarine Control Room Command Console that shows off the three inverters at the heart of the system. Continue reading
Decontaminate bacteria from the well
This is a scratchpad post to remind myself how to decontaminate our well the next time it tests positive for bacteria. I bet we have to do this every time we get flood runoff, but I’m willing to be proven wrong. Related post: Winterize the RV
Soundscapes — audio recorders compared
I decided to compare some digital recorders for the purposes of recording soundscapes here at Prairie Haven. I’ve got two of them, bought at different times for different purposes and I was curious to see how much different they were and whether it was worth carrying one of them instead just using my phone. The nice thing about the phone is that it’s with me all the time, but I’d start carrying one of the others if they were better. Continue reading
Are projections of registration growth in generic top-level domains realistic?
Intro
Exactly five years ago today, I published this little rant about the growth rates projected for the new “generic top level domains” that were being introduced by ICANN at the time. You know, domain names that end in things like .run or .lol or .bot (yep, those are all real alternatives to .com or .org if you’d like to strike out into new territory).
I decided to update it with the way things have turned out. Continue reading