Kurt's Weblog

...
To address this problem in the wake of the recent fires in Southern
California, Microsoft partner Infusion Development worked with the
County of San Diego to identify its requirements for a Disaster
Assessment and Collaboration Portal (DACP). The portal is a customized
deployment of their Joint Emergency Planning & Response System (JPRS)
that leverages the Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping platform and
Microsoft Sharepoint, allowing users to visualize and collaborate
around a crisis event (readers of this blog should already be familiar
with JEPRS). Also integrated into the solution is the IS Consulting
MapDotNet Server .Net GIS platform, serving up the Virtual Earth map
tiles, performing the geocoding and allowing layering of GIS data.
...

• Start saffron rice from a packet as this takes about 20 minutes
• Begin with a little olive oil in skillet
• Add some cashews, red onions, and a clove of garlic
• Brown the cashews just slightly
• Add spices... tumeric, crushed red pepper, curry, etc. Might want to try a bit of ginger, white pepper and what ever else might work
• Add a frozen banana still in the peel. Cut the short way in the middle
• Add 1 mango that is ripe to the point the skin is starting to wrinkle. Remove the skin and pit before putting it in
• You might want to skip this step: Add a small amount of rum, about 1 shot, but do it right after putting the banana and mango in so as not to get any flames. Do NOT use 151. I tried it and thankfully the flames didn't get anything
• Give it 2 or 3 minutes on high
• Add 1/2 lbs of uncooked, peeled shrimp (40 cnt is a reasonable size)
• Cook on high until the shrimp are good and pink
• Turn off heat and remove banana peel
• Put rice on a plate and pore shrimp and mango over rice
• Top with 1/2 teaspoon of rum

The ROV manual : a user guide to observation-class remotely operated
vehicles / Robert D. Christ and Robert L. Wernli Sr
Amsterdam ; Boston ; London : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007

The "brains" of the Ares I rocket that will send four astronauts back
to the moon sometime in the next 12 years will be built by Boeing,
NASA announced today, but the specifications will be open-source and
non-proprietary, so that other companies can bid on future
contracts. The avionics unit will provide guidance, navigation and
control for the launch rocket, which will carry the Orion crew vehicle
into Earth orbit.

My opinion is that reference material is absolutely necessary, if
nothing else but to prevent the organization from tribal
operations. If none of the standards and guidelines ever get written
down, and decisions are solely based on tribal knowlege, the
organization can quickly break down into the haves and the
have-nots. If you're part of the tribe, you have the knowledge. If
you're not, all you can do is make your best guess until you have to
show up to tribal council and get lambasted. Trying to gain the
knowledge from the outside is a very difficult process.

If you have an organization with lots of VB6 and COBOL developers,
they may need lots of reference material on web applications.

NOAA Ocean Service
Office of Coast Survey:
 Hydrographic AUV Project: Develop technical
expertise, define functional and technical
requirements, and develop standard operating
procedures to transition AUV technology into
NOAA's operational hydrographic survey fleet.
Baseline Port Survey Project: Incorporate
AUVs into port security surveys to: facilitate
rapid and flexible response; protect survey
personnel by providing greater standoff during
high risk surveys.

NOAA-UNH Joint Hydrographic Center:
 Incorporate multi-beam sonar into AUV.
Develop harbor tracking system for AUVs.
4D AUV mission planning, monitoring and
play back software.
Adaptive AUV Control software.

http://homepage.mac.com/ical/.calendars/US32Holidays.ics

second Tuesday of every month from 1:30 to 3:30. Our meetings are free
and open to all.

% cat ais.log | ais_normalize.py > ais.log.norm
% ais_build_sqlite3.py -C ais.log.norm
Messages found:
1: 565
3: 305
4: 37
5: 300
8: 160
10: 7
11: 4
15: 69
17: 2
18: 22
20: 16
24: 16
26: 1
27: 3
28: 1
29: 3
30: 2
31: 1
56: 1
Messages processed:
1: 565
3: 305
4: 37
5: 300
18: 22
% sqlite3 ais.db3 '.tables'
b_pos_and_shipdata_broken  positionb                
bsreport                   shipdata                 
position                 

% sqlite3 ais.db3 'SELECT longitude,latitude FROM positionb' | tr '|' '\t'
-122.68733      47.92291
-122.687306667  47.9229166667
-122.687318333  47.9229233333
-122.687316667  47.92293
-122.687326667  47.9229283333
-122.68731      47.922925
-122.687316667  47.9229333333
-122.687308333  47.9229333333
-122.687316667  47.9229383333
-171.388931667  -21.4328733333
-122.68733      47.9229366667
-122.687318333  47.9229316667
-122.687315     47.9229383333
-122.687318333  47.92293
-122.687325     47.9229366667
-122.687313333  47.9229283333
-122.687321667  47.9229283333
-122.687301667  47.9229383333
-122.687303333  47.9229516667
-122.687296667  47.92294
-122.687286667  47.9229283333
-122.687293333  47.92294

...
Thanks to a $1.2 million security grant issued last year by the
Department of Defense, the port will soon have some much needed
security upgrades, which include a sonar detection system, a fully
functional robot that is capable of traveling the floor of the
Piscataqua, a patrol boat capable of various uses, a new dock that
will cater to the Fire Department and an added boat launch that will
provide immediate access to the water in case of an emergency.
...

1340h IN43A-0906 POSTER Google Earth Visualizations of the Marine
Automatic Identification System (AIS): Monitoring Ship Traffic in
National Marine Sanctuaries.

...
The Dream User
To be sure, not all user archetypes are negative or
troublesome. Today, help desk pros increasingly view their job as one
of teaching, giving users confidence to solve their own problems, to
experiment, and to try new things.
.
They don't simply fix a problem and walk away; they're giving users
the knowledge to improve their productivity. Of course, the user has
to be open and willing to embrace this teaching, which brings us to
the Dream User.
.
You might think IT help desk pros would define their Dream User as the
one they never hear from. But you'd be wrong. While our IT help desk
experts may have slightly differing opinions on the more negative user
archetypes they see, all were in agreement about the user of their
dreams.
.
"If I never hear from someone, that probably means they're fighting
through something that's ruining their productivity," says Olson. By
contrast, one of his more experienced remote users called him after
encountering an error message while replacing a video card. "She
wanted to know why that happened. Her desire for knowledge really
tickled me."
...x

New visualization tools are helping the Coast Guard develop
situational awareness at the Port of Miami, but more assistance is
needed to track small boats and noncooperative vessels, according to
congressional testimony given this week.
.
The Homeland Security Department's Directorate of Science and
Technology is funding the Visualization Tools for Situational
Awareness and Emergency Response program, also known as Viz Tools.
.
The project is a proof-of-concept demonstration to correlate sensors
and automated vessel-tracking information with advanced
notification-of-arrival information and other port activity, Commander
Karl Schultz, who heads the Coast Guard's Miami sector, testified at a
field hearing Nov. 26 of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on
Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism. The hearing was held in
Miami.
.
The visualization tool program - along with Project Hawkeye, which is
a sensor network surveillance project for Miami and other ports - is
serving as a test bed for Command 21, the Coast Guard's next large
upgrade of its command centers.
.
Although the program is resulting in improved maritime domain
awareness, there are still gaps. For example, the Coast Guard needs
better information on the 170,000 registered small craft in Miami,
Dade and Broward counties, Schultz said.
.
"The small boat threat ... continues to present technology and policy
challenges and remains a primary maritime security concern," Schultz
said. "Within [DHS], we are working closely with Customs and Border
Protection to expand our efforts to secure the small maritime craft
environment."
.
In addition, Schultz said the Coast Guard still has a long way to go
to managing all the information needed for daily operations and
decision-making. This includes coordination of programs for tracking
large vessels, such as the National Automatic Identification System,
Advanced Notice of Arrival process, and the forthcoming International
Maritime Organization's Long Range Identification and Tracking system.
.
Stephen Dryden, chief executive officer of the Mariner Group LLC, of
Columbia, S.C., which is providing its CommandBridge software solution
to address the need for situational awareness in the Viz Tools
project, also testified at the hearing.
.
He said the objectives of Viz Tools are to develop and maintain
situational awareness, identify threats rapidly, maximize assets and
operational capacity to respond to the threat, and plan and manage the
emergency response. Before Viz Tools, those standing watch had to
achieve situation awareness by monitoring radars, harbor pilot Web
sites, incoming messages, commercial media, weather and Coast Guard
systems, he said.
.
Altough the visualization project is working successfully, Dryden
agreed with Schultz that small vessels are a vulnerability. The ports
need better sensor technology to track small boats and identify
noncooperative vessels whose transponders for tracking through the
Automatic Identification System are turned off. In some cases,
however, the transponders are turned off accidentally.
.
With today's technology, ports fall short in their ability to track
noncooperative vessels and small boats, Dryden said. Programs in
development, such as the Coast Guard's Automated Scene Understanding
project, may help mitigate those problems, he said.
.
Dryden also recommended additional aids to further improve situational
awareness, including the integration of cargo and vessel information
into Viz Tools, more coordination with local law enforcement agencies
and improved long-range tracking of vessels.

...
My company, The Mariner Group, has been working with the US Coast
Guard over the past three years to significantly improve MDA and
response throughout the nation.  My goals today are to inform you of
the overall project mission, the challenges encountered in gaining
true MDA, and lastly, to urge support for full funding of the Safe
Port Act of 2006.
...

serial_logger.py -p /dev/tty.iBT-GPS-SPPslave-1 -v --uscg -skurt_itrek

$GPGGA,150312.000,3731.6458,N,12217.0280,W,1,9,1.02,10.1,M,-25.6,M,,*58,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.73
$GPGSA,A,3,11,28,25,27,26,15,17,19,08,,,,1.31,1.02,0.83*07,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.74
$GPGSV,3,1,11,28,73,318,23,08,68,062,30,27,49,102,28,35,41,210,*7E,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.74
$GPGSV,3,2,11,17,40,184,27,26,33,313,16,25,30,112,25,15,21,316,18*7B,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.76
$GPGSV,3,3,11,11,20,097,26,19,11,039,31,13,05,159,*4B,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.76
$GPRMC,150312.000,A,3731.6458,N,12217.0280,W,46.44,312.00,101207,,,A*4B,rkurt_itrek,1197298992.77
$GPGGA,150313.000,3731.6539,N,12217.0405,W,1,9,1.02,9.8,M,-25.6,M,,*65,rkurt_itrek,1197298993.78

gpsbabel -i nmea -f tmp.log -o gpx -F tmp.gpx

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx
 version="1.0"
creator="GPSBabel - http://www.gpsbabel.org"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd">
<time>2007-12-10T15:06:17Z</time>
<bounds minlat="37.527430000" minlon="-122.284008333" maxlat="37.527565000" maxlon="-122.283800000"/>
<trk>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="37.527430000" lon="-122.283800000">
  <ele>10.100000</ele>
<time>2007-12-10T15:03:12Z</time>
  <course>312.000000</course>
  <speed>23.890800</speed>
  <fix>3d</fix>
  <sat>9</sat>
  <hdop>1.020000</hdop>
  <vdop>0.830000</vdop>
  <pdop>1.310000</pdop>
</trkpt>
<trkpt lat="37.527565000" lon="-122.284008333">
  <ele>9.800000</ele>
<time>2007-12-10T15:03:13Z</time>
  <fix>3d</fix>
  <sat>9</sat>
  <hdop>1.020000</hdop>
</trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>
</gpx>

%gpsbabel -i nmea -f tmp.log -o csv -F tmp.csv
%cat tmp.csv 
37.52743, -122.28380, 
37.52756, -122.28401, 

% gpsbabel -i nmea -f tmp.log -o kml -F tmp.kml

...
        <Placemark>
          <name>Path</name>
          <styleUrl>#lineStyle</styleUrl>
          <LineString>
            <tessellate>1</tessellate>
            <coordinates>
              -122.283800,37.527430,10.100000
              -122.284008,37.527565,9.800000
            </coordinates>
          </LineString>
        </Placemark>
...

NEW YORK-Cleanup crews estimate a total of 500 gallons washed up on a
two and-a-half mile section of Long Beach near Jones Beach, N.Y., as
multiple agencies began cleanup operations at 7 a.m. today.



More than 70 people from multiple agencies including the Coast Guard,
New York Department of Environmental Conservation, (DEC) and the
Miller Environmental Group are working together on Atlantic Beach near
Genesee Blvd. and Ocean Pkwy. to cleanup an oil spill reported
yesterday by local surfers at 11 a.m.



Coast Guard Sector New York and Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound
are gathering oil samples from all vessels transiting to and from the
port of New York and New Jersey within the estimated time frame to
match the source of the pollution.



Using the automatic identification system, (AIS) a system similar to a
short range GPS that works over a radio frequency, the Coast Guard
will attempt to track down the various vessels in the area of the
Ambrose Anchorage during the spill.



"The AIS can tell us where the vessels were, at what time, what speed
they were making and what course they were on," said Jason Dailey,
Vessel Traffic Services watch supervisor.



Self-propelled vessels over 65-feet are required by law to have an AIS
installed on their vessel, which keeps a log of AIS and radar
contacts.



"Were here with the local response agencies to minimize the impact to
the environment and get this oil cleaned up," said Lt. William
Grossman, the incident commander for the oil spill.



Police Departments from Nassau County, and Atlantic Beach, as well as
representatives from the Village of Atlantic Beach, City of Long Beach
and the Town of Hempstead have offered assistance in the cleanup.



The Coast Guard continues to investigate the incident.

1. Go to System Preferences and click on the Bluetooth icon.
2. Click on settings to ensure BT is turned on and discoverable.
3. Select the Devices tab.
4. Click on set up new device.
5. This brings up the Bluetooth Set Up Assistant.
6. Follow the instructions on the set up assistant and enter 0000 as passkey.
7. The device should be listed in the devices window.
8. Locate the BT serial utility application in the utilities folder, double click to open.
9. Click on new.
10. Assign the port a name, select outgoing, click on select device.
11. Select the iBT-GPS and highlight SPP slave in the right hand window.
12. Click select button and select the port type RS-232.
13. Click OK to finish setup.

ls -l /dev/tty.iBT-GPS-SPPslave-1 
crw-rw-rw-   1 root  wheel   10,  48 Dec  4 22:51 /dev/tty.iBT-GPS-SPPslave-1

 serial_logger.py -p /dev/tty.iBT-GPS-SPPslave-1 -v
opening logfile: log.2007-12-05
$GPGGA,133428.811,4308.0723,N,07056.3810,W,1,5,1.46,24.9,M,-32.9,M,,*52
$GPGSA,A,3,25,08,27,13,16,,,,,,,,1.72,1.46,0.92*01
$GPGSV,3,1,10,19,75,162,,25,67,297,37,03,62,062,,27,47,308,38*7E
$GPGSV,3,2,10,13,39,235,39,16,23,077,23,08,20,311,35,23,19,200,*7C
$GPGSV,3,3,10,11,05,181,,21,01,027,*72
$GPRMC,133428.811,A,4308.0723,N,07056.3810,W,0.15,0.00,051207,,,A*79
$GPGGA,133429.793,4308.0846,N,07056.3870,W,1,5,1.46,25.6,M,-32.9,M,,*52
$GPGSA,A,3,25,08,27,13,16,,,,,,,,1.73,1.46,0.92*00
$GPGSV,3,1,10,19,75,162,,25,67,297,37,03,62,062,,27,47,308,38*7E
$GPGSV,3,2,10,13,39,235,39,16,23,077,21,08,20,311,35,23,19,200,*7E
$GPGSV,3,3,10,11,05,181,,21,01,027,*72
$GPRMC,133429.793,A,4308.0846,N,07056.3870,W,0.04,0.00,051207,,,A*77
...

The "space age" began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union (USSR)
launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. Some
U.S. policymakers, concerned about the USSR's ability to launch a
satellite, thought Sputnik might be an indication that the United
States was trailing behind the USSR in science and technology. The
Cold War also led some U.S. policymakers to perceive the Sputnik
launch as a possible precursor to nuclear attack.
...
If they consider scientific knowledge the highest priority, unmanned
missions and other science-related activities may be Congress' major
goal for NASA. If international relations are a high priority,
Congress might encourage other nations to become equal partners in
NASA's activities. If spinoff effects, such as the creation of new
jobs and markets and its effect on STEM education are Congress'
priorities, then technological development, linking to the needs of
business and industry, and education may become NASA's primary goals.

NSF's vision of large-scale sensor-based Observing Systems, to address
the National Research Council's "Grand Challenges" for environmental
science, relies on robust cyberinfrastructure. Streaming data
middleware is an essential component of this cyberinfrastructure,
providing the foundation for reliable data acquisition and instrument
management services. The environmental science and engineering
communities are currently engaged in the early planning and
development phases of the next generation of large-scale sensor-based
observing systems. The Open Source DataTurbine Initiative is a new
NSF-funded project to empower these communities with Streaming Data
Middleware.
...

• Added Class B 18 & 19 position report messages. 19 does not work yet
• Improved the msg 21 documentation
• Some cleanup of msg 5
• Added whalenotice3
• New scaps: ais_pg_{dailyvessels,monthhistogram,speedsummary}.py
• ais_pg_transitsummary has new --mmsi option to only check one vessel

% fink install xpdf
% pdfinfo Document.pdf 
Title:          
Subject:        
Author:         
Creator:        Hewlett Packard MFP
Producer:       
CreationDate:   
Tagged:         no
Pages:          2
Encrypted:      no
Page size:      612 x 792 pts (letter)
File size:      1152903 bytes
Optimized:      no
PDF version:    1.4

% fink install pdftk
% pdftk Document.pdf dump_data output report.txt
% cat report.txt 
InfoKey: Creator
InfoValue: Hewlett Packard MFP
NumberOfPages: 2

1.  I received some message of type "18" like this sentence :
!AIVDM,1,1,,A,BCHOFF00F7v03HVh;0DkgwRUoP06,0*58
Do you know this kind of message ? I didn't seems to be standard in Class A ? 

% cd ais
% ipython
In [1]: import binary
In [2]: binary.ais6chartobitvec('B')
Out[2]: 
In [3]: print binary.ais6chartobitvec('B')
010010
In [4]: print int(binary.ais6chartobitvec('B'))
18

./ais_msg_18.py -T html -d '!AIVDM,1,1,,A,BCHOFF00F7v03HVh;0DkgwRUoP06,0*58' > 18.html
open 18.html

2. Documentation about AIS.
I didn't found on the web a document with the table of the list type
for the ShipandCargo field. (message 5) .  do you have an URL or pdf
to recommend me to understand deeper all the particularities of AIS
messages?

3.Composite sentence 
Here we received some "composite" sentence like : 
!AIVDM,2,1,3,A,5CIUmQ02<qvPI4<J221<4mDDj0@F0<P4m0h4Tr1S000006n90?4hBCU8,0*69
!AIVDM,2,2,3,A,3PFPBDQH8888880,2*4D
With a small Ruby script, I recompose to one sentence before to sent to your ais_build_postgis function.
But may be I miss something that already exist in  the "noaadata-py-0.23" project ?

!AIVDM,2,1,3,A,5CIUmQ02<qvPI4<J221<4mDDj0@F0<P4m0h4Tr1S000006n90?4hBCU8,0*69,rUNKNOWN,1196778635
!AIVDM,2,2,3,A,3PFPBDQH8888880,2*4D,rUNKNOWN,1196778635

ais_normalize.py log.ais 
!AIVDM,1,1,3,A,5CIUmQ02<qvPI4<J221<4mDDj0@F0<P4m0h4Tr1S000006n90?4hBCU83PFPBDQH8888880,2*25,rUNKNOWN,1196778635
ais_normalize.py log.ais > log.ais.norm
cat log.ais.norm | ./ais_msg_5.py -d -T html  > 5.html
open 5.html

Maritime navigation and radiocommunication equipment and systems -
Automatic identification system (AIS) - Part 2: AIS AtoN Stations -
Operational and performance requirements, methods of testing and
required test results.
.
This Final Draft International Standard has the following voting
period: 2007-11-30 to 2008-02-01

<div id="hcard-Kurt-Schwehr" class="vcard">
  <img style="float:left; margin-right:4px" src="http://schwehr.org/kurt/kurt-thumb.png" alt="photo" class="photo"/>
 <a class="url fn" href="http://schwehr.org">Kurt Schwehr</a>
 <div class="org">Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping</div>
 <a class="email" href="mailto:kurt _at_ ccom.unh.edu">kurt _at_ ccom.unh.edu</a>
 <div class="adr">
  <div class="street-address">24 Colovos Rd.</div>
  <span class="locality">Durham</span>
, 
  <span class="region">NH</span>
, 
  <span class="postal-code">03820</span>
  <span class="country-name">USA</span>
 </div>
 <div class="tel">603-862-1159</div>
</div>

Kurt Schwehr

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

kurt _at_ ccom.unh.edu

24 Colovos Rd.

Durham , NH , 03820 USA

603-862-1159

fink install mono

cat << EOF > hello.cs
using System;
namespace Kurt.Mono.Examples
{
   public class HelloWorld
   {
      public static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Hello World");
      }
   } 
}

% mcs hello.cs 
% ls -l hello*  
-rw-r--r--   1 schwehr  schwehr   189 Dec  1 18:16 hello.cs
-rwxr-xr-x   1 schwehr  schwehr  3072 Dec  1 18:16 hello.exe
% file hello.exe
hello.exe: MS Windows PE 32-bit Intel 80386 console executable

% mono hello.exe 
Hello World

SELECT distinct(userid) \
FROM position \
WHERE cg_timestamp BETWEEN \
    DATE('2006-01-02') and DATE('2006-01-03');



  userid
===========
 303388000
 316012950
 366897920
 367075760
 477930000

SELECT distinct(userid) \
FROM position \
WHERE cg_timestamp >= '2006-01-02 00:00:00' 
  AND cg_timestamp <= '2006-01-03 00:00:01';



  userid   
===========
 303388000
 316012950
 366897920
 367075760
 477930000

    # make postgres db connection and get a cursor called "cu"
    import datetime
    dt = datetime.datetime(2006,1,1)
    dtend = datetime.datetime(2007,1,1)
    doy = 1 # day of the year
    oneDay = datetime.timedelta(1)
    while dt < dtend:
        dateStr1 = ('%d-%02d-%02d' % (dt.year, dt.month, dt.day))
        dtnext = dt + oneDay
        dateStr2 = ('%d-%02d-%02d' % (dtnext.year, dtnext.month, dtnext.day))
        q = "SELECT count(distinct(userid)) FROM position"\
            " WHERE cg_timestamp >= '"+dateStr1+"' AND cg_timestamp <= '"+dateStr2+"';"
        cu.execute(q)
        numVessels = cu.fetchone()[0]
        print doy, numVessels, dateStr1
        dt = dtnext
        doy += 1