Locality Switch

I always like to be prepared. I’ll turn up at events with extra rolls of gaff, extra leads and a box full of audio adaptors – all for the ‘just in case’ situation.

However, I can’t carry these things around all the time. It isn’t practical for me to have boxes of mildly-heavy things with me all the time. But I can carry things around in my pockets…

Since Jeff Atwood is doing it, I thought I’ll share with you what I carry around all the time on my keyring, and in my pockets.

The most obvious thing to have on your keyring is keys. And I have a few of those, plus some other bits and pieces I find handy:

• My house key
• An Electrical Key – typically this lock is fitted to Distribution Boards in Australian schools (at least the ones I have anything to do with!)
• A “60180″ key (a.k.a. Generic 19″ Rack Key – this work on all but one rack I have ever encountered. I also discovered recently that it works on certain NSW DET Alarms, if you have the associated PIN number)
• LED flashlight – very small, vitally important!
• A key for a Kensington security lock
• Sharpie (mini) – I don’t always carry this, but it is defiantly on my keyring when I know I have any work coming up
• Moulded power point tester, which checks for earth leakage and a missing earth. I tell you – it’s very handy for checking if there is something wrong with your gear, or with the power source.
• USB Flash Drive. Mine cost $9, and boasts 1GB of storage! I know, that isn’t much at all. However, I’m not one to carry large amounts of data around with me. I only transfer a few handy apps, as well as documents related to whatever projects I am working on at the time.

Other things I tend to carry around with me (but not keyring related):

• Analogue watch – a cool Boeing one found at a Salvos Stores by my wonder Grandfather (this one has a picture of a plane spinning around the outside, in place of a traditional second hand!)
• Mobile phone – I hardly take this to school, but I clutch onto it for dear life any other time
• Wallet with plenty of plastic cards, and assorted business cards
• When I am at an event, I also keep a roll of while electrical tape in my pockets, plus my trusty side cutters

I don’t travel light – but I do try and be practical!

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been busy working on our annual school production ‘Fame at the Farms’. No, this isn’t ‘Fame’ the musical, but a concert which our school has been putting on for the past fifteen years.

I’ve been working on the show backstage for three years, but now in my fourth year I was promoted to Lighting Tech. This years show was the first in our new school hall (not built under the BER, but actually built before that started), and it was the first time I was running tech along with Nicholas and Tim, so we siezed the opportunity to be different in the way we did things.

The fact that we didn’t need to build a stage, had ample three-phase power available and already had two dimmers, some built in lighting bars and twenty four par cans made a world of difference. Building a border of truss around the stage wasn’t necessary, which in itself saves heaps of time and money. Instead we only ran 12m of truss across the back of the stage and winched that up with VMB lifters.

The typical FAME show included stack of par cans (48 or so) and a couple of profiles. There was always a need for a scissor lift to get to the ceiling to attach and focus some of these lights. The scissor had the potential to be the biggest pain, and was starting to wear out its welcome. As we had enough par cans permanently installed, there was no need for a scissor this year.

Heres a pic of a typical FAME setup in our old hall. Everything you see had to be built from scratch each year, including the stage. Normally that is a normal PE hall.

Saving money on extra rigging, multipin LX cable and three-phase extension leads, we were able to afford to throw four Martin Mac250 Entour Profiles into the order. These were fixed on the rear truss, making it dead simple to get them in the air.

Twenty four par cans were also attached on the truss, in four vertical bars of four lights, and two horizontal bars of four. Heres a photo of the basic setup:

Everything was setup on Saturday morning with about a dozen people, including Daniel from Lots of Watts (the rental company – by the way, they provided terrific gear this year, and had overall great support!).

I think overall the show went great this year. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and the things people have said to me have been great, considering this was really the first time for each of us techs at running a show like this.

Theres a few things which I think really helped:

• Preparation - we got the order in quite early, and were all very comfortable with the gear we had ordered
• Project Management – I dragged out a copy of Microsoft Project 98 and put in all the tasks we needed to do leading up to the show, so we all had a list of tasks to follow
• People – everyone was really supportive and encouraging. There was minimal negativity, and this really helped the mood which we were all in
• Power – we had a reliable power supply, with probably double the capacity than what we used. This was so valuable to us, knowing we won’t have a problem with tripping circuits! My one complaint on this is the bad locations of some of the GPOs
• Documentation – audio patching, power distribution, and lighting patching was all pre-planned and clearly documented to make sure there were no unexpected surprises, and so we all knew what went where

That being said, there was one big issue which the three of us techs suffered from: tiredness. We’ve all done this show a few times before, but this year we spent a lot more time on it. I was getting to school in the morning at 6:40am in order to get stuff done before the cast rocked up and got in the way. By the day after when we were just tidying up things before going back to class, we were really struggling to do anything at all. There was simply no energy left in our systems. To make it worse for me, I had a really bad cold starting just after the first show.

Another issue, although more minor to us (thankfully!), was a crashed lighting console. We were using a LSC Maxim with a PatPad. Sure, probably not the best desk anyway, but I’m comfortable with using it. We managed to crash it during a rehearsal. Here’s a picture of the console in a crashed state:

As you can see, the whole PatPad lit up, and obviously it was unusable in this state. A restart restored it, but then it crashed again shortly after. It turned out to be a hardware fault, with dodgy connectors on one of the circuit boards. Its a shame that with digital consoles, a single fault can render a whole console unusable. Thankfully, Lots of Watts sent out a service tech and had it fixed on site within an hour! Now, thats great service!!

The four shows went well, I learnt heaps about lighting, tech stuff in general, and how to work with other people. Overall, a great experience for me, and hopefully others, too.

Earlier this year, the NSW Chief Information Office ran a competition entitled Apps4NSW. The idea of the competition is to encourage people like you and me to create applications based around government data. The encouragement is in the form of generous cash prizes (ranging from $30 000 to $500). The data is in the form of XML, HTML, CSV, and a myriad of other formats. This data is now being catalogued on the data.nsw.gov.au website.

I entered in the Ideas (Student) category, not with any expectation to hear from them again. Of course, my expectations were inaccurate, and I ended up coming second place in that category, and winning $1500 for my school!

As a part of being a winner, I was invited to attend a fancy evening at the NSW Parliament House, last Wednesday. The evening consisted of talking to others in the government, as well as industry partners for the event.

It was interesting to talk to some others involved with the competition, and various other government projects, and to get their opinion on things.

Although the evening seemed a tad too political, it was enjoyable, and interesting to see the other entries. Many of these were transport orientated (including mine), which is not surprising considering that the RTA data is already readily available on the internet (although only as HTML, not in XML).

Now, the thing to watch for is if any of these projects will be taken on board by the government, and developed further. They claim a $50 000 pool is available for development, so I hope something good comes out of it.

Now, here’s a video of the competition which was played on the night. I’m not in this one, but there should be another coming out at a later date which will include a clip from me.

And they also have a Flickr photo gallery of the evening. Here’s a picture of me!

Over the past few months, my live has become increasingly busy. Not only have I started the preliminary HSC which means an increased work-load from school, but I have also been blessed with getting more paid work. Further to this, I still have the day-to-day responsibilities associated with being the Technical Manager at 2CCR, amongst other things.

All of this work has found me increasingly tired with things. It’s not that I am not enjoying the work I am doing, but the combination and amount of it is just tiresome.

To combat this tiredness of day-to-day work, I have committed some of my time to work on what I have dubbed “Free Will” projects. This concept encompasses work I choose to do, and I have control of the overall direction of project.

This isn’t a new concept. It is a concept which I borrowed from Google, who allow employees to devote 20% of their time to do whatever they choose, in what is dubbed “Innovation Time Off”. It dosen’t have to be productive, but ironically, some of the best products offered by Google have been developed in this 20% time. Gmail, Google News, and AdSense were developed in this time.

I personally haven’t chosen to devote a fixed period of time to myself for my “Free Will Projects”. Also, the end result of this time dosen’t have to be saleable or submittable for marking. In fact, the end result isn’t as important. No, it is the journey taken and the things learned which is important.

While musing over this concept during the past week, I realised that the majority of my skills related to technology were developed while working on small projects for myself.

For example, I learnt the fundamentals of PHP & MySQL while working on a project several years ago called Playground Hunt. The original concept of Playground Hunt was to develop a wiki of all the nation’s playgrounds. I developed the code all by myself (with the help of online tutorials), launched it to the web, and then shut it down six months later.

This as a business venture was a complete failure. I was thirteen at the time. Thankfully, I didn’t really loose anything (except for $20 on domain registration). In fact, I gained so much! Every project since then has used the skills I gained while developing that little website.

One of the key features of “Free Will Projects” is calling the shots yourself. There’s no point embarking on a project if someone else is making all of the decisions – this defeats the whole purpose! You might as well be spending this time doing something else.

Also, for these projects to be useful they must be somewhat enjoyable. If it’s just going to make you stressed and tired, well, that’s not worth it. Go and do something else. This isn’t to say it has to be enjoyable 100% of the time – it’s perfectly natural for certain aspects of your project to get frustrating.

Finally, the project dosen’t have to be yourself. It could be for a not-for-profit which you are involved with, it could help a friend, it could be open-sourced in the future, or it could even be sold. This dosen’t necessarily matter.

I’m undertaking a project at the moment which is for a certain Christian radio station, but I have overall control of, and is helping me learn certain things as I go. I’m not getting paid for it, the project is a bit different, making it fun, I’m calling the shots (under the general direction of management, of course) and I am also getting valuable experience as I go! It’s a win-win situation.

The key point of this concept is to learn and grow as a person, while participating in something a bit enjoyable.

I don’t typically post what I have coming up, but I feel that I really should start sharing that with you. At the very least, someone can hold be accountable if I don’t get through all the things I say I will do.

School Certificate

I’ll get rid of the boring one first. Since I am still in year 10 at school, I’ve got the school certificate coming up soon. These are a series of exams on the core subjects I have been taking at school over the last two years, including Maths, English, Science, History, and Geography. It’ll be held on the 9th and 10th of November. It’s kinds important, so I won’t be very active in other projects until these finish.

Radio Traffic Software in Access

Yes, I plan to write some software in Access! It’s something I haven’t done for ages (or ever?). Basically, I hope to make something which 2CCR can use instead of Excel. I haven’t really told anyone about it, and I don’t expect them to use it. I’m doing this for the fun of learning something new.

It’ll be real basic, basically allowing the addition of sponsorship messages, and manual scheduling of spots for each hour. It’ll also export a text file which can be imported into StationPlaylist Creator, as well as a printout of all of the spots so presenters can load them themselves.

Squid Proxy – Nicer looking error pages

At the moment, the Squid proxies I have setup display error messages wrapped in some HTML which used to replicate our station’s website. Of course, since I have changed the site so much since the proxy was setup, it’s kinda broken-looking. I want some standalone error pages (not linked to any website), which I can drop in any proxy I use and not have to worry about dependencies.

Fix the Headphone sockets in a studio

Studios experience wear and tear – this is a fact of life. One of the things I’ve been slack about recently has been replacing the headphone sockets in our main studio. I’ve got the bits ready, and the new amp has even been installed! I just need now to install the sockets on the table. This will require slightly larger holes in the desk than are already available, because naturally the new pots are larger than the old ones!

Install a new PABX

The board at 2CCR has approved the purchase of a new PABX. It’s a Talkswitch 488VS, with ten TS9133i handsets. In a desperate effort to save money, I’m doing all of the install myself. As it’s a software configurable system, it shouldn’t be too hard. Besides, I’ve already read quite a bit of the manual and it seems pretty reasonable.

You’ll certainly get a few blog posts out of this. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve!

Work Experience, V2.0

That’s right, I’m going back for more work experience!! After a chat with my school’s careens adviser and constantly being in contact with Stephen Wilkinson, I’m organising a week of tech-oriented work experience from November 16 to 21st. I love that place… I can identify with the mission and I absolutely want to be a part of it, in whatever way I can! I’m sure I’ll also be spending a bit of my December holidays at that place.

Back to the 80s

That’s right, our school’s musical is coming up soon. And it’s set in the eighties! Back to the 80s is apparently a “totally awesome musical”, and the first rehearsal I was a part of was yesterday (but the cast have been rehearsing endlessly since August). It’ll be staged in our brand new hall this November. I’m on the tech crew, so I’m in for a fun week of getting everything happening in this brand new hall.

Blog more…

Over the last few weeks my blogging level has decreased, due to school commitments, etc. However, there’s been heaps of ideas buzzing around in my head which I now need to get written down. Hopefully it’ll start coming out soon.

One of my long time pet peeves is those who don’t roll cables properly. Rolling your cables properly not only makes them look good and stops them tangling, but it also helps the cable last longer and avoids permanent internal twisting of the copper.

All serious techies (hopefully!) know the under-over technique for rolling cables. However, if you aren’t up to speed on this, YouTube has a great video to explain it:

Now that you’re aware of this, get to work practicing it! Try it on extension leads, mic cables, Cat6 patch leads, guitar leads, IEC power cables, or even the garden hose! (yes, whenever I roll the garden hose, I do use this technique – hey, it works!)

There’s no excuse for you to roll any leads improperly. Don’t let me catch you doing it wrong again.

It’s the motto of audio and lighting engineers around the world – “Gaff fixes everything”. You won’t (and shouldn’t) see a production which hasn’t been given the gaff treatment at some point. In some productions (my school productions come to mind!), rolls and rolls of the stuff will have been sacrificed to keep everything together.

For those who have not yet been enlightened to the invention of gaff, here’s a definition:

High-quality cloth-backed adhesive tape. Stronger, stickier, more reliable, and generally about 1000x more versatile than duct tape. Also as much as $25/roll. Fixes just about anything…

That’s right. It’s high quality, and way better than duct tape!

Duct tape is what you use if you want to stick down your cables for a little while, but never get the stuff back off the cables. Gaff is what you use if you want your cables secured, but then restored to their original state when you rip off the tape. Never use duct tape on cables!

Never confuse Gaff with Duct Tape while in my presence, or in the presence of another Gaff-lover. It is like giving yourself a death wish.

Gaff is expensive, but well worth the investment. If I were to make a list of things to never leave home without, gaff would be on the top of the list, right up there with a GPO tester, pocket knife, and side cutters. In fact, there have been times when all of these things have even found their way to school with me! It’s useful stuff – even in the most unlikely circumstances; hey, I’ve even fixed a ping pong table at school with some gaff.

Family, take note: if you are ever stuck as to what to give me for a birthday present, a good roll of Gaff will do. (Not the cheap stuff, a good quality roll)

How hard can it be to give something away for free? Very, very, very hard – or so it would seem.

Jamie from the 37signals team did a great thing on Monday, and posted a blog entry with some free icons you could download. The intentions were explained pretty clearly: “They’re free for you to use and (hopefully) improve upon.”

“Not so fast!! You can’t just give something away without a formal license and some strings attached.” That was the cry from the comments.

The response from JF on the 37signals team was this:

What a perfect example of people making something more complicated than it needs to be.

…

This doesn’t have to involve the legal system at all. That’s the problem. Why do we assume that if someone wants to give something away for free, lawyers have to be part of it?

Break the chain. Lawyers don’t have to be involved in everything. This blog post can serve as the “license” or “proof” of his intention. And if you just asked Jamie to explain further, I’m sure he would. We don’t need complicated licenses or third parties. Simple statements, obvious intention, that’s plenty.

Obviously, it’s really hard to give stuff away for free. Jeff Atwood discovered this quite some time ago, and posted about it on Coding Horror.

Experienced developers won’t touch unlicensed code because they have no legal right to use it. That’s ironic, considering the whole reason I posted the code in the first place was so other developers could benefit from that code. I could have easily avoided this unfortunate situation if I had done the right thing and included a software license with my code.

[From: Pick a License, Any License, Jeff Atwood, April 3 2007]

He then provides a rather humorous comparison chart between the various licenses and even shows that the GLP is not the right license for capitalists.

Are we too caught up in the legal implications of using other people’s stuff without a proper license, even if they clearly state we can use it for free? It would seem so.

For now, it seems the simplest solution is to slap a Creative Commons Zero on stuff we want to release freely. It’s public domain, in an apparently acceptably formal and legalese manner.

The title is self explanatory, I’m sure. You need people who can write well. I don’t care who you are or what you do, your existence relies on people who can write well.

Websites need people who can write well. Businesses need people who can write well. Radio stations need people who can write well. Without good written communication, you will loose customers (call them listeners, customers, whatever). Without customers, you can’t do anything.

It’s refreshing to see that FBi Radio are advertising for “Content Makers”. As always, the FBi website makes the job seem so cool and funky:

Have you ever used the internets? Do you have a computer, or know someone who does? Have you heard about Facebook.. or the new social networking phenomenon.. twitter?

If you answered YES to any of the above… then listen up!

FBI’s expanding our content team and we’re looking for writers, reviewers, bloggers, video makers, photographers & audio producers to create online & on-air content

This is great. FBi has a great brand, much of which is created through the writing style of their website and other written content. It’s kinda ironic that the phrase ” FBI’s expanding our content team” isn’t exactly grammatically correct, but that’s beside the point.

The written word is not confined to the internet or marketing material. It can come out through our airwaves – all those sponsorships, community service announcements and promos stated as written words too! You don’t want your communications to sound clunky – that’s why you need someone good to do it.

I’m sure most stations don’t have people who deal specifically with the written word. However, we all need people who fulfill this need. Let the Station Manager or Secretary get back to doing their work and stop making them do all the writing. Find someone new to do it.

I had to call Exetel today about some 3G internet. I looked up the contact details on their website, and called their sales number.

What struck me as interesting was the feature on their website: call waiting times.

You can see me on that list as number three in the Sales queue. Every time I refreshed that page, I could see the updated status of the queue.

And eventually to number one on the list:

I have never seen this done before. Talk about open and transparent! I love it! Now I want every call centre to publish this data.

However, it can be improved. I want to see it display some more useful information, such as how long I can expect to wait if I called now – that would be cool.

Thanks Exetel for this great feature on your site. It has brightened up my day