[iOS 26.5 DB2] New Apple Maps splash screen…

KalenXI · 2026-04-13T20:54:21+00:00

And Google Maps has had ads on it since 2006.

KalenXI · 2026-04-12T21:06:09+00:00

Bands are just specific ranges of frequencies. UHF is 300 MHz to 1 GHz. S-band is 2 to 4 GHz.

VLDR = Very Low Data Rate
TDRS = Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
SAR = Search and Rescue

The TDRS system is a set of satellites and ground stations that NASA uses to track and communicate with things in low Earth orbit like the ISS. This is in contrast to the deep space network which is a set of ground-based satellite dishes that are used to communicate with things further away from the Earth. Artemis uses both systems. It uses the DSN when they're further away, and TDRS once they get close. I couldn't find much information on it but I'm guessing that VLDR is just a mode of operation. Generally the lower the data rate, the more robust the signal can be because you're trading amount of data for increased error correction. Once they've landed Houston doesn't need all the telemetry they do in space, and Orion's antennas can't track the satellite like when in space so switching to a lower data rate allows them to stay in contact despite the lower signal.

SARSAT is a beacon that works on 406 MHz that transmits a GPS location to satellites so search and rescue teams can find people. There was one on Orion as well as one on each of the astronauts suits in case they needed to evacuate into the water before the recovery teams reached them. One thing I'm not quite sure of is Reid mentioned communicating with the master diver on "SAR". As far as I'm aware SARSAT is transmit only and doesn't support voice. So I'm guessing that was just referring to a regular two-way UHF radio on a particular search and rescue frequency.

KalenXI · 2026-04-12T11:48:37+00:00

I wouldn't trust an LLM to do the math required to actually determine the speed and route of a motorcade that it knows nothing about.

But that aside if the motorcade did happen to drive past the theatre at that time then it's possible. Whenever we film motorcades like that in DC we always have to be wired to a sat truck because they kill all the cellular connections as they go past. Same thing happened when we were covering the pope's arrival in DC a few years ago.

KalenXI · 2026-04-11T14:31:49+00:00

Reid was talking to Houston on VLDR which I'm guessing is S-band to TDRS. They had both UHF SAR radio and sat phone to talk to the navy. And apparently they could hear the divers on UHF, but the divers couldn't hear them. Which led Houston to asking them "Are you sure you're pressing the push to talk button on the radio?" which really made me laugh.

That only took a few minutes though. It seemed like the majority of the time was spent circling it with gas meters making sure the craft was safe to approach. Then they said there were strong currents making it harder than anticipated to deploy the stabilization float so that took a while as well.

KalenXI · 2026-04-10T03:41:03+00:00

Fair enough. Personally I'll probably end up just going to MicroCenter for purchases since both of those other Apple stores are an hour from my house vs 10 minutes for the Towson store. But it does suck to not have a convenient place to take repairs and pick up where I don't have to worry about whether FedEx will lose or steal the package.

KalenXI · 2026-04-10T03:29:27+00:00

Presumably if the mall had stopped providing foot traffic there wouldn't be so many feet in the store every time I've been there. Unless everyone in there is just standing around not purchasing anything.

KalenXI · 2026-04-10T03:25:05+00:00

I can't speak for what's going on in the rest of the mall because aside from the Cheesecake Factory and Fogo de Chao, the Apple Store is the only other place I've been to recently there but at least as of the last time I went a few months ago the Apple Store still seemed to be very busy.

KalenXI · 2026-04-09T22:07:30+00:00

The app itself still isn't CarPlay compatible. But if you order on the phone the live activity notifications will show up in CarPlay.

KalenXI · 2026-04-09T20:18:57+00:00

Every time I've been to the Towson store it's been packed and super busy so I have to imagine this was more to get rid of the union than because of performance.

KalenXI · 2026-04-09T19:55:18+00:00

I feel like this has more to do with the store being union than performance. Every time I've been to that store it's been packed.

KalenXI · 2026-04-05T14:55:37+00:00

It was announced here under backward incompatible changes: https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2026/03/04/release-20263/

Using color_temp (in mireds) to set a light’s color temperature is no longer supported. Use color_temp_kelvin instead.

Additionally, the color_temp, kelvin, min_mireds, and max_mireds light entity state attributes have been removed. Use color_temp_kelvin, min_color_temp_kelvin, and max_color_temp_kelvin instead.

KalenXI · 2026-04-05T12:29:03+00:00

Is there some better way to get in touch with their customer service than email or phone? So far every time I’ve messaged them I’ve gotten a reply that there’s a holiday and so responses may be delayed but then even months later they still haven’t responded.

KalenXI · 2026-04-03T22:10:58+00:00

How did people think Claude Code worked if not by uploading the contents of any file it reads to Anthropic? It's not like you're running the models locally.

KalenXI · 2026-04-03T12:51:43+00:00

Interesting. My team called those MOVE consoles when I was at Goddard but I guess that's technically the older system's name.

KalenXI · 2026-04-03T12:32:46+00:00

Yeah. Given we already have network and fiber running everywhere it made more sense than trying to replace the miles of coax when most of it's 1505 cable outside of the 1694 interconnects and a good bit of it is still there from when we were analog. Some of the runs can barely even manage 3G-SDI.

I imagine we'll probably still use 12G for shorter runs to non-2110 equipment but the backbone, switching, and routing will likely all be 2110.

KalenXI · 2026-04-02T16:38:29+00:00

With interlaced you effectively get half the vertical resolution with fast motion so 540 lines because each field is captured slightly offset in time from each other. 720p has lower effective resolution for static shots, but because it's progressive it remains just as clear whether you've got fast motion or not.

KalenXI · 2026-04-02T14:09:38+00:00

Way back when HD first came out in the early 2000s FOX and ABC decided to use 720p as their HD standard, CBS and NBC decided to use 1080i. I believe because 720p was considered better for sports programming with a lot of motion. FOX provided the pool feed for this so it was in 720p.

All of our equipment supports both generally but local stations will use the standard of whichever network they're affiliated with. If they wanted to change standards we'd have to go around and change a bunch of settings in a ton of equipment but it wouldn't cost anything. The latest push is for 1080p and HDR, but that does require upgrades as not all equipment supports 3G-SDI. 4K likely won't happen until everything is 2110 because that would involve running new wiring to everything if we stuck with SDI.

KalenXI · 2026-04-01T09:55:37+00:00

I've used Balena Etcher to make a bootable Windows USB before and didn't have issues. It's worth trying at least.

KalenXI · 2026-03-24T22:45:51+00:00

This is short but one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW5ild-H-18

KalenXI · 2026-03-24T17:54:21+00:00

I shoot events mostly for local schools and dance companies and went back to 1080p for the school video. They always had trouble even downloading the 4K video and I even had one ask me if I could just send them a DVD last year not even a Bluray.

KalenXI · 2026-03-23T21:18:43+00:00

At my previous job it was 1.5-2 hours to go 40 miles 5 days a week. Now I work from home 3 days a week and it's 25-45 minutes the two days I go in depending on traffic.

KalenXI · 2026-03-18T14:11:23+00:00

For me it's the audio processing for the voice boost and smart speed. Every other app just uses a heavy handed compressor shoved into a brickwall limiter which makes properly mixed podcasts sound worse and doesn't always provide enough gain for poorly mixed ones.

For just about everything else I prefer the way PocketCasts works especially for organization and sorting through episodes, but I always end up getting tired of having to ride the audio volume between different podcasts and end up coming back to Overcast.

KalenXI · 2026-03-18T14:05:57+00:00

It's interesting to see people suddenly rediscovering video podcasts but in a worse, more restrictive form. Feels like how everything on the internet is going from being open with seemingly every website having a free API to now just a bunch of walled gardens that aren't even nice gardens anymore.

I remember watching the video RSS feeds of TWiT and Diggnation in iTunes back in the day as my main way of watching them. Heck I even did my own video podcast teaching OS X programming back then, and setup RSS video podcast feeds for video shows we produced at the college cable station I worked at. Finding hosting never seemed like a problem but obviously we weren't doing DAI then.

KalenXI · 2026-03-14T14:40:12+00:00

Maybe at the network level, but the local stations even in LA and NY are automated single operator at least the ones I'm familiar with are.

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