Monday, February 10, 2014

The LIRR and Penn Station

More information that you know what to do with about the Long Island Railroad and it's terminal at Penn Station: Long Island Rail Road Today has it all.

For example, why do certain trains show up on certain tracks at Penn Station, this article and the below diagram explain and show the Venn Diagram of tracks, tunnels, and power systems.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

On the frontiers of biology: plant communications

It's often assumed that plants boring, sedentary, and solitary organisms, but new research (or old research reexamined) changes that.  Plants communicate, the mount defenses against predators;  they seemingly act in concert with one another, though other hypotheses call into question the intentionality of such communication.

Quanta magazine has a recent article titled "The Secret Language of Plants" detailing some new research.

PBS's Nature has a full episode online- What Plants Talk About.

Both provide a fascinating look into a normally overlooked part of our world.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Make a calendar entry for 21 AUG 2017

A total solar eclipse will cover much of North America as shown on this map.  Hopefully the weather will be clear where I am.  Just have to figure out what kind of photo equipment I'll need.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Cheap stratum 1 NTP server

A cool project for an IT person or someone with a Raspberry Pi: build a small stratum one NTP server.

Enterprise NTP servers with GPS modules can cost thousands.  A Raspberry Pi based NTP server is a small form factor inexpensive way to get GPS based NTP time.  Other good uses, especially at small sites, remote offices, or co-location facilities:

  • DHCP
  • Out-of-band/management network
  • Performance monitoring, troubleshooting, packet capture