Topics:

Archos PMP | Full Moon | Eton E1 Arrived! | Eton E1 | PDS2PDS V4.0 | IBM 370 | Casio Atomic Watch | Ford Turbo Diesel | HF Mobile

IBM Mainframe Stuff - March 27, 2009

I've changed some of the links on the left side of the page and added some new ones. I divided the employer links into three sections: Employer, current work assignment, and previous work assignment. Iv'e added a link to the SAS company history web page. I've been fortunate enough to work for SAS since 1996. This year will be my thirteenth year with the company. Strangely enough, I'm not really a SAS language programmer although I know enough about it to dabble a little bit. I have SAS installed on my PC and I've used it with the MySQL database to do some simple things.

I also added a new section of IBM mainframe links. Here's the hilights:

• z390 Assembler Project - You can write z/OS assembler code and compile it for use on the PC or the mainframe...or at least that's the way I understand it. I haven't played with it yet.

• zCOBOL Project - This is an offshoot of the z390 Assembler Project. You can write COBOL code and compile it for use on the PC or mainframe. I attended a zCOBOL presentation at SHARE here in Austin last month and I've downloaded and installed it but haven't played with it yet, either.

• Partitioned Dataset Matching Utility Version 4.0 - This is my own project which is an update to the REXX-based PDS2PDS utility I wrote back around 1999. I started Version 4 around September or October 2007 and worked on it for several months. Then my day job got in the way and I haven't touched it in over a year. I'm hoping to get back to it sometime this year. It offers many improvements and enhancements over Version 3. Click the link to read all about it.

• Howard Fosdisk's REXX Information site - This is the best all-purpose REXX site I've seen. Mr. Fosdick wrote an excellent book on REXX two or three years ago that any serious REXX programmer should have.

• The REXX Language Associaton - An organization dedicated to the REXX language. They held their annual symposium here in Austin a couple of years ago which I was able to attend.

• The CBT Tape web site - The CBT tape is chock-full of almost every kind of software you can imagine for the IBM mainframe. You can order an actual tape cartridge or you can download stuff from the web site.

• The PDS Utility - This utility lets you do almost anything imaginable with a partitioned dataset.

• The REVIEW File Browsing Utility - If you don't have a proper VSAM file editing tool, you can use the REVIEW utility to at least browse VSAM files. It also browses partitioned datasets and sequential files. I think the later versions have an editor built into them but I haven't used it.

• Franke Clarke's REXX Tools - A collection of REXX tools and utilities.

• Lionel Dyck's Mainframe Software - Another collection of stuff available for the asking.

Archos 605 PMP - July 3, 2008

So I got my economic stimulus check from the IRS, and since the money was burning a hole in my pocket I decided to spend it. I have a fourth generation iPod, but I really don't listen to audio files that much, so I decided to take a look at video players.

Of course the big name in that market is the Apple iPod Touch. One of my co-workers just acquired one, and it's pretty neat. The user interface is slick, and it's small and lightweight. But I decided to go another way.

Until now I didn't realize the market for these things was so huge. There are a lot of different brands of these devices, and after looking around I came across a French company called Archos. They have been making audio and video players for a long time. They're up to the fifth generation of these things, and the one I got is the Archos 605 WIFI.

I bought the 4gb solid-state version that has the Secure Digital card slot. They also make hard drive models with capacities of 30gb, 80gb, and 160gb.

Here is a partial list of features:

• Video: Plays MPEG-4 AVI files and WMV files
• Audio: Plays MPE, WMA, and WAV files
• Photo: Displays JPEG, BMP, and PNG files (no RAW or TIFF)
• Recording: With the optional DVR station, will record NTSC, PAL, or SECAM video in MPEG-4 AVI format with stereo sound, at 640 x 480 resolution, 30 fps.
• built-in speaker

Archos makes an accessory called the DVR Station, which really deserves its own page. But briefly, with this box and the appropriate software loaded into the 605, you can record directly from the television, cable box, or satellite TV box. When you download the Electronic Program Guide from Archos into the player, you can use the guide to schedule recordings.

Using the built-in infrared port the DVR station will turn your video box on or off, set it to the correct channel at the correct time, and the player will record the program.

The DVR station (along with the proper software loaded into the 605) also has the ability to send video to you wherever you are, Slingbox-like.

Back to the Archos 605. I put an 8gb SD card in mine, but I'll probably get a 16gb card for it. The specs state that it will take up to a 16gb card, but don't say why 16gb is the maximum.

I've only had mine for a few days. I ordered it with the DVR station, the battery dock, travel adapter, and the mini-dock. Each of these accessories adds a useful function to the 605. For instance, the battery dock contains a battery, dc input connector for a wall charger, an AV out connector for displaying the screen on the televison, a normal USB port, and a mini-usb port.

With the normal USB port you can plug in flash drives. So if you have files on a flash drive, just plug it into the battery dock and the 605 will recognize it and let you play any files that are on it.

So far it has met my expectations, though not without a few quirks. The first SD card I bought was a 4gb Sandisk Ultra II, and the 605 didn't recognize it. I swapped that one for a Lexar 8gb card, and it works fine. There are apparently some compatibility issues with some SD cards.

The user interface isn't nearly as slick as the iPod Touch. There are some selections that are three or four menu levels deep that I would like to bring up to the main screen so I could select them directly, but I don't think that's possible.

Archos also charges extra for some software that arguably should be included. Since it is a wifi device, it can do web surfing, but only if you pay $30 for the Opera Web browser. You can also purchase plug-ins that allow you to play more video and audio formats, but that's $20. There's also a $20 plug-in for watching internet televison and listening to internet radio. Now I only paid $188 for my player, so I didn't mind paying extra for the software. But others disagree.

Bottom Line: So far I'm very happy with my 605 WIFI. While the user interface is not as slick as the iPod Touch, the Archos 605 simply has functionality that the Touch does not have. The 605 is larger than the Touch, but this gives you a larger screen than the Touch. To summarize:

• The 4.3" diagonal screen has a 640 x 480-pixel resoultion, and the quality is very good.
• I like the fact that I'm not tied to the manufacturers software distrbution methods (iTunes) and that I can just drag and drop any one of several file types into the thing without having to first convert them to something the device can understand.
• Recording directly from the television is neat. Just set it up, go to bed, and the next morning your shows are already on the device, without first having to be converted or copied from your computer.
• Using wi-fi and UPnP, the Archos can see shared directories on your computer. If there are audio or video files in these shared directories the Archos can play them.
• Lots of accessories. I've already mentioned the battery dock, but there are other attachments that will let you feed video into the 605 for recording and that will let you output the device to a television.
• If you want to buy television shows and programs, the Archos Content Portal will let you do that. Sort of like iTV and iMovie, I guess. But you can also just play a DVD on your DVD player and record it directly onto the 605 (for backup purposes only, of course).
• It's nice to have the built-in speaker. It's small, and sort of tinny sounding, but it works, and you don't have to wear earphones.

Rocky the Cat, 1989 - 2008

Full Moon - December 25, 2007

Last night, Christmas Eve, we had a clear sky and full moon. So I set up the tripod and Maxxum 7D and took some photographs with the 18-200mm Tamron zoom lens. I'm hardly an expert nighttime photographer, but below is a 100% crop of one of the photos, taken at the 200mm focal length.

Settings were ISO 100, 1/125 exposure, f 6.7, spot metering.



Eton E1 Arrived - December 22, 2007

The Eton E1 arrived around 1530 this afternoon. I spent about an hour and a half listening to it, and I like it I only used the built-in telescoping antenna but I did hear stations on every shortwave band from about 6 mhz up to around 17.5 mhz. I also heard stations on the 80, 40, 20, and 17 meter ham bands.

I don't have an XM Satellite subscription so I can't check that part of the radio, but I did listen to the FM and AM broadcast bands, hearing plenty of stations on both.

The next test would be to string up some sort of wire as an external antenna and see how that works. I have to get an adapter or connector for the external antenna jack.

Eton E1 - December 20, 2007

My only portable shorwave receiver is a Radio Shack DX-375 that I bought several years ago, mostly because it was on sale for $39 when they were closing them out. It's small, has AM, FM, and shortwave broadcast bands up to 13 meters (21.850mhz). It doesn't cover any shortwave frequencies outside of the predefined broadcast bands, so no amateur or other non-broadcast shortwave coverage, no SSB or CW, no AM sync detection. I use it mostly at work for listening to FM radio.

Right now Circuit City has the Eton E1 XM portable receiver on sale for $225 so my wife ordered one for me for Christmas. They don't carry it in the store (at least not here in Austin, TX) so we ordered it on-line and got free shipping, although we had to pay sales tax.

Here's some links:

Universal Radio
Circuit City
Radio Intelligencer Review of the E1
North American Shorwave Association (NASWA) review of the E1
Yahoo Group for the E1


It's almost 70 degrees outside today and lots of sunshine. This has brought some insects out, and below is a photo of a butterfly I took just a few minutes ago. This is a 100% crop from a 6mp photo taken with my Minolta Maxxum 7D digital SLR and the Tamron 18-200mm zoom at 200mm. Not as sharp it would be if it were taken with my 90mm macro lens, but I wouldn't be able to get close enough with that lens.



PDS2PDS 4.0 - December 18, 2007

In the long, time-honored tradition of announcing new software before it's available, I've decided to put the word out about something I'm working on. A new improved version of the PDS2PDS ISPF utility is forthcoming. See the details here. But don't hold your breath, it's still under development. It'll be months before it's ready for release. I think it will be worth the wait.

IBM 370 Model 138 - October 06, 2007

The web pages have been rearranged a little bit. Check the links on the left side of the page under 'My Web Pages' to see my other web pages.

When I first started out in the computer software business I was a computer operator on IBM mainframe computers. The first computer I worked with was an IBM 360 Model 50. Unfortunatly I don't have any photographs of that one, but I do have a photograph of the next computer I worked with, an IBM 370 Model 138. This photo was taken around 1979 or 1980.



Casio Atomic Watch
Last week J.C. Penny was running a sale. They had the Casio PAW1200 watch priced at $300, which was waaaay too much, but the lady said the actual price was $260, which was still too much. But they had some sort of sale going on which brought the price down to $165, so I bought one.

Here are the watch features:

• Solar-powered with a rechargeable battery
• The display shuts off in low or dim light to conserve the battery
• Receives the WWV (and other) time signals for setting the correct time
• Automatically synchronizes with WWV every 24 hours
• Displays two time zones simultaneously
• five alarms
• stopwatch
• countdown timer
• thermometer
• barometer
• altimeter
• magnetic compass

Photo 1 below shows the normal watch display:



Photo 2 below shows two time zones, Hong Kong and Central Daylight Savings time. The large numbers are Hong Kong time:



Photo 3 below shows the compass display. The watch is facing north northwest. The wide blue bars at the 30 degree mark indicate magnetic north:



Ford Powerstroke Turbo Diesel
My Ford F250 has the 6.0 litre Turbo Diesel motor, and I found a really good web site dedicated to this motor: Dieselman's Page

HF and VHF Mobile Installation Pages combined
I've combined the TM-D700A and IC-7000 Installation pages into one page here


About Me
Born in Russellville, AL

Attended school in Russellville, Huntsville, AL, New Hope, AL, then Huntsville again, graduating from S.R. Butler High School in Huntsville

Have worked in the computer software industry since 1975, almost exclusively in IBM mainframes. Detoured into the HP-3000 minicomputer and the HP-9845 desktop microcomputer in the 1980's

Have written or maintained software in these languages: SAS, COBOL, RPG, Basic, REXX, and some IBM Assembler

My favorite kind of programming is writing REXX utilities for the IBM mainframe ISPF environment

Worked as a computer operator in the 1970's on the IBM 360 and 370 mainframes

Currently work for SAS on a COBOL/CICS/DB2 project

Got my first ham license in 1971 - call sign WN4UPI - WB4HUC since 1974

Other than Huntsville, AL, I have lived and worked in the following cities:

Cleveland, OH - 1976 - 1977
Nashville, TN - 1980 - 1983
Austin, TX - 1992 - Present time

Started in 35mm photography in 1977 with a Minolta SRT-102 - Now using Minolta Maxxum 7D digital SLR