[Lvas] Saturday Night's Broadcast

[Rob]

Folks,

I know some of you participated or tried to participate in my broadcast 
from Albuquerque last night.  Sorry, I had so much difficulty that it 
probably wasn't much of a show.  Thanks for giving it a try.

I learned several things last night:

    * Wireless (cellular) cards (at least not Cricket) don't have the
      throughput necessary to realistically support a live broadcast.  A
      lot of the hurry up and wait was caused by my laptop seeming to
      hang while it was sending out the video stream.  There would be
      times that my laptop wouldn't give me the cursor back for 30
      seconds or more.  Sometimes the delay would cause Sparkcast to
      think the connection was lost, even when I had four or five bars
      on signal strength.
    * Even when you're doing a broadcast, being out alone is not as much
      fun as being out with someone else.  Critter noises become more
      interesting and attention getting; especially when you can't see
      what's making the noise.  And I heard some strange ones.
    * No matter how much time you give yourself to prepare (setup)
      before a broadcast from the field, it ain't ever enough when
      Murphy raises his head.  Makes me want an observatory even more -
      but gotta move outta Vegas before I do that.
    * Your efficiency at the keyboard decreases geometrically, maybe
      even exponentially with every degree below freezing.  Even when
      warmly dressed, there are still some things that require ungloved
      hands.  Even a thinly gloved finger will hit all five of the
      buttons on the Mallincam.  I now have incentive for researching
      computer control of the Mallincam.  And forget touch typing on a
      laptop keyboard with any type of gloved hands.  Just so you know,
      I was dressed pretty well.  I had three layers on my legs, six
      layers on my upper body, and two layers on my head.
    * Once the last spectator leaves, the fun factor at 19 degrees
      quickly goes to zero.  By the time I was packed up at 3:30am, the
      fun factor had moved into negative numbers. 
    * Oh, I discovered some new uses for my truck. 
          o First, with three DC outlets, it quickly became a
            multi-cylinder generator when my main battery could no
            longer power the Speco and the Mallincam.  Speco got moved
            to an inverter running off my truck.
          o Second, at 19 degrees Farenheit, (-7 degree Celsius for our
            Canadian friends) it becomes a great warm room.  With the
            driver and rear passenger door open, I was warming up the NM
            countryside in the vicinity of my truck.
          o Side note:  A six cylinder 4.0L engine will burn just less
            than 6 gallons of fuel in 12 hours.  My truck idled from the
            time I started setting up at 3:30pm until I pulled away at
            3:30am.  I did periodically check the gauges to make sure
            nothing was overheating.  "What could overheat at 19
            degrees?" you might ask.
    * Probably, the most important thing I learned: Don't deviate from
      your rule about putting things away when you're not using them, no
      matter how cold it is.  I missed placed a $160 light pollution
      filter because I didn't immediately put it back in it's case. 
      Expensive lesson learned.

The next time I broadcast, it will be closer to a wireless router and at 
much warmer temperatures.  I really do like observing in warmer climes.  
My next broadcast may be impromptu.  It seems that when I announce that 
I'm going to broadcast, Murphy shows up.  When I don't announce, he 
doesn't come around and everything goes well.

Anyway, take care, and thanks again for hangin' out with me last night. 
Hope you got to see at least a few things.

Rob
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