Category: Tech

Burn it Like Beckett

Recently I had routine annual oil burner servicing*, and now a problem from last year has returned, likewise when the burner is needed only for the hot water maker. The Beckett 7505 burner controller is shutting down the system and the reset button flashes. The button can be pressed only so many times to fire it up before there’s a hard lock-out. So far I have pressed it twice.

The first step in last year’s troubleshooting was to replace the 7505, despite a diagnostic reporting the original unit was fine. The problem returned only minutes after the technician had left. Later, a complete disassembly of the burner by a different technician revealed a worn-out part. It was replaced, and the burner has been trouble-free for well over a year.

Maintenance is supposed to prevent problems, not cause them. I almost didn’t schedule routine servicing this year, out of concern the very situation that I am in would occur, but it’s included in the service contract.

Being Labor Day weekend, I have a service call scheduled for Tuesday morning. This time, if the diagnostic doesn’t report an internal controller failure, and the technician wants to replace it anyway, I’ll suggest that he keep looking for the underlying cause of the problem.

* Many New England homes rely on #2 home heating oil, which is mostly kerosene, rather than natural gas. The price tracks diesel fairly closely, and the last oil delivery I had cost $6/gallon. Six dollars per gallon, for a bio-fuel mix that has a tendency to clog the fuel nozzle in a burner. Which could be the underlying cause of my present problem. Will I be paying less than $6/gal. this coming heating season?

https://apnews.com/article/heating-oil-diesel-inventories-low-in-northeast-192f998c29bcb05fd0fcd4f680f1faf6

Siriusly Broken

Streaming of live SiriusXM stations is having serious problems. The Android app works for a while, but every so often it has gone silent. [Update: It seems stable now.] A Web browser plays only archived shows, and the Roku app completely locks up making the attempt before crashing. I was fine with the PC app being a no-op, but obviously they are having much more Sirius difficulties going on at XM. The satellite radio signal is unaffected.

After all this time, so many years into the digital revolution, it’s still all so fragile. One tiny change anywhere in the process — intentional or not, malicious or not — can bring it all crashing down. At least the satellites are still up there.

Update: The problem appears to be limited, at least for me, to Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel. I didn’t see how a single streaming source could break the application, but it was the last thing to check, and that was it. I have the phone number for “advanced support” at SiriusXM. Assuming it will be closed on Labor Day, I’ll call on Tuesday.

Update: No need for me to call. When you need action, make a DJ request!

Chris Carter’s British Invasion
We know about the complaints about the stream that some of you are having. We can’t really do anything about it at the moment, because it’s the weekend (moreover, a long holiday weekend).
But believe us… it WILL be addressed on Tuesday.
Thanks for listening, as always.

Bits of Film to Bits of Data

Part 4 of Light & Magic gets into ILM of the 80’s when, by that time, they were turning the crank on analog/optical special effects. There was some burnout within the ranks, along with a feeling that they’d reached the limit of what could be done with cameras and physical objects.

The EditDroid, that I discussed here previously, is credited as the start of the push by George Lucas into digital technology. After that, Photoshop and Pixar were created. (Yes, Photoshop had a Lucas connection.) That’s a DEC VAX 11/780 minicomputer shown at the start of the video.

Stapp’s Straps

Jack Kirby was born on this day in 1917. The late-50’s comic strip Sky Masters of the Space Force was superbly illustrated by Jack, with perfectly complementary inking by Wally Wood. Note: Kirby/Wood refers to writer Dave Wood, not the unrelated Wally.

The last panel in that strip reminds me of the famous rocket sled tests performed by Dr. John Stapp.

John Stapp (1910-1999)

Stapp’s groundbreaking Air Force work, testing the limits of human endurance under extreme conditions, was nothing like the ghoulishly criminal experiments conducted by the Nazis. Stapp was entirely practical in considering the effects of supersonic flight on pilots, and his data was invaluable when the manned space program began. The 3-point lap belt for cars came from Stapp’s research. The PBS series American Experience profiled Stapp in its “Space Men” documentary.

Spaaaaaaaaaaaace Forrrrrrrrrrce!
Art by Jack Kirby and Wally Wood
Color Guide, watercolor on photostat of original art

Siriusly, XM?

I hadn’t used the SiriusXM PC application for a while, because it doesn’t support Chromecast. Launching it today, there was only a blank white window.

  1. Uninstall SiriusXM
  2. Go to the Microsoft Store
  3. Install SiriusXM
  4. Launch the app

Okay, so the application is old, with the very surprising implication that it was created using a utility called Nativefier. And I’m supposed to re-create it myself with an updated version of Nativefier? Seriously?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/nativefier-project.mirror/

Returning to the Microsoft Store and checking the reviews, I see that others are complaining about the blank window.

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/siriusxm/

Giving Nativefier a try sounds like fun, especially if Chromecast comes along for the ride. For now I’ll just run the SiriusXM player in Chrome.

On another techy note, I was notified the next WordPress update, to 6.1, will switch from JPG to Google’s new WebP image format. I’ve been experimenting with WebP, and the screenshot above is an example. With adjustment, a significant reduction in file size is possible compared to JPG, with comparable quality.

Everything with my WordPress installation on Bluehost is… uh… it’s working perfectly. There are some minor residual issues on older posts, resulting from the fixes implemented last December, but nothing since then. If ignorance is bliss, and there’s a problem ready to appear that I haven’t seen yet, considering the technology troubles I waded through getting to this point, I’ll enjoy my ignorance.

Lights! Camera! Magic!

Having watched part 2 of Light & Magic on Disney+…

… I could be completely happy seeing only the first two installments…

… because as familiar as I was with the story behind the making of Star Wars…

… this documentary really brings back the delighted amazement I felt…

… of seeing it in a movie theater in 1977.

Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings were, for George Lucas, what the Decca audition tape was for the Beatles — the thing that sold the Big Thing. Speaking of the Beatles, Light & Magic makes for quite a contrast with the other big multi-part documentary that’s on Disney+, Get Back. One shows the struggles at the beginning…

… and the other shows the struggles at the end.