Technical Difficulties

I popped onto the blog this evening on a whim and after I got over my shock at how long it had been since my last post I noticed that about 10 photos were missing from my last few Interactive Exhibit Design posts. At first I thought I was dealing with an issue Blogger was experiencing over the spring and into the summer but it turned out instead that I was suffering from the way I had initially uploaded the photos. I write most of my blogs in Pages or Word and then copy and paste them into the compose window. In the case of the two blogs that were missing photos I had imported the photos directly into my Pages document instead of into blogger and as a result those photos disappeared. I'm not exactly sure when it happened but it must have been relatively soon after I published the blog.

So all 13 of you must be desperately wondering why I disappeared along with my photos this past summer. Oh, who am I kidding, most of you know exactly what I was doing because you were too. As part of our MA Public History students at UWO have to complete a 12 week internship. From May 17th, until August 10th I was completing mine with The Promised Land Project at Huron University College. With my classmate Shelagh Staunton I planned and executed the oral history component of the project. I'm hoping to follow with a blog about that experience in the near future as well as a few more that I've had up my sleeve but just not had time to finalize and publish.

Adventures with the EM406a GPS

I was going through my files and realized I never posted this series of videos that I shot while working with the EM406a Paralax GPS.




















The two codes that I talk about throughout are here:

Paralax Code:

/*

 Example code for connecting a Parallax GPS module to the Arduino

 Igor Gonzlez Martn. 05-04-2007

 igor.gonzalez.martin@gmail.com

 English translation by djmatic 19-05-2007

 Listen for the $GPRMC string and extract the GPS location data from this.

 Display the result in the Arduino's serial monitor.

 */ 

 #include

 #include

 int ledPin = 13;                  // LED test pin

 int rxPin = 0;                    // RX PIN 

 int txPin = 1;                    // TX TX

 int byteGPS=-1;

 char linea[300] = "";

 char comandoGPR[7] = "$GPRMC";

 int cont=0;

 int bien=0;

 int conta=0;

 int indices[13];

 void setup() {

   pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);       // Initialize LED pin

   pinMode(rxPin, INPUT);

   pinMode(txPin, OUTPUT);

   Serial.begin(4800);

   for (int i=0;i<300;i++){       // Initialize a buffer for received data

     linea[i]=' ';

   }   

 }

 void loop() {

   digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

   byteGPS=Serial.read();         // Read a byte of the serial port

   if (byteGPS == -1) {           // See if the port is empty yet

     delay(100); 

   } else {

     linea[conta]=byteGPS;        // If there is serial port data, it is put in the buffer

     conta++;                      

     Serial.print(byteGPS, BYTE); 

     if (byteGPS==13){            // If the received byte is = to 13, end of transmission

       digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); 

       cont=0;

       bien=0;

       for (int i=1;i<7;i++){     // Verifies if the received command starts with $GPR

         if (linea[i]==comandoGPR[i-1]){

           bien++;

         }

       }

       if(bien==6){               // If yes, continue and process the data

         for (int i=0;i<300;i++){

           if (linea[i]==','){    // check for the position of the  "," separator

             indices[cont]=i;

             cont++;

           }

           if (linea[i]=='*'){    // ... and the "*"

             indices[12]=i;

             cont++;

           }

         }

         Serial.println("");      // ... and write to the serial port

         Serial.println("");

         Serial.println("---------------");

         for (int i=0;i<12;i++){

           switch(i){

             case 0 :Serial.print("Time in UTC (HhMmSs): ");break;

             case 1 :Serial.print("Status (A=OK,V=KO): ");break;

             case 2 :Serial.print("Latitude: ");break;

             case 3 :Serial.print("Direction (N/S): ");break;

             case 4 :Serial.print("Longitude: ");break;

             case 5 :Serial.print("Direction (E/W): ");break;

             case 6 :Serial.print("Velocity in knots: ");break;

             case 7 :Serial.print("Heading in degrees: ");break;

             case 8 :Serial.print("Date UTC (DdMmAa): ");break;

             case 9 :Serial.print("Magnetic degrees: ");break;

             case 10 :Serial.print("(E/W): ");break;

             case 11 :Serial.print("Mode: ");break;

             case 12 :Serial.print("Checksum: ");break;

           }

           for (int j=indices[i];j<(indices[i+1]-1);j++){

             Serial.print(linea[j+1]); 

           }

           Serial.println("");

         }

         Serial.println("---------------");

       }

       conta=0;                    // Reset the buffer

       for (int i=0;i<300;i++){    //  

         linea[i]=' ';             

       }                 

     }

   }

 }

Arduino Forums Code

//Created August 15 2006

//Heather Dewey-Hagborg

//http://www.arduino.cc

//reworked to GPS reader

//Dirk, december 2006

#include

#include

#define bit9600Delay 84

#define halfBit9600Delay 42

#define bit4800Delay 188

#define halfBit4800Delay 94

byte rx = 6;

byte tx = 7;

byte SWval;

char dataformat[7] = "$GPRMC";

char messageline[80] = "";

int i= 0;

void setup() {

  pinMode(rx,INPUT);

  pinMode(tx,OUTPUT);

  digitalWrite(tx,HIGH);

  digitalWrite(13,HIGH); //turn on debugging LED

  SWprint('h');  //debugging hello

  SWprint('i');

  SWprint(10); //carriage return

  Serial.begin(9600);

}

void SWprint(int data)

{

  byte mask;

  //startbit

  digitalWrite(tx,LOW);

  delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

  for (mask = 0x01; mask>0; mask <<= 1) {

    if (data & mask){ // choose bit

digitalWrite(tx,HIGH); // send 1

    }

    else{

digitalWrite(tx,LOW); // send 0

    }

    delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

  }

  //stop bit

  digitalWrite(tx, HIGH);

  delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

}

char SWread()

{

  byte val = 0;

  while (digitalRead(rx));

  //wait for start bit

  if (digitalRead(rx) == LOW) {

    delayMicroseconds(halfBit4800Delay);

    for (int offset = 0; offset < 8; offset++) {

delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

val |= digitalRead(rx) << offset;

    }

    //wait for stop bit + extra

    delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

    delayMicroseconds(bit4800Delay);

    return val;

  }

}

void char2string()

{

  i = 0;

  messageline[0] = SWread();

  if (messageline[0] == 36) //string starts with $

  {

    i++;

    messageline[i] = SWread();

    while(messageline[i] != 13 & i<80) //carriage return or max size

    {

i++;

messageline[i] = SWread();

    }

    messageline[i+1] = 0; //make end to string

  }

}

void loop()

{

  digitalWrite(13,HIGH);

 //only print string with the right dataformat

  char2string();

  if (strncmp(messageline, dataformat, 6) == 0 & i>4)

  {

    for (int i=0;i

    {

Serial.print(messageline[i], BYTE);

    }

  }

  //Serial.print(SWread(),BYTE); //use this to get all GPS output, comment out from char2string till here

}

This Blog was also invaluable! Many Thanks!

http://upuptothesky.blogspot.com/2009/04/gps-module-up-and-running.html

Podcasting Revisited!

Podcasting Revisited

A few days ago I finally posted my blog about getting ready to podcast and I thought I’d revisit it now that I’ve proceeded into the editing and posting portion of the activity. This is the stuff that happens before a podcast can be posted to a website or submitted to iTunes and its what most casual podcast listeners know the least about. Until very recently I was just like all those casual listeners. My background is oral history, I knew plenty about recording, transcribing, and storing interviews but absolutely nothing about putting them on the web. 

So, I started where most people have started since early on in the decade. I opened up my Safari browser and typed “submitting podcasts to itunes” into the google search box.  I got 1,790,000 results in 0.24 seconds. Conveniently the first one was Apple - iTunes - Podcasts - Making a Podcast. Unfortunately, as I scrolled down the page and started reading it got scary.

I started panicking at number 3. I knew what xml was (sort of) and I knew what an RSS was but I had no idea what they were talking about. Thankfully, most people don’t and so blogger and google have apparently made it easy. I have yet to actually use their tools, so I’ll get back to that in a little later.

The first thing, however, that any new podcaster should know is you are responsible for hosting your podcast. Thankfully, there are a few free options out there, but its important to recognize that they can be severely limited. For example, PodOmatic has a free service but it is limited to 500mb of storage and 15g of bandwidth per month. Keep in mind that 500mb is not that much data- roughly half a gig. In a world where we are rapidly filling the 160g + hard drives that come standard on our computers it just isn’t much. To better illustrate I clicked on a random mp3 in my iTunes library. A 4 minute and 17 second song with a bit rate of 192kbs and a sample rate of 44.100GHz is 5.9mb. Assuming my podcast is of a similar quality the longest episode is currently around 17minutes if I bring out my cross multiplication skills we get: 11.52mb. I know it doesn’t look like much but thats 2.3 percent of my total storage meaning I can only have approximately 43 podcasts of a similar size. Now lets consider bandwidth. If you only have one 11.52mb file on your 15g bandwidth account and 50 people download it thats 576mb of data, approximately 3.3% of your monthly allotment. Lets say however that you are an overnight star and suddenly you have thousands of downloads much as podcasts like Diggnation and Tekzilla do. I couldn’t find exact figures but lets say that 5000 people download it you’ve suddenly used 56.25 gb. Now lets say you have hosted your full 500mb - you’ll run out of bandwidth in almost no time at all. Obviously this is not a good solution if you plan on a) being extremely prolific, or b) extremely popular. 

Thankfully, for those of us with no idea how popular or unpopular our podcasts will be and a vested interest in keeping what little money we have there is at least one free option with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth. That is: archive.org. You can access this option either directly through archive.org or through ourmedia.org. Both options allow you to determine what copyright you’d like to have on your podcast when you upload. I honestly have yet to figure out what exactly the downside is to hosting with archive.org. There must be one or far fewer people would go with paid services like godaddy.com, hipcast, or PodOmatic Pro. For my purposes however, and despite the disturbing lack of a downside, using archive.org and creative commons licensing makes far more sense. In fact I recently discovered that one of my favourite podcasts Ladies of Leet is hosted on archive.org!

At this point, for my purposes I could be done. I could write blog posts, post the link to the served file and call it a day, but I got it into my head that I’d like to try submitting it to iTunes. This brings us back to my panic at the beginning of this blog in order to submit to iTunes your blog needs to be saved in RSS 2.0, a form of xml, and must contain some very specific iTunes tags. The issue: I wouldn’t know how to access the xml if my life depended on it and the best I could do if I managed is copying and pasting the tags conveniently provided to me by my copy of podcasting for dummies and hoping I’d placed them correctly. Sadly, the reality is I could probably figure it out but even after two semesters of just trying things my initial reaction is still to assume I can;t  do it. Conveniently though, you can use FeedBurner and SmartCast to create iTunes ready podcasts. 

In order to create a FeedBurner feed with your podcast, navigate to feedburner.google.com. I’ve already claimed my feed so I see this:

From there put the link to your blog in the field, click the I am a podcaster checkbox a box and click next. From there if you follow FeedBurner’s directions you’ll automatically get a FeedBurner feed and they’ll apply SmartCast to your feed. The last step is to go back into Blogger click the settings link under the appropriate blog. In my case I have two so I had to make sure I was changing the settings for my Interactive Exhibit Design Podcast Blog.

First go to the formatting tab. Under formatting scroll down to “Show Link Fields” use the drop down menu to select “Yes”

Next go to the “Site Feeds” tab. Under site feeds enter your FeedBurner feed in the field(you’re given this at the end of the FeedBurner process - if you forgot to note it you can see it by clicking on your feed on the main page then clicking the Edit Feed Details link). Give it about 24 hours after you do this and then check your rss feed. You can use feedvalidator.org or subscribe to it using an RSS reader like NetNewsWire. If you’re able to subscribe to the RSS and you see something resembling whats below. You’re golden.

So, when you see something like this, its time to submit your RSS to iTunes. To do this you’ll need to have an iTunes account. Open up your iTunes and go to the iTunes Store. Once you’ve loaded the iTunes store click the podcast tab at the top of the home screen. Once this page loads you’ll be looking at the main Podcast page, on the right side of the screen there will be a menu that reads Podcast Quick Links, the second last link is “Submit a Podcast.”

Click this link and you’ll see the following: 

Enter the RSS feed link into the field and click continue. At this point if it worked you’ll see something like this:

If the details are correct then you’re good to go and you can click submit. The iTunes store will ask you to confirm your submission by logging onto your account and once you have you should receive a confirmation email. At that point all thats left to do is wait, your podcast is in iTunes digital hands and they’ll have to decide if your podcast is appropriate etc. Mine hasn’t been approved yet but since I just submitted it this morning thats to be expected. My research says it usually takes 48-72 hours.  Hopefully in 48-72 hours I’ll be adding my iTunes Store link to this post!

Interactive Exhibit Design Podcast!

I've created a new blog to host my Interactive Exhibit Design podcast. The posts are still a work in progress but all of the files have been linked. Next to get them uploaded to iTunes!

So, fellow IED-ers go have a listen to yourself at the Interactive Exhibit Design Podcast!

Also, I'd love it if you followed me or linked your interviews in your own podcasts.

Reflecting on my First Forays into the Digital Humanities

Like Dana I’ve never been asked to formally reflect on a class before but I’ve found that ultimately it is an interesting and worthwhile exercise. This reflection has allowed me to go back and consider my initial expectations, what I’ve learned, how my approach to public history has changed, and what I hope to learn in the coming semester. 

Practically from the moment I first navigated to the history department’s website and viewed last year’s digital history wiki page this past June I’ve been excited for History 9808: Digital History. I didn’t know what half of the topics were, for example I had to ask my brother-in-law what spidering is, but that didn’t seem to matter.  I think on some level I viewed (and still view) the Digital History class as the epitome of what a public history class should be: current, informative, and hands-on. Moreover, in my opinion the class addresses a topic that is distinctly lacking in most humanities, social sciences, and liberal arts degrees. In my undergraduate education the extent to which we were taught to effectively use the digital sources available to us was minimal. It was limited to a library research seminar here or there and in St. Mary’s required historiography course a guest lecturer who very briefly discussed digital history as an emerging market (a lecture that while a worthwhile introduction proved to barely touch upon what is available to us as historians in a digital world). Moreover, I felt like I, to some extent, had a bit of an advantage. I’ve been actively using the internet to communicate, play online games, and research for almost 10 years now. I felt on some level that I had a deeper and more meaningful relationship with digital technologies than the average person. Little did I know that my meaningful relationship barely scratched the surface of what the internet and digital humanities had to offer.

Probably the most meaningful thing I’ve learned this semester is just how little I know, and more so, just how much there is out there to learn. I’ve learned about copyright, open source technology, folksonomy, information trapping, collective intelligence, markup, mashups, and augmented reality. I’ve tried my hand at blogging, twitter, html, css, some basic text mining, image manipulation with The GIMP, and website design using Google Sites. The class also had a look at one of the many interesting sources available to us free on the internet The Eaton’s Fall and Winter Catalogue from 1913-1914. Outside of class I was lucky enough to try google wave and got the class into it as well with Tim’s help. I joined a number of academic waves and I’m hoping in the new semester to use it more actively as two of our classes will revolve more directly around group projects. I have on more than one occasion been confronted with topics that were completely new, for example: folksonomy- though in that case, it was perhaps more an issue of not knowing the appropriate name for a concept it turned out I had encountered before. I have yet to completely wrap my head around CSS, when I finally did get my CSS assignment working I had no idea how what I had ultimately done was different from an earlier permutation that for whatever reason was broken and did not work. Moreover, although I understand that APIs are good and useful I have not yet quite wrapped my head around how I use them. Apparently there’s  a book for that, though here is a question: is it available online?

Digital History has also changed my approach to Public History, where before I had an almost snobbish disregard for digital sources, now I look to them first. I have a new set of skills that to a certain extent make digital sources more useful that print sources and I know where to find the information I need and I know how to extract the answers I need from it. Moreover, I’ve learned to use the internet to my advantage I can create a working website and will hopefully be well versed in online interactive exhibit design after next semester.

When I started my MA in Public History I imagined that after my 12 months at UWO I would  be prepared to find employment with a museum or local history group. Perhaps I would be researching and designing exhibits or collecting oral histories, or maybe I’d decide to stick to a more directly academic context and I would contribute to the study of social memory and continue to be a good Atlantic Canadian historian by continuing to explore why the history of Atlantic Canada remains largely underrepresented on a national scale. Digital History has opened my eyes to so many different possibilities from digitization and visualization to publishing online and exploiting new and different sources. Moreover, digital history has helped me to understand the importance of a web presence, and has made the idea of becoming an independent contractor far more palatable. I feel ready for the world of public history with my handy digital humanities toolbelt and theoretical hard hat.

Defining Ourselves as Public Historians

In the almost five months since I made the decision to pick up my life and move to London to attend UWO I’ve heard one question more times than I care to count. Imagine this scenario:

I’m sitting across from my grandma, this is probably the second to last time I saw her before I moved.

“So, Nana,” I say, “Mikkel and I are moving to London- I’m going to the University of Western Ontario to do my masters in Public History.” Now my nana is a smart cookie, and age certainly hasn’t slowed her down any, but I can tell watching her that she’s trying to decide what on earth this “public history” is. Finally she breaks down and asks:

“Well dear, what exactly is Public History?”
At this point, I flounder, like I’ve floundered almost every time I’ve been asked this question. Its not even an issue of not knowing, its an issue of the complexity, subjectivity, and sheer scope of my potential answers. Sometimes I tell people its museum history, or cryptically, history as we present it to the public, or even more theoretically, I tell people it’s the study of how we as a group remember our history and how what historians do to present it changes that.

It was reassuring to realize that as a budding public historian I am not alone in my inability to create a single complete definition of my field. In fact public historians in general have not been able to create one overarching definition. For example In her 2007 Presidential address of the Canadian Historical Association, Margaret Conrad summarizes 7 or so definitions from 4 different historians.

So, if we haven’t been able to come up with one definition or perhaps mission statement for our field, what then are we as student public historians studying, how do we define what we hope will become our life’s work? Perhaps instead we should define how public history is different from academic history, or, perhaps one overarching definition might be too limiting to a broad field that in my opinion bridges the gap between academia and the public. Perhaps we should flounder, so that we can continually redefine ourselves in a quickly changing world.

Source:

Conrad, Margaret. (2007) "2007 Presidential Address of the CHA: Public History and its Discontents or History in the Age of Wikipedia" Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 18(1). p. 1-26.