ozzmosis.com

Digital TV in Linux

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:20 GMT

About two years ago I switched operating systems from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux on my main desktop PC. One of the things I wanted to do was watch digital free-to-air (FTA) TV using this setup. I have a Twinhan Alpha USB DVB receiver which is recognised by Ubuntu automatically, so it was just a matter of chosing the right software. Initially looked at MeTV, Kaffeine and MythTV. MeTV was probably the least difficult to configure. Kaffeine was OK, albeit with a more cumbersome user interface. MythTV seemed overkill for what I wanted, with an odd user interface, too many dependencies (notably MySQL) and too many features I didn't need.

I'd long been a user of the Windows port of MPlayer, and after a bit of web searching I discovered that MPlayer in Linux could also play video directly from the DVB receiver, provided you had a channels.conf (valid for your reception area) in your $HOME/.mplayer/ directory. This is mine, for digital TV reception in Melbourne, Australia:

$HOME/.mplayer/channels.conf:

ABC News 24:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:2314:2315:560
ABC1:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:512:650:561
ABC2:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:2307:2308:562
ABC1:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:512:650:563
ABC3:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:2311:2312:564
ABC Dig Music:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:0:2317:566
ABC Jazz:226500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:0:2318:567
7 Digital:177500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:769:770:1328
7 Digital 1:177500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:769:770:1329
7TWO:177500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:801:802:1330
7mate:177500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:817:819:1331
Nine Digital:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:519:720:1072
GO!:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:517:700:1074
GEM:191625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_3_4:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:512:650:1073
ONE HD:219500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:514:672:1585
TEN Digital:219500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:512:650:1589
ELEVEN:219500000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:516:681:1592
SBS ONE:536625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_8:HIERARCHY_NONE:161:81:785
SBS TWO:536625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_8:HIERARCHY_NONE:162:83:786
SBS 3:536625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_8:HIERARCHY_NONE:161:81:787
SBS 4:536625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_8:HIERARCHY_NONE:161:81:788
SBS HD:536625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_2_3:FEC_1_2:QAM_64:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_8:HIERARCHY_NONE:102:103:789
C31:557625000:INVERSION_AUTO:BANDWIDTH_7_MHZ:FEC_3_4:FEC_1_2:QPSK:TRANSMISSION_MODE_8K:GUARD_INTERVAL_1_16:HIERARCHY_NONE:101:102:3585

With some exceptions, the above file was generated from running the following command:

scan /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/au-Melbourne > $HOME/.mplayer/channels.conf

The exceptions are:

(1) there seems to be a bug in the 'scan' command that prevents it from selecting the correct audio channels on the HD channels, eg. the last three numbers for ONE HD are reported as "514:0:1585" rather than "514:672:1585". For the HD channels (ABC News 24, 7mate, GEM, ONE HD & SBS HD) I had to use an external set-top box to find the middle number for the correct audio channel. It's possible more recent versions of 'scan' may have corrected this.

(2) in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 the /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/au-Melbourne file is missing the entry for community television Channel 31 that began broadcasting on digital TV recently. The complete file is:

/usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/au-Melbourne:

# Australia / Melbourne (Mt Dandenong transmitters)
# T freq bw fec_hi fec_lo mod transmission-mode guard-interval hierarchy
# ABC
T 226500000 7MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/16 NONE
# Seven
T 177500000 7MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/16 NONE
# Nine
T 191625000 7MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/16 NONE
# Ten
T 219500000 7MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/16 NONE
# SBS
T 536625000 7MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/8 NONE
# C31
T 557625000 7MHz 3/4 NONE QPSK 8k 1/16 NONE

Now you can test it!

mplayer 'dvb://Nine Digital'

Rather than typing this command each time I have several tcsh aliases configured for each channel:

$HOME/etc/dvb-aliases:

alias mplayer-dvb "mplayer -cache 1024 -framedrop -x 688 -y 384"
alias mplayer-dvb-lq "mplayer -cache 2048 -framedrop -x 688 -y 384 -vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all:threads=2"

alias onehd "mplayer-dvb-lq 'dvb://ONE HD'"
alias 11sd "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://ELEVEN'"
alias tensd "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://TEN Digital'"
alias 10sd tensd

alias ninesd "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://Nine Digital'"
alias 9hd ninehd
alias 9sd ninesd
alias gosd "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://GO!'"
alias gem "mplayer-dvb-lq 'dvb://GEM'"

alias 7sd "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://7 Digital'"
alias 7two "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://7TWO'"
alias 7mate "mplayer-dvb-lq 'dvb://7mate'"

alias abc24 "mplayer-dvb-lq 'dvb://ABC News 24'"
alias abc1 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://ABC1'"
alias abc2 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://ABC2'"
alias abc3 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://ABC3'"

alias sbs1 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://SBS ONE'"
alias sbs2 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://SBS TWO'"
alias sbs sbs1
alias sbshd "mplayer-dvb-lq 'dvb://SBS HD'"

alias ch31 "mplayer-dvb 'dvb://C31'"
alias c31 ch31

In $HOME/.tcshrc I have added the following command to load the above aliases automatically whenever I start tcsh:

source $HOME/etc/dvb-aliases

You'll notice initially that there are 'mplayer-dvb' and 'mplayer-dvb-lq' aliases called by the aliases further down:

'mplayer-dvb-lq' is for viewing HD channels on an older PC. Currently I'm using a 3.4 GHz IBM ThinkCentre, and mplayer can't quite keep-up with decoding full 1080i MPEG2 HD broadcasts in real time. Using the "-vfm ffmpeg -lavdopts lowres=1:fast:skiploopfilter=all:threads=2" mplayer switches lowers the resolution so it can be viewed in real time without excessive CPU overhead. There are occasional visual artefacts, and obvious degradation in video quality, but the end result is still quite watchable.

'mplayer-dvb' is for viewing SD channels.

In the past where I've had poor reception, setting a small (1024 KB) cache (-cache 1024) seemed to prevent mplayer from prematurely dying whenever there was no signal. Note that the larger the cache, the more delayed your programme will be - time-shifted by a few seconds or more. For HD broadcasts I have a 2048 KB cache, due to their higher bitrate. You could experiment with these cache sizes or perhaps leave them out entirely.

The -framedrop option tells mplayer to "skip displaying some frames to maintain A/V sync on slow systems". Even on fast systems this option may be useful where the CPU is overloaded by other tasks, eg. video encoding.

The -x 688 -y 384 options tell mplayer to use a window size of 688x384 when not displaying video in full-screen, rather than the too-large default window size of 1024x576 for SD channels and 1920x1080 for HD channels. I chose 688x384 because it has an aspect ratio of 16:9. In mplayer you can use the 'f' key to toggle viewing between full-screen and windowed.

In a future post I'll explain how I record digital TV using this setup, including a Python program I hacked together for scheduled recording.

The Loudness War Continues

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:11 GMT

Ozzy Osbourne made a new song available online earlier this week as a teaser to his new album 'Soul Sucka' scheduled to be released later in the year. The song is called 'Let Me Hear You Scream'. Guitarist Gus G replaces Zakk Wylde, with Wylde leaving Ozzy's band after having been with Ozzy for more than 20 years.

Unfortunately the song itself is a bit disappointing and follows much the same pattern as on the Down To Earth and Black Rain albums. Musically I feel it's lacking in creativity and leaning too much away from the style of Black Sabbath-esque British metal. The guitar solo is interesting not for the fact that Gus G is doing anything unusual - in fact quite the opposite - if you're familiar with Zakk Wylde's more recent recordings with Ozzy you'd be forgiven for mistaking the solo for something Zakk might play!

For a song called 'Let Me Hear You Scream' you'd expect a lot of anger, but that's about the only raw emotion you'll get from this song. This isn't helped by the fact the song is mastered to be as loud as possible, effectively removing any meaningful dynamic range from the recording, making it very fatiguing to listen to.

Technical notes: The track was ripped from Noisecreep using the Firefox DownloadHelper plugin, with the MP3 extracted using FLV Extract (running under the Linux build of Mono), then loaded into Audacity running under Ubuntu Linux.

iTunes URL Decoder

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:25 GMT

Back in August 2007 podcast pioneer Dave Slusher requested a method to take an Apple iTunes Music Store (ITMS) podcast link and translate it to return the standard XML feed of a podcast. It didn't take long for me to write a quick and dirty Python program to do the work, but some time late last year Apple changed the file formats returned by the ITMS servers which broke my code.

This morning I rewrote it. You can download it from here.

The basic usage is:

./itunes-url-decoder.py url

Where url is the ITMS podcast link.

For example, the ITMS podcast link to the series of Triple M Get This podcasts is:

./itunes-url-decoder.py "http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330582773"

As of writing, this returns the following feed URL:

http://www.getthis.net.au/getthis.xml

You can then paste that URL in any podcatching software - no need to use iTunes!

To run itunes-url-decoder.py you will need Python 2.6 (or newer) installed, or a version of Python that provides the plistlib library.

Under reconstruction

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:58 GMT

The ozzmosis.com web site is currently being reconstructed as a blog, with a new layout. Some content may be missing temporarily, but I'm hoping not to break too many of the old links in the long term.

Also in the long term, I'm hoping to write a lot more!

The old site is temporarily at http://old.ozzmosis.com/

Update: Phew, done. All the old stuff should be integrated into the new format now. Will leave the old site running for a little while though in case I've forgotten something...

RIP Danny

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:49 GMT

Rest in peace Danny 1996-2009.

RIP Richard Marsland, 1976-2008

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:00 GMT

Hard to believe that one of the Get This comedy team is no longer with us. Radio host, comedian and writer Richard Marsland passed away yesterday aged only 32. I met him briefly at the "Save Get This" rally outside the Melbourne Triple M studios in November last year. A very entertaining guy who will be missed by many.

RIP, Richard.

How to cleanly stop Explorer in Windows XP

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:00 GMT

"In Windows XP, you can get Explorer to exit cleanly by getting to the shutdown dialog (e.g., Start / Turn Off Computer, or Start/Shutdown), then hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys and click the "Cancel" button."

- http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2007/07/17/how-to-cleanly-stop-explorer-exe-on-windows-vista.aspx

RIP Alan Waddell, 1914-2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:25 GMT

Sad news tonight as I received an e-mail with news that Alan Waddell of Walk Sydney Streets passed away overnight.

I did not know him personally but when I was feeling uninspired, his photos and captions would convince me to get up, go outside and explore the world - from cycling to places in Melbourne I'd never been, to just going for a relaxing stroll around the block.

Alan found humour and diversity in everyday Australian suburbia. The sorts of places many of us would never go out of our way to visit unless we had to, Alan would travel there and discover something new and unique. He will be missed. RIP Alan.

Google Maps Street View in Australia

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:06 GMT

"Close-up images of Australian homes, businesses and famous landmarks in cities, towns and remote areas are now available on Google Maps Australia, absolutely free." - The Age

This is great. Should make planning new cycling routes much more fun, too!

Ride report #17

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:27 GMT

Last week I picked up an inexpensive used dual-suspension mountain bike, sans wheels. I had some spare wheels floating around so built up a complete bike in about an hour after adjusting a few things.

On Sunday morning I headed north to give it a thorough test along the bumpy Kananook Creek trail, through Carrum and on to Mordialloc (30 km). It was cold with some light rain, but the bike performed very well so I decided to catch a train to Werribee to ride the Federation Trail to Altona. Last I heard this trail was a bumpy with lots of loose gravel, but in it seems it has since been completely resurfaced and was quite smooth and clear of debris. Only the short section parallel to Hoppers Lane in Hoppers Crossing stuck out as being noticably bumpier than the rest of the trail, being concreted and more like a footpath than a bike trail, but still nothing to complain about.

It was probably just as well that it was a smooth ride - when I got back home I noticed a bolt connecting the rear suspension arm to the spring was loose. Oops.

Werribee to Altona was about 35 km, so around 65 km total distance travelled.

An overcast and dark day, so not great for taking photos, but they came out reasonably well:

Federation trail

Ride report #16

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:10 GMT

The weather recently has been a bit miserable, but yesterday was perfect for cycling - blue skies, light breezes and not too cold. I took the opportunity to go out on my first decent ride in a while. Home to Heatherdale railway station in Ringwood via the Dandenong Creek and Eastlink trails. Total distance 55.55 km in 3 hours 10 minutes. Uphill most of the way with a light headwind, so I took it easy. Average speed just 17.5 km/h.

Eastlink trail

Ride report #15

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:31 GMT

Several more ride reports combined into one blog entry. It's been so long since my last entry that I've forgotten where I've been, a bit.

Mon 2008-04-07: Home to Moorabbin following the train line, to Gardenvale along the Nepean Highway bike path, then towards the beach to Elwood, to Port Melbourne, finishing in Southbank. Total: 63 km.

Sun 2008-04-27: Home to Baxter, train to Bittern, then cycled from there to Merricks Beach (with a detour to Mooradoo station), then turned around and cycled back to Somerville on the Westernport trail. Total: 70 km, on a mountain bike.

Bike ride to Merricks Beach

Sun 2008-05-04: Home to Carrum, then through Patterson Lakes along the Dandenong Creek trail, then to the eastern end of the Dandenong bypass trail in Dandenong South. Head back the way I came, taking a detour at Parkmore Shopping Centre in Keysborough for a drink, then back down the Dandenong Creek trail to Carrum station. Train home. Total: 62 km, on a mountain bike.

Bike ride to Dandenong

Sun 2008-05-11: A long ride, this one. Left home at about 12:30, just after lunch. Cycled from home to Frankston, train to Carrum, Carrum to Noble Park North along the Dandenong Creek and Eastlink trails. Eastlink trail locked at Oakwood Avenue. Detour north along Gladstone Road, then Outlook Drive, crossing over the Dandenong Creek trail, across a short unnamed path that meets up with Timbertop Drive (steep!) in Rowville. Head north on Stud Road, then east on the Ferny Creek trail in Knoxfield to Upper Ferntree Gully, arriving in Belgrave at nightfall. Two trains home. Total: about 70 km, on a mountain bike.

Bike ride to Belgrave

Sun 2008-06-22: Home to Frankston, got the train to Bentleigh, cycled from there to Caulfield following the train line. Caulfield to Windsor along Inkerman Street. Windsor to South Yarra through some back streets in the rain. South Yarra to Footscray via Kensington. Train home. Total: 47 km.

Bike ride to Footscray

My complaint to UBD

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:51 GMT

Admittedly the UBD Melbourne Mini Street Directory only retails for $10, so this may be a case of "you get what you paid for", but still, I was annoyed enough to write in to www.ubd.com.au:

I recently purchased the 1st edition of your Melbourne Mini Street Directory. The compact size is ideal for cycling trips. Unfortunately I was very disappointed to see large Melbourne suburbs such as Epping, Craigieburn and Werribee omitted entirely from the rear of the directory. Yet, illogically, maps of distant non-urban localities (such as Somers, Tooradin and Phillip Island) are included.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide decent maps of ALL of the suburban area of Melbourne in a compact directory.

Alternatively, you may want to consider producing a compact street directory more suited for cyclists. Such a directory could highlight cycling-friendly routes, and could omit the index of streets. I'm sure many cyclists would pay $20-30 for such a directory.

Thanks,

Regards
Andrew

Ride report #14

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:52 GMT

Lots of cycling lately and not much blogging, so this will be four brief(ish) ride reports in one post.

Sat 2008-02-16: Cycled Home to Noble Park (Yarraman), got the train to Oakleigh then cycled from Oakleigh to South Yarra via Kew. The full route was:

Stage #1: Home, Frankston, Seaford, (Dandenong Creek trail), Carrum, Bonbeach, Patterson Lakes, Bangholme, Dandenong South, (Eastlink trail), Keysborough, Noble Park.

Stage #2: Oakleigh, Hughesdale, Murrumbeena, (Boyd Park trail), Malvern East, (Gardiners Creek trail), Glen Iris, (Ferndale Park trail), (stop at Glen Iris Rd milk bar/cafe for a Coke and Mars bar and admire a recumbent bike), Ashburton, (Anniversary Outer Circle trail), Camberwell, Canterbury, Deepdene, Kew East.

Stage #3: Kew, Hawthorn, Burnley, (Yarra trail, north bank), Toorak, South Yarra.

Photos:

Bike ride - 2008-02-16

Distance: 72.3 km
Time elapsed: 4 hours 4 mins
Average speed: 17.8 km/h

Fri 2008-02-23: Home to Beaconsfield via Dandenong Creek and Princes Highway trails. Good strong tailwind for about half of the way.

Onboard photos:

Frankston to Beaconsfield

Distance: 51.2 km
Time elapsed: 2 hours 39 mins
Average speed: 19.3 km/h

Sun 2008-03-02: Home to Frankston, then South Yarra to Ormond. The route was:

Stage #1: South Yarra, South Melbourne, a lap of the Albert Park F1 grand prix circuit, Middle Park, (Bayside trail), Albert Park, Port Melbourne, Fishermens Bend, (Lorimer Street), Docklands

Stage #2: Melbourne, (Yarra trail), South Yarra, Toorak, (Gardiners Creek trail), Kooyong, Malvern, Glen Iris, Malvern East, Murrumbeena (Boyd Park trail), Carnegie, Ormond.

Distance: 56.4 km
Time elapsed: 2 hours 52 mins
Average speed: 19.7 km/h

Wed 2008-03-05: Home to Dromana (via Nepean Highway) and return (via The Esplanade).

Distance: 55.1 km
Time elapsed: 2 hours 48 mins
Average speed: 19.7 km/h

Total distance: 235 km
Total time elapsed: 12 hours 23 mins
Total average speed: 19 km/h

Using Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 3

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:10 GMT

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 3 has just been released so I thought I'd upgrade from Beta 2 and see what's changed. I wasn't expecting any real issues, so when things got painful I decided to document what I did make the pain go away.

The good news is the NoScript, Adblock Plus and (I think) PDF Download extensions seem to work fine. The bad news is Beta 3 broke some other things:

The 'New Tab' and 'Home' icon on the Navigation toolbar disappeared. I went to 'Customize Toolbar' and restored it back to the defaults, then added the 'New Tab' icon back, but couldn't figure out how to get the 'Home' icon back. After some guesswork I discovered you have to enable the Bookmarks toolbar, then go back into the 'Customize Toolbar' dialog, then drag the 'Home' icon to the Navigation Toolbar. After all this, the toolbar were back to how I wanted them. Except now, the Back/Forward page button now has a single tiny down arrow that lists the pages you've visited, instead of two separate down arrows (one for back, one for forward) like in previous versions. After a bit of consideration, that might not be so bad, although the down arrow is still very small. Small enough that it may not be noticed by the casual user.

The address bar (URL bar) now uses a richlistbox widget, also known as the "awesome bar", used for searching your URL history. I think it's sluggish and don't like the way it looks. In 3.0 Beta 2 you could turn it off in about:config by setting browser.urlbar.richResults to False. In Beta 3, this setting no longer supported and has no effect. To go back to the old widget you now have to use the Oldbar extension, but as of writing it only supports versions of Firefox up to 3.0b3pre. To force Beta 3 to install the Oldbar extension I had to set extensions.checkCompatibility to False in about:config. To actually enable to extensions I installed the Nightly Tester Tools extension. I then went to the Add-ons list, right clicked on the Oldbar extension and selected 'Make compatible', and restarted Firefox.

At this point I reinstalled the AutoCopy, Paste and Go 2 and Popup ALT Attributes extensions. I'd been previously using these with Firefox 2.0. They seem to work OK in Firefox 3.0 Beta 3.

Update: Setting "extensions.checkUpdateSecurity" to False in about:config may be required for some old extensions to work around the "does not provide secure updates" error.

Update #2: There are some odd rendering issues with Firefox 3.0 beta 3 (which may have also been present in beta 2). See this screenshot, for example.

Update #3: I think the above font rendering problem was caused by some screwy fonts and not Firefox. It seems to have gone away since I deleted a bunch of fonts, anyway.

Railway History: The Bittern - Red Hill Railway

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:00 GMT

Building the first line

When the first passenger-carrying railway in Australia started in September 1854 the train ran on sleepers cut from the centre of the Mornington Peninsula. The timber was one of the area's first industries and it would have been shipped to Melbourne.

First railway development to the Mornington Peninsula was when the railway opened from Melbourne to Frankston in 1882. Mornington Junction (Baxter) section was completed in 1888 and it went on to Mornington, Hastings and Stony Point in 1889.

Without transport to get produce quickly to markets, local settlers were agitating from 1882 for the railway to be extended further south, but it was another 39 years before their dreams were realised.

Victorian State Government passed the Bill authorising the Bittern - Red Hill construction in 1915 but it was not until after World War 1 had ended that work actually started. The first sod was turned in Balnarring on 9th July 1920 and a banquet was held in the Balnarring Hall afterwards. Construction to Balnarring was mainly by picks, shovels and wheelbarrows, but from there up the hill it was by 60 men and 6 horse teams.

The line from Merricks has a grade of 1 in 30 and 12 chain curves, which is the maximum for broad gauge track. A crowd of 700 people greeted the first train, D980, and after the opening ceremony conducted by the State Minister for Railways, Mr. Barnes, the train made a return trip to Merricks. The Red Hill Station is 631 feet above sea level and 51 miles from Melbourne.

The ribbon was held by two Red Hill citizens, the oldest, Mrs. Haig who had celebrated her 92nd birthday the day before, and the youngest was Mary Forrest. Mr. Richard McIlroy who was president of the Red Hill Fruitgrowers Association said that "this ribbon was all that separated the local fruit gowers from the markets of the world."

In 1924 it was intended to take the line on a further four miles to a site opposite the Baldry's road intersection with the Mornington - Flinders Road just north of Flinders. The development of road transport of both passenger and goods traffic made further rail extension unnecessary. Even though it had been surveyed, the Government of the day decided not to continue.

The Cool Store

As the Cool Store had a suction gas engine, charcoal was burnt in a retort to make the gas for ignition. In the months prior to the train coming, this charcoal was transported from Bittern by horse wagon. At least two local farmers supplied locally burnt charcoal. Refrigeration method at the time used brine.

The Cool Store was destroyed by fire in 1929 and the new building later housed a Ruston-Hornsby diesel engine driving a Werner compressor and using ammonia as a refrigerant.

The new building and adjoining packing shed saw hundreds of thousands of cases transported to Melbourne and overseas markets. The packing shed was leased to the International Fruit and Mercantile Company in 1932.

During World War 2 this complex was the local headquarters of the Australian Apple and Pear Board and employed a large number of fruit packers and handlers. All local apple and pear production went through these buildings during this period and when times came back to normal it remained a large centre of indusry and a source of employment now long gone. Post war beer shortage saw the development of a press crushing apples for apple cider.

Near the end of World War 2 potatoes were railed from Melbourne to Red Hill for HMAS Cerberus and stored in the Co-op Cool Store. Sailors came and transported them back to Crib Point at regular intervals using a vintage Thornycroft truck.

The building which used to be the Cool Store still stands today.

Motor Trains

In August 1924 a rail motor was trialed and it had difficulty on the hill. An AEC Motor Train took over from the steamer in 1925. By 1929, passenger traffic had slowed and the regular train was discontinued and the service reverted to a weekly mixed train on Mondays. This usually departed Bittern at 11:00am ad arrived red Hill at 12:30pm, returning from Red Hill 2:45pm and arriving Bittern 3:35pm. These times slightly varied over the years.

Mornington Peninsula Shire

Western Port Bay Trail photos

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:01 GMT

As promised, here are some photos of the Western Port Bay Trail and surrounds. All of them were taken north of Hastings, or in Hastings itself.

Western Port Bay Trail

Ride report #13

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:30 GMT

Cycled from Mt Eliza to Southbank earlier this evening via the Bayside Trail. Left home a bit later than usual at around 19:15, but the timing turned out perfectly. Sunset at the halfway point in Mentone at 20:45, and headlights on when I reached Brighton pier. Good tailwind for the entire way with the occasional crosswind off the bay. Reached St Kilda at 21:55 - the once easy-to-navigate trail just south of the St Kilda pier in has turned into a complete dog's breakfast due to construction works. I couldn't make my way through it in the dark so ended up detouring right around it on the footpath along Jacka Boulevard...

Legs and back are a little bit sore now, but I'll be right after a decent sleep!

Total distance covered: 61.5 km
Time elapsed: 2 hours 51 mins
Average speed: 21.6 km/h

Ride report #12

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:00 GMT

30 km cycled today with my father, via the Western Port Bay Trail. Began at Somerville, reaching Hastings then turning around and heading back to Somerville . Included a detour along the overgrown and little-used Bayview Road trail (and Cemetary Road) in Hastings. I didn't take many photos, but I'll upload a few soon.

Frankston beach boardwalk extension

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:53 GMT

As per my previous post, here are some photos of the Frankston beach boardwalk extension, currently under construction:

Frankston beach boardwalk extension