Daylight Shifting Time
Tuesday March 21, 2023
6:22 PM -- Carl Back for Quick News --
I had to delay the start of my vacation for this news!
3:25 PM -- Attention Blog Visitors --
Carl Blare is on vacation until April.
Monday March 20, 2023
3:04 PM -- Winter Gives Way to Spring --
At 21:24 UTC/4: 24 PM CDT the sun will be directly over the equator putting day and night at equal length for the vernal equinox.
8:28 AM -- Forty Years of Part 15 Radio with Tha Dood --
Sunday March 19, 2023
9 AM -- The Rest of the AM Story --
The gradual disappearance of AM radio stations has become a chronic reality continuously written about in the trades but the story has not been completely told. Among symptoms that are repeatedly mentioned is the noisy interference caused by everything from light bulbs to computers and the dwindling availability of sufficient real estate for towers and ground radials. But what gets ignored is the lack of desirable programming which gives the public no incentive to seek it out, whether it's on the automobile dashboard or not. Even one or two 'tolerable' stations are typically not significant enough to hold a loyal audience with 'ho hum' jibber jabber that quickly grows old. In big time sports markets prominent ball teams give a few stations the last listener glue that attracts fans, but a large portion of the population has no interest in ball games. I was reminded of all this by a local religious station which owns a strong daytime-only AM signal that delivers hymns as wall-to-wall time-filler interspersed with occasional sermons repeating the same 'messages' heard by that denomination every Sunday at church. While the station manages to tout the signal as part of their 'mission outreach', a real body of listeners is sparse, for which reason the station has expanded by leasing time on a second licensed set of frequencies providing not only an additional strong daytime presence but now a night signal plus 99 Watts on an FM repeater. But multiplying the availability of unwanted programming does not increase the audience size in any appreciable way; it only adds to the pointless clutter that defines today's AM band.
5:47 AM -- A Blog All About Radio --
Saturday March 18, 2023
10:51 AM -- Time Share --
There is good reason we've not spent much time on The Blog in recent weeks. Truth be told there is more, or, there are more reasons, but one at a time. It's mainly the railroad simulation hobby in which I lay out rail routes in a mountainous region of the 1890s, then assemble and load trains with logs and other products and drive the trains to reception depots, but after several obsessed weeks I came to feel that it was more of a job than a hobby, and started taking vacations leaving trains parked on side-tracks while turning extra time into all-you-can-eat salads in our Upper Management Lounge here at the Internet Building. I don't mean that weeks are obsessed, but I was. And The Blog itself oft times feels like the writing of a book that has no ending in mind. Like IRS rule books, which fill whole buildings and are not fully known by any one individual, and can mean anything a tax agent wants it to mean, your opinion being inconsequential. And there's the fact that the part 15 radio hobby has become arcane history with nothing new on the horizon, giving me little to report. Although I am happy to say that the handful of extant certified transmitters remain available and I recommend ordering two of each, not just one. That way you'll have backups should one of them conk out. My own AM station has been off the air because its function of providing yard radio for landscape listening has been closed due to cold weather. I'm not about to go out there until warmth comes back, although the birds are ignoring the weather and proceeding with nest building. The daffodils made a strong start but are wilting following temps in the 20s. Heck, I was so busy on this keyboard I just missed George Hrab's weekly 'Religious Moron of the Week' feature which I'll have to re-air later. Which reminds me of Aaron Ra this morning recounting his breakaway thoughts when losing his Christian beliefs... his mother told him that heaven had streets of gold and mansions, but Aaron wondered why golden streets would be any better than any other kind of street given that heaven would consist of perfect conditions and probably free Uber, and why would anyone need shelter be it mansion or an Elon Musk small house. Before I rush off I'll mention my new programming of the ambient music portion of the KDX broadcast day, tons of excellent work available for free use from the Internet Archive. We've definitely opened the view to a musical world beyond classical music. I would say that classical music perfectly describes the spectrum of human emotion; personal and up close, whereas ambient music describes the congestion of humans as just another animal in the chaotic wilderness of planetary existence; impersonal at a distance. .
7:02 AM -- Around Here --
The Morning Show will begin as soon as somebody wakes up.
Thursday March 16, 2023
6:24 PM -- Sounds Good But is It True? --
As the sun goes away on another day I did an online SourceForge search for sophisticated metadata generators that might pair with an Icecast server for greater utilization of the 'Playing Now' side-channel that gets sent to stream directories and ran across 450 apps that do something or other pertaining to the general category 'metadata' but scrolling around none of it registered in my understanding, which finally formed into a possible maxim of wisdom:
1:47 PM -- Beyond Conspiracy --
Everyone from time to time has something ranging from skepticism to curiosity about the origin of things. Where does the perceived world of existence come from(?); how was it assembled(?). As a simplification our early ancestors contrived uncomplicated fables to tell their children and those tales took root as what grew into religions that still have a hold on people who subscribe to the comfort of 'knowing' where it all started, the answer reduced to one imaginary point named 'God'. Everything sprang or sprung from a single source, according to those faithful to such a primitive idea that is full of holes; holy. Of course we outsiders, who see such a ludicrous explanation as an absurdity, tend to admit that we ourselves don't have a clue to explain our arrival and departure from the physical world, although at times I have wondered if a 'creation committee' might have drafted the whole thing, based on the facts of conflict, cruelty and contradiction contrasting with confluence and mutual progress observable in nature and as might result from a typical committee where disagreements are apt to muddle what gets decided. I'm bringing it up now because my committee idea has just blossomed into an even more pixelated theory, that of an infinite number of points of creation all producing concurrences and oppositions everywhere at all times; an ongoing making and dissembling of that which happens. The word 'evolution' might be just right to apply to such an expansive and receding outlook. Still, that would explain only what the process 'is', not how it got initiated. But then, no one tries to explain what came prior to God, which is glossed off by claiming that he 'always was'. We're back where we started.
Wednesday March 15, 2023
2:26 PM -- The Ides --
You no doubt know what the 'Ides of March' is all about, so I won't bother to explain it, and in a matter of days we'll have the Vernal Equinox, and tell you the exact moment when winter ends and spring begins. We might have prizes.
Tuesday March 14, 2023
6:55 AM -- COVID ONGOING --
Toward the end of last week we received a breakfast invitation from a colleague who said, "Now that Covid-19 is finally over, lets meet at the cafe for eggs." This sounded good, except that I hadn't otherwise heard about the Virus being over, in fact it seems to have oddly disappeared from the news. Some checking around found that a new variant called XBB.1.5, nicknamed 'Kraken', is spreading more rapidly than any previous version. From sources including the AMA, ABC7NY, and others, "there are currently between 500 and 600 deaths a day attributable to the Virus. Mask mandates may be coming back. A growing proportion of Covid-19 deaths are occurring among the vaccinated". Breakfast has been forestalled.
Monday March 13, 2023
5:03 PM -- Slow Radio --
We have talked about 'slow TV', many examples of which may be found on YouTube. Now comes 'Slow Radio' as introduced by
Sunday March 12, 2023
12:30 NOON -- Time Fix Under Study --
As an International Radio Station it would be logical, reasonable, and convenient to operate KDX under the single time standard of Universal Time (UTC) which does not shift every few months and is the same all over the world. Therefore, by April we will have completed a feasibility study toward achieving the setting of our server firmware, software, and schedule around this single expression of time so as to eliminate the ridiculous stumbling brought about by mixing local and global time translations. All the clocks are ticking.
9:05 AM, no wait, I mean 10:05 AM -- Stupid Daylight 'Saving' Time is Back --
I literally didn't remember the whole thing until minutes ago and am now annoyed that again and again each time the time needlessly switches back and forth I become obligated to change the wording everywhere in this website to reflect the 'correct' time. This is a hobby for me and not a job, so why do I do it? Alright then, this time we'll let it slide. The most changes need to be made to our Schedule page, where every half hour of the 24-hour day is marked with a translation between local Central Time and global Universal Time. It's especially silly when considering the virtual lack of audience for KDX and The Blare Blog. Our World Time Server clock updates automatically and shows the correct time, as does our web server.
Central Standard Time
Thursday March 9, 2023
10:32 AM -- The Trajectory Between Art and Science --
Wednesday March 8, 2023
7:45 AM -- Steve Gibson's Picture of the Week --
7:15 AM -- Months of Note --
Last month was 'Black History Month' and March is
What will next month be about?
Tuesday March 7, 2023
9:49 AM -- Tabletop Radios Matter --
Monday March 6, 2023
2:34 PM -- Should Bloggers Register with the Government? --
Tuesday March 21, 2023
6:22 PM -- Carl Back for Quick News --
I had to delay the start of my vacation for this news!
CBS NY
3:25 PM -- Attention Blog Visitors --
Carl Blare is on vacation until April.
Monday March 20, 2023
3:04 PM -- Winter Gives Way to Spring --
At 21:24 UTC/4: 24 PM CDT the sun will be directly over the equator putting day and night at equal length for the vernal equinox.
8:28 AM -- Forty Years of Part 15 Radio with Tha Dood --
Sunday March 19, 2023
9 AM -- The Rest of the AM Story --
The gradual disappearance of AM radio stations has become a chronic reality continuously written about in the trades but the story has not been completely told. Among symptoms that are repeatedly mentioned is the noisy interference caused by everything from light bulbs to computers and the dwindling availability of sufficient real estate for towers and ground radials. But what gets ignored is the lack of desirable programming which gives the public no incentive to seek it out, whether it's on the automobile dashboard or not. Even one or two 'tolerable' stations are typically not significant enough to hold a loyal audience with 'ho hum' jibber jabber that quickly grows old. In big time sports markets prominent ball teams give a few stations the last listener glue that attracts fans, but a large portion of the population has no interest in ball games. I was reminded of all this by a local religious station which owns a strong daytime-only AM signal that delivers hymns as wall-to-wall time-filler interspersed with occasional sermons repeating the same 'messages' heard by that denomination every Sunday at church. While the station manages to tout the signal as part of their 'mission outreach', a real body of listeners is sparse, for which reason the station has expanded by leasing time on a second licensed set of frequencies providing not only an additional strong daytime presence but now a night signal plus 99 Watts on an FM repeater. But multiplying the availability of unwanted programming does not increase the audience size in any appreciable way; it only adds to the pointless clutter that defines today's AM band.
5:47 AM -- A Blog All About Radio --
RAB
Saturday March 18, 2023
10:51 AM -- Time Share --
There is good reason we've not spent much time on The Blog in recent weeks. Truth be told there is more, or, there are more reasons, but one at a time. It's mainly the railroad simulation hobby in which I lay out rail routes in a mountainous region of the 1890s, then assemble and load trains with logs and other products and drive the trains to reception depots, but after several obsessed weeks I came to feel that it was more of a job than a hobby, and started taking vacations leaving trains parked on side-tracks while turning extra time into all-you-can-eat salads in our Upper Management Lounge here at the Internet Building. I don't mean that weeks are obsessed, but I was. And The Blog itself oft times feels like the writing of a book that has no ending in mind. Like IRS rule books, which fill whole buildings and are not fully known by any one individual, and can mean anything a tax agent wants it to mean, your opinion being inconsequential. And there's the fact that the part 15 radio hobby has become arcane history with nothing new on the horizon, giving me little to report. Although I am happy to say that the handful of extant certified transmitters remain available and I recommend ordering two of each, not just one. That way you'll have backups should one of them conk out. My own AM station has been off the air because its function of providing yard radio for landscape listening has been closed due to cold weather. I'm not about to go out there until warmth comes back, although the birds are ignoring the weather and proceeding with nest building. The daffodils made a strong start but are wilting following temps in the 20s. Heck, I was so busy on this keyboard I just missed George Hrab's weekly 'Religious Moron of the Week' feature which I'll have to re-air later. Which reminds me of Aaron Ra this morning recounting his breakaway thoughts when losing his Christian beliefs... his mother told him that heaven had streets of gold and mansions, but Aaron wondered why golden streets would be any better than any other kind of street given that heaven would consist of perfect conditions and probably free Uber, and why would anyone need shelter be it mansion or an Elon Musk small house. Before I rush off I'll mention my new programming of the ambient music portion of the KDX broadcast day, tons of excellent work available for free use from the Internet Archive. We've definitely opened the view to a musical world beyond classical music. I would say that classical music perfectly describes the spectrum of human emotion; personal and up close, whereas ambient music describes the congestion of humans as just another animal in the chaotic wilderness of planetary existence; impersonal at a distance. .
7:02 AM -- Around Here --
The Morning Show will begin as soon as somebody wakes up.
Thursday March 16, 2023
6:24 PM -- Sounds Good But is It True? --
As the sun goes away on another day I did an online SourceForge search for sophisticated metadata generators that might pair with an Icecast server for greater utilization of the 'Playing Now' side-channel that gets sent to stream directories and ran across 450 apps that do something or other pertaining to the general category 'metadata' but scrolling around none of it registered in my understanding, which finally formed into a possible maxim of wisdom:
You
can't know what you're finding
If you don't know what you're looking for.
But
is that a universal truth(?) or merely true in this particular
instance. It seems to me that some 'findings' (discoveries) come
apriori to awakening to a 'find' that proves enlightening and eye
opening. No wonder the brain looks like a hopelessly tangled mess in
anatomy pictures. Wait, can a 'finding' come ahead of a 'find'? I may
not be cut out for this blog work. If you don't know what you're looking for.
1:47 PM -- Beyond Conspiracy --
Everyone from time to time has something ranging from skepticism to curiosity about the origin of things. Where does the perceived world of existence come from(?); how was it assembled(?). As a simplification our early ancestors contrived uncomplicated fables to tell their children and those tales took root as what grew into religions that still have a hold on people who subscribe to the comfort of 'knowing' where it all started, the answer reduced to one imaginary point named 'God'. Everything sprang or sprung from a single source, according to those faithful to such a primitive idea that is full of holes; holy. Of course we outsiders, who see such a ludicrous explanation as an absurdity, tend to admit that we ourselves don't have a clue to explain our arrival and departure from the physical world, although at times I have wondered if a 'creation committee' might have drafted the whole thing, based on the facts of conflict, cruelty and contradiction contrasting with confluence and mutual progress observable in nature and as might result from a typical committee where disagreements are apt to muddle what gets decided. I'm bringing it up now because my committee idea has just blossomed into an even more pixelated theory, that of an infinite number of points of creation all producing concurrences and oppositions everywhere at all times; an ongoing making and dissembling of that which happens. The word 'evolution' might be just right to apply to such an expansive and receding outlook. Still, that would explain only what the process 'is', not how it got initiated. But then, no one tries to explain what came prior to God, which is glossed off by claiming that he 'always was'. We're back where we started.
Wednesday March 15, 2023
2:26 PM -- The Ides --
You no doubt know what the 'Ides of March' is all about, so I won't bother to explain it, and in a matter of days we'll have the Vernal Equinox, and tell you the exact moment when winter ends and spring begins. We might have prizes.
Tuesday March 14, 2023
6:55 AM -- COVID ONGOING --
Toward the end of last week we received a breakfast invitation from a colleague who said, "Now that Covid-19 is finally over, lets meet at the cafe for eggs." This sounded good, except that I hadn't otherwise heard about the Virus being over, in fact it seems to have oddly disappeared from the news. Some checking around found that a new variant called XBB.1.5, nicknamed 'Kraken', is spreading more rapidly than any previous version. From sources including the AMA, ABC7NY, and others, "there are currently between 500 and 600 deaths a day attributable to the Virus. Mask mandates may be coming back. A growing proportion of Covid-19 deaths are occurring among the vaccinated". Breakfast has been forestalled.
Monday March 13, 2023
5:03 PM -- Slow Radio --
We have talked about 'slow TV', many examples of which may be found on YouTube. Now comes 'Slow Radio' as introduced by
Sunday March 12, 2023
12:30 NOON -- Time Fix Under Study --
As an International Radio Station it would be logical, reasonable, and convenient to operate KDX under the single time standard of Universal Time (UTC) which does not shift every few months and is the same all over the world. Therefore, by April we will have completed a feasibility study toward achieving the setting of our server firmware, software, and schedule around this single expression of time so as to eliminate the ridiculous stumbling brought about by mixing local and global time translations. All the clocks are ticking.
9:05 AM, no wait, I mean 10:05 AM -- Stupid Daylight 'Saving' Time is Back --
I literally didn't remember the whole thing until minutes ago and am now annoyed that again and again each time the time needlessly switches back and forth I become obligated to change the wording everywhere in this website to reflect the 'correct' time. This is a hobby for me and not a job, so why do I do it? Alright then, this time we'll let it slide. The most changes need to be made to our Schedule page, where every half hour of the 24-hour day is marked with a translation between local Central Time and global Universal Time. It's especially silly when considering the virtual lack of audience for KDX and The Blare Blog. Our World Time Server clock updates automatically and shows the correct time, as does our web server.
Central Standard Time
Thursday March 9, 2023
10:32 AM -- The Trajectory Between Art and Science --
Mischke
Roadshow
Wednesday March 8, 2023
7:45 AM -- Steve Gibson's Picture of the Week --
TWiTtv
7:15 AM -- Months of Note --
Last month was 'Black History Month' and March is
What will next month be about?
Tuesday March 7, 2023
9:49 AM -- Tabletop Radios Matter --
RADIOWORLD
Monday March 6, 2023
2:34 PM -- Should Bloggers Register with the Government? --
MEDIAITE