Category Archives: Software

Software

USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode With Dymo

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USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode With Dymo

Many years ago I lived at a military base in Japan and used to use Stamps.com with a Dymo LabelWriter.  At that time you could add a USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) to your shipping label in the Dymo software.   In theory your mail will travel faster because it gets sorted faster with the barcode on it.

Then one day Dymo just dropped the IMB capability from their software.   And it remained gone for years.  However, with the latest version of Dymo Connect Software, it has returned.

USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode

DYMO IMB Returns!

Dymo has this to say in their online manual about IMB:

Intelligent mail barcode (US only) 
Starting with DYMO Connect 1.4.4 you now have the ability to create Intelligent Mail barcodes. 

The Intelligent Mail barcode is USPS barcode technology used to sort and track letters and flats. Intelligent Mail barcode technology combines the capabilities of the POSTNET barcode and the PLANET Code barcode into one unique barcode. DYMO Connect allows you to add the Intelligent Mail barcodes in address fields or as a separate barcode IMail. 

Also, the Address Fixer is back, although I think it returned in a previous version.  FINALLY Dymo software is viable again in my opinion.

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Ortur YRR Rotary Roller Set Up

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Ortur YRR Rotary Device

Picked up one of these Ortur YRR Rotary Rollers  to supplement my Ortur Laser Master 2.  There are a lot of videos online showing you how to assemble it as it comes in a kit form but not much information on how to make it work in software.

That’s why you have me.

I spent a couple days researching how to set it up and never really found an “AHA” video or webpage but after viewing a dozen or more items I had a good idea of what to do.

I’m going to set mine up in Lightburn which is a pay program ($60). If you have a GRBL laser cutter, Lightburn is worth every penny.

Connect your Ortur Rotary Roller to the Y axis with the supplied extension cable.

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Macs with the New M1 Chip – Be Advised

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I’m old enough to remember when Mac used propriety chips in their computers.   They were called “PowerPC” or PPC.  Proprietary chips mean proprietary code to run them. .  Such as it was with the old OS X operating systems.  Right around 2005 Apple announced it would transition to Intel chips which most of the rest of the world was running on already.  It opened up a new world of software and hardware to the Mac.

People found they could run OS X on Intel PC’s (aka Hackintosh).

Now here we are again 16 years later and Mac has gone their own route and selected another proprietary chip, the M1 which is ARM based and not X86.  When you think ARM, think Raspberry Pi.

The advantages to doing this are MANY.  Apple controls the hardware build and can write tight code for that specific hardware.  The chips are FAST.

THE DOWNSIDE HERE IS THAT YOU LOSE LEGACY COMPATIBILITY.   That old hardware you have connected to USB may not work anymore.  That old hunk of software you love may not work anymore.  Or the software you love may have to run on top of something called “Rosetta 2” which allows Intel apps to run on ARM OS’s.  So there could be hiccups with that as well.

So lets get to my experience: Continue reading →

GOES satellites

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Above you working silently are Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES).  They are operated by NOAA and are essentially weather satellites.

Now here’s the current configuration above.  Seeing as how I live on the East Coast of the US I aim at GOES-16 or GOES East.   Getting the signal is a bit of a challenge and requires some special hardware.

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RTL-SDR Fun

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One of my favorite hobbies of course is radio.  I own a few.

I think the most interesting “radios” are RTL-SDR devices.  The RTL stands for Realtek (which is the chipset) and SDR stands for Software Defined Radio.

They only cost a few bucks for a “generic” one and there are more sensitive and selective ones that cost bigger bucks.

Essentially if it is a radio signal of some kind, with a $20 USB Software Defined Radio you can listen to or decode a multitude of radio traffic/chatter.  In fact it seems darn near illegal, and sometimes it is.  I have other blog pages with this information but I’m just going to re-hash what I’ve been up to this week.

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Chuwi HI10 Air Windows Tablet Review For RTL-SDR

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Batten down the hatches and store food.   The end is near.  I bought a Windows Device and I am going to review it.

Let’s be clear.  I F’n-ing hate Windows.  I have been using Linux and Mac way before it was cool to do so.  Windows is an abomination.  That being said I have long since owned a Vinyl Sign Cutting machine.  The very best software for it runs on Windows.  Also recently I bought an SDRPlay RSPDuo and the only real software to exploit it properly is called SDRUno and it is Windows only.

This is a review for a Chuwi HI10 Air Tablet .  I bought it EXCLUSIVELY for using RTL-SDR radios on.  If you are looking for a review of how well this tablet does ANYTHING besides RTL-SDR, then by golly you are in the wrong place.

I travel a lot and I love listening to radio signals and like it or not I just need to carry around a Windows device.

Sure I can run Windows in a Virtual environment but I’m kind of king of the low power devices (read:  CHEAP) and the things I try to do require more power and speed than what I typically carry around.

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How Do You Like To Listen To Shortwave?

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Probably not a lot of us shortwave junkies out there.  That being said there are several ways to listen.

  • Portable shortwave
  • Tabletop shortwave with external antenna
  • RTL-SDR
  • Internet based SDR

Probably missing something but those are the ways I can do it at Castle Hagensieker.  And while I own many, many portable shortwave radios……………

I have pretty much two preferred ways to listen.

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Using the SDRPlay RSPDuo – A few weeks in

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I’ve had my SDRPlay RSPDuo for a few weeks now and I’m prepared to talk about it a little bit.

First let me preface this by saying I also own an RSP1 and an RSP2 and while I think they are both fine radios I’ve always had a tiny beef with the SDRPlay devices.

Beef #1 is that to really pack a punch with an RSP device you need SDRUno which is a Windows program.   With every fiber of my being I despise Windows.  Don’t like it don’t trust it.

And while you most certainly can use an SDRPlay on Linux weird shit happens.  Let me also preface this by saying that if you install the Non-Windows Workflow as they say in that Lego movie………..”Everything is Awesome”.  Yeah, well, I’m not that guy.  I have every SDR known to God and Man and I build the gr-osmosdr stuff by hand to try to use other devices such as PlutoSDR and LimeMiniSDR.

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Making Your Refrigerator SMART

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I have an old refrigerator in my garage which I suspected was a power hog.  I bought a Sonoff S31 Power Monitoring outlet and flashed it with custom firmware (Tasmota) and blogged about that here.

I’ve since figured out you can do a WHOLE LOT MORE with a Tasmota flashed Sonoff S31. I figure there are two important things you’d want to know about an old refrigerator.

  1. Is it running?
  2. Has the door been left open?

Both answers can be tackled with home automation.  I use the EXCELLENT program HomeAssistant.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

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Using A Laptop As A TV – Old School Stuff

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So sometimes a really good technology just never really takes off.  A USB TV Tuner is just one such technology.

It should have taken off.  Just about everyone who has a laptop should have one of these.  I have three.

So what would you use it for?  In my case I live in a Hurricane zone and in fact got blasted by Hurricane Florence last year and had no power for several days.  (Actually I had power because I have a full house generator). Anyway, due to a concern for the amount of fuel I had on hand I shut down at times and THIS is how I got my news during those times.

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