[GreenKeys] Santa Tracker 2024

Sat Jan 4 22:03:41 EST 2025

Always a pleasure!

My kids like coloring in the pix and tracking the journey on Christmas Eve.  They tape them to the walls each year.  I hope it will be one of those warm, positive core memories they look back on with fondness in later years, and maybe I can get them to carry on the tradition for their little ones. Heaven knows I have enough machines for each of them to inherit several now (whether they are functional is another question).

Last year I kept the machine out in the barn where I usually operate it, but the magic wasn't quite the same-- they couldn't hear the clattering clarion call when the machine started up and so didn't come running to read each new broadcast like they usually did in prior years. I had to keep reminding them to go out and check for updates. So I brought the machine inside again this year. Much more fun for everyone.

Daniel, using the enumeration of unique IP addresses that made requests to the stream while it was live, it looks like a total of 90 unique requestors hit the stream with known bots filtered out. I'm sure a chunk of them didn't listen very long. The highest concurrent number of listeners I tend to get according to Icecast is around 20, but Icecast does not track total unique listeners, so I have to resort to the above method. I believe there is a plugin that tracks unique listeners, maybe even average listen time. I'll have to experiment with that sometime. There were around seven or eight listeners who stuck around for the majority of the broadcast-- at least I assume it was all the same people. I don't have any way to tell if some dropped out and others took their places, at least not yet.

Thanks for the well wishes, happy new year, 73,

-
Jordan Spencer Cunningham
teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org

On Thu, Dec 26, 2024, at 11:40 AM, Mike Douglas wrote:
> Thanks again for providing this fun feed for us each year.
> 
> Mike D
> 
>> On Dec 23, 2024, at 3:42 PM, Jordan Spencer Cunningham <js at teletype.net> wrote:
>> 
>> The tracker stream is live! First test message/pix to begin in about 20 minutes.
>> 
>> Merry Christmas!
>> 
>> -
>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
>> teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
>> SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org
>> 
>> On Tue, Dec 17, 2024, at 1:39 AM, Jordan Spencer Cunningham wrote:
>>> It's that time of year again for all good little boys and girls to follow Santa's journey around the globe utilizing the peak of communications innovation-- the teleprinter.
>>> 
>>> For the uninitiated, this is an ITTY-like broadcast where reports of where Santa was sighted and the circumstances of that sighting are broadcast periodically. Our eyewitness reports provide a unique, intimate tracking experience particularly enjoyed by kids aged one to 92.
>>> 
>>> Tune in whenever you can at http://tty.nerdology.org:8080/santatrack using the same configuration as you would for standard ITTY <https://www.rtty.com/itty/index.htm> autostart. NOTE: this URL will result in a 404 error until 15 - 30 minutes before the first test message on the 23rd.
>>> 
>>> The schedule will be as follows:
>>>  • *December 23, 3:00 PM MST *- A test message followed immediately by a Christmasy RTTY art (some pix will have overstrike) will be broadcast every hour on the hour for this and the following 11 hours, which should give all global time zones some chance to tune in before tracking starts
>>>  • *December 24, 3:00 AM MST *- Based on prior timetables, we expect Santa to begin his journey and the reports of sightings to start coming in around this time
>>>  • We will track Santa for the following ~24 hours as reports of his whereabouts and descriptions of what he's doing keep coming in, with these brief messages likely rolling in roughly every 10 - 20 minutes dependent upon how the sightings go this year. You may consider keeping a good ol' fashioned globe or atlas handy to follow along.
>>> 
>>> Not to get into the weeds, but while I have attempted supporting USOS (unshift on space) for the past few years, I am again unable to support it this year due to a bug I found in the implementation of USOS in the software I use to generate tones (fldigi) for which I can't compensate. Those who have USOS on receive enabled, if you can disable it, that's advisable, though if not, it should only be a minor inconvenience, manifesting mainly in timestamps not printing correctly. I've been considering rewriting the broadcasting scripts to wrap around minimodem instead of fldigi for a few years, which would give me total control over aspects like USOS among other benefits, but unfortunately I haven't been able to devote much time to the joys of teletypery for a while. As great as these machines are, five kids are infinitely more important, though I do make sure they get a whiff of that oil smell while we print out pix and type up messages every so often, and they are all looking forward to tracking Santa with you all again this year.
>>> 
>>> Merry Christmas, 73,
>>> 
>>> -
>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
>>> teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
>>> SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org
>>> 
>> 
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>>>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>>>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
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>> 
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