Flickr! Mashups, third party sites, and technology

I wondered if I should be hungry when I saw the assignment for mashups. Alas, not so. According to Wikipedia, a mashup is a web application combining data from more than one source into a single integrated tool.

The mashups and third party sites linked to Flickr! certainly are useful. I enjoyed visiting a few of them. I will need to spend more time to actually be comfortable with some of them.

I believe I am already using a mashup when I use the logging program to record my HAM radio contacts around the world. The program maps the world location of the prefix, displays zulu time, shows the greyline, gives the antenna angle for a rotating beam, displays the current radio frequency and even calculates entities, states, and counties for various award program requirements. The program does much more than this, but it takes some time to appreciate all of its capabilities.

The modern HAM radio is a technological marvel as well. Some of the brands are closer to the old radios, but some contain menus closer to those of a computer. (They usually state the menu is intuitive. I almost sent my first radio back to the company for a reset when I had it so locked up I couldn't go anywhere with it. Gradually I learned how to reset to the manufacturer's settings to try again. Now I can actually operate four rigs of different models and by two different manufacturers.) In the future I plan to use the digital mode capabilities of my ICOM Pro III to send packet signals or RTTY. I am also working on my morse code so that I can utilize these bands as well.