The "Export Slideshow to Movie Frames" feature is great! It spares a lot of time picking out the right frames of a panorama for example. A big thank to you Michael !

Bunch of movies updated here.

Michael,

One "bug" of sorts that I've noticed recently. If I hit check for updates and then wander off to do some other stuff onmy machine while MMB is working the notification dialog that comes up when the update check is finished is hidden behind all of my active windows and doesn't appear as an additional javaw window. It is also a modal dialog (not sure if the same term is used for Java) so the main MMB windows are unresponsive. It's not difficult to work around, I now know just to minimise all other windows to find it but it may cause some folks to think the application has frozen.

Then again i might just be a bit thick, Outlook does the same to me regularly for exactly the same reason.

Other than that - absolutely phenomenal application mate, couldn't live without it.

Feature request - which might be very hard so no worries if you don't want to jump on it. It would be really cool if there was an analog of the MER update information pane that had a small graphic showing the position and orientation on the route maps.

Yeah, I've noticed that one on Windows. I'm going to try to fix it soon, as it's pretty annoying.

Thanks,
Mike

I've been swimming along like a fish for the past few days (program working great), but just yesterday it started hanging on this image:

http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...T0F0006L0M1.JPG

I am using 1.1.3. It is still hanging up right now. I sure wish it would just timeout on the image and move on to the next, but I get:

1\n\483\1N171067625EDN55T0F0006L0M1.JPG downloading... Exception: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out; retrying...
downloading... Exception: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out; retrying...
downloading...


Then finally a pop up and when I cancel it. the slideshow downloaded thus far disappears.

From experience, I know it will be like this for a couple of days, then it will "heal" and suddenly work. Also my browser (Mozilla) will hang on the same image, but it will eventually time out and recover.

Charlie

Charlie: First thing to try is going into preferences and changing the network timeout from 60 to say 120. Have you tried that already?

All: I am considering releasing the source for MMB on sourceforge.net under the Gnu GPL. Comments pro or con?

I am considering this partly because I am running out of steam for working on the project. Perhaps there are others who would like to contribute.

Charley: Your error msgs. are very similar to the ones that I received from the beginning until ver 1.1.2 -- everything has been real slick (2-3 updates daily) since I updated to this ver -- have not updated to 1.1.3 since I don't need the movie feature.

Mike: Hate to see you give up control and to see you toss the program into the wind. I can certainly understand your frustration, and time concerns, and wonder (selfishly) if it would possible to bribe you to hang in there at a reduced effort (keep the program whole and functional) by tossing a few coppers your way for a "Midnight Beer", or two. Obviously I can't speak for others; but, for me, this is the only free program I use every day and it would be worth a modest contribution. Anyone else? In the long run there may be other repetitive monitor-and-download applications (profitable) for which this program could serve as a proven kernel. Power to the "Working Class"!! -- I'm retired siping the nectar (mostly fermented).

Well, I'll always be around to keep the thing functional (unless I get run over by a bus or join a monastery or something). Speaking of slowly adding new features, Version 1.1.4 adds a nice one suggested by dotdk:



http://midnightmarsbrowser.blogspot.com/

Michael,

I'd vote for releasing the source under the GPL, provided there's nothing preventing you from doing so. I have to own up to being an Open source fan though.

There's a risk of losing control of derivitives but so long as those derivitives respect the GPL well that's the point really, you still get credit and respect for your work. There is a slight risk that someone might rip it off and ignore the GPL terms in which case you might get embroiled in a fight to stop the abuse. The EFF seem quite keen to take up such cases pro bono though so that is a slight risk of having hassle but shouldn't mean you have to worry about exposing your self to legal costs if the worst was to happen.

If you are going to go the GPL route then if I were you I'd consider just releasing the source as a download and see if there was interest before setting up a Sourceforge project.

Great software though and whether you do release the source or not, thanks for letting us all use it.

Helvick: Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Good points.

Switching topics, version 1.1.5 is now up, featuring some improvements to the automatic update feature that I noticed I wanted when using it today.

Test.

Hi Mike,

I set the "Network Timeout" pref to 120, but it still occasionally hangs, and just takes longer before a retry. Creating a dummy file has worked a few times.

Is it possible to have a setting such that it will only attempt to download a file say, twice, and then it might give up and skip that file? Or can I create a skip file list?

The program is great, even though I have this glitch. The automatic update feature is great. Thanks!

It might be possible to do something like that; I'll try to look at it soon. I'm still not sure why you're having problems downloading particular files though.

Charlie,

Are you sure the problem is with MMB and not with something else on your system or with your service provider either choking on those particular files or requests?

I've never had a hitch with any files but I have had problems like this with my local firewall and I've also had problems in the past with an Antivirus scanner that was a bit overzealous in how it chose to scan internet downloads.

Just a long shot but it's a really weird error and I'm curious, it's the sort of thing I have users call

helvick,

Thanks for your reply. Often, it is helpful to simply hear that someone else does not have the same problem as it allows one to focus better on the true cause. What is your system config?

I can't say that I am sure it is MMB. The downloads work about 75% of the time. But when it sticks on a particular image, it sticks on that image for a couple of days, even if I reboot and restart MMB. I have found that if I replace the "bad" file locally with a dummy .jpg file with a newer date, then MMB will skip it and merrily complete the rest of the download. Could be a bad file? Could be Java? Who knows.

I don't mean to make too big a deal of this. MMB is great and I have a work around (although cumbersome). A quicker work around would be nice. Right now I have to make a dummy file, give it the right name and put it in the right place. If no one else has this issue, then don’t mind me.

I'm just intrigued by the problem, can't help myself when I see a weird problem.

For reference - I'm running on an IBM Thinkpad T41P (1.8Ghz Pentium M, 1GB RAM, 60G HDD with about 15GB free). Windows XP SP2, BlackIce "firewall", connecting via a range of sources (Home DSL, various WLAN hotspots in Ireland and in Israel and Germany as I'm travelling at the moment in Israel via Germany) running on J2RE , SE 1.4.2_08. The only time I have issues are when I'm running over a connection that requires a proxy to connect - ie at work. I assume I could now use the MMB proxy support to get around that but don't want to incur the wrath of our internet connectivity folks.

Do you have the option of using an alternative internet provider, even temporarily, just to sanity check that the problem is actually with MMB or at least on your PC and not something bizarre between your machine and the exploratorium site?

Version 1.1.6 fixes it so that an error downloading a single image won't terminate the download. Also I have changed anaglyph generation to eliminate the left and right borders, so the anaglyphs will be easier to put into panoramas. I guess they look nicer, too.

http://midnightmarsbrowser.blogspot.com/

Thank you Mike,

I was waiting for the problem to pop up again, but now it may never.

Thanks again.

Thanks again for all your hard work Mike - 'tis a thing of beauty!

The folks at Seagate will prolly be thanking you as well since we all are going to need bigger hard drives to deal with all the movies and panoramas we'll be generating...

Just to keep this thread alive, there are some screenshots of what's under development for the next release posted on the Midnight Mars Browser homepage. Happy fourth!

*-gulp-*

that's.....

so....

amazinG!

It's like Maestro never went away!

Very nice! A superb feature!!

Nico

One word.

How?





Doug

I think sums it up really!

I can't wait...

Another word. When?

To answer how: It turns out it's not as difficult as I thought, using Java3D. (I've always wanted to do this, but I assumed it was basically impossible.) I've extracted the camera pointing information from the headers of the PDS IMG files that are available (Sol 1-270) and used the information to create pan definition files (my own "mmb" format, which I'm still refining). We should be able to create "best guess" pan definitions for more recent sols for which the data hasn't been released yet.

To answer when: I hope to have a first version out within a couple weeks so you can play with it, but no promises. It's working pretty well in development but I need to finalize some details and add some polish before it's ready to release into the wild.

Ahh - from the IMG's..I was thinking "huh - how'd he get pointing from a jpg?"



Now - we just need to twist your arm to decode the xyz models from every stereo pair and we're on a winner

Doug

I wish I could get pointing from the jpg's. I also rather wish they weren't stretched.

If you're going from IMG's - then you should pop in the radiometric offset and stretch and get lovely calibrated seamless pictures

Doug

Mike,

I eagerly anticipate the new features that you have in the works. Keep up the good work!

Btw, I have considered sending an e-mail to Exploratorium to see why no new images are being posted. However, it would be less stressful on them if these requests pass through a single liason (i.e: you). Could you please ask them why no new images? Is it related to some downtime for the past July 4th holiday, and the vacations that often occur at this time? Is it due to the ending of 2nd quarter budget?

C'mon. I've got the shakes here. I need more MMB!

Much Thanks,

Brad

I think it would be a good idea for anyone who's concerned to contact Exploratorium. It'd probably help them to know that people are eagerly watching their site. Donating to Exploratorium is always a good idea, too, if you haven't done it.

Update: I've sent them an email, we'll see what they say.

Glad to hear that you contacted them. I'll send an additional query. I just didn't know if the best approach was for one person to speak for several, or for us to send them several messages. It is easier on them to respond to the former, but the latter more cleary demonstrates the audience that they have.

Btw, have you ever invited an Exploratorium Representitive to participate in this board?

Donation is certainly a fair thing to do. For the enjoyment that I've received from their timely updates, it was well worth giving something in return.

Much Thanks,

Brad

Version 1.2 is now posted, featuring an early version of the Panorama feature.

Consider the Panorama feature to be in an experimental stage. Java 3D is required, so check out the updated installation instructions if you want to use the feature.

Currently only pans from Sol 1-270 are available, since they can be generated from the rover data that has been released to the public. Next thing I'll be working on is a way to easily create "best guess" pans for sols that aren't in the PDS release yet.

Have fun! And remember this is an early version. I'm putting it out now because I know there are a couple people who want a look at it.

Wow! Feels like I'm there.

I heard back from Exploratorium and they were trying to get the issue resolved. Exploratorium is updated this morning with four new rear hazcam images from Opportunity Sol 511 - quite what that means I'm not sure, but perhaps regular updates have resumed now. They were hoping that all the "missed" images would show up but looks like maybe that is not going to be the case. Oh well - if you use MMB you got all the updates from the JPL site anyway (assuming *they* are posting everything...)

JPL's not had anything since last week either

Doug

Well I just hope *somebody* fills in the gaps here eventually. I'm used to delays at the JPL site, I'm still hoping the images will show up there.

FYI, MMB users, I just did a Advanced Image Update from JPL for both rovers from Sol 400 on, with the Fast Update option checked, and it picked up some Oppy images that it hadn't caught before. Nothing really spectacular but still, you might want to swing back and pick those up if you're trying to maintain a complete set of images. If you use the Fast Update option it won't take very long.

My first post-Sol-270 Midnight Mars Browser panorama has been posted; here is a screenshot.

Version 1.2.1 is now up, featuring many improvements and fixes to the new Panorama feature.

Here is a navcam panorama from Spirit Sol 550 that I threw together this evening:

Big update: Version 1.2.2, plus the generated panorama definitions for Sols 271-360 have been posted.

Midnight Mars Browser homepage

Looking great Michael! I'm installing as soon as I clear up some disk-space since I figure generating the mosaics will take up quite some room.

Thankyou for the fine work.

Nico

Mike:

Bravo on the new version. We should all be grateful for your dedicated efforts. It is, and has long been the ultimate Mars browser that keeps getting better.

I'm a happy customer.

Thanks for your comments, everybody. I've fulfilled one personal ambition recently: got the MMB Panorama feature working before Spirit reached the summit of Husband Hill. (Thank heavens for outcrops.)

My plan at the moment is regular (daily, at least) updates to the site and the metadata, and a more relaxed pace of development for the actual program. There's still I lot I would like to do with it for completeness but it's reaching a certain maturity, I think.

I invite your comments on what would be the most important features / improvements to work on next, given a somewhat slower pace of development. I have my own agenda but I always like to hear what if anything people are looking for.

Mr Howard...


Thank you so much for this fantastic program!


I simply can not believe I didn't install it earlier... Thought it wouldn't run on a six years old machine, but it runs great!


To give you an idea of how much I appreciate this program: upon watching the first pan I literally had tears in my eyes...

This easily is the best browser for MER imagery, there's nothing coming close.


I'm going to get me a bigger HD, only for this program. (my 12 and 9GB HDD set used to be totally over the top, 6 years ago, heh.)


One small request: now in preferences (OSX) one can't change the home directory, which is a bit of a pain on a system with the primary disk chock full... I'd want to put all the data on a second one, but seems the thumbnails get stored in /users/XXXXX... This takes a non-trivial amount of space...
Is there a way around this?

Rxke, thanks for your response, it's nice to know people are getting something out of the program.

I don't think there's a way to move the thumbnails or the home directory to a different location right now. I tried making an alias to the thumbnails directory as a workaround, but unfortunately that doesn't work. However, I'll make fixing this a high priority for the next version. Some of these things don't get fixed just because I am working on other areas, so it's good to ask.

P.S. One thing you could do in the meantime is delete all the thumbnails for everything except navcam and pancam, ie, delete the thumbnails/{rover code}/f, fa, m, r and ra directories, as these thumbnails are not currently used. In fact you can always delete all of the thumbnails, the program will rebuild them as needed (although this will slow it down a bit as it rebuilds them).

Thank you for the swift reply!

Heh, also tried aliasing...

Meanwhile, I deleted/moved some stuff from my system partition, one has to make priorities!


So it's not a very important request. But OTOH, I could imagine people carrying around all their data on an external HD, when visiting friends, and impressing them that way...


Keep up the excellent job!

You should definitely consider externals Rxke! I have my valuable data on them and if your system could cope with firewire800 things run real smooth...

About visiting friends with the disks, you can get easily transportable ones but they're a lot more expensive for a given capacity...



Nico (dreaming of a few 2Tb Lacie Raid5's)

I have all my MER stuff on a 250 Gb Maxtor external - then anything I'm actually 'working' on gets pinged onto a 72 Gig Western Digital Raptor - worked on, then put back on the Maxtor

Doug