Unmanned Spaceflight.com > Midnight Mars Browser

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 03:09 PM

QUOTE (micvoo @ Jan 22 2009, 08:01 AM)

Does that work as expected?

Yes; there are options in the Navigate menu for viewing next image, previous image, etc. You also should be able to use the Time Intervals tab and the Images tab.

If Slideshow is working and Panorama isn't, that generally points to a metadata problem. It's possible you have an internet firewall that is blocking access to the site where the metadata is hosted, so the metadata update isn't really working. Find out what your workspace directory is using the File -> Switch Workspace option, then go to {workspace directory}/metadata/downloaded. See if there are any files there larger than a few K. For example, tell me the size of the file ImageMetadata_archive.csv - it should be about 21 MB.

micvoo

Jan 22 2009, 04:13 PM

Yes, there are several CSV files there, one being about 21 MB...
What steps do you perform to display a panorama? It may be a good idea to just pick a day or series of days, describe step by step what you do, and I will perform the same steps here...

cheers

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 05:29 PM

We've already told you the steps to display a panorama, and you've already done them. They aren't working. All you do is select a rover in the "Viewer Settings" tab and click the Mars-with-a-plus icon. You can further refine the view criteria, but that isn't necessary and won't help you.

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 06:04 PM

Perhaps time for a basic sanity-check here: Select Help -> About Midnight Mars Browser, click the "Plug-In Details" button, and look to see what version the MidnightMarsBrowser plugin is. It should be "2.0.2".

stewjack

Jan 22 2009, 06:08 PM

I am having problems downloading and/or installing MMB 2

I am new to MMB2. Since Spirit has started moving again, I decided to download and install MMB2.0.2.win32.x86.zip, but the indicated size of the file is 16.0 MB, and the file I download is about 2.5 MB. Not surprisingly; when I try and unzip the truncated file, it reports as corrupted. Has anyone else noticed this problem?

I don't want to do anything fancy just download image files and maybe view panoramas.

OS: WINXP Home

Jack

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 06:31 PM

Downloads and unzips successfully here. I'm not on Windows, though, so can't exactly run it at the moment. I assume you're going to http://code.google.com/p/midnightmarsbrowser/downloads/list

Over 500 downloads of version 2.0.2 now? Sheesh, I turn my back for a few months and suddenly it's almost popular.

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 06:52 PM

You can also try to download the Windows version from here

hendric

Jan 22 2009, 06:57 PM

QUOTE (mhoward @ Jan 22 2009, 12:31 PM)

Over 500 downloads of version 2.0.2 now? Sheesh, I turn my back for a few months and suddenly it's almost popular.

Yeah, some bozo keeps going onto websites espousing the virtues of your software. I wonder who that could be?

mhoward

Jan 22 2009, 07:01 PM

QUOTE (hendric @ Jan 22 2009, 12:57 PM)

Yeah, some bozo keeps going onto websites espousing the virtues of your software. I wonder who that could be?

I imagine that must be it. Apparently those articles are being read or podcasts are being listened to.

djellison

Jan 22 2009, 09:53 PM

Oh crap. I was hoping no one would read / listen / pay attention to them

stewjack

Jan 22 2009, 10:14 PM

QUOTE (mhoward @ Jan 22 2009, 01:52 PM)

You can also try to download the Windows version from here

That url worked like a charm. A 16 MB file and it unzipped. I will attempt to install at a later date, but if I have any problems, I am sure that there are many other people on this forum who can help me. Although not 500 because I downloaded at least 3 times from that repository.

Note: I still think that there is something wrong with the file at Google code: midnightmarsbrowser. After the initial failed download, I did two more ( careful ) downloads using the Firefox 3.0.5 down-loader. Although the down-loader indicated that the file was 16.0 MB - both of my downloads ceased with the exact same byte count of approximately 2.5 MB

Thanks again for your help.

I will wait till I have more free time to do anything more with the program.

Jack

djellison

Jan 24 2009, 09:39 AM

I don't mind doing a series of a few tutorials as screen-captures if people would find them usefull. What would people like to see?

imipak

Jan 25 2009, 03:13 PM

QUOTE (stewjack @ Jan 22 2009, 10:14 PM)

Note: I still think that there is something wrong with the file at Google code:

Works for me...

CODE

$ ll -h MMB2.0.2.win32.x86.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 imipak imipak 17M 2009-01-25 15:08 MMB2.0.2.win32.x86.zip
$ file MMB2.0.2.win32.x86.zip
MMB2.0.2.win32.x86.zip: Zip archive data, at least v1.0 to extract

mhoward

Jan 25 2009, 05:02 PM

QUOTE (imipak @ Jan 25 2009, 09:13 AM)

Works for me...

Good to hear. The package that I hosted on my own site is actually the one downloaded from Google Code, so if there's something wrong in the Google Code download, it's a problem that doesn't affect everyone. Maybe there's a bit clog somewhere in the Intertubes. As I'm not really encouraging people to download it anyway (present company excepted), I'm not going to worry about it.

micvoo

Jan 25 2009, 05:50 PM

QUOTE (mhoward @ Jan 22 2009, 07:04 PM)

Perhaps time for a basic sanity-check here: Select Help -> About Midnight Mars Browser, click the "Plug-In Details" button, and look to see what version the MidnightMarsBrowser plugin is. It should be "2.0.2".

Referring to 754 I do have version 2.0.2.

I redownloaded all images and I am now getting a single panorama displayed now when I follow the steps provided. But no info as to what I am looking at, e.g. location, day (or day range, etc). Could someone talk me through the steps for creating panorama's so I know what I am doing. Just pick your favorite panorama and how to display at and then explain what you can see and do with it, step by step. I am unfamiliar with the features of the tool. I find MMBa great tool and I am still interested in knowing how to use its features... Thanks for your help!

mhoward

Jan 25 2009, 06:12 PM

I don't have time to go into detail, but the same controls that work in Slideshow mode work in Panorama mode (mostly). Look under the Navigate menu. And look at the Time Intervals view.

In panorama mode, use the mouse to pan around. Also the arrow keys work. A and Z keys are used to zoom in and out, IIRC.

P.S. You also seem to be laboring hard under some mistaken assumptions. For example, you don't have to "create" panoramas; once you've opened a panorama view, you can just navigate from panorama to panorama. Maybe somebody else can help you there.

djellison

Jan 25 2009, 06:19 PM

QUOTE (micvoo @ Jan 25 2009, 05:50 PM)

But no info as to what I am looking at, e.g. location, day (or day range, etc).

For location - the site and drive number are within all the images, and will be shown if you click the wheel icon, along with day range. There has never been, nor ever will be a manual for MMB. Everyone else has figured it out just by playing around. Read back through the posts of this thread and really, you should be able to work it all out for yourself. We all have.

Doug

micvoo

Jan 26 2009, 04:48 PM

QUOTE (mhoward @ Jan 25 2009, 07:12 PM)

I don't have time to go into detail, but the same controls that work in Slideshow mode work in Panorama mode (mostly). Look under the Navigate menu. And look at the Time Intervals view.

In panorama mode, use the mouse to pan around. Also the arrow keys work. A and Z keys are used to zoom in and out, IIRC.

P.S. You also seem to be laboring hard under some mistaken assumptions. For example, you don't have to "create" panoramas; once you've opened a panorama view, you can just navigate from panorama to panorama. Maybe somebody else can help you there.

Without a manual I would need to make some assumptions. Sorry about that.
I am also unfamiliar with the Slideshow mode. Can you please pick a panorama of your choice and tell me what I can do within that view, and how? I do not appear to be able to get out of the panorama that is displayed or move to another panorama... I also don't understand why I am getting just a single panorama. Step by step instructions would be great... Could anyone help?
Thanks a million

micvoo

jamescanvin

Jan 26 2009, 05:25 PM

Nothing wrong with making assumptions, you can test them easily by trying them.

To be honest that is the best way to learn, test out the various options/buttons and see what happens!

Re: viewing different panoramas

Assuming you have left all the defaults in selecting images (i.e just changed view type from Slideshow to Panorama) then lots of panoramas should have loaded, you have several ways of viewing the different ones.

1) Click on the Time intervals tab - you'll get a list of all the sites loaded - some even with notes saying what it is - click on any to see that panorama.
2) You can go from one Pan to the next by clicking the '[' and ']' keys (or using the buttons on the right end of the button bar) (or by clicking on Navigate -> Next Time interval
3) Clicking on the blue and red squares within the current panorama to move to that location.

micvoo

Jan 26 2009, 06:11 PM

QUOTE (jamescanvin @ Jan 26 2009, 06:25 PM)

Nothing wrong with making assumptions, you can test them easily by trying them.

To be honest that is the best way to learn, test out the various options/buttons and see what happens!

Re: viewing different panoramas

Assuming you have left all the defaults in selecting images (i.e just changed view type from Slideshow to Panorama) then lots of panoramas should have loaded, you have several ways of viewing the different ones.

1) Click on the Time intervals tab - you'll get a list of all the sites loaded - some even with notes saying what it is - click on any to see that panorama.
2) You can go from one Pan to the next by clicking the '[' and ']' keys (or using the buttons on the right end of the button bar) (or by clicking on Navigate -> Next Time interval
3) Clicking on the blue and red squares within the current panorama to move to that location.

Thanks for that James. There is no Time Intervals tab in the default display but when clicking the icon depicting a quarter of a wheel a Time Intervals list is displayed. When I click on the Santa Catarina decription (location 7800, sols 1041-1055) the tool closes down and I have to restart it. Nothing is displayed then. I am using Vista Home and MMB 2.0.
I cannot perform steps 2 and 3.

What's wrong?

cheers,

micvoo

jamescanvin

Jan 26 2009, 06:36 PM

Don't know - that one works for me. But totally different OS so that's probably not saying a lot.

Do any work when selecting from that list?

2 and 3 are not 'steps' but 'options'. What do you mean you cannot perform them? What happens when you try them?

micvoo

Jan 26 2009, 07:40 PM

QUOTE (jamescanvin @ Jan 26 2009, 07:36 PM)

Don't know - that one works for me. But totally different OS so that's probably not saying a lot.

Do any work when selecting from that list?

2 and 3 are not 'steps' but 'options'. What do you mean you cannot perform them? What happens when you try them?

No, steps 2 and 3 don't work as the tool crashes. I am going to give up on this and just use the tool as a download tool from now on.

Do you know how to make sure the tool does not download sundial images and solar images, or how I can delete the already downloaded sundial and solar images? I have no use for them and they only clog up space on my hard drive?

cheers,

micvoo

djellison

Jan 26 2009, 08:07 PM

They're noise compared to the volume of the rest of the data - ignore them.

micvoo

Jan 26 2009, 09:50 PM

QUOTE (djellison @ Jan 26 2009, 09:07 PM)

They're noise compared to the volume of the rest of the data - ignore them.

Is there a quick way to delete them though, or to prevent them from being downloaded?
cheers,

micvoo

ElkGroveDan

Jan 26 2009, 09:53 PM

I believe when you choose your automated download preferences you can select categories of images (but I'm not at a machine running MMB right now).

It's probably best for you to spend some time poking buttons and pulling down options like you would do with any new software until you are more comfortable with the program. Most of the questions you've posted here have easy answers if you just take a minute to find them.

micvoo

Jan 27 2009, 04:13 PM

QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Jan 26 2009, 10:53 PM)

I believe when you choose your automated download preferences you can select categories of images (but I'm not at a machine running MMB right now).

It's probably best for you to spend some time poking buttons and pulling down options like you would do with any new software until you are more comfortable with the program. Most of the questions you've posted here have easy answers if you just take a minute to find them.

It should be fairly easy to answer by those who are more familiar with the tool. How do I prevent MMB from downloading solar images and sundial images? Which menu, options do I need to select, enable, disable... Also, is it possible to delete already downloaded solar images and sundial images in one swoop?

Thanks a milion!

mhoward

Jan 27 2009, 05:23 PM

QUOTE (micvoo @ Jan 27 2009, 09:13 AM)

It should be fairly easy to answer by those who are more familiar with the tool. How do I prevent MMB from downloading solar images and sundial images? Which menu, options do I need to select, enable, disable... Also, is it possible to delete already downloaded solar images and sundial images in one swoop?

You're right, there's a simple answer: you don't. Exactly like Doug said, those images are just noise, and insignificant compared to the bulk of regular images. You will realize no significant benefit by deleting them, and MMB gives you no facility to do so. Question answered, definitively.

I have to say I agree at this point: you need to spend more time figuring out the tool for yourself. If I went back and looked at the history of this thread, I wouldn't be surprised if this question were already answered somewhere. Indeed, you don't have to look back very far: Doug already effectively answered it.

Adding: And please, please don't respond with "there needs to be a manual" again. We've already been over that.

ElkGroveDan

Jan 27 2009, 06:31 PM

QUOTE (micvoo @ Jan 27 2009, 08:13 AM)

It should be fairly easy to answer by those who are more familiar with the tool.

It would be even easier to familiarize yourself with the very-well written and user-friendly program. Also as Mike noted, go back and look over this discussion. Three moderators have asked you to take some time to learn the easy functions yourself and not clutter it up here or waste the creator's time with that kind of stuff. So please do so, OK?

micvoo

Jan 27 2009, 06:54 PM

QUOTE (ElkGroveDan @ Jan 27 2009, 07:31 PM)

It would be even easier to familiarize yourself with the very-well written and user-friendly program. Also as Mike noted, go back and look over this discussion. Three moderators have asked you to take some time to learn the easy functions yourself and not clutter it up here or waste the creator's time with that kind of stuff. So please do so, OK?

I suppose that's where we have different opinions. The tool is great no doubt, but I find it definitely user unfriendly and not intuitive at all, there is no documentation with it and the forum is of little help other than the advice I get to go the long road of discovering things myself where others have gone before or references to assumptions that someone, somewhere at some time must have asked the same question before...

What is holding back this tool is proper documentation of features and how to use them, so for me - at present - MMB is just a downloader, unfortunately. But that's alright, that feature is easy anough and works just fine. No complaints from me about that!

mhoward

Jan 27 2009, 07:15 PM

QUOTE (micvoo @ Jan 27 2009, 12:54 PM)

the forum is of little help other than the advice I get to go the long road of discovering things myself where others have gone before or references to assumptions that someone, somewhere at some time must have asked the same question before...

What is holding back this tool is proper documentation of features and how to use them

Yes, all that is exactly right. I believe I've already stated that this tool is not intended for a large audience. I don't know how I can say it any clearer: you either figure it out yourself, or you just go do something else. Thank you for your opinion; I will delete any further posts on this, as it's just cluttering up the forum at this point. But I'm glad you can find some use in the downloading feature.

djellison

Jan 27 2009, 07:17 PM

As an administrator, I back MH's take on this. Micvoo - you've been ignoring our advice, making demands for things you've been told are not going to happen, and refusing to do ANY work yourself to become familiar with MMB. I'm giving you a week to think about it.

jamescanvin

Feb 3 2009, 05:50 PM

Is anybody else on a Mac having problems getting the Preferences pane to come up in MMB?

I click on it and nothing seems to happen - I haven't tried it for a while so I don't know what I did to break it.

Fully up to date Mac OSX 10.5.6, MMB 2.0.2

mhoward

Feb 3 2009, 06:00 PM

QUOTE (jamescanvin @ Feb 3 2009, 10:50 AM)

Is anybody else on a Mac having problems getting the Preferences pane to come up in MMB?

It never worked - was never implemented. So I can see where you would be having problems.

jamescanvin

Feb 3 2009, 07:56 PM

Ah OK, I must have been confusing it with MMB v1

mhoward

Feb 3 2009, 08:05 PM

Yes, 1.x had some properties. Never had time to implement them in the Eclipse version, and it's not possible to remove the menu item AFAIK.

For any newcomers (I haven't mentioned it in a few posts): MMB 2.0 is no longer being maintained. I've got too many other projects going on, waaay too many, to spend any time on it.

P.S. I suppose I should add, though, that a few of those other projects might be Mars-related. Just not MMB.

mhoward

Feb 8 2009, 02:25 PM

MMB advisory: the online metadata is corrupted as of post time due to dotMac crappiness. Avoid using the "Update Metadata..." menu option for a few hours. Normal updates should be okay (I think).

Edit: Nevermind, looks like we're good now.

CosmicRocker

Apr 23 2009, 02:01 AM

MMB has stopped updating for me and I can't fix the problem. The last time it downloaded images from the Exploratorium site was on April 20th. On the 21st and the 22nd it finds no new images, even though I can see that there were new images posted to the site on each of those days.

I am running version 2.0.2 on Windows. I deleted the installation (but not the workspace), downloaded the zip file again from the Google site, and reinstalled it. That didn't solve the problem. I rebuilt the image indices and re-downloaded the metadata to no avail.

The results are the same whether I initiate an update with the icon on the toolbar, go to the update menu and "get the latest images from Exploratorium," or use the Advanced Update menu. Any suggestions...?

CODE

Checking for new images Wed Apr 22 20:53:57 CDT 2009
Checking Opportunity raw images from Exploratorium. Last download time is 20-Apr-2009 18:00
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/micro_imager/... scanning...
There are 0 new Opportunity images at Exploratorium.
Checking Spirit raw images from Exploratorium. Last download time is 20-Apr-2009 18:00
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/forward_hazcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/rear_hazcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/micro_imager/... scanning...
There are 0 new Spirit images at Exploratorium.
Checking new metadata flag... skipped; same last modified time.
Check complete Wed Apr 22 20:54:00 CDT 2009
There are no new images.
Done.

alan

Apr 23 2009, 04:33 AM

Its not just you, it did the same for me yesterday. It scanned through the list way faster than usual, I noticed the difference because my connection not that fast.

CosmicRocker

Apr 23 2009, 04:43 AM

Yeah, it scanned much more quickly than usually here, too.

Tesheiner

Apr 23 2009, 10:57 AM

Probably related to this issue is the fact that the exploratorium is no longer using HTTP but HTTPS protocol.

mhoward

Apr 23 2009, 12:36 PM

Yes; clearly the configuration has changed on their end. I've sent an email and will let you now what I find out.

mhoward

Apr 23 2009, 01:43 PM

I've posted an update (2.0.3) that temporarily works around the problem. You have to get this through the Help -> Update Software menu option; remember to wait to let it finish downloading when you use this option. I haven't posted the full package as this fix may yet change, and what I've done to fix it is a little dubious. I haven't heard back just yet whether the change on their end is permanent. What we're getting is a permanent redirect to an HTTPS address, but we'll see.

mhoward

Apr 23 2009, 05:20 PM

Quick note: Exploratorium will be fixing it at some point. When that happens, the current update of MMB will most likely break, and I'll put out a new one.

CosmicRocker

Apr 24 2009, 03:14 AM

Many thanks, Mike, for the rapid patch. My daily Mars experience is whole, again.

mhoward

Apr 24 2009, 05:34 PM

Exploratorium seems to have switched back to regular HTTP now for the rover images, so I've pushed out update 2.0.4 to undo the workaround in 2.0.3. 2.0.4 has a few tweaks to the panorama rendering parameters but otherwise isn't much changed from the last full version (2.0.2).

I don't know why Exploratorium hasn't seen any new Spirit images since the 21st, though - other than maybe there really aren't any yet? (Twitter says Spirit is ok and about to move, though.)

Tesheiner

Apr 24 2009, 06:44 PM

> I don't know why Exploratorium hasn't seen any new Spirit images since the 21st, though - other than maybe there really aren't any yet?

I've observed some glitches from time to time; maybe this is one of those. The pancam database actually reports new pictures for Spirit after the 21st.

mhoward

May 1 2009, 02:40 PM

I've pushed out a minor update (2.0.5) to fix a couple small things that were discussed http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=139763" target="_blank">on the Opportunity thread</a>.

- L6R1 Pancam anaglyphs are generated, if L7R1 is not found.
- The latest version of the of an image is chosen for panoramas, at least in the case of raw (not generated) images. (Auto-generation of color images is still unreliable, for multiple reasons, but I really don't have time to fix that one.)

Fortunately this was pretty easy to do, as I feel my Java skills are starting to get a little rusty. I've been using Objective-C exclusively for over 6 months now, and don't miss Java much.

Tesheiner

Jun 19 2009, 09:31 PM

I don't see any metadata update since the 6th of June.
Is somebody else having the same problem?

mhoward

Jun 20 2009, 12:57 AM

The problem was on my end; I just forgot to update for the last few days. It should be updated now.

briv1016

Jul 17 2009, 06:54 PM

I just loaded Midnight Mars Browser on by new computer (hp dv3t with vista, no xp drivers available) and am getting a weird error. Is MMB not compatable with vista or am I doing something wrong? Here is a cropped view of the error.