dmpop
dmpop
Dmitri Popov
Personal blog of an amateur airplane photographer, Linux user, and clues coder.
Latest Posts
I readily admit that I'm nothing but a (clueless) weekend coder. While this doesn't prevent me from enjoying cobbling together home-grown tools, my limited skills can also be a source of frustration. Often, a task that would take a...
Displaying METAR data in a human-readable format has long been at the top of my "Features I want in Sky scraper" list. But my previous attempts to implement this feature failed miserably, because parsing raw METAR data in PHP wasn't...
Last Sunday, NUE celebrated its 70th anniversary with a huge party featuring a handful of aircraft and specialized vehicles on display, booths, and of course food. Despite the drizzling rain, the place was packed. Though we spent most of...
When I started working on the ADS-B station project, I only used its name as a working title. I kept it for so long simply because I couldn't come up with a better name.
When I woke up and checked Flightradar24 this morning, I almost jumped out of bed; an Airbus A330-200 operated by the French Air Force was scheduled to depart in the afternoon. I promptly requested a half-day off, and raced to NUE on my...
The map feature in ADS-B station is nowhere near as good as tar1090. But that doesn't stop me from trying to make it more useful: partly because I enjoy finding my own simple solutions and learning new techniques in the process, and...
Last Saturday was a wonderful day in NUE in every respect. I had to get up earlier than usual, because I wanted to catch a Boeing 737-800 operated by SunExpress (reg. TC-SPY) featuring the Schlumpfe livery. The weather was absolutely...
My ADS-B station instance uses rclone to back up its data to MEGA. It works well, but I thought it would be even better if it created a separate backup copy for each day of the week. This suggestion was exactly what I had in mind. I...
I often jokingly refer to my aircraft photography activities as Flug und Fraß ("Airplanes and chow"), because that's exactly what it is: I capture airplanes and enjoy whatever food I either bring with me or find nearby. And now that I...
I've deployed Note Mark for all my note-taking needs. It's a decent tool, but its documentation is rather lacking. So here's what I did.
I love food. What I don't love is 1) paying through the nose for hotel breakfasts, and 2) wasting time deciding where to eat plus the commute. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy exploring dining options while traveling. But there are times when...
I strategically filed for two vacation days, extending my break to six days. What can I say? I'm clever like that. Needless to say, I spent the break chasing airplanes, and the gorgeous weather made the pursuit even more enjoyable. I...
The last few ADS-B Station updates were minor — a tweak here, a fix there. The latest release, however, introduces several major improvements that make a real difference.
And so it's happening: Lufthansa has started phasing out their Airbus A340-600. This particular model is by far my favorite one, and I'm sad to see them going.
Easter break didn't go as planned. I wanted to spend time capturing airplanes and generally being outside. Instead, I hurt my back on Good Friday, which effectively put the kibosh on my plans. Despite the pain, I did my best to make the...