MCT at 11:10, 29 April 2009

2009-04-29T11:10:21Z

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	This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we ~~come across~~ them.		This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we learn them.

	Excerpt from [[User:Dr jesus\|Dr. Jesus]]'s [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/2009-April/004452.html initial post] to the mailing list:		Excerpt from [[User:Dr jesus\|Dr. Jesus]]'s [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/2009-April/004452.html initial post] to the mailing list:

MCT: New page: This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we come across them. Excerpt from Dr. Jesus's [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/no...

2009-04-29T10:53:02Z

New page: This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we come across them. Excerpt from Dr. Jesus's [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/no...

New page

This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we come across them.

Excerpt from [[User:Dr jesus|Dr. Jesus]]'s [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/2009-April/004452.html initial post] to the mailing list:

A while ago (2004ish), NASA approved my application to get the downlink feed
from their satellite network of gamma ray burst detectors. I set up a server
to receive the feed and wrote some code to parse the output from the feed and
create a basic early warning system for giant space explosions.

Notes:

* [http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov The Gamma ray bursts Coordinates Network] website

* NASA distributes GRB data by connecting over the internet to a hardcoded list of destination machines running listener programs.

* NASA distributes a sample listener program, [http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/socket_demo.c socket_demo.c]

* [http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/sock_pkt_def_doc.html GCN INTERNET SOCKET PACKET DEFINITION DOC] describes the protocol socket_demo.c implements.

* To receive a data feed, you must submit an application requesting your hostname be added to the hardcoded list of destination machines. ([[User:Dr jesus|Dr. Jesus]] mentioned that it can be difficult for non-astronomers to get their applications approved.)

* The current list of hosts NASA is pushing data to [http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/sites_cfg.html can be seen here]. [[User:Dr jesus|Dr. Jesus]] controls the machines named GSEDS1, GSEDS2, and GSEDS3. (It's amusing to note that NASA allocated a different destination port for each remote host.)

* [[User:Dr jesus|Dr. Jesus]] ran an IRC bot, rbt_jesus.py, which effectively did a "tail -f" of socket_demo.log, looked for lines containing the string "This is a GRB", and when found, announced in a given IRC channel, "Giant space explosion detected!".

Gamma Ray Burst - Revision history

MCT at 11:10, 29 April 2009

MCT: New page: This is just a stub page for now, to collect links and snippets of information as we come across them. Excerpt from Dr. Jesus's [https://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/no...