W0CHP.net

Andy Taylor, MW0MWZ, has been busy updating the official Pi-Star software, and I track his changes very closely to merge those changes into my W0CHP-PiStar-Dash software/fork.

Recently, Andy released Pi-Star ver. 4.1.4, and W0CHP-PiStar-Dash has been released with the same version and version number.

However, I have intentionally left out some features/additions…

Exclusions and Caveats

There were a few upstream/official Pi-Star changes/additions I have strategically decided to exclude from W0CHP-PiStar-Dash. Below, is a list of those changes/additions, and my rationale for not merging them into my code.

Version/Upgrade Available Warning Displayed in Header of Dashboard

Pi-Star now shows a warning message in the header of the dashboard when the user is running an older version. I excluded this because my code is meant for the initiated power user and/or hacker types who live on the edge and take initiative to upgrade frequently. Additionally, this warning facility uses repetitive, hard-coded version number strings strewn throughout the code, and I would have coded this much differently and centrally. I felt it was a hacky implementation (no offense to the awesome Andy, MW0MWZ), unnecessary and I excluded it.

Call Sign Links to User-Selectable QRZ or RadioID

Andy included a new feature that allows users to select the call sign link to either QRZ or RadioID. I excluded this new feature… Although I despise the zero-value cesspit known as QRZ, I find RadioID to be shitty and too centralized as well. I vehemently oppose any closed, centralized “service” and prefer open, distributed and federated services, so I did not include this user-selectable call sign link function. Although QRZ sucks balls, I left the function as it was before Andy’s changes. I also found the implementation to this user-selectable function to be somewhat half-baked (just MNSHO, and no offense to the amazing Andy, MW0MWZ.). I was tempted to remove the QRZ link altogether, but I left it alone (for now).

GPS / APRS.fi Link to Call Sign

Andy now includes a link next to the last heard call signs with their APRS.fi information. I excluded this simply because it’s useless and superfluous to me. Many hams are not pushing APRS packets anyway, which renders the displayed information inaccurate.

This feature also interferes with the (more useful) caller name facilities in my other branches.

Reboot Confirmation Pop-Up

Completely useless to me, so I excluded it. If a user is fucking around in the admin section, then navigates to the power/reboot facility, the expectation is that they know exactly what they want.