The FAA is warning pilots that their GPS soon may malfunction…
The Department of Defense will conduct GPS tests on January 20th through February 22nd, 2011. During testing, the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable.
My GPS has been so unreliable lately I am surprised the DoD felt compelled to issue a warning. They should send out warnings when GPS will be actually accurate or available.
The successful launch of a Delta IV Heavy configuration from America’s West Coast means the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload L-49 is on its way into orbit.
Delta 352’s payload is officially classified; however it is widely believed to be a KH-11 “Improved Crystal” electro-optical reconnaissance satellite. The KH-11 first flew in the late 1970s, replacing earlier film-return imaging satellites like the KH-9 Hexagon. Instead of returning images by film, KH-11 satellites transmit them electronically. Four separate generations of KH-11 satellites have been identified, with the later two unofficially referred to as KH-11B or KH-12.
KH-11 satellites are designed to produce high-resolution images, which are then relayed to the ground via Satellite Data System (SDS) spacecraft in molniya and geosynchronous orbits. They are reported to resemble the Hubble Space Telescope.
[…]
The launch of NRO L-49 came amid a period of increased activity in terms of NRO launches. One Medium and one Heavy payload were launched during the last four months of last year, and in the next year two heavy, two medium and one light payload are scheduled to fly. Two NRO CubeSats, QbX-1 and QbX-2, were also launched in December aboard a Falcon 9.
I noticed an amusing comparison on pickuptrucks.com of the Dodge Ram 3500 Heavy Duty Diesel to the NASA rocket.
Delta IV Heavy:
Max payload 28,650 lbs
51,000,000hp
0.00087mpg
$600,000 to fill up
0-60mph in 15 secondsDodge Ram 3500 HD:
Max payload 25,400 lbs
350hp
11.8mpg
$118.65 to fill up
0-60mph in 10.4 seconds
The rocket mpg calculation seems off, since it’s calculating only the first stage and not the total distance traveled after liftoff. More to the point, it is hard to believe that a 2011 Dodge pickup still only gets 11.8mpg.
I thought “oh, another copy of a classic 80s game” when I first read news about a Park Patrol application for mobiles.
This is an entirely different game, however. Park Patrol app was designed by a man upset about parking tickets. He hopes that drivers will warn each other about the location of the parking police.
Spot an officer, open ParkPatrol and click Send Alert! It’s easy and satisfying knowing you’ve contributed to the community not to the pockets of the municipality or council. If you have another 5 minutes, wait and report the officer a second time from a new location. Made a mistake? Just “Shake to Delete”!
ParkPatrol maps all enforcement officer reports using our own system of servers and databases, so when the community acts together we become a powerful data gathering and reporting tool. We call this system CRWD POWER – a groundbreaking community based infrastructure designed to help you stay one step ahead of parking tickets.
Is it just me or is the phrase “contributed to the community not to the pockets of the municipality or council” a lot like saying we contributed to the community by not contributing to the community? Did I miss something there?
I vaguely see an argument related to civil disobedience, but it lacks reason. It sounds more like an attempt to depict a municipality or council as not part of a community. Is that even possible? I mean are they in a dictatorship of parking rules or did their community elect representatives to set parking rules, who appointed…?
I could get mired in the political philosophy of it. Instead, I would like to point out that this app might have some interesting security implications. It seems, for example, to be a great way to fool your fellow driver into giving up their space earlier.
When you drive into an area where you want to park, you and your friends just start using CRWD POWER to scare all other drivers (who are past their time limit) into getting back into their cars and opening a spot for you. Send alerts early and often.
In other words, you can assume the authority of the park police simply by using this free app. The more alerts you send the more drivers may fear the presence of (your) authority, especially if the app servers do not properly assign and test for uniqueness in reports.
We also ask you to use this app responsibly and with respect for others
That surely will prevent abuse, just like those parking fines…who could be disobedient? I have an idea, the municipality can get rid of parking fines and just post signs everywhere that say
We ask you to park responsibly and with respect for others
What could go wrong with that plan? Even more to the point, the app developers say it is the responsibility of the app users to detect fraud.
How do I know these reports on the map are real?
You have to ‘feel’ your way around a bit here and use your best judgement [sic]. Here are some ways to have better confidence in the reports you see. If there are many reports around you, then what does the pattern and time stamps tell you? Click on the icon to open a flag showing how long ago it was reported. The reports remain on the map for 4 hours before dropping off. Councils usually don’t work overnight. In our area parking enforcement stops after 9pm. Look for patterns in the reports, are they along a logical path? Are they clustered into groups? Are they within minutes apart? The absence of reports reveals nothing useful.
If you hated worrying about parking enforcement before, something tells me you may really hate parking police + ParkPatrol. The parking timer might be helpful but otherwise it looks like it would only increase worry by sending false alarms and making you sort it all out.
If you really liked parking enforcement before, ParkPatrol extends police power right into your (and your friends’) phones. Now you can easily setup a program to send bogus police parking alerts in your neighborhood to keep pesky parkers away — you now have an active role in law enforcement.
I wonder if the developers account for the fact that the Parking Police may have phones too, which gives them the ability to monitor the signals reporting their positions. This opens up much more effective avenues of enforcement — sending a decoy vehicle one direction while an unmarked officer gives tickets in the other direction. That might not be necessary if they just send in bogus reports themselves.
It also begs the question whether enforcement will switch to digital photos mailed quietly to vehicle owners, like toll-booth violations. Why should they be conspicuous in their enforcement role at all? Is it a requirement that they wave a flag so their position can be known?
Many people swear it is a nice feeling to press that red button!
Maybe too nice a feeling…
Bruce has posted several stories about Stuxnet lately. Four days ago, for example, he pointed to a story in the news:
This long New York Times article includes some interesting revelations.
Buried in the comments you will find my short history of the CIA’s Operation Ajax in 1953:
I’d say this is all well documented history, but I also agree it is worth keeping in mind when we consider today why anyone would bother to destabilize Iran’s nuclear projects.
…and when I say destabilize, I mean trying to kill scientists, professors and their spouses. Stuxnet is a nice side-story to build a cyberwar budget, but I think in the big scheme of risk to international relations the five recent assassinations (and Ali Reza Asgari’s disappearance in 2007) should be getting far more attention.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112901560.html
“each car was approached by a group of men on motorcycles, who attached explosives to the vehicles and detonated them seconds later”
My point was that Stuxnet, which had minor effect, is really not that scary compared to the list of assassinations happening in clear violation of international laws. Yet Stuxnet seems to get all the news, perhaps because of its novelty compared to motorcycle bombs. That same day, little did I realize, Der Spiegel was posting a detailed look at the assassinations, assigning responsibility to Mossad in a story called “Israel’s Shadowy War on Iran: Mossad Zeros in on Tehran’s Nuclear Program”
Israel’s leaders have always worried about the possible physical annihilation of their country, and it is this perceived threat that has formed their justification for the policy of assassination, even though it constitutes a breach of international law and the sovereignty of other nations.
…the death of Iranian nuclear scientists has slowed the development of the nuclear program and sowed fear among their colleagues, many of whom subsequently failed to turn up for work on the following days.