A talk I was watching recently suggested researchers finally in 2019 had cracked how robots could efficiently act like a swarm. Their solution? Movement based entirely on a light sensor. That sounded familiar to me so I went back to one of my old presentations on IoT/AI security and found a slide showing the same … Continue reading 1953 Machina Speculatrix: The First Swarm Drone?
I recently met with members of state and federal government to discuss counter-drone solutions. When I brought up the 1940s drone issues they said “waaaaaht, I never” so here we go… There was a 1935 Radioplane (RP-1) that evolved by 1939 into OQ-2 for use in the subsequent years. Over 15,000 of these types of … Continue reading Runaway Killer Military Drones of the 1940s
While reading about the French use of encryption during the 16C I ran into a reference that said French Kings borrowed cryptography concepts from Arabs. A little more digging and I found an example by Hervé Lehning in “L’Univers des codes secrets: De l’antiquité à Internet”. He writes that Muhammad ibn Abbad al-Mu’tamid (المعتمد بن … Continue reading “T V E S L E”: The Poetry of Encryption in 1080s AD
The story from the almost defunct Office of Force Transformation is that carbon fiber and wave-piercing tunnel hulls can achieve great efficiencies. This is very different from the old style of “shock and awe” city-sized mega-ships: Stiletto is an 80 by 40 foot wave piercing hull built entirely of carbon fiber. It’s unique “M-Hull” shape … Continue reading Stiletto: Ultra-light Wave-piercing Navy Ship