This sounds similar to a story that I've heard from several ex-squids and shipyard workers.
A sailor on an aircraft carrier is trying to figure out how a problematic pipe is routed through the ship. After consulting the blueprints and tracing the pipe, he discovers that it goes through a compartment that doesn't have any doors. A welder is summoned and a hole is cut into the compartment. To everyone's amazement, they discover a fully equipped machine shop that has never been used. The equipment had been installed in the shipyard years before, and confusion over design changes during the construction of the ship led to it being sealed off from the rest of the ship.
When they installed a new heating/cooling distribution and control system in my office, the old thermostats were replaced with little beige boxes. Flip open the cover and the only thing that you will see is a single electrical connector, looks like an RJ-11 or RJ-45. When the HVAC people want to adjust the system, they plug a laptop computer into the connector.
Direct sequence spread spectrum with a high chip rate is difficult to intercept. The transmitter's power is spread over a wide range of frequencies. If you look at it on a spectrum analyzer, you can't even tell that a signal is present. The signal can be at a lower amplitude than the noise. Military and commercial systems are designed with different goals. The military wants low probability of intercept, resistance to jamming and communications security. Commercial systems are designed for low cost, throughput and band sharing.
Switching power supplies, like those used in most PCs, don't have transformers. I've noticed that some of the newer equipment use miniature switching power supplies instead of "wall wart" transformers.
They knew what the rules were when they sold DSL service in California. Is it too much to expect them to abide by the laws and regulations of California?
A responsible business executive shuts down the business in an orderly fashion before all of the assets are gone.
So they are the tool of Satan and their buildings shall be razed and their children and their children's children unto the fifth generation shall be cursed and despised, etc.
Why does integration with the OS automatically give an attacker full access to your machine?
Because Windows 95/98/ME has no concept of security, all code has full access to the machine. Even with Windows NT/2000, many users run under accounts with Administrator privileges, due to the large amount of broken software that doesn't work properly when run under an account with User privileges.
There is a big difference between a GPS receiver that you buy from a store and a GPS receiver that will work reliably while attached to a rocket. You need multiple omnidirectional antennas for reliable reception of the GPS signals. The receiver also has to be able to handle high speeds and altitudes in its position/velocity determination calculations.
The traditional way of doing this is to put an inertial platform and navigation unit on the rocket. That is what is used on most lauch vehicles.
Telemetry data is usually downlinked as a synchronous serial stream composed of fixed length telemetry frames. Reed-Solomon and convolutional error correcting codes may be used to improve the bit-error-rate and link margins. Nobody, that I know of, uses IP for any air-to-ground communication links. IP is widely used for transferring data between ground stations and control centers.
One problem with the "rocket phone" is the low bit rate. Most launch vehicles have telemetry data rates in the 200 kbps to 600 kbps range.
Range safety is an important issue. Most range safety systems use multiple sources of data, such as launch vehicle telemetry, tracking antenna angle encoders, multiple C-band radar systems and optical trackers. You have to know where the rocket is, where it is heading, and whether the engines and other systems are working properly.
In most countries, you can't use amateur radio for commercial purposes.
As other posters have suggested, your best bet is a point-to-point microwave relay. Talk to a local communications engineer about cost, licensing, bit rate and link margins. There are many prepackaged digital microwave systems available today.
I believe most of the patents are held by Zenith, General Instruments, MIT and AT&T.
These were the primary organizations in the development of the ATSC standard.
We could bury all of the people who have ever lived on the Earth, about 105 billion, in a space the size of the State of Kansas (82,000 square miles). That would give about 22 square feet for each grave.
There is nothing wrong with being a COBOL programmer. Having some experience with C or assembler is very useful. Do you really understand the mechanics of your language's subroutine linkage conventions? Can you read and understand the assembler output of the compiler? Can you debug a core dump? I think all CS students should take a course in assembly language programming. Digital logic design and basic electronics are also helpful.
One of my favorite computer architectures is the CDC 6000 series. It had a Peripheral Processor (PP) that did all of the system I/O. The main CPU crunched numbers while the PP dealt with the outside world. The cool thing about the design of the PP was that it appeared to be 10 independent processors, even though it only had one ALU, instruction decoder etc. This was accomplished by a "barrel" of 10 sets of CPU registers and memory banks. The PP would rotate the barrel every time an instruction was fetched and executed, turning one physical CPU into 10 virtual CPUs. This meant that the PP could simultaneously execute 10 different programs wihout having 10 hardware CPUs. I've often wished there was a microprocessor that could do this. It would be great for embedded real-time systems and I/O controllers. Each I/O device and/or subsystem could have its own virtual CPU, that would never get swiped by other tasks or I/O interrupts.
Their is no real reason your computer should stop playing music, printing, downloading or whatever because the OS is busy with something else.
While smart peripherals would help, the real cause of the problem is poor software design. There are more than enough CPU cycles to do everything in a timely manner, but the operating system doesn't schedule the CPU correctly. Brain-dead device drivers also contribute to the problem.
How many times over is it necessary to destroy the Planet? We have enough power to destroy *all* life on Earth.
The US nuclear arsenal is less than 3,000 megatons of explosive yield. Russia's nuclear arsenal has been estimated to have a comparable yield. While this is enough, if properly targetted, to kill a large proportion of the humans on Earth, it isn't remotely enough to "destroy all life on Earth". As a point of reference, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens has been estimated to have released 450 megatons of energy.
When color TV was becoming popular, there was concern about x-ray emissions from the picture tubes, which operated at a higher voltage than that of monochrome picture tubes. There was even a home x-ray measurement kit, that consisted of a piece of photographic film in a plastic holder. You were supposed to attach it to the front of the picture tube. After a specified amount of time, you were supposed to remove it and mail it to the manufacturer for development and evaluation.
There was and is a concern that the high voltage regulation in the TV could fail, allowing the voltage to increase to a level that would result in significant emission of x-rays.
Slashdot Mirror
A sailor on an aircraft carrier is trying to figure out how a problematic pipe is routed through the ship. After consulting the blueprints and tracing the pipe, he discovers that it goes through a compartment that doesn't have any doors. A welder is summoned and a hole is cut into the compartment. To everyone's amazement, they discover a fully equipped machine shop that has never been used. The equipment had been installed in the shipyard years before, and confusion over design changes during the construction of the ship led to it being sealed off from the rest of the ship.
When they installed a new heating/cooling distribution and control system in my office, the old thermostats were replaced with little beige boxes. Flip open the cover and the only thing that you will see is a single electrical connector, looks like an RJ-11 or RJ-45. When the HVAC people want to adjust the system, they plug a laptop computer into the connector.
Direct sequence spread spectrum with a high chip rate is difficult to intercept. The transmitter's power is spread over a wide range of frequencies. If you look at it on a spectrum analyzer, you can't even tell that a signal is present. The signal can be at a lower amplitude than the noise. Military and commercial systems are designed with different goals. The military wants low probability of intercept, resistance to jamming and communications security. Commercial systems are designed for low cost, throughput and band sharing.
That's right, Max Factor, Maybelline, and the other organs of capitalist aggression must be destroyed.
You are correct. I was thinking of the absence of the large, and heavy, 60 Hz transformer found in linear regulator power supplies.
Switching power supplies, like those used in most PCs, don't have transformers. I've noticed that some of the newer equipment use miniature switching power supplies instead of "wall wart" transformers.
A responsible business executive shuts down the business in an orderly fashion before all of the assets are gone.
It's a start.
Because Windows 95/98/ME has no concept of security, all code has full access to the machine. Even with Windows NT/2000, many users run under accounts with Administrator privileges, due to the large amount of broken software that doesn't work properly when run under an account with User privileges.
The traditional way of doing this is to put an inertial platform and navigation unit on the rocket. That is what is used on most lauch vehicles.
Telemetry data is usually downlinked as a synchronous serial stream composed of fixed length telemetry frames. Reed-Solomon and convolutional error correcting codes may be used to improve the bit-error-rate and link margins. Nobody, that I know of, uses IP for any air-to-ground communication links. IP is widely used for transferring data between ground stations and control centers.
One problem with the "rocket phone" is the low bit rate. Most launch vehicles have telemetry data rates in the 200 kbps to 600 kbps range.
Range safety is an important issue. Most range safety systems use multiple sources of data, such as launch vehicle telemetry, tracking antenna angle encoders, multiple C-band radar systems and optical trackers. You have to know where the rocket is, where it is heading, and whether the engines and other systems are working properly.
Check your school's library for the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, ISSN 1058-6180.
In most countries, you can't use amateur radio for commercial purposes.
As other posters have suggested, your best bet is a point-to-point microwave relay. Talk to a local communications engineer about cost, licensing, bit rate and link margins. There are many prepackaged digital microwave systems available today.
I believe most of the patents are held by Zenith, General Instruments, MIT and AT&T. These were the primary organizations in the development of the ATSC standard.
We could bury all of the people who have ever lived on the Earth, about 105 billion, in a space the size of the State of Kansas (82,000 square miles). That would give about 22 square feet for each grave.
Zilog, the company that invented the Z-80 microprocessor, went through a phase of suing anyone who used the letter Z in their product name.
There is nothing wrong with being a COBOL programmer. Having some experience with C or assembler is very useful. Do you really understand the mechanics of your language's subroutine linkage conventions? Can you read and understand the assembler output of the compiler? Can you debug a core dump? I think all CS students should take a course in assembly language programming. Digital logic design and basic electronics are also helpful.
One of my favorite computer architectures is the CDC 6000 series. It had a Peripheral Processor (PP) that did all of the system I/O. The main CPU crunched numbers while the PP dealt with the outside world. The cool thing about the design of the PP was that it appeared to be 10 independent processors, even though it only had one ALU, instruction decoder etc. This was accomplished by a "barrel" of 10 sets of CPU registers and memory banks. The PP would rotate the barrel every time an instruction was fetched and executed, turning one physical CPU into 10 virtual CPUs. This meant that the PP could simultaneously execute 10 different programs wihout having 10 hardware CPUs. I've often wished there was a microprocessor that could do this. It would be great for embedded real-time systems and I/O controllers. Each I/O device and/or subsystem could have its own virtual CPU, that would never get swiped by other tasks or I/O interrupts.
Tell that to the judge as he ships your butt off to federal prison.
The law is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, or FCPA. Where I work, we get an annual briefing on this law and business ethics in general.
While smart peripherals would help, the real cause of the problem is poor software design. There are more than enough CPU cycles to do everything in a timely manner, but the operating system doesn't schedule the CPU correctly. Brain-dead device drivers also contribute to the problem.
Asynchronous I/O is helpful if the operating system supports it.
A good bus-mastering SCSI host adaptor will take much of the load off the CPU.
The US nuclear arsenal is less than 3,000 megatons of explosive yield. Russia's nuclear arsenal has been estimated to have a comparable yield. While this is enough, if properly targetted, to kill a large proportion of the humans on Earth, it isn't remotely enough to "destroy all life on Earth". As a point of reference, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens has been estimated to have released 450 megatons of energy.
When color TV was becoming popular, there was concern about x-ray emissions from the picture tubes, which operated at a higher voltage than that of monochrome picture tubes. There was even a home x-ray measurement kit, that consisted of a piece of photographic film in a plastic holder. You were supposed to attach it to the front of the picture tube. After a specified amount of time, you were supposed to remove it and mail it to the manufacturer for development and evaluation. There was and is a concern that the high voltage regulation in the TV could fail, allowing the voltage to increase to a level that would result in significant emission of x-rays.