I work for a company who sells iTRAKs and
we customize these and can include Verizon or NexTel phones to parents and companys that have fleet vehicles. We've sold alot of units to parents who want to know what their kids are doing when they take the cars (or their husbands, or their wifes). They can go online and see how fast the car was going; where, when, and for how long the car was stopped (down to the city block if not the address); we've got a device that can even prevent the car from being started that integrated into these devices...and you'd be suprised how many parents put these in the cars to monitor their child's activities.
It monitors speed (how fast they were driing), seat belt status (if they had the seat belts buckled), how many people were in the car (pressure-sensitive switches in the seats), and can be configured remotely by the parents--I don't have kids myself (only 22), but it's a great 'rule enforcer' for kids who have broken their parents trust when it comes to driving, but situations (e.g., school, work, etc) prevent the parent from totally acting the 'take the keys away and lock the doors' approach for punishment.
We have some companies who use these in their fleet vehicles or secondary finance market vehicles so they can look online and see where their cars are, prevent the cars from starting, see how many people have been riding with the driver, and send/receive text messages to/from the driver.
We market the product as informational use only, but people are using it in a Big Brother kind of sense. That bugs me--but that's another story for another day.
Summary
Name: AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (Phase-IIB)
Nasa Catalog Number: 7530
Launched: November 15, 1974
Launch vehicle: Delta 2310
Launched piggyback with: ITOS-G (NOAA 4) and the Spanish INTASAT
Launch location:
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California
Weight: 28.6 kg
Orbit: 1444 x 1459 km
Inclination: Inclination 101.7 degrees
Period: Size: Octahedral shaped 360 mm high and 424 mm in diameter
Modes: A, B, and C
Beacons:
29.502 MHz (200 mw) Used in conjunction with Mode A
145.972 MHz (200 mw) Used in conjunction with Mode B and C
[low power Mode B]
435.100 MHz (intermittent problem -- switches between 400 mw
and 10 mw)
2304.1 MHz (40 mw) Must be commanded on. Auto off after 15
minutes. Requires STA to operate.
Output Power: 8 watts PEP Mode B (start of life), 2.5
watts PEP Mode C
*Note: Due to changes in Amateur
Service and Amateur Satellite Service there are questions as to legality of
Amateurs transmitting to AO-7. The uplink frequency predates
the WARC '79 allocation of 435-438 MHz by the ITU for the Amateur Satellite
Service and places the uplink in 70cm weak signal segment.
Potential users should realize that when they are uplinking to a satellite,
they are no longer operating in the Amateur Service but instead operating in
the Amateur Satellite Service. Thus they are subject to Amateur
Satellite Service rules. Therefore uplinking to AO-7 is possibly illegal since
the Amateur Satellite Service is not permitted at 432.1 MHz. Also, since the
IARU bandplan has the 432.1 MHz range earmarked as "weak signal" in
all three Regions, it would appear that all users trying to access the
uplink are also outside the Amateur Satellite Service rules and regulations.
Firsts:
Satellite-to-satellite relay communication via AO-6.
Early demonstrations of low-budget medical data relay and Doppler location
of ground transmitters for search-and-rescue operations were done using
this satellite.
The Mode-B transponder was the first using "HELAPS" (High Efficient
Linear Amplification by Parametric Synthesis) technology was developed by Dr.
Karl Meinzer as part of his Ph.D.
Jan King, W3GEY reports AO-7 is almost certainly running only off the solar
panels. It is very likely to be on only when in the sun and off in eclipse.
Therefore, AO-7 will reset each orbit and may not turn on each time.
Thanks to Jim White, WD0E, and Jan King, W3GEY, a spreadsheet for
interpreting telemetry from AO-7 has been made available in the AMSAT-NA
software collection:
Description
AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched November 15, 1974 by a Delta 2310 launcher from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California. AO-7 was launched piggyback
with ITOS-G (NOAA 4) and the Spanish INTASAT. The second phase 2 satellite
(Phase II-B). Weight 28.6 kg. Orbit 1444 x 1459 km. Inclination 101.7 degrees.
Octahedrally shaped 360 mm high and 424 mm in diameter. Circularly polarized
canted turnstile VHF/UHF antenna system and HF dipole.
Similar to AO-6. Built by a multi-national (German, Canadian, United
States, and Australian) team of radio amateurs under the direction of AMSAT-NA.
It carried Mode A (145.850-950 MHz uplink and 29.400-500 MHz downlink)
and Mode B (432.180-120 MHz uplink and 145.920-980 MHz downlink (inverted))
linear transponders and 29.500 and 145.700 MHz beacons. The 2304.1 MHz
was never turned on because of international treaty constraints.
Four radio
masts mounted at 90 degree intervals on the base and two experimental repeater
systems provided store-and-forward for morse and teletype messages (Codestore)
as it orbited around the world. The Mode-B transponder was designed and build by
Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC and Werner Haas, DJ5KQ. The Mode-B transponder was the first
using "HELAPS" (High Efficient Linear Amplification by Parametric
Synthesis) technology was developed by Dr. Karl Meinzer as part of his
Ph.D.
AO-7 was operational for 6.5 years until
a battery failure ceased operation in mid 1981. Then on June 21, 2002, Pat
Gowen, G3IOR, posted this email message on AMSAT-BB:
From: "pat gowen" <patgowen@btconnect.com>
To: <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Lazarus?
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 22:30:54 +0100
I have just come across something most
remarkable this Friday 21st June evening. Checking out interlopers in our
145.800 - 146.000 MHz space band with a new vertical now atop my 60' tower and
working like magic, at 1728 UTC I came across a beacon at S.7 sending slow 8
-10 wpm CW on 145.973.8 MHz. It slowly Dopplered down to 145.970 MHz before
going out at 1739 UTC. A full run of TLM went: -
Hi Hi
100 176 164 178
280 262 200 254
375 358 331 354
453 454 461 459
541 501 552 529
600 600 601 651
Hi Hi
It sounded VERY familiar, but, I'm
dammned if I can recall which one it was. Obviously an OSCAR, but which had
the callsign W3OHI? Oscar-6, 7 or 8? I think it was OSCAR-6. If so, we have a
new longevity record, even beating RS-1!
The beacon peaked S9 and there were S7
burbles some 10 - 20 KHz below the beacon, FSK'ing slightly as the beacon
keyed. At times the beacon took on a rough quality, wobbling in frequency,
then coming back strong and quite stable again. Going by the QSB rate it had
about a 1 minute spin.
Could any veteran keen observers (who
might look for it) please tell me what it was, as I feel sure that any old
time AMSAT OSCAR devotee may have a far better memory than I!
73, Pat, G3IOR
Jan King, W3GEY, the AMSAT-OSCAR-7 Project Manager commented:
[AO-7] has a good set of arrays and the first BCR (battery charge
regulator) we ever flew. It's the first spacecraft we ever had that was
capable of overcharging the battery. When the battery failed the cells began
to fail short. One cell after another failed and the voltage measured on
telemetry began to drop. So, the cells were clearly failing SHORT. Now, after
all these years, what happens if any one of the cells loses the short and
becomes open? Then, the entire power bus becomes unclamped from ground and the
spacecraft loads begin to again be powered but, this time only from the
arrays. Now you have a daytime only satellite but, each time the sun rises at
the spacecraft you have a random generator that either turns on Mode A or Mode
B or whatever it wants. So, occasionally that 70cm/2m transponder transmitter
and beacon must least work. From what you have told me (and without going back
and decoding the old telemetry equations) I can tell you that the following
things work in that spacecraft: The arrays, the BCR, the ISR (instrumentation
switching regulator), the Mode B transmitter and beacon injection circuitry,
the Morse Code telemetry encoder, and the voltage reference circuitry. The
latter I know is working because the last telemetry value is 651. The
"6" is just the row number of the telemetry value but the 51 means
that the 1/2 volt reference is measuring 0.51 volts. I know that telemetry
equation by heart since it was used as the calibration value for the rest of
the telemetry system. So the telemetry has a fair chance of being decoded and
making some sense!!! .
Telemetry received may be good or bad. You can determine if the telemetry
is good by the 6D value. It is the reference voltage for the analog TLM
system and it should be around 50. If not, then the remainder of the
telemetry will be incorrect.
Jan King, W3GEY notes that AO-7 had (has?) a very sensitive receiver and a
good uplink antenna. 5 watts EIRP should provide a good downlink. Amplifiers
are not required for the uplink.
Excessive uplink power may be cause FMing of the transponder and may be
causing the input voltage to the regulator that provides 6D to fluctuate
causing all telemetry to be bad.
AO-7 is almost certainly running only off the solar panels. It is very
likely to be on only when in the sun and off in eclipse. Since it is
resetting each orbit it may not come on every time. Reports of hearing the
beacon just as it comes out of eclipse would be particularly interesting.
References
Joe Kasser G3ZCZ/W3 and Jan King W3GEY, "OSCAR 7 and Its Capabilities," QST, Feb
1974, p. 56-60.
"OSCAR News: OSCAR 7", QST, Nov 1974, p. 81.
David Sumner, K1ZND, "OSCAR News: OSCAR 7 - It Works!," QST, Jan 1975, p. 49.
"OSCAR News: Reading the OSCAR 7 Telemetry", QST, Feb 1975, p.
63.
Perry Klein and Ray Soifer, W2RS, "Intersatellite Communication Using the AMSAT-OSCAR
6 and AMSAT-OSCAR 7 Radio Amateur Satellites," Proceedings of the IEEE
Letters, Oct 1975, pp 1526-1527.
D. Brandel, P. Schmidt, and B. Trudell, "Improvements in Search and Rescue
Distress Alerting and Location Using Satellites," IEEE WESCON, Sep
1976.
J. Kleinman, "OSCAR Medical Data," QST, Oct 1976, pp 42-43.
D. Nelson, "Medical Relay by Satellite," Ham Radio, Apr 1977, pp
67-73.
Martin Davidoff, "Predicting Close Encounters: OSCAR 7 and OSCAR 8," Ham
Radio, Vol. 12, No. 7, Jul 1979, pp 62-67.
"Technical Correspondence: A Look at OSCAR-7 Telemetry", QST,
Jul 1980, p. 38.
You can kinda laugh at them...because their little tiny motorolas are running by the way of the wayside. Motorols is pushing their own network (iDEN), and isn't putting Kyocera software on their phones (Kyocera is the parent company of Qualcomm, the CDMA people)....so most of the big phone companies out there (e.g., sprint, Verizon Wireless) are phasing out their phones.
Nextel is safe because it runs off the iDEN network (Yes, Direct Connect is freakin cool!)--however, I'd give it a year before they give in and put their software back on the phones...nextel is losing money (Lost 9B last year, if my memory is correct) and doing 'triple coupons' (if you've worked in the grocery industry...you'd know what I mean).
Not only that, it's required that it be able to dial 911 without dialing a 9 first (ie, if you're in a hotel and dial 911 on their PBX, it should dip into it's translation table and automatically dial 911 externally)
Some Colleges and Universities have it set up so it dials local security, and they route from there. (I know this because when our 911 Trunks were down (thanks, Sprint--but that's another story in it's own right) we were told to route to Security--considering that the 911 trunks were down monthly, then I fubar'ed the routing tables one time...whoopsie) I've also seen a hotel in Las Vegas route 911 to their internal security.
On a kinda OT point, I think that any emergency call should require two seperate actions...like push the cover up off of the phone and push it in, then push the Big Red Button for 911--the same goes with 'emergency' phones that you see on campus and in parking areas...there's nothing like being called in at 3:00 because some drunk college kid hit the button and the phone won't reset itself, making all other phones on that loop dead.
George Toft plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Sat, 15 Jun 2002 14:27:50 -0400
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I just spent some time reading Maricopa County policies. Interesting
references:
MC1-101 DEFINITIONS
25."CONTRACTOR" means any Person who has a Contract with a County
Governmental unit. For purposes of Article 5, Contractor may also mean
Respondent as defined in this Article.
36."DEBARMENT" means an action taken by the County Administrative
Officer under MC1-902 to prohibit a Person from Participating in
Maricopa County Procurements.
80."PERSON" means any corporation, Business, individual, union,
committee, club, other organization or group of individuals.
113."SUSPENSION" means an action taken by the County Administrative
Officer under MC1-902 temporarily disqualifying a Person from
participating in Maricopa County Procurements.
http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-01.htm
[Microsoft is considered a Contractor and a Person. This is important
below.]
MC1-407 MAXIMUM PRACTICABLE COMPETITION
All Specifications shall seek to promote overall economy for the purpose
intended and encourage competition in satisfying Maricopa County's needs
and shall not be unduly restrictive.
http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-04.htm#MC1-401
[Is there any technology that is Microsoft exclusive? I believe there
are sites that explain how to replace Exchange Server completely using
Linux/OSS; and SQL Server is replaceable with mySQL; IIS & ASP is
replaceable with Apache & PHP, right?]
MC1-902 DEBARMENT AND SUSPENSION OF CONTRACTORS
B. The causes for Debarment or Suspension shall include, but are not
limited to, the following:
2. Conviction of any Person or any subsidiary or affiliate of any Person
under any statute of the Federal government, this State or its political
subdivision or any other State for:
k. Any other offense indicating a lack of business integrity or business
honesty which affects responsibility as a Contractor.
3. Conviction or civil judgment finding a violation by any Person or any
subsidiary or affiliate of any Person under State or Federal Antitrust
Statutes.
http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-09.htm#MC1-901
[As I read MC1-902.B.3, Microsoft (a Person), having been convicted of a
violation of Federal Antitrust Statues, cannot be a County Contractor.]
I love policies:)
George
Jim wrote:
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> I have heard from a "reliable source" that the Maricopa County Council has
> decided not to automatically sign off on having the county sign an Enterprise
> Agreement with Microsoft. The source said that people within the county IT
> organizations made their opinion known that the Enterprise Agreement might
> not be the best path for the county to blindly follow.
>
> Since no decision has yet been made, I urge you to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
> contact your Maricopa County district council person and your city council
> people with some simple questions.
>
> a. Ask them if they plan to approve funding for the Enterprise Agreement with
> the Microsoft Corporation?
>
> b. If they do plan to do so, ask them to provide you with a copy of the
> agreement and the dollar amount to be expended.
>
> c. Ask them when they will be hearing from the public on the budget, so if
> they are adopting an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, you can have your
> voice heard publicly.
>
> d. Ask they why do they do business with a vendor that has been convicted of
> felony wrongdoings.
> .
> e. Ask them if they have they considered alternatives to Microsoft products.
>
> I dont have city contact information but county contact information is as
> follows:
>
> Map To Find Your Council Person
> http://www.maricopa.gov/county_glance/maps.asp?lin k=districtMap
>
> Council Contact Email
> Dist 1 Fulton Brock FBrock@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 2 Don Stapley DStapley@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 3 Andrew Kunasek AKunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 4 Max Wilson mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 5 Mary Rose Wilcox MrWilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
>
> Also I would cc: the County Administrator and Deputy County
> Administrator
>
> CAO: David Smith DSmith@mail.maricopa.gov
> DCA: Sandi Wilson Swilson@mail.maricopa.gov
> - --
> Jim
>
> Freedom is worth protecting
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: PGP 6.5.8
>
> iQA/AwUBPQttsSsk3ywszI1FEQJWEACfTdfEFZA/9kUdBoYCPM 2TFnpR9qQAoOfE
> cWg2GbQ9y1u85/ycX+Ko2+ss
> =GiK8
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> ________________________________________________
> See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
>
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/p lug-discuss
Ok. I work as an Installation Coordinator for a contractor for AOL-Time Warner. Albeit your idea is a nice one, there is a good reason why AOL HSD (High-Speed Data) won't work.
The AOL Software is buggy, bloated, and won't work. They use VPN's and unlike road-runner, you must be signed into the service before you are connected to the internet. Another good reason is that the AOL Backbones are slower than roadrunner.
We've had customers whose computers that just WILL NOT work with AOL's HSD, but with RoadRunner and AOL's BYOA program, they connect to the net just fine. The pricing? The same (Roadrunner + AOL's BYOA = AOL HSD).
Also, something you have to look at is Support. AOL's support is ok...but RoadRunner's is better. If you're having Road Runner problems (e.g., your 31337 child installed a firewall and now you can't connect to the internet) if you call us, we'll be out in a Day...because it's a PC problem...and we support that. AOL will only support via the phone, unless it's a NO CABLE type of work request, then an line tech goes out...who doesn't have working knowledge of computers.
Anyway...from what I've seen Comwaves (who is our biggest competitor up here) uses RoadRunner at their CEO's and a majority of their employee's houses.
Officer Goin searched the Tattered Cover's webpage and discovered that it offered both books for sale. He and DI McFarland then served the Tattered Cover with a DEA administrative subpoena. This subpoena demanded the title of the books corresponding to the order and invoice numbers of the mailer, as well as information about all other book orders ever placed by Suspect A. Using such a subpoena was ordinarily a successful technique for DEA officers, though such a subpoena lacks any legal force or effect.
So, the DEA can make up any 'subponea' that they want to, and as long as no one questions it, they can do what they damn well please? This just doesn't seem right. Lawywers? Anyone?
I subscribe to Sprint PCS's Voice Command. If I want to Dial my girlfriend, I just hist * (Talk) then say "Dial 123-456-7890, (wait a few seconds to have the system acknowledge it), Yes" then volia, it's dialed. Yes, it's redundant because I've got it [a voice dialer] on my phone, but I keep it there anywhere.
I also can't run some of the other apps for the palm internet on my phone. I downloaded the AOL instant Messenger for the Palm, and it crashes my palm to the point of a soft reset each time it runs. Not cool.
The software interface is there; you can play games and jot notes while you're on the cell phone/speakerphone if you so desire. My big bitch is that it doesn't have any ports or sockets for the Palm Add-ons, and that the docking cradle is different.
You can also get a belt clip (i've got one that I ordered online) and other accessories for the phone if you look in the right places; a good google search for Samsung I300 will bring you up some good places to get accessories for it. It's a good phone...once you get use to it. I use it in conjunction with a headset, and I use it quite often, store the usual information on there, and would rather give my TiVo up instead of this.
Isn't this the way it is now? (referring to the OEM Support)
If I go out and buy a E-Machine, Dell, or Gateway that has $WIN_VER preinstalled, and if $WIN_VER breaks, if I call Microsoft, they'll only referr me to the Computer Vendor for Support.
Anyone who deals with OEM contracts care to expand on this?
As much as I have to should "AMEN, Brother!" to what you've just said; I have two points:
1 - In the University Setting, things are ran a little differently than what they are everywhere else. You have a 8 month year, then 4 months to get everything back working again, upgrading equipment, etc when the students aren't around. Most businesses aren't really set up like that...there's not a predictable 4-month window when you can convert everything to IP telephony, or do a big router uprgade, because the business (at large) is at a limited or diminished capacity.
2 - Virus Scanning should very much be a part of a campus enviornment both SERVER SIDE and CLIENT SIDE. We have a site license to Norton Anti Virus Corporate, and we use AntiGen (for Exchange) and qmail-scanner (for everyone else). Between the two, we haven't had a large virus break in a long time.
My 2 cents. Moderators: Yes, I know this is a little bit OffTopic, but I needed to get my point across.
Does anyone remember PowerComputing? It's an Apple-Compatiable box that runs MacOS 7.6.1; it does take some tweaking to get it to work right if you're doing a stock install...it needs a specific set of CD-ROM drivers and the such.
I think they went out of business because Apple Sued the heck out of them. There have been some mac clones tho.
Sounds a lot like SpamAssassin. It's rather easy to implement if you're using qmail-scanner, you just re-configure your qmail scanner to do it. To have it filter out patterns that you don't like, you just go into the/etc/spamassassin.cf file and touch the fields along with a new value. Very easy, simple to install, and powerful.
I use it on my systems on both my home and live boxes, and I have it set both the X-Message-Flag header as well as the normal X-Spam-Flag: YES that spamassassin uses; so that the ones who use Micro$oft's Outlook/OE can filter their spam by flags.
When websites ask for my address and I really don't want to give it to them, I have a very simple method:
abuse@[Upstream Provider of website]
Let's see them talk their "we didn't spam" asses out of that mess, shall we?
ORBZ + SpamAssassin + Razor
on
ORBZ Shuts Down
·
· Score: 5, Informative
With that simple combo, you can keep a majority of spam out of you (and your users) inbox. I became really proactive about stopping spam after one of my (l)users installed a formmail.pl script on our web server and we became an 'open relay' for anyone who knew how to exploit the server. Subsequent emails to the abuse@ emails of the upstream providers resulted in nothing, and I still get attempts on the script. With that said, we flag the email as spam using the X-Message-Flag: header (as most of my clients use Outlook) as well as the Qmail-Scanner Tag that is injected into the message. This lets my users know that the message is spam, and I leave it to them on how to filter the messages out of their inbox.
Spamassassin is nice in this regard, because you shouldn't need to change any configuration rules. The rule that ORBZ deals with, (RCVD_IN_ORBZ) shouldn't need to be changed, however, I'm going to weight the other rules that check for that kind of information (RCVD_IN_RELAYS_ORDB_ORG, RCVD_IN_OSIRUSOFT_COM, RCVD_IN_VISI, RCVD_IN_RFCI, and RCVD_IN_ORBS) up a few points to make up for the lost service.
We've heard in the past few weeks about how VA's Sourceforge on-site is not making the $$$ it needs to be, then we see a "Story" in./ about developing woes, as well as a few replies from VA guys who are recommending SF.
>> Actually, putting annoying ads in the free version of the content is exactly what the RIAA does. At least they're not charging per hit, yet.
I really hope that you're not drawing this from Radio, as radio stations do not get their content for free.
Radio Stations have to pay for their Music (e.g.: Radio Programming Management-RPM), then they have to pay for the license to broadcast the Music (e.g.: ASCAP and BMI), then they have to pay for the right to broadcast on the airwaves (FCC Fees). If anything, the ads are offsetting the cost of all three.
Has anyone tried webmin? The only thing it requires is Perl, and it works rather fine, and it supports SSL. We use it on our boxes here at work and it's really easy to install/learn/figure out wtf is going on.
There are also third party modules for things like netsaint, firewalls, etc.; the API is out there if you want to do your own as well.
I use Rackspace for my Managed Hosting needs, and I've never had any problems with any of my site's emails. It's a sports agency, I've had only 3 problems of sites not getting any of our mail, and in both instances, it was a problem on my end (not having my MX pointer resolved right).
Rackspace is wonderful, and I would encourage anyone who is need of a Managed Host to go there.
The Google Toolbar asks you if it can send personal information back to Google. You can turn it off if you like. Quoteth the Toolbar:
Use of the Advanced Features of the Google Toolbar requires that information about the sites you visit be sent to Google. This is needed to make these features possible. With all advanced features disabled, no information about the sites you visit will be communicated to Google.
Isn't NASA doing something to this effect, only using Cisco gear to help with the wireless link?
My girlfriend works at NASA as a Tech, and something I hear all the time is about their funding, and how it's really hard to get anything real done around there without a whole lot of BS. PHB's trying to get Win2K on P5-75's; and some other obsurd stuff to just make you question why we've cut their budge a lot.
Actually, don't call those numbers...I should have checked them out before I posted them. They were collect call services at one time...now they're phone sex numbers.
Slashdot Mirror
Mod Parent Up. Guy is right on the money...just wish I had mod points today.
It monitors speed (how fast they were driing), seat belt status (if they had the seat belts buckled), how many people were in the car (pressure-sensitive switches in the seats), and can be configured remotely by the parents--I don't have kids myself (only 22), but it's a great 'rule enforcer' for kids who have broken their parents trust when it comes to driving, but situations (e.g., school, work, etc) prevent the parent from totally acting the 'take the keys away and lock the doors' approach for punishment.
We have some companies who use these in their fleet vehicles or secondary finance market vehicles so they can look online and see where their cars are, prevent the cars from starting, see how many people have been riding with the driver, and send/receive text messages to/from the driver.
We market the product as informational use only, but people are using it in a Big Brother kind of sense. That bugs me--but that's another story for another day.
Nasa Catalog Number: 7530
Launched: November 15, 1974
Launch vehicle: Delta 2310
Launched piggyback with: ITOS-G (NOAA 4) and the Spanish INTASAT
Launch location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California
Weight: 28.6 kg
Orbit: 1444 x 1459 km
Inclination: Inclination 101.7 degrees
Period:
Size: Octahedral shaped 360 mm high and 424 mm in diameter
Modes: A, B, and C
Beacons:
-
-
-
-
Linear Transponders:29.502 MHz (200 mw) Used in conjunction with Mode A
145.972 MHz (200 mw) Used in conjunction with Mode B and C [low power Mode B]
435.100 MHz (intermittent problem -- switches between 400 mw and 10 mw)
2304.1 MHz (40 mw) Must be commanded on. Auto off after 15 minutes. Requires STA to operate.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Firsts:Transponder I: Mode A
Type: linear, non-inverting
Uplink: 145.850 - 145.950 MHz
Downlink: 29.400 - 29.500 MHz
Translation Equation:
Downlink (MHz) = Uplink (MHz) - 116.450 MHz +/- Doppler
Output Power: 1.3 watts PEP (start of life)
Transponder II: Mode B and Mode C (low power)
Type: linear, inverting
Uplink: 432.125 - 432.175 MHz *See Note
Downlink: 145.975 - 145.925 MHz
Translation Equation:
Downlink (MHz) = 578.100 - uplink (MHz) +/- Doppler
Output Power: 8 watts PEP Mode B (start of life), 2.5 watts PEP Mode C
-
Satellite-to-satellite relay communication via AO-6.
-
Early demonstrations of low-budget medical data relay and Doppler location
of ground transmitters for search-and-rescue operations were done using
this satellite.
-
The Mode-B transponder was the first using "HELAPS" (High Efficient
Linear Amplification by Parametric Synthesis) technology was developed by Dr.
Karl Meinzer as part of his Ph.D.
-
First to fly a Battery Charge Regulator (BCR).
Status: Semi-OperationalTelemetry:
- AMSAT-OSCAR
7 Telemetry web page
- Thanks to Jim White, WD0E, and Jan King, W3GEY, a spreadsheet for
interpreting telemetry from AO-7 has been made available in the AMSAT-NA
software collection:
- http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/software/spreadshe
e t/AO7tlmSS.zip
- ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/software/spreadsheet
- Please forward AO-7 Telemetry to Jim
White, WD0E.
Description AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched November 15, 1974 by a Delta 2310 launcher from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California. AO-7 was launched piggyback with ITOS-G (NOAA 4) and the Spanish INTASAT. The second phase 2 satellite (Phase II-B). Weight 28.6 kg. Orbit 1444 x 1459 km. Inclination 101.7 degrees. Octahedrally shaped 360 mm high and 424 mm in diameter. Circularly polarized canted turnstile VHF/UHF antenna system and HF dipole.Similar to AO-6. Built by a multi-national (German, Canadian, United States, and Australian) team of radio amateurs under the direction of AMSAT-NA. It carried Mode A (145.850-950 MHz uplink and 29.400-500 MHz downlink) and Mode B (432.180-120 MHz uplink and 145.920-980 MHz downlink (inverted)) linear transponders and 29.500 and 145.700 MHz beacons. The 2304.1 MHz was never turned on because of international treaty constraints.
Four radio masts mounted at 90 degree intervals on the base and two experimental repeater systems provided store-and-forward for morse and teletype messages (Codestore) as it orbited around the world. The Mode-B transponder was designed and build by Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC and Werner Haas, DJ5KQ. The Mode-B transponder was the first using "HELAPS" (High Efficient Linear Amplification by Parametric Synthesis) technology was developed by Dr. Karl Meinzer as part of his Ph.D.
Additional information about AO-7 was printed in the September 1974 AMSAT Newsletter.
AO-7 was operational for 6.5 years until a battery failure ceased operation in mid 1981. Then on June 21, 2002, Pat Gowen, G3IOR, posted this email message on AMSAT-BB:
Jan King, W3GEY, the AMSAT-OSCAR-7 Project Manager commented:
The full text of W3GEY's comments are here.
Initial reports on the health of AO-7 are:
References
-
Joe Kasser G3ZCZ/W3 and Jan King W3GEY, "OSCAR 7 and Its Capabilities," QST, Feb
1974, p. 56-60.
-
"OSCAR News: OSCAR 7", QST, Nov 1974, p. 81.
-
David Sumner, K1ZND, "OSCAR News: OSCAR 7 - It Works!," QST, Jan 1975, p. 49.
-
"OSCAR News: Reading the OSCAR 7 Telemetry", QST, Feb 1975, p.
63.
-
Perry Klein and Ray Soifer, W2RS, "Intersatellite Communication Using the AMSAT-OSCAR
6 and AMSAT-OSCAR 7 Radio Amateur Satellites," Proceedings of the IEEE
Letters, Oct 1975, pp 1526-1527.
-
D. Brandel, P. Schmidt, and B. Trudell, "Improvements in Search and Rescue
Distress Alerting and Location Using Satellites," IEEE WESCON, Sep
1976.
-
J. Kleinman, "OSCAR Medical Data," QST, Oct 1976, pp 42-43.
-
D. Nelson, "Medical Relay by Satellite," Ham Radio, Apr 1977, pp
67-73.
-
Martin Davidoff, "Predicting Close Encounters: OSCAR 7 and OSCAR 8," Ham
Radio, Vol. 12, No. 7, Jul 1979, pp 62-67.
-
"Technical Correspondence: A Look at OSCAR-7 Telemetry", QST,
Jul 1980, p. 38.
The latest information is available from:Return to Satellite Summary
Credits: Thanks G3IOR, WD0E, W3GEY, DB2OS, W3IWI.
Last update June 23, 2002 - N7HPR
Nextel is safe because it runs off the iDEN network (Yes, Direct Connect is freakin cool!)--however, I'd give it a year before they give in and put their software back on the phones...nextel is losing money (Lost 9B last year, if my memory is correct) and doing 'triple coupons' (if you've worked in the grocery industry...you'd know what I mean).
Some Colleges and Universities have it set up so it dials local security, and they route from there. (I know this because when our 911 Trunks were down (thanks, Sprint--but that's another story in it's own right) we were told to route to Security--considering that the 911 trunks were down monthly, then I fubar'ed the routing tables one time...whoopsie) I've also seen a hotel in Las Vegas route 911 to their internal security.
On a kinda OT point, I think that any emergency call should require two seperate actions...like push the cover up off of the phone and push it in, then push the Big Red Button for 911--the same goes with 'emergency' phones that you see on campus and in parking areas...there's nothing like being called in at 3:00 because some drunk college kid hit the button and the phone won't reset itself, making all other phones on that loop dead.
Ian
George Toft plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us Sat, 15 Jun 2002 14:27:50 -0400 Previous message: Help Maricopa County Do the Right Thing Next message: Help Maricopa County Do the Right Thing Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] I just spent some time reading Maricopa County policies. Interesting references: MC1-101 DEFINITIONS 25."CONTRACTOR" means any Person who has a Contract with a County Governmental unit. For purposes of Article 5, Contractor may also mean Respondent as defined in this Article. 36."DEBARMENT" means an action taken by the County Administrative Officer under MC1-902 to prohibit a Person from Participating in Maricopa County Procurements. 80."PERSON" means any corporation, Business, individual, union, committee, club, other organization or group of individuals. 113."SUSPENSION" means an action taken by the County Administrative Officer under MC1-902 temporarily disqualifying a Person from participating in Maricopa County Procurements. http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-01.htm
[Microsoft is considered a Contractor and a Person. This is important
below.]
MC1-407 MAXIMUM PRACTICABLE COMPETITION
All Specifications shall seek to promote overall economy for the purpose
intended and encourage competition in satisfying Maricopa County's needs
and shall not be unduly restrictive.
http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-04.htm#MC1-401
[Is there any technology that is Microsoft exclusive? I believe there
are sites that explain how to replace Exchange Server completely using
Linux/OSS; and SQL Server is replaceable with mySQL; IIS & ASP is
replaceable with Apache & PHP, right?]
MC1-902 DEBARMENT AND SUSPENSION OF CONTRACTORS
B. The causes for Debarment or Suspension shall include, but are not
limited to, the following:
2. Conviction of any Person or any subsidiary or affiliate of any Person
under any statute of the Federal government, this State or its political
subdivision or any other State for:
k. Any other offense indicating a lack of business integrity or business
honesty which affects responsibility as a Contractor.
3. Conviction or civil judgment finding a violation by any Person or any
subsidiary or affiliate of any Person under State or Federal Antitrust
Statutes.
http://maricopa.gov/materials/p-code/HTML_code/Cod e-09.htm#MC1-901
[As I read MC1-902.B.3, Microsoft (a Person), having been convicted of a
violation of Federal Antitrust Statues, cannot be a County Contractor.]
I love policies :)
George
Jim wrote:
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> I have heard from a "reliable source" that the Maricopa County Council has
> decided not to automatically sign off on having the county sign an Enterprise
> Agreement with Microsoft. The source said that people within the county IT
> organizations made their opinion known that the Enterprise Agreement might
> not be the best path for the county to blindly follow.
>
> Since no decision has yet been made, I urge you to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
> contact your Maricopa County district council person and your city council
> people with some simple questions.
>
> a. Ask them if they plan to approve funding for the Enterprise Agreement with
> the Microsoft Corporation?
>
> b. If they do plan to do so, ask them to provide you with a copy of the
> agreement and the dollar amount to be expended.
>
> c. Ask them when they will be hearing from the public on the budget, so if
> they are adopting an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, you can have your
> voice heard publicly.
>
> d. Ask they why do they do business with a vendor that has been convicted of
> felony wrongdoings.
> .
> e. Ask them if they have they considered alternatives to Microsoft products.
>
> I dont have city contact information but county contact information is as
> follows:
>
> Map To Find Your Council Person
> http://www.maricopa.gov/county_glance/maps.asp?lin k=districtMap
>
> Council Contact Email
> Dist 1 Fulton Brock FBrock@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 2 Don Stapley DStapley@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 3 Andrew Kunasek AKunasek@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 4 Max Wilson mwwilson@mail.maricopa.gov
> Dist 5 Mary Rose Wilcox MrWilcox@mail.maricopa.gov
>
> Also I would cc: the County Administrator and Deputy County
> Administrator
>
> CAO: David Smith DSmith@mail.maricopa.gov
> DCA: Sandi Wilson Swilson@mail.maricopa.gov
> - --
> Jim
>
> Freedom is worth protecting
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> ________________________________________________
> See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
>
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Cute...then why am I still at work?
The AOL Software is buggy, bloated, and won't work. They use VPN's and unlike road-runner, you must be signed into the service before you are connected to the internet. Another good reason is that the AOL Backbones are slower than roadrunner.
We've had customers whose computers that just WILL NOT work with AOL's HSD, but with RoadRunner and AOL's BYOA program, they connect to the net just fine. The pricing? The same (Roadrunner + AOL's BYOA = AOL HSD).
Also, something you have to look at is Support. AOL's support is ok...but RoadRunner's is better. If you're having Road Runner problems (e.g., your 31337 child installed a firewall and now you can't connect to the internet) if you call us, we'll be out in a Day...because it's a PC problem...and we support that. AOL will only support via the phone, unless it's a NO CABLE type of work request, then an line tech goes out...who doesn't have working knowledge of computers.
Anyway...from what I've seen Comwaves (who is our biggest competitor up here) uses RoadRunner at their CEO's and a majority of their employee's houses.
Officer Goin searched the Tattered Cover's webpage and discovered that it offered both books for sale. He and DI McFarland then served the Tattered Cover with a DEA administrative subpoena. This subpoena demanded the title of the books corresponding to the order and invoice numbers of the mailer, as well as information about all other book orders ever placed by Suspect A. Using such a subpoena was ordinarily a successful technique for DEA officers, though such a subpoena lacks any legal force or effect.
So, the DEA can make up any 'subponea' that they want to, and as long as no one questions it, they can do what they damn well please? This just doesn't seem right. Lawywers? Anyone?
I subscribe to Sprint PCS's Voice Command. If I want to Dial my girlfriend, I just hist * (Talk) then say "Dial 123-456-7890, (wait a few seconds to have the system acknowledge it), Yes" then volia, it's dialed. Yes, it's redundant because I've got it [a voice dialer] on my phone, but I keep it there anywhere.
I also can't run some of the other apps for the palm internet on my phone. I downloaded the AOL instant Messenger for the Palm, and it crashes my palm to the point of a soft reset each time it runs. Not cool.
The software interface is there; you can play games and jot notes while you're on the cell phone/speakerphone if you so desire. My big bitch is that it doesn't have any ports or sockets for the Palm Add-ons, and that the docking cradle is different.
You can also get a belt clip (i've got one that I ordered online) and other accessories for the phone if you look in the right places; a good google search for Samsung I300 will bring you up some good places to get accessories for it. It's a good phone...once you get use to it. I use it in conjunction with a headset, and I use it quite often, store the usual information on there, and would rather give my TiVo up instead of this.
If I go out and buy a E-Machine, Dell, or Gateway that has $WIN_VER preinstalled, and if $WIN_VER breaks, if I call Microsoft, they'll only referr me to the Computer Vendor for Support.
Anyone who deals with OEM contracts care to expand on this?
1 - In the University Setting, things are ran a little differently than what they are everywhere else. You have a 8 month year, then 4 months to get everything back working again, upgrading equipment, etc when the students aren't around. Most businesses aren't really set up like that...there's not a predictable 4-month window when you can convert everything to IP telephony, or do a big router uprgade, because the business (at large) is at a limited or diminished capacity.
2 - Virus Scanning should very much be a part of a campus enviornment both SERVER SIDE and CLIENT SIDE. We have a site license to Norton Anti Virus Corporate, and we use AntiGen (for Exchange) and qmail-scanner (for everyone else). Between the two, we haven't had a large virus break in a long time.
My 2 cents.
Moderators: Yes, I know this is a little bit OffTopic, but I needed to get my point across.
I think they went out of business because Apple Sued the heck out of them. There have been some mac clones tho.
I use it on my systems on both my home and live boxes, and I have it set both the X-Message-Flag header as well as the normal X-Spam-Flag: YES that spamassassin uses; so that the ones who use Micro$oft's Outlook/OE can filter their spam by flags.
When websites ask for my address and I really don't want to give it to them, I have a very simple method:
abuse@[Upstream Provider of website]
Let's see them talk their "we didn't spam" asses out of that mess, shall we?
Spamassassin is nice in this regard, because you shouldn't need to change any configuration rules. The rule that ORBZ deals with, (RCVD_IN_ORBZ) shouldn't need to be changed, however, I'm going to weight the other rules that check for that kind of information (RCVD_IN_RELAYS_ORDB_ORG, RCVD_IN_OSIRUSOFT_COM, RCVD_IN_VISI, RCVD_IN_RFCI, and RCVD_IN_ORBS) up a few points to make up for the lost service.
Conicidence? That's Your call.
I really hope that you're not drawing this from Radio, as radio stations do not get their content for free.
Radio Stations have to pay for their Music (e.g.: Radio Programming Management-RPM), then they have to pay for the license to broadcast the Music (e.g.: ASCAP and BMI), then they have to pay for the right to broadcast on the airwaves (FCC Fees). If anything, the ads are offsetting the cost of all three.
Clearing it up maybe?
There are also third party modules for things like netsaint, firewalls, etc.; the API is out there if you want to do your own as well.
Rackspace is wonderful, and I would encourage anyone who is need of a Managed Host to go there.
Just my 2 Cents worth.
Use of the Advanced Features of the Google Toolbar requires that information about the sites you visit be sent to Google. This is needed to make these features possible. With all advanced features disabled, no information about the sites you visit will be communicated to Google.
Shouldn't this have been modd'ed to "Funny" rather than "Informative?" Maybe I'm missing something...
http://www.talibanonline.com runs IIS, actually...o de_w=on&site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.talibanonline.com&su bmit=Examine
(from netcraft)
The site www.talibanonline.com is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000.
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?mode_u=off&m
My girlfriend works at NASA as a Tech, and something I hear all the time is about their funding, and how it's really hard to get anything real done around there without a whole lot of BS. PHB's trying to get Win2K on P5-75's; and some other obsurd stuff to just make you question why we've cut their budge a lot.
Actually, don't call those numbers...I should have checked them out before I posted them. They were collect call services at one time...now they're phone sex numbers.