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Godspeed Discovery
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on October 29, 2010.]
Godspeed Discovery
It was a sunny and cold Tuesday morning in late January as I looked north out of my South Florida office window, and something was cruelly wrong. It was 1986, barely 16 months since I had moved on from my life in Cape Canaveral and my job working on Space Shuttle launch systems. That morning Space Shuttle Challenger, after six postponements, had finally lifted off the pad. It carried a diverse crew, including a Japanese American military man from Hawaii, an African American Karate black-belt from South Carolina and MIT, a female classical pianist and Engineer from Akron, and a civilian woman who had been selected to be the first “teacher in space”. Tragically, she would not reach it.
Even from so far south, on a clear day you could watch the blaze of a launching Shuttle as it shot spaceward from the Cape. But this one was different – the solid rocket booster contrails took a crazy path. The others in the room, who had not witnessed a dozen launches from close-up as I had, didn’t realize there was a problem. But I knew something was wrong. I ran down the hall to a friend’s office that had a small TV (pre-Internet days). There I got the sickening news: 73 seconds into the flight, Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded. (more…)
Travel Tech
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on September 24, 2010.]
Travel Tech
In Key West, October involves a lot of travel. Multitudes of Fantasy Festers are coming and going, some of the seasonal population is on the move, and there are locals who try to get out of town to make room for the revelry. Whether travelling by plane, boat or car, new technology can smooth the ride and help make for an enjoyable and safe trip. Here are a few travel techno-tips and gadgets…
Personal Entertainment. Let’s start with an update on what’s available these days to keep you entertained while on a long ride or flight. On-board DVD players are now a fairly common option in cars, and the average laptop nowadays can be your own personal entertainment center on the road. However there are a few new developments you may not be aware of. For example, did you know that the long-promised “TV glasses” have finally become a practical reality? (more…)
Where In The World?
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on August 27, 2010.]
Where In The World?
Back in the ‘70s I was nominated for an Army Commendation medal for helping solve a synchronization problem the LORAN (“LOng RAnge Navigation”) system had pinpointing the location of a large communication device. LORAN was an expensive ground-based predecessor to the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) that now permeates our lives. This equivalent of those old clunky LORAN boxes is now embedded in cars, cell phones, even wrist watches.
GPS uses a constellation of lower orbit satellites to triangulate your location. The tiny receiver you carry is smart enough to find several satellites currently radio-visible in your sky as they streak around the earth. With careful calculation, the signals from the satellites can tell almost exactly where you are on Earth, and even your altitude above sea-level. We peons actually get a slightly less precise reading, because high-precision is reserved for military & intelligence operations. But it’s close enough to be extremely practical. (more…)
Safe Computing
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on July 30, 2010.]
Safe Computing
We humans must protect ourselves from accident and illness by leading healthy lives and being careful. What’s true for our biological health is also true for our cybernetic companions – our personal computers. Back in the late 70s when Steve Jobs introduced Apple computers, and a few years later when IBM and Microsoft introduced the PC, the concept of “Safe Computing” was hardly imagined. But the lowlifes seeking new paths for their vandalism and greed took note.
By the time I joined the OS/2 design team in the mid-80s, there had already been virus outbreaks on Apple computers and on PCs. In those days a personal computer would often start up (boot) from a floppy disk, and insidious hackers had already used them to spread viruses such as “Elk Cloner” (on Apples) and “Brain” (on PCs). The new OS/2 operating system featured better virus protection, but Microsoft soon dropped their support for OS/2 and continued with newer (less secure) versions of Windows. (more…)
Talk to Me
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on June 25, 2010.]
Talk to Me
When I worked on crypto equipment in the Army in the prehistoric 1970s, the box that would digitize and encrypt ONE telephone conversation was the size of a dorm room refrigerator. Nowadays it all easily fits in your pocket. And any mundane PC can easily carry multiple conversations – with video! Today’s technology offer lots of telephone alternatives, and it’s not always easy to get the most bang for your buck. Let me help you figure it out… (more…)
iPad
Geek Speak column
[Published in the Key West Citizen Locals Guide on May 28, 2010.]
iPad
Years ago I worked on the first IBM ThinkPad, a “tablet” computer with no keyboard. The concept was ahead of its time and the technology was lacking, so tablet computers remained a niche product. Twenty years down the road Apple finally gets it right with the iPad.
Apple has shed much of the baggage associated with previous tablets and concentrated on upsizing their highly successful iPod and iPhone products. Indeed, Apple detractors have called the iPad “a big iPhone that can’t make calls”. That characterization has some truth to it – the iPad’s easy-to-use interface is very similar, and multitudes of users of those other Apple products will instantly find it familiar. But the iPad also shares many of advanced talents of previous tablet computers; it’s much more than a glorified cell phone. (more…)