Category Archives: Connecting the Dots

Alexandru Csete, a/k/a OZ9AEC: open-source/software defined radio leader

The use of computers in conjunction with radio devices is not new: since we’ve been liberated from having to have a crystal, vacuum tube, or transistor specfically fabricated to transmit or receive over particular frequencies, the costs of manufacturing devices which can send and receive voice or data signals has dropped as their flexibility has increased. We’re going to try to explain how this works – and how it works within the United States (i.e. F.C.C. domestically, the International Telecommunications Union – I.T.U., an arm of the United Nations, and F.C.C. equivalent organizations in individual countries). This by way of introducing Alexandre Zcsete, call sign 0Z9AEC (in case readers are wondering, I do not know if the first character is an upper-case letter “O” or tthe number “0”(zero). We’ll be addressing this in a future post or posts; we believe the most elegant solution is to idenify a common, open-source – i.e. F.O.S.S. font which readily distinguishes between the number “zero” and the upper-case “O,” as in “Orange,” “Octagon,” “Oscar” (used by the U.S. Military and Nato, and, depending on your generation, you can imagine The Oscar Awards, Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street, or Oscar Madison of The Odd Couple). Without furher digression, we’ll now permit Mr. Csete tto introduce himself, using text from the “About” page on his blog, oz9aec.net.

My name is Alexandru Csete, also known as OZ9AEC. I am a physicist from the University of Aarhus and I work as a development engineer in the antenna department at Thrane & Thrane. Before that I was 8 years in the European space industry working on the Automated Transfer Vehicle called Jules Verne and the Gaia scientific mission.

I have been the holder of a CEPT Cat. 1 amateur radio certificate since 1991. My primary interests today are satellite communications, software radios, digital high-rate modes, microwaves and developing free software for Unix-like operating systems.

It’s my educated guess that Mr. Csete is the holder of a license equivalent to one of the FCC’s amateur or “ham” licenses; we’ll try to pin that down and update this piece. Non- American readers may not be aware of the American-language idiom that “so-and-so” is not a “rocket scientist” is a way of saying that someone isn’t particularly smart, the implication being that being a rocket scientist requires substantial smarts. Alexandru Csete is, in fact, a rocket scientist – or the functional equivalent: he works on teams which use rockets (propulsion systems) to hurl functional systems into space.

At this point, we’re not going to explain how things work – not because we don’t think our readers will follow the explanations. Contrariwise, we’re pretty certain that if it’s my byline on the piece, we’ll get things wrong – perhaps terribly wrong – and we’d like to avoid that.

Here is one extremely cool thing that Alexandru Csete has come up with: a means of adding some software and some hardware to a PC and directly download NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) satellite images. This is, on its own terms, quite a feat, but it has serious practical implications: in a crisis, the NOAA servers are at risk of being overloaded, or suffering from power failure. A greater risk is a local power failure or network failure in your neighborhood or region prevents Internet access. Mr. Csete’s application (that is, the combination of hardware and software) provides a direct link between your PC and NOAA’s satellite(s).

Image(s) retrieved from NOAA on May 23rd, 2012

Yet another good reason that community-based disaster risk assessment, response, and rebuilding should have – among other things – reserve power to keep laptops, radios (both two-way and receivers) and other critical equipment powered. Emergency power is another subject we hope to address comprehensively – although , initially in the form of “posts,” in order to force some discipline in keeping our explanations clear and concise.

If you’re ready to start your swim at the deep end of the pool, with the sharks, gators, and piranhas, you have our admiration and respect, and we wantto hear about it. Start with Simple APT decoder prototype on the oz9aec.net blog. Mr. Csete has his own suggestions for beginner reading and projects in this post: GRC Examples. (“GRC” stands for “GNU Radio Companion”).

Mr. Csete’s Flickr Photostream

CBS’s David Martin breaks story of SEALs disciplined

This story has now made it around the web and print media, See Navy SEALs punished for revealing secrets to video game designers Robert Burns, AP Correspondent, published at the Christian Science Monitor’s website, CSMonitor.com. Burns credits David Martin, CBS News National Security Correspondent, for breaking the story. Our reading is that Mr. Martin broke the story in two pieces, 7 Navy SEALs disciplined for role with video game and SEALs disciplined for role in “Medal of Honor” video game video.

It’s hard to imagine 7 active-duty SEALs giving away important tactical details. Indeed, Noam Cohen, writing in the Times’ Media Decoder, notes that the SEALs were cited for two violations: First, consulting on the video without prior permission, and second, showing the game producers classified equipment carried by SEALs on missions. Since the second violation might have involved something as trivial as the rails system (which allows attaching flashlights, IR lights, UV lights, video equipment – all manner of gear – to customized versions of standard rifles) – we suspect the more serious violation is the first – failing to ask permission – and perhaps if permission had been asked, it would have been granted – with guidance about what could and could not be discussed.

Power, Infrastructure, Hurricanes, and Emergencies

Hurricane Sandy, the 1,000 mile diameter storm brought rain, wind, water and power failures to 10.4 million from North Carolina up to Maine, and west to Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan in the USA and another 145,000 people in Canada, over 1.5 million people. As NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, here, “We have old infrastructure and new weather patterns… climate change is a reality, extreme weather is a reality, it is a reality that we are vulnerable.”

We need to build infrastructure that is more resistant to extreme storms, and resilient in the face of these kinds of storms.

Map showing people without power from Hurricane Sandy

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Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm

Hurricane Sandy, NOAA handout satellite image taken on October 27, 2012. Note the size and position of the storm.

Hurricane Sandy, aka “The Frankenstorm,” a Hurricane with Snow, the 19th named storm of the 2012 season, is projected to hit Delaware, then New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Snow is expected in West Virginia. Winds and rain are expected as far west as Ohio. Additional satellite images are available at NOAA. Note that the Frankenstein monster was created by man.

While some are calling this the storm of the century, I see it, like Hurricane Irene of 2011, discussed here, and Katrina and Rita a few years ago, as a harbinger of things to come.

Several natural phenomena are combining with several man-made factors to interact in ways that will make this a very significant storm, and one that we expect to see repeated every few years. ABC News, National Hurricane Center, NOAA, other news and information media are providing up-to-date coverage. Popular Logistics provides analysis.

Natural Phenomena:

Hurricane Sandy is 900 miles wide – bigger than Irene.
It will interact with a cold front coming from Canada that will form a Nor’ Easter.
It will also interact with the Jet Stream, that will pull it northward, then refocus it back south-westerly arc toward New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey.
The full moon – which triggers higher tides – will trigger a storm surge.

Man made factors that will exacerbate the storm’s damage:

Atmospheric CO2 and water vapor – the concentration of carbon dioxide and water vapor is higher today due to burning fossil fuels. This means the atmosphere can hold more heat, and is holding more water, the oceans are warmer; thus storms will be bigger and more severe.
Coastal development – sand dunes gone from Long Island make us more vulnerable to storm surges and flooding
Crumbling infrastructure gives us a diminished ability to weather the storm.
Lack of emergency preparedness gives us a diminished ability to weather the storm.
Satellites, in need of repair, give us a diminished ability to monitor the storm.
Nuclear Power plants in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will need to be monitored. Some will be shut down, as they were last year during Hurricane Irene, leading to power outages. See “Nuclear Power, Natural Disasters, and Security.”This gives us diminished ability to weather the storm, and forces us to deploy resources to safeguard infrastructure.

In August of 2011 the Millstone 2 & 3 plants in Connecticut and the Brunswick 1 & 2 plants in North Carolina were operated at reduced capacity during and after Hurricane Irene, while the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, and the North Anna 1 & 2 plants in Virginia, were offline. The North Anna plants were shut down before the hurricane due to the earthquake. I expect Hurricane Sandy will effect most of those plants, and also the Calvert Creek plant in Maryland, Hope Creek, and Salem in Jersey, Indian Point in New York, and Vermont Yankee, in Vermont.

Solar power, wind, and wave power won’t work during a hurricane, but don’t need emergency crew on hand to make sure cooling systems are operational. And geothermal will function.

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As an analyst with Popular Logistics, I am available for research and analysis on a per project or a per diem basis. I can be reached at ‘L Furman 97” @ G Mail . com and US 732 . 580 . 0024.

The Approach of Danger

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? No! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with the treasures of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is this approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was likely right for the most part, as he was on most matters. What he doesn’t seem to have foreseen – and how could he have – was that we’d foul our own environment sufficiently to poison entire communities, laying waste to our fellow citizens in ways that Lincoln knew was beyond the reach of outside armies.

Urgent Private Admin Message

Have started to close in on the bug which was preventing me from toggling function frames in the New/Edit Post page. Started by disabling plugins one at a time. Too slow. So I disabled all plugins except those which are security related, and WP-Footnotes, which we’ve used since the first year, and seemed an unlikely suspect. So – I stayed up way too late, bad, but have solved the basic problem, and will, by the end of the day, have identified and deleted.

I’ve forced the evil troll out of the blog, and reclaimed my right to post on it.

Victory is within sight. Please be careful when – or refrain entirely from — activating plugins.

Jon

CBC’s Q: intense, intelligent conversation of urban bicycle policies

Do bike helmet laws discourage cycling? is a fascinating and intelligent conversation which starts with the assumption that encouraging bicycle usage is an important objective, for the type of multiple, overlapping outcomes which underly our policy views at Popular Logistics. Public health, energy consumption, carbon footprint, community, transportation, and even urban noise can be positively affected by increased bicycle use. Q, a brilliant CBC-produced show carried on many U.S. public radio station, shows that it’s not looking for simple answers or single-variable equations.

CBC’s “Q” on bicycle policy

Weapons-Grade Uranium essentially unguarded

Bush, Gore, Al Queda, and Sept. 11

Damadged sculpture that stands in Battery Park in New York City

The Sphere, by Fritz Koenig, in Battery Park. Image by L. Furman

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11?

Throughout the 1990’s we sustained:

The 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City,
The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
The 1998 bombings of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
The 2000 bombing of the U. S. S. Cole,
And in 1999 we foiled Al Queda’s Millennium plot.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore knew that Osama bin Laden was a threat. They knew he had been trained by the CIA in the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They also knew that he financed and or masterminded the simultaneous attacks on U. S. embassies in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, and the October, 2000 attack on the U. S. S. Cole. And President Clinton told us that after his January 2001 inauguration he briefed President Bush on bin Laden.

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Ahmadinejad Hints About Robert Levinson

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has implicitly admitted that Robert Levinson in in Iranian custody, while simultaneously evading personal responsibility by saying that he thought Mr. Levinson had been part of a prisoner exchange which had already been negotiated and concluded.

Here’s an excerpt from CBS’s coverage:

[P]ressed by Charlie Rose in an interview for “CBS This Morning,” Ahmadinejad did not deny Iran still has Levinson in its custody, and he hinted that there had been talks about a prisoner exchange. “I remember that last year Iranian and American intelligence groups had a meeting, but I haven’t followed up on it,” said the Iranian president. “I thought they’d come to some kind of an agreement.”

John Miller [CBS News senior correspondent a former FBI assistant director] says that, “tacit admission that he’s in their custody and that there have been talks,” in and of itself, “is a big step.” “I think that’s going to give a ray of hope to the family, too,” adds Miller.

From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops clue about Robert Levinson, ex-FBI agent who vanished 5 years ago in Iran – CBS News. There’s a link to video and more coverage on that page.

For more background, here’s are additional links on ABC News (From 12/9/11) Facebook, and Wikipedia.

new coronavirus, SARS-like, kills 1 in Saudi Arabia, infects others

Occupy Wall Street, Obama, The American Jobs Act, Veterans & Patriots

The same way that they filibustered the The American Jobs Act of 2011, Senate Republicans filibustered the Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012. According to the Examiner, here,

the proposal failed 58-40, with most Republicans voting against it. Sixty votes were needed to overcome the procedural hurdle and push the bill toward final passage. Five Republicans – Sens. Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) – voted with all 53 members of the Democratic Conference to sidestep the procedural roadblock.

I know the Republicans CLAIM to be “Fiscal Conservatives” and “Patriots” but the evidence shows that they are neither.
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Occupy Wall Street – On Taxes

“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Progressive tax structures are not about punishing the rich. They are a recognition that wealthy people – like everyone else – derive benefits from being in society. Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Oprah, for example, got rich because people buy their products or watched them play basketball or on TV. Paris Hilton is wealthy because her great-grandfather built a successful business. Their successes are wonderful. But their success should not require me to subsidize their lifestyles.

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