I’m taking a moment this morning to share some good news from my Q-Track colleagues. Q-Track’s Dosimulation™ System was the focus of the “Nuclear Training Process Award” bestowed by the Nuclear Energy Institute. Dosimulation™ Systems provide realistic radiation training for routine maintenance tasks to be performed within nuclear power facility […]
Technology
168 posts
“Static, like the poor, will always be with us,” radio engineer John Carson famously quipped in the 1920s. The crackles, pops, and hiss on the AM radio band were thought to be an inevitable part of radio technology. Then along came Edwin Howard Armstrong who invented wideband frequency modulation or […]
The Air Force launched a satellite with hyperspectral imaging capabilities this weekend, according to Popular Science. Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds.
Consulting Engineer, Stephen J. Crowley, P.E., provides an informative bi-monthly survey of experimental license applications before the FCC. Here are a half dozen highlights from recent updates:
Up to 10,000 Air Force GPS units may have been temporarily disabled in January due to a software glitch according to a recent AP story. Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds. The incident highlights the vulnerability of the Air Force to jamming and helps explain the urgency with which the Air Force […]
Some updates on items previously discussed or mentioned on AetherCzar: The “Froot Loops” plaintiff also had a law suit alleging false advertising. Believe it or not, there is no such thing as a “Crunch Berry,” and no real berries in the eponymous cereal. Alas, his appeal was dismissed for lack […]
Guest Post by Kai Siwiak, TimeDerivative, Inc. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes are from: K. Siwiak and D. McKeown, UWB Radio Technology, (Wiley, 2004) We pause to reflect on the rise and fall of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, and especially on the recent reorganization of Time Domain Corporation, a UWB pioneer […]
A few quick picks… The National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA) is welcoming public comments on dealing with contraband cell phones in prisons. Submit your comments before June 11. Hat tip: Ars Technica. Elliot revisits the cell phone ban on airplanes. Chiropractor in Frederick, MD cleanses “EMF toxins” using ancient […]
Annually FierceWireless picks its list of fifteen “Fierce” wireless start-ups. The 2010 honorees are a diverse lot, including a VC firm, suppliers of wireless applications for niche markets, and a company trying to bring comic books to smart phones. My personal favorite is an outfit called “PowerMat” which offers inductive […]
From Eric S. Raymond, an interesting discussion of how Android is displacing iPhone in the marketplace.
A few quick picks: A new radio direction finding system for deployment on Humvees was introduced last week by Southwest Research Institute. Claire Berlinski reporting in City Journal reports a surprising lack of interest in a couple of Russian exiles with copies of the Kremlin’s secret archives needing translation and […]
“Is Induction Cooking Ready to go Mainstream?” asked the New York Times last month. An induction range uses a rapidly varying magnetic field to induce electric currents in steel pots and pans – causing them to get hot very rapidly. Induction cooking appears to be coming back into vogue… again. […]
From the July 1927 issue of Popular Science, the ‘latest’ thinking on “Wireless Power Transfer.” The article quotes contemporary expert opinion from such luminaries as Steinmetz, Tesla, and Marconi. As Marconi noted: “the transmission of power by electrical waves awaited only the perfection of devices for projecting the waves in […]
Gizmodo – last mentioned here as the web site that famously bought the stolen iPhone prototype – broke Twitter earlier today by sharing a hack that allowed any Twitter user to force any other Twitter user to follow them. Details here.
Scientist Clive Wing claims to have invented a plasma based light source that mimics sunlight but without the heat. Unfortunately technical details are sketchy. Press report here. Some technical data are here. It looks promising, if it works as claimed.
On this day May 4, 1988, a massive explosion (comparable to a small nuclear blast) at the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) rocked Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. 4000 tons of aluminum perchlorate (an oxidizer for rocket fuel) detonated, killing two and injuring 372. The first explosion […]
Watt’s Up With That has a detailed first hand report of the oil rig fire from geologist Jimmy Haigh, a commenter at the site. The report includes some spectacular photos of the rig as it burned and sank in 5000 feet of water. Eleven men are missing and will probably […]
For those of us who do RF engineering, there’s nothing like the feel of a low ESR ceramic chip cap held in tweezers in one hand and a fine tip soldering iron held in the other punctuated by the tangy aroma of pine rosin. Ahhh! Open any electronic device you […]
In most jurisdictions, it is legal to video record the police in public places where they would have no expectation of privacy. That right is not always upheld in practice, however. Writing in Reason, Randy Balko examines some recent cases that illustrate the importance of allowing citizens to use technology […]
While I was goofing off in high school in the early 1980’s, Scott Savage was busy building what may well have been the world’s first checker playing robot: “Lefty.” Lefty was an Armdroid robot arm run by an Atari 800 computer that debuted at the Oklahoma City Omniplex (now the […]
By law, 2.5% of all Federal extramural research funds are set aside for contracts or grants under the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program – approximately $2 billion each year. SBIR contracts are typically $100k for a Phase I proof-of-concept. If the Phase I is sufficiently promising, an agency might […]
I don’t even have a T-shirt to show for it! The very first Bluetooth Headset I had (a Motorola HS280) was so quiet that even with the volume turned way up I couldn’t always hear it. I solved that problem by buying a Plantronics Voyager 510. It turns out that […]
Responding to complaints from AT&T mobility regarding interference, the Dallas Office of the FCC discovered a 5W cell phone jammer in operation at the Cosmetology Career Center in Carrollton, TX. Judging by the enforcement letter, there appears to be no indication that the folks at the Cosmetology Career Center received […]
You may have followed the saga of the Apple engineer who “lost” a prototype of the next generation iPhone in a bar? A prototype that just happened to end up with technology blog Gizmodo? Of course, there was skepticism about how accidental that might have been, largely dispelled by Gizmodo. […]