Category: technology

That Sound is George Orwell Spinning in His Grave at 4800 RPM

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Amazon sold copies of 1984 and Animal Farm in E-Book format for use on its Kindle reader, and when the publisher objected, it removed the books from its store, and from the Kindles of people who had already purchased the books.

The people bought these books, and thought that they owned them, albeit without the option of donating them at a later time, etc., but they were wrong, and all traces were removed from their readers.

As both David Pogue and Boing Boing note, this mirrors a number of concerns that people have with the new IP regime, and how it will apply to digital data.

Of course, the fact that these books were consigned to the “memory hole”, a term created by George Orwell in his book 1984, the irony here is obvious:

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston’s arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

As I am wont to say, “Who says that irony is dead?”

Sikorsky X2 Flying with Propulsor on

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The X2 advancing blade helicopter has returned to flight, and this time, the propulsor is hooked up.

It only reached 52 kts in its initial flights around the end of last month, but Sikorsky is hoping to reach 250 kts by the end of the year.

So far, there have been no game stoppers, and, unlike its ABC helicopter predecessor from the 1970s, vibrations appear to be very low.

I would assume that at some point, they will be adding some sort of shroud on the rotor masts to reduce drag a bit.

Is Goldman Sachs Running a Scam Right out of The Sting?

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Yes, we now have a case of what appears to be industrial espionage, or perhaps geeky security breaches, this is once more pulling back a part of the masque from that great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity*, Goldman Sachs.

Specifically, a former programmer at Goldman Sachs, one Sergey Aleynikov, is alleged to have stolen the proprietary program trading software that they use and stored it on a server somewhere in Germany. (Also here and here)

What is interesting is what this software actually does:

The platform is one of the things that apparently gives Goldman a leg-up over the competition when it comes to rapid-fire trading of stocks and commodities. Federal authorities say the platform quickly processes rapid developments in the markets and uses top secret mathematical formulas to allow the firm to make highly-profitable automated trades.

Or as is noted in the criminal complaint:

The Financial Institution has devoted substantial resources to developing and maintaining a computer platform that allows the Financial Institution to engage in sophisticated high-speed, and high-volume trades on various stock and commodities markets. Among other things, the platform is capable of quickly obtaining and processing information regarding rapid developments in these markets.

So basically, we have high speed software to execute computer driven trades in response to market fluctuations, to the tune of about 60% of all of these trades, about $100 million a day,

We also have this tidbit from the prosecutor, “The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.”

The reality here is that it is being used to manipulate markets in unfair ways, by Goldman Sachs.

Vet74 at Daily Kos explains in a fairly technical way, but basically, this is the scam within a scam from the Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie The Sting, where the man they are cheating, murderous gangster Doyle Lonnegan, believes that they are delaying the ticker tape of race results so as to place bets on horses that have already won.

When they note that the software, “quickly processes rapid developments in the markets,” what they really mean is that this software can pick up on large orders in process, and get their orders in ahead of those orders already in process, and generate profits.

If this were a human transaction, with the agent doing it to a client, it would be called front-running, and it would be a felony.

I’m pretty sure that Goldman does not want everything to come out in court, because, even if it’s legal, the revelations would likely lead to calls for additional regulatory reform.

They just want this gut to cop a plea, extract some sort of non-disclosure agreement, and then make him disappear.

You can tell this, because they are playing some serious hardball here.

They discovered the loss of the code some time in mid June, but held off on notifying authorities until July 1, pretty much guaranteeing that the arrest, and setting of bail would take place over the holiday, and he would have to spend the weekend in jail.

He is out on bail now, but I expect a plea, or a convenient suicide, because the exposure in open court of what amounts to a massive, pervasive, and thoroughly corrupt insider trading scheme is something that the squids* will find unacceptable.

Then again, I am a bit tinfoil hat on such things.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

Boeing’s Looks at Re- Winging 777

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It appears that Boeing is concerned about the threat that the Airbus A350 might be in the market.

It’s larger than the 787, but is following Boeing’s lead on propulsion and structural technologies to lower operational costs, and so the Seattle (Chicago) based manufacturer is worried that they might be facing a repeat of the 767/A330 fight that they had over a decade ago, which the A330 won decisively.

So, Boeing is looking at a significant stretch to the 787, and at re-winging the 777 with a lighter weight composite structure. (paid subscription required)

I’m not clear if this is just some blue-sky thinking, or if Boeing is really spooked by the repeated delays, and the cancellation of orders, on its 787 Dreamliner.

A Wacky Tilt-Rotor Concept From DARPA

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It’s called the Folding Advanced Stopped Tilt Rotor (FASTR), and the basic idea is that you have some sort of variable cycle engine which powers tilt rotors on takeoff, and after you get to speed, the rotors are stopped, folded back, and the engines convert to turbojets.

I’m inclined to believe that this won’t amount to anything, as the weight penalties of a stop start folding rotor and variable cycle engine would likely make any advantages irrelevant, but it’s DARPA’s job to try out weird stuff like this, and see what happens.

More Bumps in the 787 Road to 1st Flight

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We have another delay in the 787 first flight, and this one is for a serious technical reason, “the revelation that the new airplane’s composite wing induced delamination and deformation on body join points during a routine preflight stress test.” (paid subscription required)

So as opposed to flying in the coming week, Boeing is now looking at a 3-6 month delay.

In related news, Qantas is canceling or deferring its 787 ordersdelay, though they are claiming that it’s the air traffic slowdown, and not the delay, that has led to this decision.

F-15 Silent Eagle Updates

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It appears that the program executive officer for the JSF, General David Heinz, of the is unamused by Boeing’s marketing of the upgraded aircraft, which notes that it, “as all the stealth that has been approved for export by the U.S. government,” which implies that the export variants of the JSF will be less stealthy than than the version fielded by US forces.

I think that the general misses the point, it was not a shot at the JSF, but rather a shot at elements in the Pentagon who might want to restrict its export in order to further boost the F-35.

In the meantime, it does appear that Boeing is looking to minimize its exposure in the development process, as it’s aggressively looking for development partners, while it leaves the start of aircraft development on pause, pending a review of the “business case.”

They don’t want to invest in a product that no one will buy, and so they are slipping the flight test dates by 6 months.

Russia Looking at AESA on MiG-35

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This is not a development, as Russia, or more exactly the USSR, is the only nation to have fielded a combat fighter in squadron service with a phased array radar, the MiG-31 Foxhound.

It appears that much of this development is being driven by the Indian medium fighter competition.

The installation appears to be a bit tight (top pic) in the demonstration, though there may be more changes to shrink the “back end” of the radar and increase the aperture size in the production model.

The ground mapping imagery (bottom pic) does appear to indicate a very significant improvement in air to surface capabilities.

An Idea So Good, that the USAF Will Never Do It

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Specifically, the idea that a relatively low performance airframe can serve better in the counter-insurgency (COIN) or the close air support role than something like the F-15, F-16, F-22, or F-35 JSF.

Not only would lower performance aircraft tend to have better short and rough field capabilities, just as the A-10 Warthog currently does, but they would be able to loiter over the battlefield for a much longer time, as they are designed for this regime, unlike aircraft designed to operate above 30,000 feet and to reach supersonic speeds.

Case in point, the Combat Air Tractor, an aircraft based on Air Tractor’s crop dusting aircraft.

It can take off and land off of rough airfields in less than 100m, and can loiter over the battle field for over 10 hours.(click slide show [top] for pictures of aircraft and weapons load outs)

The CAT also costs somewhere between $4 and $10 million dollars, as opposed to the $80-$200 million of a JSF, and it has been used in combat situations, spraying herbicide on coca fields and the like, and the aircraft is on the tarmac at the Paris air show.

While it would be an unlikely choice, there are also rumblings that the USAF is considering modifying their T-6 trainer for a similar role (bottom pic)

Personally, I’d favor something turbofan powered, because it could be designed with narrow-band stealth against radar guided AAA, but anything is better than the current plan, which is JSF’s for everything.

Locking Small Children in Car Trunks

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And why this can be a good thing sometimes.

My wife is driving a rental car, because an adjuster is looking at her car, a 2008 Dodge Avenger.

While loading the trunk I noticed the emergency release handle on the latch (see crappy cell phone pic)

It’s there to deal with the problem of small children locking themselves in the trunk ans suffocating.

In condicting human factors resarch on how to make the use of the device as easy and intuitive as possible, at one point, researchers locked children in trunks of cars, and observed their progress on infra red cameras.

It’s kind of neat.

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F-15 Silent Eagle Video Pr0n

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More defense contractor puffery, but it appears that some countries have expressed a significant interest in the Silent Eagel low observability program, most notably South Korea.

Of interest is the fact that Boeing has some real concerns about the US Government export license process being used to sabotage their sales process:

As for the F-15SE versus F-35 on frontal stealth, Jones says what Boeing is looking for is an assurance from the U.S. government that all competitors will be set at the same level of RCS reduction. Let the battle begin.

The translation here is that they are concerned that the JSF will be allowed for export at levels of stealth that the F-15SE would not be, because the USAF has no interest in the program, and doesn’t want it competing with the F-35.

Lithium Hydride Scramjet Shows Promise

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Lithium Hydride is a fairly dense and easy to handle way to store hydrogen, which is one of the reasons that it’s used, with Deuterium substituting for Hydrogen, as the fusion fuel supply for thermonuclear warheads.

Well, Claudio Bruno, of the University of Rome, has begun testing the material for use in scramjet engines.

Gaseous, or for that matter cryogenic, hydrogen is bulky and difficult to store, but it also is the material that is best suited to burn quickly enough to work well under supersonic combustion.

One of the techniques used is to use a catalyst, and the heat generated at speed, to crack hydrocarbon fuels, and use the hydrogen generated, or to use a preburner, basically a ramjet inside the scramjet, to preburn the fuel and create a hot reducing atmosphere for further combustion.

LiH would decompose naturally at operating temperatures, and would appear to be a simpler solution.

Company Claims Throttlable Solid Fuel Rocket

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A company called Digital Solid State Propulsion claims to be able to throttle a solid state rocket electronically. (See vid below).

This has a number of potential applications, such as variable blast bombs and thrusters for satellites.

To my mind, one of the applications would be for an air to air missile, where the motor would be on continuously for short/medium range flight, but for longer range, it would coast much of the way to the target.

Neat tech.