Category: technology

News Flash, Stealth Ain’t Rocket Science

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There are reports that Japan is considering development of a stealth fighter of their own.

Truth be told, the information necessary for reduced radar signatures has been available to the general public, at least those who can speak Russian, for about 40 years now.

The “secrets” of stealth derived from a Russian physics paper that allowed one to analytically determine the radar cross section of surfaces.

That being said, this is not really about Japan developing a stealth fighter. It’s about Japan getting the F-22.

Export of the F-22 is forbidden by law, but Japan wants to buy some so they are starting this research, “in the hope it will spur the United States to review a ban on selling F-22 fighters”.

Good News On Open Access on the Frequency Sale

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We have reports that the ‘Open access’ provision on the 700 mhz spectrum is favored by a majority of FCC commissioners.

It appears to be both of the Dems, and one Republican on the panel, the Republicans are “undecided” (translation, waiting to see who ponies up to the RNC).

This will allow people to attach to the network with whatever equipment and using whatever software that they want, like the land lines, and the Internet.

When one notes the explosion of innovation when AT&T was told to do this in the 1970s (you could get phones that weren’t black!), this is a good thing for everyone but the Baby Bells.

A new Twist on Peer-to-Peer: Telephone Service

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A company called Ooma has a new setup to make VOIP work. It will the phone lines of its subscribers to actually complete phone calls

While this is presented as reducing completion charges, the real reason for this is that it is a way of avoiding the frequently infernal machinations of the incumbent local service providers.

The baby Bells are absolutely bone headed about this, because they do not want to see real competition in their markets.

Microsoft rigs Live Search traffic

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Remember those stories about Microsoft gaining on Google in the search business?

Turns out it was all a scam.

Microsoft has successfully rigged its search traffic. The company recently introduced several online games than shamelessly bribe people to query its moribund Live Search Engine, and according to web research firm comScore, these games gave the engine a significant traffic boost last month.

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When users play games like Chicktionary, Dingbats, and Seekadoo, they automatically generate Live Search results. The more results they generate, the more points they win. And if they win enough points, they win prizes. Like a Microsoft Zune player. OK, it’s not much of a bribe. But it’s still a bribe.

Love that bit of snark at the end.

iPhones Crash WiFi Network at Duke.

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It appears that a small number of iPhones took down the routers at Duke University.

By a small number, it might have been as few as two.

The built-in 802.11b/g adapters on several iPhones periodically flood sections of the Durham, N.C. school’s pervasive wireless LAN with MAC address requests, temporarily knocking out anywhere from a dozen to 30 wireless access points at a time. The campus network staff is talking with Cisco, the main WLAN provider, and have opened a help desk ticket with Apple. But so far, the precise cause of the problem remains unknown.

That’s because the misbehaving iPhones flood the access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second, nearly 10Mbps of bandwidth, and monopolizing the AP’s airtime.

Does not play well with others.

Russia achieves low-energy ignition of pulse-detonation engine-16/07/2007-Flight International

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It appears that the Russians have made a significant advance in pulse-detonation engines (PDE).

A PDE is similar in concept to the pulse jet that powered the V1.

The differences are as follows:

  • No Moving Parts (pulse jets have shutters)
  • The flame front propogates through detonation as opposed to detonation (it’s a supersonic shock)
  • It promises higher efficiencies that existing propulsion.
  • It can operate from a stand still.

Here is the cycle for the engine:

Google Earth Pics of Chinese Boomer

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The FAS has some pictures of the New Chinese SSBN at dock.

This was (note water mark) right off of Google.

22 years ago, Samuel Loring Morison was sent to jail for passing information almost identical to this to Jane’s Defense Weekly.

As to Mr. Morison. I believe he was properly convicted. His claims to want to publicize this notwithstanding, he was using classified information to get a job, and to get raises from Jane’s.

That’s why he leaked them, and I’m still conflicted about Clinton’s pardon of him. He deserved to go to jail, but the use of the Espionage act, which is a bad law to begin with, is troubling.

If This Virus Were Any More Clever, You Could Put a Tail on it and Call it a Weasel

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Here is an interesting story, it appears that there is a virus that has Internet Explorer launching Firefox, which installs the payload.

If Firefox encounters the payload directly, it will stop it cold, but when it’s passed along by IE, not so much.

This virus probably has a couple more weeks life, just because Mozilla and Microflaccid are busy finger pointing. Clever idea this.

The saying about success having many parents but failure being an orphan seems fitting here. Window Snyder, who heads security at Mozilla, wrote today (http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2007/07/10/security-issue-in-url-protocol-handling-on-windows/) that Mozilla developers will patch Firefox so it no longer accepts bad data from IE. But she stressed that only people browsing with the Microsoft browser were vulnerable to the attack.

“We recommend that people use Firefox and as always take care when browsing unknown websites,” she wrote.

For its part, Microsoft representatives said company researchers have “investigated the claim of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer and found that this is not a vulnerability in a Microsoft product.” Jesper Johansson, a former senior security strategist for Microsoft, similarly argues that “most definitely” the problem isn’t caused by IE.

Google for Idiots

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Too funny for words. Google needs to use this in their next Superbowl ad.

Google in Colorado safe cracking caper
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Published Tuesday 10th July 2007 19:49 GMT

It’s true. Google can help with anything. Minutes before they operned several locked safes at a “family fun center” in Colorado Springs, a team of masked bandits sat down at a nearby PC and Googled “safe-cracking.” “They brought up a site called ‘How to Open Safes,'” Colorado Springs detective Chuck Ackerman told The Register.

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ESA study finds in-flight oxidiser collection possible-10/07/2007-London-Flight International

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This sounds very similar to the HOTOL concept in the early 1980s, and it appears that they are using cryogenic separation. They might save space and weight by using another form of oxygen separation, but they would still need the heat exchangers for making LOX.

ESA study finds in-flight oxidiser collection possible
By Rob Coppinger

In-flight oxidiser collection possible, says ESA study

A European Space Agency-funded study has concluded that air liquefaction plants for a space transportation system’s first-stage carrier aircraft are possible within the mass limits required.

The first stage would collect air, liquefy it and separate the nitrogen, producing 10kg/s (22lb/s) with a 10,000kg (22,000lb) on-board liquefaction plant.

The advantage of such a system is that the preferred liquid-oxygen propellant does not have to be carried from the ground. Once collected, the oxygen-enriched liquefied air is stored in the second-stage reusable orbiter vehicle.

The plant’s main mass drivers are the heat exchangers, of which there would be three. These have been a focus of the ESA study.

The study, involving Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), developed the two-stage launch system concept that incorporates liquefaction.

That system has a dual-hull, hydrogen-fuelled aircraft using six General Electric 90b engines as the carrier aircraft. Between its two fuselages under the wing, it would carry an orbiter vehicle fuelled only with liquid hydrogen with a total mass of 90,000kg.

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Dawn Mission Delayed

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Bummer.

NASA Mission to Asteroid Belt Rescheduled for September Launch
WASHINGTON – The launch of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, a mission that will explore the two largest objects in the asteroid belt in an effort to answer questions about the formation of our solar system, has been rescheduled to September.

The decision was made today to move the launch to September after careful review by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate officials, working with Dawn mission managers, the Dawn principal investigator, and with the concurrence of the NASA Administrator.

Primary reasons for the move were a combination of highly limited launch opportunities for Dawn in July and the potential impact to launch preparations for the upcoming Phoenix Mars Lander mission, set for early August. A September launch for Dawn maintains all of the science mission goals a July launch would have provided.

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