Tag Archives: technology

Military Intelligence is an Oxymoron

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Satellite Enthusiast Watches NATO Spy Pix
By Paul Majendie

A British satellite enthusiast has discovered that anyone can tune in live to U.S. spy plane photo transmissions over the Balkans. John Locker said the freely available pictures by both manned spy planes and drones can pinpoint a location to within two meters (six feet).

War On Error: Live Pictures Taken by U.S. Planes Were Freely Available
By Duncan Campbell

The war on terrorism in Europe is being undermined by a military communications system that makes it easier for terrorists to tune in to live video of U.S. intelligence operations than to watch Disney cartoons or new-release movies. For more than six months, live pictures from U.S. aerial spy missions have been broadcast in real time to viewers throughout Europe and the Balkans. The broadcasts are not encrypted, meaning that anyone in the region with a normal satellite TV receiver can spy on U.S. surveillance operations as they happen.

Translation@Home?

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Place before itself to be to inform over immediate transmission of news with people
which do not speak your language, or translate you a foreign language newscast automatically,
if you open them in your data base search routine.

That’s a pretty poor translation, ain’t it? Well, if this program takes off, the
days of crappy Babelfish translations
may be a thing of the past. By the way, that garbled sentence came from this article.
I translated it to German and back.

Volunteers
Sought for Real-Time Web Translator
Dennis O’Reilly, PCWorld.com

“Worldwide Lexicon prepares peer-to-peer network of online dictionaries, people
to promote on-the-fly translation.”

Not a New Problem

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This article speaks of careless use of XML and of how the government wants a standard. This is not a new problem. Once upon a time, the Department of Defense wanted to standardize the way contract proposals were submitted. Thus VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language – VHSIC means Very Speed Integrated Circuit) was born. Schematics were described using this standard. These days the reverse is true – hardware is "written" in VHDL first, then fabricated. Nowadays hardware can be synthesized much like how code is compiled. This is particularly useful when designing for FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). Do a search on Google for any of these terms to learn more.

Government seeks accord on XML
Margaret Kane

"The federal government isn't known as a pioneering early adopter. But growing support within U.S. agencies for the popular XML data exchange format has raised concerns that, for once, things might be moving too fast."

Black Holes Ain’t So Black These Days

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Here’s another case of science fiction making cool predictions and being right.
This time, Doctor Who gets credit for suggesting black holes as power sources.

Black
Hole Dynamos Spawn Monster Energy Fields

Cosmic dynamos in black holes could be the most efficient power plants in the universe, spawning magnetic energy fields so big they push past galaxy borders and into intergalactic space, scientists said Monday.

These monster magnetic fields have been known to astronomers for decades, and the link between them and black holes has also been theorized, but now researchers have created a picture of the energy fields and measured just how huge they are.

Are Sharpies Illegal Now?

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“Copy-proof” CDs cracked with 99-cent marker pen

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music’s elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker. Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying “hi-tech” copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store. “I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?” one posting on alt.music.prince read. “Maybe they’ll ban markers.”