connected...

THAT'S *HEDLEY*

Hedy Lamarr was gorgeous, and smart:

Lamarr took her idea to Antheil and together, Antheil and Lamarr submitted the idea of a secret communication system in June 1941. On August 11, 1942, US Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey", Lamarr's married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. Although a presentation of the technique was soon made to the U.S. Navy, it met with opposition and was not adopted.^[5]

The idea was not implemented in the USA until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent had expired. Perhaps owing to this lag in development, the patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award for this contribution.^[1] It is reported that, in 1998, Ottawa wireless technology developer Wi-LAN, Inc. "acquired a 49 percent claim to the patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock" (Eliza Schmidkunz, Inside GNSS),^[6] although expired patents have no economic value. Antheil had died in 1959.

Lamarr's and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections andCDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.

A favorite story to tell in class...

ntodd

Juno What?

In honor of Juno's launch yesterday, I'm watching my absolute favorite episode of Cosmos, Traveller's Tales.

Ever since the late-70s, thanks to Voyager, Carl Sagan and an astronomy class at the University of Toledo, I've been obsessed with Jupiter.  I feel the same thrill now with the latest probe that I did three decades ago.  It's highly unlikely that I'll ever get to go there, but I sure like thinking about it and at least visiting vicariously through our robots.

ntodd

PS--Computers sure have come a long way since then, eh?  Talk about stone knives and bear skins...

[Update: forgot to mention that Cosmos is coming back!

Carl Sagan revolutionized popular astronomy with his book and TV show "Cosmos", which had an audience of hundreds of millions of people. We’ve learned a lot about our Universe since then, and we’re overdue for a modern version of Sagan’s show. So I’m pleased to find out that Neil Tyson will be hosting a revamped and updated version of "Cosmos"!

He’s working with Ann Druyan (Sagan’s widow and herself a science popularizer), Steve Soter (who also worked on the original show), and Seth MacFarlane, creator of "Family Guy". I know, that may sound weird, but MacFarlane is a big science fan, a friend of Neil’s, and commonly puts a lot of science into his shows.

NTodd can't wait.]

 

Phaedrus vs Sabinus

Adbusters:

Seneca...once wrote: “it is one thing to remember, another to know.”
...
For Seneca, the stereotypical Google user would be remarkably similar to Calvisius Sabinus, a rich Roman who Seneca explains mastered a unique type of ignorance and stupidity. Sabinus was a foolish man, unable to remember the facts and literary allusions that comprised the educated culture of that time. But he was also a vain man who wanted to be intelligent. With his great wealth he devised a plan.

Calvisius Sabinus purchased educated slaves, each of whom was tasked with knowing a specific bit of culture. One slave knew Homer, another Hesiod and there were others that were expert in each of the nine lyric poets. It cost him a tremendous amount of money to educate these slaves, but once they were ready he put them to use. If, in the midst of a feast, he wished to recite the Greek poet Pindar then he would simply speak while his slave whispered into his ear. In this way, Sabinus believed he had attained wisdom because as he explained to a guest who suggested it would have been easier to educate himself instead of his slaves, responded that, “what any member of his household knew, he himself knew also.”

From our perspective, Calvisius Sabinus is ridiculous. But one must wonder whether we are not like him. Do we rely on Google to provide us with the knowledge that we lack, leaving ourselves empty of wisdom? Is Google like the retinue of educated slaves, ever ready to insert the proper cultural reference so that we may stay in overall ignorance?

For Seneca, the definition of wisdom was not simply to be one who does not rely on memorization. He went further, and said that wisdom was something that can only happen once knowledge had become internalized, a part of ourselves.

Those quaint objections from a simpler time still hold no sway for me.  I remember something I wrote in 2007:

As James Burke noted in The Day The Universe Changed, for a long time human knowledge and understanding was limited to personal experience that extended no more than maybe 20 miles from home.  True, expanded access to information hasn't necessarily lead to greater wisdom, but how else can we even try to realize our potential as sentient beings if we don't outsource some of our information collection and network our brains?

I think of my memory as merely an initialization vector, a collection of pointers.  I remember some important, more immediate things that are germane to my daily existence, and the rest are links that say "click here for more."  So I know I read something somewhere about a story wherein somebody was bitching about writing fucking with our memories, then I google it and find Plato's scribblings that I once read long ago.  Thus I reinforce this memory as well as bring it to you.

Whether we want to or not, we might just return to a state where parochial concerns are paramount, and memory is limited to storing what's necessary for immediate survival and not much more.  Until then, I'm rather thankful we have Google, Wikipedia and Crackberries.

ntodd

Auntie Mame

NewScientist:

Software that can be used to play almost any computer game in history is to be developed as part of a European attempt to preserve digital cultural heritage.

The European Union has funded a €4.02 million (£3.6m, $5.2m) project dubbed KEEP, for Keeping Emulation Environments Portable, which will develop new ways to archive digital objects endangered by the relentless march of technology. As well as games, it will work to ensure that other kinds of files and software remain accessible long after the demise of the hardware and software for which they were originally intended.

Emulation involves creating a software package that replicates the functionality of a previous hardware platform, storage medium or operating system, making it possible to use old software on modern hardware. But existing emulators are usually specialised and themselves prone to becoming outdated. KEEP is intended to be the "first general purpose emulator", designed to be migrated easily to new computing platforms.

Seems kinda like reinventing the wheel, what with all the emulators already out there.  But maybe a unified platform will be worth the price of admission...

ntodd

Is That On The Dollar Menu?

AP:

Here's some food for thought: If you have nude photos of your wife on your cell phone, hang onto it.

Phillip Sherman of Arkansas learned that lesson after he left his phone behind at a McDonald's restaurant and the photos ended up online. Now he and his wife, Tina, are suing the McDonald's Corp., the franchise owner and the store manager.

One might also consider locking one's phone, let alone leaving sensitive data on a mobile device that can be easily compromised...

ntodd

Firesidechat2.0

#44 continues to leverage the Internet after the campaign:

President-elect Obama's office gave the media a new way to present him as Franklin Roosevelt 2.0 by announcing Friday that it will be posting weekly addresses - fireside chats for the web generation - on YouTube.

The first address will appear on Change.gov this Saturday, after it airs in audio. An Obama spokesperson says that this innovation is just the beginning of the digital, transparent presidency.

The assignment this week for my students was to look at how the campaigns used online tools to organize in 2004 and 2008, and how Internet use might evolve through 2012 in both campaigning and governance.  This is an extension of what Obama did and I'm glad to see he realizes that the same applications he used to engage citizens during a campaign can keep them involved in between elections.

Using YouTube is I think especially clever.  The WH website has had video for quite some time, of course, but not of radio addresses and not employing the same interface that regular people generally use--Obama's no different than us seems to be the message.  It's also more reassuring to see a steady leader speak directly to us rather than, say...hearing a slurring disembodied voice that is clearly stumbling over a talking-point-laden script just handed to him that he needs to bang through before he can have lunch.

Presidents have often gone on TV to tell us important things at critical times.  I think of Carter and Bush II doing that and you would just know it's something bad--think of when you're called into the manager's office out of the blue.  This regular opportunity to have our President give us the straight dope will be refreshing in many ways and I think only Obama could pull this off.

ntodd

PS--FDR's Fireside Chats are online.

Face Invaders

I installed a Facebook app that contains several classic arcade games from my youth in the dark ages of computing.  I used to have MAME and an old Apple ][ emulator installed on my old laptop so I could play a variety of old games, like Moon Patrol, Dig Dug, Qbert, not to mention classic Apple stuff like Karateka.  Hey, I never really grew up and I like to relive my childhood.

I didn't ever get around to installing the emulation software on this PC, so it was cool to discover some folks recreated them for the Facebook platform.  I can't get into the new video games these days, what with their wicked cool, realistic graphics, soundtracks, and veritable movies embedded, mostly because I'm an old fart who has trouble with the controls ("Just hit square, right, circle, square, square to turn on your Special Ability, then hold down right to launch the attack") and the scenarios are just too complex for my pea brain.

Space Invaders blew my mind back in 1978.  NTodd's Pa's Wife and I had flown down to Dallas, TX, to visit NTodd's Pa, who had just joined IBM and was down there for several weeks for training.  We went out with Dad's roomie and his wife to a nice steak restaurant one night.  While we were waiting for our orders, NTodd's Pa told me he had to show me the coolest thing ever.  My very first stand-up arcade machine.

I'd seen Pong before, but this was such a sophisticated game scenario that I was stunned.  Of course, it was all driven by COMPUTERS, which is what Dad was now working with, so that made it all the cooler.  It was fun to play and to tell all my friends back home about this amazing discovery.

It's funny to look at the ROMs for MAME because you can see just what processor speed and memory was required to generate the graphics and sounds.  Obviously not very much--even the lowest end cellphone today has orders of magnitude more computing power--but the few KB/kHz in the boxes was as fantastic at the time as the LM computers were during Apollo.

But you try and tell young people today that, and they won't believe you.

ntodd

PS--The app is called Old School Retro Games and includes PacMan, Donkey Kong, DK Jr, DK3, Frogger, Asteroids and several more.

Nieco Rewolucja Nuże Jest Pewien Dobry Rzecz

NYTimes:

The text message spread with viral speed between the cellphones of Polish youths. With national parliamentary elections coming up on Sunday, young people had a clear mission: “Steal your grandmother’s ID,” the text jokingly implored.

The message referred to the conventional wisdom here that conservative older women put into office the governing Law and Justice Party and the Kaczynski brothers — the famous twins with the round faces of aging cherubs who are prime minister and president. Without their identity cards, the grandmothers would not be able to vote. If they did not vote, the government could be driven out of office.
...
The small Polish Peasants’ Party quickly ran its own advertisement showing a grandmother catching her grandson in the act of snatching her identity card. She tells him he does not have to do it, because she plans to vote for the Peasants’ Party and not Law and Justice.

Young people are trying to get involved in the election here this time, in ways as small as texting or as big as starting efforts to encourage people to vote.
...
Young, Internet-savvy Poles are fighting that lethargy — and the image of their country as populated by angry old villagers rather than the urbane hipsters and flush young businesspeople who can be found in cafes and clubs here in the nation’s booming capital.

Pola Dwurnik, a 28-year-old painter, said she avoided political subjects in her artwork. But after almost none of her friends voted in the previous election, Ms. Dwurnik decided to wage a get-out-the-vote campaign.

Her reasons were serious — she disagreed with the fights the government picked with the European Union and other countries, like Germany — but her approach was not. She created posters in which she plays a series of characters — an aloof intellectual, an unmarried pregnant woman and a hip-hop artist, among others — who urge Poles to vote. She sent the images to about 500 people and, like the text message, they were quickly forwarded and posted on blogs.
...
Ms. Dwurnik’s posters brought her to the attention of the young women behind the Web site Wybieram.pl (the word means “I choose” in Polish). They asked her to design “I voted” buttons for their campaign, which is run out of the basement of Chlodna 25, a smoky cafe and bar.
...
Kasia Szajewska, one of the group’s founders, said it was surprisingly easy to persuade the Polish MTV channel to run their ads. “In the States you have Rock the Vote,” she said. “They’re really happy to have something similar.”

Andrzej Bobinski, her direct supervisor at the institute where she works, the Center for International Relations, has to be understanding about the time Ms. Szajewska spends on the group’s activities. Mr. Bobinski was involved at the outset in Wybieram and now is working on another project, kandydaci2007.pl, a Web site set up to monitor candidates’ views, modeled after an American site, Project Vote Smart.
...
“I think there are lots of people trying to start up these sorts of initiatives,” Mr. Bobinski said, pointing to Poland’s vibrant Internet and blogging communities. Polish is the fourth most popular language on Wikipedia, after English, German and French. “There’s this movement, especially among people disillusioned with politics,” he said.

If anyone stands to benefit from a Civic Platform youth wave, it will be a young parliamentary candidate from the party, like Krzysztof Tyszkiewicz, 27, who is trying to make the leap from city government to the national legislature.

On a recent night, after a full day of campaigning, his eyes sagged and he looked as though he might fall asleep on his feet. Asked if he was headed to bed, he pointed at stacks of fliers that still needed to be handed out before the election.

He was skeptical that young voters would break the mold and lead the charge to victory.

“Young people help me with my campaign,” Mr. Tyszkiewicz said, as his staff looked on, “but the electors which have the best discipline are older people.”

His volunteers nodded in agreement and set about preparing for another long day on the campaign trail, handing out leaflets the old-fashioned way.

Revolutions can be carried out via electoral politics.  It will be interesting to see if the texting/blogging generation of Poles who don't remember the last revolution during the Cold War can pull off another this weekend.

ntodd

NN Is Boring, So Let's Talk About Sex

NYTimes:

The European Union feels unloved. Too many Europeans consider its governing bureaucracy, the European Commission, to be meddlesome, stuffy and generally out of touch. It has, you might say, an image problem: even when it does something useful, no one seems willing to give it credit.

Just imagine, then, how the carpets of power in Brussels must have buzzed with excitement when some hip marketeer — perhaps a well-paid consultant — came up with the idea of reaching out to the public through a newly created Web site linked to YouTube. Surely young Europeans would now pay attention.

Well, they did, at least to one of the 49 clips currently available on youtube.com/eutube. In less than three weeks, “Film Lovers Will Love This!,” as the video is teasingly called, has had close to 3.3 million hits. And, yes, it shows Europeans enjoying themselves being European — in bed.

In just 44 seconds, it presents flashes of 18 heterosexual and homosexual couples having steamy sex, accompanied by breathless groans and climactic screams.

European union, indeed.

In fairness, the clips are all taken from European movies. And, as with four other hugging, weeping and kissing videos, called “European Films — Tapping Into the Talent,” “Singing the Blues on the Silver Screen,” “Romanticism Still Alive in Europe’s Films” and “Joy,” the commission’s declared purpose is to promote European cinema.

“The European Union is not the Bible belt,” Martin Selmayr, a commission spokesman, said. “These clips come from award-winning films and they show the E.U.’s rich cinematic heritage, which we can all be proud of.”

But you can’t help noticing that the less raunchy the video, the fewer the hits: only some 96,000 so far, for instance, for “Singing the Blues.” That’s not bad, though, compared with most of the other — more worthy — clips. One eight-minute look at the European Union’s “partnership” with the United States has yet to reach 1,300 hits.

Maybe I'd get more traffic if I change the focus of this blog from unsexy telecom to porn.  I already have a good body...of material.

And BTW, I saw the film clip a while back and thought it was well done.  The interesting thing is that virally, it made the rounds as you'd expect, but it didn't take the Times so long as it usually does to notice.  Maybe the venerable Grey Lady is approaching Internet speed?

ntodd

For Whom The Dell Tolls

Had an appointment downtown and walked around a little in the lovely weather while my laptop was being repaired...

...'cept it wasn't being repaired. 

My LCD panel hinges were broken--AGAIN.  One of my coworkers says it's because I get over-exuberant when I surf for porn, which is not entirely accurate.  Anyway, after a saga that began in February I was looking forward to resolution, but Alex the Dell Repair Dude noticed that my computer was also running fairly hot (I've got the burn marks on my lap to prove it) and that there were some other problems.

Long story kinda short:

All told, I'm getting a new motherboard, DVD player, wrist rest and bottom case.  Oh, and my LCD panel is sorta fixed now, but I'm not allowed to close it until the other stuff is finished tomorrow or Wednesday.  Did I mention this is a refurbished machine Dell sent me to replace the original POS they couldn't fix a couple years ago?

The tech was good.  Dell?  Still not happy with their QA or support processes.

ntodd

PS--Crossposted on my personal blog...