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Wednesday, September 27, 2017

‘Traveling companion’ orbits Earth 60 years ago

©Mark Ollig



In 1952, the International Council of Scientific Unions proposed the Internal Geophysical Year (IGY) to be recognized, from July 1957 to December 1958.

Scientists worldwide planned on observing geophysical phenomena, and its effects on earth.

Two countries had much bolder IGY plans, which were “out of this world.”

The US announced in 1955, it would place a scientific satellite into Earth’s orbit during the IGY.

The Soviet Union also announced its plans for launching an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite.

An historic event occurred Friday, Oct. 4, 1957, which caused the world to take a collective breath and look upward at the night sky.

At 10:29 p.m. Moscow Standard Time (2:29 p.m. Central Time), a Soviet R-7 two-stage rocket weighing 267 tons, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch complex in the remote Russian region of Tyuratam, inside the Kazakhstan Republic.

The R-7 was a Russian/Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile without the military warhead attachment.

Instead of a warhead, the rocket carried a 184-pound satellite payload called PS-1, better known as Sputnik 1.

Sputnik 1 was a highly polished 23-inch diameter metallic beach ball-sized sphere made of an aluminum-magnesium-titanium combination.

According to the English Oxford dictionary, “In Russian, the word sputnik means a ‘traveling companion.’”

Sputnik was jettisoned from the R-7 while in the weightlessness of space; some 142 miles above the Earth.

Sputnik 1 then settled into an elliptical orbit; circling Earth once every 98 minutes at a speed of 18,000 mph.

Sputnik’s 1-watt radio transmitter was powered from two of three on-board silver-zinc batteries. The third battery was used to power Sputnik’s internal temperature and other instrument systems.

The first artificially-made, Earth-orbiting satellite was sending out a curious radio signal from its four “cat-whisker” antennas extending 7.9 and 9.5 feet, respectively.

For the next three weeks, people all over the world became fixated, listening to the steady radio signal audio pattern of “beep-beep-beep-beep” being transmitted down through the Earth’s atmosphere by Sputnik 1.

Those beeps were being heard on the 20.005 and 40.002 MHz frequency radio bands.

Sputnik’s transmissions were closely listened to by American scientists, amateur shortwave radio operators, and others through their radios and televisions.

Ground-based telescopes could see the small, shining metallic sphere as it speedily flew across the night sky.

People peering up into the star-filled night sky saw a small, bright sunlit ball, Sputnik 1, majestically passing by.

While Sputnik 1 orbited the planet and sent its radio beeps, American emotions ranged from shock and amazement, to feelings of inspiration by witnessing the start of space exploration.

However, many people also feared Soviet satellites would be turned into space weapons.

Instead of a harmless beeping satellite passing over the US, some folks felt the next Sputnik would be carrying a nuclear warhead that could be dropped on them.

There was real fear, confusion, and much anxiety being experienced by many Americans at this time.

Recently, I asked my 87-year-old mother about Oct. 4, 1957, and Sputnik 1.

“I remember people were frightened; we didn’t know whether the Russians were going to attack us with their satellites passing over our heads,” she told me.

In an attempt to ease public anxiety, Oct. 9, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower said during a news conference, “Now, so far as the satellite itself is concerned, that does not raise my apprehensions, not one iota. I see nothing at this moment, at this stage of development that is significant in that development as far as security is concerned.”

However, the Soviet Union had clearly taken the technological lead in this “space race” with the US.

What did the Russian people feel about the launch of Sputnik 1?

Semyon Reznik is a Russian writer and journalist, who was a Russian college student Oct. 4, 1957.

In Peter Jennings’ 1998 second volume of a three-volume series of books, titled “The Century for Young People: 1936-1961: Defining America,” he quotes Reznik recalling a special Russian radio broadcast after Sputnik 1 obtained Earth orbit.

“On an October morning in 1957, we heard one of those [radio] voices announce, ‘Attention. All radio stations of the Soviet Union are broadcasting . . . Our satellite Sputnik is in space.’”

“I felt so proud. Who did it? We did it! The Soviet Union is first in space!” Reznik added.

Sputnik 1 continued to broadcast beeps until its radio batteries became drained of power Oct. 26, 1957.

The flight of the first Earth-orbiting satellite ended Jan. 4, 1958, when Sputnik 1 burned up as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

The US launched its first satellite into Earth orbit with Explorer 1, Jan. 31, 1958, at 9:48 p.m. Central Time.

Explorer 1 used a modified US Redstone ballistic missile to obtain the altitude needed for orbit.

March 31, 1970, Explorer 1 descended into Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated in the heat of re-entry.

One minute of recorded radio signal beeps from Sputnik 1 can be listened to at http://bit.ly/2fwmc6P.

Ten seconds of telemetry transmission from Sputnik 1 can be heard at https://go.nasa.gov/2whXCtp.

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Thursday, September 21, 2017

Contributors recognized by Internet Hall of Fame

©Mark Ollig



For 25 years, The Internet Society has supported the internet’s worldwide public availability and unrestricted access to its rich content resources.

The Internet Hall of Fame, started by The Internet Society, recognizes those who have made substantial contributions to the internet over the years.

Monday evening, I watched the live-stream internet broadcast of the 2017 Internet Hall of Fame.

Vinton Cerf is one of the hall’s members.

Many consider Cerf the “Father of the Internet,” because of his work during the late 1970s creating the internet’s unique addressing system called IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4).

IPv4 works within the internet’s TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) created by Cerf and Robert Khan in the early 1970s.

Using 32-bit addressing, IPv4 provides almost 4.3 billion unique addresses for the devices connected to the internet.

A good analogy I use is to think of the unique address for an internet-connected device as equivalent to the specific telephone number assigned to a phone.

According to Cerf, 4.3 billion unique addresses seemed like more than enough when IPv4 was designed in 1977.

As we now know, 4.3 billion were not nearly enough, and so an improved addressing system was developed.

The new (and currently being deployed) IPv6 uses 128-bit address allocation, providing more than 340 undecillion unique addresses.

Just think; a billion is a 1 followed by nine zeros, and an undecillion is a 1 followed by 36 zeros.

IPv6 is essentially an unlimited internet addressing schema. It will provide a unique internet address for any type of device imaginable for decades to come.

Let us just say I do not foresee exhaustion of unique internet addresses using IPv6 anytime soon.

This year, the Internet Hall of Fame honored 14 individuals who contributed to the engineering, development, education, and continued evolution of the internet.

The success of the internet not only came about because of the people who have contributed to its history, but also to those who maintain it and create the new technology for improving how it operates, and what it can be used for.

We know benefits of the internet include its ability to reach isolated parts of the world and connect those living there with education, commerce opportunities, and ways to improve their lives.

The Internet Hall of Fame’s inductees selected this year have each made noteworthy contributions.

“Ultimately, the success of the internet depends on the people behind it,” said Kathy Brown, Internet Society president and CEO.

The internet, as we know it today, uses a suite of communication protocols for linking computers, various electronic components, software applications, voice, video, data, and local and wide-area networks.

Today’s internet originated 50 years ago, because of the US Government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency Network using data packet-switching. It was called the ARPANET.

In 1967, ARPANET published an engineering design paper titled “Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication.”

This paper showed how a computer could communicate with another computer within a network by having an Interface Message Processor (IMP) device (about the size of a refrigerator) wired into each networked computer.

Remember, the computers in 1967 were a lot larger than the ones we carry around with us now.

Today, we know the IMP as a computer-networking router, and it is much smaller than a refrigerator.

Digressing back to today’s topic, I found interesting how one Internet Hall of Fame inductee used the internet to further learning opportunities for educators and students throughout the world.

In 1984, years before folks were using a web browser or had heard of websites, Dr. Yvonne Marie Andrés recognized the internet’s potential for advancing the cause of global learning.

The same year, she began an international organization called Global SchoolNet for advancing internet-shared educational projects amongst students worldwide.

By 1992, Dr. Andrés began Global Schoolhouse. This effort connected young people all over the world with scientists, authors, explorers, and community leaders for their assistance and correspondence on projects benefiting the world.

It is also important to recognize her work in conducting the very first live-streaming, television-internet broadcast in 1995, over the still-in-its-infancy World Wide Web, in collaboration with “World News Now.”

In 2001, President George W. Bush honored Dr. Andrés by having her announce the US Department of Education’s online Friendship Through Education initiative.

This internet initiative fostered mutual understanding of various cultures worldwide, along with establishing collaboration and friendship between people living in other countries with students in the US.

Dr. Andrés began her teaching and technology-mentoring career at the Oceanside Unified School District in Oceanside, CA.

The complete list and detailed information for all fourteen inductees is at https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees.

Follow me on Twitter as I express my humble opinions about the internet and other interesting topics at @bitsandbytes.



















About Mark Ollig:
Telecommunications and all things tech has been a well-traveled road for me. I enjoy learning what is new in technology and sharing it with others who enjoy reading my particular slant on it via this blog. I am also a freelance columnist for my hometown's print and digital newspaper.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

California hosts mobile technology conference

©Mark Ollig


An estimated 40,000 people attended this week’s Mobile World Conference Americas (MWCA) program at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

“The Tech Element” was this year’s theme.

MWCA keynote speeches were given by leaders in the mobile and computing industry.

Ajit V. Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gave an address to the conference attendees.

Improving mobile broadband internet access availability and enhancing mobile internet deployment were two topics he addressed.

Pai stated there are efforts underway to bridge the mobile digital divide; including an initiative called Mobility Fund Phase I, which provides $4.5 billion in federal government funding assistance.

Low-, mid-, and high-band mobile radio spectrum for licensed and unlicensed use is to be made available by the end of the year, he said.

The FCC currently defines fixed-broadband internet data download speed at a minimum of 25Mbps, and uploading of data at 3Mbps.

A mobile-broadband internet speed has not been established; however, 5 and 10Mbps has been discussed as possible minimum mobile internet download speeds by the FCC in Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act report, recently given to Congress.

Pai said he wants “to make sure the US continues to lead in 5G, and to enable wireless consumers to benefit from these technologies sooner rather than later.”

Personally, I look for a 5G LTE industry standard in late 2019, with the service becoming available to the public in 2020.

It was acknowledged nearly 5 billion people worldwide, including 700 million in the northern and southern American hemispheres, are using some form of mobile communications.

Mobile wireless technology and high-tech mobile devices were being exhibited throughout the nearly 300,000-square-foot Moscone Center, by some 1,100 venders.

Contributing to the growing wireless “cloud ecosystem,” Nokia discussed Cloud RAN (radio access networking), one of its cloud-based technologies.

The Smart City panel talk for using mobile solutions to improve accessibility to public services was just one of many MWCA dialogues taking place.

At the Moscone West venue, Microsoft headed a mobile-enabling conference.

The M-Enabling Forum conference highlighted technological improvements empowering seniors and persons with disabilities, improved access to mobile digital technology, and the content, and services offered by city government organizations.

Improvements consist of better-quality mobile connections, and easier-to-use apps (software applications) on mobile devices.

The use of advanced mobile technologies for quickly connecting those in need to online assistance is essential.

MWCA’s Woman4Tech conference addressed the need to reduce the gender gap existing within the mobile industry.

Discussion involved mentoring youth in career development, and addressing women entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Woman4Tech also spoke of ways in which to strengthen the overall “mobile ecosystem” by means of gender equality.

Other conference topics covered artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, content and media, and innovative mobile technology.

As we all know, the IoT (Internet of Things), and the high-tech wireless sensors embedded within mobile devices, are generating massive amounts of information about what we buy, where we travel, and much more.

Information gleaned from IoT sensors is shaping an overall illustration of our personal and professional lifestyles.

We have a right to be concerned about whose eyes are accessing this information, and for the exact purpose it is being used.

Controversy exists on whether outside entities should be recording, selling, or providing others information about our lifestyle without us being aware of it.

What are they doing with all our information?

Of course, IoT information is analyzed and used by companies to entice (target) us to purchase the products and services we have been systematically deemed to have a need or desire for.

Sensors in our smart mobile and wearable medical/fitness devices can track how fast we drive our cars on the road, our buying habits, what businesses we patronage, where we ate lunch, and who we called or texted.

Medical sensors track our blood pressure, heart rate, calories burned, and even the number of hours we sleep.

When one thinks about it, the IoT is essentially morphing into the internet of you and me.

Yours truly did find the “word cloud” tag collection on the MWCA website somewhat revealing.

The word cloud showed the most frequently searched technology and subject words/terms regarding this year’s MWCA event:

• App/Software Development.

• Connected Living – Smart Cities.

• IoT.

• Big Data & Analytics.

• Devices.

• Gaming/Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality.

• Location Based Services.

• Media/Content/Entertainment.

• Information Technology.

• User Experience.

• Marketing/Advertising.

• 5G.

MWCA’s website is https://www.mwcamericas.com. Its Twitter hashtag for this year’s conference is #MWCA17.

MCWA 2018 will take place in Los Angeles, CA.


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(Image royalty license-to-use paid)



















Friday, September 8, 2017

Anniversary of the first computer 'bug'

©Mark Ollig


Computer programmer Grace Murray Hopper wrote the following in her operations logbook Sept. 9, 1947, “Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay.”

She had just finished tracing out a problem with electrical current flowing through a circuit on an IBM Mark II electromechanical computer, owned by the US Navy.

Hopper discovered the peculiar cause of the current-flow interruption between the metal conducting points on one electromagnetic mechanical relay.

The disruption was a moth, which had somehow become stuck in the relay.

She removed the moth, taped it on a page in her logbook and wrote, “First actual case of bug being found.”

Hopper has since laid claim to the commonly used phrase, “a bug in the computer.”

We celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first real bug being found in a computer Saturday, Sept. 9.

I still haven’t decided exactly how I will be celebrating this historical event.

For the last 70 years, folks have been debating whether a moth should be considered a bug or an insect.

One encyclopedia says moths are in the butterfly family; belonging to the order of Lepidoptera, which are nocturnal flying insects.

I remember from 10th grade biology class; insects are in the Insecta group, and bugs belong in the Hemiptera order.

After 70 years, we are too used to saying, “I found a bug in my computer,” rather than, “I found an insect in my computer,” which I admit, does sound a bit odd.

Hopper’s opened logbook page (with the moth still taped to it) is kept in the History of American Technology Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. You can see this page at http://s.si.edu/2gGCS7X.

A photo of her working on the IBM Mark I computer can be seen at http://bit.ly/2xOsnHG.

Hopper was also involved in the development of the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), which was the world’s first commercially-used computer.

Grace Murray Hopper was born Dec. 9, 1906, in New York City, NY, and died Jan. 1, 1992, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Of course, there are very few of the old-fashioned electromechanical relays being used these days.

However, more than 30 years ago, this columnist worked with them on a regular basis.

From 1960 until the end of 1986, the telephone company I worked for in Winsted provided dial telephone service using a GTE-Leich Electric TPS (terminal per station) electromechanical relay telephone switching system.

Perhaps you recall touring through the telephone company’s central office as part of a class trip when you were in school.

The telephone central switching office was filled with rows of 11-foot-high-by-4-foot-wide bay equipment frames containing hundreds of vertical 3-foot-tall-by-4-inch-deep-by-3-inch-wide electromechanical relay bars.

Many of these bars were equipped with up to 20 individual electromechanical relays, and were protected by clear, solid-plastic metal-framed covers.

Inside the telephone central office, one could determine how busy the call processing was by the sound of the relay’s clicking.

We never found any moths between the relays, but over time, a carbon-like oxidation would build up on the relay contact points; acting as an insulating agent, and thus preventing electrical current flow.

To remove this oxidation, we used a burnishing tool with a very fine sandpaper-like abrasive on a thin metal strip.

While moving the burnishing tool in a back-and-forth, filing-like motion, we would lightly sand off the oxidation (not the metal) on the contacts of the relays and switching components.

Dust also caused interference with a relay’s operation.

Part of our central office preventive maintenance included scheduled dust-removal cleaning of individual relay bars.

Outside (usually on the sidewalk in front of the telephone office), we’d blow the dust off the relays using high-pressured air from a spray hose connected to a portable air-generator.

Here’s hoping you’ll find no bugs in your computer, mechanical relays, and especially in your bed.


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Photo of what Grace Murray Hopper wrote
in her operations logbook Sept. 9, 1947,
“Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay.”
(The actual moth is taped to the page)