Saying goodbye to 2018

©Mark Ollig


As we close out this year, I’d like to express appreciation to my readers for spending a few moments of your time here each week.

In today’s column, I want to review popular topics covered over this last year, which I hope you will enjoy.

The Jan. 5 column focused on a promising, rare mineral which could bring a revolutionary change to the internet.

Perovskite, also known as calcium titanium oxide, is a mineral discovered in the late 1830s in Russia. It is named in honor of Count Lev Alekseevich Perovski.

Because of its exceptional optical and electrical compatibility properties, perovskite-silicon solar cell layering substrate technology is being used for improving solar cell efficiency.

Recent tests show a 28 percent increase in efficiency when using perovskite in the construction of clean-energy solar panels by the Oxford PVTM – The Perovskite Company, based in the UK.

In addition to its improved solar panel efficiency, perovskite’s superconductivity properties allow for dramatic speed increases for transmitting data.

Ultra-fast data transmission speed occurs when passing high-frequency light-wave spectrum levels through perovskite wafers operating at 1 Terahertz (1THz).

In 10 to 20 years, we may see 6 or 7G (generation) wireless broadband technology data transmitters incorporating perovskite. Stay tuned.

The Feb. 16 column addressed concerns about the internet’s future by the creator of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and others.

Berners-Lee called his web creation: “A tool which serves all of humanity.”

“I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries,” Berners-Lee stated this year.

Along with the good things about the web and the internet, we are all too aware of its negatives.

We worry about data security in light of the growing cyber threats and theft of private data.

The volume of classified, encrypted data intelligence, vulnerable to being compromised by cyber attackers, is of great concern.

Creating improved internet firewall borders to safeguard our data continues.

March 9’s column focused on 5G wireless broadband technology showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

Demonstrations showed how 5G technologies would improve the operation of robotics, building security systems, autonomously driven cars connected to the internet, and the energy management systems within smart homes and businesses.

MWC demonstrated real-world applications using 5G technology within rural agriculture applications, such as remotely controlling farm machinery, and using information-gathering aerial drones.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices, social media content usage, facial recognition devices, and internet online policy and regulations were other topics discussed during MWC 2018.

The June 1 column described the digitizing of the Vatican Library.

In 1995, the Vatican began planning the digitizing of its massive archive library of manuscripts, printed books, drawings, paintings, photos, coins, medals, and other materials, so they could be seen, studied, and researched by the public using the internet.

The complete digitizing of all the Vatican archived collections won’t be completed until 2036; however, many thousands of historical documents and items are viewable online right now.

The Vatican Library internet website can be reached at https://www.vaticanlibrary.va (“.va” is the Vatican’s internet country code). The site is in Italian, but you can choose the English language translator.

The DigiVatLib website is located at https://digi.vatlib.it (“.it” is the internet country code for Italy).

The June 29 column revealed the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) publicly announced its newest scientific supercomputer, called Summit.

Summit is now the world’s leader in supercomputer processing speed. It can process data at an incredible 200 quadrillion floating-point operations per second (200 petaflops).

Summit’s processing power allows it to quickly analyze massive amounts of data.

The Summit (AC922) supercomputer was built by IBM.

It supports cutting-edge artificial intelligence and data-intensive applications.

Sept. 28, the column focused on the 60th anniversary of NASA.

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 officially began the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Oct. 1, 1958.

NASA’s roots can be traced back to March 3, 1915, and a US government agency called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) established by President Woodrow Wilson.

NACA’s job was to “supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical solution.”

Orville Wright was a member of NACA from 1920 to 1948.

NACA’s aerospace personnel and technical assets were transferred to NASA Oct. 1, 1958.

The Nov. 23 column was a historical look back to the late 1960s, when approximately one-half mile of submarine (marine copper-paired) cable was placed along the bottom of the Winsted Lake by the local telephone company.

Now, we turn this column’s sail into the wind and journey forward into 2019.

Of course, there will be more stories about social media, and the internet, artificial intelligence, 5G, new ground-breaking technologies, quantum computing, high-tech companies, and the latest computing devices and gadgets.

Every once in awhile, we will look back at the history and memorable events shaping this increasingly technologically-networked world.

Have a great 2019. 

Have a Happy Near Year!
(Clip-art right-to-use fee paid) 

Christmas greetings from the moon

©Mark Ollig


Friday will be 50 years since three American astronauts, seated in the command module of a Saturn V (Saturn five) rocket, blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL.

Apollo 8 was initially planned to conduct the first crewed tests of the Lunar Module (LM) to be used for landing on the moon.

However, NASA announced Aug. 19, 1968, that it was canceling the LM from the Apollo 8 flight, due to delays in getting it ready in time for its scheduled December liftoff.

Instead, it was decided Apollo 8 would be the first human-crewed mission to travel to the moon.

Dec. 21, 1968, I was a 10-year-old who was obsessed with all things NASA.

Sitting in front of the living room television, I stared at the tall Saturn V rocket on Launch Complex 39A.

I watched the countdown over channel 4 (CBS); Walter Cronkite was broadcasting from Cape Kennedy.

Cronkite appeared very interested in this launch; just minutes before liftoff, he turned his back on the television camera to get a better view of the Saturn V rocket outside his window.

“Coming up on the two-minute mark in the Apollo 8 mission,” said NASA’s launch commentator Jack King.

“T minus 10, nine, we have ignition sequence start. The engines are armed. Four, three, two, one, zero. We have commit. We have liftoff,” King reported from Mission Control.

Apollo 8 began its historic journey to the moon Saturday, Dec. 21, 1968, at 6:51 a.m.

I vividly remember hearing the roar of the five F-1 engines clustered on the bottom of the first stage.

Vast plumes of red flames and smoke shot out of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket as it slowly began its ascent into a blue Florida sky.

The 6.2-million-pound Saturn V was propelled upward utilizing 7.6 million pounds of thrust generated by those F-1 engines.

“It looks good! Oh, there’s the rumbling in our building!” exclaimed Walter Cronkite, describing the launch while looking through his binoculars.

“One minute, 15 seconds and we’re a little more than half a mile into the sky, and we’re nearly four miles downrange,” reported Paul Haney of Mission Control.

Apollo 8 soon attained Earth orbit, and for the next two hours, commander Frank Borman, command module pilot James Lovell, and lunar module pilot Bill Anders (his title even though no LM was attached) would be checking the systems of the command and service module to make sure everything was ready for their journey to the moon.

At two hours and 27 minutes into the flight, Mission Control radioed the crew, “Apollo 8. You are go for TLI. Over.”

Mission Control had just given the crew its official permission to go to the moon.

“Roger. We understand; we are go for TLI,” commander Borman responded.

TLI or Translunar Injection is an engine-firing maneuver which would put Apollo 8 on a proper heading to the moon.

Dec. 24, 1968, Apollo 8 reached the gravitational influence of the moon.

They then fired the large SPS (Service Propulsion System) main engine on the service module to slow them down and place them into lunar orbit.

According to the NASA logs, Apollo 8 obtained lunar orbit at 69 hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds into the mission.

They orbited the moon at the height of 60 nautical (69 statute) miles and were 234,474 statute miles from Earth.

“Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ol’ Moon look like from 60 miles? Over,” radioed Mission Control.

“Okay, Houston. The Moon is essentially grey, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail,” astronaut Jim Lovell reported.

Apollo 8 would orbit the moon 10 times.

The crew took photographs of specific locations for future Apollo mission landing sites.

For me, two memorable moments standout, which occurred during those 10 orbits.

The first was seeing the famous “Earthrise” from the moon, which became an iconic photograph.

The photo, taken by astronaut Bill Anders Dec. 24, shows Earth peering out from beyond the lunar surface.

“Earthrise” became a postage stamp, and Walter Cronkite used it as a backdrop on his “CBS Evening News” program.

The second occurred during the ninth orbit around the moon.

“Hey, why don’t we start reading that thing, and that would be a good place to end it,” said Frank Borman to Lovell and Anders.

Seconds later, Anders radioed Mission Control, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”

It was Christmas Eve. Anders began reading from the book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”

Astronauts Lovell and Borman also read Scripture passages.

“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth,” said commander Frank Borman, ending the transmission.

To all my readers; I wish you a Merry Christmas.

"Earthrise"
Photograph by William Anders

Are you really Santa Claus?

©Mark Ollig


This marks the 60th year the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will be tracking the flight path of Santa Claus and his famous reindeer sleigh team Christmas Eve.

“In addition to our day-to-day mission of defending North America, we are proud to carry on the tradition of tracking Santa as he travels along his yuletide flight,” said Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of NORAD, and US Northern Command. “The same radars, satellites, and interceptors employed on Dec. 24 are used year-round to protect Canada and the United States.”

It’s quite an interesting story on how NORAD, formerly called the North American Air Defense, began tracking Santa and his sleigh team.

NORAD’s 1958 predecessor was CONAD (Continental Air Defense Command).

CONAD became NORAD in 1958, the same year NASA began.

Dec. 24, 1955, the Sears, Roebuck and Company department store, located in Colorado Springs, CO, placed an advertisement in the local newspaper.

This ad showed a picture of a smiling, white-bearded Santa, and the direct telephone number children could dial to talk to him Christmas Eve.

“Hey, Kiddies! . . . Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally, anytime day or night, or come in and visit me at Sears Toyland,” the newspaper ad read.

Unbeknownst to the newspaper, they had mistakenly printed the wrong telephone number for Santa; one of the digits was incorrect.

The incorrect telephone number rang a very special telephone located at CONAD headquarters.

Dec. 24, 1955, US Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, director of CONAD operations, was on duty at CONAD headquarters in Colorado Springs.

CONAD had a confidential, air defense telephone hotline used only for national emergencies; such as alerting CONAD personnel of any imminent military attacks against the US.

This hotline rang a red desk telephone, near the director of operations.

Can you guess what the telephone number was for this phone?

Yes, you are correct. It was the same telephone number being advertised in the newspaper for the kids to call Santa on.

Years later, Col. Shoup retold the story of what happened on Christmas Eve in 1955.

“The red phone was ringing, and it’s either the Pentagon calling or the four-star General Partridge. I was all shook up,” Shoup recalled, thinking an attack may have begun.

“So, I picked it up and said, Sir, this is Col. Shoup.”

There was only silence.

“Sir, this is Col. Shoup,” he repeated.

“Sir, can you read me alright?” asked Col. Shoup, who said he believed a military general was on the other end of the line.

Suddenly, Col. Shoup hears a young girls’ voice asking, “Are you really Santa Claus?”

Col. Shoup looked around the room at the faces of his office personnel and sternly stated in a loud voice, “Somebody’s playing a joke on me, and this isn’t funny!”

“Would you repeat that?” demanded Col. Shoup into the phone, believing it was a prankster randomly dialing telephone numbers.

“Are you really Santa Claus?” the timid voice on the other end of the telephone line repeated.

At this time, Col. Shoup was informed by one of his office personnel of the local newspaper’s advertisement mistake.

Learning this, Col. Shoup’s demeanor quickly changed.

Instead of disappointing the little girl, he decided he would answer her as Santa would, saying, “Have you been a good little girl?”

The little girl said she knew Santa would be coming down the fireplace at her house, and she was leaving some food there for him and the reindeer.

“Oh, boy! They sure will appreciate that!” Col. Shoup recalls telling the now happy little girl on the telephone.

Col. Shoup then instructed his office team to “act as Santa’s helpers” whenever a child called the hotline number.

He also had his radar operator check for signs of Santa’s progress as his sleigh team traveled from the North Pole so it could be reported to the children.

Christmas Eve in 1955, CONAD’s red hotline telephone was “ringing off the hook” with children wanting to talk with Santa.

The children calling were provided updates on where Santa Claus and his globe-circling reindeer sleigh team were located, via CONAD’s radar tracking system.

From that time on, Col. Shoup became known as “The Santa Colonel.”

He reportedly cherished this nickname until his passing March 14, 2009.

A NORAD interview of Col. Shoup talking about the special Christmas Eve of 1955, can be seen here, http://tinyurl.com/bytes-Santa1.

The official NORAD Tracks Santa website features holiday music, games, official Santa Tracker Countdown Clock, and other fun activities at http://www.noradsanta.org.

The official NORAD website is http:www.norad.mil.

A photo of the Dec. 24, 1955 Colorado Springs newspaper ad can be seen here, http://tinyurl.com/bytes-sanata2.

On Dec. 24, kids (or anyone) may call or text 1-877-HiNORAD for Santa’s reindeer team’s current location.

Sears, Roebuck and Company department store advertisement

Santa's helpers at NORAD

US Air Force Col. Harry Shoup

Today’s gifts become tomorrow’s treasure

©Mark Ollig


We are entering the second week of December, which means the holiday shopping season is in full swing.

My children are now adults, so gift cards or a check is usually appreciated.

However; back when they were children, I stood with other parents in the aisle of a store staring at the games and toys sitting on the shelves, wondering which ones my kids would like.

One Christmas gift I gave my youngest in 1992 was the Talkboy Tape Recorder and Player. It was like the one Kevin McCallister used in the movie, “Home Alone II.”

My youngest was all smiles (I was, too) when opening this present and playing with it.

During the 1960s, many of us who were then kids looked through the toy section of the Christmas catalog and wrote our name next to what we wanted so our parents would see it.

When a television commercial of the toy we wanted appeared, we made sure our folks knew it by saying, “That is what I want for Christmas!”

At 9 years old, I was a faithful watcher of the TV show, “Lost in Space.”

This show took place in 1997, and featured the Jupiter 2 spaceship and its passengers – the Robinson family, pilot Major Don West, and the reluctant stowaway Dr. Smith, who frequently called the B-9 Robot, a “Bumbling Bucket of Bolts.”

Will Robinson, the youngest character, was about my age. I watched the show to see how he handled the various adventures aboard the Jupiter 2.

During the holiday season of 1967, I asked my parents if I could get the “Lost in Space” toy collection for Christmas. The commercial for it regularly appeared during every “Lost in Space” episode in November and December.

The evening of Dec. 24, 1967, after my family had finished dinner, everyone went upstairs to the living room and gathered around the Christmas tree.

I remember closely looking at the wrapped presents under the lighted, decorated tree located in the northeast corner, trying to determine which one might have the Jupiter 2 in it.

While opening the last Christmas gift from my parents, I could hardly contain my joy; the box cover read: Switch ‘N Go Lost in Space set by Mattel Inc.

After thanking my parents several times, I removed the contents from the box and placed them on the living room floor amidst the other presents, gift wrapping paper, and empty boxes.

The “Lost in Space” toy collection contained plastic figures of all the main characters from the TV show, including the robot, and the family pet named Bloop.

A toy model of the Space Chariot, which was a type of recreational vehicle they used to roam the planets they were stranded on, was also included.

The Space Chariot was nicely detailed and looked just like the one from the TV show. It used a battery-powered electric motor which propelled it around the living room floor that Christmas Eve.

The Jupiter 2 spaceship model was sturdy and well-constructed. Inside, it was arranged to hold all the character pieces, including the Space Chariot.

I remember while playing with this Christmas gift, I would look up and smile at my mom and dad, who would smile back, knowing they had made their 9-year-old very happy.

I also remember the holiday songs being sung by Bing Crosby off a vinyl record playing on the hi-fi (high fidelity) stereo console in the living room.

A gift I received the next year was the Remco toy model submarine “Seaview” from the TV show, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” which I liked to watch.

It was a well-made yellow plastic model approximately 1 foot in length.

Winding the rubber band inside the submarine propelled the Seaview’s plastic blades (elastic motor propulsion), allowing it to cruise the high seas, a lake, a filled bathtub, or across the floor (it had wheels).

Today, some 50 years later, I still remember the fun I had playing with those toys; sadly, I am unable to recall what became of them.

Feeling nostalgic, I visited a well-known “buy-bid-sell” online store and found the same “Lost in Space” Chariot toy model I had received for Christmas in 1967.

It was selling for $650. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that.

The complete 1967 Mattel Lost in Space toy collection (in its original box and unopened) was being auctioned off with bids starting at $1,000.

The Remco 1968 Seaview submarine toy model (new in its original box with accessories) was selling between $1,200 and $2,000.

It seems the Baby Boomer generation is willing to pay serious money to get back their favorite childhood toys.

I also checked today’s value of the Talkboy I gave my youngest son in 1992.

I was shocked. The original 1992 Talkboy Tape Recorder and Player (in its original box) was selling for $650.

Granted, the toys you are giving your children this holiday season could someday be worth a lot of money, but their greater value will be the happy memories they brought and the moments you both were smiling at each other; that’s the real treasure.