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Posted: 15-08-2013 21:07 Post subject:

Having worked (briefly) in satellite communications in the 60s, I find myself gob-smacked by the rate of progress today. Back then, it seemed a bit of a novelty, but now it has embedded itself in our culture and our industry. If we somehow lost access to space now, the world would fragment again into rarely communicating groups, and so much we take for granted now would be lost.

Alphasat: 'Space A380' switches on 'brain'
Engineers begin testing the communications payload on the Alphasat spacecraft.
By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News

Europe's biggest ever telecommunications satellite has switched on its innovative British payload to begin a month of testing.
Seven-metre-long Alphasat - dubbed the "A380 of space" - was launched at the end of July, and is gradually being commissioned prior to entering service.
The latest step was to activate its digital signal processor - the unit that will handle all the telecoms traffic passing through the platform.

Alphasat is owned by Inmarsat PLC.
The London-based company, which provides communications links for people and organisations on the move, developed the new satellite in partnership with the European and French space agencies.
Alphasat will be used by broadcasters such as the BBC, shipping operators, the oil industry, the military, and anyone else working away from traditional terrestrial communications networks.

The spacecraft brings significant extra capability and capacity to Inmarsat's services, thanks in part to the digital processor that was developed at Astrium UK in Portsmouth.
The unit can switch bandwidth and power on to specific locations on the ground at very short notice, to meet the demand when and where it is most needed.
It will ensure Inmarsat's L-band radio-frequency allocation is used in the most efficient way possible.

"We are at the beginning of a nearly four-week test campaign for the payload," explained Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat's vice president for satellite and launch vehicles.
"As of [Wednesday], the payload has been switched on, part of the new and sophisticated on-board payload calibration system is up and running, the high-speed link to the advanced digital processor to set up and tear down connectivity is working and a signal has successfully been put through the forward payload - which is excellent news."

The fascinating picture at the top of this page shows Alphasat in orbit.
It was taken by Astrium engineer and amateur astronomer Richard Hopkins on Monday.
It places the spacecraft in the geostationary arc at about 8 degrees East, some 36,000km above the equator.
"The brightest star in the image in the middle is Kappa Aquilae, magnitude 5.9 and the limit of naked-eye visibility from a very dark location," explained Mr Hopkins.
"You can see the stars drifting in the image due to Earth's rotation, but the geostationary satellites are fixed.

"The first Meteosat Second Generation satellite (launched in 2005) is also in the frame, but as it's only 3m across it's too faint to see. The Intelsat satellite is probably of comparable brightness to Pluto," he told BBC News.
"The image was taken from Guildford, and used approximately a two-minute exposure at 200mm focal length. The field of view is about 5 degrees."

Alphasat is only at 8 degrees East temporarily. Engineers plan to move it eventually to an orbital spot at 25 degrees East. From that location, it will provide coverage to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, gradually taking over the services currently delivered by a previous generation satellite, Inmarsat-4 F3.

In addition to its commercial role, Alphasat will demonstrate a number of technologies for the European Space Agency (Esa).
The most noteworthy of these is a laser-based communications system that will underpin Europe's forthcoming orbital data relay system.
This has been developed by German researchers to permit gigabit connections between Earth observation satellites and the ground.
Alphasat will validate the laser terminal by downlinking pictures from the EU's Sentinel-1a radar spacecraft when it launches next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23714597

Posted: 19-08-2013 23:10 Post subject:

I'm not a great fan of the Hairy Bikers, but this steam-punk documentary is quite interesting. It's a look at the nuts and bolts (and rivets) of the industrial revolution. I hadn't realised before how steam traction engines handled ploughing, and the section about the box-boat canal barges (forerunners of container ships) was also new to me.

The part on caulking and tarring canal barges also showed some stuff that was new to me, although similar techniques were used on sea-going vessels.

The Hairy Bikers' Restoration Road Trip - Episode 2

The Hairy Bikers continue their journey around Britain, meeting passionate, skilled heritage volunteers and taking part in the most exciting restoration projects of our industrial past.

It is full steam ahead in Wiltshire as they help rebuild an early traction engine before seeing how they revolutionised farming, in Derbyshire they tackle a hundred-year-old cotton spinning mule that has laid dormant for decades and attempt to weave their own Hairy Biker cloth and in Cheshire they restore a rare barge once used to transport coal on Britain's canals.

Available until
9:59PM Sun, 1 Sep 2013

Posted: 20-08-2013 23:17 Post subject:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b038rj1b/Dreaming_the_Impossible_Unbuilt_Britain_Making_Connections/

Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain - 2. Making Connections

Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built. In this episode she looks at two of the most radical civil engineering projects proposed in the last century and explores how international politics and vested interests both drove, and derailed, plans to better connect Britain to the continent.

In the early 1900s Britain was anticipating the threat of war. As concern grew about Germany expanding its naval fleet and investing in its infrastructure, there were calls to find a way for Britain's navy to be able to react swiftly to protect our waters. The solution proposed was to create a ship canal big enough for warships to cross from the Firth of Clyde on the west of Scotland to the Firth of Forth on the east. This enormous civil engineering endeavour would have completely changed the central belt of Scotland - the favoured route was through Loch Lomond, now considered one of the most treasured wilderness areas in the country.

There was huge support for the building of the canal, not least from members of parliament who recognised the potential for creating jobs and wealth in their constituencies. The debate over whether to invest £50m of the public purse in building the canal dragged on for years in both the House of Commons and Lords, with opinion split on whether it really was a strategic imperative. In the end, technology decided the fate of the canal. By 1918, all of the naval fleet was fuelled by oil rather than coal and so instead of a canal an oil pipeline was built from the mouth of the Clyde to Grangemouth on the east, and royal navy destroyers never did - and never will - sail up Loch Lomond.

Fifty years later, instead of seeking to protect Britain from attacks from the continent, thoughts had turned to how to connect our island to the rest of Europe. There had been talk of building a channel tunnel between England and France for centuries. In contrast with the Mid-Scotland Canal, where strategic advantages stimulated building, it was national security concerns that cut short the first proposal for a Channel Tunnel. The idea was presented to the British by Napoleon in 1802, but was rejected over concerns that the French had covert plans to invade England.

But 170 years later, the idea was to become a reality. Britain had finally joined mainland Europe through her membership of the Common Market in 1973, and both the French and British governments agreed it made sense build a tunnel together. But in 1975, construction was again abandoned because the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, had to look for economies in a financial crisis caused by dramatically rising world oil prices. Once more, the bid to connect with the continent had failed.

The idea was resurrected yet again in the early 1980s, with several competing schemes for consideration. The boldest of these, sponsored by British Steel, was a vast structure combing a double-decker bridge and tunnel, linked to an artificial island in the middle of the English Channel. The materials for the construction of this vast project would keep the steel mills of England and Scotland busy for a decade - but the politicians chose in favour of the Eurotunnel bid and British industry lost out.

Both these grandiose schemes defined how Britain saw its relationship with Europe. In an age when the headline 'Fog in Channel - Europe Isolated' made sense, a naval ship canal that would protect our island fortress from continental rivals was considered to be in the national interest. But just 60 years later, the fog had lifted and securing Britain's national interests became dependent on a physical connection with countries previously regarded as hostile. However, both plans foundered on the conflict of politics and vested interest.

Available until
9:59PM Mon, 2 Sep 2013

Posted: 21-08-2013 09:44 Post subject:

A commentary on Elon Musk's Hyperloop, and a look at predecessor technologies, back to Brunel and before:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10253847/Elon-Musks-Hyperloop-return-to-the-shock-of-the-pneu.html

A long article, so I wasn't going to paste it in full - but I can't anyway, because this is one of those Telegraph articles that refuses to be copied!

Posted: 26-08-2013 22:31 Post subject:

There's hi-tech and there's high teddy-tech:

Giant leap for Pi-powered teddy bear

A soft toy controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer has re-created Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking skydive.
Mr Baumgartner made the highest ever freefall in October 2012 when he jumped from a balloon about 39km up.
A bear called Babbage has now leapt from a similar height after ascending beneath a hydrogen-filled balloon. Cool

The Raspberry Pi low-cost micro-computer inside Babbage transmitted his position and shot stills and video throughout the flight and descent.
The robot Babbage was created by high altitude ballooning enthusiast Dave Akerman, who has used the Pi as the control centre on other flights.

Babbage the bear is the official mascot of the Raspberry Pi project. The bare-bones computer was created to serve as an introduction to computers for children, but it has become a favourite among hobbyists who use it to control their home-brewed tech projects.

The Babbage flight is one of the more ambitious projects centred on the Pi and shows what the low cost computer can do.

The launch site was a field near Mr Akerman's home north of Newbury, Berkshire.
Take off was at 12:25 GMT on 26 August. Babbage drifted south west during his flight and rose to a height of just over 39km - slightly higher than Mr Baumgartner's record of 38,969m.

Mr Akerman made a cradle that Babbage sat on during the flight that was equipped with another camera that shot images similar to those taken over the shoulder of Mr Baumgartner before he jumped.

The Raspberry Pi inside the bear and his cradle switched from stills to video to record the moment when the toy fell off the cradle and started its descent.

On the Babbage flight, the Pi inside the bear's body logged altitude, shot footage and transmitted it back to the ground. It also constantly broadcast the craft's location so the flight could be mapped and the pioneering toy retrieved. Many people followed the flight online via the streaming video feed sent back by Babbage.

Mr Akerman said the whole flight had gone "brilliantly".
"It released on time at just above 39km," he told the BBC, adding that a firing mechanism on the balloon was set to [be] triggered just above that altitude. "Now," he said, "we just need to get all the bits back."

Babbage landed around 16:00 GMT in a field a couple of few miles south of Shaftesbury. During his descent, Babbage was pursued by Mr Akerman and helpers in a chase car add was found around 17:26 GMT.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23840596 Very Happy

Posted: 31-08-2013 09:41 Post subject:

Sky in ultra high-defintion TV first
Stoke City v West Ham will this afternoon become the first ever British football match to be broadcast live in ultra high defnition. Matt Warman reports.
By Matt Warman , Head of Technology
7:00AM BST 31 Aug 2013

Britain’s first live ultra high-defintion broadcast will take place this afternoon – and as Sky beams Stoke City v West Ham to a select audience at its London HQ, retailers, football fans and TV buffs will be holding their breath. Is this the TV revolution that will succeed where 3D has failed? Is this the moment when, finally, it’s decisively found that watching a match on TV really is better than going to the event itself?

The BBC trialled so-called ultra high-definition TV during the Olympics. Using a private high speed broadband network it sent extraordinary pictures to a small number of sites including Broadcasting House, beaming images that are four times as good as the current best high definition images. But the Sky trial is the first to use satellites that are also available for commercial purposes to send images around the country – and while there are no specific plans to launch a commercial service at a specific date, Japanese broadcasters have already announced that they will transmit the World Cup final live from Brazil in ultra-high defintion. Sky won’t want to be behind.

Barney Francis, the managaing director of Sky Sports, is cautious about the technology’s potential, but ultimately in favour. “We keep a close eye on emerging technologies here at Sky,” he claims. “At the company that led the UK into digital, HD, mobile and 3D TV, we want to keep bringing our customers the innovations that improve the experience of watching TV. That’s why, back in October last year we first experimented with Ultra HD – or 4k, as some people call it.”

He says that initial trials carried out in the autumn used primitive, handheld cameras, but laid the ground work for today’s landmark. “Back then, we had just a couple of handheld Ultra HD cameras at a wet and windy Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League tie with Olympiakos”, he says.

“At Upton Park today we will take our UHD research to a new level, becoming the first UK broadcaster to successfully complete a live broadcast. Unlike our early efforts at Arsenal, this is a fully-fledged live production, with multiple cameras and a full outside broadcast. We’ll see enough in this test event to confirm that live sport in UHD has real potential.”

Any detail of a launch for these pictures, however, are to be confirmed: “As and when affordable UHD TVs are available, over the next few years, our early leadership will position us well”, says Francis.

Sky is testing its ultra-high-definition coverage on four Sony televisions each costing £25,000 – pictures this pretty don’t yet come cheap. But already smaller sets, at around 55”, are available for £4,000, and costs will fall rapidly. But just as many viewers felt high definition was an unnecessary improvement, today’s UHD will be the industry standard in a few years time.

So what do these pictures look like? In short, ultra-high definition is so vivid it’s almost unreal. Best viewed on big screens, it offers more detail than your eyes can see, and shows more than they would see if you were at a real sporting event. If HD showed every blade of grass, UHD shows every ligule and leafbud. That means it takes some getting used to, but once you’ve lived with UHD, there’s no going back.

But there will be plenty of bumps along that road – few users will spend the money on TVs this good unless there is content to justify the purchase, yet few broadcasters will spend money on the programming until there is a good number of TVs already out there.

It’s a catch-22, but it’s one that is mitigated by the fact that many Hollywood films are already being made in the new standard anyway. Getting the new pictures to TV sets, however, remains a challenge: standard spectrum used for regular TV is too full, and the UK’s broadband network is simply not yet good enough for it to be sent over the web. That leaves satellite networks such as Sky’s effectively the only option for now.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10277864/Sky-in-ultra-high-defintion-TV-first.html

Posted: 31-08-2013 13:47 Post subject:

It sounds awesome, but...

Posted: 31-08-2013 14:02 Post subject:

Do we really need such high definition that we can see the stitching on the ball in a football match? Rolling Eyes

Posted: 02-09-2013 10:35 Post subject:

First part of longer article about the accelerating march of technological progress in computing.

Posted: 02-09-2013 17:53 Post subject:

Its Dads 11 plus question

There is a lilly on a pond, each day it doubles in size.
On the 30th day it covers the pond.

On what day does it cover HALF the pond?

(Its amazing how many get that wrong. Its a `read the question` question.)

Posted: 02-09-2013 18:40 Post subject:

Saturday!

Posted: 02-09-2013 18:58 Post subject:

<facepalm>

why Saturday?

Posted: 02-09-2013 21:49 Post subject:

Posted: 02-09-2013 22:38 Post subject:

Posted: 02-09-2013 22:47 Post subject: