Book Review: The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley by Marietje Schaake The lives of most people worldwide are dominated by information technology in an inescapable way—even the poorest people (or perhaps especially the poorest people) need their smart phones to survive. Beyond just the end devices, the back end processing and …
Category Archives: Beneficial Tech
Building a Sustainable Home
Book review: Building a Sustainable Home: Practical Green Design Choices for Your Health, Wealth, and Soul by Melissa Rappaport Schifman The point at which current methods of housing construction are no longer sustainable is clearly in view—it’s actually been within sight for some time. In this book Melissa Rappaport Schifman describes her actual experiences in …
Lesser Known Terrestrial Communications Means (4 of 4)
This is the fourth of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of lesser known terrestrial communications systems to provide connectivity to replace …
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Revisiting Terrestrial Microwave (3 of 4)
This is the third of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of terrestrial microwave to provide connectivity to replace that which is …
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HF Radio to Mitigate Loss of Satellites (2 of 4)
This is the second of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of High Frequency (HF) radio to provide connectivity to replace that …
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Mesh Networks to Mitigate Loss of Satellites (1 of 4)
This is the first of four articles to suggest solutions to the problems that would be caused on Earth from the loss of satellite services. I briefly describe the situation in a previous posting at Impending Space Junk Disaster. This article discusses the use of mesh networks to provide connectivity to replace that which is …
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SSH Keys Demystified
Using SSH (Secure Shell) with crypto keys can be a pull your hair out exercise in frustration—not only is the discussion on the Internet sometimes more snooty than helpful, some of the advice is outright wrong and in following it you can disable your system. The points below should get you to workable SSH connections …
Impending Space Junk Disaster
Houston (and the rest of the world), we have a problem with space junk. This is beyond the issue of the orbital space around Earth looking increasingly like the proverbial teenager’s closet—the growing manifestation of the Kessler Syndrome is a recognized risk to operational space platforms, in addition to a serious threat to human life …
Design for 360 Degree Camera
Camera enclosures for outdoor use require associated mechanical pan and tilt equipment if the camera is needed for anything further than just general area coverage. Not only do these mechanical devices take critical seconds to slew to position, they also require regular maintenance. What if the pan and tilt functions could be done purely electronically, …
Physical Aspects—Tires on the Pavement
This is the fourth of four follow-on articles to Do Smart Highways Now—Delay is Not Smart, in which an integrated automated highway system is envisioned. This article will describe what might be called the kinetic component of the system—the movement of physical steel on wheels, with people and cargo inside. Before automating anything that affects personal …