Long article in Aviation Week deploring the lack of a common data link standard between USAF combat aircraft. Apparently older aircraft like AWACs and F16's were equipped with a datalink system known as Link16. The newer F22 has a different system called IFDL and the even newer F35 has a system called MADL. As you might imagine, the various systems cannot talk to each other. There is a project, hoping for funding, to build a "translator" box that can talk to all three systems and translate between them.
Of course, old fogies like myself wonder just why such a datalink is needed. Is it to allow aircrews to websurf on their way to target?
Way back in the day, the F106 fighter had a data link to the SAGE centers. When it worked, it allowed the ground based SAGE computers to drive the horizontal situation display in the fighter, and set a steering needle to point to point right at the target. When it was feeling especially clever it could put a bright circle on the fighter's radarscope highlighting the area in which the target was expected to appear.
Headquarters ADC loved datalink (dollie they called it) and insisted upon its use on every practice intercept. When dollie broke, and the aircrew used trusty voice radio to get vector and altitude to target from the ground controller, HQ would go ballistic and chew out the controller, the aircrew, and avionics maintenance (me) over the "broken dollie sortie".
In actual fact, voice radio worked just fine, everyone knew the procedures, and it doesn't take long to say "Vector 034, Angels 18" over the air.
But HQ ADC was on a dollie kick and we all did a lot of running around to make them happy. Only the then new F106 had dollie. The older F102, F101, and F89 interceptors lacked it, and my controller friends always said the oldest (F89) was the most likely to score a kill. Dollie didn't make the F106 more effective.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Can he fire anyone?
OK, Obama dumped the head of secret service and appointed a new old guy. Name escapes me, despite a lotta TV coverage I haven't cuaght his name yet. Not a good sign.
Clearly Secret Service has some problems, fence jumpers making to the East Room, agents on trips getting drunk and laid, ex-con with a gun riding the elevator with the president.
I'd guess these problems come from ineffective supervisors, officers we called 'em in the military, dunno what the secret service calls 'em. To fix things, you gotta fire the ineffective supervisors and replace them with good people. Will the new guy (who is retired secret service and ought to know the people) be able to fire the inefficient? On his own say-so? Fairly quickly, like within a few weeks rather than after years of hearings and appeals? Does secret service have a union to protect the guilty? Are they under civil service, which basically forbids firing even for very strong cause?
Clearly Secret Service has some problems, fence jumpers making to the East Room, agents on trips getting drunk and laid, ex-con with a gun riding the elevator with the president.
I'd guess these problems come from ineffective supervisors, officers we called 'em in the military, dunno what the secret service calls 'em. To fix things, you gotta fire the ineffective supervisors and replace them with good people. Will the new guy (who is retired secret service and ought to know the people) be able to fire the inefficient? On his own say-so? Fairly quickly, like within a few weeks rather than after years of hearings and appeals? Does secret service have a union to protect the guilty? Are they under civil service, which basically forbids firing even for very strong cause?
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
F22 Raptor finally goes to war
They sent a couple of F22's into Syria the other night to bomb some big building in the boonies of Syria. Aviation Week has before and after reconnaissance photos. Shows a multi story flat roof building, surrounded by a paved parking lot and outside the parking lot, a really stout fence. No cars in the parking lot, not even painted lines. The after photo shows a whacking big hole in the roof and piles of debris all over the parking lot. Hole in one. You can see where ISIS has shoveled paths thru the debris to get vehicles in and out.
Of course you gotta wonder why Aviation Week gives such nice coverage to a fairly plain vanilla ground attack mission. An old F-4 Phantom could have done this one. F22 is the super expensive, super secret air-to-air fighter that got so expensive that defense secretary Gates canceled production after getting billed for only 187 aircraft. Final price was $130 million per airplane, which is a helova lotta money for a single seat fighter.
F22 is stealthy, hard to see on radar. To get stealthy, all ordinance and fuel is carried internally so it won't give a radar return. F22 had cute little missile bays, just big enough to take a Slammer air-to-air missile. To do the Syrian building, the F22's used 1000 pound, JDAM smart bombs. Those certainly won't fit in a missile bay barely large enough for a 4 inch diameter missile. 1000 pounders are better than a foot in diameter. Aviation Week didn't say how they hung the 1000 pounders on the aircraft, presumable on non stealthy under wing rails.
Of course you gotta wonder why Aviation Week gives such nice coverage to a fairly plain vanilla ground attack mission. An old F-4 Phantom could have done this one. F22 is the super expensive, super secret air-to-air fighter that got so expensive that defense secretary Gates canceled production after getting billed for only 187 aircraft. Final price was $130 million per airplane, which is a helova lotta money for a single seat fighter.
F22 is stealthy, hard to see on radar. To get stealthy, all ordinance and fuel is carried internally so it won't give a radar return. F22 had cute little missile bays, just big enough to take a Slammer air-to-air missile. To do the Syrian building, the F22's used 1000 pound, JDAM smart bombs. Those certainly won't fit in a missile bay barely large enough for a 4 inch diameter missile. 1000 pounders are better than a foot in diameter. Aviation Week didn't say how they hung the 1000 pounders on the aircraft, presumable on non stealthy under wing rails.
Win 8.1 does network nicely
It's not much of a network, just my router, Trusty Desktop (XP) and Flatbeast (skinny new laptop Win8.1). For just powering it up, Flatbeast found the wireless router, and got logged in. I actually had to go down to the router and push a magic router button that told it "new authorized member on wireless, let him in." Windows 8.1 supports a brand new networking concept call a HomeGroup, but XP does not. Win 8.1 also supports the older networking concept of Work Groups. By concept, we mean a protocol for saying hello, asking if anyone is home, and sharing files and printers. Workgroups have names, and all computers with the same work group name are allowed to play. Windows (all flavors) ships with it's Workgroup named WORKGROUP. Once connected, the files on the distant computer show up in "Network" looking just like files on the local drive. You can open them, move them around, and delete them. Win 8.1 is better at doing Workgroup than XP was. XP was picky about linking up, and often failed to find computers on the local area network. 8.1 is better.
On XP "share" meant mark a file or folder as visible over the network. Explorer allowed you to share files on a one by one, or a folder by folder basis. If you never shared any files the distant computer would not see any files.
On 8.1 the verb share means something else. When M$ invents something new they ought to give it a new name, just to avoid confusion. PITA. On 8.1 you don't get to share file by file, you can turn on sharing for the whole machine or nothing. Click on Control Panel. Click on Network and Sharing Center. Click on Advanced Sharing Options. Turn on the obvious things like Network Discovery and file and printer sharing. Click on save changes, and all your files become visible to distant computers.
The only people with access to my home network are family and friends and I don't have any files I need to conceal from anyone, so exposing every file on my harddrive to the local area network doesn't bother me. Your Mileage My Vary.
On XP "share" meant mark a file or folder as visible over the network. Explorer allowed you to share files on a one by one, or a folder by folder basis. If you never shared any files the distant computer would not see any files.
On 8.1 the verb share means something else. When M$ invents something new they ought to give it a new name, just to avoid confusion. PITA. On 8.1 you don't get to share file by file, you can turn on sharing for the whole machine or nothing. Click on Control Panel. Click on Network and Sharing Center. Click on Advanced Sharing Options. Turn on the obvious things like Network Discovery and file and printer sharing. Click on save changes, and all your files become visible to distant computers.
The only people with access to my home network are family and friends and I don't have any files I need to conceal from anyone, so exposing every file on my harddrive to the local area network doesn't bother me. Your Mileage My Vary.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Is it murder, terrorism, or "workplace violence" ?
This has come up in the Oklahoma beheading case. The TV newsies argue back and forth between "terrorism" and "workplace violence".
Me, I'd rather call it murder in the first degree. Murder is a well established crime, it's been a crime since Moses brought down the Ten Commandments, and that was a long time ago. The newer trendier crimes are vague, not well established, and subject to endless bickering by lawyers. Worse, they are thought crimes, depending upon the state of mind of the perp. I don't like thought crimes, men ought to be free to think anything they like, just so long as they keep their thoughts to them selves. Plus, proving thoughts in court is touchy, the perp merely denies thinking wrong thoughts.
Plus, terrorism is a political thought crime. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Convict the perp of terrorism and bunches of unpleasant people will say that his cause was righteous, and he is a martyr to the cause. Convict the perp of first degree murder and it is harder to generate sympathy for him. And the penalties for murder are still quite drastic. Judge Neopolitano was on Fox a few minutes ago saying that under Oklahoma law, a conviction for murder is straight forward and quite possible, conviction for either "workplace violence" or "terrorism" is problematical . So let's go for murder.
The "workplace violence" just seems pretty wishy washy for cutting off a worker's head. Let's go with murder.
Me, I'd rather call it murder in the first degree. Murder is a well established crime, it's been a crime since Moses brought down the Ten Commandments, and that was a long time ago. The newer trendier crimes are vague, not well established, and subject to endless bickering by lawyers. Worse, they are thought crimes, depending upon the state of mind of the perp. I don't like thought crimes, men ought to be free to think anything they like, just so long as they keep their thoughts to them selves. Plus, proving thoughts in court is touchy, the perp merely denies thinking wrong thoughts.
Plus, terrorism is a political thought crime. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Convict the perp of terrorism and bunches of unpleasant people will say that his cause was righteous, and he is a martyr to the cause. Convict the perp of first degree murder and it is harder to generate sympathy for him. And the penalties for murder are still quite drastic. Judge Neopolitano was on Fox a few minutes ago saying that under Oklahoma law, a conviction for murder is straight forward and quite possible, conviction for either "workplace violence" or "terrorism" is problematical . So let's go for murder.
The "workplace violence" just seems pretty wishy washy for cutting off a worker's head. Let's go with murder.
RD180 Rocket Engines
RD180 is the engine that powers the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V heavy lift booster rocket. One little problem has emerged lately, the RD180 is made in Russia. Just how a Russian built engine became the main engine of an American booster is a little hard to tell, now. Tracks are being covered even as I write this. At a guess, the Russians were low bidders, and someone decided that they were a reliable supplier.
Anyhow, after the late unpleasantness in Ukraine, the Americans started huffing and puffing about "sanctions" and the Russians retaliated by threatening to cut off the supply of RD180 engines. Which would put the Atlas V and ULA out of business.
So, ULA is talking about having Blue Origin, a secretive Seattle based rocket company, started by Jeff Bezos the Amazon.com zillionaire, design and build an RD180 replacement engine right in Seattle. Dubbed BE-4, the engine would burn compressed natural gas and LOX and produce 550,000 pounds of thrust. Blue Origin has been doing some design work on BE-4 using in house (Jeff Bezos) funding. ULA has signed a deal to provide more funding. Target date for first flight is 2018, four years from now.
We have a stockpile of Russian built RD180 engines good for two years. I guess they are hoping that the Russians will sell us another couple of years worth of engines. Or, that with a LOT of more money the BE-4 could be rushed into production.
Or, we could drop ULA and Atlas V and use the Space-X Falcon 9 booster rocket which has roughly the same performance as Atlas V.
Anyhow, after the late unpleasantness in Ukraine, the Americans started huffing and puffing about "sanctions" and the Russians retaliated by threatening to cut off the supply of RD180 engines. Which would put the Atlas V and ULA out of business.
So, ULA is talking about having Blue Origin, a secretive Seattle based rocket company, started by Jeff Bezos the Amazon.com zillionaire, design and build an RD180 replacement engine right in Seattle. Dubbed BE-4, the engine would burn compressed natural gas and LOX and produce 550,000 pounds of thrust. Blue Origin has been doing some design work on BE-4 using in house (Jeff Bezos) funding. ULA has signed a deal to provide more funding. Target date for first flight is 2018, four years from now.
We have a stockpile of Russian built RD180 engines good for two years. I guess they are hoping that the Russians will sell us another couple of years worth of engines. Or, that with a LOT of more money the BE-4 could be rushed into production.
Or, we could drop ULA and Atlas V and use the Space-X Falcon 9 booster rocket which has roughly the same performance as Atlas V.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Navigating Windows 8.1
Two ways to make the Desktop easier to navigate.
First put up some Really Useful Icons. Namely Control Panel, Your files, Network, and My Computer (well M$ now calls it This PC) . Once up you can tweak, look at your files, look at system files, and look on the LAN with just one mouse click on the Desktop.
Next clear off the Desktop clutter. New computers come with all sorts of "helpful" applications cluttering your desktop. You have never heard of most of 'em, but you hate put them in the recycle bin 'cause you never know when you might want them. Create a new folder to hold them. I named the new folder "Craplets" and put it on the desk top. One day, when I have the time, I will research the craplets and decide if I want to run them or uninstall them (zap them). But in the mean time they are off my desktop.
How to?
1. Right Click on a blank portion of your Desktop (Shades of M$-DOS, typing magic words to the prompt). The Personalization Screen appears.
2. On the Personalization Screen left side, Click on Change Desktop Icons. The Desktop Icon Settings window appears.
3. Check all five boxes, Computer,User's Files, Network,, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel. Then click "Apply".
4. To make the icons stay put, uncheck "Allow Themes to Change Desktop Icons.
Once done, you find most of the useful functions of the late, lamented "Start Button" are now available on your Desktop. I found Win 8.1 less user hostile after doing this.
First put up some Really Useful Icons. Namely Control Panel, Your files, Network, and My Computer (well M$ now calls it This PC) . Once up you can tweak, look at your files, look at system files, and look on the LAN with just one mouse click on the Desktop.
Next clear off the Desktop clutter. New computers come with all sorts of "helpful" applications cluttering your desktop. You have never heard of most of 'em, but you hate put them in the recycle bin 'cause you never know when you might want them. Create a new folder to hold them. I named the new folder "Craplets" and put it on the desk top. One day, when I have the time, I will research the craplets and decide if I want to run them or uninstall them (zap them). But in the mean time they are off my desktop.
How to?
1. Right Click on a blank portion of your Desktop (Shades of M$-DOS, typing magic words to the prompt). The Personalization Screen appears.
2. On the Personalization Screen left side, Click on Change Desktop Icons. The Desktop Icon Settings window appears.
3. Check all five boxes, Computer,User's Files, Network,, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel. Then click "Apply".
4. To make the icons stay put, uncheck "Allow Themes to Change Desktop Icons.
Once done, you find most of the useful functions of the late, lamented "Start Button" are now available on your Desktop. I found Win 8.1 less user hostile after doing this.
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