Operation Deep Sweep

An interesting mixture of art and technology, not Ars Gratia Artis - art for the sake of art - but Ars Gratia Libertatis - art for the sake of freedom.
And it is the coin of freedom we shall pay governments to shield us from terrorism, which ironically was instigated by governments themselves.
(It is too conspiratorial by far to even think that the CIA placed an order with Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviet Union, and also ordered a side-order of world-wide terrorism to be used to undermine individual freedoms in the near future.)

Critical Engineering

https://criticalengineering.org/projects/deep-sweep/

INTRODUCTION

The Deep Sweep is an aerospace probe scanning the otherwise out-of-reach signal space between land and stratosphere, with special interest placed in UAV/drone to satellite communication.
Taking the form of a high-altitude weather balloon, tiny embedded computer and RF equipment, The Deep Sweep project is being developed to function as a low-cost, aerial signal-intelligence (SIGINT) platform. Intended for assembly and deployment by public, it enables surveying and studying the vast and often secretive world of signal in our skies.

Two launches have been performed so far, from sites in Germany, landing in Poland and Belarus respectively.

We intend to make many more, in Europe and beyond.

The purpose seems to be to become aware of all the types of surveillance available under the Umbrella Corporation of security from terror, from hackers, from foreign states, whatever!

Copyright Umbrella Corporation
Veni, Vidi, Vinci



If you read further about Critical Engineering, you will come across things like this:
https://criticalengineering.org/

0. The Critical Engineer considers Engineering to be the most transformative language of our time, shaping the way we move, communicate and think. It is the work of the Critical Engineer to study and exploit this language, exposing its influence.

1. The Critical Engineer considers any technology depended upon to be both a challenge and a threat. The greater the dependence on a technology the greater the need to study and expose its inner workings, regardless of ownership or legal provision.

2. The Critical Engineer raises awareness that with each technological advance our techno-political literacy is challenged.

3. The Critical Engineer deconstructs and incites suspicion of rich user experiences...

If you do not like philosophical chatter, just skip over it. We all do it. We all chatter on about philosophies and our sacred "belief systems".  I mean, jiminy!, everyone needs some sort of reason to pop out of bed in the early morn and get to the workshop.
The proof is in the pudding.

--

The iPhone

She-who-must-be-obeyed received a brand-new iPhone, so I inherited the older version, which took the place of my 2001 Nokia with a teddy bear logo on the screen (I inherited that phone from my daughter when she upgraded and I dismissed my old Nextel.)

 Answer the phone, wouldja!? I'm busy!"

I was fond of the Nextel sort of walkie-talkie ability that we made great use of in business. Progress is inexorable in its march to greater things, sort of a Die Welt ist mein Feldt  ethos that turns a more service oriented Mein Feldt ist die Welt on its blooming head.
(Die Welt ... "the world is my field, which gives an idea of unstoppable autocracy versus Mein Feldt ... "my field is the world", which gave the notion of service to the world, which is where the idea came from, being used on the bow figure of the SS Imperator of the Hamburg America Line while she traversed the Atlantic Ocean.)

I got the Nokia and signed up with T-Mobile until October, 2015. I was always pay-as-you-go, and it was commonplace to run out of minutes at the worst possible time.

So I have an iPhone now, one of the classics, to be sure, to be sure.  I like my cellular phones the way the residents of Havana like their cars: classic.  Everything old-timey.
Just yesterday I was at Bishop Airport in Flint and I fancied I was driving with dynamic airflow and wearing a grey fedora. I had some sort of 1940s pipe in my pocket. I drove into Bishop, parked at the phone lot waiting to be summoned, the call came, I pulled out and drove to the terminal in 70 seconds whereupon I slid right into the Southwest section, grabbed a few club bags, stowed them, esteemed She-who-must-be-obeyed, and drove off to the exit which was 120 second away.
From there I drove to the expressway (or limited access road, as we say) which was two red lights and 4 minutes down the pike.
Home was 36 miles and 40 minutes away. Traffic was light.

 Bishop Airport, Flint, Michigan

I have many bells and whistles on my iPhone, as you all undoubtedly know.
I set an alarm to sound at 4 bells this morning to remind me to get the garbage ready to set outside. The alarm was some sort of gizmo-sound accompanied by buzzing and vibration.

Since I was writing, I never even heard it.

I vaguely remember hearing the iPhone sitting right next to me vibrating and buzzing, and vaguely wondering what the devil the blasted thing was up to now.

--

Inflation Of Geniuses

Raw Story
Cash-strapped Michigan school system uses 1980s home computer to control heating for entire district
David Edwards 15 Jun 2015 at 16:40 ET
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/cash-strapped-michigan-school-system-uses-1980s-home-computer-to-control-heating-for-entire-district/

Officials in one Michigan school system are hoping that a 30-year-old home computer that controls heating and air conditioning for all 19 of their schools will finally be upgraded if residents decide to pass a $175 million bond proposal.

Grand Rapids Public Schools Maintenance Supervisor Tim Hopkins told WOOD-TV that the district used the money from an energy bond in the 1980s to purchase a Commodore Amiga, which has been tasked with controlling the heat and air conditioners ever since. The computer it replaced was “about the size of a refrigerator,” he said.

“The system controls the start/stop of boilers, the start/stop of fans, pumps, [it] monitors space temperatures, and so on,” the maintenance supervisor noted.

Hopkins explained that the computer operated on a 1200-baud modem, and it sometimes interfered with the walkie-talkies used by his maintenance workers.

“Because they share the same frequency as our maintenance communications radios and operations maintenance radios — it depends on what we’re doing — yes, they do interfere,” he pointed out, adding that “we have to clear the radio and get everyone off of it for up to 15 minutes” when that happens.

The district said that it has not been able to afford the $1.5 to 2 million cost of a new system. But the computer is system is on the list if a $175 million bond proposal passes in November.

“There’s a lot of projects, a lot of needs in the district, so there’s other priorities we have to put in place ahead of this,” Hopkins said. “This system is still running.”

Apparently it cost $2 million to replace a computer with the abilities of a 1980 Commodore Amiga.

Who was the utter genius who set up this system? Has the Corporate-Military-Industrial-Lobbyist complex kidnapped him? Why is the most fascinating part of this story ignored?

Fortunately, we can find information:

Technology Blog
http://www.tech-blog.org/engineering-news/cluster1263414/
A 1980's Computer Controls This School District's Heating System

Have you ever wondered what kind of system helps to regulate the temperature in your school? Do you imagine that it will be some kind of hi-tech fancy supercomputer? Perhaps that might be true for some school districts, but over at Grand Rapids, it seems that 19 of the Grand Rapids Public Schools are controlled by a computer made in the 1980s .Yes, you read that right, despite living in 2015, the GRPS has a bunch of schools whose heating and air-conditioning are regulated by a 1980s Commodore Amiga computer.

To top things off, it seems that the code written for the system was actually written by a high school student when the computer was installed in the 1980s.Thankfully that student still lives in the area so should any issue arise with the system, they can easily get in touch with him. More amazing is the fact that prior to the use of the Commodore Amiga, the school used a computer that was the size of a refrigerator so even though it hardly seems like it today, it was a significant upgrade...

--

Problems With Telephones

They "draw" calls.

There is no such thing in the recent past as a single call taking place at a leisurely pace upon a telephone or cell phone or Smart phone; the probability that one will hear a click or gnash or eructation from the bowels of the telephonic device, indicating that yet some other person wants to waste your time in ceaseless palaver, is 100%.
It is uncanny.


Calls are drawn to telephones as moths to the flame.

--

Google Glasses

 

 

 

Sgt. Apone

A very informative article on Google glasses in agronomy in the Agricultural News:


http://www.agriculture.com/videos/v/82882191/google-glass-as-an-agronomy-tool.htm


Fascinating.

I think that these glasses - and they have been in the mill for years - have the potential to have an enormous benefit to industry.

Of course, now that I'm writing about it, I think of the devices that the Space Marines wore in Aliens (actually the Hot Toys version!), which were not exactly glasses, but people wearing the Google glasses make me think of Sgt. Apone.

--

Why Do We Have This Technology?

At a House Committee hearing Tuesday, NASA administrator Charles Bolden Jr. was asked what America would do if a meteor similar to the one that hit in Russia on Feb. 15 was found to be on a path toward New York City, with impact three weeks away. His response? "Pray."

--

Facebook and Authoritarianism

It is a very, very good sign that investors did not buy into the persiflage that Facebook was worth what the IPO said it was worth. If they had been that blind, it would have been another coffin nail.

The only "Facebook"-type entity which would be very profitable would be an authoritarian one: one that could demand your private facts and use them as it wishes and deny you the right of walking out the door. Only then could it hope to generate enough cash for research on new gimmicks to prevent its becoming a cozy place to exchange photos and pleasantries.

Once the short-term profit people get in control after the IPO, the senescence of Facebook is guaranteed.
--