Eclectic Ee: August 2005

Googling the Earth with GPS

Garmin eTrex Venture—a 12 parallel channel GPS receiver

Copyright © 1996-2005 Garmin Ltd. All rights reserved
What will I do if I have a GPS receiver and Google Earth?

My company has a GPS receiver that we usually use to do accurate measurements during field trips. These trips are to determine the effective Line of Sight from given distances for our VHF radio products.

Our GPS receiver is a dry-cell battery-operated waterproof model with lots of features. The best feature I like most is its 1MB flash memory storage that allow users to store data and city map database (although, there is another model that offers more than 50MB memory space). This is very handy when we want to store markers to track from one point to another and view them in a chosen map. Another cool feature is its 5-point thumb stick (akin to IBM ThinkPad tracker) to navigate the cursor in a map or menus with a breeze.

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Because of its many features, its battery life would only last for about 20 hours in standby mode. Of course, if we keep turn on the GPS navigation, its battery life span will be shorter; usually around 5 to 6 hours.

Now, with the GPS receiver in my hands, I can improve my Google Earth by updating it with my places of interest.

As for today, I put a lot of interesting places (while driving around Klang Valley) in my Google Earth. You can view it in the following picture:

Klang Valley

Copyright © 2005 Ee. All rights reserved

Hellads and the Hell Fire

An album cover from Japanese metal band, Hell Fire.

Copyright © 2005 Hell Fire. All rights reserved

Hellads are ancient people who worshipped the triple-goddess, Helen and practiced Hellenic culture in the Greek mythology. This people also brought in the story of Deucalion, the survivor of the great Mesopotamian flood, similar to the story of Biblical Noah in the Great Flood. Now, this name signifies a new era in defense military: the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS), an advanced lightweight laser system to be used in a wide range of tactical systems of U.S. Military.

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Under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), this HELLADS project has been contracted to Lockheed Martin, a company which records successful bids for U.S. Government's military projects in recent years where they have been applied in Desert Storm operations and Iraq war.

Why is this so significant? Ever dream of Star Wars? A few secret years ago, U.S. Military has fitted a bulky laser system on Boeing 747. This laser system uses megawatt capable power-range liquid state laser (a pump source of hidrogen fluoride as the result from a chemical reaction between ethylene and nitrogen trifluoride) operated in continuous wave mode. Another version is chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) that requires a pump source of oxygen and iodine. However, it was not technically feasible to put such laser system in lightweight tactical war machines as it requires a bulky cooling system. And, it is not kind of rapid fire shots: for every a few seconds shot, the system needs minutes of cool-down time.

To solve the problem of size and weight, DARPA has came up with the idea of merging liquid lasers with solid-state lasers. Solid-state lasers just need a diode pump source and they able to produce intense high-energy rays but in pulse wave mode to avoid overheating. Overheating problem will be handled by thermal management system found in liquid lasers. DARPA reckons that this merged system will be able to produce 150kW of power at a weight of 5kg/kW, so compact enough to be fitted on small fighter airplanes (about the size of a fridge and 750kg in weight).

There are five phases in HELLADS project and is currently at Phase 3 with the estimated 2006 budget of 20 Million U.S. Dollars. The project has started since March 2005 and it will complete around Dec 2009.

The Star Wars dream is now a reality.

Hello, Makkah (from Google Earth)!

I love Google Earth so much that I use it for many things. One of its uses is to determine my actual Kiblat position from my place to Makkah, which is 67° from North.

Hello, Bloggerbot!

I am asking my Bloggerbot to send this snapshot to my blog by using Picasa's Hello. Hmm, interesting!

Thin Secrets

Copyright © 2002 Ellen Ruppel Shell. All rights reserved

Diet? Nope.

My height is 175cm (5' 9"), but my weight is just 51kg. According to Body Mass Index (BMI), it says 16.7 kg/m²; that is, for my adult age, I am noticeably underweight. From my appearance, people will outrightly say I am so thin. But, they could not help themselves from wondering the fact that I eat a lot of food. Sometimes, a few will say how envy they are of me. I will consume myself even just one hour before that, I've had a meal. I feel so hungry. I don't suffer parasitic tapeworm problem, if someone mentions that. And, I am healthy as ever. I never do any exercise. However, I walk so fast, act fast and think a lot.

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According to Singapore Science Center's ScienceNet website, it explains three factors for my condition:

Genetics—my parents are not fat; so I remain thin.

Metabolic rate—I have a high metabolic rate: my body converts food into energy in a short time. That is why I could not stand a cold environment; my body does not keep energy long enough from inside.

Adaptation—Even if I don't exercise regularly, my physical habits make me remain thin. Walking fast, acting fast and thinking a lot use a lot of energy. So, my body adapts by channeling energy needs to my routine habits.

Hacking Aeroflex Inc.'s IFR2945B/2948B

Copyright © 2005 Aeroflex Inc. All rights reserved

Sometimes, there is a time while we are working on a project, we have to face a dead end. However, we need to find a solution for it.

I am working on a test sequencer software project where it uses a lot of measurement instruments. One of them is the newest Aeroflex Inc.'s IFR2948B—a radio communications service monitor. I am developing the software by using National Instruments' Labwindows/CVI 7. The dead end is that NI doesn't have any instrument driver for this new model yet. It only has a driver for the old 2945A/2948A version.

To avoid wasting a lot of time waiting for a driver request from NI, I has decided to hack the existing 2945A/2948A driver with the new 2945B/2948B GPIB commands. Well, luckily, my idea works as expected!

Cat and Mouse

Cute! Dian in her nice kebaya outfit

Copyright © 2005 Dian Sastrowardoyo. All rights reserved

Dirgahayu Indonesia! I feel so bored today. First, I am not a fan of "Dian Sastro". I am too old for this. But a few days ago, I put myself into this "Dian Sastro" craze mode. Since then, I am so busy searching the real Dian Sastro profile in this wonderful Friendster. The result is like playing cat and mouse. Therefore, I've decided to send a message to any close chance that I believe will lead me to the real Dian Sastro! The interesting part is the "bait" I use to make sure it is the correct person I've been looking for. So, the message is like below:

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Hi, I am Malaysian.

I am not sure about you.

You know what? I've made a full search using these [sic.]
keywords "dian sastro wardoyo". Wow! Believe me,
there are so many "dian sastro wardoyo" profiles in
Friendster. It makes me wonder which one is the
real Dian Sastro! But, it is true that "video star kills
the radio star!"

So, if you are really the real, authentic Diandra
Paramitha Sastrowardoyo, can you name me a
company where Mr. Yapto (your Abi's father) deals
with trade and supply for defense? Interesting
question from me, right?

Good luck with your undertakings.

With regard,

Ee

So now, I am still waiting for a hit...

Eclectic

Copyright © 2005 Ee. All rights reserved

People who are close to me usually call me "Ee". Simple, huh? I like simple things and to live as simple as I can. This is because I am a complex person. I think in complex ways that people will get confused. So, I need to learn to select good things from my head in a simple way. That is why I choose the word "eclectic". It means