GPS Tracking ROI

GPS data applied to link radar emissions, cancer

By ROBIN LORD
STAFF WRITER
DENNISPORT - Bernie Young will ask the PAVE PAWS Steering Committee again tomorrow - as he has many times before - why the Air Force is not monitoring the level of radiation coming from the Sagamore facility.

”We’re monitoring Pilgrim (Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth), we monitor air quality, and people have to monitor when they put in an alternative septic system, but PAVE PAWS gets a free ride?” he said.. Full Article Here:

Ah PAVE PAWS, I just love it, robin, when a reporter talks dirty.Two four letter words of mystery. Now some will tell you that it all stands for Precision Airborne Vehicle Entry Perimeter Acquisition Warning System but that’s not the official definition. Regardless of what you think it stands for, it stand mighty tall … more than 6 stories. I don’t have a picture from Cape Cod here, but this is the phased array system at Clear AFS, Alaska, which is now part of the PAVE PAWS system.

It’s a very low frequency (as radar systems go), very powerful phased array (which means the antenna doesn’t move, pulses of energy from emitters all across the face of the antenna actually for the beam of energy) emissions source. As such there are tons of effects that are little studied, and when the system was put together more than 30 years ago, the standards for electronic emissions were much more lenient than they are today. (more…)

GPS pinpoints cell-phone weather alerts

By KIM HART
The Washington Post

06/14/2006

WASHINGTON — With hurricane season in full swing, some weather forecasters are hoping residents look to their cell phones instead of the darkening skies.

WeatherBug, a weather information service in suburban Germantown, Md., is the latest to announce a new alert system. WeatherBug has announced a new product that uses Global Positioning System tracking to pinpoint a subscriber’s location and send targeted weather alerts to a cell phone, Blackberry or other hand-held device … Complete Article Here:

There’s a lot of news, a few good points, and even a boatload of pabulum and drivel about “Location Based Solutions” as they regard cell phones and other hand helds that are internet able and GPS capable. Many of the supposed “killer aps” are no more innovative that trying to spam you with a text message about the $1.00 Double Cheeseburgers at the nearest grease emporium. (Notice how McDonald’s Value Menu is no all $1 items rather than $0.99? Wonder how much more they make nation-wide on that price bump?)

Most of us already know full well how to waste money and where the nearest non-health food outlets are. Doesn’t sound like much of a tool? But wait. Underneath all the 10 year old marketing hype there is a good use after all. (more…)

A federal judge in Massachusetts has rejected a request for an injunction preventing Google from distributing its popular 3D Earth-mapping and visualization program.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock on Friday denied a preliminary injunction requested by a Virginia-based company called Skyline Software Systems, which alleges that Google Earth violates its terrain-mapping patent.

A notice posted on the court’s Web site says that Woodlock announced his decision in a telephone conference with attorneys involved in the case without publishing a written opinion.

The legal spat began when Skyline sued Keyhole, a Mountain View, Calif.-based digital mapping company, for patent infringement in May 2004. Founded in 1997, Skyline makes a number of mapping products, including one called TerraExplorer, which, according to its Web site, “allows users to freely fly through 3D terrain and urban environments.” Rest of Article Here

If only I had taken out that patent on the wheel when I first thought of it …. Sigh … I’d hire Bill and Melinda as house servants.

Seriously. This is another long line of useless timewasters that sometime makes me wonder why anyone starts a business or stays in it. I am not a patent attorney and am not qualified to judge the merits of Skyline’s claim, but the judge did … when he didn’t even bother to waste the gas of the attorneys by dragging them into the court room.

A technique to allow 3D movement through electronic maps. How utterly new, NOT. In 1974 when most computer software was in assembler, displayed in Octal, and 24 bit minicomputers were the rage …that’s right a 24-bitter with 2k of “lightning fast” magnetic core memory we (the US Air Force, SEL (Systems Engineering Labs) and Evans & Sutherland, and others) were training pilots with 3D computer-generated scenery that was real enough to let one fly a C-5 cargo plane under the George Washington Bridge, inverted. (Do not try this at home or in front of an FAA inspector).

I didn’t take the time to look up their CV’s but I’ll wager I was suing these machines and software operationally before most of the principals of ‘Skyline’ were born

The computer industry in general and the GPS and GIS aspects of it are being continually held back by these desperate attempts to patent ideas which are really not new and to impede the flow of fantastic (and free) software like Google Earth.

Kudos to Justice Woodlock.

China Builds GPS Lite

June 9, 2006: China’s foray into military space satellites has turned out to be as problematic as their endless attempts at building a nuclear submarine that works. Three years ago, China completed a satellite navigation system called BeiDou. Think of it as GPS light, and different, and not very useful. Sound familiar? BeiDou only covers East Asia, but not all of China. But it covers the areas along the coast, and Taiwan. The BeiDou system is less accurate than GPS, slower, but it does allow two way traffic. This is useful for sending short messages (up to 120 Chinese characters so, about a hundred words). Sort of IM (Instant Messaging) class stuff…. Full Article Here:

Rather an interesting little read here. I wasn’t aware of the BeiDou system. It makes a lot of sense for a country the size of China and one with a world-view as different to the US to work up their own system. Doesn’t sound like much, perhaps, but the predecessors to the GPS, such as the Navy TRANSIT system weren’t perfect either.

The part that stuck me most was the Chinese vision of what’s greatly needed in a battlefield system … lost to GPS planners who built the system with the typical DoD “Stovepipe” mentality. You want soldiers to know their position? My system will do that. You think they might need to exchange information with their leaders or each other? Ah, well, you need another system for that. Not my job. One of the most impressive things about the Pentagon and other major command headquarters. It’s very hard to find folks working there who can tell you much about what their job is … but EVERYONE you meet can tell you in great detail what their job is NOT.

(more…)

I’ve posted a time or two in the past about my on-line friend Tim Hibbard and his demo site where he shows his daily travels around Lawrence, Kansas, where he’s software architect for a smart little company called EnGraph.

Well Tim’s company decided to send someone one of their GPS-enabled cell phones and left it turned on … reporting to their demo GPS tracking site.  Go here and look for Mike Pegg’s track … apparently he’s the one the phone is being shipped to.  The site may be slow to respond … it’s just a personal “tinker” site.

The point I have in writing about it, after reading several blogs this morning from “professionals” who were just blown away by the idea that a trackable phone actually could be tracked, and that software … a free “mash-up” with Google Maps/Google earth that wasn’t built by ESRI, cost $5000 and required a master’s degree to operate.  All that education and yet so clueless.

Tracking may not be ready for Aunt Minnie yet, but it’s coming along quickly.

… Richard Barnes, the chairman of the London assembly’s July 7 review committee, said it was “unacceptable” that the emergency services were unable to communicate by radio when underground.

The committee found the most striking failure was the lack of planning to care for traumatised survivors of the bombings.

The 151-page report said the “overarching, fundamental lesson” to be learnt from the response to the July 7 attacks was “a lack of consideration of the individuals caught up in major or catastrophic incident”… Read it All Here:

OK, no eye candy today. I’m pointing you to a report on London’s emergency response after last years 7/7 transport bombings that, if I had the power to, I’d force every state, county and municipal emergency planner to read. With just a little editing the report could as easily describe our response to Katrina last year or to the World Trade Center 9/11 catastrophe,

This isn’t GPS-related directly, but since GPS is becoming so prominent in emergency response scenarios it deserves reading.

(more…)

The Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Updated: Tuesday, May 30, 2006

NEWTON, N.J. (AP) - A high-tech tracking system led authorities to charge a high-risk sex offender with a Megan’s Law violation in a first-of-its-kind case in the state.

Police say Thomas Ziniewicz, 35, was living at his girlfriend’s house, rather than his registered address. Sex offenders are required under state law to notify law enforcement if they plan to live somewhere other than their registered address.

A Newton police affidavit says a GPS tracking report shows Ziniewicz was living at a different address for 21 days between April 24 and May 23.

The arrest marks the first time GPS technology has been used to gather evidence for a Megan’s Law violation, said Capt. Sean Asay of the state Parole Board, which monitors New Jersey’s GPS tracking program for sex offenders… Read Full Article Here:

I’ve written on this subject before and I’m going to keep writing on it again and again until more states get the message. There’s still a huge ground swell of opinion that GPS tracking costs too much. Yet forcing released sexual predators to wear GPS is proving again and again the value of the investment.

Here we have a fellow that we don’t know about. Perhaps it was just innocent that he was living with his girl friend rather than where the state law required him to live. On the other hand, he (and his demonstrably not-so-smart girlfriend could have been cooking up plots so disgusting and fiendish I don’t want to think about them.

(more…)