
"digi-net go for 2025"
In that case, I better make a note to avoid flying between 2020 to 2030 so someone else can debug this system.
flying warning Icon :)
Moves to replace conventional air-traffic infrastructure - at present reliant on slow and inaccurate radar and voice comms - with modern satnav and digital networking tech are reportedly "on the right track". Present-day air traffic is handled primarily by ground controllers using radar, either primary (where the pulse from …
What's not often considered is that there are already thousands of people, (e.g. me) already in possession of "personal air vehicles", i.e. paragliders and hang gliders. Right now we're not allowed in certain areas of restricted airspace mostly around airports because we don't, and indeed can't, carry transponders. (No battery powered portable transponder exists.)
If this sort of system goes ahead, the whole country becomes restricted airspace instantly, and free flying ends, at least legally.
So if Civil Aviation goes over to this wholesale and there is a catastrophic failure of the SatNav element (for instance a really big solar flare knocks out the system) then what happens with tens of thousands of aircraft suddenly not knowing where they are and (more importantly) where everyone else is?
The current system doesn't use radar and slow computers as a primary system, it uses little bits of cardboard moved around and the radar and radio and slow computers just help cross check that system. The old system works very well in the event of a breakdown which happens far more often than the people sitting in cattle class would like to think. Most attempts to fix this will result in a huge mess.
Non transponder aircraft can fly eveywhere within the UK at present (apart from Stansted which is now a transponder mandatory zone) provided they have radio. Transponders are not mandatory in all of the other Control Zone space - but they do cut down the amount of info the pilot has to send to ATC (who do a fantastic job separating aircraft using cardboard). I fly in an area that is stuffed full of RAF so I am getting one at the thrilling cost of 1500 quid to help the boys in blue miss me
"As most Reg readers will be well aware, the cost of NextGen equipment could be insignificant in the context of aviation"
I used to work for a company that supplied equipment to the air traffic market. Most ATC's screens were Sony DDM monitors, huge beasts with a square 2048x2048 resolution. Dedicated ATC graphics cards at the time cost a fortune (>£2000) but we found out that a plain old Matrox G400 could quite happily drive 2048x2048 due to it's not too shabby RAMDAC.
We used to buy G400's for £40, scrub off the chip ID's off with emery paper and then sell them for £800.
ATM companies will pay silly prices for low end tech, as long as you present it correctly ;-)
How the hell do you get from "any modern smartphone already contains hardware capable of the job" to "As most Reg readers will be well aware, the cost of NextGen equipment could be insignificant in the context of aviation" ?
There is only one guarantee in aviation - whatever standards arrive, consumer electronics at consumer electronics prices will NOT be allowed. Just getting Mode-S for a light aircraft is non-trivial in cost terms - and just to top it off, the regulators (CAA in our case) then charge you for the privilege of being allowed to do it (this cost alone can be into four figures if it's not classed as a 'minor mod').
And while other parts of the world are busy installing modern systems to use the new capabilities - here in the UK, I understand there are no plans to provide any data whatsoever that might provide some justification for fitting the gear. The result is that in the US where Mode-S is not mandatory there are queues at avionics shops to get new kit installed (note - the US actually use the uplink capability to provide information such as weather), but over here where it's already mandatory for many aircraft we are busy trying to fight the imposition of costs which benefit only the commercial sector who then complain and try to claim that they are subsidising the small guys.
I thought the cast iron limiting factor on takeoff and landing intervals was aircraft-generated turbulence. The vortices generated by an airliner in flight can take over a minute to dissipate, and would make final approach a rather hairy experience for all concerned.
A group of senators wants to make it illegal for data brokers to sell sensitive location and health information of individuals' medical treatment.
A bill filed this week by five senators, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), comes in anticipation the Supreme Court's upcoming ruling that could overturn the 49-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing access to abortion for women in the US.
The worry is that if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade – as is anticipated following the leak in May of a majority draft ruling authored by Justice Samuel Alito – such sensitive data can be used against women.
American lawmakers held a hearing on Tuesday to discuss a proposed federal information privacy bill that many want yet few believe will be approved in its current form.
The hearing, dubbed "Protecting America's Consumers: Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Data Privacy and Security," was overseen by the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Therein, legislators and various concerned parties opined on the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) [PDF], proposed by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Representatives Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).
Splunk has released a major update to its core data-crunching platform, emphasizing reductions in the quantity of data ingested and therefore the cost of operations.
It also addresses a few security flaws that may not be fixable in earlier editions. The release is called Splunk 9.0.
As explained to The Register by Splunk senior vice president Garth Fort, the changes reflect users' concerns that Splunk sucked up so much data that using the application had become very expensive. Fort even cited a joke that did the rounds when Cisco was said to have $20 billion earmarked to spend on Splunk and observers couldn't be sure if that was the sum needed to buy the company or just pay for licences.
Amazon unveiled its first "fully autonomous mobile robot" and other machines designed to operate alongside human workers at its warehouses.
In 2012 the e-commerce giant acquired Kiva Systems, a robotics startup, for $775 million. Now, following on from that, Amazon has revealed multiple prototypes powered by AI and computer-vision algorithms, ranging from robotic grippers to moving storage systems, that it has developed over the past decade. The mega-corporation hopes to put them to use in warehouses one day, ostensibly to help staff lift, carry, and scan items more efficiently.
Its "autonomous mobile robot" is a disk-shaped device on wheels, and resembles a Roomba. Instead of hoovering crumbs, the machine, named Proteus, carefully slots itself underneath a cart full of packages and pushes it along the factory floor. Amazon said Proteus was designed to work directly with and alongside humans and doesn't have to be constrained to specific locations caged off for safety reasons.
European aviation giant Airbus this week successfully flew a new "long, thin" passenger airplane that the world's airlines think could let them open new routes.
The plane is called the "A321XLR" and is the newest member of the single-aisle, twinjet, A320 family.
The "XLR" is the important part of the name because it stands for "Extra Long Range" – 4,700NM (8,700km) to be precise – a capability that means the plane can fly 11-hour hops and trips like New York to Rome, London to Delhi, or Sydney to Tokyo.
Roboticists could learn a thing or two from insects if they're looking to build tiny AI machines capable of moving, planning, and cooperating with one another.
The six-legged creatures are the largest and most diverse multi-cellular organisms on Earth. They have evolved to live in all sorts of environments and exhibit different types of behaviors to survive and there are insects that fly, crawl, and swim.
Insects are surprisingly intelligent and energy efficient given the size of their small brains and bodies. These are traits that small simple robots should have if they are to be useful in the real world, a group of researchers posited in a paper published in Science Robotics on Wednesday.
IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna says it offloaded Watson Health this year because it doesn't have the requisite vertical expertise in the healthcare sector.
Talking at stock market analyst Bernstein's 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, the big boss was asked to outline the context for selling the healthcare data and analytics assets of the business to private equity provider Francisco Partners for $1 billion in January.
"Watson Health's divestment has got nothing to do with our commitment to AI and tor the Watson Brand," he told the audience. The "Watson brand will be our carrier for AI."
Opinion Making a call on the quality of a new idea in tech can be hard. But if you ask me, not in the case of Lonestar Data Holdings, whose plan to build datacenters on the Moon is literal lunacy.
Every detail of the roadmap, from tentative tiny proofs of concept to massive underground server farms built and tended by Moon robots, is priceless nonsense. From Apollo onward, every spacecraft has had data storage and network access. We have retrieved data held in New Horizon's 16GB filing system from Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth, 16 thousand times more distant than the Moon. Concept bloody well proved.
As for building bit lairs in lava pipes by robot, nobody's built a datacenter by robot on Earth yet. And nobody seems minded to try.
TomTom says it is laying off 10 percent of its global workforce due to advances in automation technology and greater use of digital techniques in its mapmaking process.
The planned cuts will equate to about 500 employees at the Netherlands-based geolocation tech specialist, which was hit hard by the pandemic and remains in recovery mode.
"Higher levels of automation and the integration of a variety of digital sources will result in fresher and richer maps, with wider coverage," said CEO Harold Goddijn. "These better maps will improve our product offerings and allow us to address a broader market, both in the Automotive and Enterprise businesses."
Rick Smith, founder and CEO of body camera and Taser maker Axon, believes he has a way to reduce the risk of school children being shot by people with guns.
No, it doesn't involve reducing access to guns, which Smith dismisses as politically unworkable in the US. Nor does it involve relocating to any of the many countries where school shootings seldom, if ever, occur and – coincidentally – where there are laws that limit access to guns.
Here's a hint – his answer involves Axon.
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