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Posted 10/23/2012 11:56 am
Hey all, a few technical ramblings. First I currently work in the Satellite field. Knock one satellite out and you would not have a significant communications problem. At worse you would knock CNN off line for awhile. There is much redundant bandwidth in SatCom.
Second; aircraft. Before I moved to Satcom I made my living in the Aviation field ( the advantage of living as long as I have; four separate careers..one day when I grow up I'll figure out what I want to do...).
A lot of aircraft are "fly by wire". meaning it takes a computer to run them. The flight controls simply tell the computer which...direction...it wants the flaps, or ailerons or whatever to move in. It's true that power would maintained by on board batteries and, in some cases, deployable wind generators; but a significant number of aircraft would indeed just do a nose dive. In the early 80s we had so many aircraft suffering loss of control via loss of on board electronics that we created the term "lawn darts". The UH-60 and F-16 come to mind and are still called "lawn darts" by older maintenance personal. Also glide function and control are dictated by initial altitude. Believe it or not too close to the ground and you will crash, not glide. Though for different reasons. Some Pilot related and some physics related depending on type and design of an aircraft. If you are flying a Cessna with a good pilot you will be fine. A heavy....toss a coin and by the time it lands you will have your answer.
EMP, the Military hardens it gear...or did in the days of MILSPEC. A lot of Civilian gear is not hardened. Too expensive. And while some Central Distribution Points may...may be hardened..most client servers will not be. And back up gear will have to be manufactured new. By plants whose computers have been fried. So their computers will have to be manufactured again. By plants whose computers have been fried. You won't even be able to run a cnc machine. We would probably have to go back a few steps to simple bread boarding to make the machines that will allow us to make the machines, that will allow us to make the machines, that will finally get us back on track. It would not be a simple plug and play application. By the way, those of you with classic cars, using points type ignitions will be fine.
If I may make an observation; in some ways we have become too technically advanced. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE technology. But my Grandfather who was born in 1908 was a Master Machinist with the Navy. I once saw him build a generator from scratch..well ok..he didn't beat the copper into wire...but you get my meaning. I think I might...just might be able to do the same thing..given enough trial and error. But the kids these days would not have a clue. I work with some bright young kids these days. Most can read a schematic and know what a resistor is ELECTRONICALLY, but who have no idea of what it does, or how it is constructed physically. I recently took my 71 GTO in for a tune up and carb rebuild because I didn't have the time to do it myself. Big mistake. I had to go back to the shop 3 times to TEACH the technicians how to set the points, rebuild the carb, and finally to calibrate the carb. The shop owner was so embarrassed that there was no bill.
Back to silver. I see that all the pms are dropping, except silver which seems to still be stuck in a pattern. So the question is does this mean silver is waiting for the upside to be reestablished and then start from a higher base line than gold. Or will the delaying action of the silver bulls cause it to crash harder when it does finally go (the dam effect)?
Second; aircraft. Before I moved to Satcom I made my living in the Aviation field ( the advantage of living as long as I have; four separate careers..one day when I grow up I'll figure out what I want to do...).
A lot of aircraft are "fly by wire". meaning it takes a computer to run them. The flight controls simply tell the computer which...direction...it wants the flaps, or ailerons or whatever to move in. It's true that power would maintained by on board batteries and, in some cases, deployable wind generators; but a significant number of aircraft would indeed just do a nose dive. In the early 80s we had so many aircraft suffering loss of control via loss of on board electronics that we created the term "lawn darts". The UH-60 and F-16 come to mind and are still called "lawn darts" by older maintenance personal. Also glide function and control are dictated by initial altitude. Believe it or not too close to the ground and you will crash, not glide. Though for different reasons. Some Pilot related and some physics related depending on type and design of an aircraft. If you are flying a Cessna with a good pilot you will be fine. A heavy....toss a coin and by the time it lands you will have your answer.
EMP, the Military hardens it gear...or did in the days of MILSPEC. A lot of Civilian gear is not hardened. Too expensive. And while some Central Distribution Points may...may be hardened..most client servers will not be. And back up gear will have to be manufactured new. By plants whose computers have been fried. So their computers will have to be manufactured again. By plants whose computers have been fried. You won't even be able to run a cnc machine. We would probably have to go back a few steps to simple bread boarding to make the machines that will allow us to make the machines, that will allow us to make the machines, that will finally get us back on track. It would not be a simple plug and play application. By the way, those of you with classic cars, using points type ignitions will be fine.
If I may make an observation; in some ways we have become too technically advanced. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE technology. But my Grandfather who was born in 1908 was a Master Machinist with the Navy. I once saw him build a generator from scratch..well ok..he didn't beat the copper into wire...but you get my meaning. I think I might...just might be able to do the same thing..given enough trial and error. But the kids these days would not have a clue. I work with some bright young kids these days. Most can read a schematic and know what a resistor is ELECTRONICALLY, but who have no idea of what it does, or how it is constructed physically. I recently took my 71 GTO in for a tune up and carb rebuild because I didn't have the time to do it myself. Big mistake. I had to go back to the shop 3 times to TEACH the technicians how to set the points, rebuild the carb, and finally to calibrate the carb. The shop owner was so embarrassed that there was no bill.
Back to silver. I see that all the pms are dropping, except silver which seems to still be stuck in a pattern. So the question is does this mean silver is waiting for the upside to be reestablished and then start from a higher base line than gold. Or will the delaying action of the silver bulls cause it to crash harder when it does finally go (the dam effect)?
