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October 30, 2004
You Got to Have Faith
From the AP:
Washington Dog Phones 911 for Fallen Owner.
Faith, a Washington State Rottweiler, Phones 911 After Owner Falls Out of Wheelchair
RICHLAND, Wash. Oct 29, 2004 -- Faith the service dog phoned 911 when her owner fell out of her wheelchair and barked urgently into the receiver until a dispatcher sent help. Then the 4-year-old Rottweiler unlocked the front door so the responding police officer could come in.
"I sensed there was a problem on the other end of the 911 call," said dispatcher Jenny Buchanan, who answered the call from Faith.
"The dog was too persistent in barking directly into the phone receiver," Buchanan said at Benton County's Southeast Communications Center. "I knew she was trying to tell me something."
Faith is trained to summon help by pushing a speed-dial button on the phone with her nose after taking the receiver off the hook, said her owner Leana Beasley, 45, who suffers grand mal seizures. . . .
Guided by experts at the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound, Beasley helped train Faith herself.
"She's a real trooper," Beasley said Thursday. . . .
The day of the fall, Faith "had been acting very clingy, wanting to be touching me all day long," Beasley said.
The dog, whose sensitive nose can detect changes in Beasley's body chemistry, is trained to alert her owner to impending seizures before they happen.
After the call from Faith, Buchanan dispatched Richland police Cpl. Scott Morrell. He arrived to see Faith and her predecessor, now-retired service dog Bronson, peering at him from Beasley's front window.
Morrell knocked, and then realized the door was unlocked.
"Faith had already opened the door for him," Beasley said. The dog has been trained to recognize police officers, firefighters and medical personnel as "special friends with cookies."
Full story here (until ABC pulls the link :-()
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=210508 (external link)
October 29, 2004
Cell News
Ken Schmidt (internal link) is out with another e-mail newsletter on cell carriers, tower construction, and wireless industry news. Click here to look at it online and to subscribe. http://www.steelintheair.com/CellTowerIndustryNews.htm (external link)
It's a free, weekly service and a good way to keep in touch with the industry. Also, on the consulting end of what he does, Ken is finding that some cell site lease holders might be better off selling their leases rather than renewing them. That's usually not the case but Ken can tell you if it applies to you.
Porn and Cell Phones
Porn, gambling, spam, and now, to a lesser degree, non-betting gaming, have produced the most on-line profit since the public internet began. All this garbage is getting ported to cell phones in other countries and there's no stopping it here. Too much money. Not practical yet? No problem, the big players will get on-board the wireless train now, with some kind of service, then develop it later as technology rolls along. Don't expect the wireless trade groups to help, they don't represent the consumer. As long as their lawyers can figure out a way to avoid things like the Child Endangerment Act, well, everything on the net will be on your phone. And special services just for the phone. What the Japanese are doing now is clever and depressing. One example:
"There is software for both men and women, for the timid as well as the adventurous . . . You can enjoy the likes of 'Strip Rock-Paper-Scissors,' 'Erotic Campus' or 'Extreme Nurse' on the small screen. Like their PC predecessors, most of these games promise an erotic image reward if you pick the right answer to a series of simple questions."
And so it goes.
October 27, 2004
Historical romance at privateline.com!? Well, sort of. Judith B. Glad, privateline reader, book writer, and botanist, has a new book out: The Imperial Engineer.
Click here to go to Judith's website (external link)
It's available in e-form or hardcopy. Read this from the gripping release: :-)
"Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry."
"Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women's suffrage and equal rights for all."
"They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny. Sabotage to the telephone system and a boycott by the Anti-Chinese League threaten Tony's career and Lulu's convictions. The consequences of their one night of love shadow their future. How long before their very lives are endangered?"
Judith adds, "It's a historical romance, but the history is as correct as I could make it (while taking a few liberties with the calendar). As historian, you will probably find the quotes at the chapter heads interesting -- they're from various sources, but mostly local newspapers at the time the book takes place. The cover is from an 1884 lithograph of Hailey, Idaho, and the telephone lines show clearly."
http://www.judithbglad.com (external link)
Good luck to Judith with her new book. Her niche publisher is small and has an interesting idea, they continue to print the title as long as it sells. They also sell in almost all electronic forms:
http://www.awe-struck.net/index.html (external link)
October 25, 2004
A day on the river
I spent yesterday along and in the cold water of the Yuba River in Nevada county. Two of us helped our friend Dan pack his dredge out of the river for the season. Things went well, no one was hurt. Afterwords we warmed up with lunch in the fade into the weeds town of North San Juan. Our friend, Ace, a mining shop manager, asked the waitress about her quartz gold jewlery. She said it was from the 16 to 1 Mine (external link) and that the bartender worked there. She asked what we were doing and I said pulling a dredge out of the Yuba. "So, you all are miners, too?" We smiled.
October 24, 2004
I warned you
UMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (external link) is the grand name for upgraded GSM networks. (internal link). More services, faster data speeds. But unlike upgrading your computer by adding more memory or a larger hard drive, UMTS changes GSM's operating system. GSM's old TDMA scheme gives way, at last, to modern CDMA. And therein lies a big problem. Engineers and overeducated theoreticians steeped in TDMA thought and culture (representative example, (internal link) now guide American UMTS networks to an uncertain, rocky rollout.
Poor service, bad coverage, slow data rates, and unhappy customers, will all result from poor network upgrade decisions being made now. Like cutting costs by using some present base station equipment incompatible with CDMA and in general ignoring CDMA principles. Is there hope? Yes. If the TDMA people choose to learn from the CDMA people. That won't happen at first. And it may be like asking a Mac owner to use a PC.
October 22, 2004
A good read on wireless
Need a good, easy to read wireless primer? Download this .pdf file: Taking IT to the Streets: A Guide to Wide Area Wireless for the Non-Technical Business Professional. (internal file in .pdf, 334K) It was written by Kristi Urich and Kelly Ungs of Intermec Technologies Corporation. Clear writing and a good glossary. Well done.
Wireless networks coming together
Speaking of networks, could there be a solution to tie the cellular radio network into other wireless networks to carry voice? So that your cell phone might communicate with a WiFi hotspot or perhaps the Bluetooth network in your car? People are working on this and what a wonderful thing it would be. Of course, any system developed now would have to be patched together, not built from scratch, still, the promise of unifying different networks is very compelling:
http://www.arcchart.com/blueprint/show.asp?id=362 (external link)
Great on-line wireless dictionary
What's the wireless term that confuses you most? Here's where to look it up. From the good folks at Agilent, this page deserves a bookmark:
http://wireless.agilent.com/dictionary/a.html
October 21, 2004
A good day
Spent Wednesday hiking in the very deep and very beautiful American River Canyon near Interstate 80 here in central California. Parts of it are called the slate Yosemite of Placer County. Depending on elevation, the river level may be 2,000 to 4,000 feet below where you start hiking. A good day despite the almost constant morning rain. Old mining digs, petrified wood, and steller jays abound. I look forward to going back. For more on this little know area, including photographs, visit Russell Towle's site (external link)
Can I have your breakfast? The raucous steller jay (internal link)
One more wireless builder
Need a coal fired plant built? Or an electrical distribution system installed? How about some wireless cell sites or something more complicated? Like the terrestrial arm of Sirius Satellite Radio? Contact Black & Veatch (external link). This infrastructure company, like the others listed below, put together the facilities we use every day. This is interesting about Sirius:
"Enabling the successful operation of Sirius Satellite Radio, specifically the terrestrial repeater network, was the job of the Black & Veatch Telecommunications Division. Turning this vision into a reality was a unique challenge for Black & Veatch, said Black & Veatch Director of Wireless Projects Mike Berry. Our role was to help make this entertainment-changing vision a reality by designing and constructing a nationwide network of 92 terrestrial repeater sites in the 56 largest U.S. cities. These sites are needed to fill in gaps in the satellite signal coverage which are created by the impact of land based facilities that block the satellite signal from the intended receiver. The facilities blocking signals are most typically tall buildings and other large facilities that interrupt the line of sight between the satellites and the vehicle antenna."
October 20, 2004
Other hidden wireless companies
General Dynamics has done a great deal of work for NEXTEL and Sprint:
"General Dynamics Network Systems, headquartered in Needham, Ma., has been designing and building complex telecommunications networks for nearly 50 years. More than 4,000 skilled technical personnel provide design, integration, installation and support services for enterprise, wireless and space-based networks."
"General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 57,000 people worldwide and had 2002 revenues of $13.8 billion. The company has leading market positions in land and amphibious combat systems, mission-critical information systems and technologies, shipbuilding and marine systems, and business aviation. More information about General Dynamics is available at http://www.generaldynamics.com (external link)."
And what about Alcoa? (external link) Huh? Aren't they an aluminum company? Well, not just aluminum anymore. They've done a great deal for Sprint:
"When Sprint upgraded its network to third generation (3G) technology, AFL Wireless Services managed the installation of new equipment on more than 900 sites. Our management team provided program management, construction management, site acquisition/property management, architecture & engineering, system integration, and maintenance services. The system integration services included installation, commissioning and optimization."
"The equipment installation included base station removal, installation/replacement, transportation, anchoring and RF cabling. We removed, installed and replaced radio-frequency equipment, antennas and coax cable. The commissioning included batteries, digital cards, optical modules and cables, installation of power and T1, DC cables, amplifiers and rectifiers. Optimization included amp relocation, antenna replacement and downtilt, with a full digital report prior to and upon completion."
"Our full-service professional engineering and management teams have managed more than 28,000 network sites across the country for leading wireless companies, including PCS, broadband networks, two-way radio, fiber, satellite, and microwave networks.'
October 19th, 2004
Where were you when the lights went out?
9:56 p.m. update. Okay, more on the other companies below Wednesday, for right now, more on Bechtel, courtesy of writer Tim Will:
"Most people do not know that in 1971, Bechtel was not only an investor in MCI Communications Inc. but also was building the MCI microwave system. Since MCI was up against the largest corporation in the world, AT&T, the Bechtel investment of $1 million was risky but 11 months later on June 22, 1972, the MCI IPO returned to Bechtel $10 million, plus another $64 million to MCI in loans from 4 banks to build the entire system. Included in the MCI IPO was also the first domestic satellite corporation: MCI Lockheed Satellite Corp.(MCIL). Thus putting Bechtel in proximity to building a space port."
"Six months after the MCI IPO, Comsat buys into this domestic satellite startup and creates Comsat-MCI-Lockheed (CML). Since Edgar Kaiser had participated in creating Comsat and Steve Bechtel's Jr. Dad had built the Boulder Dam with Henry Kaiser -- CML was a reunion of sorts -- only this time in outer space and telecommunications."
5:38 p.m. I lost electrical power this morning at 8:00 a.m., just as I was getting ready to write the daily notes. Power was not restored until 10 hours later. I was going to write a little about other hidden wireless telephone companies, as described below. In Bechtel's class there's General Dynamics, Alcoa, and a privately held company called Black & Veatch. Let me see if I can write a little about them tonight. Until later . . .
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