Maxwell Thelen

A little background information:
When you watch satellite TV you are, of course, receiving a broadcast from a satellite, but where is that satellite? Up in orbit in the outer reaches of earth’s gravity. Do you have to move your dish around every minute to keep it pointed at the satellite? Of course you don’t, that is because the satellite is in “Geostationary Orbit.” This is a fancy way of saying that as the earth turns the satellite moves in orbit so that it stays in the same place relative to the surface of earth:

Geostationary Orbit, courtesy of Wikpedia

So….. what? Well, pretend you are running your favorite satellite TV company. If the earth was flat you could put up one satellite and sell TV to everyone in the world. Unfortunately for you, the world is not flat. Since the earth is a sphere that means you have to put up multiple satellites around it to reach everyone. However, you want to save money and satellites are very expensive so you want to put up as few as possible. The majority of human population is not too far south or north of the equator so this means that it makes the most since to put a ring of a couple satellites around the equator. Good decision CEO, you and every other satellite company thought of this. So here we are, we have tons of satellites around the equator and way too many TV channels.

A little legal background:
There is an old principle of law: “Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad caelum et ad inferos” (Latin for for whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell). Obviously this principle isn’t in full force. If you don’t believe me, try and sue an airline for flying 30,000 feet over your house. However, it still remains intact in some sense. While you may not be able to control what happens 30,000 feet over your house, the government can, hence the Federal Aviation Administration. For another example, consider when you have heard the term “no fly zone” in movies or news. It is a general tenet of international law that nations are sovereign over their airspace, so if they don’t want another nation, or a person from another nation, to fly over their country – they have the right to prohibit or tax it. So how does that apply to satellites in orbit? Interestingly enough in 1967 a treaty, The Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies effectively prohibited the ownership of space and was adopted by the majority of the United Nations. So, is geostationary orbit “space” that can’t be owned or is it the upper reaches of airspace that nations are usually acknowledged to be sovereign over?

And Now The Feature Presentation:
In 1976 a group of countries that lie on the equator (Brazil, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda, Zaire) signed a declaration of their sovereignty over the geostationary orbit directly above their respective countries. http://www.jaxa.jp/library/space_law/chapter_2/2-2-1-2_e.html The rest of the world community largely ignored this on the basis that it was moot and prohibited under the 1967 treaty, though the declaration expressly distinguishes itself form the treaty with regards to what is “space”. The argument is, basically, that geostationary orbit relies completely on the benefit of earth’s gravity and, as such, can hardly be considered space. The equatorial nations make a case that it is a natural resource that they are being deprived of by more powerful countries who have the advantage of lucratively funded space programs. The economies of large nations benefit by corporations using this resource (GEO) to produce income, jobs and taxes in their home countries.

Is this just, or are the U.S., the EU, Russia and China ignoring a fundamental rule of law (national sovereignty) under the pretext of a vague treaty (can’t own space, and assert that something as close as GEO is space)?

Edit:

A little context is in order as brought to my attention by a comment.  GEO, though close as compared to Mars, is still 22,000 miles above us.  To put this in perspective, the International Space Station (ISS) is only ever as high as 286 miles and this is where most space shuttle missions go.  This makes the argument made by these equatorial nations rather weak.  It seems rather clear this is space, especially as contemplated by a 1967 treaty.  If this is the case, then the question is if GEO is a natural resource common to the inhabitants of the whole earth, who should govern it? Should anyone govern it? If no group does, who should mediate the disputes, the United Nations?

However, I think some further perspective is in order, what if the 1967 treaty did not think of 22,000 miles above earth as space? Ridiculous you say? Well, by 1959 space crafts had already made it to the moon, crashed into the moon and photographed the moon.  The significance of this is that the moon is on average 240,ooo miles away! Also worthy of note is that this treaty was made in 1967 in anticipation of what actually happened in 1968 and 1969 – the first manned mission to the moon and the first manned moon landing, respectively.  So maybe the intent of this treaty was to keep nations from owning the moon or other objects more than 240,000 miles away with their own gravity!  Maybe the application of this treaty to GEO is a semantics game.  Sure we call it the International “Space” Station and the “Space” Shuttle, but they are actually in low earth orbit (LEO) at 240 miles, which means that if we don’t keep pushing them back up they will fall to the surface of the earth!  In fact the ISS is not a zero-gravity station, it is in micro-gravity because it is in a constant state of free-fall.  Perhaps the best measure of what is in space and not in space is the fairly bright line of GEO, where things of normal man made mass stay in orbit without drifting away or falling down. (The moon, because of its colossal mass stays in place at a further distance).  And if the measure of that is the benefits of earths gravity, that means the line is inbounds and not space.  So perhaps we should give more thought to the justice of staking and recognizing claims in GEO.  There are regions above international waters that could clearly be administrated by the UN, but I propose we should be more cautious and conscientious in using GEO above sovereign nations.

This raises further implications with regard to LEO and the ISS that circles earth only 280 miles above, but the whole point of this article is to not let ourselves be persuaded by economics, but justice and equity and then working out matters with the GEO vested nations in cooperation.

-Max

These are just preliminary opinions on some recent reading -not a thorough analysis, so comments and corrections are welcome.

This is your LAN, this is your LAN on drugs, just kidding. However, this is traffic on my router while streaming Netflix to my laptop (which you probably do) and uploading a DVD to a server from that laptop at the same time (which you probably don’t do).

Props if you know which stream is which, guess.

For the record:

Cox Cable

Linksys WRT54Gv4 w/ DDWRTv24sp1

Laptop connected via Wireless G and running Windows 7

Netflix not in full HD – it’s my old laptop (1440×900).

-Max

Law school has been going well. I have been doing a lot of reading, but I actually find most of it rather enjoyable. The writing takes a little more concentrated effort, but it is coming along well too. This semester I have classes in Property, Torts, Contracts, Civil Procedure, Legal Philosophy, and Legal Analysis, Research and Writing. This past week, however, I have been on fall break. Fall break for law school is a different thing from undergrad, I have had quite a bit of reading, writing, and outlining to do, but I have had some time to relax. My brother Michael got back from Iraq this month so he was able to come visit us and we had a good time. He also brought up some of my guitar stuff that I had left back in ATL. With my instruments back I was able to teleconference with my brother Murphy back in ATL and try and put the melody from the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” on the EbMajor scale for guitar. Here is a draft of our collaborative attempt:

Be Thou My Vision

Timing may be a little off, but nothing that listening to the song can’t fix.

-Max

I recently installed Windows 7 Professional on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE so I thought I would give an initial review for those interested in doing the same or similar.  So far the experience has been very pleasant the install was quick and painless and as soon as it booted up it had every single driver necessary to run every hardware component – bravo Microsoft.  I even plugged in an obscure USB wireless card that I bought for $8.  As soon as I plugged it in I started going to the manufacturer’s website to download the drivers, but before I could finish my google search Windows 7 already had it installing, and yes, working.  So my next wonder was battery life, and much to my pleasure it was the same as in XP, roughly 8 hours give or take based on abuse. All of my initial concerns were instantly satisfied: compatibility, battery life and internet connectivity.

So then I loaded up MS Office and my normal batch of software tools, every worked.  Then it was time to play with the interface.  The toolbar and start menu, though very familiar are immensely better and more useful now.  With Word pinned to my start menu i can hover over and see my recently opened word docs and pin ones I open frequently, same goes for Remote Desktop Connection – very smooth.  Working with 5 office windows open was made much more practical with the hover thumbnails – no more trying to read all that junk, just a little image of each document.  By far the biggest interface improvement though is the wireless network connection tool, now its just a popout menu andvery streamlined and quick.

You may have noticed that some of these features aren’t super new unless compared to Windows XP, but having them on a netbook is new and now possible with Windows 7 since Vista was way too cumbersome, and yes, even compared to Vista, Windows 7 is greatly improved, things are easier and just work and don’t look half bad either.

-Max

I am now finished with my military training at the Signal School in Fort Gordon, Ga.  I am headed up to Virginia Beach where I will start law school this fall at Regent.  I have had my netbook for almost six months now so I thought I would take some time to write some opinions about it.

Overall, it has been great.   I have to say that bar-none the best feature is the near 9 hour battery life.  It has been consistently that long-lasting and in the time I spent as a busy student of Army IT it was indispensable.  Having Windows XP on it was a must though.  I love a good distro of linux same as any other person, but working for the Army dictates a Microsoft OS.  As stubborn as I am, demanding that Raytheon, Harris and Thales make drivers for their Mil-spec Radio Programming Utilities that work with Linux doesn’t get the radios working today when your troops need them. Having a 160GB hard drive has been a relief with the amount of data I collected from class to class and so far I have had no problems that makes me wish I had a solid state drive, and that is even after dragging it around from TOC to TAC and back.

The 95% chiclet keyboard has proven easy to adjust to even with my big fingers. Wireless is rock solid, Atom processor holds its own, put a 2GB chip of RAM in for $20 and it is more than enough for opening every MS Office app I use and a browser, sd card reader is nice, 3 usb ports are great.

One downside is the lack of an optical drive for Army use, not to complain, afterall that is practically what makes it a netbook, but from the perspective of an ultramobile pc comparison, per se.  For law school I don’t perceive it to even be a consideration, but with the Army banning USB sticks because of some sloppy property accountability in DC and the sandbox the ability to use CD media is a must.  I got a $50 Samsung external drive that works like a charm and fits nicely in the same neoprene slip as the laptop – not bad. I carried it around when doing Army schools, but figure I can leave it at home for Torts and Civil Procedure.

The last thing I would like to touch on is screen size.  Yeah, it’s a netbook, it’s 10in of 1024×600.  Is that a con? No, not really. its plenty big enough for MS Office, email and browsing and all the other little apps I use.  It is a little irritating to use Google Chat inside of Gmail because I have 20 people in my list and that drags off the bottom of the screen so I started using the Google Chat client and just checking my mail in Gmail, problem solved for when I am in the classroom.  When I am at home, another of this netbook’s strong points is revealed, its little VGA out with it’s intel driver will do high resolutions in the 1920×1080 range if your external display supports it.  So as cheap as LCDs are these days its easy to plug in a VGA cable and have 21in or more of workspace all running smoothly from this thing.  If you have a monitor that is worth its VoltAmps then you can just leave its DVI port plugged into your desktop and switch input to the VGA to organize all your Onenote notes from class that day on your netbook.

In summary, It’s been great for class and I haven’t missed the optical drive in normal use.  In class I love the small screen and great battery life.  At home I like to hook it up to a monitor for a little more workspace.  I would buy it again, definitely worth $400 and all I really need day to day.

-Max

In the world of networking Cisco dominates, atleast in the Army portion of the world.  I finished the Cisco IT Essentials course about a week ago and now I am in the Cisco Netorking portion of my signal officer education.  It is the entire first semester of CCNA prep in 10 days – very intense, but I feel like I have learned alot and it has been fun.  It’s made me think about technology investment and reminded me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Internet_City

A business park with special tax laws and insane infrastructure provided by Cisco, makes you think about who is going to shape the future of the internet/world.   There appears to be a massive engine of innovation just building up steam.  It will be interesting to see where it is in 10 years or so oil to internet.  I just hope we don’t see an Organization of the Internet Exporting Countries anytime, ever.

-Max

I have had an xbxox 360 for some time and have had the opportunity to play with a ps3 that my brother has.  While trying to compare which one was better or which one to recommend to a friend who was looking to decide between the two I came to the conclusion that gaming systems are not just for gamers anymore.  Instead they have become “home entertainment devices.” For instance, both devices play DVDs, mp3s and CDs – already they have incorporated what used to take 2 or 3 devices.  As far as grabbing a competitive advantage the ps3 will play blu-ray movie, which is the next generation in high video quality entertainment.  However,  I believe that the xbox360 grabs the edge in that it has netflix with instant streaming integrated into it.  Of  course, this is an additional service you have to pay for, but with plans for less than $10.00 a month that include unlimited streaming it is a steal compared to options of the past.  The xbox360 also more seamlessly connects to and plays media files from your computer on your network.  While the ps3 has this functionality, sony is at the disadvantage of not being able to build it into your computer’s operating system, which makes it easier for Average Mom and Average Dad to use it with their windows PC.  Price is also an issue, ps3s still hover around $400 – and what you are paying for is that proprietary sony blu-ray technology, while you get get an xbox with a hard drive for around $250.  As far as networking ps3 offers free online gaming and includes and integrated wireless card. Still, any self-respecting gamer or video-streamer, for that matter, is going to want a wired connection (unless you are running draft-n, which the ps3 doesn’t)  As far as gaming, the xbox live $4.00 and some change a month, despite the cost, is more preferable from my perspective as connections are consistently better, and its not necessary to play media from around your home network.  As far as games that gets too far into taste and preferences, I’ll leave that to others.  Either way you look at it though, its not just about gamers anymore, when deciding which console to get you have to figure how it fits into your enterainment system and if you want everything the questions is 360 and a bluray player or ps3 and a roku box?

V/R
Max

I am still in the middle of SIT, we just started the advanced portion of the “IT Essentials” course and are re-covering hardware, operating systems, networking and other fundamental stuff.  The curriculum is through Cisco’s Net Academy program and I think it has been pretty good.  It is also supposed to prepare you for taking a CompTIA A+ certification exam, which I plan to put to the test.  Middle of this week we start the in-depth networking portion which is basically the first semester of a CCNA prep course, so should be pretty interesting.

-Max

I am still at signal school and have now started SIT, that is the Army’s School of Information Technology.  The past couple days we have been going over Outlook 2003 Administration and we were tested on it today, pretty straightforward stuff.  Tomorrow we start the IT Essentials part of the course, very basic stuff about computers, networks, etc.  Eight days after that we start the Cisco portion of the school which should be some challenging and useful information.

Right now I am chilling at REV Coffee in Smyrna, GA.  I just had the privelege of enjoying a stand up comedian competition hosted by bleepfreecomedy.com and leftarmcomedy.com.   It was a good time and the coffee was great.  The top 4 in tonights competition are going to participate in the Dogwood (festival?)  here in Atlanta.   One of the greatest things was enjoying the local atmosphere.  The coffee shop is located in what used to be an automotive business and it is surrounded by businesses that still are.  The comedians had a lot of material specific to Atlanta which proved to be very entertaining.  Also mildy funny by way of irony is that my friend who only wears sweatshirts won a $25 in free dry cleaning from the sponsors of the event.   Being the economically trained person that I am I was particularly captivated by the business model.  A small coffee shop that supports local art, entertainment and education, profiting from the extra sales and stimulating the culture of the area – its great when you can generate an economic and a social profit. Good stuff.