South Korea To Track Down & Block GPS Jamming Signals

Some unnamed South Korean government sources confirmed that the Asian country is finalizing plans to track down and block GPS jamming signals.

To be coordinated by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, this move from South Korea aims to stop the jamming signals emitted by its 'increasingly belligerent northern neighbor.'

The unnamed sources said, "The government aims to open a public bid in mid-April with an aim to set up the system by November or December this year. Efforts to develop a system that can defend GPS jamming are also under way."

Although South Korean officers claims that this move is not a panicked reaction to increase tension on the Korean peninsula, threats keep coming from the other Korean territory. The latter just recently 'warned' foreigners in South Korea to evacuate that it can’t vouch for the safety of foreign diplomats in Pyongyang after 10 April; and that it will launch missile attacks on US military bases and turn Seoul into a “sea of fire.”

The GPS jamming issues have been a dilemma for South Korea since 2010, and even though the country is fearful that making a move might ignite major attacks, and that North Korea have expressed its intents to continuously disrupt the former's cyber space, South Korea seems determined to take its chances this time.


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First general-purpose computers: 1800s

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French weaver and merchant, made an improvement to the textile loom, a device used to weave cloth. This is by introducing a series of punched paper cards (“IBM/Hollerith card”), a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions, as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable importers. In 1837, Charles Babbage, FRS, an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, originated and designed the concept of a programmable mechanical computer, built from mechanical components such as levers and gears, rather than electronic components--his analytical engine. Limited faces and Babbage’s inability to resist tinkering with the design meant that the device was never completed--nevertheless his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine’s computing unit (the “mill”) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. In 1910, this machine was given to the Science museum, one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith, an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based in punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data, invented the recording of data on a machine-readable medium. Earlier uses of machine-readable media had been for control, not data. “After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards...”; punched/perforated paper tape is a form of data storage, consisting of a long strip in which holes are punched to store data. To process these punched cards he invented the tabulator, or “tabulating machine,” an electrical device designed to assist in summarizing information and, alter, accounting; and the keypunch machines, devices used for the purpose of entering data onto punch cards by precisely punching holes in the cards at specific locations as determined by the keys struck by the operator. These three inventions were the foundation of the modern information processing industry. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the Eleventh United States Census, taken June 2, 1890, by Hollerith's company, which later became the core of IBM, or the “International Business Machines Corporation,” an American multinational technology and consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States.

By the end of 19th century, a number of ideas and technologies, that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers, had begun to appear: Boolean algebra (or “Boolean logic”), a logical calculus of truth values, developed by George Boole in the 1840s; the vacuum tube (“electron tube” (North America), “thermionic valve,” or “valve”) which in electronics is a device controlling electric current through a vacuum in a sealed container; punched cards and tape; and the teleprinter (“teletypewriter,” “Teletype” or “TTY”), an electro mechanical typewriter that can be used to send and received typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over various types of communications channels.

See: Internet on Satellite Broadband

Frontier Communications to offer satellite internet via HughesNet

Oregon-based independent telecommunications provider Frontier Communications announced that it will start offering satellite internet services to three areas in the state that are beyond the reach of the company’s fibre optic cables.

The three areas that would be receiving the service are Coos Bay, Beaverton, and Gresham. According to Frontier, the satellite internet will be made available through HughesNet which had been primarily designed to service rural clients in the US. Nearly 20 million Americans remain cut of from high-speed broadband access or continue to rely on DSL technology.

Frontier Communications also announced that for 5 mbps Internet on satellite service, the price is at $54.50 while for the 15 mbps service, customers will pay $124.50. These rates are on a monthly basis. The company said they plan to extend the service to other areas but did not disclose the locations and any particular timeline.

 

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Rural clients, to enjoy only second-rate service from NBN

Seven percent of Australians live in remote or rural areas. In these far-flung locations, the NBN’s fibre footprint runs shorts. Instead, fixed wireless or internet from satellite will be the services offered. But are they second-rate?

Urban regions connected via the fibre networks of the NBN are expected to enjoy up to 100mpbs download speeds, a far cry from the 12mpbs rural clients will be getting via satellite or fixed wireless. The disparity in download and uploads speeds have compelled local officials affected by the fibre connection cut-off to say, “unfair”.

 

Town mayors across the remote areas down under are complaining that the satellite or fixed-wireless service will not be able to support the more bandwidth-intensive applications their communities require. Applications like tele-health and online education may suffer latency issues under the proposed non-fibre solutions by the NBN. In fact, many other residents of remote Australian town are pointing out the NBN’s design flaw. The company has not included the millions of Australian citizens, as well as tourists, who head towards the outback, and move to different rural locations several times a year, in its broadband project.

The question being raised now: Are rural Australian residents any less important than those residing in the cities?

 

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YahClick Go to be made available in Africa

One of Vox Telecom’s most popular service, the YahClick Go, will be made available in Africa by January of next year. The YahClick Go satellite broadband terminal, in demand because it can be conveniently deployed anywhere for easy internet on satellite access, will be introduced to the South African market at the start of the new year.

 

A terminal installed on an SUV

According to Jacques Visser, project manager of YahClick at Vox, the units have already been tested in various locations in South Africa. The mobile devices will work with the new, and more powerful, Ka band spectrum, and would deliver uplinks of up to 5 mbps. The satellite broadband terminal can easily be installed on an SUV or trailer, and was designed to be light enough for easy transport. Visser said the device is perfect for those who need Internet-on-the-go and works well for broadcasting purposes, like live streaming.

 

The new mobile broadband systems which will make use of the Ka band spectrum have been designed to be operated by a single user, with a friendly interface that will not require any technical skills from one using it. The high-speeds offered by the terminal can be used for uploading and downloading large files including video content.

 

In the Middle East, the YahClick Go service is being marketing to the media and broadcasting sector. News reporters working on the field require Internet access to send files and transmit videos. Visser said this is the first system to make us of the new spectrum, Ka band.

 

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ViaSat turning to high-speed Internet service for revenue

Photo by Sean Gallagher

 

Despite stocks down a third from eight months ago, wireless communications and technology provider ViaSat is banking on its satellite broadband service Exede, launched during the last quarter of FY 2012, to move on from its dependence on US Government sales. Almost half of the company’s revenue comes from defense contracts.

 

Investors were unimpressed with the rollout of the internet from satellite service, with company stocks sliding to $35 from $50 just eight months ago. However, ViaSat Chief Executive Mark Danberg, clarifies that despite lukewarm reception from investors, almost 40% of the current 20,000 subscribers are already moving to the high-speed Internet service.

 

Mr Danberg also explained the move to a new field was sparked not by shrinking Government contracts, rather its slow growth compared to other sectors of the company’s business. ViaSat has been said to be moving swiftly to non-Government satellite service to avoid the impact of government budget cuts. The home internet service already grew 31 percent during the past quarter, and Visat expects to cut-off government satellite service-based revenue by 10, from 45% to 35% in the next five years.