THE DAY ANALOG TV DIES

testpatterns The United States’ National Television System Committee (NTSC) analog television standard dates back to 1941. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) upgraded it to incorporate color in 1953, and for the past half century, this standard has ruled the U.S. airways, enabling viewers to tune in to free over-the-air television, whether their TVs were built this year or inherited from a grandparent. But on 17 February 2009, NTSC broadcasts will end forever, replaced by the ATSC digital standard.

It took an act of Congress to make this switch from analog to digital—or rather several. The U.S. Congress established the Advanced Television Systems Committee, for which ATSC is named, in 1982. The FCC adopted the standard in 1996, and Congress assigned each television broadcaster a second piece of radio spectrum on which to simulcast digital programming along with analog, intending that extra real estate as a loan, to be returned when the vast majority of TV viewers in the country had begun relying on digital signals. Congress tried to call the loan in 2006, but it had set certain thresholds for digital penetration that had not been met. So Congress reset the date to 2009, picking mid-February as the perfect window between two major TV events—the Super Bowl and the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament.

IEEE Spectrum has been following the development of ATSC, the technology behind it, and its rollout for two decades. Now we’re tracking this final transition to an all-digital broadcast world, a transition that may not go as smoothly as Congress, the FCC, the broadcasters, the consumer electronics manufacturers, or the average viewer might hope. Follow the links below to review the technology and its history, and track what’s happening with the transition today (we’ll be updating these links regularly) as Spectrum counts down to the day analog TV dies. —Tekla S. Perry

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Thunderbird Mail and Newsreader

Default Trash folder
The name that MS Exchange gives to the "Trash" folder is "Deleted Items". By default, Thunderbird creates a new folder called "Trash". In order for Thunderbird to use the correct folder for deleted mail do the following:


Subscribe to the "Deleted Items" folder on the Exchange Server
Close Thunderbird
Edit the prefs.js file, adding the line:
user_pref("mail.server.server1.trash_folder_name", "Deleted Items");
(where server1 is the serverID for the Exchange account)
Restart Thunderbird
The "Deleted Items" folder should now have the little trash bin icon.
Delete the "Trash" folder (after moving its contents).

Default Sent folder
The name that MS Exchange gives to the "Sent" folder is "Sent Items". By default, Thunderbird creates a new folder called "Sent". In order for Thunderbird to use the correct folder for sent mail do the following:


Subscribe to the "Sent Items" folder on the Exchange Server
In the Copies & Folders page in the Exchange account properties, set the "Place a copy in" folder to be "Sent Items"
or edit the pref.js file as follows:
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder", "imap://username@hostname/Sent Items");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder_picker_mode", "1");
(where id1 is the identity for the Exchange server account)
Restart Thunderbird
The "Sent Items" folder should now have the little sent items icon.
Delete the "Sent" folder, after moving its contents back to the folder they should have been in!

Exchange (5.5) Global Address List
To access a Exchange GAL in Thunderbird (pre-Active Directory!):

Create a new Address Book, set the name and hostname fields appropriately.
Base DN:cn=Recipients,ou=,o=
Port Number: 389
Bind DN: o=,cn=

Exchange (5.5) Global Address List Idle Timeout
There seems to be a problem with accessing the Exchange GAL. It will work for a bit (when TB is first started) and then fail.

Set the LDAP idle timeout on the Exchange Server to 0.

Exchange (2K - -Active Directory) Global Address List
To access a Exchange GAL in Thunderbird (Active Directory), where the Active Directory Domain Name is company.com, the "short" version of the Domain Name is company, and the User Name is username:

Create a new Address Book, set the name field appropriately.
Hostname: IP Address or hostname of Active Directory Global Catalog Domain Controller
(might be the same as the exchange server, but not necessarily)
Base DN: DC=company,DC=com
Port Number: 3268
Note, that this is not the standard LDPA port (389) as Active Directory has now nabbed that for its services.
Bind DN: company\username

Copying from Exchange User Mailboxes to Public Folders
If you try to drag a mailbox item from your mailbox to a Public Folder then you will receive the message: "There is no replica for that mailbox on this server." This is a quirk of Exchange's IMAP4 support. Two work arounds are as follows:

Move the Exchange Mailbox item to a Local Folder, then move the item back to the Exchange Public Folder
If the Public Folder has been e-mail enabled, forward the Mailbox item to the Public Folder Email address.

Thunderbird Tips Misc
Text files as Attachments
By default, Thunderbird sends a text file attachment in-line rather than as an attachment. It sets Content-Disposition:inline. To alter this behaviour (Content-Disposition:attachment) do the following:

Close Thunderbird.
Add this line to the prefs.js file:
user_pref("mail.content_disposition_type",1);
Restart Thunderbird.
Filtering by header
It is possible to filter by any header content, although not this is not immediately obvious.

In the message filter definition dialog box, Open the "Subject" dropdown to see the list of defined headers. These are the headers that are matched against.
Select "Customize..."
Type in the name of the header you wish to filter on
Click "Add", "OK".
Re-open the dropdown and see your new header in the list.
Add your filter criterion.

Thunderbird Newsreader Tips
Making Newsreader behave like Outlook Express
If you click on the Column headers in the news reader, the articles become unthreaded. To switch off this behaviour:

Add the following to the prefs.js file:
user_pref("mailnews.thread_pane_column_unthreads", false);

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OZEKI MESSAGE SERVER 6 - SMS GATEWAY

Ozeki Message Server 6 - SMS gateway is a powerful, flexible SMS Gateway application, that enables you and your applications to send/receive SMS messages to mobile devices with your computer. It has an easy to use user interface, and an excellent internal architecture. The application can use a GSM mobile phone attached to the PC with a phone-to-PC data cable or IP SMS technology to transmit and receive the messages. Ozeki Message Server works on Microsoft Windows XP,2000,2003 operating systems.

Office users
Office users can use Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Excel to send hundreds of messages to their clients. The messages and the phone numbers are stored in Excel files and an Excel Macro initiates the sending process. (The excel macro is included in the software package.)

Software developers
Software developers can integrate SMS messaging functionality into their applications very easily. For example if an SMS message needs to be sent, it can be inserted into a database table used for outgoing messages. The Ozeki Message Server monitors this table and delivers the message. The Message Server puts all received SMS in another database table used for incoming messages. Of course many other APIs are available in the software to support software development.

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Import your email to Google Apps

The Google Email Uploader is an open source desktop utility for Microsoft Windows. It uploads email and contacts from desktop email programs (like Microsoft Outlook® ) into your Google Apps mailbox. It preserves information such as sent dates and sender/recipient data, as well as the folder structure used by email programs.

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How Night Vision Works

During the history of warfare, operations at night have always been degraded significantly, if not totally avoided. Typically, soldiers fighting at night have had to resort to artificial illumination, e.g., at first fire and later with light sources such as searchlights. The use of light sources on the battlefield had the detrimental result of giving away tactical positions and information about maneuvers. The advent of new technologies initially in the 1950’s and continuing into the present time has changed this situation. The engineers and scientists at the Night Vision & Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) have discovered ways to capture available electro-magnetic radiation outside that portion of the spectrum visible to the human eye and have developed equipment to enable the American soldier to fight as well at night as during the day in order to “Own the Night”.

Image Intensification: Image intensifiers capture ambient light and amplify it thousands of times by electronic means to display the battlefield to a soldier via a phosphor display such as night vision goggles. This ambient light comes from the stars, moon or sky glow from distant manmade sources, such as cities. A soldier can conduct his combat missions without any active illumination sources using only image intensifiers. The main advantages of image intensifiers as night vision devices are their small size, light weight, low power requirements and low cost. These attributes have enabled image intensifier goggles for head-worn, individual soldier applications and resulted in hundreds of thousands of night vision goggles to be procured by the US Army. Research and development continues today on image intensifiers in the areas of longer wavelength spectral response, higher sensitivity, larger fields of view, increased resolution, advanced displays and image fusion.

Night Vision technology consists of two major types: image intensification (light amplification) and thermal imaging (infrared). Most consumer night vision products are light amplifying devices.

Light amplification technology takes the small amount of light, such as moonlight or starlight, that is in the surrounding area, and converts the light energy (scientists call it photons), into electrical energy (electrons). These electrons pass through a thin disk that’s about the size of a quarter and contains over 10 million channels. As the electrons travel through and strike the walls of the channels, thousands more electrons are released. These multiplied electrons then bounce off of a phosphor screen which converts the electrons back into photons and let you see an impressive nighttime view even when it’s really dark. All image intensified night vision products on the market today have one thing in common: they produce a green output image. In the night vision world there are generations that reflect the level of technology used. The higher the generation, the more sophisticated the night vision technology.

Generation 0 - The earliest (1950’s) night vision products were based on image conversion, rather than intensification. They required a source of invisible infrared (IR) light mounted on or near the device to illuminate the target area.

Generation 1 - The “starlight scopes” of the 1960’s (Vietnam Era) have three image intensifier tubes connected in a series. These systems are larger and heavier than Gen 2 and Gen 3. The Gen 1 image is clear at the center but may be distorted around the edges. (Low-cost Gen 1 imports are often mislabeled as a higher generation.

Generation 2 - The microchannel plate (MCP) electron multiplier prompted Gen 2 development in the 1970s. The “gain” provided by the MCP eliminated the need for back-to-back tubes - thereby improving size and image quality. The MCP enabled development of hand held and helmet mounted goggles.

Generation 3 - Two major advancements characterized development of Gen 3 in the late 1970s and early 1980s: the gallium arsenide (GaAs) photocathode and the ion-barrier film on the MCP. The GaAs photocathode enabled detection of objects at greater distances under much darker conditions. The ion-barrier film increased the operational life of the tube from 2000 hours (Gen 2) to 10,000 (Gen 3), as demonstrated by actual testing and not extrapolation.

Thermal Imaging:

Most objects in natural scenes, as well as human beings and manmade objects emit electro-magnetic radiation in the form of heat. Thermal imagers or infrared viewers (also known as FLIRs) gather the infrared radiation and form an electronic image for the soldier. Since they do not rely on reflected ambient light, thermal imagers are totally light-level independent. They also have significant penetration capabilities through obscurants such as fogs, hazes, and conventional battlefield smokes. There are two varieties of thermal imaging systems: cooled and uncooled. Cooled thermal imaging requires cryogenic cooling. Lower performing uncooled thermal imaging systems require no detector cooling but have sufficient performance to provide the low to medium performance required by individual soldier sights, infantry vehicles, navigation, robotics and missile seekers. Present research and development in cooled thermal imaging are pursuing multi-spectral imaging, improved sensitivity and resolution, and embedded signal processing to aid the soldier in target acquisition missions. Current uncooled research is directed at smaller size packages and power consumption with lower cost and increased sensitivity, resolution and field of view. Small, palm-sized uncooled thermal imagers are now available.

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Five Ideas for a More Romantic Honeymoon

Candles, rose petals, satin, succulent foods, perfume—you’re probably already familiar with all of these time-honored ingredients for creating a romantic mood on your honeymoon. But candles, rose petals, and other sensual ingredients only go so far. The real key to creating a romantic honeymoon is to spend time celebrating your relationship and your new life together as a married couple. After all, romance is more about the heart than the body.

That doesn’t mean you should put the candles away, but start setting the mood early by reveling in your relationship. Here are five ideas to get you started.

1. Explore uncharted territory
Intimacy is a key ingredient for creating a romantic mood. In its most basic sense, intimacy is about revealing our interior selves to another person—the part of ourselves that we normally hide from others. When we do this, we honor the other person as someone we cherish and trust. Since it’s often difficult to start sharing in this way, a game or book of questions can help. The classic game of relationship questions is the Ungame, while the classic questions book is (appropriately enough) The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock. Each of these products contains hundreds of questions on topics ranging from ethics (“What would you do if . . . ?�?) to feelings and ideas. These are just two of many similar products that you can use in almost any setting—even in the car or airplane on the way to your honeymoon destination.

2. Combine Your Photo Albums
Buy your first photo album together, if you don’t get one at your wedding. Bring out your photo albums and choose the best photos of each other from your dating days to put in your new album—it’s a great way to relive old memories.

3. Write a Dream Letter
Write letters to each other about your dreams for your marriage. What do you hope your marriage will look like in ten, twenty, or thirty years? Exchange the letters on the first day of your marriage, and then save them to read on your wedding anniversary.

4. Leave Memory Notes Everywhere
Nothing creates a romantic mood better than remembering your best moments together as a couple. Purchase some small notepaper or post-it notes and spend some time digging up your favorite memories of your spouse. How did you meet? How did your first kiss come about? What is the goofiest thing he or she ever did? When was your spouse there for you when you needed him or her the most? Then spend some time thinking of the memories you’d most like to share with your spouse over the course of your marriage. Write these all down on the note paper, and hide them all over the place at your honeymoon destination (on the pillow, in the luggage, in the rental car, etc.).

5. Share the Love
The funny thing about love is you get more by giving it away. That’s as true for newlyweds as for anyone else, so find ways to share your love with others. Start by committing random acts of kindness—both toward each other and complete strangers. Visit the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation web page for inspiration (http://www.actsofkindness.org/). One of our favorite stories there is about a young woman who was caught in the rain when a complete stranger gave her his own umbrella. When she asked how she would return it to him, he just smiled and walked away. Creating great memories like that adds a magical twist to your honeymoon.

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What is Zapr ???????????????

A really simple way to let anyone share anything to anybody
- Broadcast your own content
- Create your own sharing spaces
- Share files and folders in real-time

How does Zapr work?
Zapr lets you create URL links to any files or folders on your PC. You can then send these links to others (via email or IM or YOURNAME.zapr.com) and they can get the files or see the folders directly from your PC via any browser. They do not need to register or install software.

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