31 May
2001
31 May
'01
1:48 a.m.
Jason McBrien said:
...went to were the American History Museum and the Air
and Space
museum. Both had special exhibits on information processing, and among the
highlights are:
...
- -Processor modules from the Iridium (defunct) system
...
Not yet, at any rate. My dad just got a phone from Motorola. Size of an old
(70's) handy-talky, more or less. After some trouble figuring out the
registration, dialing sequence, etc., he managed to phone home with it
(Yes, his initials are BT - no Steven Spielberg puns, please) and there was
a ~ 0.5 second delay between his lips moving and the sound coming out of
the home phone (he was standing on the balcony at the time). Apparently DOD
paid for the system and, to offset part of their cost, is marketing the
hand units (through Worldcom) to the few customers who need communications
where cell phones don't yet go. (Dad's going sailing in the North Sea, then
to a launch site in the Ukraine.) I'm rambling - anyway, Iridium was still
up, as of Sunday night.
- Mark
31 May
31 May
2:01 a.m.
Iridium is not dead, it is simply a military network now. Boeing "bought
it" out of bankruptcy court for about $25 million (not a bad deal) and the
Pentagon has a long term contract to use it. The current plan is to not
send up any spares and decommission the system when enough birds run out of
gas that they can't keep the constellation up.
--Chuck
(former IRID investor)
3:08 a.m.
What is Iridium?
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
Mark Tapley wrote:
Jason McBrien said:
...went to were the American History Museum and
the Air and Space
museum. Both had special exhibits on information processing, and among the
highlights are:
...
- -Processor modules from the Iridium (defunct)
system
...
Not yet, at any rate. My dad just got a phone from Motorola. Size of an old
(70's) handy-talky, more or less. After some trouble figuring out the
registration, dialing sequence, etc., he managed to phone home with it
(Yes, his initials are BT - no Steven Spielberg puns, please) and there was
a ~ 0.5 second delay between his lips moving and the sound coming out of
the home phone (he was standing on the balcony at the time). Apparently DOD
paid for the system and, to offset part of their cost, is marketing the
hand units (through Worldcom) to the few customers who need communications
where cell phones don't yet go. (Dad's going sailing in the North Sea, then
to a launch site in the Ukraine.) I'm rambling - anyway, Iridium was still
up, as of Sunday night.
- Mark 
6:45 a.m.
On Thu, 31 May 2001, Chad Fernandez wrote:
What is Iridium?
Wait a couple of years and I'm sure the answer will come falling out of
the sky to you. Or you can check their homepage: http://www.iridium.com/
-brian.
8:30 a.m.
Facts about Iridium:
1: a satellite based global communications system, like having cell phone
towers in the sky.
2: the investors lost their shirts.
3: but the best part about Iridium, the part to really get excited about, is
"Iridium flares". Do a web search on that term. A couple times a day the
mirror-like solar panels will reflect the light of the sun to a location
with driving distance of where you are. Viewing is best just after sunset.
You can see a magnitude -8 (half the brightness of the moon) flash lasting a
second or two. It looks like an aircraft landing light pointed straight at
you. There is software available that will tell you the latitude/longitude,
time, and magnitude for the flares occurring in the next day or two in your
area.
Picture driving pell-mell 5~10 miles through the countryside with a kid or
two, computer and GPS on the dash, stopping at ground zero (in a parking lot
or in front of someone's house maybe), staring at the sky for 5 minutes,
then suddenly everyone's yelling "There it is", "I saw it". Lots
of fun.
Great teaching opportunity.
I guess you could call Iridium a classic computer of sorts. Kind of hard to
get your hands on one, though. Are they 10 years old yet?
--
Jonathan Engdahl Rockwell Automation
Principal Research Engineer 24800 Tungsten Road
Advanced Technology Euclid, OH 44117 USA
Euclid Labs http://users.safeaccess.com/engdahl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Chase" <bdc(a)world.std.com>
To: <classiccmp>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: OT Iridium (Was: Re: classiccmp-digest V1 #615)
On Thu, 31 May 2001, Chad Fernandez wrote:
What is Iridium?
Wait a couple of years and I'm sure the answer will come falling out of
the sky to you. Or you can check their homepage: http://www.iridium.com/
-brian.
12:31 p.m.
Gidday Jonathan
On 01-Jun-01, you wrote:
Facts about Iridium:
after sunset. You can see a magnitude -8 (half the
brightness of the moon)
flash lasting a second or two. It looks like an aircraft landing light
pointed straight at you.
Oh dear, then what I told my daughter were Iridium were not. They
fasleh at about 1Hz right across the sky. I had the
idea that they flashed because they were
rotating and flat sides were flashing light as they moved across the
sky.
Regards
--
*Patrick Ford Auckland, New Zealand*
*/#icq#/ 51642681*
Buttermilk, it makes a body bitter.
Support *Open Directory Project* NO banners, NO junk--just information.
*ODP *is built by volunteers and owned by the community .
-------> http://dmoz.org <-----------Check it out
1 Jun
1 Jun
5:48 a.m.
New subject: Any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s or IBM 5100s out there?
Hi,
Does anyone have any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s cluttering up
their garage or storerooms?
If so, I'd be interested in hearing from you.
Please reply off line.
Thanks,
Nick
6:17 a.m.
New subject: Any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s or IBM 5100s outthere?
I had a call the other day ... a local guy [Roanoke, VA] has a few Tek
4115B systems for sale cheap ... what's the difference between them and
are they worth "cluttering up" my storage area with. He indicated they
were large & heavy!!
Regards, Craig
Nick Gessler wrote:
Hi,
Does anyone have any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s cluttering up
their garage or storerooms?
If so, I'd be interested in hearing from you.
Please reply off line.
Thanks,
Nick
7:29 a.m.
New subject: Any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s or IBM 5100s out there?
Does anyone have any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or
4662s cluttering up
their garage or storerooms?
If so, I'd be interested in hearing from you.
Please reply off line.
Try the monthly hamfest at TRW, last Saturday of the month, exit 405 fwy
west on Rosecrans, south on Aviation, followed the nerds going into the
north parking lots of TRW on the East side of Aviation and Marine. Starts
about 7:30, last sale at 11:30.
10:15 a.m.
New subject: Any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s or IBM 5100s out there?
I'm at TRW every last Saturday.
Haven't seen any of the above there for years!
For those who don't know, these Tek, IBM and the Wang were the first
professional desktop computers.
They came out just after the Imsai and Altair.
I've forgotten what the Wang looked like, but similar to the Tek I think.
I've got the Tek and IBM but I need some parts so I can get them going.
They were all one piece: keyboard, CRT (big for Tek, tiny for IBM), and
tape cartridge.
Nick
They were all one piece:At 12:29 PM 6/1/01 -0700, you wrote:
Does anyone
have any Tektronix 4051, 5042, 4054, or 4662s cluttering up
their garage or storerooms?
If so, I'd be interested in hearing from you.
Please reply off line.
Try the monthly hamfest at TRW, last Saturday of the month, exit 405 fwy
west on Rosecrans, south on Aviation, followed the nerds going into the
north parking lots of TRW on the East side of Aviation and Marine. Starts
about 7:30, last sale at 11:30. 
8:13 a.m.
On Thu, 31 May 2001, you wrote:
Facts about Iridium:
3: but the best part about Iridium, the part to really
get excited about, is
"Iridium flares". Do a web search on that term.
www.heavens-above.com
Not only Iridium flares, but all other visible satellites.
--
Regards
Pete
8372
days inactive
8373
days old
10 comments
10 participants
participants (10)
-
bdc＠world.std.com -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
engdahl＠cle.ab.com -
fernande＠internet1.net -
gessler＠ucla.edu -
ip500＠home.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
mtapley＠swri.edu -
padf＠ihug.co.nz -
peter＠joules.org