TIME FLIES
WHEN WE ARE HAVING FUN! ~ At least that has long been my
thinking. Last week my wife, Dory, went to a meeting at her
local Real Estate Board and as I was sitting in our living room
reading, I had my iPhone on my lap tracking her progress as she
drove.
We have an app in our iPhones named Life360 which uses GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to track the progress of another family member. And it is used in real time while driving to help us find a specific destination address we have entered into our iPhone or iPad.
Today we view that capability as an everyday mundane feature of our iPhone/iPad, not really giving it a second thought. And I am sure that many young folks today would laugh if we remind them this is a relatively new technology - and it cost America a bundle of money to create.
Even the cell phone itself is relatively new, I remember well, in the mid-1980s, going to a computer convention and having to stand in a long line at a bank of public phone booths in the convention center, just to call and check in with my office.
Circa 1985, I was walking to the convention center in Las Vegas and I heard a man walking ahead of me, talking into what looked like an Army walkie-talkie, telling the person he was talking with, "I bet you cannot guess where I am calling you from!" Yes, that was my very first time to see a cell phone.
The next year at the convention, some of the people had the expensive cell phones - but most of us still stood in long lines at the bank of public phone booths to call our office.
This is from the NASA web site:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Global Positioning System History - GPS had its origins in the Sputnik era (1957 and forward, i.e., the Space Age) when scientists were able to track the satellite with shifts in its radio signal known as the “Doppler Effect.”
The United States Navy conducted satellite navigation experiments in the mid-1960’s to track U.S. submarines carrying nuclear missiles. With six satellites orbiting the poles, submarines were able to observe the satellite changes in Doppler and pinpoint the submarine’s location within a matter of minutes. . . .
Today GPS is a multi-use, space-based radio-navigation system owned by the U.S. Government and operated by the United States Air Force to meet national defense, homeland security, civil, commercial, and scientific needs.
GPS currently provides two levels of service: Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which uses the coarse acquisition code on the L1 frequency - and Precise Positioning Service (PPS) which uses the P(Y) code. Access to the PPS is restricted to U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. Federal agencies, and selected allied armed forces and governments. The SPS is available to all users on a continuous, worldwide basis, free of any direct user charges. (NASA [dot] Gov site)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chuck Hill hired me, fresh out of the Air Force, in 1958 to work in the Test Department of Burroughs Corporation's mainframe computer system, the B-220. And in 1959 when I transferred into Field Engineering, he also transferred into Field Engineering and was my District Manager in the Burroughs Washington DC office.
In late 1962, early 1963, Chuck left Burroughs and joined Ramo-Wooldridge in Canoga Park, California, to set up a Test Department for their new RW mil-spec minicomputer, the AN/UYK-1, which was a ruggedized military spec computer in a cast iron enclosure designed to fit through the cargo hatch of a submarine.
In late 1962 Burroughs had transferred me back to Los Angeles and a month or so later, Chuck Hill called and asked me to join him at Ramo-Wooldridge. It took me about 10 seconds, or less, to accept with a big, "Yes!"
About 6 months later when the Test Department was established and we were shipping the AN/UYK-1 computers, I transferred into Field Engineering to install and maintain those computers at customer sites.
Early 1963, I traveled to the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard to install an AN/UYK-1 aboard the USNS Kingsport, the first satellite communication ship - and one destined for history. It was retrofitted to be the satellite control station for the Syncom 2 satellite. I was in Philadelphia to install the AN/UYK-1 onboard the ship as the antennae tracking and control computer.
It was amusing to stand in the ship's control center which had a wall of all kind of displays, controls, etc. Later when the Star Trek movies appeared I wondered if Captain James Kirk's USS Enterprise was copied from the USNS Kingsport satellite control room.
At that time the Syncom 2 satellite had not yet been launched into space, so they were using a helicopter as their de facto satellite for tracking purposes. I had to laugh one day as I was watching them work - and heard from the operator talking with the helicopter pilot, "Can you give me your coordinates. I cannot find you." And I am thinking, "If he cannot find a helicopter flying above him - how is he going to find a satellite in space?"
But he obviously did, for in 1963 the ship was sent to Lagos, Nigeria, as the control station for Syncom 2 satellite, becoming the control center for the first two way intercontinental telephone conversation via satellite for two heads of state - a satellite telephone call to Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the Kingsport docked in the port of Lagos and President John F. Kennedy at the White House on 23 August 1963.
Last week, as I was sitting in our living room tracking my wife, Real Estate Broker Dory Gray, driving to her Real Estate board meeting - the leap in technology between 1963 and today, 2024, really hit home for me. In 1963 it took billions of dollars, thousands of engineers, scientist, manufacturers, and many other people to make President Kennedy's satellite phone call possible. Yet today, as I sat in the recliner in my living room, with a small iPhone in my lap - I was tracking my wife in real time as she drove to her meeting.
After her meeting, I could see that she had stopped for lunch at a Carl's Jr. restaurant. My iPhone with the Life360 app even showed me when she had parked and was walking into the restaurant. At that moment I had several flashbacks: One I just shared above with you about the history making satellite phone call.
The other was a conversation I had with a late friend and co-worker, Bob Diorio, back in the 1980s. Bob had been Eastern Regional Manager for Genisco Computer Graphics, Inc. - and at the same time I was the Western Regional Manager. Our backgrounds were similar - military training, then working in the computer industry for many years.
Bob told me, "Bill, do you realize that for those decades of our early careers, the technology tracking chart would show an annual growth in technology of maybe 5 to 10 percent a year - and then all of a sudden, the chart begin to shoot up at a 45 degree rate? My friend, technology is leaving us behind!" And that was true. My iPhone tracking of Dory really brought it home to me last week.
As Bob Dylan once sang, "For the times they are a-changin' " And boy was he right! It makes me wonder what technology will be like in another 20-30 years.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
We have an app in our iPhones named Life360 which uses GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to track the progress of another family member. And it is used in real time while driving to help us find a specific destination address we have entered into our iPhone or iPad.
Today we view that capability as an everyday mundane feature of our iPhone/iPad, not really giving it a second thought. And I am sure that many young folks today would laugh if we remind them this is a relatively new technology - and it cost America a bundle of money to create.
Even the cell phone itself is relatively new, I remember well, in the mid-1980s, going to a computer convention and having to stand in a long line at a bank of public phone booths in the convention center, just to call and check in with my office.
Circa 1985, I was walking to the convention center in Las Vegas and I heard a man walking ahead of me, talking into what looked like an Army walkie-talkie, telling the person he was talking with, "I bet you cannot guess where I am calling you from!" Yes, that was my very first time to see a cell phone.
The next year at the convention, some of the people had the expensive cell phones - but most of us still stood in long lines at the bank of public phone booths to call our office.
This is from the NASA web site:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Global Positioning System History - GPS had its origins in the Sputnik era (1957 and forward, i.e., the Space Age) when scientists were able to track the satellite with shifts in its radio signal known as the “Doppler Effect.”
The United States Navy conducted satellite navigation experiments in the mid-1960’s to track U.S. submarines carrying nuclear missiles. With six satellites orbiting the poles, submarines were able to observe the satellite changes in Doppler and pinpoint the submarine’s location within a matter of minutes. . . .
Today GPS is a multi-use, space-based radio-navigation system owned by the U.S. Government and operated by the United States Air Force to meet national defense, homeland security, civil, commercial, and scientific needs.
GPS currently provides two levels of service: Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which uses the coarse acquisition code on the L1 frequency - and Precise Positioning Service (PPS) which uses the P(Y) code. Access to the PPS is restricted to U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. Federal agencies, and selected allied armed forces and governments. The SPS is available to all users on a continuous, worldwide basis, free of any direct user charges. (NASA [dot] Gov site)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chuck Hill hired me, fresh out of the Air Force, in 1958 to work in the Test Department of Burroughs Corporation's mainframe computer system, the B-220. And in 1959 when I transferred into Field Engineering, he also transferred into Field Engineering and was my District Manager in the Burroughs Washington DC office.
In late 1962, early 1963, Chuck left Burroughs and joined Ramo-Wooldridge in Canoga Park, California, to set up a Test Department for their new RW mil-spec minicomputer, the AN/UYK-1, which was a ruggedized military spec computer in a cast iron enclosure designed to fit through the cargo hatch of a submarine.
In late 1962 Burroughs had transferred me back to Los Angeles and a month or so later, Chuck Hill called and asked me to join him at Ramo-Wooldridge. It took me about 10 seconds, or less, to accept with a big, "Yes!"
About 6 months later when the Test Department was established and we were shipping the AN/UYK-1 computers, I transferred into Field Engineering to install and maintain those computers at customer sites.
Early 1963, I traveled to the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard to install an AN/UYK-1 aboard the USNS Kingsport, the first satellite communication ship - and one destined for history. It was retrofitted to be the satellite control station for the Syncom 2 satellite. I was in Philadelphia to install the AN/UYK-1 onboard the ship as the antennae tracking and control computer.
It was amusing to stand in the ship's control center which had a wall of all kind of displays, controls, etc. Later when the Star Trek movies appeared I wondered if Captain James Kirk's USS Enterprise was copied from the USNS Kingsport satellite control room.
At that time the Syncom 2 satellite had not yet been launched into space, so they were using a helicopter as their de facto satellite for tracking purposes. I had to laugh one day as I was watching them work - and heard from the operator talking with the helicopter pilot, "Can you give me your coordinates. I cannot find you." And I am thinking, "If he cannot find a helicopter flying above him - how is he going to find a satellite in space?"
But he obviously did, for in 1963 the ship was sent to Lagos, Nigeria, as the control station for Syncom 2 satellite, becoming the control center for the first two way intercontinental telephone conversation via satellite for two heads of state - a satellite telephone call to Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the Kingsport docked in the port of Lagos and President John F. Kennedy at the White House on 23 August 1963.
Last week, as I was sitting in our living room tracking my wife, Real Estate Broker Dory Gray, driving to her Real Estate board meeting - the leap in technology between 1963 and today, 2024, really hit home for me. In 1963 it took billions of dollars, thousands of engineers, scientist, manufacturers, and many other people to make President Kennedy's satellite phone call possible. Yet today, as I sat in the recliner in my living room, with a small iPhone in my lap - I was tracking my wife in real time as she drove to her meeting.
After her meeting, I could see that she had stopped for lunch at a Carl's Jr. restaurant. My iPhone with the Life360 app even showed me when she had parked and was walking into the restaurant. At that moment I had several flashbacks: One I just shared above with you about the history making satellite phone call.
The other was a conversation I had with a late friend and co-worker, Bob Diorio, back in the 1980s. Bob had been Eastern Regional Manager for Genisco Computer Graphics, Inc. - and at the same time I was the Western Regional Manager. Our backgrounds were similar - military training, then working in the computer industry for many years.
Bob told me, "Bill, do you realize that for those decades of our early careers, the technology tracking chart would show an annual growth in technology of maybe 5 to 10 percent a year - and then all of a sudden, the chart begin to shoot up at a 45 degree rate? My friend, technology is leaving us behind!" And that was true. My iPhone tracking of Dory really brought it home to me last week.
As Bob Dylan once sang, "For the times they are a-changin' " And boy was he right! It makes me wonder what technology will be like in another 20-30 years.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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