NASA Laser Beams Send Mona Lisa to the Moon and Back

An image of the Mona Lisa has traveled nearly 240,000 miles digitally, going from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging station at NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. By transmitting the image on top of on laser pulses regularly sent in order to track position, simultaneous laser communication and tracking was achieved.

?This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances,? says David Smith of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ?In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide.?

Satellites which go outside of Earth orbit characteristically use radio waves for tracking and communication. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the only satellite in orbit around a body other than Earth to be tracked by laser also.

?Because LRO is already set up to receive laser signals through the LOLA instrument, we had a unique opportunity to demonstrate one-way laser communication with a distant satellite,? explained Xiaoli Sun, scientist at NASA Goddard and lead author of a paper detailing the work.

Timing a Pixel Array

The key to transmitting the image was accurate timing. Sun and his team divided the Mona Lisa image into an array of 152 pixels by 200 pixels. Each pixel was converted into a shade of gray, represented by a number between zero and 4,095. (I guess 50 shades of grey wasn?t to their liking.) Every pixel was then transmitted by a laser pulse, with the pulse being fired in one of 4,096 possible time slots during a brief time window allotted for laser tracking. The complete image was transmitted at a data rate of about 300 bits per second.

Received by LRO?s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument, the laser pulses reconstructed the image based on the arrival times of the pulses from Earth. This was accomplished with no interruption of LOLA?s primary task of mapping the moon?s elevation and terrain and the Goddard Space Flight Center?s main task of tracking LRO. The image was then returned to Earth using the spacecraft?s radio telemetry system in order to verify the success of the laser transmission.

Error Correction by Reed-Solomon Coding

Transmission errors were introduced by turbulence in Earth?s atmosphere, even when the sky was clear. To overcome these effects, Sun and colleagues used Reed-Solomon coding, which is the same type of error-correction code commonly used in CDs and DVDs. The illustration at the top of the page shows the image before and after correction. The white stripe indicates a brief period when transmission was paused.

?This pathfinding achievement sets the stage for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD), a high data rate laser-communication demonstrations that will be a central feature of NASA?s next moon mission, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE),? says Goddard?s Richard Vondrak.

The next step following the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration is the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), NASA?s first long-duration optical communications mission. LCRD will help develop concepts and deliver technologies applicable to near-Earth and deep-space communication.

Reference:

Free space laser communication experiments from Earth to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in lunar orbit
Sun, Xiaoli; Skillman, David R; Hoffman, Evan D; Mao, Dandan; McGarry, Jan F; McIntire, Leva; Zellar, Ronald S; Davidson, Frederic M; Fong, Wai H; Krainak, Michael A; Neumann, Gregory A; Zuber, Maria T; Smith, David E

Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 2, pp. 1865-1871 (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.21.001865

Image courtesy Xiaoli Sun, NASA Goddard

Tagged as: laser, NASA

Source: http://www.techfragments.com/1961/nasa-laser-beams-mona-lisa-moon/

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12 Better Business and Personal Marketing Practices for 2013

As a small business, you will have to respond to these business marketing trends to keep your business relevant in 2013.

As a business owner or manager, the suggested personal marketing practices will prove to be valuable for helping you to better implement them for maximum business marketing benefit.

Business Marketing Trends and Practices

#1 ? Original Content is Highly Valued

If this wasn?t true, then media outlets would not always be racing to be the first to report the news to achieve the temporary prize of being first. There is no need to race when YOU are the only source.

Google Authorship is evidence that original marketing content ? one of a kind ? a category of one -?will always be more highly prized.

#2 ? Business is Now Personal

The personal perspective that you provide is what makes any type of content marketing original. Repurposing content is accepting mediocrity ? something that places you in a race to the bottom.

#3 ? Customers Want to Make Better Choices

Those who use their expertise to help their customers will earn their trust. First help your customers to be better buyers ? then help them further with your expertise. So this year, help your community to simplify.

#4 ? Social Media Will Not Fix Anything

If your business is broken social media will amplify that. So, to help you get better, why not consider blogging just for you. It will help you to dig deep and find better solutions for your customers.

#5 ? Consistency Sets Expectations

How often should you be publishing to your online channels? ?If you make regular contributions, even if that is quarterly, it is better than nothing at all ? and certainly better than anything irregular. Consistency is a mark of professionals.

#6 ? You Have to Love What You Do

I love to blog and it pains me that the gap since my last post is the widest in years. Looking on the bright side, I?ve just completed my first book on social marketing for small business?and that is reward enough for me ? especially if members of my tribe like you find it useful.

Personal Marketing Practices

#7 ? Surprise Your Audience

Pay attention to those that nobody pays attention to ? it could be the greatest gift they receive all year.?Buy the person?s lunch in the line with you. Send an anonymous gift.

#8 ? Show up Even When You are Unprepared

We all think that we need to be prepared, and we should be, but sometimes the most amazing days of our lives are those when we improvise from the heart in service to our communities. It?s a wonderful thing.

#9 ? Face Your fears

Being yourself means facing your fears and doing what you know has to be done if you are to feel the sense of accomplishment that drives your happiness and success. When you do what is uncomfortable you learn things about yourself that help you to better serve your customers.

#10 ? Love Yourself

Steve Jobs famously said, ?they are no smarter than you are.? ?When you really embrace that concept the fears that hold you back fall away. What?s left is the innate confidence in your own abilities that shines through.

#11 ? Your Work is Never Done

If it were, then you would have nothing to aspire to. Try to view life, and certainly business, as a process ? not a transaction. How can you do more together with your customers? They are probably wondering the same thing. Help them get what they really want.

#12 ? Show Your gratitude

Believe it or not, being grateful for the contribution of others helps you just as much, if not more than them. When you put that positive energy into the world it helps you realize you are part of something bigger ? an ecosystem that needs your contribution.

How about you?

What is your small business marketing manifesto for 2013?

If you liked this ? please leave a comment below and share with your friends

About the Author:??Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. ?Get more from Jeff on?LinkedIn,?Twitter?and?Google+.

Jeff is also the author of?Built-In Social: ?Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business ? Published by Wiley, April 15, 2013

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Source: http://www.jeffkorhan.com/2013/01/12-better-marketing-trendspractices-2013.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=12-better-marketing-trendspractices-2013

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IRL: Securifi Almond, Samsung Galaxy Note II and the LG Optimus G

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

This is the one place where it's okay for us Engadget editors to be slightly behind the times. Back at CES a couple weeks ago, for instance, we got hands-on with the Securifi Almond+, a touchscreen router with a fancy all-white design and even fancier support for Zigbee / W-Wave home automation. Here in "IRL," though, we're just fine to talk about the OG Almond, which doesn't offer quite so many add-ons. Rounding things out, we've also got some anecdotes about the Galaxy Note II and Optimus G, neither of which need an introduction at this point.

Securifi Almond

Look, I moonlight as the IT guy at the White House, okay? Now that we're having such an honest conversation, I will say that I've been on the hunt for an ideal WiFi range extender for some time now. Western Digital's My Net Wi-Fi Range Extender does a fine job, but a) it's pretty large and b) it lacks bells and whistles. If you're looking for an alternative that addresses both of those issues, let me introduce you to the other product I'd trust to stretch WiFi waves from the Situation Room to the Rose Garden: the Securifi Almond.

While this is a bona fide WLAN access point / router at heart, I was focused primarily on testing its range extension abilities. I plugged the unit in some 90 feet away from a Netgear N900, watched the colorful touchscreen dance to life, and then tapped on a few screens in the Wizard Guide to set it all up. We've all heard it before -- "easy to set up!" -- but this one's truly capable of doing as advertised. Within four minutes, the unit had found my local 2.4GHz network, accepted my password and created a new network using that same password for areas that were previously out of reach.

In practice, it adds another 150-odd feet of range to my N900, and I saw no degradation in performance while streaming video. The touchscreen also continues to be useful after you've pecked in your information. You can have it display the local weather or the time, making it a pretty awesome glanceable piece of technology while it's broadcasting in the background. Two quirks, though: one, the weather forecast (apparently) doesn't update on its own, and two, the clock reversed AM and PM in my testing. Granted, both of these are in "Beta," and I'm hoping the company adds even more functionality through OTA software updates -- which the unit is fully capable of receiving.

The other bits you should know about: it won't rebroadcast 5GHz signals (boo!), and it actually creates a new SSID (network name) instead of just amplifying your existing one. This means that once you walk out of range of your existing router, you need to disconnect and reconnect to a new network name, which is a slight hassle. Those things aside, it's a solid performer at $80, and hopefully it'll get even better once the updates begin to roll in.

-- Darren Murph

Samsung Galaxy Note II

I was among the naysayers when Samsung released the Galaxy Note. Maybe it was my memories of the Streak 5 or perhaps it was just dread at the idea of carrying around a gargantuan handset. The Note's massive success did little to change my perception, but it did make me look at its successor with respect. Spec bump aside, the Galaxy Note II is certainly a more mature product compared to the OG Note, what with its bag of software tricks and that improved S Pen. I can see the S Pen's usefulness for not only the creative types, but also obsessive note takers and for general tomfoolery. Add smooth performance and impressive battery life, and it makes the Note II quite a compelling proposition indeed.

Attempting to occupy that middle ground between smartphone and tablet, the Note II's size is its chief strength as well weakness, depending on how you look at it. Despite the new one-handed mode that shrinks the keyboard and dialing pad and docks them to the side, I still think the large size is tough to handle with a single hand. Heck, even using the lockscreen slider to accept or reject calls might be an issue if you try doing it one-handed, making the pebble-smooth handset prone to slipping. Ditto when you stretch your thumb across the glass to pull down the notification bar or to reach any app controls placed on the top.

On the flip side, watching movies is lots of fun thanks to that big display, as is playing games. Apps like Flipboard also shine with some extra screen real estate. Features such as multi-window and pop-up video make great use of the extra screen real estate and add to the device's pull factor, much more than having the same functionality on its smaller sibling, the Galaxy S III.

Basically, when it comes to smartphones, size does matter. It's really up to you what you prefer -- a large slab that can possibly help avoid the hassle of lugging both a phone and a tablet, or a conventional-sized blower that's more pocket-friendly but leaves something to be desired when it comes to the media and app experience. Personally, I think of these high-end phablets as SUVs of the smartphone world -- hardly easy to parallel park or squeeze into tight spaces -- but big, powerful and spacious. Love 'em or leave 'em, they're here to stay.

-- Deepak Dhingra

LG Optimus G on Rogers

The Optimus G feels like the Nexus 4's neglected cousin. Both LG phones are capable, but the Nexus 4's status as the official Google phone -- and the accompanying $350 unlocked price -- tend to overshadow the Optimus G's more traditional approach. I felt compelled to try the Optimus G on Rogers for a few weeks for just that reason. Is it worth it to give up stock Android and pay more, all so that you can score a few hardware advantages?

The Cliff's Notes answer: yes. In some cases, anyway. The battery life could certainly clinch a few sales. Where the Nexus 4's runtime is fairly average, the Optimus G has no problem lasting through a photo- and Twitter-heavy day. The 32GB of storage space is naturally useful for a hefty music collection like mine, too. LTE is indeed appreciated versus the Nexus 4's dual-carrier HSPA+ 3G, although I'll readily acknowledge that the 3G in my area is often fast enough. I'm even sanguine about the interface, despite my preference for pure Android. LG's custom interface feels relatively unintrusive and light, at least next to Samsung's TouchWiz. It mostly stays out of the way, and it doesn't lean on gestures that might only be useful once in a blue moon (see: Samsung's tilt-to-zoom).

If an unfettered Google experience isn't a factor, about the only potential dealbreaker is that oh-so-frustrating camera focus system. The Optimus G's camera (eight megapixels on the Rogers model) is fine in much of the time, but it's tough to compose some macro or close-up portrait shots when the continuous autofocusing offers just a split second of sharpness before it readjusts; I've taken a few photos that looked fine in the preview but were blurred by the time I hit the capture button. If LG ever embraces traditional autofocus for the Optimus G's camera, though, it'll be easier to recommend it, regardless of whether the Nexus 4 is on the shopping list.

-- Jon Fingas

Filed under: Misc, Samsung, LG

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/20/irl-securifi-almond-samsung-galaxy-note-ii-lg-optimus-g-rogers/

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Senate's Reid reassured by Republicans' debt ceiling move

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office said on Friday that if the Republican-led House of Representatives can pass a "clean" debt ceiling increase, the Democrat-majority Senate "will be happy to consider it."

"It is reassuring to see Republicans beginning to back off their threat to hold our economy hostage," Reid's spokesman Adam Jentleson said in a statement.

The statement was issued after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican, said the House would consider a bill next week to extend the U.S. debt limit by three months.

(Reporting by Alistair Bell; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senates-reid-reassured-republicans-debt-ceiling-move-184154974--business.html

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Virginia-Based Energy Company Looking to Build Large Wind Farm In OK

',
calendar:'',
week:'{week}', dayClickable:'{date}', dayCurrent:'{date}', dayNone:'', day:'{date}', search:'' }, // Stored objects $container = $(loc), now = new Date(), current = now, minDate = new Date('12/5/2007'), station = wng_pageInfo.affiliateName||'kotv', months = ['January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December'], monthLengths = [31, 28, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31, 31, 30, 31, 30, 31], // Helper methods renderTemplate = function(tpl, vars) { var retVal = templates[tpl]; if (typeof(retVal) === 'string') { for (var i in vars) { var regEx = new RegExp('\{' + i + '\}', 'g'); retVal = retVal.replace(regEx, vars[i]); } } else { retVal = null; } return retVal; }, // Renderers makeCalendar = function(date) { // Copy the date to a new object (so as not to overwrite the original) and set us to the beginning of the month date = new Date(date); date.setDate(1); current = date; var month = date.getMonth(), year = date.getFullYear(), firstDay = date.getDay(), out = '', days = '', colCount = 0, monthLength = monthLengths[month] + (month == 1 && year % 4 == 0 ? 2 : 1); // Figure up the month length taking into consideration leap years. Not accurate to 100+ years // Render the days before the start of the month if necessary for (var i = 0; i = minDate) { tpl = 'dayClickable'; } days += renderTemplate(tpl, {date:i}); colCount++; if (colCount % 7 == 0) { out += renderTemplate('week', {week:days}); days = ''; } } // Tack on the last week if (days != '') { out += renderTemplate('week', {week:days}); } // Render to the DOM out = renderTemplate('calendar', {days:out}); out = renderTemplate('controls', {month:months[month], year:year}) + out + templates.search; $container.html(out); // Determine whether the previous/next buttons should be shown date.setDate(1); if (date 12) { month = 1; year++; } makeCalendar(new Date(month + '/1/' + year)); } }, // Init init = function() { $container.addClass('gnmCalendar'); makeCalendar(now); }; init(); };

Source: http://www.news9.com/story/20619179/virginia-based-energy-company-looking-to-build-large-wind-farm-in-ok

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This Awesome Animated Short Is a Student Film. A+!

Good. Bad. These are relative ideals that depend almost entirely on which end of the gun is facing us. A quartet of French art students—Micha?l Balthazart, Cl?ment Granjon, Quentin Sauvinet, and Rapha?l Gaudin—collaborated at ArtFX 2012 to explore this concept in Voile Noir, which follows a pair of pilots, Allan and Yvan, as they attempt to deliver a bomb that will single-handedly end the war. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7QDLAVRRrpE/this-awesome-animated-short-is-a-student-film-a%252B

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Video: Intel Q4 EPS: $0.48 vs. $0.45 Est.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/50499114/

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