Technocratica

It's that time again!

2010-09-19T08:36:00.001-04:00

It's getting cooler here and the nights are getting longer so that means only one thing (for me) - it's time to get the telescope out!

I have always been interested in astronomy but the event that really cemented my love for it was the release of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. As a child I had a toy telescope that was given to me by a family friend, but as you can imagine the combination of cheap optics and my lack of understanding of what made a good target led to less than spectacular results. A next door neighbor built a telescope that was mounted onto a cemented post in his yard and the views through that thing were amazing! I believe it was either a 4 inch or 6 inch Newtonian reflector and I remember seeing objects such as Jupiter and Saturn through it. Certainly, I had seen artist renderings and of photographs of those planets before but those images were nothing compared to seeing the real thing, in real life, in real time. The movement of objects across the viewfield was a reminder that yes, we are moving through space and so are they.

Looking at the moon with it was truly an awesome experience. Clearly visible were the craters and maria of the surface and the definition of the moon's features at the terminus. Viewing this stuff was staggering for a young boy, and it certainly left its impact on me.

The years rolled on and the boy became a man, albeit one without a telescope. I had taught myself to be able to pick out constellations and Venus and Mars by sight. On a good clear moonless night one is able to pick out numerous stars with an unaided eye, assuming minimum disturbances from terrestrial light sources.

I did pick up a scope. It was a small Celestron, 76mm (3 inch) Newtonian reflector. Among the more serious hobbyists it belongs to a class known as the "department store telescopes". Its small aperture combined with low quality Chinese optics ensured that it would not produce Hubble-grade images, but really it was a good scope to get started with. It did have an equatorial mount which is daunting for a newbie to use, but once you "get it", makes tracking moving objects so much easier. I still have it, although it's not been used in over a decade.

After getting that scope I decided I would investigate building my own. After all, there was (and is) a community of people who build their own scopes and I figured that if they could do it then so could I. Building a Newtonian reflector telescope is not as daunting of a task as it sounds - essentially you get a cardboard tube, two mirrors, a focuser, a vane, slap it all together and align it. Nothing to it, right?

Obviously it can be a bit difficult, but with some patience and care extremely high quality telescopes can be made at home. I wanted to make a larger aperture scope to overcome the limitations of the starter Celestron. The primary factor in choosing a telescope is the size of the aperture, and I had determined that an 8 inch scope would be a decent mix of aperture and portability. If a scope is too small then resolving power is limited, and you are less likely to use it. If it is too large then it is inconvenient to set up, and you are less likely to use it.

While shopping around for a primary mirror for an 8 inch reflector, I had a bit of sticker shock. At the time (the mid 1990s) a decent primary mirror that size was around $350. On top of that was the issue of the secondary mirror, the focuser, the vane, and oh yes, eyepieces. It was abundantly obvious that my project was getting well over budget, which was between nothing and "as little as possible".

Then I checked eBay. Lo and behold, there was a fellow in a nearby town who had an 8 inch Meade for sale, and he did not want to ship it. I rang him up, checked out the scope, and walked away $300 poorer but a nice scope richer.

He had some nice eyepieces to go with the scope, which he was selling because he was moving and didn't have the space. Also the telescope has a metal focuser instead of the cheaper plastic ones, and sports a 6x30mm spotting scope instead of the usual 5x45mm often seen on these. My research into telescope building educated me about the importance of alignment and collimation, which I did promptly after coming home with my new toy.

The views were absolutely amazing! The moon, when viewed at greater than quarter full, is simply blinding. Jupiter was no longer a grayish blob, instead it was happily showing off its cloud strata. Saturn's rings and divisions were clearly defined. M33 (Andromeda) was not a fuzzy undefined patch of space, but rather an obvious galaxy.

We used the telescope quite frequently. That is, until two of my neighbors decided to leave their floodlights and mercury vapor "boogeyman" lights on all night long. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to discern between "astronomy" and "astrology" and since they are fundamentalist Christians they no doubt thought I was divining the future through the stars. Quite the opposite really - I cannot see the future by looking at the stars, but I can certainly peer billions of years into the past.

Because of the local light pollution coming from my neighbors' houses the mighty Meade was placed into semi-retirement. But, guess what? The closest neighbor moved and the new residents are not nearly as photophillic. And, there is a row of trees that has grown up between me and the other neighbor, who is still there but doesn't seem to be as hell-bent on messing up my stargazing.

So last night after dinner I removed and cleaned the primary mirror. It was a bit grungy but it cleaned up nicely. I gave it a quick collimation, and we went out on the back deck to take a look around. And it was fantastic! The moon, being about three quarters full was a brilliant lunar laser but that was abated with the use of filters. The seeing was quite poor actually, owing largely to the high humidity, but we had a great time regardless.

Honestly, I am very much looking forward to the next outing... which might be tonight! I need to go check Heavens-Above and see what's coming up.

Phunny Phishing Phuckers

2010-06-19T16:59:00.009-04:00

So I was checking my Charter webmail and I saw this email:

Protect Your valid Charter Account

Well, gosh... I have a valid Charter account! Also, the use of gratuitous capitalization must mean that this is both important and legitimate! Let's look inside:

This mail is to inform all our CHARTER users that we will be

maintaining and upgrading our website in a couple of days from now.As
a Subscriber you are required to send us your Email account details
to enable us know if you are still making use of your mailbox. Be
informed that we will be deleting all mail accounts that is not
functioning to enable us create more space for new subscribers, You
are to send your mail account details which are as follows:

User name:
Password:
Service Address Zip Code:

Failure to do this will immediately render your email address
deactivated from our database.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

Goodness! Apparently, nobody at Charter can do a simple SQL query to see if email users have logged into their email accounts within an arbitrary amount of time. The aggressive use of capitalization MUST Mean It Is a Legitmate Email about my CHARTER account... right? Boy, I sure do thank them for sending this and I am more than happy to the three pieces of information required for them to log in to my account... even though they have that information already.

Sigh. What a pathetic phishing attempt. Because Charter's abysmal webmail client sucks so much I can not look at the headers and launch a DoS attack against the originating IP. Some people want to rob me of all fun. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to hit "reply" and will ya look at that! This was in the To: field:

service.eng@msn.com

Of course, the info@charter.net was in the CC: field, which was who the email was allegedly from. So, yeah, this was a feeble attempt at harvesting email accounts on Charter, so watch out!

I think I am going to write an email bot and flood that account with messages, then contact MSN to let them know what's up.

One more time:

service.eng@msn.com is a stupid phisher

Cheap, safe, effective wasp spray

2010-06-18T20:10:00.001-04:00

It's summertime in North Carolina and 'tis the season for our old friends the wasps. Yes, it seems they materialize out of thin air and for some reason or another we have more than our fair share at my house. I suspect the reason is due to the fact we probably have a Buick sized wasp nest in the attic, but to be frank I am too afraid to look up there.

There are plenty outside, which is generally fine with me as I don't spend a lot of time outside in the superheated humid air. Unfortunately, we will occasionally see one in the house and that can make for a bad time.

A couple of years ago I serendipitously found a wasp killer that doesn't cost a lot, is safe around humans, pets, and food, and knocks those suckers right out of the air. Simple Green. Yup, you know the stuff. I am particularly fond of their engine degreaser, which I usually keep a spray bottle of a dilute mix handy in my shop.

One day I heard the telltale buzzing sound of wasp wings beating against my fluorescent shop lights. I really don't know why they do it, but wasps apparently break into my house and beat their wings against my lights. Fascinating behavior really. Anyway, I did not have anything handy to swat the wasp with (do you realize how hard it is to kill one??) so I grabbed my bottle of Simple Green. I tweaked the spray from a mist to a more directive pattern and gave him a couple of squirts. He dropped right off the light in a fit of anger, but the little devil seemed to be generally immobilized and flightless. That of course allowed me to dispatch him to Wasp Heaven with a step of my shoe on the concrete floor and that was that.

I've sprayed it at wasps and they have literally dropped from the air. I am really not sure if it kills them or just removes their ability to fly and walk correctly, but either way a solution of Simple Green gives me the upper hand in man-versus-stinging insect faceoffs.

The best part is that it does not have any cholinesterase inhibitors as do most insecticides. What is cholinesterase, you may ask? It is an enzyme that helps break down acetylcholine into acetic acid and choline, and is crucial for proper nervous system operation. Without it your nervous system either goes haywire or in to a state of paralysis. To give you an idea, weaponized nerve agents such as VX, Sarin, Tabun, and many others are cholinesterase inhibitors. Oh, and some venomous snakes produce cholinesterase inhibitors too. Personally, I'd rather not be spraying nerve agent all in my house but instead a shot or two of Simple Green seems to be more effective. And, it smells so much better.

GPS trackers on drugs

2010-06-14T19:12:00.001-04:00

I was in my office this afternoon and in walked a private investigator, with whom I do a quite a bit of data forensics and technical intelligence work. I knew something was up as he had dollar signs in his eyes. When I'm not working with him and his partner on marital infidelity cases or sniffing out a network for days on end looking for evidence of industrial espionage, he's usually cooking up some 'get rich quick' scheme. He's not a scammer - he just wants to hit a big payday. Who doesn't, right?

I talk with him a bit and he's wanting to know a little bit about GPS trackers. That is really his partner's forte, but as he was out installing micro cameras I guess I would do in his absence. Actually, even when he is around I still get the occasional email, call, or visit (if it is REALLY important).

This PI is always looking to bid on jobs and today was no different. Inside a manila folder was two sheets of paper. One was a printed detail of a GPS/GSM tracking device that used telephone SIM cards. Another was an email with a bid proposal from an anonymous 'Fortune 500' client.

Apparently this large client was a chain pharmacy who was interested in devices that could be placed in drug bottles, so that when they were stolen they could be traced and the perpetrators dealt with accordingly. When he vocalized this request, the first thing out of my mouth was "somebody has been watching too much television". Visions flooded my mind of some big business know nothing manager type who has seen a few episodes of 24, or perhaps even Spooks (my favorite) and said, "Hey, we can do that too!" The company did specify that they wanted the device to be able to be placed in a bottle roughly the size of a 100 count Advil bottle. You know, something the size of a grain of rice that would give global positioning updates every 100 milliseconds or so. Yeah.

Well they were not wanting to protect their ibuprofen, obviously. They want to deploy these trackers into their stock of hard and often stolen narcotics. It's a plan that makes sense, at least on the surface and at least to someone who has no clue about how GPS technology works other than what they've seen in the movies or on television. Yes, pharmacies get broken into quite a lot. There's an independent one right down the road from me that used to get broken into all the time, but I believe that's stopped for the most part. I wonder if they bought GPS trackers? No, most likely they did the sane, intelligent, and cost effective thing by simply locking up their narcotics.

Did I mention there was a $1M budget for this project? Amazing. Needless to say, among much laughter I tried to explain to this guy that there's no way you can stuff a tracking device that is 60x40x15mm into such a small bottle without it being abundantly obvious, even to a dope fiend. I think I got the point across to him, but now I'm just curious if the client will get it too.

A distorted reflection - Google Trends

2010-06-13T19:02:00.000-04:00

Gee, since I've had this blog for over two years now and haven't posted anything, I think I'll do that now.

Everybody knows that Google has gobs and gobs of data and they track lots of things. Some of the more interesting data that they keep note of are search trends - you know, the stuff that people put into the search fields.

Google Trends is quite an interesting experience. I have it displayed in my iGoogle so every time I open my browser or pop open a new tab, there it is. Right now, today, here are the hottest trends:

1.	german goalkeeper kills himself
2.	coastal carolina university
3.	germany vs australia 2010
4.	wisconsin unemployment
5.	tony awards 2010

6.	german soccer team
7.	pgad
8.	unemployment wisconsin weekly claim
9.	germany world cup
10.	true blood season 3 premiere

11.	robert enke
12.	lukas podolski
13.	four loko
14.	german national anthem
15.	loretta lynn

16.	salem witch trials
17.	neal parker crash video
18.	miguel castro castro prison
19.	bam margera
20.	man vs food

This is some of the more normal stuff I've seen come across. After all, we are in the middle of the FIFA World Cup. Soccer (as we call it in the States) or football is not very popular here, but it has been gaining momentum over the past several years.

Anyway, this is the sort of minutiae that truly fascinates me - all the junk that people stuff into the search boxes. Examining it is a bit like knowing the will of millions of people. Powerful stuff, so much so it can drive one to distraction. I really wish I had more time to spend on my artificial intelligence projects that I was doing in Second Life as I think this data, properly parsed, could be used to create a robot that was more aware of current popular events than your average teenager.