On the other hand, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and SnapChat rely upon IP to transport their messages. Without an IP connection, these messaging apps wouldn’t have worked. The plain Jane texting program that’s built into my Android 5 phone doesn’t need IP. SMS originally used GSM for message transport. Now it also uses LTE, CDMA, etc.

T-Mobile provided SMS and voice calling service for days after the storm, before they restored my IP connectivity. They said that about 700 cell sites in Dade and Broward counties had been degraded by hurricane Irma. 

Caveat: SMS isn’t secure, as its transport mechanism, Signaling System 7, lacks an authentication protocol. 

Most of the newest phones, in an effort to make them thin, use batteries that can’t be quickly replaced. Apple began this sorry trend and Samsung followed suit.

Even in good weather, I’m often away for 14 to 16 hours, during which I use my phone. When its battery dies, I pop in a freshly charged battery and keep working.

Apple wants us to think that eliminating the replaceable battery is a step forward. Actually, it’s a step backward.

My limited warship experience 
When I was in my early teens, my Sea Cadet division was invited on Chesapeake Bay day cruises aboard 1950s vintage destroyers and destroyer escorts. I remember seeing five to ten sailors on their bridges, together with a large radar PPI (plan position indicator) display. Even this relatively ancient radar displayed a remarkably detailed picture of the Chesapeake Bay out to fifty miles or so. This radar plus alert sailors on watch meant that there was no way that any civilian or enemy vessels could get near these old warships.

Current civilian ship practice 
A crew member on a 130 foot long yacht tells me that when underway, they always have two crew members on watch, and radar on the bridge that displays out to thirty miles or so. This sailor tells me that merchant vessels have the right of way because warships are faster, more maneuverable, and enjoy more situational awareness information.

So, what’s happening with our warships?
These possibilities occur to me:

• Sabotage. System software has been maliciously altered. 
• GPS signals have been spoofed. While this has been done with civilian GPS signals, spoofing encrypted military GPS signals would be difficult. 
• Dereliction of duty. Poor command of ship. 
• Incompetent sailors. Obama’s focus on armed forces’ diversity and social issues has diluted sailors’ competence.

The Navy has removed the two senior officers and the senior enlisted man from the destroyer Fitzgerald. Yesterday it dismissed Vice Admiral Aucoin, commander of its 7th Fleet. (He was scheduled to retire soon, anyway.)

A Navy inquiry reportedly has excluded cyber intrusion or sabotage.

The AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) has a rich Air Safety Institute channel on YouTube that’s filled with well-done safety related videos. My favorite is their Accident Case Studies channel. Most of these include voice recordings of ATC (air traffic control) radio traffic, and video graphics of the plane in flight, together with a narrator. If you’re a pilot, check out this channel. We can always learn from others’ mistakes.

Here’s one accident case study: (“IMC” = Instrument Meteorological Conditions. i.e., bad weather)

The AOPA’s Air Safety Institute has plenty of other helpful safety related video playlists as well. I recommend their YouTube channel. 

South Florida has always been blessed with hordes of great musicians. These “scopes” contain some of them.

You can browse through my “scopes” by clicking www.pscp.tv/therussbellew.

What’s Periscope?
Periscope is a live streaming video app. There are both IOS (Apple iPhone) and Android versions, which can both broadcast and view video streams. Since Periscope is owned by Twitter, you may use your Twitter account to begin broadcasting your own scopes. Also, Periscope streams may be viewed within any web browser by going to www.periscope.tv.

Have you ever tried to write a Haiku? It’s a Japanese poem form which contains seventeen syllables in three lines. Its brevity imposes discipline. Try writing a Haiku. It’s not easy. 

Twitter imposes a 140 character limit on tweets. It’s sufficient to express one or two thoughts — but only if you distill your idea into a few simple but powerful words. It reminds me of writing Haiku — but without rhyme. (Reason only.)

(Haiku and illustration credit Kelly R Fineman)

Gordon Welchman was an Englishman who, while working on decoding German messages at Bletchley Park during World War II, invented traffic analysis. His idea was that even if one couldn’t decipher message contents, just tabulating who messaged whom, when, and how frequently, lent knowledge about the enemy.

After the war, he emigrated to America, where he became an American citizen and taught the first computer course at M.I.T. He worked for Remington Rand and eventually for the MITRE Corporation, where he enhanced traffic analysis technology and helped develop C³ (Command, Control, and Communication) systems.

Following the publication of his book The Hut Six Story in 1982, which detailed the work of his Hut Six group at Bletchley Park, his security clearance was revoked. This killed his career in intelligence.

Today we call the information that surrounds a message “metadata”.

Walt’s perspective was always that of a user — not a tech freak. Most industry reporters are techies who don’t appreciate that most of us don’t care about the inner workings and secret mechanisms of computers.

Walt speaks a bit about his long relationships with both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. (Walt sat in the passenger seat as Gates, frustrated by traffic, drove his Lexus for miles on the road’s shoulder.)

It’s a pleasant and informative hour-long conversation. 

[Triangulation (MP3)] Triangulation 310: Walt Mossberg

http://podplayer.net/#/?id=39772523 via @PodcastAddict

Compare this to Microsoft. Excel, Word, Access, Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Windows itself — all were weak also-ran competitors to much stronger market leaders. Yet in each case Microsoft worked hard for years at improving its initially weak product until finally it kicked the king off its perch.

Google doesn’t seem to have Microsoft’s tenacity. Why? Maybe success came too quickly to Google. Pagerank and AdWords were instant succeses.

Which model will succeed? Don’t assume that Google will always be the search leader. Microsoft continues to refine Bing, and there’s a long trail of onetime market leaders — Novell, WordPerfect, Lotus, Netscape — lying dead in Microsoft’s wake. 

• Someone has claimed a copyright and objects to its being published here,
• A video hosting or file sharing service has changed its policies or is no longer on line,
• I’ve goofed in any of dozens of ways.

I hate seeing these dead links. In some cases without the video, the article is pointless, so I’m taking these articles off-line. In other cases, the article still makes sense, so I’ll leave the article on-line, dead video links and all.