Posted by Courtney E. Howard
A week ago today, we, the editors with Military & Aerospace Electronics, began complementing our up-to-the-minute industry news stories with informative videos. Peruse the Web site, and you will find embedded in news items more than 18 videos total -- and that number will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming weeks and months.
We invite you to share professional videos that would be of interest to the military and aerospace community with us. Show us your latest technology demonstration or installation, for example.
Among the videos you will currently find on www.milaero.com are: a demonstration of the iRobot PackBot's capabilities, the innovative Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle at work, U.S. Marine Corps personnel setting up a remote satellite terminal, the U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H aircraft deployed for a search and rescue mission, and even comprehensive information about the Military & Aerospace Electronics franchise, which includes a monthly trade publication, digital media such as weekly and monthly eNewsletters, conferences and expos, and more.
We will soon launch the Mil & Aero Command Post, an online community environment in which to share your experiences, opinions, technologies and trends, and more. Would you like to share your amateur videos -- such as videos of your recent deployment, technology you trust and rely on in the field, and more -- with the rest of the community via the Command Post? We hope so.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in authoring videos for potential use on www.milaero.com, please feel free to contact me (Courtney@pennwell.com) or Military & Aerospace Electronics' resident video guru, chief editor John Keller (jkeller@pennwell.com).
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Homeland security market steady
Posted by John McHale
At the GovSec show in Washington last week many of the exhibitors felt the market to be strong and growing but not a boom like it was perceived to be when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
We thought it might be stronger market as well when we launched Homeland Security Solutions magazine and a show of the same name. It turned out that while there was a lot of buzz instead of targeting technology development, most funding was spent on overtime and other "boots and bullets" costs, which were a much more immediate concern.
Over the last few years we and from what I saw last week the industry has learned that homeland security is different than defense. Whereas primes, subcontractors, and the media originally foresaw the DHS as a Department of Defense (DOD) like entity it was in fact quite different.
Jerry Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman's vice president of homeland security told me about a year ago that When DHS first came on the scene it was a top-down approach with the federal government expected to provide all the money.
"Well it's changing and the local communities and states are realizing that if they are sitting around waiting for federal grants they will probably never see them," he said. "They need to aggressively pursue the programs themselves. They're realizing homeland security begins close to home" - and they are gaining the political will to do what they need to do for their communities.
Bruce Walker, also a vice president of homeland security at Northrop Grumman echoed similar things this year. He said they are working a great deal with local first responders on information sharing, perimeter security through the Land Ports of Entry program, and setting up wireless applications with the first being New York City last year and London this year.
There is a wealth of electronics content being developed for homeland security applications. Some of it is leveraged from the military like unmanned systems and infrared technology and some of it is being developed initially for public safety applications.
Buckwalter explained to me last year that "public safety is a different concept than managing warfare." There are many constraints and limitations, and public will is involved - "that's why technology transfer doesn't always work from DOD to DHS." The technology is fine, it is the policies and procedures, congress, etc., that get in the way. There is pretty much a COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) mindset all the way now; it is just a matter of how to manage costs, he said.
While our homeland security coverage is limited at Military & Aerospace Electronics we do focus on it through stories on the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, the DHS counter-man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) program, and coming in July a Special Report on sensors for perimeter security in military and homeland security applications.
Be sure to check it out.
At the GovSec show in Washington last week many of the exhibitors felt the market to be strong and growing but not a boom like it was perceived to be when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
We thought it might be stronger market as well when we launched Homeland Security Solutions magazine and a show of the same name. It turned out that while there was a lot of buzz instead of targeting technology development, most funding was spent on overtime and other "boots and bullets" costs, which were a much more immediate concern.
Over the last few years we and from what I saw last week the industry has learned that homeland security is different than defense. Whereas primes, subcontractors, and the media originally foresaw the DHS as a Department of Defense (DOD) like entity it was in fact quite different.
Jerry Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman's vice president of homeland security told me about a year ago that When DHS first came on the scene it was a top-down approach with the federal government expected to provide all the money.
"Well it's changing and the local communities and states are realizing that if they are sitting around waiting for federal grants they will probably never see them," he said. "They need to aggressively pursue the programs themselves. They're realizing homeland security begins close to home" - and they are gaining the political will to do what they need to do for their communities.
Bruce Walker, also a vice president of homeland security at Northrop Grumman echoed similar things this year. He said they are working a great deal with local first responders on information sharing, perimeter security through the Land Ports of Entry program, and setting up wireless applications with the first being New York City last year and London this year.
There is a wealth of electronics content being developed for homeland security applications. Some of it is leveraged from the military like unmanned systems and infrared technology and some of it is being developed initially for public safety applications.
Buckwalter explained to me last year that "public safety is a different concept than managing warfare." There are many constraints and limitations, and public will is involved - "that's why technology transfer doesn't always work from DOD to DHS." The technology is fine, it is the policies and procedures, congress, etc., that get in the way. There is pretty much a COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) mindset all the way now; it is just a matter of how to manage costs, he said.
While our homeland security coverage is limited at Military & Aerospace Electronics we do focus on it through stories on the Coast Guard's Deepwater program, the DHS counter-man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) program, and coming in July a Special Report on sensors for perimeter security in military and homeland security applications.
Be sure to check it out.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Internet video adoption
Posted by Courtney E. Howard
Video, while not a new medium, is new to many first responder and military personnel. Video, especially via the Internet, is increasingly being used in military and homeland security environments. We too, the editors of Military & Aerospace Electronics, are using video more and more.
We're always working diligently to deliver the community the most comprehensive industry and technology information possible. Today, that means accentuating news stories with informative and illustrative videos. Take a look at this week's news stories on iRobot and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, as examples.
Doubtless, we're not the only ones benefitting from the data-delivery power of video. VBrick Systems Inc. of Wallingford, Conn., for example, is delivering live Internet video technologies to first responders.
VBrick Systems, together with CommsFirst Inc., provide "eyes-on-the-scene" video to assist first responders with situational awareness and readiness. VBoss, VBrick's online Video Streaming as a Service (VSasS), is designed to increase viewer participation of an event by streaming content live.
CommsFirst will promote VBoss to offer pre-event readiness training and provide first-responders with video imagery that is critical to decision-making during and after an event. The VBrick Online Streaming Service platform enables CommsFirst to provide eyes-on-scene, training, and enable video capture and Internet TV delivery for improved situational awareness and readiness. The combined solution brings critical video content to first responder personnel anywhere, in real-time.
We hope you'll keep your eyes on the scene, at http://www.milaero.com/, as we expand our Web site to include more and more videos and a community page.
Video, while not a new medium, is new to many first responder and military personnel. Video, especially via the Internet, is increasingly being used in military and homeland security environments. We too, the editors of Military & Aerospace Electronics, are using video more and more.
We're always working diligently to deliver the community the most comprehensive industry and technology information possible. Today, that means accentuating news stories with informative and illustrative videos. Take a look at this week's news stories on iRobot and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, as examples.
Doubtless, we're not the only ones benefitting from the data-delivery power of video. VBrick Systems Inc. of Wallingford, Conn., for example, is delivering live Internet video technologies to first responders.
VBrick Systems, together with CommsFirst Inc., provide "eyes-on-the-scene" video to assist first responders with situational awareness and readiness. VBoss, VBrick's online Video Streaming as a Service (VSasS), is designed to increase viewer participation of an event by streaming content live.
CommsFirst will promote VBoss to offer pre-event readiness training and provide first-responders with video imagery that is critical to decision-making during and after an event. The VBrick Online Streaming Service platform enables CommsFirst to provide eyes-on-scene, training, and enable video capture and Internet TV delivery for improved situational awareness and readiness. The combined solution brings critical video content to first responder personnel anywhere, in real-time.
We hope you'll keep your eyes on the scene, at http://www.milaero.com/, as we expand our Web site to include more and more videos and a community page.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Still addicted to a crazy game
Posted by John McHale
I just finished another Spring Golf Trip, lost another couple dozen lost balls, donated another $100 to a low-handicapper's kid's college fund … and I still want more.
It's a stupid, expensive, frustrating game and as rusty and jerky as my swing can be I'd much rather be flailing away at a Titleist right now than writing this blog.
I and 11 friends played eight rounds in five days last week on a golf trip in Pinehurst, N.C. No, we didn't play the resort courses this year, but some other tough tracks like The Pit and Tobacco Road.
The golf wasn't always pretty and the better players won out despite the avalanche of strokes some of us humble hackers received, but I wanted to keep playing.
The only real stress is carried by the organizer. This year it was my friend Alex. Organizing 12 idiots and getting them to pay on time can be a pain in the neck, so I'm glad he had the highlight shot of the trip, a near hole-in-one at Tobacco Road. As you can see by this photo of where his ball hit near the left of the cup, he came within millimeters of jarring it. A pretty cool shot!
The game is wonderful stress relief from your everyday druthers. After two or three rounds into the trip I thought of nothing except golf.
I've read stories that service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan that have set up driving ranges and makeshift courses as kind of an escape. Their stresses dwarf anything in my life, yet many of them enjoy the release from smacking drive after drive at the range. Many groups have set up methods to send them balls and clubs and other golf equipment. PGA Tour pros have also visited the troops.
A story that has gotten a lot of play is that of F-16 pilot and golf professional Dan Rooney, who created Patriot Day last Sept. 1. That Saturday golfers were asked to pay an extra $1 on their public-course green fee. That dollar went to the Fallen Heroes Foundation. Patriot Day will be renewed this Labor Day Weekend, Aug. 29 - 31.
So on Labor Day when you tee it up, throw in an extra buck for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Deeply embedded in mil-aero
Posted by Courtney E. Howard
At the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose this week, three trends stood out above all others. The first is multi-core. Embedded systems are increasingly taking advantage of multi-core processors, reaping the benefits of increased processing power in a small package. This increase in electronics and power density brings many benefits, but also greater challenges, such as increased heat--requiring an effective thermal-management solution.
The next important trend is hypervisor, a virtualization platform that enables multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. A number of technology companies in the mil-aero market, such as LynuxWorks in San Jose, are concentrating on the up-and-coming hypervisor trend -- and it is a great fit for mil-aero. It makes perfect sense for real-time operating systems (RTOS) offering multiple partitions, which enable the delivery of and access to classified and unclassified information on the same host computer. Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara (as well as technology partner Intel, whose new Atom processor was used in the computing platform) garnered a great deal of attention with a demonstration of hypervisor at work. A single host computer ran multiple operating systems, such as multiple instances of Linux and Windows, and delivered unclassified and classified information to separate users. The unclassified user's mouse cursor was locked in the unclassified OS window and could not click outside of that space (and onto the classified window).
Lastly, the importance of verifying software code was driven home in a number of show presentations. Static-analysis tools are an important component of any software-development workflow, especially given that modernization programs are bringing about a combination of legacy code, such as Ada, with Java, C, and C++ languages.
These are my thoughts on the embedded computing space, but I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts on multi-core, hypervisor, and software debugging and verification tools? What do you consider the hottest trends in embedded computing today for the mil-aero community?
At the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose this week, three trends stood out above all others. The first is multi-core. Embedded systems are increasingly taking advantage of multi-core processors, reaping the benefits of increased processing power in a small package. This increase in electronics and power density brings many benefits, but also greater challenges, such as increased heat--requiring an effective thermal-management solution.
The next important trend is hypervisor, a virtualization platform that enables multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. A number of technology companies in the mil-aero market, such as LynuxWorks in San Jose, are concentrating on the up-and-coming hypervisor trend -- and it is a great fit for mil-aero. It makes perfect sense for real-time operating systems (RTOS) offering multiple partitions, which enable the delivery of and access to classified and unclassified information on the same host computer. Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara (as well as technology partner Intel, whose new Atom processor was used in the computing platform) garnered a great deal of attention with a demonstration of hypervisor at work. A single host computer ran multiple operating systems, such as multiple instances of Linux and Windows, and delivered unclassified and classified information to separate users. The unclassified user's mouse cursor was locked in the unclassified OS window and could not click outside of that space (and onto the classified window).
Lastly, the importance of verifying software code was driven home in a number of show presentations. Static-analysis tools are an important component of any software-development workflow, especially given that modernization programs are bringing about a combination of legacy code, such as Ada, with Java, C, and C++ languages.
These are my thoughts on the embedded computing space, but I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts on multi-core, hypervisor, and software debugging and verification tools? What do you consider the hottest trends in embedded computing today for the mil-aero community?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Strengthening the mission of putting buyers and sellers together
Posted by John Keller
From time to time, organizations need to restate their primary missions -- not only to reinforce their overall goals, but also to chart how their courses might be evolving. So it is with Military & Aerospace Electronics, whose mission is to uncover trends and enabling technology in defense, space, and commercial aviation applications.
It's true that Military & Aerospace Electronics identifies trends in electronic and electro-optic technologies. We've been doing this since I helped found the magazine in late 1989. It was then, and still is to this day, our mission to track technologies from the chip-and-board level through finished subsystems to identify how these devices represent enabling technologies for the integrators of aircraft, combat vehicles, surface ships, submarines, and spacecraft.
It also is part of our core competence to identify how devices from chips to subsystems represent enabling technologies for finished applications like communications systems, radar, sonar, electronic warfare, navigation and guidance, laser systems, avionics, command and control, satellites and telemetry, and so on.
To do this usefully, Military & Aerospace Electronics identifies and explains trends in the component technologies from chips to subsystems -- trends involving topics such as power and thermal management, high-speed fabrics and networking, circuit board form factors and standards, microprocessors, field-programmable gate arrays, power electronics, diodes, fiber optics, MEMS and nanotechnology, software-engineering tools, sensors of all kinds, advanced I/O, test and measurement, and so on.
We achieve these goals not only through our print magazine and supplements that you've come to know over the years, but also through a Website that's updated every day, the Webcasts we host periodically throughout the year, our newly improved online buyers guide, which also comes out in print once a year, our electronic newsletters -- the weekly e-newsletter and our monthly Defense Executive e-newsletter for executive managers -- and our Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum conference and trade show.
What this all boils down to is Military & Aerospace Electronics puts buyers and sellers together. A radar system designer, for example, has performance requirements and a set range of operating conditions. It's our job to help alert that designer to the latest enabling technologies to help him meet his objectives.
We can help that designer understand what to look for; what's bleeding-edge technology, and what's tried-and-true; where cooling, size and weight, and power consumption are big factors; what he needs to look for in computational performance; and what range of components might be rugged enough for his application.
This is what we do. You don't have to take my word for it; take a look at the video below to see what others in our market are saying about Military & Aerospace Electronics.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Xpantivirus attacks
Posted by John McHale
I got hit yesterday with a virus my IT guy hadn't seen before. Called the Xpantivirus, it fools you into thinking it's an antivirus software application that caught some spyware on your system and wants you to download the solution.
It had me till the download part. I thought that looks weird, called my IT guy and he said I dodged a bullet by not downloading. If I had it would've opened up a path for all sorts of malware, porn, and other crap to get into my computer.
So this is a little friendly warning in case any of you come across it. I got hit with it while surfing the web looking for information for a story.
My IT department provided the definition of the threat below.
Description: Xpantivirus is a rogue security tool, a program that claims to detect and remove or disable spyware, viruses, or other Internet threats. However, its capabilities are limited, and the tool may actually function as spyware or adware. This rogue anti-spyware tool often tricks users into purchasing. Trojan horse programs may force installs of Xpantivirus or make the application difficult to remove. It can be distributed through exploits particularly, the Vcodec vendor, which tricks user with Windows Media player codecs and forces an install.
Vendor: Xpantivirus.com
Threat level: medium risk
Xpantivirus characteristics: displays ads; hijacks internet browser; downloads unsolicited files; exploits a security flaw; distributes threats; installs without user consent; and makes fraudulent claims about spyware detection and removal.
Keep your eyes open.
I got hit yesterday with a virus my IT guy hadn't seen before. Called the Xpantivirus, it fools you into thinking it's an antivirus software application that caught some spyware on your system and wants you to download the solution.
It had me till the download part. I thought that looks weird, called my IT guy and he said I dodged a bullet by not downloading. If I had it would've opened up a path for all sorts of malware, porn, and other crap to get into my computer.
So this is a little friendly warning in case any of you come across it. I got hit with it while surfing the web looking for information for a story.
My IT department provided the definition of the threat below.
Description: Xpantivirus is a rogue security tool, a program that claims to detect and remove or disable spyware, viruses, or other Internet threats. However, its capabilities are limited, and the tool may actually function as spyware or adware. This rogue anti-spyware tool often tricks users into purchasing. Trojan horse programs may force installs of Xpantivirus or make the application difficult to remove. It can be distributed through exploits particularly, the Vcodec vendor, which tricks user with Windows Media player codecs and forces an install.
Vendor: Xpantivirus.com
Threat level: medium risk
Xpantivirus characteristics: displays ads; hijacks internet browser; downloads unsolicited files; exploits a security flaw; distributes threats; installs without user consent; and makes fraudulent claims about spyware detection and removal.
Keep your eyes open.
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