Coquina Daily

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Frequency Hopping

Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress. Though known primarily for her great beauty and her successful film career, she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum encoding, a key to modern wireless communication.

Avant garde composer George Antheil, a son of German immigrants and neighbor of Lamarr, had experimented with automated control of instruments. Together, he and Lamarr submitted the idea of a Secret Communication System in June 1941. On 11 August 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387  was granted to Antheil and Hedy Kiesler Markey. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam.

The idea was impractical, ahead of its time, and not feasible due to the state of mechanical technology in 1942. It was not implemented in the USA until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba, after the patent had expired. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil (who died in 1959) made any money from the patent. Perhaps due to this lag in development, the patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award for this contribution.

Lamarr's and Antheil's frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, e.g. CDMA used in devices ranging from cordless telephones to WiFi network connections. Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council, but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.

In May 2008, playwright Elyse Singer was slated to premiere a new play in New York City, Frequency Hopping, about Antheil and Lamarr's frequency-hopping invention.

Hedy Lamarr died in Altamonte Springs, Florida (near Orlando) on January 19, 2000.
link1   link2
suggested by Joan

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Try a new browser

 

What's a browser? It is that piece of software you are using to view this website. For most people it is likely Internet Explorer. Why would you want to try a new browser? Well, you might find that a different browser provides you with a better Internet experience. There are two free browsers that are dramatically faster than Internet Explorer.

Safari is from Apple and it has recently been made available for Windows operating systems. If you are a Mac user, you probably already use Safari. Safari is my favorite and it can do a couple things that no other browser can do. First off, it is the fastest browser - about twice as fast as Internet Explorer. Web pages will load much more quickly, so you will spend more time reading and less time waiting. Safari is the only browser that has full time color management. Photographs often have a color profile embeded in them to tell the computer how to correctly render the colors. Without color management a browser will display a pale rendering of a photograph. Without color management you never get to see an image the way the artist created it. The photos below show how differently photos can look without color management. Safari is also the only browser that will render drop shadows on text (if so specified in the code). If you are using Safari, you will see drop shadows on the title Coquina Daily at the top of this page. If you are not using Safari it will be plain text. Download Safari here.


With color management


Without color management


Safari users see this at the top of the page.

Firefox 3 is the newest version of Firefox. It is dramatically faster than Firefox 2 and nearly as fast as Safari. But Firefox does not have color management enabled when you download it. Color management must be turned on, but there is a resultant decrease in performance. With color management enabled, Firefox 3 is noticeably slower - not quite as slow as Firefox 2. Download Firefox 3 here.

For a demonstration of color management see this website.

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AirJelly

Festo created a radio controlled helium balloon that is able to move through the air the way a jellyfish moves through the water. Why? To see if if could be done. It may be a useful means of propulsion for future machines.  link1  link2

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Kayaking at Anastasia Park - If you are going kayaking today, I would be happy to have photos to include on this webpage. Take along your digital camera and I will show your pictures here. Thanks

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Shaun the Sheep - episode 12

See yesterday for episode 11.

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Today's Activities Schedule

7:30 Men s Golf @ Shores
7:45 Ladies 9-Hole Golf
7:45 & 8:45 Aqua Aerobics
8:00 Tennis
9:30 Ladies Bible Study
10:00 KAYAKING ANASTASIA Pk.
12:00 JUNE BIRTHDAY LUNCH
1:00 Alzheimer s Dementia Grp.
2:00 Dance Class
7:00 Dominos/Line Dancing
7:00 Bocce Ball

Tomorrow's Activities Schedule

7:45 & 8:45 Aqua Aerobics
9:30 Basket Making
10:00 Cribbage
1:00 Hand & Foot
3:00 Investment Group
4:00 Pickle Ball
7:00 Ladies' & Men s Poker
7:00 Mah-jongg

See the complete calendar

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Click once a day to help feed rescue animals.

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Coquina Daily Cat

Brick Oven by Aaron Landry - link

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Coquina Daily Dog

Flyball by Bill S - link

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Sunset

Alpenglow Sunset by Jeff Maurone - link