A little robot named Hina (meaning young chick) has become very popular through the Japanese video sharing community, Nico Nico Douga. The video shows a 36 centimeter tall robot modeled after a young girl, grinding beans and pouring ingredients to make coffee. Created by mujaki, she was built largely out of modified parts from KHR-2HV, a robot kit made by KONDO.
robot.com
Cute Japanese Robot Makes Coffee
Robots: Celebrity Robots Brought to Life
Science fiction movie and television icon Robby the Robot from the 1956 movieThe Forbidden Planet has entered many hearts (and Top 10 lists). The latest episode of the Robots podcast interviews Fred "Robotman" Barton, who restored the original Robby, and whose company is the exclusive manufacturer and licensee for Robby and many other well known movie robots. Barton specializes on life-size computerized replicas, including those of the original Star Wars Trilogy droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, Robot Model B9 from Lost in Space, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Maria from Metropolis, the Target Earth robot, or the T2-Endoskeleton. In the interview he describes his work with Robby and other robot collectibles and shares his experience with robots and Hollywood - tune in, or participate in the contest to win a DVD or bluray of your favorite movie robot. robot.net
Human vs Robot Space Exploration
The debate over human vs robot space exploration continues. The last time this issue made news was in 2006 with the death of long time opponent of human space exploration, James Van Allen. Opponents argue that the only purpose of space exploration is to return data to Earth, something they argue can be done by robots more cost effectively than by humans. No one seriously argues that robots should not explore space and there is a long history of successful robotic space exploration. Proponents of human exploration simply disagree that robots alone are sufficient. The latest dust up occurred recently with Stephen Hawking's call for Human colonies on the Moon and Mars. The point Hawking makes is that robotic exploration doesn't expand the human race beyond the planet Earth: Hawking points out that if we devote only one quarter of one percent of the world's GDP toward space exploration and colonization, it would give us a budget 20 times that currently allocated to the International Space Station. One problem may be NASA itself. Scientists within the agency itself have argued that NASA's current human space flight program is an expensive, misguided boondoggle. Now the Obama administration has intervened and may force them to drop Ares to work on a more sensible alternative to get humans back into space. Meanwhile, space robots soldier on. The Japanese Kaguya probe recorded it's final approach to a Lunar impact and the NASA LRO, pictured above, was successfully launched days ago and started it journey towards the Moon. robot.net"Robotic missions are much cheaper and may provide more scientific information, but they don't catch the public imagination in the same way, and they don't spread the human race into space, which I'm arguing should be our long-term strategy. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."
NASA Tests Linux For Spacecraft Control
According to LinuxDevices.com, Linux was selected for a NASA experiment aimed at proving the feasibility of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software for scientific space missions. A key requirement was for application development and runtime environments familiar to scientists, to facilitate porting applications from the lab to the spacecraft. NASA’s “Dependable Multiprocessor” (DM) experiment is among four scientific payloads scheduled for launch in November of 2009, in the “New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission. Honeywell Aerospace was chosen to be the lead contractor for the DM experiment, while Orbital Sciences was selected to build ST8’s “Spacecraft bus.” In order to attain success, Honeywell will have to overcome several obstacles — primarily through enhancements to Linux via custom high-availability middleware, it appears. Embedded Linux vendor Wind River says it was selected to “support the development of NASA’s New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) Dependable Multiprocessor.” As part of its role in supporting the project, the company will supply its Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition (PNE-LE) for use on the DM system. Wind River said that as a whole, the DM system’s Linux-based software would enable the ST8 to “process and analyze its own data to make instant decisions about what is observed without having to send the information to Earth and wait for a reply.” The environment will also be able to dynamically adjust the level of fault tolerance for various subsystems, according to their criticality, the software vendor said. Hope Linux passes this test!NASA Tests Linux For Spacecraft Control
July 22nd, 2007 | by Anil |
Japan: New Internet By 2020!
Japan is planning to start research and development on technology for a new generation of network that would replace the Internet, eyeing bringing the technology into commercial use in 2020.
Japanese Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga said an organization will be set up as early as this fall with cooperation from businesses, academia and government offices for promoting the technology when the Internet is seen to be faced with increasing constraints in achieving higher throughputs of data as well as ensuring data security.
The envisaged network is expected to ensure faster and more reliable data transmission, and have more resilience against computer virus attacks and breakdowns.
The ministry is hoping Japan will take a lead in development of post-Internet technology and setting global standards, a move that ministry officials believe would help make Japanese companies competitive in the global market for hardware and software using such technology.
India Unveils World’s Cheapest $10 Laptop
The ‘world’s cheapest laptop’, developed in India, was unveiled by Union Minister for Human Resources Development Arjun Singh at the Tirupati temple on Tuesday evening.
The laptop, jointly developed by several organisations, such as the University Grants Commission, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be priced at around $10 to $20 (about Rs 500 to Rs 1,000), officials said. This laptop is expected to reach the market in about six months.
The project has already created a buzz in the laptop industry across the world.
The laptop has 2 GB onboard memory with wireless Internet connectivity. To make it useful for the students, especially in the rural areas, the scientists have made it low power consuming gadget.
The $10 laptop is being seen as India’s reply to One Laptop per Child’s XO and Classmate of Intel. The XO, created by scientist Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab was originally targeted to cost only $100 but by the time it was ready to enter the market its cost went up to $188. The Classmate notebook PC from Intel was priced at $ 300 a piece.
In contrast, the Indian government’s effort to market lap top at only $10 has caused a flutter in the international laptop market and many players are curious to know the details of the costing and how Indians managed to keep the cost so low.
source:http://www.techpark.net/2009/02/04/india-unveils-world’s-cheapest-10-laptop/
Dive Into The Ocean With New Google Earth 5.0
ontinuing the trend of online search, Google launched a new service that allows Internet users to explore the depths of the oceans from the comfort of their homes.
Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain.
Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain.
The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.
With ocean in Google Earth, you can:
Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench
Explore the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC
Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species
Discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks
In addition to Ocean, Google also introduced new features will enhance the way people interact with Google Earth and use it to communicate with the world.
Historical Imagery: Until today, Google Earth displayed only one image of a given place at a given time. With this new feature, you can now move back and forth in time to reveal imagery from years and even decades past, revealing changes over time. Try flying south of San Francisco in Google Earth and turning on the new time slider (click the “clock” icon in the toolbar) to witness the transformation of Silicon Valley from a farming community to the tech capital of the world over the past 50 years or so.
Touring: One of the key challenges we have faced in developing Google Earth has been making it easier for people to tell stories. People have created wonderful layers to share with the world, but they have often asked for a way to guide others through them. The Touring feature makes it simple to create an easily sharable, narrated, fly-through tour just by clicking the record button and navigating through your tour destinations.
3D Mars: This is the latest stop in our virtual tour of the galaxies, made possible by a collaboration with NASA. By selecting “Mars” from the toolbar in Google Earth, you can access a 3D map of the Red Planet featuring the latest high-resolution imagery, 3D terrain, and annotations showing landing sites and lots of other interesting featuresCheck out the video tour below:
source:http://www.techpark.net/2009/02/11/dive-into-the-ocean-with-new-google-earth-50/
Internet Connection Speed: The Top 10 Countries
At the end of 2008, approximately 19 per cent Internet connections around the world were at speeds greater than 5 Mbps — a 21 per cent increase over the average global connection speed at the end of 2007.
This is according to the State of the Internet report, a quarterly study by Akamai Technologies, the US-based Internet content distribution giant. The State of the Internet report tracks average connection speeds for countries around the world.
Check out the top 10 nations in terms of average Internet connection speed.
1. South Korea
South Korea rules supreme when it comes to Internet connection speed and broadband connectivity. It is the world’s No.1 with average connection speed of 15 Mbps, ten times the global average!
During 2008, South Korea’s rate of quarterly change appeared to be locked into a cyclical pattern, with quarterly decreases being recorded in the first and third quarters, and increases seen in the second and fourth quarters.
For the whole year, South Korea saw a modest 7 per cent rise in their levels of high broadband adoption. South Korea is also ranked first in terms of high broadband connectivity with 69 per cent connections above 5 Mpbs.
2. Japan
Japan ranks 2nd in terms of Internet connection and high broadband connectivity. Japan ranks 2nd in terms of high broadband connectivity. About 54 per cent of the connections in Japan are above 7 Mbps.
3. Hong Kong
Hong Kong ranks third with an Internet connection speed of 6.9 Mbps. The country ranks fifth in terms of high broadband connectivity with 38 per cent of the connection above 5 Mbps.
4. Romania
Romania is at the fourth position with a Internet connection speed of 5.7 Mbps. The country ranks third in terms of high broadband connectivity with 45% of the connection above 5 Mbps.
5. Sweden
Sweden is at the fifth position with a Internet connection speed of 5.6 Mbps. Sweden ranks fourth in terms of high broadband connectivity with 39 per cent of the connection above 5Mbps.
6. Switzerland
Switzerland has bagged the sixth position with an Internet connection speed of over 5 Mbps. The country however does not figure in the top ten list of countries with high broadband connectivity.
7. Netherlands
Netherlands ranks 7th with an Internet connection speed of 4.9 Mbps. The country ranks 7th in terms of high broadband connectivity with 28 per cent of the connections above 5 Mbps.
8. Belgium
Belgium is at the 8th position with an Internet connection speed of 4.7 Mbps. The country ranks sixth in terms of high broadband connectivity with 31 per cent of the connection above 5 Mbps.
9. Slovakia
Slovakia bags the ninth position with an Internet connection speed of 4.5 Mbps. The country does not figure among the top ten in terms of high broadband connectivity.
10. Norway
Norway ranks tenth with an Internet connection speed of 4.5 Mbps. The country ranks fifth in terms of high broadband connectivity with 38 per cent of the connection above 5 Mbps.
United States is at the 17th position with an Internet connection speed of 3.9 Mbps, up approximately 8 per cent from the average connection speed for the first quarter of 2008.
In terms of Internet connection speed, China is way behind leading economies with an average Internet connection speed of 833 kbps.
India has been ranked at a dismal 115th among 223 countries in terms of average Internet connection speeds. India has an average Internet connection speed of just 772 Kbps compared with the global average of 1.5 Mbps.
sourcehttp://www.techpark.net/2009/04/08/internet-connection-speed-the-top-10-countries/
How I became a walking hot spot
SPEN, Colo.--One thing I love is finding uses for things that perhaps no one has thought of before.
I'd already been on Road Trip 2009 for several days when I arrived in this tony Colorado mountain town known best as a playground for the rich and famous. I was hoping to go for a walk and find something good to eat.
It had been a long day of driving, starting in Colorado Springs, and traveling over Independence Pass, a 12,095 "Top of the Rockies" spot just on the Continental Divide. I had planned to stroll around Aspen for a bit and then use my iPhone to get online and find something inexpensive for dinner.
But I had neglected to charge the iPhone, and by the time I got to town, the battery was more or less dead. This is Road Trip, however, and as someone carting around a car full of high-tech gear, I was determined to find a workaround.
Though it is designed to provide a hot-spot for as many as five people in one place, the Verizon MiFi 2200 allowed CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman to create a mobile Wi-Fi connection for an iPod Touch as he walked around Aspen, Colo.
(Credit: Verizon)
One of the gadgets I am road-testing is a 32GB iPod Touch, a device that, if it has access to a Wi-Fi connection, can do much of what the iPhone can do. But on a walk around a town you don't know, it's hard to count on finding such a connection, especially these days when most people password-protect their Wi-Fi.
However, I also am carrying Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot spot, which converts the carrier's EV-DO signal into a Wi-Fi connection that up to five people can share. I had already used the MiFi to provide a signal for the iPod Touch at the very beginning of the trip so that, while sitting on a boarding airplane, I could download a large file from iTunes.
Now, I realized that by turning the MiFi on and sticking it in my back pocket, I could become, in essence, a walking hot spot, allowing me to get online on the iPod Touch, no matter where I was in town. That meant that I could use the Skype app to make a phone call, run several other apps for one reason or another, and look up good places to eat using the device's browser.
Of course, this is the kind of workaround that isn't going to make sense for most people. If you're going to bother paying for an iPod Touch and a MiFi, you might as well just get an iPhone. But if you're road-testing a number of tech gadgets and you see a way to jerry-rig something to solve a problem, why not do it?
It turns out that it's hard to find decent, inexpensive food in Aspen. But thanks to being able to get online while I walked around, I did end up at a terrific place where I had a good, moderately healthy meal for under $20.
And, since I became a walking hot spot, I was also able to get online on my computer, as well, meaning that I was able to actually do some work while I ate, despite the fact that the restaurant where I found that inexpensive meal didn't offer Wi-Fi.
In the end, one thing puzzled me, though. When I first linked the iPod Touch to the MiFi connection, I tried to locate myself using the device's map feature. But instead of pinpointing where I was in Aspen, it told me I was somewhere in Virginia. I thought that was odd, but I chalked it up to the fact that without a GPS chip, it figures out its location relative to the Wi-Fi signals it finds. Given that the MiFi is a loaner, I thought that maybe it had come from Virginia.
Later, however, when I returned to my car and got ready to head out, I plugged in my iPhone and again, with some power, tried to see if it, with GPS, it could locate me. Oddly, though, the iPhone also told me I was in Virginia.
My only conclusion for the fact that both devices told me this: that the folks in Aspen have figured out some way to trick Google Maps so as to keep out the hoi-polloi. But maybe it was something else. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel.
source :ttp//news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10275564-52.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
Suivez La Ligne Rouge...
...voilà en substance le futur du GPS vu par la société MVS. En effet, le GPS ne se contente plus de vous afficher l’itinéraire sur l’écran et par guidage vocal mais vous montre la route à suivre "en vrai", grâce à un filet rouge qui s’affiche sur le pare-brise ! Grâce à un ingénieux système de miroirs, ce "fil rouge" s’affiche en trois dimensions sur le haut du pare-brise et peut être utiisé de jour comme de nuit. Il semble tout à fait intégré dans l’environnement, ce qui permet au conducteur de ne pas devoir quitter la route des yeux et de pouvoir ainsi rester concentré sur sa conduite. Ce système est pour l’instant en développement mais quelques vidéos disponibles sur le site de MVS nous montrent comment le système devrait fonctionner, à terme.
source:http//www.topspeed.fr/automobiles/actualit-eacute-s-automobile/suivez-la-ligne-rouge-ar49306.html
BMW est l’un des rares constructeurs européens à proposer des voitures hybrides à la fois luxueuses et performantes. Si la technologie hybride en est encore à ses balbutiements, les constructeurs germaniques comme BMW et Mercedes ont plus d’un tour dans leur sac pour développer ces projets. Deux modèles attirent particulièrement l’attention, la 750i et le X6 ActiveHybrid
BMW s’était déjà fait remarqué avec ses véhicules à l’hydrogène, mais le groupe bavarois explore toutes les pistes possibles pour réduire la consommation de carburant et l’émission de gaz à effet de serre. Attention cependant à ne pas confondre voiture électrique (à 100%) et hybride car ce sont deux mondes différents.
Google Starts Welcoming New Users to Voice Service
By MIGUEL HELFT
Google’s universal voice mail box is opening up to the masses. In March, the company announced Google Voice, a service aimed at simplifying the way people manage their phone calls, voice mail and text messages. The product is an evolution of GrandCentral, which Google bought nearly two years ago.
The service, which allows users to route all their calls through a single number that can ring home, work and mobile phones simultaneously, drew some rave reviews from the news media and customers.
But there was a catch. Google Voice was available only to existing GrandCentral customers.
On Thursday, Google began rolling out the service more broadly. Users who requested an invitation will begin receiving them via e-mail. Then they’ll be able to choose a number and start Google Voice service.
The service is free, and for now Google has not announced any plans to monetize it. But analysts say the product could help Google’s mobile strategy.
In a note to investors, Ben Schachter, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, said:
As with many new Google products/tools, Google Voice will be free for users (but we can envision a scenario where an enhanced version is upsold to enterprises and others). Most importantly, we expect the introduction of Google Voice will help accelerate Google’s mobile penetration by creating a larger mobile ecosystem against which Google can sell/target/monetize advertisements. Additionally, we expect Google Voice to be integrated with Android and, if successful, may help increase penetration of Android-powered smartphones.
Text-Message Service Fields Flood of Jackson Queries
By JENNA WORTHAM
In the wake of the sudden death of pop icon Michael Jackson one thing is clear: Fans can’t get enough of him.
Celebrations, vigils and synchronized moonwalks are being coordinated online. Sales of his music on Amazon and iTunes are soaring, according to The Times’ Media Decoder blog. Twitter is still populated with emotional outpourings of grief and messages commemorating Mr. Jackson’s music and legacy.
Mr. Jackson’s death is also prompting some people to ask questions about the life and history of the late singer. Mobile search service kgb, which employs human beings to answer text queries, has been flooded with questions about Mr. Jackson.
A spokesman for kgb said that since the first reports of Mr. Jackson’s hospitalization and death, the paid service — available by texting kgbkgb (or 542542) — has fielded more than 10,000 questions.
Here are some of the most popular questions, along with the answers from kgb’s “special agents” (we’ll save you the 99 cents apiece that kgb would charge you):
Question: In the Michael Jackson video, “Smooth Criminal,” Jackson does a move where he leans forward as his body is straight, while keeping his feet together flat on the ground. Is this move real/physically possible?
Answer: It is physically possible with the special shoes that were made and a trick in the stage floor. Essentially, he was hitched to a peg.
Question: What does the EO stand for in the Michael Jackson exhibit that used to be at Epcot Center?
Answer: “Captain EO” ran from 1986-1994 and starred Michael Jackson. EO is a reference to Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn.
Question: When was the first time Michael Jackson did the moonwalk in public?
Answer: Michael Jackson showed the world his moonwalk at the Motown 25th Anniversary in 1983 during a performance of “Billie Jean.”
See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Touch Me …
By STEPHEN WILLIAMS
Of the five senses, touch may be the least hip. Except in computing.
So stock up on those spray bottles of iClean, meant to “safely remove fingerprints and smudges without drips, streaks or stains.” You’ll be touching that PC screen plenty when Microsoft’s Windows 7 comes to pass.
Hard on the heels of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch and its multitouch trackpads, Windows Touch will be a “first class way to interact with your PC alongside mouse and keyboard,” said the company.
While there are some touch-screen PCs at retail, from Hewlett-Packard and Dell, the sophisticated functions to be appended to the new OS will purportedly spawn a wealth of devices and applications to take advantage of new ways to tap, click, scroll and zoom.
Windows Touch will be an evolutionary tool; it’s a bit ironic though, that Apple, which will probably incorporate touch functionality in its next OS, Snow Leopard, has set the stage for Microsoft in this category.
In an extensive entry on the MSDN blog, the engineers wrote that they focused “on common activities and refined them thoughtfully with touch in mind. You will have the freedom of direct interaction, like being able to reach out and slowly scroll a web page then flick quickly to move through it.” With touch-optimized applications, “you will be able to immerse yourself as you explore you photos, browse the globe, or go after bad guys in your favorite games.”
Microsoft has begun a Windows Touch Logo program to alert consumers if the machine is touch-optimized. Becoming “Touch”-certified is a multistep process, and Microsoft says it will test each machine in house.
Windows 7 is expected out early next year. A beta version has already been issued, and a “release candidate” for users to audition is to be available at the end of May.
Pricing for Windows 7 Announced
By AZADEH ENSHA
Microsoft today announced pricing plans for its new Windows 7 operating system, which will end up costing consumers less than its oft-vilified Vista counterpart.
Specifically, the estimated prices in the United States for a Windows 7 upgrade are:
* Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99
And the estimated prices for the full Windows 7 package are:
* Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99
Microsoft also says that consumers who purchase new PCs before Windows 7 goes on sale will get free upgrades once it is released in the fall. (Windows Vista Home Basic is not eligible for upgrades.) The company is also offering consumers who live in the United States and other select markets the opportunity to preorder Windows 7 starting tomorrow at a 50 percent discount, which means that in the United States, for example, you can preorder Windows 7 Home Premium for $50 or Windows 7 Professional for $100 while supplies last.
The offer ends July 11 in the United States and Canada, and July 5 in Japan. Customers in the United Kingdom, France and Germany can preorder theirs July 15 to Aug. 14. For all the fine print concerning the offer, click here or here.
Microsoft Windows 7 will officially hit stores Oct. 22.
A Ham Radio Weekend for Talking to the Moon
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: June 26, 2009
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Dogs bay at it. Lovers swoon under it. And some people like to bounce their voices off it.
Enlarge This Image
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Michael Cousins, an engineer at SRI International, a non-profit that operates the dish, center, in the control room, with Ham operators Lance Ginner, left, and Jim Klassen.
Enlarge This Image
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
A radio dish at Stanford is powerful enough to bounce signals off the moon, a tricky endeavor.
The first two are easy, but sending a voice signal 239,200 miles to the moon and back is not quite as simple.
On Saturday, amateur radio buffs or “hams,” as they call themselves, will hold a global bounce-fest, using as many giant parabolic antenna radio telescopes as they can borrow around the world.
Not that one needs an excuse to hold a moon-bounce, but this one is being held as a kind of advance celebration of the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 mission.
Moon-bouncing, also known as Earth-Moon-Earth communications, or E.M.E. requires a higher grade of ham-radio technology than that used for traditional earth-bound communication across parts of the radio spectrum approved by governments for amateur use. Only about 1,000 hams worldwide have stations capable of moon-bouncing.
Skill and luck also help. As the hams say, the moon is a poor sounding board, since it is spinning and has a rough surface that can disrupt signals. The hams’ voices must survive atmospheric interference over the long round-trip journey in a discernible form.
“It’s the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest in amateur radio,” said Joseph H. Taylor Jr., a Nobel Prize winner and retired physics professor from Princeton University who has written software to help radio buffs communicate via weak signals. “It’s possible, but only barely possible.”
Large dishes like those owned by the government and communications companies can solve many of these problems by making it easier to send and receive signals. That’s why the hobbyists have searched out retired or rarely used dishes. So far, operators of about 20 large dishes in the United States, Australia and Europe have agreed to participate in the event.
One of them is located on a hill overlooking Stanford University’s campus, and will serve as the command center for the weekend’s event. Known simply as the Dish, the 150-foot-wide antenna, owned by the federal government, will be outfitted with special equipment and a computerized tracking system to keep a powerful, focused signal on the moon.
A handful of radio enthusiasts have been working on the structure over the last few weeks, huddling inside a central command center below the towering, rusting web of metal. They gathered around whirring communications gear as if it were a campfire and chortled with satisfaction when their “hellos” bounced back from the moon 2.5 seconds later.
There is a point beyond the “because it’s there” challenge.
The hams also hope to inspire young technology buffs. “People think of ham radio as something Grandpa did down in the basement while he smoked and talked to people around the world,” said Pat Barthelow, who has organized the worldwide moon-bounce, called Echoes of Apollo. “I think moon-bounce retains an exoticness and difficulty that can hook some people and bring ham radio into the modern era.”
Creating a homemade radio capable of hitting the moon can require years of tweaking custom components. The setups cost $200 to $2,000.
The United States military began bouncing radio signals off the moon in the 1950s to communicate over long distances when other transmission methods were hampered by atmospheric disruptions. By the mid-1960s, operators at large dishes started building amateur systems capable of moon-bouncing. In 1964, Michael Staal accomplished the feat, linking a setup at Stanford to another one in Australia.
“I got famous very quickly,” said Mr. Staal, who sells antennas to ham radio operators.
Moon-bouncers often hold contests where they must hunt around different frequencies and both send and receive a signal with another station, logging their activities for review. They’re forbidden from communicating with each other via non-lunar means during the contests, and often win a certificate or free subscription to a ham magazine as prizes for making contact with as many others hams as they can.
“It is the thrill of pulling a weak signal out from a long distance that excites the amateur radio folks,” said Jim Klassen, a ham in Reedley, Calif.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 27, 2009, on page B1 of the New York edition.source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/technology/27moon.html?_r=1&ref=technology
