s t r a n g e cousin susan

Hedy = <3 (1)

Monday 8th February, 2010 @ 13:15 pm

Hedy Lamarr!

from wikipedia:

Avant garde composer George Antheil, a son of German immigrants and neighbor of Lamarr, had experimented with automated control of musical instruments, including his music for Ballet Mecanique, originally written for Fernand Léger’s 1924 abstract film. This score involved multiple player pianos playing simultaneously.

Together, Antheil and Lamarr submitted the idea of a secret communication system in June 1941. On August 11, 1942, U.S. Patent 2,292,387 was granted to Antheil and “Hedy Kiesler Markey”, Lamarr’s married name at the time. 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 ahead of its time, and not feasible owing 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. Perhaps owing to this lag in development, the patent was little-known until 1997, when the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Lamarr an award for this contribution. In 1998, Ottawa wireless technology developer Wi-LAN, Inc. “acquired a 49 percent claim to the patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock” (Eliza Schmidkunz, Inside GNSS); Antheil had died in 1959.

Lamarr’s and Antheil’s frequency-hopping idea serves as a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones. Similar patents had been granted to others earlier, such as in Germany in 1935 to Telefunken engineers Paul Kotowski and Kurt Dannehl who also received U.S. Patent 2,158,662 and U.S. Patent 2,211,132 in 1939 and 1940. Blackwell, Martin and Vernam’s Secrecy Communication System patent from 1920 (1598673) does seem to lay the communications groundwork for Kiesler and Antheil’s patent which employed the techniques in the autonomous control of torpedoes.

Tagged: hedy lamarr, serial girls

It’s still February

Monday 8th February, 2010 @ 7:05 am

Categorized: television

So, according to an old friend of mine, birthdays can be celebrated until the end of the month and not fall into the awkward “belated” status.

“Wait, how old am I this year?” Lis asks the headless freak in the corner. Her voice belies her incredulity, until she sees the age spots on her hands and remembers she’s the Pied Piper to a trio of youngsters these days.

Only a week past deadline, so there’s to be no clever haiku for Lis Sladen’s birthday this year. Anyway, I can’t hear myself think as the deadline whooshes past me, so just as well.

Tagged: elisabeth sladen

Sunday Night Susan Foreman Four-Fer

Sunday 7th February, 2010 @ 18:41 pm

Categorized: television

Because Vicki and every other companion who came after Susan weren’t her.

Not that they were bad, but they. Were. Not. Susan.

Tagged: carol anne ford, doctor who, susan foreman

Just back from my walk, then.

Sunday 7th February, 2010 @ 11:03 am

Categorized: me, myself, and i

I braved the longer route today, first time this season and the whole trek, from beginning to end clocked in at 4.18 miles in just under ninety minutes. It would have probably been a bit shorter on time had the bottoms of me poor feet not started to hurt so much. Gotta get those callouses built up again! It’s the hill that killed me, time-wise. If I remember the times, it took about twelve minutes just to get to the top of it. I think that’s about what I found the first time I walked it, but as I did it more and more, the time lessened and lessened (as did my horrible huffing and puffing…thank goodness I don’t smoke any longer or that hill would be impossible!).

Yots of mud, too. Yots and yots of mud on the bottoms of my sneakers, on my pants, on the rocks I picked up and plopped in my shirt pocket. At least I didn’t slip and fall in it, though it was very slippery in spots.

Two more palettes, one more color

Sunday 7th February, 2010 @ 8:56 am

Categorized: colourlover, television

I’m waiting for my iPhone software to update before I leave for my walk, so decided to pass the time by playing around at colourlovers. Plus, I’m listening to the audio commentary from “The Time Warrior” now and quite enchanted by it, though if I hear about the height of Jon Pertwee’s bouffant being a useful gauge of where a particular serial fell in the Who timeline, I shall beat my head against a wall.

It was hysterical the first time it was mentioned, garnered a small chuckle the second and third times, but now? It’s just not funny any longer.

“Insane Robot’s Love” obviously isn’t connected to “The Time Warrior” in any way. I’m just terribly fond of using shades of gray with brighter colors these days. Plus, the serial was mentioned a couple of times in the commentary for “The Time Warrior,” at any rate.