It's the Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier, the first high data rate K-band transmitter on a NASA spacecraft. It's on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is sending massive amounts of data, from images of its surface—like the first photos of the Apollo sites in 40 years—to 3D data points which are being processed into the most detailed topographical map of our satellite. [NASA]

The New York Observer got this internal staff memo today from NYT deputy managing editor Bill Schmidt to the newsroom, telling them: 1. Do NOT make international calls on your company-issued cell phones and Blackberries; 2. Do not call 411; 3. Please try not to send text messages.

Although we recognize that texting has become an indispensable means of communication for many people, our basic company plans with Verizon and AT&T do not provide for unlimited texting. A lot of texting costs us a lot of money, whether as a per-message fee or as an unlimited-message add-on.

So please use discretion when deciding to send a text, especially if a voice call or e-mail would get your message to the recipient equally well. Do not use Twitter via text messages; install a client like Twitterberry on your phone instead. Do not send picture or video messages ("MMS") from company phones except for work purposes. And do not text from overseas.

Good lord, you are a newspaper company in the communications business, NYT. Jesus Christ you guys are broke. I think I pay about $5 a month for unlimited text messages, and I don't even have a massive corporate account.
Next staff memo: Did you know you can walk right into TD Bank and pick up as many free pens as you want? Please do so!
[NYO. Pic via]

Much of this country's geography is remote, and beyond the reach of cellphone coverage, making American satellites an ideal, if illegal, communications option. The problem goes back more than a decade, to the mid-1990s, when Brazilian radio technicians discovered they could jump on the UHF frequencies dedicated to satellites in the Navy's Fleet Satellite Communication system, or FLTSATCOM. They've been at it ever since.

In fact, everyone from truck drivers to drug dealers to soccer fans have hijacked the system to increase the range of their communications or coordinate operations. Because the practice is so widespread, eradicating it on the ground is probably not going to have a major impact. However, it does illustrate the woeful obsolescence of military satellite technology. [Wired]

Here's the chronology: Cox, the cable and internet provider, announced plans to start a wireless network; Cox then clarified, stating that they actually meant that they were, at least for the time being, partnering with Comcast and Time Warner to piggyback off of Sprint in a venture called Pivot; this dissolved. Now, Cox is going it alone.

The announcement spares us the useful details, like when the network will go live, or what the flagship handsets or handset manufacturers might be. They are promising some kind of mobile TV, a carrier-wide app store, and mobile broadband, but none of these things are revolutionary, or even particularly exciting. But we really shouldn't be sour about this. New competition, even if it's from a stodgy old cable company like Cox, is more than welcome in the lumbering wireless industry. [WSJ]

Previously, the analog shutdown was going to happen in February 17, but with Nielsen estimating 6.5 million U.S. homes still with analog TV only, politicians have thought twice about taking the circus from the people, after their inability to give them bread. [ABC News]

John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden transition team, requested that "the cut-off date for analog signals should be reconsidered and extended". The letter was sent this Thursday to the chairs and ranking Republicans on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Senate Commerce Committee.

Probably realizing that the Roman Emperors were right with their "bread and entertainment" policies, Podesta also argues that Americans can't wake up 28 days after the inauguration "to find their analog TV's no longer able to receive an over-the-air signal".

Indeed. I can see exactly what he means here. Not only it is true that the analog to digital TV program is broken, but I can already imagine people getting up in arms, thinking that the world is over after "the muslim" got into the White House: "Whar's mah TV? This ain't wawkin'! ah knowed thet guy warn't enny fine! Fry mah hide! Kids, t'th' shelter! Git mah rifle!"

So yes, this is a wise move that would benefit everyone until the issues with the program—funding and public education on the analog-to-digital transition—are solved. [Broadcasting Cable]

The embeddable modules would be smart enough to ID themselves and enable both short-range (i.e. home network-style) and long-range (GSM, 3G, WiMax) connections between your portable gadgets, in an automated manner. It's in a similar vein to the personal area net tech that's been mooted for ages, but Apple's suggesting that it could become ubiquitous: you'd plug your iPod into an RF-enabled shirt that'd connect it up, or slip a device into a handbag that has RF connections built-in, and so on.

Possible? We'll have to wait and see. But if Apple's vision proves accurate, and your iPod ends up talking to your shoes which then hook themselves up to your in-car network, then we'll all be bathed in even more RF waves than we are now. [Unwiredview]

Could this be an advanced communications prototype only implemented in the famous Midwestern test market? What types of technologies could be in use here? Bluetooth? Infrared? Yellow extension cord? Hit the jump for a bonus picture and the sad identity of the business that made me even fatter this morning.

– Mark Wilson

The technology also lets cars access "fastest-route" information, calculated by organizing all the data reported from mobile phones, taxi services, and vehicles using this system. How much traffic is on a road is shown via the real time map by thin or thick lines, which then helps your GPS system take the fastest route. Pretty great for when you have to commute back and forth to work—something we're glad to have given up.

The communications portion should be in testing until the end of fiscal '07, and the dynamic route finding will be tested 'til end of fiscal '08. After that, it'll probably be a few years before it's deployed in Japan, and a bunch more before we get them here—if we get them at all. – Jason Chen

Nissan test advanced road traffic system aimed at reducing accidents and easing congestion [Gizmag]

Not only does such an airship need to be unusually light, its battery power has to be more efficient than any in existence today, where it needs to use a quarter of the weight to store the same amount of energy currently possible.

From first-hand experience, we can vouch for how perfectly a blimp functions as a platform in the sky, just sitting up there with very little energy expended. It's the perfect antenna. Thank goodness this particular device will be unmanned, because think of it—oh, the humanity—sitting up there for a year with nothing to do but stare into space. – Charlie White

All-Seeing Blimp On The Rise [DefenseTech]

Hospital staff in Truro who are always in touch [Via SmartMobs]

The ionosphere is an electric band in the upper atmosphere. The Mirage project would station a microwave transmitter on the ground then launch a small rocket into the atmosphere that would release plasma throughout the ionosphere. The plasma would modify the number of electrons within a selected area of the ionosphere, thereby creating a virtual communications barrier. This would benefit the military in two ways: the enemy's communication with satellites would be hindered, and the highly charged ionosphere would allow for better radar relays on our side. The initial phase of the project is complete.

Air Force Aims For Weather Control [DefenseTech]