Search and Rescue Goes Digital
1st generation EPIRBs
Starting February 1st, Cospas-Sarsat will discontinue monitoring of the 121.5 & 243 MHz frequencies. These frequencies are used for analog based emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRB). Search and rescue (SAR) groups world wide will only monitor the 406 MHz frequency, which is dedicated to digital locators. The 406 MHz digital band has many advantages over the older Analog systems.
Since the locators send data to the satellites, rather than just a continuous signal, much more will be known about the emergency before a SAR group arrives, such as the type of vehicle and owner. In addition, the accuracy will be greatly enhanced from a 20km initial fix to 100m if locator has a GPS fix. The most important reason for the switch is the reduction of false positives. With the older analog bands, only about 1 in every 50 alerts was real, whereas with the digital system that is reduced to about 1 in every 17 alerts being real.
With fewer false positives and greatly increased accuracy, SAR groups around the world will be better able and faster to respond to life threatening emergencies within the critical "golden day". They will also be able to do this with much less wasted resources.
The phase out of Analog transponders has been a long time coming. The first warnings were sent by the US Coast Guard out in 2000, and the Analog devices have not been manufactured in the last several years. For most large boats the cost of upgrading to the new system was negligible. The change February 1st is world wide and both the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization recommended the switch.
USB Drive Helps to Spread Virus
New reports indicate that the proliferation of the Conficker computer worm (also known as Kido or Downadup) has nearly quadrupled in the last four days. The worm has gone from just over 2 million Microsoft Windows computers infected to 8.9 million, according to estimates by anti-virus company F-Secure. Though Microsoft issued a patch with a severity rating of "critical" in mid-October 2008, just days after Conficker was first discovered, many business computers still have not applied the patch.
Most to all of the infected computers are on corporate networks; Conficker cannot spread through the Internet or e-mails. Instead, when an infected laptop connects to a corporate network, the worm searches for vulnerable computers and attempts to guess its password. Conficker also infects any network shares the user may be connected to. The worm has a list of about one hundred common passwords, including "password" and "qwerty". Conficker also infects USB sticks, which then infect any Microsoft Windows computer the stick is plugged in to.
After it gains access to the computer, Conficker adds itself to the Windows processes "services.exe", "explorer.exe" and "svchost.exe", then makes a copy of itself as a DLL file with a random five- to eight-character name. The worm also disables Windows services such as Windows Update and Windows Defender. Conficker also blocks access to most security-related sites, including Windows Update. The worm then checks several search engines for the current date, then generates a domain name based on that date and downloads infected files from that domain. This domain is believed to be in Ukraine. Conficker makes itself very hard to remove by registering the downloaded files as kernel drivers and the DLL copy of itself of a service.
Microsoft has advised users to install the patch (security bulletin MS08-067), then run the latest edition of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.
US Senators push for DTV delay
The February 17 scheduled transition from analog to digital television broadcast in the United States, members of the United States Senate have introduced a bill that would push back the transition three months later, to June 12. This is due to concerns raised about the government's subsidy program to upgrade to digital TV ran out of money, leaving over 1 million televisions in the United States still running on analog.
"In Minnesota, more than 21% of our households depend exclusively on over-the-air broadcast TV. While the digital TV transition should happen, this delay is necessary to make up for the lack of preparation on the part of the current administration. Unfortunately, after guarantees that the Bush administration would adequately prepare and protect consumers, only in the last few days have they revealed that funding has run out— just weeks before the plug is pulled on analog TV." said US Senator Amy Klobucha , from Minnesota and of the United States Democratic Party.
Senator John Rockefeller, also a Democrat and from the state of West Virginia, also led the charge for the bill to be passed. He said in a statement to the media, "Over 2 million Americans are waiting to receive a coupon to help them offset the cost of equipment that will help them manage the transition. Millions more don't have the proper information they need." He also had a concern that “...because this transition is going to hit our most vulnerable citizens — the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and those with language barriers — the hardest." This call by Senators has also earned the support of president-elect Barack Obama, who be inaugurated on Tuesday.
The government's subsidy program was set up to provide millions of $40 digital converter boxes to people who could not afford to buy a new television or upgrade to satellite or cable transmission. Many people complained that when they received their coupons, they were not able to use them as they had already expired. Currently, approximately 2 million Americans are on a waiting list to receive coupons for these digital converter boxes.
Although members in the Senate as well as the president-elect support this idea, many television stations do not. Nat Ostroff, part of the Sinclair Broadcast Group which owns nearly 60 television stations, says that many stations had used a large sum of money to prepare for the transition to digital broadcast and would lose funds if the delay was passed. "A delay would not be welcome for the broadcast stations themselves," he said, "The sooner we can turn one of them off, in these hard times, the happier everyone would be."
