Saturday, December 24, 2005

A Real American Hero

From the story of the Real GI Joe:

On Oct. 26, 1942: The last man did not fail

Oct. 26 fell on a Thursday this year [2000]. Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks -- five more days to stock up for Halloween? It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What he did 58 years ago, he did precisely so his grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.

Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms he and his kind fought to leave us as their legacy, may be a discussion better left for another day. Today we struggle to envision -- or, for a few of us, to remember -- how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago -- the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven the U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a Eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up in Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By late 1942 they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor of Pearl Harbor.

As Mitchell Paige -- then a platoon sergeant -- and his men set about establishing their last defensive line on a ridge southwest of the tiny American bridgehead at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide a definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?

The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1895. But in preceding days, Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps "with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval historian David Lippman.

The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, American commanders had so little to work with that Paige's men had only four 30-caliber Browning machine guns on the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that fateful night of Oct. 25.

By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men," historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ...The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."

Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor adds: "When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt.Paige, commanding a machine gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition in its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt.Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

The weapon did not fail.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied U.S.Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?

On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.

One hill: one Marine.

But that was the second problem. Part of the American line had fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."

For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few mess men who had brought food to the position the evening before.

"Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small force to clear the crest."

And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking. But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."

And now you know.


The Washington Post
November 18, 2003; Page B06

Mitchell Paige, 85, a retired Marine Corps colonel who received the Medal of Honor after almost single-handedly staving off enemy forces during a crucial battle of World War II, died Nov. 15 at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

United States Marine Corps

Since 1775

Here's to you and to our Corps.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Freedom













For those who fight for it, freedom has a special flavor the protected will never know.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Back to Business

I've been working on the courses that I'm taking over the summer at CAC. I'm trying to knock out the education credits that I need to teach here in Arizona. The courses aren't all that difficult (Behavior Management and Intro. to Education) and actually are quite interesting. They just take a little time for the reading and writing papers. I've got a couple of more chapters to go and hope to have it all finished over this weekend. Then it's back to playing with microcontrollers. I really miss the little guys.

I've been seeing a lot more discussion about FPGAs in the literature lately. It looks like they are coming to light as the versatile little buggers that they are. EDN magazine has an interesting little article in the July 7 edition on the image-processing applications of FPGAs. In Embedded Systems Programming magazine (July 2005) the editor has a nice piece about his experiences with FPGAs.

Good news! IEEE Spectrum magazine is reporting in the July 2005 issue that engineering salaries are slowly starting to rise again in the US and are really taking off overseas. Overseas, salaries for engineers are increasing by double digit percents. The drain that has occurred here in the US with engineering jobs seems to be heating up the job market in China and India. Hopefully, some type of near equity will be reached with US engineers and some of the jobs that have been sourced off-shore will start returning.

Computer magazine (July 2005) also has an article on embedded computing and discusses the need for computer science to revisit its foundations and prepare for the 21st century by creating practices that will meet current and projected needs. It will be necessary to reinvent computer science. There are issues of precision and reliability involving temporal issues. We have the basic tools that we need. We just need to start using them. Technology is ready for another leap. The time is just about right for another revolution such as occurred as transistors became ubiquitous.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Star Trek New Voyages


I came across a cool web site for an independent Star Trek fan film production group at Star Trek New Voyages. They have released two films so far that pick up where the original series from the 1960s left off. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise had completed three years of their five year mission when the series was cancelled and the fan films pick up during the fourth year. All of the original Enterprise crewmembers are portrayed by new actors who give fresh interpretations of the original characters.

The first two episodes “Come What May” and “In Harms Way” were released in 2004. These short films are available free for download from the website in zipped WMA format either through direct download from mirror sites or through bit torrent. Each episode is presented as a teaser and five acts. There are two more films in development and are scheduled for release in 2006. The third film is being written by one of the writers from the original series and will guest star Walter Koenig - Mr. Chekov from the original series and the movies.

I was impressed with the quality of the films considering that they are privately sponsored and produced. There are quite a few computer generated special effects but the look and feel is approximate to the original series plus something a little more. The costumes, props, and sets are very well done. I noticed the improvement between the first episode and the second episode and anticipate again as much improvement in the upcoming episodes. Since Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled and there is no Trek in sight, at least not for a few years, the production of fan films such as New Voyages will do nicely to fill the void for Trekkers such as myself.

I know that there are other fan films in production, some spinning off from the later series such as "The Next Generation." But for me, it's exciting to see Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise back in action again - boldly going where no man has gone before.

Friday, June 24, 2005

A View from Space


This satellite picture was taken at 18:50 UTC on June 23 by NASA's Terra Earth observing satellite. The pixel resolution on this picture is 250 meters. The Terra satellite and other NASA satellites monitor the atmosphere for carbon monoxide and other pollutants. This picture shows the wildfires burning here in Arizona. Terra has been used for the past several years to monitor wildfires all around the world. The instruments on Terra are sensitive enough to allow analysts to be "able to tell the difference between pollutants originating from wildfires and those from urban and industrial sources."

The white fluffy things on the right are obviously clouds, but the gray smears to the south of the white clouds along the center right hand side of the picture are smoke trails from the wildfires. The gray smudge below the smoke trails is Phoenix. That's the Gulf of Baja at the bottom of the picture and the dark kidney bean shaped object towards the left is the Salton Sea. Of course, that's the Pacific coast of Southern California looking overcast all the way to the left.

If you are able to zoom in with your browser, you can see the red outlines drawn in by NASA showing where the wildfires are located. I'm not surprised at the number of fires. We had a relatively wet winter and spring was really beautiful here in the desert with all of the wild flowers. But, it has been over a hundred every day for the last couple of weeks and everything had dried up for the summer. The last couple of nights there have been lightning flashing in the sky all around and so there is bound to be fire. We even got a little rain last night which might signal the start of monsoon season.

Thursday, June 23, 2005


Tacia, Class of 2005 Posted by Hello

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

What is an Electrical Engineer?

The first thing that we need to do is define terms.

"Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline that deals with the study and application of electricity and electromagnetism. Its practitioners are called electrical engineers. Electrical engineering is a broad field that encompasses many subfields." (From Wikipedia.)

This is a good general description of an electrical engineer. The definition makes a point that electrical engineering is not one monolithic discipline but consists of several subfields. These include power, control systems, digital signal processing (DSP), analog and digital electronics, computers, biomedical, and radio frequency (RF) electronics.

The next step is to take a closer look at those subfields. Since this is my blog, I've chosen to take a look at the subfields or emphasis in electrical engineering that I am involved with.

Digital Electronics: "The branch of electronics dealing with information in binary form." (From Electroflash)

This is a short but concise definition. Along with digital I also have an emphasis in computers.

Computer Engineering: "A specialized discipline that combines electrical engineering and computer science. A computer engineer is an electrical engineer with a focus on digital logic systems, and less emphasis on radio frequency or power electronics. From a computer science perspective, a computer engineer is a software architect with a focus on the interaction between software programs and the underlying hardware components." (From Wikipedia)

Computer Engineering at some universities is a separate discipline; at others is an emphasis in electrical engineering. The definition given above for computer engineering details more specifically the types of activities that I was involved with while working to obtain my degree in electrical engineering. My focus was more on the interaction between software and the underlying hardware components along with my focus on digital logic systems.

I spent a lot of time dealing with lower level language such as assembly and in examining what exactly happens in machine language as instructions are executed. This provided me with a better understanding of what is occurring when executing higher level instructions in languages such as C/C++. Getting down to transistor level design is the most basic and most enjoyable part of what I do. I also work with large scale components such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs). When it comes to design entry languages using either Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) or Verilog I prefer to use VHDL because I think that it works better for systems level design and in Register Transfer Level (RTL) modeling.

I also found fascinating the solid state physics involved in the creation of semiconductor devices. This is a topic that I would like to study more about in the future. It is truly amazing to me what is going on at the atomic level in these devices.

So this is where my head is at with this stuff. There is a lot of ambiguity as to what an electrical engineer is and does.

Once I was asked by a friend what I studied in college.

"Electrical Engineering," I replied.

"Oh, then you know how to wire houses and stuff."

"Yeah...and stuff."

Monday, June 20, 2005

Return to Space

Here is a little quiz for you. Name the orbiters in the original space shuttle fleet.

The orbiter Discovery and its new and improved external tank and solid fuel boosters rolled out to Pad B on June 15. The window for launch is now July 16 – July 31. This means that we are less than a month away from return to flight with STS-114.

I can remember when we returned to space after the loss of the Challenger. I was at work and the plant manager wheeled a television into the plant and stopped production so that everyone could gather around to watch. It was one of those kinds of events. I still remember the roar of applause and cheers from everyone in the plant as we watched the launch.

STS-114 commander Eileen Collins says that the crew is ready to go. They are very confident in the improvements made to the entire space transportation system, enough so to climb aboard and light the candle in July.

When asked if she thinks that it is worth the risk, she responds that the need for humans to explore makes it worth the risk. She states that we are taking just tiny first steps – we are flying the space shuttle, building the space station, preparing to return to the moon and then go on to Mars – in the beginning of manned exploration of space. Commander Collins agrees that there are still risks, but she feels that the shuttle is safe enough to take those risks. She equates what we are doing now to what the early explorers did setting sail into the Atlantic in those tiny little boats. Those boats, she explains, were a lot less safe than the shuttle is and she thinks that those early explorers were crazy to do what they did. But that is where we are now, taking the first tiny steps of exploration into a new world.

The answer to the quiz is this: There were six orbiters in the original fleet. We have lost Challenger and Columbia in accidents. The remaining orbiters are Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis. The first orbiter of the fleet was an experimental/test orbiter that never made it into space – the Enterprise.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Day Seven

On the Road Again

We're getting ready to head out first thing tomorrow to California for Tacia's high school graduation on Thursday. I plan on spending Friday and Saturday on the beach. I’ve got my bottle of SPF 80 sunscreen all ready to go.

I've got all of the essentials packed: my PocketPC filled with recent podcasts and ripped mp3s, digital camera and digital video camera, Todd Cochrane's 'Podcasting' book, Kevin Mitnick's book 'The Art of Deception', my USB thumb drive with my school stuff on it, and my toothbrush. After the graduation ceremony and festivities on Thursday I'll jack Tacia's laptop and then head off to find a hot spot.

Chris will probably disappear with his surf buddies. I won't see him again until it is time to leave on Sunday. I told him not to leave the state without me. He still hasn't unpacked his bag from his last trip to California over spring break, so he's all ready to go.

Luz and Amanda will be taking off visiting friends and relatives in Long Beach and San Diego. They have two huge suit cases packed and a couple of other bags staged and ready to go.

Tacia has some loose ends to tie up - surfing and beach parties - before she leaves to come back to Arizona, find a job for the summer, and get ready to start at NAU in the fall.

Day Six

A New Planet Found Orbiting Gliese 876

A planet that is being called “Earth’s Big-Cousin” has been found orbiting a star about 15 light-years away. The planet is 5-7 times as massive as the earth and orbits its star in less than 2 days. This means that it must orbit very close to the star, only about 2 million miles away. Being that close to its star means that it is probably composed of rock, making it the first solid extra-solar planet discovered.

There have been approximately 150 extra-solar planets discovered so far, but they have all been gas giants like Jupiter. There have been no direct observations of Earth size planets because they would be hidden by the glare of the stars that they circle. It is kind of like looking for a pea on the lens of a search light.

A new type of space telescope that is due to be put into orbit in the next few years will have the capability of directly observing Earth size planets. Once they are detected we can use various methods to analyze the light being reflected off of the planets to look for clues of life.

The question of are we alone in the cosmos will probably be answered within the next twenty years. If we do detect evidence of life out there, then the question becomes what do we do next?

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Day Five

Nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, and Space Exploration

I just read a very interesting article on micro-spacecraft that are being developed by 'The Aerospace Corporation' working with NASA Ames Research Center. The spacecraft will be cone shaped, similar to the Apollo capsule, only much smaller - on the order of only one foot in diameter. This is being made possible through the application of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology deals with the construction of machines and electronics on the scale of a billionth of an inch (smaller than the thickness of a human hair). The techniques for constructing such devices relies in part in photolithographic techniques such as are used to construct microchips. This technology allows us to construct much smaller, much more complex machines requiring much less energy to operate.

Some of the components of these spacecraft will be data recording devices, transmitters, accelerometers, chemical and biological sensors, and pressure sensors. Spacecraft of this size can be used as probes launched from larger spacecraft to explore much larger areas of a planets. They will also be used as black boxes to record flight information from satellites and the new CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) that is being designed as the next generation spacecraft to replace the space shuttle. In one application scenario they will be dispersed to form a network of interconnected nodes to gather information about a particular environment in preparation for subsequent exploration.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in designing similar devices is becoming more prevalent. Already, AI has been used to design antennas for spacecraft according to predetermined specifications. The AI is able to generate designs and "evolve" them to arrive at a design in which flaws and weaknesses have been eliminated through survival of the fittest type design reiterations.

The stuff of science fiction from only a few years ago is continuing to become science fact in relevant engineering applications. There is an article at the NASA website that discussed more details of what is coming in this area of technology.

View the article at NASA's Micro Spacecraft.

Micro Spacecraft - Now fact, not fiction. Posted by Hello

Day Four

Classic Rock

I added a link on the right to a local classic rock radio station. If I had one reason to stay in this area, this radio station might be it. Fortunately, they have a streaming broadcast so I will be able to listen online whereever I end up.

What I like best about this station is "NO COMMERCIALS" at all. (Except for their occasional station identification as mandated by law, but they're so cool you really don't notice them.) They also play a really good mix of the classics.

A word about the station's philosophy from their website:

"KCDX, a privately owned and funded radio station, operates each day with one mission in mind: Staying true to the music. We have thrown the corporate radio guide book out the window, and replaced it with real listeners' views and opinions.

Artists and listeners alike know that Rock and Roll isn't made up of just 500 hit songs. Rock and Roll is so much more than that. We know this. This is why we here at KCDX spend countless hours digging deeper into our collections to find those missing pieces of Rock and Roll history.

As KCDX nears its fourth year of playing NON-STOP Rock and Roll, we promise to never let our search for Rock and Roll end. If you, too, are passionate about your Rock and Roll and would like to help the search for great Rock and Roll, please visit our “Rate the Rock” page and help us discover."

Give a listen to what's playing at KCDX.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Day Three

Day three and I'm still going.

I've been getting a lot of good information on podcasting out of Todd Cochrane's Podcasting book. Lots to learn here. Podcasts are like self-produced radio programs that anybody with a computer and a microphone can put together. I'm on Chapter Three - "Finding and Subscribing to Podcasts" - and there is just too much information out there. Really good stuff. I've spent a lot of time looking around on the websites that he suggests and have downloaded a couple of different podcatcher clients to try out. I have been using the one that comes as a part of Thunderbird to catch blogs and I really like it, but the various podcatcher software that Todd describes in the book are really good and open up a whole new level of the podcasting experience to explore. I like the idea of having podcasts of topics that I am interested in downloaded onto my PocketPC and then being able to take that with me to listen to the podcasts throughout the day - listening to what I want, when I want.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Day Two

This is my second day of blogging.

"Blogging" kind of sounds like a made up word for something that I used to do as a kid in the winter back in Michigan.

Bob: "It snowed twelve inches last night. What go you want to do today?"
John: "Let's go blogging."

I think the term that we used was 'boggining.

I just received in the mail today a copy of "Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide" by Todd Cochrane.

It has a really nice look and feel to it. I've read his acknowledgments and Introduction and have just started on Chapter 1. It's nice to be able to put a face with the voice that I've been hearing on the "Geek News Central" podcasts. I think that the book is going to be one of those "can't-put-it-down" kind. Leafing through it, it seems to have a nice mix of technical and layman explainations on how to find podcasts to subscribe to and what it takes to produce and distribute your podcast.

You can find it at Amazon: Podcasting

I'm thinking that a podcast would be a good way to get Tacia's music out to a larger audience. It's something to think about.

Tacia (left) at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Posted by Hello

First Post

Let's see how this thing works.

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts over the last few days. This is something new to me. It is supposed to be the next big thing in broadcasting.

Here are a couple of geek/tech blogs with podcasts that are kinda cool:

Geek News Central
Evil Genius Chronicles

There are a couple of blogs that I have been following, again computer geek/tech stuff:

Kevin Rose
Space.com

That's all I want to do for my first post. I want to work on getting the hang of this before I try anything more.