Indian agriculture, flood control operations and environment management entered the space age on Thursday with the launch of RISAT-1.
Agriculture scientists and policy makers will be able to monitor moisture content, nature and health of the soil in real time thanks to the Radar Imaging Satellite-1 (RISAT-1) launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation from Sriharikota.
An extra large variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-19) built at a cost of Rs 120 crore injected RISAT-1 into a low earth orbit, 536 km away from the earth, 18 minutes after the launch.
The Rs 378-crore satellite is capable of providing real time data on a round-the-clock basis, irrespective of cloud, fog or any other natural hindrance. This is the first of its kind spacecraft to be built indigenously, said Dr K Radhakrishnan, chairman of ISRO.
RISAT-1 will emit radio signals and will record the echoes that return from the earth’s surface. “This will help in understanding moisture level of the earth and characteristics of the soil,” he added.
Dr Ajay Parida, executive director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, said it would help agriculture scientists in advising farmers to select the ideal crop. “The sensors in the radar onboard RISAT-1 will help us with information about the characteristics of soil in each region. We can ask the farmers which crop to select to get the best yield,” he said.
According to Dr Radhakrishnan, RISAT would also help in finding out the health and rate of melt of the glaciers in the Himalayas. “This will help us to understand the intensity of the impact of climate change on our environment. We will be able to measure the size of the glaciers in the Himalayas to find out the quantity of water discharged to the Indian rivers because of the melting of glaciers,” he said.
Though RISAT-1 was scheduled to be launched in 2009, policy planners were forced to shelve the project to launch an Israeli built radar imaging satellite RISAT-2, capable of monitoring human movements in oceans, deserts and wild terrains.
Though the RISAT series have been portrayed as spy satellites, strategic experts like Dr Ajay Lele of theInstitute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) are skeptical about such claims.
“RISAT-1 will take 25 days for each revisit. The resolution of the images given by the spacecraft is nowhere near the quality of images given by satellites like Quickbird-2, the US satellite which identified the location of Osama bin Laden,” said Dr Lele.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
A city full of life
Melbourne is a livable city famous for its shopping, cafes, art and culture. What better place to spend a week of quality time with two teenage daughters?
We checked into our one- bedroom apartment in Chinatown and headed into the city centre. From the moment our feet hit the pavement, we were swept up into a city pumping with life.
Amid the clatter of trams, we negotiated our way through the hordes of pedestrians and gingerly crossed tram tracks to the information kiosk in Bourke Street Mall. The friendly staff plied us with brochures about the city and surrounds - the most indispensible being a map of all the arcades and lanes.
Guided by the map we set out for the Block Arcade, which friends had recommended as a must-see. Before long we were in the midst of quintessential Melbourne.
First we came upon Block Place, a narrow lane with tables spilling out of the cafes which lined each side. It was thick with people and, as we squeezed through the throng, we were wooed by waiters to try their fare.
We found ourselves drawn into a cafe where a vacant table seemed to materialise in the pandemonium. It was easy to imagine we were in the backstreets of Venice. We enjoyed a late breakfast and felt the joy of being in a new and, as yet, unexplored city.
Later in the week we had lunch at another cafe in the same lane while watching a silent Charlie Chaplin movie being projected on to the back wall.
After refuelling we wandered into the 19th century Block Arcade, which has stunningly beautiful architecture and exquisite mosaic floors. It is home to the famous Hopetoun Tea Rooms, where we salivated at all the goodies in the window. There was a line of people waiting for a table and we vowed to return at a quieter time.
We had lunch there a few days later followed by a divine dessert but were obliged to line up for around half an hour as it seems there is no quiet time.
Having enjoyed the tea room, we thought we'd continue the theme and made a booking with another Melbourne institution. The next day we trotted up to the venerable Windsor Hotel all dressed up for high tea. It was delectable and we lapped up the opulence and old world grandeur. It was a highlight of our visit.
We were staying at the Mantra on Russell, which is within walking distance of much of the inner city.
We were minutes away from the free "City Circle" tram, which we caught on the first afternoon and found ourselves at Harbour Town, more by accident than design.
We had a brief foray into discount shopping but it felt hollow after the delights of the old arcades. We resolved to stick to our plan of unearthing vintage clothing stores and other places that we weren't so likely to find at home.
We visited St Kilda Sunday art markets, having heard the suburb was rife with antique shops. We didn't manage to come across them but it was a lively spot to visit nonetheless, with oodles of character and convivial cafes.
We'd also heard that Chapel Street was the place for vintage shopping so we caught a couple of trams from St Kilda and thankfully found the right stops. The girls had a few great finds among the antique bookshops and vintage clothing stores.
We'd been hoping to find more antique shops but only discovered smatterings of what we were after. There was too much to look at in one outing, so we returned later in the week.
On our second visit we went to the Chapel Street Bazaar and there we hit the mother lode. It is a huge building that has endless stalls oozing antiques and nostalgia items, from old china to old yoyos.
It was a blast from the past spotting everyday items that I hadn't set eyes on since childhood but were now being sold as coveted "retro".
I'm happy to say that we eventually stumbled upon our elusive haberdashery shop on the second floor of the Nicholas Building in Swanston Street. Called l'uccello, it harboured lots of little treasures and in the same arcade there were other shops worth visiting, including vintage clothing, and antiques.
Our trip wasn't all about shopping and eating as we were keen to balance it with a bit of history and culture. We had hoped to catch a show but those that interested us had either just finished or were yet to tour.
We visited the Fitzroy Gardens to look through the Conservatory and Cooks' Cottage.
We also visited the National Gallery of Victoria. To avoid being overwhelmed, we focused solely on 19th century Australian art.
The day after the gallery visit we had a half-day tour through the Dandenong Ranges. This deepened our appreciation for the artwork we'd just seen that had featured this beautiful bushland.
We checked into our one- bedroom apartment in Chinatown and headed into the city centre. From the moment our feet hit the pavement, we were swept up into a city pumping with life.
Amid the clatter of trams, we negotiated our way through the hordes of pedestrians and gingerly crossed tram tracks to the information kiosk in Bourke Street Mall. The friendly staff plied us with brochures about the city and surrounds - the most indispensible being a map of all the arcades and lanes.
Guided by the map we set out for the Block Arcade, which friends had recommended as a must-see. Before long we were in the midst of quintessential Melbourne.
First we came upon Block Place, a narrow lane with tables spilling out of the cafes which lined each side. It was thick with people and, as we squeezed through the throng, we were wooed by waiters to try their fare.
We found ourselves drawn into a cafe where a vacant table seemed to materialise in the pandemonium. It was easy to imagine we were in the backstreets of Venice. We enjoyed a late breakfast and felt the joy of being in a new and, as yet, unexplored city.
Later in the week we had lunch at another cafe in the same lane while watching a silent Charlie Chaplin movie being projected on to the back wall.
After refuelling we wandered into the 19th century Block Arcade, which has stunningly beautiful architecture and exquisite mosaic floors. It is home to the famous Hopetoun Tea Rooms, where we salivated at all the goodies in the window. There was a line of people waiting for a table and we vowed to return at a quieter time.
We had lunch there a few days later followed by a divine dessert but were obliged to line up for around half an hour as it seems there is no quiet time.
Having enjoyed the tea room, we thought we'd continue the theme and made a booking with another Melbourne institution. The next day we trotted up to the venerable Windsor Hotel all dressed up for high tea. It was delectable and we lapped up the opulence and old world grandeur. It was a highlight of our visit.
We were staying at the Mantra on Russell, which is within walking distance of much of the inner city.
We were minutes away from the free "City Circle" tram, which we caught on the first afternoon and found ourselves at Harbour Town, more by accident than design.
We had a brief foray into discount shopping but it felt hollow after the delights of the old arcades. We resolved to stick to our plan of unearthing vintage clothing stores and other places that we weren't so likely to find at home.
We visited St Kilda Sunday art markets, having heard the suburb was rife with antique shops. We didn't manage to come across them but it was a lively spot to visit nonetheless, with oodles of character and convivial cafes.
We'd also heard that Chapel Street was the place for vintage shopping so we caught a couple of trams from St Kilda and thankfully found the right stops. The girls had a few great finds among the antique bookshops and vintage clothing stores.
We'd been hoping to find more antique shops but only discovered smatterings of what we were after. There was too much to look at in one outing, so we returned later in the week.
On our second visit we went to the Chapel Street Bazaar and there we hit the mother lode. It is a huge building that has endless stalls oozing antiques and nostalgia items, from old china to old yoyos.
It was a blast from the past spotting everyday items that I hadn't set eyes on since childhood but were now being sold as coveted "retro".
I'm happy to say that we eventually stumbled upon our elusive haberdashery shop on the second floor of the Nicholas Building in Swanston Street. Called l'uccello, it harboured lots of little treasures and in the same arcade there were other shops worth visiting, including vintage clothing, and antiques.
Our trip wasn't all about shopping and eating as we were keen to balance it with a bit of history and culture. We had hoped to catch a show but those that interested us had either just finished or were yet to tour.
We visited the Fitzroy Gardens to look through the Conservatory and Cooks' Cottage.
We also visited the National Gallery of Victoria. To avoid being overwhelmed, we focused solely on 19th century Australian art.
The day after the gallery visit we had a half-day tour through the Dandenong Ranges. This deepened our appreciation for the artwork we'd just seen that had featured this beautiful bushland.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Upgraded police dispatch center up and running
The vintage 1990s computers and cathode ray tube television screens are gone, and in their place is a fully functional, state of the art communications turret, with another right next to it.
Flatscreen shared monitors, fiber optic links to dozens of traffic cameras throughout the township, and realtime access to township, county and state records systems are just a few of the features in the Montgomery Township Police Department’s new communications center.
“Before, we just had our primary township radio network, and now with the county radio network we have the ability to monitor both, and have it duplicated at both turrets,” said MTPD Lt. William Peoples.
“When you have an emergency, you can run two dispatchers with two totally different scenes,” he said.
The township’s board of supervisors included funding for a communication center upgrade in the township’s 2012 police department budget, and work started roughly two and a half months ago on removing computers and cathode ray tube monitors that had been in use since 1996, the last time the communications center was upgraded.
In their place are two turrets, one for everyday police dispatches and another for emergency use, each features three flatscreen monitors — one each for the department’s records management system, for dispatches from Montgomery County’s Department of Public Safety and for interface with state police if need be — for dispatchers like Jo Ann Pearson to keep an eye on.
“I love it. What we had in here was antiquated, even though we moved into the building in 1995. Everything’s a little more labor intensive, but with the upgrades everything’s at your fingertips, the equipment runs faster, it’s just great,” she said.
Directly next to the township police turret that Pearson monitors all day, a second similar turret provides the same information for emergency responders. It hasn’t happened yet this year, but Rick Lesniak, the township’s Emergency Management Coordinator as well as Director of Fire Services, says the second turret will be used for information gathering if an emergency takes place.
“This side of the console is going to be used to coordinate the emergency management activities from the field. The emergency responders, police, fire, EMS, Public Works, everything will come in through here,” he said.
“If, say, the fire company needs an ambulance to go to a certain location they’ll be able to just radio right in, and the person sitting in this console will be able to coordinate all of those resources,” Lesniak said.
And not just township resources. While decisions at a policy level will be made from another emergency operations center, the communications turret will be able to gather data and link communications with departments throughout the five county region in case an incident in Montgomery Township requires some sort of specialized equipment or personnel from Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester or Delaware as well as Montgomery counties.
“It’s like a huge emergency management phone book that you can research for emergency contact information. If you need lumber, backhoes, or certain specialty equipment, it’s all in that software,” Lesniak said.
“We’ll be able to get communications from the field, giving us the field conditions back here so that we know how to plan and react from a higher policy level,” he said.
What’s the fastest way to get that equipment and personnel to the scene if an accident takes out, say, the township’s Five Points intersection? Dispatchers can now check PennDOT cameras at various intersections throughout the township on a wall-mounted flatscreen monitor, which show real-time traffic footage from the township’s busiest intersections.
“We’ll be getting a straight feed from PennDOT, straight through their servers, so we’re going to be able to see all of Montgomery Township at one time,” Peoples said.
“If there’s an accident or something like that, you’ll be able to tell the tow truck driver ‘We’re looking at it, come from this area because 309 southbound is backed up, you might want to go a different say,’” he said.
Those feeds are currently provided by PennDOT through a standard internet broadcast, but fiber optic connections directly from the PennDOT signal network into the station are in the works, Peoples said.
Shared between the police turret and the emergency turret are two additional monitors, one a larger version of the other: both show real time feeds from more than two dozen cameras in and around the township police station itself, which can be used to keep an eye on troublemakers from cars parked outside, through the station’s hallways and into meeting rooms and holding cells.
“If a police car brings a prisoner in, you’ll see them come into the sally port, inside the sally port, then you’ll be able to see them go down the hallway right into the cells themselves,” Peoples said.
Those digital cameras can pan and zoom in to read license plates or capture gestures from inside the cells, and footage from all is saved on hard drives for up to three months if court proceedings require any footage.
Flatscreen shared monitors, fiber optic links to dozens of traffic cameras throughout the township, and realtime access to township, county and state records systems are just a few of the features in the Montgomery Township Police Department’s new communications center.
“Before, we just had our primary township radio network, and now with the county radio network we have the ability to monitor both, and have it duplicated at both turrets,” said MTPD Lt. William Peoples.
“When you have an emergency, you can run two dispatchers with two totally different scenes,” he said.
The township’s board of supervisors included funding for a communication center upgrade in the township’s 2012 police department budget, and work started roughly two and a half months ago on removing computers and cathode ray tube monitors that had been in use since 1996, the last time the communications center was upgraded.
In their place are two turrets, one for everyday police dispatches and another for emergency use, each features three flatscreen monitors — one each for the department’s records management system, for dispatches from Montgomery County’s Department of Public Safety and for interface with state police if need be — for dispatchers like Jo Ann Pearson to keep an eye on.
“I love it. What we had in here was antiquated, even though we moved into the building in 1995. Everything’s a little more labor intensive, but with the upgrades everything’s at your fingertips, the equipment runs faster, it’s just great,” she said.
Directly next to the township police turret that Pearson monitors all day, a second similar turret provides the same information for emergency responders. It hasn’t happened yet this year, but Rick Lesniak, the township’s Emergency Management Coordinator as well as Director of Fire Services, says the second turret will be used for information gathering if an emergency takes place.
“This side of the console is going to be used to coordinate the emergency management activities from the field. The emergency responders, police, fire, EMS, Public Works, everything will come in through here,” he said.
“If, say, the fire company needs an ambulance to go to a certain location they’ll be able to just radio right in, and the person sitting in this console will be able to coordinate all of those resources,” Lesniak said.
And not just township resources. While decisions at a policy level will be made from another emergency operations center, the communications turret will be able to gather data and link communications with departments throughout the five county region in case an incident in Montgomery Township requires some sort of specialized equipment or personnel from Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester or Delaware as well as Montgomery counties.
“It’s like a huge emergency management phone book that you can research for emergency contact information. If you need lumber, backhoes, or certain specialty equipment, it’s all in that software,” Lesniak said.
“We’ll be able to get communications from the field, giving us the field conditions back here so that we know how to plan and react from a higher policy level,” he said.
What’s the fastest way to get that equipment and personnel to the scene if an accident takes out, say, the township’s Five Points intersection? Dispatchers can now check PennDOT cameras at various intersections throughout the township on a wall-mounted flatscreen monitor, which show real-time traffic footage from the township’s busiest intersections.
“We’ll be getting a straight feed from PennDOT, straight through their servers, so we’re going to be able to see all of Montgomery Township at one time,” Peoples said.
“If there’s an accident or something like that, you’ll be able to tell the tow truck driver ‘We’re looking at it, come from this area because 309 southbound is backed up, you might want to go a different say,’” he said.
Those feeds are currently provided by PennDOT through a standard internet broadcast, but fiber optic connections directly from the PennDOT signal network into the station are in the works, Peoples said.
Shared between the police turret and the emergency turret are two additional monitors, one a larger version of the other: both show real time feeds from more than two dozen cameras in and around the township police station itself, which can be used to keep an eye on troublemakers from cars parked outside, through the station’s hallways and into meeting rooms and holding cells.
“If a police car brings a prisoner in, you’ll see them come into the sally port, inside the sally port, then you’ll be able to see them go down the hallway right into the cells themselves,” Peoples said.
Those digital cameras can pan and zoom in to read license plates or capture gestures from inside the cells, and footage from all is saved on hard drives for up to three months if court proceedings require any footage.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Think GPS is cool? IPS will blow your mind
For all of their awesome applications — from portable navigation devices, to self-driving cars, to cruise missile targeting — the American Global Positioning System and its Russian cohort GLONASS have two fundamental flaws: They don’t work indoors, and they only really operate in two dimensions.
Now, these limitations are fair enough; we’re talking about an extremely weak signal that has traveled 20,200km (12,600mi), after all. Passing through concrete and other solid obstacles is hard enough for a strong, short-range cellular signal — you can’t seriously expect a 50-watt signal traveling 12,000 miles to do the same. Detecting a GPS signal on Earth is comparable to detecting the light from a 25-watt bulb from 10,000 miles.
The situation is a little more complex when it comes to detecting a change in altitude; GPS and GLONASS can measure altitude, but generally the data is inaccurate and too low-resolution (on the order of 10-25 meters) for everyday use. Even with these limitations, though, space-based satellite navigation systems have changed almost every aspect of society, from hardware hacking to farming to cartography to finding a girlfriend.
What if we had a navigation system that worked indoors, though? What if we had an Indoor Positioning System (IPS)? Believe it or not, we’re very nearly already there.
Last year, Google Maps for Android began introducing floor plans of shopping malls, airports, and other large commercial areas. Nokia, too, is working on an indoor positioning system, but using actual 3D models, rather than 2D floor plans. Just last week, Broadcom released a new chip (BCM4752) that supports indoor positioning systems, and which will soon find its way into smartphones.
Unlike GPS and GLONASS, there isn’t a standard way of building an indoor positioning system. Google’s approach tracks you via WiFi — it knows where the WiFi hotspots are in a given building, and through signal strength triangulation it can roughly work out where you are. Nokia’s solution is similar, but it uses Bluetooth instead of WiFi, making it higher resolution (but it would require the installation of lots of Bluetooth “beacons”). Other methods being mooted involve infrared, and even acoustic analysis. None of these approaches are accurate or reliable enough on their own, though — in spaces that are packed with different materials, and roving groups of attenuating meatbags, these signals are simply too noisy.
The Broadcom chip supports IPS through WiFi, Bluetooth, and even NFC. More importantly, though, the chip also ties in with other sensors, such as a phone’s gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, and altimeter. Acting like a glorified pedometer, this Broadcom chip could almost track your movements without wireless network triangulation. It simply has to take note of your entry point (via GPS), and then count your steps (accelerometer), direction (gyroscope), and altitude (altimeter).
In short, indoor positioning systems are coming — first to built-up and heavily-touristed areas (in the next year or two), and then, as smartphone saturation reaches 100%, everywhere else.
Now, these limitations are fair enough; we’re talking about an extremely weak signal that has traveled 20,200km (12,600mi), after all. Passing through concrete and other solid obstacles is hard enough for a strong, short-range cellular signal — you can’t seriously expect a 50-watt signal traveling 12,000 miles to do the same. Detecting a GPS signal on Earth is comparable to detecting the light from a 25-watt bulb from 10,000 miles.
The situation is a little more complex when it comes to detecting a change in altitude; GPS and GLONASS can measure altitude, but generally the data is inaccurate and too low-resolution (on the order of 10-25 meters) for everyday use. Even with these limitations, though, space-based satellite navigation systems have changed almost every aspect of society, from hardware hacking to farming to cartography to finding a girlfriend.
What if we had a navigation system that worked indoors, though? What if we had an Indoor Positioning System (IPS)? Believe it or not, we’re very nearly already there.
Last year, Google Maps for Android began introducing floor plans of shopping malls, airports, and other large commercial areas. Nokia, too, is working on an indoor positioning system, but using actual 3D models, rather than 2D floor plans. Just last week, Broadcom released a new chip (BCM4752) that supports indoor positioning systems, and which will soon find its way into smartphones.
Unlike GPS and GLONASS, there isn’t a standard way of building an indoor positioning system. Google’s approach tracks you via WiFi — it knows where the WiFi hotspots are in a given building, and through signal strength triangulation it can roughly work out where you are. Nokia’s solution is similar, but it uses Bluetooth instead of WiFi, making it higher resolution (but it would require the installation of lots of Bluetooth “beacons”). Other methods being mooted involve infrared, and even acoustic analysis. None of these approaches are accurate or reliable enough on their own, though — in spaces that are packed with different materials, and roving groups of attenuating meatbags, these signals are simply too noisy.
The Broadcom chip supports IPS through WiFi, Bluetooth, and even NFC. More importantly, though, the chip also ties in with other sensors, such as a phone’s gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer, and altimeter. Acting like a glorified pedometer, this Broadcom chip could almost track your movements without wireless network triangulation. It simply has to take note of your entry point (via GPS), and then count your steps (accelerometer), direction (gyroscope), and altitude (altimeter).
In short, indoor positioning systems are coming — first to built-up and heavily-touristed areas (in the next year or two), and then, as smartphone saturation reaches 100%, everywhere else.
Monday, April 23, 2012
How Boston's MBTA Is Turning Your Smartphone Into a Personal Ticket Machine
The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority this fall will become the first American railway system in the United States to allow riders to preorder and display their train tickets entirely through their smartphones.
The MBTA today announced that it will be working with U.K.-based mobile ticketing firm Masabi to deploy and operate a mobile application that will let users purchase their commuter rail tickets on their device and to add more value to their standard "Charlie Card" subway passes. While there is no firm date yet when the new application to launch, MBTA officials are hopeful that it can come online sometime this fall after conducting some summertime trial runs. The app will be available for download on iPhones, BlackBerry smartphones and Android devices, according to Masabi.
Here's how it works: Users download the MBTA's app onto their smartphone and selects a starting location and destination. From there they enter in their credit card number one time to process the transaction. In subsequent purchases, the app will save the credit card data and users will only have to enter in the three-digit security code on the back of their card for verification. After purchasing their pass, the ticket will then display on their smartphone with a specially designed marker that constantly shifts colors to let train conductors know the ticket is not a simple forgery.
"The biggest reason we were impressed with Masabi was that they have a unique visual ticket that displays on the phone," explains Joshua Robin, the MBTA's director of innovation and special projects. "It's a moving image that changes colors frequently, meaning our conducts can simply look at it to verify that it's real rather than needing to use any special equipment."
The MBTA has long been trying to figure out ways to make purchasing tickets for commuter rail riders more convenient. The agency had considered implementing a Charlie Card-type system where users could add value and then have their cards scanned before entering the train. But while such a system worked well on the relatively small area where the MBTA's subway system works, the agency found it much harder and more expensive to deploy and maintain out in the suburban areas that are typically served by the commuter rail. Robin says that such an upgrade to the entire MBTA train system would have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million to $70 million to implement, a fiscal and political impossibility for a train service that has faced significant financing issues in recent years.
"Rather than installing an expensive ticket machine on the platforms that costs a lot to maintain, we decided to let people use the ticket machines that they have in their pockets," says Robin. "This really changes the dynamic and makes it much more convenient and cost effective."
The good news for the MBTA is that Masabi has a lot of experience in the mobile ticketing realm as it has deployed its ticket smartphone app for several major British railways, including Virgin Trains, Chiltern Railways and CrossCountry trains. Masabi CEO Ben Whitaker says that the company processes millions of dollars of ticketing transactions in the U.K. each month and that its mobile app is available on roughly half of the railroads in the U.K. He says that the chief attraction of the firm's product for agencies like the MBTA is its ability to deliver convenience for users without heavily taxing its technology investment budget.
The MBTA today announced that it will be working with U.K.-based mobile ticketing firm Masabi to deploy and operate a mobile application that will let users purchase their commuter rail tickets on their device and to add more value to their standard "Charlie Card" subway passes. While there is no firm date yet when the new application to launch, MBTA officials are hopeful that it can come online sometime this fall after conducting some summertime trial runs. The app will be available for download on iPhones, BlackBerry smartphones and Android devices, according to Masabi.
Here's how it works: Users download the MBTA's app onto their smartphone and selects a starting location and destination. From there they enter in their credit card number one time to process the transaction. In subsequent purchases, the app will save the credit card data and users will only have to enter in the three-digit security code on the back of their card for verification. After purchasing their pass, the ticket will then display on their smartphone with a specially designed marker that constantly shifts colors to let train conductors know the ticket is not a simple forgery.
"The biggest reason we were impressed with Masabi was that they have a unique visual ticket that displays on the phone," explains Joshua Robin, the MBTA's director of innovation and special projects. "It's a moving image that changes colors frequently, meaning our conducts can simply look at it to verify that it's real rather than needing to use any special equipment."
The MBTA has long been trying to figure out ways to make purchasing tickets for commuter rail riders more convenient. The agency had considered implementing a Charlie Card-type system where users could add value and then have their cards scanned before entering the train. But while such a system worked well on the relatively small area where the MBTA's subway system works, the agency found it much harder and more expensive to deploy and maintain out in the suburban areas that are typically served by the commuter rail. Robin says that such an upgrade to the entire MBTA train system would have cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million to $70 million to implement, a fiscal and political impossibility for a train service that has faced significant financing issues in recent years.
"Rather than installing an expensive ticket machine on the platforms that costs a lot to maintain, we decided to let people use the ticket machines that they have in their pockets," says Robin. "This really changes the dynamic and makes it much more convenient and cost effective."
The good news for the MBTA is that Masabi has a lot of experience in the mobile ticketing realm as it has deployed its ticket smartphone app for several major British railways, including Virgin Trains, Chiltern Railways and CrossCountry trains. Masabi CEO Ben Whitaker says that the company processes millions of dollars of ticketing transactions in the U.K. each month and that its mobile app is available on roughly half of the railroads in the U.K. He says that the chief attraction of the firm's product for agencies like the MBTA is its ability to deliver convenience for users without heavily taxing its technology investment budget.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Gabor Toth runs the carriages in 'The Raven'
Like any good gothic thriller, the first five minutes of “The Raven” open with a woman’s unhinged scream, copious quantities of blood and dark carriages thundering down a wet, cobblestone street. And while 33-year-old Gabor Toth assumes no responsibility for the first two items on the list, he’s the first person ever to serve as a carriage coordinator in his native country of Hungary, where much of the film was shot.
In theaters April 27, “The Raven” stars John Cusack as author Edgar Allan Poe, who dons a detective cap when his grisly fiction becomes the inspiration for a serial killer. Carriages play such a big role that the production decided they needed to be under the supervision of a separate coordinator, who didn’t have the additional responsibility of set dressing and props.
Enter Toth, who found himself with an unusual set of responsibilities: supervising the repair and transformation of a dozen carriages, coordinating the schedules of drivers and their horses, organizing the transport of the entire fleet between locations and ensuring safety on slick, cobblestone streets.
Luckily, Toth had plenty of experience. When he was 11, he started visiting movie sets to help out his father, a set decorator. In the years since, Toth has worked in set decoration and props on films including 2006’s “Day of Wrath” and television series such as the BBC’s “Robin Hood.” “The Raven” introduced him to a new aspect of the movie industry.
“It was nice to be so close during the shooting,” he said. “When I work in set decoration, I’m never present during the shooting. On ‘The Raven,’ I had the radio, and I was giving the sign for the carriages to start and stop. So it was quite interesting to be close to the fire.”
After property master Ray McNeill located about a dozen carriages and shipped them to the film’s location in Budapest, Hungary, Toth’s work began. “The carriages were replicas [of models from the mid-1800s], so they were not real antiques,” said Toth. “So we had the chance to transform them slightly as we needed. We were storing the carriages in a film studio, where there are local workshops, so there was some damage to the outside paint, and we had to repair them. We changed some of the covers of the seats inside. And we had to make it safe to stand at the back for stunts, so we made some metal bars to stand on, and we put some roof racks on the top to grab. Later on, we had to cover what the stunt people were standing on with rubber, so it wasn’t too slippery.”
The long lens of the law: The interior of a carriage isn’t the most spacious filming location, but Toth did his best to make it easy for the camera department. “There were three quite similar dark carriages, and we had to paint them black and put a police logo on them,” he said. “And one of these was the hero one [used by the main characters], which was almost like the other two, but the carpenters had to make some windows openable for different camera angles from outside. We had to make the front window open and close, so they could place the camera on the driver’s seat looking back into the carriage.”
In the driver’s seat: These days, finding a good carriage driver is even harder than finding someone who knows how to drive stick shift. But Toth knew exactly who to ask. “Horseback riding is quite a big part of Hungarian history,” he said. “I can’t ride a horse, but I know many people who work with horses. So there were two big runs when stunt people were driving the carriages, but other than that, the owners don’t really like to leave the horses to someone else. You need to know the horses and work with them a lot to see every sign of a problem or something. I just had to make sure everyone — horses, carriage drivers and carriages — got there on time, and the drivers [who were the owners] went through dressing and makeup and hair before they turned up on set.”
In theaters April 27, “The Raven” stars John Cusack as author Edgar Allan Poe, who dons a detective cap when his grisly fiction becomes the inspiration for a serial killer. Carriages play such a big role that the production decided they needed to be under the supervision of a separate coordinator, who didn’t have the additional responsibility of set dressing and props.
Enter Toth, who found himself with an unusual set of responsibilities: supervising the repair and transformation of a dozen carriages, coordinating the schedules of drivers and their horses, organizing the transport of the entire fleet between locations and ensuring safety on slick, cobblestone streets.
Luckily, Toth had plenty of experience. When he was 11, he started visiting movie sets to help out his father, a set decorator. In the years since, Toth has worked in set decoration and props on films including 2006’s “Day of Wrath” and television series such as the BBC’s “Robin Hood.” “The Raven” introduced him to a new aspect of the movie industry.
“It was nice to be so close during the shooting,” he said. “When I work in set decoration, I’m never present during the shooting. On ‘The Raven,’ I had the radio, and I was giving the sign for the carriages to start and stop. So it was quite interesting to be close to the fire.”
After property master Ray McNeill located about a dozen carriages and shipped them to the film’s location in Budapest, Hungary, Toth’s work began. “The carriages were replicas [of models from the mid-1800s], so they were not real antiques,” said Toth. “So we had the chance to transform them slightly as we needed. We were storing the carriages in a film studio, where there are local workshops, so there was some damage to the outside paint, and we had to repair them. We changed some of the covers of the seats inside. And we had to make it safe to stand at the back for stunts, so we made some metal bars to stand on, and we put some roof racks on the top to grab. Later on, we had to cover what the stunt people were standing on with rubber, so it wasn’t too slippery.”
The long lens of the law: The interior of a carriage isn’t the most spacious filming location, but Toth did his best to make it easy for the camera department. “There were three quite similar dark carriages, and we had to paint them black and put a police logo on them,” he said. “And one of these was the hero one [used by the main characters], which was almost like the other two, but the carpenters had to make some windows openable for different camera angles from outside. We had to make the front window open and close, so they could place the camera on the driver’s seat looking back into the carriage.”
In the driver’s seat: These days, finding a good carriage driver is even harder than finding someone who knows how to drive stick shift. But Toth knew exactly who to ask. “Horseback riding is quite a big part of Hungarian history,” he said. “I can’t ride a horse, but I know many people who work with horses. So there were two big runs when stunt people were driving the carriages, but other than that, the owners don’t really like to leave the horses to someone else. You need to know the horses and work with them a lot to see every sign of a problem or something. I just had to make sure everyone — horses, carriage drivers and carriages — got there on time, and the drivers [who were the owners] went through dressing and makeup and hair before they turned up on set.”
Thursday, April 19, 2012
What Would You Give Your Right Arm For?
It's been a while since I've heard anyone use the phrase "I'd give my right arm" for something. That phrase is one of those flippant remarks people make when they really, really want something. I'm not sure where this phrase comes from but, because most people are right-handed, if you're going to give your right arm for something, that means you really, really want it and are willing to sacrifice to get it. Of course, no one ever expects you to actually give up your right arm.
Aron Ralston didn't technically give up his right arm; he gave up his right hand. He's the guy who was hiking in Utah when his hand became trapped by an 800-pound boulder. After struggling to free himself for more than five days, he decided to give his right hand for survival. Ralston survived and wrote a book about his experience, which became the movie 127 Hours starring James Franco. The movie's now out on DVD. The promo material calls what Ralston went through a "remarkable adventure." I suppose the word "adventure" could fit here, but that's a stretch for me. Going to Disneyland for the first time is an adventure; having to cut off your own hand to keep on living seems more like a trial, an ordeal or a nightmare.
Technically, Jonathan Metz didn't give his right arm either; he gave his left. Jonathan wasn't hiking in some wilderness canyon, he was fixing the furnace in his basement. Trying to clean the heating vents in his furnace boiler, Metz dropped a tool. Naturally, he reached his arm in farther to fish it out. He didn't snag the tool. Instead, it was his arm that got hooked by the boiler. After unsuccessfully calling for help and beginning to smell infection taking hold, Metz decided the only thing to do to save his life was to cut off his arm. The police found him in his basement after friends became concerned when he didn't show up for work and a softball game. Doctors told him detaching his left arm kept the infection from spreading and saved his life.
I don't usually dwell on these kinds of grisly stories, but I remembered them and that phrase, "I'd give my right arm," the other day when I saw another story. It was about a 17-year-old in China. He wasn't willing to give up his right arm but he was willing to give up his kidney (the story didn't say if it was his left or right kidney). So, what did this 17-year-old really, really want that was worth the loss of a body part? It was an iPhone and an iPad.
As I thought of Ralston in Utah, Metz in Connecticut and the unnamed 17-year-old in China, I couldn't help wondering at each one's definition of the word "survival." Giving up a part of your body is an extreme measure. Ralston and Metz did so in order to survive. What was the Chinese teen thinking? Has an iPhone and an iPad become synonymous with "life"?
Maybe "life" is too drastic a word. This teenager was willing to give up something he thought he really didn't need in order to obtain something he thought he really, really did need. Maybe teenagers are just like that. After all, according to a recent study, 53 percent of young people (age 16-22) said they'd rather give up their sense of smell than their social networks, the very thing you access over iPhones and iPads. At this point, it's smell and kidneys. How long before they're willing to give right arms?
All of this got me to thinking about my own definition of "survival" and what things of value I've been willing to give up for my use of technology. I haven't given up hands or arms or kidneys, but I have given up valuable things. So, in some ways, my answer is no less disturbing than theirs.
Aron Ralston didn't technically give up his right arm; he gave up his right hand. He's the guy who was hiking in Utah when his hand became trapped by an 800-pound boulder. After struggling to free himself for more than five days, he decided to give his right hand for survival. Ralston survived and wrote a book about his experience, which became the movie 127 Hours starring James Franco. The movie's now out on DVD. The promo material calls what Ralston went through a "remarkable adventure." I suppose the word "adventure" could fit here, but that's a stretch for me. Going to Disneyland for the first time is an adventure; having to cut off your own hand to keep on living seems more like a trial, an ordeal or a nightmare.
Technically, Jonathan Metz didn't give his right arm either; he gave his left. Jonathan wasn't hiking in some wilderness canyon, he was fixing the furnace in his basement. Trying to clean the heating vents in his furnace boiler, Metz dropped a tool. Naturally, he reached his arm in farther to fish it out. He didn't snag the tool. Instead, it was his arm that got hooked by the boiler. After unsuccessfully calling for help and beginning to smell infection taking hold, Metz decided the only thing to do to save his life was to cut off his arm. The police found him in his basement after friends became concerned when he didn't show up for work and a softball game. Doctors told him detaching his left arm kept the infection from spreading and saved his life.
I don't usually dwell on these kinds of grisly stories, but I remembered them and that phrase, "I'd give my right arm," the other day when I saw another story. It was about a 17-year-old in China. He wasn't willing to give up his right arm but he was willing to give up his kidney (the story didn't say if it was his left or right kidney). So, what did this 17-year-old really, really want that was worth the loss of a body part? It was an iPhone and an iPad.
As I thought of Ralston in Utah, Metz in Connecticut and the unnamed 17-year-old in China, I couldn't help wondering at each one's definition of the word "survival." Giving up a part of your body is an extreme measure. Ralston and Metz did so in order to survive. What was the Chinese teen thinking? Has an iPhone and an iPad become synonymous with "life"?
Maybe "life" is too drastic a word. This teenager was willing to give up something he thought he really didn't need in order to obtain something he thought he really, really did need. Maybe teenagers are just like that. After all, according to a recent study, 53 percent of young people (age 16-22) said they'd rather give up their sense of smell than their social networks, the very thing you access over iPhones and iPads. At this point, it's smell and kidneys. How long before they're willing to give right arms?
All of this got me to thinking about my own definition of "survival" and what things of value I've been willing to give up for my use of technology. I haven't given up hands or arms or kidneys, but I have given up valuable things. So, in some ways, my answer is no less disturbing than theirs.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
What's next for WSN at WSN & RTLS Europe
Starting with more humble killer applications such as meter reading in buildings, WSN will grow rapidly from $0.58 billion in 2012 to $2.4 billion in 2022 according to IDTechEx research. These figures refer to WSN defined as wireless mesh networks, ie self-healing and self-organising. The market for wireless sensor systems in general is far larger and some proposed standards apply to both.
Like most RF/wireless sensor projects, the large and generally profitable orders for suppliers come from government mandates, which do not always seek a rapid ROI but look for long term efficiency, compliance, safety etc. For WSN, that opportunity was for smart meters, with utility companies around the world ordered to install them. The idea was to jump start adoption of wireless sensors in the home - things talking to things. But it has not panned out that way yet. The utility companies generally go as far as the utility box but not inside devices in the house. Consumer electronics and appliance companies are intensely cost conscious and adding a wireless capability with a BOM of $5 is a problem. The trend IDTechEx sees from wireless developers to exploit smart meter infrastructure is to look at service companies for TV and Cable to add wireless capability to devices paid on a subscription basis by consumers over time rather than a capital upfront cost.
However, like earlier generation non mesh sensors such as active RFID and real time locating systems (RTLS), the roll-out of WSN is profusely occurring using relatively small numbers of sensor nodes but offering a complete solution (i.e. relevant software platform) where the entire solution has demonstrated strong ROI fixing a problem. That includes sensing conditions or locating items in warehousing, hospitals, industrial processes, manufacturing and other environments. The payback here is typically twelve months or less and the roll-out occurs from site to site in "closed loop" applications in a cookie-cutter approach.
Like most RF/wireless sensor projects, the large and generally profitable orders for suppliers come from government mandates, which do not always seek a rapid ROI but look for long term efficiency, compliance, safety etc. For WSN, that opportunity was for smart meters, with utility companies around the world ordered to install them. The idea was to jump start adoption of wireless sensors in the home - things talking to things. But it has not panned out that way yet. The utility companies generally go as far as the utility box but not inside devices in the house. Consumer electronics and appliance companies are intensely cost conscious and adding a wireless capability with a BOM of $5 is a problem. The trend IDTechEx sees from wireless developers to exploit smart meter infrastructure is to look at service companies for TV and Cable to add wireless capability to devices paid on a subscription basis by consumers over time rather than a capital upfront cost.
However, like earlier generation non mesh sensors such as active RFID and real time locating systems (RTLS), the roll-out of WSN is profusely occurring using relatively small numbers of sensor nodes but offering a complete solution (i.e. relevant software platform) where the entire solution has demonstrated strong ROI fixing a problem. That includes sensing conditions or locating items in warehousing, hospitals, industrial processes, manufacturing and other environments. The payback here is typically twelve months or less and the roll-out occurs from site to site in "closed loop" applications in a cookie-cutter approach.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
US Navy’s New Drone Hunts Mines Wherever They Hide
The US Navy is building a fleet of mine-hunting ships that investigators say aren’t all that hot at finding mines. So in the coming years, those ships are going to get drone supplements to dive deep below the sea to spot the underwater weapons. Think of ‘em as pairs of robotic glasses.
This is a scale model of the Navy’s newest drone sub, called the Knifefish. Manufactured by General Dynamics, the Navy unveiled it for the first time on Monday at its annual Sea Air Space convention just outside Washington DC.
The Knifefish — named after a real fish that emits an electric field — will be a 6m robot with a 21-inch (53cm) diameter that launches from a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the new US Navy ship built to fight close to shore. The robot is basically a solution to a chief LCS vulnerability discovered by the Pentagon’s top weapons tester: although one of its missions is hunting mines, its chief mine-spotting systems are “deficient” for exactly that task.
Enter the Knifefish. Starting in roughly 2015, according to General Dynamics, each LCS will be able to launch two Knifefish modules, with the primary task of finding mines buried in the sea floor. It’s an autonomous robot: sailors aboard an LCS will program the Knifefish’s navigation systems with instructions on where to swim ahead of launching it. It can swim for 16 hours at a time.
But the chief asset of the Knifefish’s autonomy isn’t navigation, it’s analysis. It uses a set of low-frequency wideband frequencies to spot a mine that gives off a resonance “very near” that of the particular mine it’s hunting, says Capt. Dwayne Ashton, the US Navy’s program manager for unmanned maritime systems. That “allows you to fingerprint the object being looked at”, instead of having a human sailor spending hours discovering and cataloging the types of mines he or she encounters — something Ashton calls a “significant game-changer”.
The Knifefish won’t neutralize mines that it finds, though — it just relays data back to the mothership about the mines’ location. That, at least, may take some of the pressure off the LCS’ other mine-spotting systems, the AN/AQS-20A Sonar Mine Detecting Set and the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System, neither of which have impressed Pentagon testers.
But the Knifefish won’t transmit that data in real time. It’ll store up to 12 terabytes of data collected by its acoustic sensor package. Data recovery will have to occur after the Knifefish swims back up to its LCS parent. Which might be a problem, since the LCS can’t survive a blast from any mines it doesn’t detect.
“We’re talking about a large amount of data, terabytes of data,” Ashton explains, adding that the Navy doesn’t believe it needs real-time data reporting right now, although it might reevaluate after the first Knifefish missions. The robots should arrive in the fleet not long after the first of two LCSes are permanently stationed in Singapore.
The Knifefish is also a step toward diversifying the Navy’s robotic portfolio. Successive Navy chiefs have been keen to build underwater robots that can swim across entire oceans, but the propulsion and fuel systems necessary aren’t technologically mature yet. The Knifefish is decidedly not a long-range robot sub, although General Dynamics and the Navy won’t say specifically how fast it can swim or how far it’s expected to patrol.
This is a scale model of the Navy’s newest drone sub, called the Knifefish. Manufactured by General Dynamics, the Navy unveiled it for the first time on Monday at its annual Sea Air Space convention just outside Washington DC.
The Knifefish — named after a real fish that emits an electric field — will be a 6m robot with a 21-inch (53cm) diameter that launches from a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the new US Navy ship built to fight close to shore. The robot is basically a solution to a chief LCS vulnerability discovered by the Pentagon’s top weapons tester: although one of its missions is hunting mines, its chief mine-spotting systems are “deficient” for exactly that task.
Enter the Knifefish. Starting in roughly 2015, according to General Dynamics, each LCS will be able to launch two Knifefish modules, with the primary task of finding mines buried in the sea floor. It’s an autonomous robot: sailors aboard an LCS will program the Knifefish’s navigation systems with instructions on where to swim ahead of launching it. It can swim for 16 hours at a time.
But the chief asset of the Knifefish’s autonomy isn’t navigation, it’s analysis. It uses a set of low-frequency wideband frequencies to spot a mine that gives off a resonance “very near” that of the particular mine it’s hunting, says Capt. Dwayne Ashton, the US Navy’s program manager for unmanned maritime systems. That “allows you to fingerprint the object being looked at”, instead of having a human sailor spending hours discovering and cataloging the types of mines he or she encounters — something Ashton calls a “significant game-changer”.
The Knifefish won’t neutralize mines that it finds, though — it just relays data back to the mothership about the mines’ location. That, at least, may take some of the pressure off the LCS’ other mine-spotting systems, the AN/AQS-20A Sonar Mine Detecting Set and the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System, neither of which have impressed Pentagon testers.
But the Knifefish won’t transmit that data in real time. It’ll store up to 12 terabytes of data collected by its acoustic sensor package. Data recovery will have to occur after the Knifefish swims back up to its LCS parent. Which might be a problem, since the LCS can’t survive a blast from any mines it doesn’t detect.
“We’re talking about a large amount of data, terabytes of data,” Ashton explains, adding that the Navy doesn’t believe it needs real-time data reporting right now, although it might reevaluate after the first Knifefish missions. The robots should arrive in the fleet not long after the first of two LCSes are permanently stationed in Singapore.
The Knifefish is also a step toward diversifying the Navy’s robotic portfolio. Successive Navy chiefs have been keen to build underwater robots that can swim across entire oceans, but the propulsion and fuel systems necessary aren’t technologically mature yet. The Knifefish is decidedly not a long-range robot sub, although General Dynamics and the Navy won’t say specifically how fast it can swim or how far it’s expected to patrol.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Investors Plead Guilty in NJ Tax Lien Probe
The guilty pleas have trickled out in dribs and drabs: three in August, two in February, and another in March.
Slowly, a federal investigation has mapped a confluence of desperation and profit, inattention and daring in one of New Jersey's most extensive if low-key real estate markets, the sale of municipal liens for unpaid taxes.
In recent months, six regular purchasers of the liens have pleaded guilty to rigging the bidding system in a scheme that began operating at least as far back as 1998. So far, two lawsuits filed by property owners have alleged that participants and associated companies have defrauded them.
Investigators have acknowledged little beyond the bare-bones admissions in the pleas, but a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice intimated there are more to come. "This is a continuing investigation," she said.
In municipal offices around the state, however, some officials have already heard enough to conclude that fraud may not be the only thing that is unraveling. The state's low-cost but virtually unsupervised system for collecting delinquent taxes also could be coming unglued, creating a sticky situation for dozens if not hundreds of towns.
"Potentially, this could have implications across the entire state and maybe beyond," said William Dressel, executive director of the state League of Municipalities.
"Every town could take a hit on it," said Vincent Belluscio, executive director of the Tax Collectors and Treasurers Association of New Jersey.
After all, he said, some members have contacted the association to report that some of those targeted by the federal investigation, already have resumed bidding on municipal liens, apparently not barred from doing so by their guilty pleas.
For towns looking for advice from the state on how to handle the tricky situation, "there hasn't been any direction that I'm aware of," Dressel said.
"Unfortunately, with all these pronouncements about individual pleas, we're not hearing a lot about what's going on," he said.
Local tax collectors bring in money for many entities besides their towns: school districts, counties, fire districts, libraries and so on. The towns owe them their full shares, even if not every property owner has paid. So state law provides for a steady revenue stream even when some taxes are in arrears.
The current system dates to the Great Depression, when hard times caused many property owners to fall behind on payments, undermining already strained municipal collections. The law was changed to allow towns to auction off their liens, tax sale certificates, to third parties. A successful bidder pays the arrears and related costs to the town, then can collect from the delinquent owner or eventually foreclose on the property.
"That's why this current law works so well," said Richard Cushing, an attorney for many municipalities and other public entities in Hunterdon and Warren counties.
"The idea is to have third parties collect from the delinquent taxpayers," Cushing said. "Otherwise, a small town would have to use its own resources, resources it might not have, to go after them," spending more tax money to collect tax money already due.
Towns must hold at least one annual public auction of tax sale certificates. The system offers plenty of incentives for bidders. They are able to charge the property owner interest on the tax debt plus a premium. Historically, these were no more than 8 percent. But that had to change in the 1980s, "when interest rates were at 18 and 20 percent" on other types of investments, Belluscio said.
So the legislature raised the allowable interest rates on tax sale certificates to as much as 18 percent, while the premium can add as much as 6 percent more. If the property owner is unable to pay off the arrears and interest, as well as keep other payments current, the lien holder can foreclose after just two years.
That's why in some investment circles, tax sales certificates have been touted as safe bets, never more so than in recent years when interest rates plummeted elsewhere.
"Where else are you going to get an 18 percent return these days?" asks Michael Perle, a Secaucus-based lawyer who has a stake in the federal investigation.
For an investor going into an auction, though, that top rate is not guaranteed. The system assumes municipalities have an interest in avoiding future hiccups in payments, and a delinquent taxpayer likely will find it harder to pay high interest. Since any winning bidder must pay the town, the question is, how little is he willing to charge the property owner? That bidder who sticks at 18 percent will lose to one who offers 17 percent, or 10 percent or even zero percent interest.
Slowly, a federal investigation has mapped a confluence of desperation and profit, inattention and daring in one of New Jersey's most extensive if low-key real estate markets, the sale of municipal liens for unpaid taxes.
In recent months, six regular purchasers of the liens have pleaded guilty to rigging the bidding system in a scheme that began operating at least as far back as 1998. So far, two lawsuits filed by property owners have alleged that participants and associated companies have defrauded them.
Investigators have acknowledged little beyond the bare-bones admissions in the pleas, but a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice intimated there are more to come. "This is a continuing investigation," she said.
In municipal offices around the state, however, some officials have already heard enough to conclude that fraud may not be the only thing that is unraveling. The state's low-cost but virtually unsupervised system for collecting delinquent taxes also could be coming unglued, creating a sticky situation for dozens if not hundreds of towns.
"Potentially, this could have implications across the entire state and maybe beyond," said William Dressel, executive director of the state League of Municipalities.
"Every town could take a hit on it," said Vincent Belluscio, executive director of the Tax Collectors and Treasurers Association of New Jersey.
After all, he said, some members have contacted the association to report that some of those targeted by the federal investigation, already have resumed bidding on municipal liens, apparently not barred from doing so by their guilty pleas.
For towns looking for advice from the state on how to handle the tricky situation, "there hasn't been any direction that I'm aware of," Dressel said.
"Unfortunately, with all these pronouncements about individual pleas, we're not hearing a lot about what's going on," he said.
Local tax collectors bring in money for many entities besides their towns: school districts, counties, fire districts, libraries and so on. The towns owe them their full shares, even if not every property owner has paid. So state law provides for a steady revenue stream even when some taxes are in arrears.
The current system dates to the Great Depression, when hard times caused many property owners to fall behind on payments, undermining already strained municipal collections. The law was changed to allow towns to auction off their liens, tax sale certificates, to third parties. A successful bidder pays the arrears and related costs to the town, then can collect from the delinquent owner or eventually foreclose on the property.
"That's why this current law works so well," said Richard Cushing, an attorney for many municipalities and other public entities in Hunterdon and Warren counties.
"The idea is to have third parties collect from the delinquent taxpayers," Cushing said. "Otherwise, a small town would have to use its own resources, resources it might not have, to go after them," spending more tax money to collect tax money already due.
Towns must hold at least one annual public auction of tax sale certificates. The system offers plenty of incentives for bidders. They are able to charge the property owner interest on the tax debt plus a premium. Historically, these were no more than 8 percent. But that had to change in the 1980s, "when interest rates were at 18 and 20 percent" on other types of investments, Belluscio said.
So the legislature raised the allowable interest rates on tax sale certificates to as much as 18 percent, while the premium can add as much as 6 percent more. If the property owner is unable to pay off the arrears and interest, as well as keep other payments current, the lien holder can foreclose after just two years.
That's why in some investment circles, tax sales certificates have been touted as safe bets, never more so than in recent years when interest rates plummeted elsewhere.
"Where else are you going to get an 18 percent return these days?" asks Michael Perle, a Secaucus-based lawyer who has a stake in the federal investigation.
For an investor going into an auction, though, that top rate is not guaranteed. The system assumes municipalities have an interest in avoiding future hiccups in payments, and a delinquent taxpayer likely will find it harder to pay high interest. Since any winning bidder must pay the town, the question is, how little is he willing to charge the property owner? That bidder who sticks at 18 percent will lose to one who offers 17 percent, or 10 percent or even zero percent interest.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
State needs a pension czar
As the state of Illinois prepares to deal with its daunting pension problem, here's a suggestion for our legislators: Establish someone to mind the store when it comes to state pensions?
In December, the Chicago Tribune reported about Illinois State University and the State Universities Retirement System. That's the state law that allows universities to determine just who its school employees are.
It turns out that ISU designated 40 people who work on the Special Olympics held on campus as university employees, according to the study.
Under the state's liberal retirement system, college and university employees in Illinois can receive up to 80 percent of their final four-year average salary after they retire, plus a 3 percent increase each year.
Sen. Ed Maloney, D-Chicago, told the Tribune that he doesn't understand how private groups could be included for public benefits. "The spirit of the law is being violated. I've never heard of anything like this," he said.
If ever a state needed a pension czar, it's this one.
The automobile and radio is a partnership that spans more than 80 years. Ever since Paul Galvin, the founder of Motorola, hooked up a radio to his Studebaker in 1930, the radio - of all the media - has claimed those on the road as a captive audience.
Tape decks, cassette units and MP3 players have taken turns luring away automotive listeners over the years, but radio has always prevailed, remaining in control of the commuter market.
Whether it's news, talk, sports or music, radio has persevered, providing companionship to the man or woman behind the wheel.
But that connection may be in jeopardy. "This year, automakers are accelerating a drive to link your next car's dashboard to all the music and data stored in the Internet cloud," noted the Wall Street Journal's Joseph White.
"In the not-too-distant future, a car with a radio that receives only AM or FM will qualify as an antique," said White.
A recent survey by Deloitte found that almost 60 percent of young car buyers (ages 19 to 31) looked at in-car connectivity as the most important aspect of a car's interior, he noted. Yes, that's right - ahead of cup holders.
You need a scorecard to keep up with all the names that car companies use for the high-tech links now offered in new models. While Ford goes with Applink, GM has Mylink. "Hyundai is going with Blue Link while Kia has Uvo," said Mike Miller, owner of the Hyundai-Kia-Mitsubishi dealership in Peoria, referring to the service that provides "hands-free access to music and texting."
In December, the Chicago Tribune reported about Illinois State University and the State Universities Retirement System. That's the state law that allows universities to determine just who its school employees are.
It turns out that ISU designated 40 people who work on the Special Olympics held on campus as university employees, according to the study.
Under the state's liberal retirement system, college and university employees in Illinois can receive up to 80 percent of their final four-year average salary after they retire, plus a 3 percent increase each year.
Sen. Ed Maloney, D-Chicago, told the Tribune that he doesn't understand how private groups could be included for public benefits. "The spirit of the law is being violated. I've never heard of anything like this," he said.
If ever a state needed a pension czar, it's this one.
The automobile and radio is a partnership that spans more than 80 years. Ever since Paul Galvin, the founder of Motorola, hooked up a radio to his Studebaker in 1930, the radio - of all the media - has claimed those on the road as a captive audience.
Tape decks, cassette units and MP3 players have taken turns luring away automotive listeners over the years, but radio has always prevailed, remaining in control of the commuter market.
Whether it's news, talk, sports or music, radio has persevered, providing companionship to the man or woman behind the wheel.
But that connection may be in jeopardy. "This year, automakers are accelerating a drive to link your next car's dashboard to all the music and data stored in the Internet cloud," noted the Wall Street Journal's Joseph White.
"In the not-too-distant future, a car with a radio that receives only AM or FM will qualify as an antique," said White.
A recent survey by Deloitte found that almost 60 percent of young car buyers (ages 19 to 31) looked at in-car connectivity as the most important aspect of a car's interior, he noted. Yes, that's right - ahead of cup holders.
You need a scorecard to keep up with all the names that car companies use for the high-tech links now offered in new models. While Ford goes with Applink, GM has Mylink. "Hyundai is going with Blue Link while Kia has Uvo," said Mike Miller, owner of the Hyundai-Kia-Mitsubishi dealership in Peoria, referring to the service that provides "hands-free access to music and texting."
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Email from Nadia Lockyer account claims Treasurer Bill Lockyer supplied her
The tragic unraveling of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer took a disturbing turn this week when a message from her personal email account landed in a reporter's in-box: Her husband, California's Treasurer Bill Lockyer, the message claimed, bought and gave her drugs years before she wound up in rehab.
In an apparent call for help, the message also said she could no longer stand the torture and harassment of an ex-lover she says beat her in a motel room two months ago.
"I simply can't bear this any longer,'' the email said. "Goodbye to everyone.''
Fearing for her safety, the newspaper immediately called police and forwarded the email to Nadia Lockyer's chief of staff and to her 70-year-old husband's office. Police found her safe at the family home Wednesday afternoon in the Hayward hills.
When a reporter arrived a short time later, Lockyer, 40, said through a door slightly ajar that she had not sent the email.
She said that her former boyfriend Steven Chikhani -- a 35-year-old San Jose man she met in rehab and later visited in jail -- had been hacking into her account. Hayward Police say they are "evaluating whether her email was fraudulently accessed.'' A spokesman for Bill Lockyer called the accusations about him obtaining drugs for his wife "completely, totally, utterly false.''
Chikhani's lawyer Adrienne Dell, said Thursday there's no truth to the claim that Chikhani hacked into Nadia Lockyer's email, and that this isn't the first time Lockyer has made such a claim. She wouldn't elaborate.
Chikhani and Nadia Lockyer's steamy and tumultuous affair -- fueled by drugs, alcohol and rumored sex tapes -- blew up in February when she called police from a Newark motel claiming he beat her up -- an accusation the Attorney General's office is still investigating. Ever since, both sides have engaged in a public war, sharing intimate text messages, recordings and photographs with the media.
The email that arrived from Nadia Lockyer's Rocketmail account Wednesday linked her husband for the first time to her addiction: "Bill bought and gave me drugs years before meeting Steve, then called me crazy when I sought help, thus, I had to take matters into my own hands and was set up by Steve.''
A titan among California's Democrats, Bill Lockyer has never been linked to drugs over a political career that spanned four decades, including 25 years in the Legislature and two terms as attorney general, the state's top cop.
Asked whether Bill Lockyer has at any time in his life possessed, used or otherwise had any illicit contact with a controlled substance, his spokesman Tom Dresslar replied, "Like a lot of people of his generation, he experimented in his younger days. Those younger days have long since passed and the experiment has long been over. He has never abused drugs."
While Chikhani's criminal record includes a 2010 conviction for possessing methamphetamine, Nadia Lockyer had never before been specific about using drugs in the past. When she took a leave of absence Feb. 14 from her supervisor's job to enter rehab, she issued a statement about "receiving treatment for chemical dependency and chronic pain from a past debilitating car accident. Alcohol and addiction are diseases from which many of us suffer and unfortunately I have not been spared.''
The stunning new email, which arrived Wednesday afternoon, was part of an email string that spanned two weeks between Lockyer and a Mercury News reporter, who had been offering the scandal-plagued supervisor a chance to sit down and tell her story. Lockyer acknowledged crafting parts of Wednesday's email but said "everything in regards to my husband was all added.''
When asked what she meant, she explained: "I drafted part of it, but it sounds like he's hacked into prior emails,'' she said referring to Chikhani. "He's acting like he's me.''
In an apparent call for help, the message also said she could no longer stand the torture and harassment of an ex-lover she says beat her in a motel room two months ago.
"I simply can't bear this any longer,'' the email said. "Goodbye to everyone.''
Fearing for her safety, the newspaper immediately called police and forwarded the email to Nadia Lockyer's chief of staff and to her 70-year-old husband's office. Police found her safe at the family home Wednesday afternoon in the Hayward hills.
When a reporter arrived a short time later, Lockyer, 40, said through a door slightly ajar that she had not sent the email.
She said that her former boyfriend Steven Chikhani -- a 35-year-old San Jose man she met in rehab and later visited in jail -- had been hacking into her account. Hayward Police say they are "evaluating whether her email was fraudulently accessed.'' A spokesman for Bill Lockyer called the accusations about him obtaining drugs for his wife "completely, totally, utterly false.''
Chikhani's lawyer Adrienne Dell, said Thursday there's no truth to the claim that Chikhani hacked into Nadia Lockyer's email, and that this isn't the first time Lockyer has made such a claim. She wouldn't elaborate.
Chikhani and Nadia Lockyer's steamy and tumultuous affair -- fueled by drugs, alcohol and rumored sex tapes -- blew up in February when she called police from a Newark motel claiming he beat her up -- an accusation the Attorney General's office is still investigating. Ever since, both sides have engaged in a public war, sharing intimate text messages, recordings and photographs with the media.
The email that arrived from Nadia Lockyer's Rocketmail account Wednesday linked her husband for the first time to her addiction: "Bill bought and gave me drugs years before meeting Steve, then called me crazy when I sought help, thus, I had to take matters into my own hands and was set up by Steve.''
A titan among California's Democrats, Bill Lockyer has never been linked to drugs over a political career that spanned four decades, including 25 years in the Legislature and two terms as attorney general, the state's top cop.
Asked whether Bill Lockyer has at any time in his life possessed, used or otherwise had any illicit contact with a controlled substance, his spokesman Tom Dresslar replied, "Like a lot of people of his generation, he experimented in his younger days. Those younger days have long since passed and the experiment has long been over. He has never abused drugs."
While Chikhani's criminal record includes a 2010 conviction for possessing methamphetamine, Nadia Lockyer had never before been specific about using drugs in the past. When she took a leave of absence Feb. 14 from her supervisor's job to enter rehab, she issued a statement about "receiving treatment for chemical dependency and chronic pain from a past debilitating car accident. Alcohol and addiction are diseases from which many of us suffer and unfortunately I have not been spared.''
The stunning new email, which arrived Wednesday afternoon, was part of an email string that spanned two weeks between Lockyer and a Mercury News reporter, who had been offering the scandal-plagued supervisor a chance to sit down and tell her story. Lockyer acknowledged crafting parts of Wednesday's email but said "everything in regards to my husband was all added.''
When asked what she meant, she explained: "I drafted part of it, but it sounds like he's hacked into prior emails,'' she said referring to Chikhani. "He's acting like he's me.''
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A Key Ingredient in Success? Failure, Says CDC Head
Thomas Frieden, who runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed the importance of failure in his talk at TEDMED on Wednesday as a way to keep researchers, doctors and public health officials accountable.
In the private sector, he said, if a product doesn’t work, it fails.
For the government or similar entities, however, if a program doesn’t work, money often keeps flowing in through grants or other funding mechanisms to sustain it.
Without a feedback loop, says Frieden, you won’t know if you’re making a difference and you won’t succeed.
Frieden gave an example from his experience as health commissioner of New York City.
When he arrived, the city didn’t have good ways to track the health of its residents. Once it established a system, the numbers showed that smoking rates in NYC had been largely static for a decade.
So the city set out to curb smoking. The first year the city raised the tax on cigarettes — the No. 1 way to reduce smoking rates, says Frieden — by $1.42 per pack. Indeed, there was a big decline in smoking that year.
The second year, the city banned smoking from office and indoor venues. But when they saw the tracking data that May, they found that the rate didn’t decrease, and in fact rose slightly.
“We had stalled; we were failing,” said Frieden.
After seeing the numbers, he reached out to the CDC for advice and started a series of antismoking ads, as they suggested. “I was skeptical,” says Frieden. But, the smoking rate declined that year.
In the private sector, he said, if a product doesn’t work, it fails.
For the government or similar entities, however, if a program doesn’t work, money often keeps flowing in through grants or other funding mechanisms to sustain it.
Without a feedback loop, says Frieden, you won’t know if you’re making a difference and you won’t succeed.
Frieden gave an example from his experience as health commissioner of New York City.
When he arrived, the city didn’t have good ways to track the health of its residents. Once it established a system, the numbers showed that smoking rates in NYC had been largely static for a decade.
So the city set out to curb smoking. The first year the city raised the tax on cigarettes — the No. 1 way to reduce smoking rates, says Frieden — by $1.42 per pack. Indeed, there was a big decline in smoking that year.
The second year, the city banned smoking from office and indoor venues. But when they saw the tracking data that May, they found that the rate didn’t decrease, and in fact rose slightly.
“We had stalled; we were failing,” said Frieden.
After seeing the numbers, he reached out to the CDC for advice and started a series of antismoking ads, as they suggested. “I was skeptical,” says Frieden. But, the smoking rate declined that year.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Keep tabs on movable assets
As assets in every industry become smarter, more complex, and more expensive, management is becoming increasingly concerned about knowing exactly where those assets are at any given time. Real-time asset locating and tracking systems provide myriad options for different work environments, asset types, and user requirements. Here is an overview of some of these options, as well as how to identify and cost-justify the need for real-time asset locating and tracking.
A real-time asset locating and tracking system indicates the position of an object as of a single moment in time (locating) or over some period of time (tracking). Real-time asset location can be thought of as a point on a map, a series of spatial coordinates, or relative to some fixed or variable reference point (in Room B1231). Real-time locations can vary in terms of granularity and precision, such as “within a given building” versus exact xyz coordinates accurate to, say, a tenth of an inch.
The healthcare industry provides a great example of how useful a locating system can be. Hospitals have many expensive and critical assets such as electrocardiograms, defibrillators, and fetal monitors that are quite portable. When healthcare workers need these assets for a procedure or in an emergency, there might be little time to hunt for equipment that has gone astray. A real-time asset locating system can provide the exact location of this equipment quickly.
Real-time asset tracking also can vary in terms of granularity, depending on the frequency and accuracy of position sampling. Asset tracking can be depicted as a line on a drawing or map, representing where the asset has been over time. Alternatively, some users prefer to see a table showing the positions of an asset at various times, or simply when an asset has moved from one location to another.
A good example of how real-time asset tracking systems might be useful is on a construction site, where it’s not uncommon that expensive assets such as power tools mysteriously disappear from the site. An asset tracking system can show the whereabouts of an asset over time, thereby revealing clues for determining where and how the asset went missing. This is especially powerful when combined with time and attendance, security passkey, and video surveillance systems.
In some cases, companies benefit from both asset locating and tracking, such as pinpointing an asset location for security reasons and tracking the same asset’s position over time for regulatory purposes.
During the past decade, there’s been a proliferation of asset locating and tracking systems. Vendors abound, selling everything from individual components such as sensors, readers, and control software, to complete turnkey solutions. Some vendors also offer integration capability to their own products, or those of related vendors’ CMMS packages.
This has led to limited standardization and lots of confusion in the marketplace, in the face of growing demand for real-time asset locating and tracking products and services, combined with a rapid improvement in technology. Fortunately, some of the larger vendors began cooperating with each other, their industry associations, and governing bodies. The most significant breakthrough was the development of standards by the International Standards Organization , including standards JTC1 SC31 and the related ISO 24730. These standards define the term “real-time locating system (RTLS)” as wireless-based hardware and real-time software combined to provide, on a continuous basis, the position of an asset or resource equipped with sensors. This definition refers to any resource such as humans, animals, parts, and finished goods, not just assets such as equipment and components.
A real-time asset locating and tracking system indicates the position of an object as of a single moment in time (locating) or over some period of time (tracking). Real-time asset location can be thought of as a point on a map, a series of spatial coordinates, or relative to some fixed or variable reference point (in Room B1231). Real-time locations can vary in terms of granularity and precision, such as “within a given building” versus exact xyz coordinates accurate to, say, a tenth of an inch.
The healthcare industry provides a great example of how useful a locating system can be. Hospitals have many expensive and critical assets such as electrocardiograms, defibrillators, and fetal monitors that are quite portable. When healthcare workers need these assets for a procedure or in an emergency, there might be little time to hunt for equipment that has gone astray. A real-time asset locating system can provide the exact location of this equipment quickly.
Real-time asset tracking also can vary in terms of granularity, depending on the frequency and accuracy of position sampling. Asset tracking can be depicted as a line on a drawing or map, representing where the asset has been over time. Alternatively, some users prefer to see a table showing the positions of an asset at various times, or simply when an asset has moved from one location to another.
A good example of how real-time asset tracking systems might be useful is on a construction site, where it’s not uncommon that expensive assets such as power tools mysteriously disappear from the site. An asset tracking system can show the whereabouts of an asset over time, thereby revealing clues for determining where and how the asset went missing. This is especially powerful when combined with time and attendance, security passkey, and video surveillance systems.
In some cases, companies benefit from both asset locating and tracking, such as pinpointing an asset location for security reasons and tracking the same asset’s position over time for regulatory purposes.
During the past decade, there’s been a proliferation of asset locating and tracking systems. Vendors abound, selling everything from individual components such as sensors, readers, and control software, to complete turnkey solutions. Some vendors also offer integration capability to their own products, or those of related vendors’ CMMS packages.
This has led to limited standardization and lots of confusion in the marketplace, in the face of growing demand for real-time asset locating and tracking products and services, combined with a rapid improvement in technology. Fortunately, some of the larger vendors began cooperating with each other, their industry associations, and governing bodies. The most significant breakthrough was the development of standards by the International Standards Organization , including standards JTC1 SC31 and the related ISO 24730. These standards define the term “real-time locating system (RTLS)” as wireless-based hardware and real-time software combined to provide, on a continuous basis, the position of an asset or resource equipped with sensors. This definition refers to any resource such as humans, animals, parts, and finished goods, not just assets such as equipment and components.
Monday, April 9, 2012
GNSS Receiver Covers All Multi-Constellation Standards
When we think of global satellite navigation systems (GNSSs), we usually think of the U.S. Global Positioning System. Yet other GNSSs around the world include Russia’s GLONASS, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), and Europe’s partially completed Galileo system. Designed for smart phones and other portable navigation devices, Broadcom’s BCM4752 covers all of these standards .
The third-generation receiver’s new architecture provides the industry’s first true multi-constellation support by simultaneously collecting GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, and satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) data and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation.
Coupled with Broadcom’s advanced signal processing and multipath mitigation techniques, the chip’s industry-breakthrough acquisition engine provides faster time-to-first-fix (TTFF) performance, especially in challenging urban environments where buildings and obstructions can dramatically impact accuracy and speed. The result is a tenfold improvement in performance for fast and accurate global positioning, while opening the door to innovative applications.
The chip and accompanying software benefit from tight integration with Broadcom’s InConcert wireless connectivity subsystem, which uses data from the BCM4752, sensors, Wi-Fi access points including 5G Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth Low Energy to calculate indoor and outdoor position with new levels of speed and precision.
This advanced system enables new opportunities for indoor navigation capabilities with enough accuracy to direct users to specific stores within shopping malls and even to specific shelves within those stores. Integration with near-field communications (NFC) will enable smarter, more secure mobile payments, with users able to specify specific countries, cities, or even stores where mobile wallets can or can’t be used.
The BCM4752 requires less power as well. Its 8-mA current drain in the low-power mode means it uses 50% less power than previous generations, ensuring less battery drain on a device and allowing for location-aware applications to be on longer.
Fabricated in a 40-nm process, the BCM4752 is the industry’s smallest GNSS chip, accounting for 44% less board space. It’s available in a chip-scale package (CSP) with an area of roughly 5 mm2. Integrated components such as the low-noise amplifier (LNA) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter minimize total bill of materials.
And, the BCM4752 addresses new applications with a proven software platform capable of navigation by integrating Wi-Fi positioning and handset inertial sensor readings in the navigation solution and integrating handset inertial sensor readings in the position computation.
The third-generation receiver’s new architecture provides the industry’s first true multi-constellation support by simultaneously collecting GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, and satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) data and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation.
Coupled with Broadcom’s advanced signal processing and multipath mitigation techniques, the chip’s industry-breakthrough acquisition engine provides faster time-to-first-fix (TTFF) performance, especially in challenging urban environments where buildings and obstructions can dramatically impact accuracy and speed. The result is a tenfold improvement in performance for fast and accurate global positioning, while opening the door to innovative applications.
The chip and accompanying software benefit from tight integration with Broadcom’s InConcert wireless connectivity subsystem, which uses data from the BCM4752, sensors, Wi-Fi access points including 5G Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth Low Energy to calculate indoor and outdoor position with new levels of speed and precision.
This advanced system enables new opportunities for indoor navigation capabilities with enough accuracy to direct users to specific stores within shopping malls and even to specific shelves within those stores. Integration with near-field communications (NFC) will enable smarter, more secure mobile payments, with users able to specify specific countries, cities, or even stores where mobile wallets can or can’t be used.
The BCM4752 requires less power as well. Its 8-mA current drain in the low-power mode means it uses 50% less power than previous generations, ensuring less battery drain on a device and allowing for location-aware applications to be on longer.
Fabricated in a 40-nm process, the BCM4752 is the industry’s smallest GNSS chip, accounting for 44% less board space. It’s available in a chip-scale package (CSP) with an area of roughly 5 mm2. Integrated components such as the low-noise amplifier (LNA) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter minimize total bill of materials.
And, the BCM4752 addresses new applications with a proven software platform capable of navigation by integrating Wi-Fi positioning and handset inertial sensor readings in the navigation solution and integrating handset inertial sensor readings in the position computation.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
County residents will use voting centers for first time
Vanderburgh County residents who live outside the Evansville city limits will vote for the first time in the May 8 primary election at new voting centers.
The concept debuted during last year's city election with 15 centers. The centers enable Vanderburgh County residents to vote at any of the locations instead of only at their precinct polling centers. The primary will see the addition of seven new county locations.
Vanderburgh County Clerk Susan Kirk said she feels confident that duplicating last year's publicity efforts will inform voters about the change.
"We're just going to do like we did last year," she said about getting the word out, a year where she said everything went "just fine."
Kirk said the local media "helped out tremendously" in spreading news of new locations in print, on television and online, and she anticipates similar help this year.
She also said the candidates played a big role, as it was in their best interest that voters got to the right locations.
Kirk said candidates distributed literature that contained candidate information and vote center locations.
She expects that this year as well.
As a safeguard, Kirk said she plans to send flyers to the previous county polling places notifying voters of the new centers. She did that at previous city polling places last year, but she doesn't feel that's necessary again.
"I think the people in Evansville are savvy enough to figure this out," she said.
Kirk said no complaints from the public about the new centers came her way, and the few calls she got were questions about what the changes meant.
When asked about the long lines at popular centers like Washington Square Mall, Kirk responded: "Even with the old polling places, people had to stand in line."
Nevertheless, Kirk said election officials are going to place more voting machines and laptops with electronic poll books at city locations that proved popular or county locations expected to draw big crowds.
Other changes include the addition of one more vote center in the city and a change of location for another one.
A state law that took effect July 1, 2011, allowed local election officials to implement new voting locations.
Local election officials made the changes, and it proved to have two benefits: convenience for voters and a cost savings of about $85,000 per year for local governments.
"We had 132 polling precincts," said Kirk, adding that there was a Republican judge, a Democrat judge, a clerk for each and an inspector. "That's $500 just to pay those people to work."
Under the new system, there is an additional judge and clerk for each party, but they're at only 23 locations.
With respect to convenience, Kirk said Vanderburgh County has a mobile application that might be useful to voters.
It called "VC Election Office," and it allows voters to see locations and estimated wait times in real time.
The free application, available on Apple- or Android-based devices, was created by Mark Rolley Consulting, Inc., the company the city and county contracts with for several information technology services.
Kirk said, "We are the first county — period — to have this kind of an application." Matt Arvay, the city's chief information officer, said that's based on research by the leading geographic information systems (GIS) software company, ESRI.
The concept debuted during last year's city election with 15 centers. The centers enable Vanderburgh County residents to vote at any of the locations instead of only at their precinct polling centers. The primary will see the addition of seven new county locations.
Vanderburgh County Clerk Susan Kirk said she feels confident that duplicating last year's publicity efforts will inform voters about the change.
"We're just going to do like we did last year," she said about getting the word out, a year where she said everything went "just fine."
Kirk said the local media "helped out tremendously" in spreading news of new locations in print, on television and online, and she anticipates similar help this year.
She also said the candidates played a big role, as it was in their best interest that voters got to the right locations.
Kirk said candidates distributed literature that contained candidate information and vote center locations.
She expects that this year as well.
As a safeguard, Kirk said she plans to send flyers to the previous county polling places notifying voters of the new centers. She did that at previous city polling places last year, but she doesn't feel that's necessary again.
"I think the people in Evansville are savvy enough to figure this out," she said.
Kirk said no complaints from the public about the new centers came her way, and the few calls she got were questions about what the changes meant.
When asked about the long lines at popular centers like Washington Square Mall, Kirk responded: "Even with the old polling places, people had to stand in line."
Nevertheless, Kirk said election officials are going to place more voting machines and laptops with electronic poll books at city locations that proved popular or county locations expected to draw big crowds.
Other changes include the addition of one more vote center in the city and a change of location for another one.
A state law that took effect July 1, 2011, allowed local election officials to implement new voting locations.
Local election officials made the changes, and it proved to have two benefits: convenience for voters and a cost savings of about $85,000 per year for local governments.
"We had 132 polling precincts," said Kirk, adding that there was a Republican judge, a Democrat judge, a clerk for each and an inspector. "That's $500 just to pay those people to work."
Under the new system, there is an additional judge and clerk for each party, but they're at only 23 locations.
With respect to convenience, Kirk said Vanderburgh County has a mobile application that might be useful to voters.
It called "VC Election Office," and it allows voters to see locations and estimated wait times in real time.
The free application, available on Apple- or Android-based devices, was created by Mark Rolley Consulting, Inc., the company the city and county contracts with for several information technology services.
Kirk said, "We are the first county — period — to have this kind of an application." Matt Arvay, the city's chief information officer, said that's based on research by the leading geographic information systems (GIS) software company, ESRI.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Jackson County Animal Shelter gets a good grooming
And they’re being sorted by condition and circumstance to protect the healthy pups from those more likely to be sick.
It’s a move in the right direction.So is establishing indoor puppy play rooms painted with lively colors and pictures, where people can test their compatibility with a pet before they adopt.
So is cleaning out the old gas chamber room, which has long been used for storage and not euthanasia. It was a room some of the staff had avoided. Bad vibes.
Building fences, making repairs, changing the hours for the public and providing uniforms for the staff are all ways to move forward.
But changing the course of the county animal shelter, long a source of angst and a reason to be defensive, is going to take time and a lot of effort, like changing the direction of a huge ship in motion.
Those involved say it will take sustained effort and persistence.
But that may be happening, too.
There’s a three-pronged effort now with the shelter staff, the Animal Protection and Education Association and the newer Friends of the Jackson County Animal Shelter.
On April 17, at the Fountainebleau Community Center on Mississippi 57, the county will give a public update on progress at the shelter since the January public input meeting. And on April 24, there will be a major fundraiser in Biloxi. In the meantime, this week there’s an Easter sale where the adoption fee has been dropped from $50 to $35.
Nicole Grundel, the county’s information officer, is an animal lover with a lot of enthusiasm to get the word out, coordinate efforts and keep the momentum moving forward. She’s learning more about the needs, which include finding a way to elevate the pasture so the horses don’t have to be moved to the parking lot when it rains, a way to seal the concrete floors that hold water and disease, a way to bolster a staff that loves animals but works with a stigma, a way to better communicate problems and put ideas to work.
“The list is so long,” she said. Solutions get bogged down in legalities.
It is, after all, a county animal shelter. Part of its mission is to take anything that’s brought in. And when more come in than go out, animals are euthanized, by injection these days.
Supervisor John McKay has started referring to it as “animal shelter/animal control.”
He’s looking for better operations as well as a better shelter for animals. But he said it will be the next budget year before the county will sink real money into the project.
“That’s only five months away,” he said. “We need to decide what are the more critical capital items to put in next year’s budget -- expand sick care or spay/neuter or just the building so we can house more animals.”
He has been making sure the community is involved and he’s looking for ways to allow more volunteering.
Getting real statistics and tracking animals is part of the solution, Grundel explained, as is setting policy so the public doesn’t have unreal expectations.
For example, it’s important for a pet owner to know that once an animal is turned over to the shelter, he relinquishes all rights to ownership, including any further information about what happens to it, whether that’s adoption, rescue or euthanasia.
In January and February, the shelter took in 745 domestic animals. Less than half were strays, the others were brought in by their owners. Of those, 89 were reclaimed and 171 were adopted.
“Approximately 46 percent taken in were humanely euthanized,” Grundel said. “Although many of them were deemed unadoptable for various reasons, many were people’s unclaimed or surrendered pets.”
It’s a move in the right direction.So is establishing indoor puppy play rooms painted with lively colors and pictures, where people can test their compatibility with a pet before they adopt.
So is cleaning out the old gas chamber room, which has long been used for storage and not euthanasia. It was a room some of the staff had avoided. Bad vibes.
Building fences, making repairs, changing the hours for the public and providing uniforms for the staff are all ways to move forward.
But changing the course of the county animal shelter, long a source of angst and a reason to be defensive, is going to take time and a lot of effort, like changing the direction of a huge ship in motion.
Those involved say it will take sustained effort and persistence.
But that may be happening, too.
There’s a three-pronged effort now with the shelter staff, the Animal Protection and Education Association and the newer Friends of the Jackson County Animal Shelter.
On April 17, at the Fountainebleau Community Center on Mississippi 57, the county will give a public update on progress at the shelter since the January public input meeting. And on April 24, there will be a major fundraiser in Biloxi. In the meantime, this week there’s an Easter sale where the adoption fee has been dropped from $50 to $35.
Nicole Grundel, the county’s information officer, is an animal lover with a lot of enthusiasm to get the word out, coordinate efforts and keep the momentum moving forward. She’s learning more about the needs, which include finding a way to elevate the pasture so the horses don’t have to be moved to the parking lot when it rains, a way to seal the concrete floors that hold water and disease, a way to bolster a staff that loves animals but works with a stigma, a way to better communicate problems and put ideas to work.
“The list is so long,” she said. Solutions get bogged down in legalities.
It is, after all, a county animal shelter. Part of its mission is to take anything that’s brought in. And when more come in than go out, animals are euthanized, by injection these days.
Supervisor John McKay has started referring to it as “animal shelter/animal control.”
He’s looking for better operations as well as a better shelter for animals. But he said it will be the next budget year before the county will sink real money into the project.
“That’s only five months away,” he said. “We need to decide what are the more critical capital items to put in next year’s budget -- expand sick care or spay/neuter or just the building so we can house more animals.”
He has been making sure the community is involved and he’s looking for ways to allow more volunteering.
Getting real statistics and tracking animals is part of the solution, Grundel explained, as is setting policy so the public doesn’t have unreal expectations.
For example, it’s important for a pet owner to know that once an animal is turned over to the shelter, he relinquishes all rights to ownership, including any further information about what happens to it, whether that’s adoption, rescue or euthanasia.
In January and February, the shelter took in 745 domestic animals. Less than half were strays, the others were brought in by their owners. Of those, 89 were reclaimed and 171 were adopted.
“Approximately 46 percent taken in were humanely euthanized,” Grundel said. “Although many of them were deemed unadoptable for various reasons, many were people’s unclaimed or surrendered pets.”
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
BMC eyes new tools to monitor road contractors
The civic authority, blamed for the pathetic state of Mumbai’s thoroughfares, has decided to use technology to keep an eye on road contractors. For the first time, it will employ a combination of systems — from global positioning devices, temperature sensors to computers that gather industrial data — to monitor road-building work in real time.
The systems will transmit information about every move made by contractors and their workers to the BMC’s headquarters, saving officials the trouble of conducting frequent site inspections. Effectively, this will prevent road construction firms from cutting corners and doing a shoddy job.
A senior BMC official said that the onus of buying some of the systems will be on contractors. “In every contract henceforth, there will be a clause which will require them to install computers and sensors on their equipment and vehicles (mainly batch-mixing machines, road rollers). We will set up a monitoring room, where all the data transmitted by the systems can be viewed online,” he said.
The systems the civic body has identified for keeping a check are: heat sensors, density sensors, GPS devices and a network of computers that will gather and analyse real-time construction data.
Heat sensors will be fixed on batch-mixing machines and road rollers, and they will record the temperatures at which asphalt and tar are combined and laid on the road. Heat is an important factor in the road-building process. If the materials are not heated or laid out at a certain temperature, the quality of the road suffers.
Apart from heat sensors, density sensors and data-gathering computers, known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, will also be installed on batch-mixing machines. GPS devices will be fixed on trucks that carry the mixture of asphalt and tar to the site.
“All the devices will constantly send data to the BMC headquarters. Officials will be able to view the information on a dedicated website,” said Shantanu Kulkarni, the director of Probity Software, one of the firms helping the civic body use technology to monitor contractors’ work.
GPS devices, he said, would record the time and location of the trucks transporting the said mixture. They will also provide the time when the materials are unloaded at a site. “Officials will know how many trips road rollers make,” Kulkarni said.
At the BMC headquarters, a software for quality parameters and control will be installed. If a contractor bypasses any quality process, officials will come to know about it immediately.
The civic authority is likely to start using the technology for road resurfacing projects across the city. According to a BMC official, road retrenching contracts worth Rs 120 crore will be announced soon.
The systems will transmit information about every move made by contractors and their workers to the BMC’s headquarters, saving officials the trouble of conducting frequent site inspections. Effectively, this will prevent road construction firms from cutting corners and doing a shoddy job.
A senior BMC official said that the onus of buying some of the systems will be on contractors. “In every contract henceforth, there will be a clause which will require them to install computers and sensors on their equipment and vehicles (mainly batch-mixing machines, road rollers). We will set up a monitoring room, where all the data transmitted by the systems can be viewed online,” he said.
The systems the civic body has identified for keeping a check are: heat sensors, density sensors, GPS devices and a network of computers that will gather and analyse real-time construction data.
Heat sensors will be fixed on batch-mixing machines and road rollers, and they will record the temperatures at which asphalt and tar are combined and laid on the road. Heat is an important factor in the road-building process. If the materials are not heated or laid out at a certain temperature, the quality of the road suffers.
Apart from heat sensors, density sensors and data-gathering computers, known as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, will also be installed on batch-mixing machines. GPS devices will be fixed on trucks that carry the mixture of asphalt and tar to the site.
“All the devices will constantly send data to the BMC headquarters. Officials will be able to view the information on a dedicated website,” said Shantanu Kulkarni, the director of Probity Software, one of the firms helping the civic body use technology to monitor contractors’ work.
GPS devices, he said, would record the time and location of the trucks transporting the said mixture. They will also provide the time when the materials are unloaded at a site. “Officials will know how many trips road rollers make,” Kulkarni said.
At the BMC headquarters, a software for quality parameters and control will be installed. If a contractor bypasses any quality process, officials will come to know about it immediately.
The civic authority is likely to start using the technology for road resurfacing projects across the city. According to a BMC official, road retrenching contracts worth Rs 120 crore will be announced soon.
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