Ones and Zeros

Daniel Gross in Newsweek passes on a report (not for the first time) that Carly Fiorina is working for McCain acting as the “speaker to CEOs”.

So, the CEO that permanently damaged HP and Compaq with the merger, caused the first layoff in HP history, and illegally spied on board members is working for McCain? Ms Fiorina also apparently played a role in permanently damaging Bell Labs as an institution. I’m more familiar with the HP case though.

This is another sign that the McCain campaign is lost. First Phil Gram, now Carly Fiorina? It’s like the McCain campaign staff is working for Obama.

For those who travel on business in their cars the reimbursement rate per mile is important. There’s also a reimbursement rate per mile for personally-operated aircraft too.

In June I noticed that the GSA reimbursement rate for personally operated aircraft hadn’t been adjusted since Jan 2006 despite the fuel price increases hitting 100LL too. It still sat at $1.07/mile. The GSA’s been regularly updating the rate for cars. I emailed a request that the GSA review the aircraft rate and gave them the Jan 2006 and June 2008 prices at Leesburg.

I’ve just rechecked and as of August 1, the new rate is $1.26/mile. While it’s not as much of a change as I might have hoped, it is some change at least. So, enjoy our new $0.19/mile increase!

The page listing the new current rates is GSA Privately Owned Vehicle (POV) Mileage Reimbursement Rates. In the past the IRS has followed the GSA rates, but I’m no tax expert so don’t take my word for that.

And a side note, this doesn’t help only the rich. Personally-operated aircraft aren’t usually jets after all. There are many times more single-engine piston aircraft in the US than there are jets. Not all car owners have a late model Porche, Jaguar, or BMW, or Tesla. Very few actually do. Aircraft are the same. Except that older aircraft that are flying are typically better maintained than older cars.

As a pilot I’ve been following the FAA NGATS (Next Generation Air Transport System) effort to modernize the air traffic control system. There are a number of projects involved but ADS-B is one of the early ones. ADS-B is short for “Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast”. It’s a GPS-based system that reports the altitude and location over a broadcast radio link both to other aircraft and to Air Traffic Control (ATC). This will provide the surveillance of aircraft necessary.

Currently ATC uses radar to see aircraft. Actually, there are two kinds of radar - primary and secondary. Primary radar is the reflection of the radar beam from the aircraft itself. Secondary radar uses a transponder in the aircraft. When it receives a signal from the ATC radar, it transmits back its code. The code is set by the pilot at the direction of ATC. This code then shows up on the ATC radar screen so that the controller knows which plane is which. Most of the time ATC uses secondary radar.

So I decided to compare a radar track with a GPS track. I used GPS to simulate ADS-B. My plane is located in Leesburg VA inside the ADIZ. Without going through all the detail about that, this means that I have to have a discrete transponder code rather than a generic one. That means sites like Flight Aware will track me when I’m in the pattern.

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Once in a while I tell people I make invisible incantations and encode them in secret patterns that will be processed by specially prepared crystals. Of course, the incantations are software programming languages, the secret patterns are the files on the computer’s hard drive in magnetic patterns, and the specially prepared crystals are computer chips. It just depends if I’m feeling more fantastic or prosaic.

Software is a little odd. Software is to mathematics as engineering is to physics. But like all analogies that’s not completely accuate. Manufacturing software isn’t like manufacturing a physical item, it’s just copying the files. Making software is almost always an R&D process. But, it’s never a physical process, nothing to touch or handle. So, how to think about it?

After over twenty years of designing, writing, and debugging software, I’ve come to think about it as physical objects after all - like blocks and geometric shapes - in my head. We’re a species with hands and are used to manipulating things. So, I just imagine doing that.

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