November 21st, 2008 · CommentsMaritime+Security+Expo+2008+-+gCaptain+Review2008-11-21+17%3A28%3A06John
gCaptain made an unscheduled stop this week at the Maritime Security Expo in Long Beach. The event showcases new technology and ideas that improve the security of ports and vessels. The following is a sampling of the best new technology we tested at the event:
Incident Commanders’ Radio Interface
The Incident Commander’s Radio Interface is a system developed by C-AT to allow ‘bridges’ any two incompatible radio, cell, satellite, and landline phones, providing interoperability across frequencies. Developed to allow firefighters, police and other first responders to communicate together this device also has many uses aboard ship.
Having worked aboard a offshore drillship there were times, like during well testing, when half a dozen or more third party companies were working on deck. Each company operated a different type of radio broadcasting on a separate channel. This worked well during normal operations but during emergencies communication with these teams of workers became difficult.
September 23rd, 2008 · CommentsFloating+on+Air2008-09-23+08%3A00%3A23John
We have all heard stories about the Bermuda triangle being nothing more than natural gas discharges that create bubbles reducing the buancy of the ship. Those who haven’t can check download the mythbusters episode on sinking ships from itunes. Can we use the same principals to improve fuel efficiency and speed?
An article in the New Scientist reviews the state of the art in the technology and the obstacles that researchers are facing. For example: how do you create a blanket of bubbles around the ship but keep the propellers in undisturbed water where they can create thrust efficiently? How do you keep bubbles in place at high speeds? And can the gains from drag reduction outweigh the energy costs of creating the bubbles?
One promising solution derives from the work of Yoshiaki Kodama, director of the Advanced Maritime Transport Technology Department at Japan’s National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) in Tokyo. Kodama’s team proposes to shoot a layer of bubbles from slots near the bow of the ship. The bubbles will travel along the hull of the ship, with enough bubbles trapped under the ship’s surfaces so that the constant replenishment is sufficient to maintain the blanket of bubbles. Treehugger
September 19th, 2008 · CommentsGoogle%27s+Water+Based+Data+Centers2008-09-19+11%3A14%3A37mike
Google is at it again, thinking outside the box for ways to revolutionize technology, expand their reach and differentiate themselves from their competition (wait, what competition?). This time, Google will take to the sea with a recently filed patent for a ‘Water-based Data Center‘.
Google looks create mobile data centers to house their servers, or supercomputers, they use so its users get the fastest search results. It seems as though Google is looking to these data centers to alleviate some common problems experienced with operating such a large website.
First of all, Google aims to reach as many users as possible with the fastest searches as possible. By having mobile servers, Google can reach communities even in the most remote areas to ensure fast service. Good examples would have been at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing or even military response in to a natural disaster at a remote location. Often times a sudden flood of traffic can be too much for local infrastructure, causing delays in speed or even a crash of the entire system. [Continue Reading →]
March 5th, 2008 · CommentsHMS+Unseen%3A++Brits+Developing+Invisible+Ship2008-03-05+08%3A04%3A46Richard
Stealth ships: HMS Helsingborg and HMS Visby. Photo: Peter Nilsson/Kockums AB
The folks at Giz Magazine are reporting scientists at Britannia Royal Navy College are working on a plan to use it to create the ultimate stealth vessel, according to a report in this month’s edition of Physics World.
Here’s a excerpt:
Unlike natural materials, which refract light to the right of the incident beam, metamaterials are “left handed”, refracting light at a negative angle, to the left of the incident beam. This allows scientists to “bend” light around the object, allowing the beams to continue as if the object were not there. Duke University succeeded in bending microwaves around metamaterials in 2006, and in the following year researchers at Ames Laboratory developed a method for bending wavelengths in the visible light spectrum. Scientists predict that invisibility will be possible for objects of any shape and size within the next decade.
For us non technical types, think of a sophisticated form of polarization. For the technically oriented, info on incident beams is here.
As the Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War — which, dating from around 450 BC, is probably the world’s oldest treatise on military strategy — “all warfare is based on deception.”
I wonder how the 72 ColRegs would treat such a vessel or if could be seen by conventional radar.
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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd
A flotilla of ships may have been dispatched to reinstate the broken submarine cable that has left the Middle East and India struggling to communicate with the rest of the world, but it took just one vessel to inflict the damage that brought down the internet for millions.
According to reports, the internet blackout, which has left 75 million people with only limited access, was caused by a ship that tried to moor off the coast of Egypt in bad weather on Wednesday. Since then phone and internet traffic has been severely reduced across a huge swath of the region, slashed by as much as 70% in countries including India, Egypt and Dubai.
While tens of millions have been directly affected, the impact of the blackout has spread far wider, with economies across Asia and the Middle East struggling to cope. Governments have also become directly involved, with the Egyptian communications ministry imploring surfers to stay offline so business traffic can take priority. “People who download music and films are going to affect businesses who have more important things to do,” said ministry spokesman Mohammed Taymur. Continue Reading At The Guardian…
A second cable thought to lie alongside it - SEA-ME-WE 4, or the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 cable - was also split.
FLAG is a 28,000km (17,400 mile) long submarine communications cable that links Australia and Japan with Europe via India and the Middle East.
SEA-ME-WE 4 is a submarine cable linking South East Asia to Europe via the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.
The two cable cuts meant that the only cable in service connecting Europe to the Middle East via Egypt was the older Sea-M-We 3 system, according to research firm TeleGeography.
The firm said the cuts reduced the amount of available capacity on the stretch of network between India and Europe by 75% percent.
As a result, carriers in Egypt and the Middle East re-routed their European traffic around the globe, through South East Asia and across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Continue Reading…
This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the 
A flotilla of ships may have been dispatched to reinstate the broken submarine cable that has left the Middle East and India struggling to communicate with the rest of the world, but it took just one vessel to inflict the damage that brought down the internet for millions.
