TO INFINITY! AND BEYOND!!

OMGIMSOEXCITEDHAVEYOUHEARDABOUTTHENEWREACTIONLESSDRIVENASATESTEDWECANTOTALLYGOTOSPACEIWANTMYOWNSPACESHIPCOMMANDTHISISTHEBESTMOSTEXCITINGTHINGEVERIWILLQUITMYJOBTOGODEDICATEMYLIFETOTHISRIGHTNOW!!!!!

Deep breaths!  Deep breaths!  I'm going to hyperventilate if I don't calm down!  Give me just a second!

     Okay!  Let's take it from the top.  NASA has recently published a paper detailing their recent experiments conducted with what is currently being called the Cannae drive (Hi Scotty!) or QDrive.  Here's the theory: a weirdly shaped chamber has microwaves bounced around in it.  Because of the way the chamber is shaped, the microwaves bounce around in such a way as to generate thrust (measured in micro newtons, i.e. a very small amount).  Should the device work as described, it would mean a reaction-less drive had been achieved.  NASA tested the thing under some extremely strenuous conditions (although as has been pointed out by others, not identical conditions to space), and to the surprise of many, the damn thing actually worked!  So how and why is this a big deal, and what actually happened?  Let's take a look!

     First, a reaction-less drive is a type of engine that would generate thrust without any need for an outside force or net momentum exchange to produce linear motion.  In plain english, you move without pushing off of something else.  That doesn't sound that complicated but literally every form of movement we use currently does this.  Note I didn't say every form of engine, I said every form of movement.  Walking, we push against the ground to move forward, swimming we push against the water, planes push against the air, boats push against either the water or air (propeller engine or sailboat), cars also push against the ground, and rockets (once they're in space) push against their own fuel.  More accurately, they move by releasing matter (usually a gas because it can be compressed so maximizes how much you get for the space it takes up) in one direction pushing the ship in the other.  Space makes this a bit more complicated because there's nothing around the vessel to slow it down once it gets moving, so every time it wants to change course, it takes fuel to start moving and the same amount again to stop moving.
     This really complicates space travel as it's currently done because a huge portion of the mass of our current rockets (something around 90%) is simply the fuel to get them into space.  To give you an easier to visualize mental picture, to get an 18 wheeler into orbit you'd need a Boeing 747 made entirely of rocket fuel.  If the goal is to get somewhere further than orbit, we have to build enough fuel into the part of the ship that survives getting out of the atmosphere to get the ship pointed at the destination, accelerate towards it, stop when it gets there, and if it's a manned ship, it would need additional fuel to point the ship back at Earth, accelerate back, and slow down prior to reentry.  The amount of fuel that can be carried is finite, and the issue of dimishing returns starts to come into play at some point since approximately 10lbs of feul to get off the ground has to be added for every pound of fuel that will be used in space.
     A reaction-less drive would solve a lot of problems for getting around past orbit.  Lets say the drive weighted as much as the aforementioned 18 wheeler.  That means that you only have to come up with the one rocket fuel 747 to get to the moon or to get to Proxima Centauri since you don't have to add additional fuel to go a farther distance.  The other advantage is the possibility of continuous thrust for the trip.  I'll get into what that means more specifically a little later though.  The big problem with a reaction-less drive is that it violates a few laws of physics based on our current understanding, which makes developing one a bit of a problem.

     "Well how could they have developed a working one if it violates the laws of physics?" you ask.  The short answer is, we don't know yet.  There is quite a lot of data that NASA released, and aside from some short speculation, there isn't a lot dedicated to trying to explain the why.  Although it's very important to point out that no serious scientists involved with the project are suggesting its actually reaction-less (they just aren't sure what it's reacting with and how), the important part at this stage isn't actually why it works.  By everything they have observed, it does work.
     The really interesting part of this is, however it's working, it doesn't work in the way that it's inventor thought it was going to.  There were two models tested.  One was the one the inventor designed that included some slots in the reflection chamber that were integral to generating the thrust he theorized would be created.  The other was the same design, minus the slots.  In the experiment that was conducted, both seemed to work equally well.  The scientists running the experiment just have theorized that something about the device is interacting with quantum vacuum virtual plasma (as I understand this part, basically particles that aren't quite real in the physical sense but nevertheless exist everywhere even in space), and is pushing against that to generate the measured thrust.

     "Even if it is somehow working, what's the big deal?  The thrust is in micro newtons!  Space shuttles weight tons!"  That's where the unique environment of space actually works in our favor.  Let's stay you give your car a push on a flat street to get it started rolling and after a few feet it comes to a stop, and may have gotten up to 1 mile an hour.  In space, that push that gets the ship up to 1 mile an hour will keep it going at 1 mile an hour without any further thrust until it hits something.  So while you would have to keep pushing that car on Earth just to maintain the speed, if you keep pushing it in space you add to the speed.  If each second you are pushing it increases the speed by 1 mile an hour, after 1 minute the ship is going 60 miles an hour.  After two weeks the ship is traveling at around 1.2 MILLION miles per hour.  You can see how even a small push, as long as you can keep it going indefinitely, can add up over time.  This is why a drive that can continuously produce thrust for a very long period without having to carry a large amount of fuel (even if it's only a small amount of thrust produced) is such a huge advancement in space travel.
     The other thing to consider about the push the Cannae drive is producing is that the drive tested was a small model built solely for the purposes of this test.  The hope is that by scaling up the device, you could also significantly increase the thrust produced.  This is also the part where understanding how it's doing what it's doing would be useful.  If you know how something works, you can figure out how to make it work better.

     Overall there are still a few hurdles to jump.  The device will probably require a lot more testing on Earth.  At some point, one will have to be shipped up to the ISS for testing in actual space.  After that, a Cannae drive would have to be built strong enough to actually push a ship.  All of this also assumes that the drive is actually working and the motion is not caused by some other unforeseen anomaly.  I am very hopeful, though.  We could all have been born at the narrow window in human history to see the birth of interplanetary space flight.

Now if we can just get FTL travel solved with a warp field and subspace transmissions I can finally get my own starship...

Wireless Telecoms: A Lightning Rod

     Friends, countrymen!  Lend me your eyes!  And read this thing I wrote!  A bit melodramatic I admit, but I really didn't have a better way to kick this off.  Today we're talking about people blaming cell phone companies for one few things that aren't their fault.  Let's get started!

     Wireless Telecoms (short for Wireless Telecommunications [professional speak for Cell Phone Companies]) are different from almost every other business out there.  I get the feeling from everyone I talk to that most people don't really notice how unusual it is.  Let me illustrate this: ask yourself, "What am I paying my cell phone company for?"  Here's the mind blowing part: if your answer was anything other than, "To provide signal to my cell phone," or had any other things thrown in, it was wrong (unless you actually have extra services on your bill, like cloud storage or music subscriptions).

     I can see (metaphorically) that some of you are confused.  Let's back things up to the inception of cell phones and cellular technology.  Many moons ago, cell networks were just starting to take off.  You could actually get a cell phone plan that wouldn't cost you over $100 dollars a month for a single line of voice only service plus $4.75 a call (That's where we started!  Look it up!).  The problem was, cellular devices, henceforth know as cell phones, cost a lot.  So if you're an owner of a newly formed cell company, you have a great service that will be fantastically useful, but there's a high investment cost to get started as a customer for something that the customer isn't sure they'll use yet.

     Then someone somewhere who was pretty good with numbers crunched some and came up with a great idea.  The Cell Provider could just give the customer a phone so they wouldn't have to put down a huge amount up front, and over the course of about two years, the company would make that back through service revenue!  Now, there is the worry that after they have the phone they would just leave, but if a financial penalty is written into the contract they sign to recoup the loss that worry is taken care of, too.  People started getting cell phones, started using them, and realized how amazing they were.

     It's at this point that European cell carriers began being heavily differentiated for the American ones; people knew what cell phones were and knew how useful they were, there was no need to risk money to incentivize demand.  The vast majority of phones purchased in Europe and Asia are bought at full retail with little to no discount, and correspondingly, no contract.  People will frequently buy or order phones directly from the manufacturer.  Meanwhile in America, continuing on the path they started on, someone had the brilliant marketing idea to offer that new line of service discount option to anyone that wasn't still working off their initial 2 year contract and call it a 2 year upgrade.  After that came the 1 year, not as deeply discounted upgrades, and most recently, the full price of the phone billed in installments plans.

     Over the years, this pricing structure has created a sort of bubble.  The wars between carriers, especially in the case of Big Red and Big Orange, has been one of device line ups, deals, customer service and coverage areas here in the States and it's put strange ideas in peoples heads.  Many are flabbergasted that the actual price for a new smartphone is usually $400 or more, for the cheap ones.  The price difference between what people usually pay and what an off contract device costs is vast.  People almost always buy devices through a carrier (and in fact there aren't a lot of options available if you don't want to do that), so they return to the carrier for support for that device.  When that device gets broken, they call and request that they get a new phone for a discount or free, and if they aren't eligible for the discounted price, and can't get an exception made, they take their business to another carrier.  All this being demanded from a company that is only being paid to provide a wireless connection.

     If you don't see what makes that so different and strange compared to every other industry, imagine if the state Departments of Transportation worked the same way.  If you agree to use Tennessee roads exclusively for the next two years and pay your taxes to them instead of another state, TDOT will sell you a Porsche for $12,500.  You agree and when something goes wrong with your Porsche after a few months, it never crosses your mind to call anyone other than TDOT to get it fixed.  When you wreck your Porsche, you ask the TDOT to replace it for just another $12.5k.  All of that despite the fact that what you're actually paying TDOT for is just the use of the road.

     I'm certainly not saying we need to feel bad for the cell giants currently dominating the industry.  In fact, I'm of the opinion that the top two could probably cut into their vast profits a bit and start offering unlimited data again, although maybe not for the $29.99 price it was originally.  I'm just a little irked when I see people on forums complaining that their Blackberry has poor battery life, or that their Android phone that was 2 years old when they bought it 18 months ago is running slow, and then blame the service provider for it.  The phones aren't manufactured by the carrier.  They aren't designed by the carrier.  When you get them swapped out by the carrier for a warranty issue, your cell carrier is just mailing them out to the manufacturer anyway.  There are many reasons to be mad at your cell provider, but the fact that you bought a crappy brand of phone that none the less retails for $500 and can't get it replaced free after 6 months, is one of the few things that you can't lay at their feet.

Thank You For AT&T, Google.

     Recently AT&T announced that they would be bringing their new Gigapower service to the Nashville metropolitan area.

First things first, YAY!!!

     However, in our rush to congratulate ourselves on our good fortune of now having not one but two fiber based internet providers setting up shop in Nashville, let's not forget that we have Google to thank for this.  Sure, AT&T had U-Verse available around here already, but while it's great and all, it's no competitor for Google Fiber.  AT&T didn't even have a Gigapower service until recently.  That new higher tier of speed 'mysteriously' started appearing in markets where Google Fiber was either available now, or coming soon.  Even though I distinctly remember an early press release where AT&T stated that they weren't just now releasing Gigapower as a response to Google Fiber, that's pretty clear that's exactly what's happening.  However they want to spin the project, I'll be happy to take advantage of it.  There's not a lot of specifics, but I can wait for now, since they are slowly but surely making good on their promised expansion.

     AT&T has officially gotten Gigapower up and running in Austin, TX.  It's a pretty big jump when, for a short period, there was a lot of speculation that there would not even be a Gigapower.  AT&T had sent out a flurry of press releases about the many areas they would be expanding this amazing service to, but showed no signs of investing any capital into network infrastructure in those areas.  True, what they've delivered so far is not the 1Gbps that both the name and AT&T themselves promise it will be yet, but progress is being made.  I have seen and heard a lot of people giving AT&T flack for not hitting the ground running with the Gigapower service delivering, well, gigapower.  To that I say, at least some effort is being made, unlike Comcast.

     Comcast seems content to stick their head in the sand and continue to try and strangle every last dollar out of their customers before their business model collapses in on itself.  No doubt in a decade or so, we'll see the company fall apart much like Enron did, leaving the board of directors with well lined pockets living in houses serviced by Google Fiber and the rest of the rank and file scrambling to find a job and rebuild their 401ks.  Comcast is trailing along behind with their highest tier offering up to 108Mbps, about one third AT&T's official starting line with Gigapower and about one tenth of Google's best offerings.  On top of that, they are now introducing data caps top out at 300GB on all their plans, including the aforementioned 108Mbps.  This means that if you actually get the speed promised on your plan, and you were to max that speed out, you could blow through your entire month's allowance in a little more than six and a half hours.

     Bashing on Comcast aside, I have one last thought I want to share about broadband.  It's great that Nashville and Austin are getting some great internet options thanks to Google dragging our country's internet forward kicking and screaming into the 21st century.  A lot of our country is still living in the dark ages of the internet, though.  I want to send a message out to the city councilmen and mayors of the smaller metropolitan areas and townships (whom I'm sure all eagerly await my blog updates): throw money at this problem.  This is one situation I advocate lots of government spending.  Creating a high speed internet infrastructure can bring tech businesses into the region and means a lot of local people can remain local with telecommuting to increase their income.  Higher income means more service based businesses to cater to that income which means more tax revenue flowing in.

     Telecoms want the network to be profitable immediately, and who can blame them?  They aren't in this game for charitable reasons.  A government subsidized utility can afford to take a loss here, when it can result in significant gains elsewhere, and doesn't answer to short sighted investors looking for quick returns over long term viability.  Don't let big companies bully you with threatening to pull out.  Call their bluff.  If they do pull out, that just means increased subscription rates for the municipal network.  Chattanooga has their own internet provider and it's working great for them so far.

     So let's all thank Google for entering this highly uncompetitive market and shaking things up, but let's make sure we're doing what we can from our side to shake things up.  Remember, nothing says your opinion louder than where you spend your money.

Update:  Apparently, since I originally wrote this Comcast, Time Warner, and Century Link have all announced plans to roll out increased speeds.  None of which is to try to keep up with Google Fiber of course.  It's just a coincidence that they are starting their massive speed increases in areas where Google is currently operating or has announced that it will be expanding.  Also coincidence: that they have all started these plans after Google Fiber took off.  They were all totally planning this before now.