Freeing the airwaves... Hmmm... (And other geekery)

OK, time for me to get a little geeky today, I'm afraid, and have a head-desk moment about "Free the Airwaves". Simply put, this is a campaign to get the FCC to allow unlicensed use of "white space" in-between tv broadcast channels, i.e. at frequencies between 54 and 700 MHz, and indeed, once the digital switch-over happens, to allow unrestricted use of frequencies in this band, particularly for things like mobile broadband. Which all sounds great and peachy and "oooh we can open the internet up to more people and make it easier for people etc. etc.". Unless you're a low-frequency radio astronomer. Probably working with the VLA (or indeed the GMRT, but as that's in India, its not 100% relevant!), at frequencies in the 330 MHz and 75 MHz ranges where radio interference from TV and mobile phones is already pretty bad...

Now, ok, radio astronomy's not like finding a cure for cancer or something like that, but it is an interesting and important tool in furthering our understanding of the universe, how the universe evolves, how galaxies interact with and shape their environments, and provides a window on the universe that shows a truly amazing richness of beautiful phenomena, and has allowed tests of relativity, and deepened our understanding of the universe. And low frequency radio astronomy has been instrumental in telling us about the history of interactions between galaxies and their environments, helping us to further understand the evolution of these environments and ultimately our universe. I don't know about you, but I find this fascinating (well, I'd have to really, wouldn't I, else why would I do it?).

But, its difficult. Really difficult. Mainly because of all the man-made radio frequency interference there is at these frequencies. The signal we're looking for can be at least thousands of times fainter than the interferences, and we end up having to bin loads of data to get rid of contaminated channels. Which means our sensitivity is reduced and observing time and money (a limited resource) is wasted. And the faint signals we're looking for become even harder to find. And so science gets even more difficult, and more obstacle strewn than it already is. :-(

I'm sure that there'll be "protected" bands where devices won't be allowed to broadcast, but in reality there'll still be large amounts of leakage into these protected bands which will contaminate observations and make science that little bit harder. *sigh* Anyone fancy a trip to the far side of the moon with a radio telescope array? ;-)

And in other geekery, I've had to fix my MacBook Pro with a bit of post-it note and sellotape. Yep folks, a €2000 computer fixed with office stationery. What was wrong with it? Well, the keyboard and trackpad would just stop working randomly, for no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it'd come back, sometimes it wouldn't. I was confused as hell. So I Gooogled. And Googled some more. And it turns out that there's a known problem of a bowed ribbon cable that connects the keyboard/trackpad to everything else. Applying pressure on the ribbon cable makes everything work fine again, so, 10 minutes later, with a bit of post-it note folded over a few times to apply sufficient pressure sellotaped into place, everything works fine again. And touch wood, there won't be any more problems. I swear I'm cursed with laptops or something!

New digital camera!

Yay! After a couple of months of searching, debating, trying to find a good deal on a decent camera, I come home for a week, and within 24 hours, with the aid of my brother, I manage to find a decent digital camera at a decent price! Woo! Ended up with a Fuji FinePix J50 (from the store linked to), which being a mere 15 miles from Burnley, meant we went to pick it up, rather than paying extra for packaging etc, and meant I didn't have to wait either... (Not that I'm impatient or anything like that. Delayed gratification is good in some scenarios after all. ;-) ). Haven't been able to play with it yet, as the battery needed charging, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to have a play, post pics, and see just how good my new toy actually is! May be interesting to try the night mode (or play with the brother's camera) to see if pics of astronomical objects are possible. Though it seems a bit redundant given the multi-million dollar telescopes I get to play with anyway... ;-)

And well, once the camera's sorted, and I'm back in my own kitchen, I'll have to make a start on some illustrated recipes too... :-)

All new blog!

So yeah, new blog (can't use LJ any more as the ex has that address and I don't particularly want to be posting stuff there any more... ;-) ). So yeah, what's going on? Its been a hectic summer, conferences in the US, friends getting married, observing at the GMRT in India, and yes, breaking up with David.

That one was really a long time coming; lots of problems since I moved out to France really, stuff that he wouldn't really admit to until things were over, but the bottom line was that there was an expectation that my career was secondary to his, I wasn't "supposed" to succeed or indeed carry on in academia after this post in France (get it all out of my system I guess... ;-) ), and he expected me to give it up, find a job in the "real world" and move to London. Oh well, sucks to be him... ;-) Does mean this weekend's going to be interesting -- it'll be the first time we've seen each other since I broke up with him, hopefully it shouldn't be too painful to give his stuff back and get mine back from his. And well, I have a good network of friends I can run too if things do get too painful!

On the plus side, I get to see my parents and family for a whole week (someone remind me of this around this time next week! ;-) ), and generally chill as work is closed for the entirity of next week. Explains the miserable weather then!