Defense Articles

ISDN is a vital topic for today’s CCNA and CCNP candidates, especially for the ICND and Intro exams - you’ve got to know ISDN inside and out to pass those exams. Naturally you want to include it in your home lab. What many candidates don’t realize is that you can’t connect two Cisco routers directly via their Basic Rate Interface (BRI) interfaces you’ve got to have another device between them called an ISDN simulator.

An ISDN simulator is not one of those software programs pretending to be routers (”router simulators”) this is a piece of hardware that acts as the telephone company in your home lab. Older simulators come with preprogrammed phone numbers and SPIDs, where newer ones let you program the phone numbers you want to use. Either way, an ISDN simulator is great for your CCNA/CCNP home lab, because you can practice dial scenarios that actually work. And you get to troubleshoot the ones that don’t, which is also important to learn! )

You don’t need any special cables or connectors you just connect both of your routers’ BRI interfaces to the ISDN simulator with a straight-through cable and you’re ready to go.

In years past, this was a major problem for 640-801, 811, and 821 studies, because the simulators used to be so expensive. New ones can still be pricey ($600 and up), but with the sudden influx of used ISDN simulators on ebay and Cisco resellers, you can get a used one that will do the job for you.

Why are there suddenly so many ISDN simulators on the market? Cisco recently removed ISDN from the CCIE R&S exam, so a lot of CCIE rack resellers as well as private individuals are selling their simulators. There’s never been a better time to add ISDN to your home lab. If taken care of (kept out of extreme heat), they can last for quite a few years. The one I purchased for my IE home lab is still working well.

Many novice traders rush into forex trading enticed by broker ads of 400:1 leverage; free real time demo accounts or simply by the thrill of getting into the action. Even those that test their signals service or trading strategies in real time to see how they perform don’t do so adequately. In any case, there is a limit to how much you can gain from real time practice: testing trading strategies with live demo trading accounts is only useful if you know what you are doing.

The first step in refining your trading skills and strategies is to accept that this is a process that involves repetition, practice and reinforcement. This is where a Forex Simulator is very useful. It can save you money and ensure that you don’t start out a loser.

Unlike a live forex demo account which functions in real time, a forex simulator enables users to upload, view and review historical data at any given point in time. Used to confirm one’s understanding of pattern recognition and trading signals, data can be rewound and fast forwarded to test and retest your knowledge and understanding.

Using a Forex Simulator enables you to get months of training in just a few days work because you can pause, rewind, fast forward. You can set up 5 minute timeframes to up to what ever you choose. You can take snapshots of trades. You can use any indicator you like. You can keep a trade journal and refine your strategy.

If there is an area where RC has advanced dramatically, it is in simulators. RC flight simulators used to be cheesy, but now are outstanding.

A Remote Control flight simulator is a computer software program in a video game format that allows you to replicate the feeling of flying an actual RC model airplane on your PC. The idea of flight simulation computer games was developed with some of the earliest gaming computers. The early flight simulators were not useful for RC training because the programs and graphics were still rather primitive.

The recent increased capacity for gaming and graphic reproductions as well as the more wide spread availability of Personal computers has led to a surge in the production and sales of flight simulator programs designed to simulate remote controlled flight. The best programs use a transmitter that is the same as the one used in actual flight situations. The transmitter is connected to the computer via a USB cable. Signals from the transmitter operate the simulated plane in the gaming display on the monitor exactly as a RC model would respond in actual flight.

The training possibilities are what make the flight simulator much more than just another computer game. The ability to simulate the exact conditions and feel of a real RC model plane allows a person to perfect his flying skills on the simulator without risk to his expensive actual RC model. The simple basic landing and takeoffs can be practiced until they can be done perfectly. The more advanced maneuvers can be practiced again and again until perfection is achieved. Then you are ready to try them out with a real plane.

Some of the better simulator programs include the Great Planes Realflight G3.5. It is considered by many to be the best software available. The G3.5 has several expansion modules that can be used with the basic program. This gives a person a wide choice of airplane types and graphic backgrounds. The Aerofly Pro Deluxe RC Flight simulator is another highly rated choice. It is possible to adapt your own transmitter for use with the software which gives an exact reproduction of the feel of the controls.

A third highly rated software program is the Reflex XTR. One of the features of these high quality flight simulators is the ability to reproduce not only various flying environments, but also weather and visibility conditions. Some can reproduce night flying or simulate out of sight control of the aircraft when it flies behind an object and out of line of sight. Most Hobby Shops that sell RC vehicles will carry the RC flight simulators or have information on how to obtain them. As the motto of one highly rated flight simulator promises, first they will teach you how to fly an RC model plane and then they will make you an expert.

Perhaps you are aware that recently a member of the city council of the city of San Francisco in California stated that he did not believe that we needed the United States military. He cited the reason for his believe because he said what had they done anything for us in the last five years?

This is interesting indeed considering that North Korea now has a 9300-mile Range cruise missile available and they have nuclear warheads as well. In other words this is an ICBM missile with a nuclear warhead. Worse off North Korea is going to test fire this long-range missile to make sure it works and this has the United States of America as military low worried. But still the girlie men in San Francisco just don’t get it and they do not understand that we need a United States military to protect the American people because that’s what it says in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Can you imagine what the girlie men in San Francisco might say if North Korea launches a nuclear missile with a 9300 mile Range which Hits San Francisco? Do you think that the girlie men in San Francisco will then change their mind and consider that perhaps the United States of America does need a military after all?

It is amazing how all these liberals can survive with such a bizarre line of reasoning as that. Perhaps they should consider what the United States military has done in the last 200 years rather than in the last five years? Please consider this in 2006 you stupid girlie men.

Afraid to fly? No problem. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, one of the oldest simulation games around, will take you flying anywhere in the world in just about any type of plane you can think of.

The year was 1982 when the first flight simulator came out. It was version 1.0. Graphically, it was quite simple, but it did give the user a chance to fly a real plane. In the early editions they used vector graphics, so the view from the cockpit was pretty much left to your imagination.

As the game progressed, however, the graphics became more real. If you took a plane ride over New York, you would see a skyline that was letter perfect to what you would actually see if you were flying over New York in a real plane. But the transition from version 1.0 to Flight Simulator 2002 was a slow and gradual one.

In version 2.0 they finally added duel support for both a mouse and a joystick. Version 1.0 was mouse only. Plus, the simulator became more popular and versions were released on a number of game platforms.

It wasn’t until version 3.0 that the flight simulator went to Windows. This was in 1988. The game featured the first multiple windows that you could resize. It also featured 3D windows and panels.

In 1989, Flight Simulator came out with version 4.0. There wasn’t a huge difference between this version and 3.0 but the scenery was more detailed. The bridges, roads and buildings looked a lot better than in the earlier version. This version also created a demand for add-on products to the game by outside vendors.

In 1993, they came out with version 5.0. More than 30,000 hours of development went into this version and it showed. It was the first game with photorealistic scenery and a map of the whole world. You could travel from New York to Paris in real time. This was a major breakthrough in the history of the game. With 5.1, the ability to handle scenic libraries was added. Also, weather was added to the game such as storms. This was done in 1995.

Windows 95, which came out in 1996, was the first game in the series available for that windows platform. More planes were added, such as the Boeing 737. Photorealistic satellite imaging was added to this version as well. Plus, flying lessons were added so you could be flying in a matter of minutes. It was the easier simulator to date.

Flight Simulator 98 added 10 times the number of airports than in the previous version so you could take off from virtually anywhere in the world. More planes were added and the graphics became even more realistic. It didn’t seem like the game could get any better.

But then Flight Simulator 2000 came out. Four new planes were added. Thousands more airports were added. Navigation was greatly improved. Graphics were improved. The control panels were more detailed. Just trying to figure out the controls for a Boeing 777 was a challenge. Yes, 2000 was even better than 98.

But they didn’t stop there. Flight Simulator 2002 was to be the best yet. The working instruments were more lifelike. Buildings became so lifelike that it was scary. New planes were added, including the first float plane. Real time interactive air traffic control was added.

North Korea has now publicly stated that it has a long-range missile that is capable of reaching the United States of America and it will test wire this missile just to prove it. Indeed I have a question, where it will they fire such missile to prove it can go that Long of the distance across the Pacific Ocean.

I would think that they would try to a bit at the United States of America or one of our Northern or southern allies. It seems rather unfortunate that North Korea wishes to threaten the United States of America especially considering we know that North Korea now has nuclear warheads and atomic weapons.

If North Korea is to put a nuclear warheads on top of such a missile that could reach let’s say Seattle, Los Angeles or San Francisco then folks we have a serious problem. In fact within the next ten years who is to say that they won’t have a very accurate stealth missile with a nuclear warhead on it and we may not know it is even coming in and perhaps we will have a problem shooting it down.

Truck driver training just got a little more sophisticated. The CDL training program at San Juan College in New Mexico recently acquired a brand new $200,000 diesel truck simulator designed to replicate real life driving conditions. The simulator can duplicate hundreds of different driving scenarios including icy roads, blown out tires, and hitting a curb. The driver’s seat even shakes and the steering wheel will jerk to further dramatize such situations. The settings on the simulator can also be changed and increased, to simulate particularly bad situations when things go wrong.

The simulator also helps to train students on a particularly difficult maneuver: learning how to avoid grinding the gears on a big rig, which can be one of the most difficult parts of truck driver training. A federal requirement, students must be able to double clutch the transmission in order to pass the CDL exam that is they must take the clutch down one movement to take it out of gear, bring the clutch back out, and then another clutch movement to put it back in gear. The simulator allows students to learn this with room to make mistakes without damaging a transmission.

In addition to teaching the students how to handle such a large vehicle and become comfortable driving it, another goal of using the simulator is that students will make their mistakes in the simulator rather than on the road. Obviously it is not a perfect replica and cannot duplicate certain conditions such as hitting another automobile or even a pedestrian. However, having such a teaching resource helps to bridge the gap between classroom learning and students actually learning to drive. With more truck driving jobs becoming available and drivers in higher demand, it is critical that students are as well prepared as they can be when they begin their driving career.

The war against Israel and Hezbollah seems to be giving evidence that the international terrorist organization has Chinese radar guided missiles. But how on earth did Hezbollah get Chinese radar guided missiles? My thoughts are this; Iran sponsors Hezbollah to the tune of $100 million per year and Iran has been buying Chinese made missiles and Russian anti-aircraft guns. Hezbollah scored a direct hit on an Israeli ship, but this is impossible considering that Hezbollah does not have anything of the sorts.

Perhaps the United States of America and Israel ought to figure out where these weapons are coming from and how Hezbollah is getting them. In fact it might the wise to talk to the Chinese and ask them to stop selling weapons to Iran who is giving these weapons to international terrorist groups. In fact Iran is using uranium stock to enrich to try to build nuclear warheads. Iran is also said to have been at the test launching of a long-range missiles in North Korea.

With the Iranian president said he wanted to blow Israel off the map apparently this is how he plans to do it and Israel cannot risk a cease-fire with an international terrorist organization which is funded and sponsored by both Syria and Iran. The Western world and the United States of America cannot risk that either.

Hezbollah also hit a Cambodian merchant ship with a guided missile. The question was what was guiding it and where was it being guided from. The Israelis destroyed Lebanese radar sites, but the question remains why China is selling weapons to the highest bidder and knowingly allowing high-tech weapons to get into the hands of international terrorists. Consider this in 2006.

The military aircraft we have are all equipped with anti-SAM systems. These prevent SAMs, Surface-to-air-missiles, which are heat seeking from hitting the aircraft. The systems send out many very hot flare type pieces out of the back of the aircraft and fool the Surface to air missile into thinking that those are the targets, thus the missile goes after the chafe flares instead of the actual aircraft. Is it possible to have such a system for the space shuttle launch? Or can we send up fire works along the perimeters of the spectator areas to trick a missile fired by anyone with a hand held surface to air shoulder launched weapon? We know our Space Shuttle could be targeted by International Terrorists. Is there a way to use a similar type system to prevent lightning strikes on the shuttle so we may launch it during thunder and lightning storms? Perhaps using a skin coating, which will melt off as it is launched and gets up to speed, which would have the correct polarity to prevent a lightning strike?

Today we see a scrubbed launch of the Space Shuttle, for a couple of reasons, one being the storm clouds approaching and the need in case of emergency for the space shuttle to depart from the rockets and glide back to land in full visibility or VFR conditions. Therefore it supposedly needs a 20-mile radius of clear clouds to make the approach and turn around. However the shuttle should be able to be guided back thru the clouds via a ground system, augmented reality simulator like the Global Hawk. Additionally why would the astronauts need to see to fly the spacecraft/aircraft at that point? After all they practice such aborted launches after lift off in simulators, where they are not actually looking at the ground and also we have available now systems, which are even used in Business Jets for zero/zero visibility landings. Just because the space shuttle would most likely be doing a dead stick landings as it always does should not make any difference, as the runway at Cape Canaveral is huge and made for such emergencies.

Not too long ago the Bush administration acting on intelligence sanctioned some Chinese companies who were transferring technology to Iran. Many had complained because we want the Chinese to buy from us.

And China buys many commercial aviation technologies and wants to partner with us in our space program. All these things lead to positive diplomatic ties and help the United States of America economically by bringing back cash flow, which has been spent on Chinese consumer products.

Israel had sold missile electronics to China and some people were very concerned with this, but apparently Israel wasn’t at the time. However, now we see the China is selling technologically advanced radar guided missiles to Iran. Iran is funding Hezbollah to the tune of $100 million per year and supplying them with anti-hip missiles.

The other day Hezbolla fired a missile, which scored a direct hit on an Israeli war ship. The question is did Hezbollah fire a; Harpy anti-radar missile? Did Israel become a victim of its own war technology trade policies?

Where are these technologies coming from that are getting into the hands of international terrorists? If Chinese uranium stock is being used to enrich uranium to make nuclear warheads to put on top of Chinese rockets then we have a problem. We need to consider all this in 2006.