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Sat-ND, 3.9.97

Sat-ND, 3.9.97

Sat-ND, 3.9.1997 -- Morons, idiots and such



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Today's Headlines

LAUNCHES
Dual launch for Europe
DELAY OF THE DAY
Low pressure hampers GE-3 launch
MALFUNCTIONING SATELLITES
Mexican satellite switched off
Lewis still spinning, without power
SATELLITES
Planet 1 globally available
DIGITAL
DirecTV: consumer fraud?
MSNBC's German problems
MTV Europe to launch Web site
BUSINESS
Disney's ESPN buys Classic Sports
FEEDBACK
ASCII v/s HTML



LAUNCHES



Dual launch for Europe

The European launch provider Arianespace successfully put into orbit two European-built satellites for two major European organisations: the Hot Bird 3 TV direct broadcast satellite (DBS) for Eutelsat, and the Meteosat 7 weather satellite for Eumetsat.
Flight 99 was carried out by an Ariane 44LP, the version of the European launcher with two solid and two liquid-propellant boosters. It used the 70th Ariane 4 out of the total of 96 ordered from the European space industry.
Eumetsat Director Tillman Mohr was quoted as saying: "Our first task and objective is to provide observation from space to our European member-state user community. But the user community is much wider. If you look at a Meteosat image, at the centre of the image you will see Africa, because we are part of a larger global organisation which is led by the World Meteorological Organisation." Maybe -- but the true reason is that positioning a geostationary satellite over Europe (and not the equator) is simply impossible.
The next Ariane launch, Flight 100, is scheduled for September 23. An Ariane 42L will be used to place into orbit Intelsat 803, the sixteenth satellite entrusted to the European launcher by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation, Intelsat. Following Flight 99, Arianespace has 44 satellites on order to be launched.



DELAY OF THE DAY



Low pressure hampers GE-3 launch

The launch of AC-146 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, an Atlas IIAS vehicle carrying the GE Americom GE-3 satellite, has been re-scheduled for September 4 during a window running from 8:03 a.m. to 8:28 a.m. ET.
Today's two launch attempts had to be scrubbed owing to low pressurisation readings in the liquid oxygen tank. The weather forecast for tomorrow says there's just a 60-percent chance of having acceptable launch conditions. Coverage of the launch, if any, will again be on GE-1/13, beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET.



MALFUNCTIONING SATELLITES



Mexican satellite switched off

The first indigenous Mexican satellite, Unamsat-2, has developed malfunctions almost exactly one year after its launch aboard a Russian Kosmos 3-M vehicle.
Speaking to Itar-Tass, Project Director Gianfranco Bislacci said that so far unexplained malfunctions occurred in the power supply system for the spacecraft's communications devices. In order to save battery power, mission controllers decided to interrupt the contact with the spacecraft until the cause of the malfunction was known and counter measures could be taken.
Unamsat-2, a 10.7-kg scientific satellite designed and built by Mexico's National Autonomous University, was put into orbit on September 15, 1996.


Lewis still spinning, without power

Ground controllers have made no progress in saving the $65 million mission experimental Earth-observation satellite Lewis since it started spinning for unknown reasons a week ago.
Engineers still hope the sun angle will improve over the next few days, enabling the solar panels to collect enough energy to recharge the batteries and re-establish communications with the spacecraft. Lewis had shut off automatically when power levels fell below a critical point. [It may sound ironica that Lewis was actually designed to demonstrate autonomous operations – one of about 40 new technologies incorporated into the mission.]
NASA Officials are to hold a review meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The ultimate cause for the satellite's malfunction, believed to have been caused by excessive thruster firing, apparently are not yet known.



SATELLITES



Planet 1 globally available

Comsat Personal Communications announced global coverage for Planet 1, a personal communications service that uses portable, notebook-sized satellite telephones to provide voice, fax and data communications from virtually anywhere in the world.
Comsat's Planet 1 was the first personal satellite telephone system to begin commercial service. It is carried over four Inmarsat-3 geostationary satellites which cover the earth (except for the extreme polar regions,) combined with Comsat's land earth stations. Utilising the high-powered spot beams on the new generation Inmarsat satellites, Planet 1 personal satellite phones are smaller, lighter and easier to use than previous mobile satellite equipment. According to Comsat, the service is also less expensive because the spot beam technology allows for transmission of multiple calls over fewer satellite circuits. [However, the Inmarsat spotbeams – as the name implies – cover just some areas of interest, probably in densely populated and/or industrial regions.]



DIGITAL



DirecTV: consumer fraud?

U.S. DBS service DirecTV, a unit of General Motor's Hughes Electronics subsidiary, is being investigated as a result of consumer complaints over channel changes in certain presold packages.
According to the Wall Street Journal DireTV is suspected of committing consumer fraud by removing some channels from its packages and then selling them at a higher rate.
As part of a rebate program, customers bought dishes and a year's programming that included seven Encore movie channels. In April, however, DirecTV removed the Encore channels form its Total Choice package, tacking on an extra US$4 for them.
DirecTV says the channels were replaced by others, and there have been no widespread complaints anyway. [Emphasis on 'widespread' – so there have been some complaints, I suppose.]


MSNBC's German problems

German pubcaster ZDF, which runs a nation-wide TV network, felt the need to show some Internet presence albeit lacking staff as well as know-how. So, they joined forces with MSNBC.com.
Both could have happily lived ever after with their site at http://www.zdf.msnbc.de/ were there not some morons working for or paid by the country's commercials channels, claiming ZDF was misusing what they call the network's "privileged position."
MSNBC.com director of public affairs, Debby Fry Wilson, was quoted as saying that she had not been aware of this development. She pointed out that ZDF.MSNBC as an online property does not pose a threat to the country's traditional news media. [Of course not!] "It doesn't compete directly with print or TV," she explained. "You have to compare apples to apples."
As a matter of fact, the outcry of commercial broadcasters in Germany every time their public competitors offer new services is nothing but a ritual. Maybe the country's commercial broadcasters should put their efforts into improving their programming, which is probably among the worst that can be found anywhere in the world, and keep their nose out of other channels' business for a change.



MTV Europe to launch Web site

And then there was MTV Europe, a channel that decided to get rid of most of its satellite viewers in Europe by scrambling its signal. German music channels, and not only them, still thank MTV for that move.
Maybe MTV is carried in cable networks, also on Germany, and maybe its available as part of some analogue or digital (pay-)TV bouquets. Anyway, MTV Europe disappeared from the TV screens of many Europeans and hardly be called a trend-setter anymore.
So, it's utterly irrelevant that MTV Europe plans to launch a Web site for the idiots that really pay for the European version(s) of the channel. MTV, part of Viacom Inc, said it expects the Web site to appeal to – viewers? Web surfers? No way! It expects the site to appeal to "both its existing television sponsors and advertisers as well as to attract new advertisers." Okay, just go along and play with yourself. This is so boring that I won't even mention the URL (although you should have no difficulty in guessing it.)



BUSINESS



Disney's ESPN buys Classic Sports

ESPN Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire Classic Sports Network. Subject to regulatory review and approval, the transaction is expected to be completed within two months.
Classic Sports Network will become a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. sports channel ESPN. The network, originating from New York City studios, offers archival and original programming from all of the major [U.S.] sports leagues, and includes exclusive rights to the world's largest library of boxing films. Classic Sports was launched in May 1995 and is currently available to more than 10 million cable and satellite homes.#
ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds the remaining 20 percent interest in ESPN. ESPN's family of networks includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Radio, and ownership or interest in 20 international networks (among them Eurosport) in 20 languages.



FEEDBACK



ASCII v/s HTML

So far, 0.4 percent of my subscribers have urged my to switch back to ASCII. Not exactly the 25 percent I wanted in order to reconsider the format issue... but I'm patient. Keep on writing.
I'm not going to answer any particular email, but here a few points that my well-beloved readers may want to take into account.
HTML takes longer to download
True. The average size of Sat-ND in HTML (acually HTML and plain text in one message) is around 30..60 KBytes.
But have you ever wondered how large an average Web Site page is, with all those glitzy graphics and flashy stuff? I downloaded some of them this afternoon. The results, java applets not included:
Sat-ND usually is smaller than that. By the way, I suggest you visit the latter URL which is more fun than the four others.


Me, me, me
Some guy whose name I will not mention wrote in from a German university's computing centre, accusing me of being "selfish" True again! Sat-ND is a nothing but a giant ego-trip. You can tell that from the fact that readers don't have to pay anything for this service – it does not even contain any advertisements! Shocking! What could be more selfish and egocentric than that?
The same bloke accused me of congesting the Internet by sending out 'dual' versions of Sat-ND (text and HTML) – a look at the total sizes of Web pages, as shown above, should teach him better. They get more hits within a minute than I have subscribers.
He also told me that "some people might use computer systems where a so called 'decent' email client isn't even available (for example unix systems.)" Blimey, I thought those systems were so superior to Windows 95 that reportedly crashes every five minutes (funnily enough, not on my computer?)
He finally asked. "You are you to decide what email software people should use?" YES! ...as long as they want to receive Sat-ND in the way its author intends it to look like.
This guy seems to have a bit of a misconception what this is all about. It is a free service. You don't have to pay for it. I do not want to sell you anything, and as a consequence I do not intend to reach as many readers as possible. I do not even want to convince you of anything. You can unsubscribe any time you like. All I want to do is offer a service I myself would subscribe to – that's my motivation. If you don't like it, just piss off!


Copyright 09/97 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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