Asetti's Calling 22 May 03 Posted Thursday, May 22, 2003 by Asetti
Well. What a couple of weeks. We are modifying the model I am building to look at performance of the Command and Control for a UAV (predator) in a hostile jamming environment. Should be a very interesting model to build. So my week has been taken up with doing research into the communications architecture for UAVs. It looks like I will get to take a trip down to one of the ranges and be involved with actual tests, using a real UAV and jammers. That should be pretty cool.

We also just won a support to development of GPS-III. The current system is GPS-II, and several companies are bidding on the contract to build the next generation. I am providing analysis of the performance of GPS-III in three areas: operations in a Jammed environment, the effects of time transfer on the amount of bandwidth that can be gained by making the clock accuracy of GPS-III better, and the impact to civil systems if GPS-III has the ability to increase the power output of the M-Code signal (this is the military signal, the civilian signal is called CA-code).

I am extremely excited about both projects. They both sound very interesting, and it is cool to be able to influence the future of GPS. It is amazing that the work I do will have an impact on how the new system is designed.

Both tasks are one-man year worth of effort and I am trying to complete both in a 9-month period. I have help on the GPS-III, but not on the Predator effort. So, needless to say I have been EXTREMLY busy trying to keep my head above water working 55-60 hour workweeks.

My wife has been conversing with her birth family. She has gotten some very nice emails from her oldest younger sister (dang this is going to be confusing). She talked to her birth mom and dad (who are divorced) and really nice conversations with them. So it looks like this is turning out to be a good thing. It was fun to look at pictures of her sisters, mom and dad and see the similarities in them and my wife.

Now that that twins are getting a little more manageable, I am thinking about starting up this adult gymnastics class they have at he local gym. I did gymnastics in college, and these classes for about 4 years before the twins were born. It is a lot of fun. I would like to get in shape again. Indoor soccer once a week just doesn’t cut it.

A big THANKS to Damien the Chosen who imbued a bunch on stuff for me. He warned me that only about 1/3 of the stuff he gave me would survive, but he actually managed a success rate of over 50% 5 of 9. After seening imbueing in action, I am shocked that imbued stuff does not sell at a higer rate than what it does now.

Valley of Death

Took my first trip to VoD. It was pretty neat. I REALLY wanted to see a tremendous Mongue, but alas, didn’t happen. I did get to see one of the uber tuskers though. That thing was tough. We had seven 90+ (plus me) wailing away on that sucker and it took a long time to bring him down. And he hits hard. I was fully baned and protected with no vulns and he hit me once for 78 points. Ouch. Lucky for me, he only hit me twice before switching to some other unlucky victim.

The overall toughness of the place was hard for me to judge, as the group I was with pretty much owned the place. My life was 370 and war 368 when I took the trip and while I was not landing all that much, I was landing about 25-75% of the time depending on the critter. I actually got the kill on one of the Virindi, which had a twisted granite key. It was the only loot I picked up the entire time there. Since I was the lowest level, I did not feel right looting the kills.

Once I get my life and war up to 400, I will think about heading back solo and see just how hard it really is.

And no! I didn’t die.

Lock pick

I dropped healing on Asetti and picked up lock pick. I had 20 million experiences to dump into it, so I was able to get it up to 321 buffed. I initial tried carving my sings at 300 and immediately failed twice – ouch. So I bumped it up to 320 and have not failed again. Yet. Amazing the difference 20 points make. As much as I love having lock pick, I sure do miss healing. I know most people think healing on a mage is a waste, but it sure makes life easier. When you are low on mana, you can heal at about half health then worry about getting you mana bar back up. Having to really on you mana level to heal, while not that tough, makes you really concentrate on managing your mana.

I actually found a twisted key on one of the shadows on OP. With lock pick, I successfully straightened it into a marble key. I have killed a ton of shadows out on OP and this is the first key I have found.

So Lucky I Can’t Hate Him (Although I Really Want To)

On his was to the tired mage in Mayoi, one of Shannel’s vassals stopped and checked out a Runed Chest. He pulled a set of major life gauntlets out. The AL was kind of low at 156, but the work was only five. And the requirements was around 180 difficulty, although I can’t remember what it exactly was.

I think I am just darn unlucky when it comes to loot. I have NEVER found a major. I am still waiting for one of the hundreds of Greivvers I kill to drop some acids (and I am not talking about the drug). Every time I found a piece of good equipment with a nice minor on it, it is something stupid like a UA weapon that is Aluvian only. At least the loot Gods have a sense of humor.

I found a VERY nice shield the other night: AL 182, Imp VI, Blud V, Blade IV, Acid VI Minor War. What the heck is that???? A minor WAR on a shield? Grrrrr Argh.

Can anyone confirm for me that acid still drops off Destroyer and Bane Grievvers?

OP

I am still LOVING the obsidian plains. It is one of the best hunting places for a mage that I have found. It is not as boring as tuskers, and not as impossible as the Caul. I still avoid the Olthoi. There are Warriors and Mutilators. The Warriors I can handle, but the Mutilators, can kick my butt. That hollow damage they do hurts, a lot.

The other thing I like about OP is that I can solo and make 4-6 million xp in an hour of killing stuff. I have made it from 74-79 in about two weeks. ONE MORE LEVEL TO BOBO!!! The monarchy is planning a Bobo trip tomorrow (at least before patch day was announced), and I plan on being 80 in time to go.

I still die out there, mainly by being gang raped by a bunch of chain-smoking (errr casting) shadows. Last night I was trying to clear a spawn, so I could get to the Virindi unhindered. I have found the safest route to do this is kill the Hollow Minions, then Tuskers, then Tumeroks, then Bandies, then Grievvers, then Drudges, and then shadows.

Once those are gone, the Virindi are usually safe to attack. The Golems and Bugs are not drawn by attacking the Virindi – at least so far. The only problem I have encountered is stubborn Virindi who REFUSE to leave the spawn site. Then I have to clear the Golems and Bugs to safely loot the corpses. Since the Plat Golems will cast level VII vulns on you, I take out the Bugs first, then the Golems.

I had an Adjudicator last night, who I vulned SEVEN times and he would not leave the spawn site. I finally sent a Fire Arc VI at him in hopes that would bring him to me. Instead, it killed him. LOL.

Shadows can be a pain. They seem to spawn in the most numerous numbers, they love to drain and chain cast, and they are stubborn. I was attempting to clear out a nice spawn that had a bunch of Virindi in it. I got up the point where it was time to take out the shadows. I launched a VII Flame and vulned it. One shot, one kill – call me sniper man!!! Well, I had underestimated the number of shadows in the area. It did not help that the shadows from the next spawn over decided to get involved. I had 13 (and I am not kidding) 105-125 level shadows attacking me. I started backing up sideways to avoid some of the war spells, all the while healing and draining. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid harms and drains. I was at 156 health when I stopped to heal, just as four of the little bastards cast war spells at me and three hit me with drains.

Hello Lifestone. Well at least there is no town crier at this one to make fun of me. I was so traumatized by the events last week that I moved Lifestone. This one is out in the middle of nowhere with no smart-ass Towncriers.

Well Buff up, kill a few things to get Vitea to zero. No problem getting my corpse, as I have learned to park it away from any nearby spawns. So, what is the best way to do this? There are way to many Virindi to pass up, so I was bound and determined to clear this spawn. I have learned that no matter what level Shadow you attack, they all come running/floating at you. I was able to get to the secondary spawn without drawing the attention of the main spawn I was after.

Odd, but hey, count you blessings. So this consisted of eight shadows. I snipped one of the lower level ones and vulned the rest as they approached. I had a gem ready, just in case they hit me with some serious debuffs. Life Debuff. No biggie as they were all vulned already. After a heated battle of me backing zigzag and slide casting, they were all dead.

That netted my about 600k in xp. Now, for the main group. This one only had seven of the little buggers, but they were all high level. My sniper attack did not kill the target, so I launched two quick arcs and turned and ran, slidding left and then straight to avoid the war spells. Three shadows kept up the pursuit. I saw the death message flash for my original target and gave a whoop. I quickly dispatch the three brave, but stupid shadows that followed me. After that the remaining couple were easy pickings.

Ahhhh! Nothing but Virinidi left. There was about 15-20 of the suckers. This was the cream filling, the icing on the cake. And I could snipe, since there was nothing else left. Woot!

At that moment an ear shatter screech rang out from downstairs. Being the good (and stupid) husband I am, I looked at the screen hungrily once more, then logged out and ran down to see what the problem is. A spider. A friggin spider. Normally I do not kill spiders, I catch them and take them outside (my wife is superstitious about killing them and I like spiders). My wife thinks it is gross, but I usually herd them into my hand and just carry them outside. This little bastard suffered a critical bludgeoning hit from my shoe, sending his little self, back to the Lifestone. Grrrr.

Ok, if I am quick I can get back up there and finish off the spawn. My wife says, “Honey, while you are down here can you….” *sigh*.

By the time I got back, all my little lovelies were gone and been replaced with some Bandies and Bugs.

Ah, screw it. I’m going to bed.

Random Thoughts

I have been mainly playing Asetti so I can make 80 and do Bobo – 10 mil left to go.

As I write this, it is patch day, so I will be curious to see the changes for X-Bow and Bow (yes I actually wrote this about three weeks ago).

I can’t really see a HUGE difference in my tinkered wand. It was CS and +14% mana conversion before buffing. I am sure it is there, just not readily apparent.

Finally saw Secretary and Ghost Ship. Both movies were actually pretty good. Secretary was a little weird, but very creative and entertaining. It is an S&M, Pretty Woman type movie with alot more substance dealing with some tough issues including dom/sub relationships, self mutilation/pain, codepedency, and several other issues you don't usually see touched on in main stream movies. Extremely funny, but also very dark. Ghost ship was your run of the mill horror flick. Nothing great, but entertaining. Once I finish my full review of both flicks, I will post a link.

My wife’s folks are coming out this week, so I am guessing my playtime and writing time will be very limited.

If you have any questions, comments, criticism, or compliments, send to me at assetti@hotmail.com. Make sure you add something in the title that makes it clear it is in response to the column. Otherwise it will likely get tossed out with all the porn, mortgage refianance, **** enlargement, debt help, etc, ads that I get in hotmail.

Further Explanation on GPS-III and UAVs

Hmmm- ok. Here are the best non-technical explanations that I can come up with.

Predator: The predator is a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle that is piloted remotely from a ground terminal. It sends back pictures and data. The pictures are electro optical (EO) like your standard camcorder, Infrared (IR) which shows heat differentials, and Synthetic Aperture Radar which is used to determine types of objects and movement (kind of like what a bat does). If you have a UAV being flown remotely, you have to be able to get a Command and Control (C2) signal to the aircraft as well as receive information on the status of the aircraft back (this is called telemetry). What happens to all those signals if a jammer or multiple jammers are introduced into the system? Do you lose control of the aircraft? Do you data feeds and telemetry from the aircraft fail? I am building a model that simulates the UAV systems, the ground control segment that can do both Line of Sight (LOS) and satellite relay, and the satellite used to rely C2, telemetry and data. Once this is working, the UAV is “flown” around a Terrain map where some number of jammers are located. Depending on the terrain, jammer location, ground control position, UAV location what is the overall effect?

GPS-III: GPS-III is the next generation GPS system. GPS is the satillite constellation that gives people their location on the earth in Latitude and Longitude using a GPS receiver. There are two signals being sent out by the GPS. The M-Code is an encrypted signal used by the US military that is very accurate. This is the signal that the GPS guided munitions used in Afghanistan and Iraq used to guide themselves to their target. The CA-Code is the signal used by all civilians. It is degraded in its accuracy so the best most people can get is around 10-20 feet within their actual location. There are ways to make it more accurate used by surveyors and such, but your standard GPS receiver can only get within 10 feet.

So what happens when an enemy turns on a Jammer? Can they successfully jam an incoming US weapon? The model I am building will simulate this and hopefully come up with pretty accurate results.

The second part is Time Transfer Effects. The timing signal on GPS is currently in the milliseconds. Many network (cell phone, banks, etc) use GPS timing as the Common Time to time stamp transactions and packet send times. Based on the current accuracy there has to be gaps between packets so the times do not overlap because of the error. This is especially true in systems suing Time Division Multiple Access. This is where a data stream is broken up and shared between users based on time. Each user has a certain time period their signal is put on the signal stream. The buffer between users is based on the time accuracy of the system. Most systems such as this have between 80-90% effect used because of the required gaps. By decreasing the accuracy of GPS from milliseconds to nanoseconds, how much better utilization of the signal where there be and where is the best return on cost. If taking the accuracy down to 10 nanoseconds improves the utilization from 85% to 92%, then it might be worth the cost. But if going down to 5 nanoseconds only then takes is form 92% to 92.5% is not likely worth the cost.

The third part is High powered opertions. GPS-III will allow the system to operate the M-Code broadcast at higher power to overcome any potential enemy jamming in a place we happen to be fighting (i.e. Iraq). What is the impact to other places (i.e. Saudi Arabia) from potential spillover of this high power broadcast? As in the above scenario many industries use the CA-Code (civilian) for many applications. What would happen if a bank using GPS suddenly lost their ability to get accurate timing? It COUULD be a real problem, or it might not be a problem at all. What about cell phones? Cell phones use GPS to track what tower they should be using and sharing that tower based on timesharing (as above). How much cell phone service would be lost? This could be negligible or it could be on the order of millions of dollars in revenue lost.



Hope that helps.

Any additional questions post them here or email me at assetti@hotmail.com and make sure you put something in the subject line about AC, Vault or Column.


Cya at the Lifestone.