In the last 11 years, a lot has changed in this field. That's to be expected in a technology that is driven by Moore's Law, where complexity doubles every 18 months or so. So we have a factor of 7 or so, but actually the rate of change is increasing.Where we are today is machines built with multiple cores on one chip, each core being a complete computer. The same communication schemes discussed in this book are used, with the same trade-off's, shared memory or communication channel....

This book discusses the application of Cubesat Clusters, Constellations, and Swarms in the exploration of the solar systems. This includes the Sun, the 8 primary planets and Pluto, many moons, the asteroid belt, comets, the ring systems of the four gas giants, and comets. There is a lot to explore. U.S. Spacecraft have been to all of the planets in the solar system. Although the planets (and Pluto) have been visited by spacecraft, Earth's moon has been somewhat explored, and many of the ot...

This book documents the development of missile and spacecraft guidance computers from the earliest efforts to the current Space Station and satellite onboard systems. This book developed from the author's presentation at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2009 for the Workshop on Flight Software. The second and third editions were expanded with new material and references. The fourth edition updated the material to the state of the art in 2014, with discussions of...

This book starts with the British Army's attempt to take Fort Duquesne (currentl day Pittsburgh). Along the way is Fort Cumberland, the staging area. The expedition went horribly wrong, with the British taking massive causalitys and loosing their payroll in gold. It has never been found. Those are the facts. This is historical fiction, exploring verious threads about what could have happened. The author is a native of Cumberland, Maryland, the location of Fort Cumberland. This is a tale of...

The Town of Lonaconing was located centrally in the Georges Creek Valley, between Frostburg at the north, and Westernport at the south. Both towns at the extremes had rail junctions. There were plans to extend the canal through Westernport. Lonaconing became the largest among the dozen or so towns along the Georges Creek, serving as a manufacturing center, a home for companies and miners, and a major retail center. Today Lonaconing is a town of some 1,200, still the largest among the Georg...

This book is an overview of the Civil War ironclads and other ships that changed Naval Warfare forever. It focuses mainly on those ships designed and deployed on inland rivers.Another topic is that of Union and Confederate submarines. The most popular sub was the CSS Hunley, which sank a Union warship, but never returned to base. In fact, the North and the South produced and deployed dozens of different submarine designs.

This book will discuss the exploration of the four largest planets in our solar system, all located beyond the orbit of Mars. The first two, Jupiter and Saturn are termed the Gas Giants, and the next two, Neptune and Uranus, are the Ice Giants.Each has an extensive set of moons, and a ring system. Each is unique in many ways. They have been explored extensively, and more information is gained every day about their composition and behavior. It's thought that some of the larger moons...

Rich in very diverse railroad history CSX Transportation (CSXT) is the largest eastern railroad and also one of the safest in the country. CSXT is the end result of over 150 years of railroad evolution in the United States. The largest part of CSXT consists of elements of the Chessie System and the Seaboard Coast Lines. Dozens of “fallen flag” lines such as the Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Western Maryland, Atlantic Coast Line, Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac, Family Line,s a...

This is a book on energy storage. Most electrical energy is AC, and is used when generated. Direct current is stored in battery, but there is no such things as an AC battery. There are other ways to store the energy. Solar cells only produce electricity during the day, and we might need the energy at night. Hydro power system generate power when there is a sufficient amount of water flow. Nuclear plants generate power as needed. Power from geothermal wells is generally available 24x7.

The book discusses the topic of the search for Extraterrestrial life, that is, life not on Earth. The search is taking place in the planets and moons of our solar system, and on Exoplanets, elsewhere in our galaxy. The problem is, we only have 1, albeit vastly diversified, example of life. We can conjecture that life only has a chance in certain thermal ranges (the Goldilocks zone), so that's where we look. Unfortunately, strange life was observed at deep ocean thermal vents, with chemical...

This book discusses some of the computers I had direct hands-on experience with. It covers both hardware and software.The author's first computer experience was on a Bendix G-20 mainframe, a 32-bit machine, using the Algol language. His first assembly language was on an IBM S/360 mainframe, specifically the Model 67 variant, with virtual memory. He went on to program the Univac 1108 series mainframe (a 1's complement machine), the DEC PDP-8, 9, 10, and 11, the Bendix G-15, the Athe...

This book is about trains and railroads, canals and roads, and the industries that relied on them. It spans more than a 265 year period, from 1854 through the current day. The discussion is centered geographically on the City of Cumberland, Maryland, in Allegany County, near the western end of the State. Cumberland is called the Queen City of the Alleghenies. This discussion does not focus on the equipment or operations of any one particular railroad. Many different forms of locomotion are...