A Satellite Trio, a Wi-Fi Symphony: Two Enlightening Tutorials

In the midst of software conflicts, destructive interference and other hiccups, it's sometimes difficult to keep in perspective what amazing technologies we're creating and using nowadays. As the well-worn metaphor says, if you get too caught up in examining individual trees, it's easy to lose sight of the forest. That's why I particularly appreciated two recent writeups, one on satellite radio basics from the February issue of Scientific American, and the other on the fundamentals of Wi-Fi (and UWB) from the April issue of IEEE Computer. The absence of nitty-gritty details in each, if anything, enabled me to more fully feel the big-picture awe that both technologies work as well as they do. Frankly, after digesting both essays, I'm amazed that satellite radio (exemplified by Sirius and XM in North America, and by WorldSpace in other parts of the world) and Wi-Fi actually work at all given the demanding usage environments they both contend with. Check 'em out, and reconnect with your child side.