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Global Positioning System News....

	13 November - Mountaineers use GPS to establish new height for Mount Everest.
	30 October - Satellite manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp. restates earnings results - may mean $60 million loss. The company's products include the Magellan series of GPS receivers.
	12 October - Indonesian border disputes may be alleviated with GPS.
	8 October 1999 - New GPS satellite launched!
	20 September 1999 - GPS satellites live longer than expected.
	5 September 1999 - When GPS meets cell phones, will you want to be found?
	1 September 1999 - GPS will help navigate planes, but not until over a decade from now.
	23 Aug 1999 - Japanese news sources report that several manufacturers of car-navigation systems were indeed bitten by the GPS1K bug. The companies have been fielding thousands of calls and repairing units to beat the problem. In Hong Kong, more than 3,000 vessels "vanished'' from GPS screens, but no accidents were reported due to the 12-second outage. In California, scattered outages affected some cars and a few boaters.
	22 Aug 1999 - U.S. Air Force deems GPS rollover a success - Few problems reported, despite the many mainstream, non-military uses for GPS. Some Japanese users of automobile navigation systems reported screens blanking out or locking up. The smooth transition may provide hope for an equally easy Y2K (yeah, right!) You can report any problems or interference here. The U.S. Naval Observatory posts daily status updates on all 29 satellites (2 out of service) here.
	21 Aug 1999 - The GPS rollover problem hits tonight at midnight GMT (8PM EDT)! The world's 27 global positioning satellites record time by counting the weeks that have passed since they were launched in 1980. The weeks fill up a counter which can count up to 1024 (this is why some refer to this problem as the "GPS1K bug"). At midnight, the counter will be full and reset to zero - known as "End Of Week" (EOW) or "Week Number Rollover" (WNRO). Equipment that uses the GPS signals may malfunction if it can't understand the EOW rollover (which has never happened before). Receivers manufactured before 1994 may be especially susceptible to the GPS1K bug. The U.S. military has stated that the satellites themselves should be unaffected. If you have a GPS receiver, you should contact the manufacturer to see what action you need to take. Lots of GPS links here.
	Forget the Y2K bug - what about the GPS1K bug?!? The Global Positioning System is rolling over on its 1024-week cycle. Will we be lost without this vital service?
	Here is an excerpt from the Binomial Disaster Recovery Newsletter of 6 Aug 98. One of their readers wrote in about... "...an incident that occurred in the spring of 97 when one of the Air Force's GPS satellites malfunctioned and broadcast the wrong time signal for a brief period which had an unexpected effect on various cellular and PCS carriers across the country. In chasing down what had happened, I had occasion to speak to an official at DoD's National Communications System. DoD was, of course, aware of the problem with the satellite but they had no idea that the telecomm industry made such extensive use of the GPS system. There were procedures in place for the AF to notify fliers and seamen of problems or planned outages but nothing in place to alert the telecomm industry or the public at large. They are doing better now and they have been very forthcoming with information, available to the public, with regard to the EOW Rollover and Y2K problems which face the GPS user community in August and December..." Binomial International, Inc. specializes in Business/Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) and publishes a semi-regular newsletter of interest to Information Technology professionals.
	Palm-sized GPS available - with built-in maps!
	GPS article from PC Week here.
	Articles on GPS Y2K testing and the EOW rollover can be found in Federal Computer Week and Computerworld.
	New chips will GPS-enable cell phones and smaller devices like lockets and wristwatches!
	U.S. Space Command shuts down some GPS signals available to civilian users to stop providing sensitive data on GPS satellite whereabouts - in Federal Computer Week.
	GPS shows Washington Monument taller than previously thought.
	DoD to add anti-jamming signals to protect GPS systems from enemy attack.

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