NATO demands Russia destroy all its 9k729 cruise missiles

(June 27) NATO demands that Russia destroy all of its 9k729 cruise missiles or face unspecified repercussions. Officials admit that they do not expect Russia to comply with NATO demands.

NATO says that the Russian missiles violate the INF treaty

A recent Reuter's article notes that the US insists that the Russian missiles would allow short-range nuclear attacks on Europe and violates the 1987 intermediate range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). However Russia has denied that the missiles violate the treaty insisting that they are shorter range than the treaty covered.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “We call on Russia to take the responsible path, but we have seen no indication that Russia intends to do so. We will need to respond."

US has given notice it will withdraw from the treaty

Russia is likely to pay no attention to the NATO announcement, given that the US has already suspended participation and will withdraw formally in August, if Russia does not destroy all the missiles the US considers violation of the treaty.

US ambassador Kay Hutchison said that all options are on the table to retaliate against Russia's refusal to destroy the missiles, but so far the US is considering only conventional systems and not a nuclear response.

Russia worries about NATO and US putting nuclear arms on Russian border

A recent article notes: "The underlying threat is that the US, or NATO in general, are going to put nuclear arms on the Russian border, which the INF wouldn’t have allowed, but which they are no longer abiding by. Russia has warned this would create a crisis on the level of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis."

The 1962 crisis came to an end thanks to cool-headed diplomacy. President Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev came to an agreement that saw the Soviet missiles in Cuba sent back to Russia.

There appears to be another arms race developing and tensions between Russia, the US and NATO are growing.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

New USB-C Standard fixes the irreversibility problem of USB

It is now more than two decades since the Universal Serial Bus (USB) came into use. This ushered in an era in which there was a common standard for connecting peripheral devices to personal computers.

The USB port did away with many device specific connections

The USB co-inventor was Ajay Bhatt who was part of a multi-company effort to do away with the many specific cables, plugs, and connections that faced users in the 1990's when they tried to connect peripheral devices to their computers. In particular Bhatt was motivated to create the simple device in order that family members could use their printer without having to phone him all the time to get it to work properly.

Why the USB plug is not reversible

Bhatt noted: “In hindsight, based on all the experiences that we all had, of course it was not as easy as it should be,” explains Bhatt to NPR, confirming that “the biggest annoyance is [the lack of] reversibility. A USB that could plug in correctly both ways would have required double the wires and circuits, which would have then doubled the cost.”

The USB connection would replace the larger serial and parallel ports but it was aso successful in dispacing the Appe's fast but more expensive FireWire standard. With adapters the USB connection has taken over the role of other ports as well such as Ethernet.

Bhatt earned nothing from inventing the USB

Many tech inventors become super stars and earn plenty from their inventions. Bhatt, however, earned nothing as his employer Intel has the patent for the USB. Bhatt said: "We were not worried about notoriety. In the end, it's a team sport — my feeling is that if everyone adopts your idea, then you've succeeded. Notoriety should be given to the technology."

The USB-C new standard fixes the reversibility problem

The USB-C also delivers greater power than the earlier USB 2.0 and 3.0 along with greater data bandwidth and is even more versatile. Most new laptops have the USB-C port. Soon perhaps laptops will have only the USB-C ports.

Is reversibility that much of a problem?

Other connections such as VGA, Ethernet, and even HDMI need to be plugged in with the correct orientation. Strictly speaking they are not reversible. Of course you can visually see how the connection needs to go in. But you can as well with the USB connection. You can see which way the end should be inserted so that it can penetrate into the port. Make sure you are able to see into the port and if the lighting is poor you can have a flashlight handy. I can remember which way my USB connections go so I can get it right be feel. The problem becomes finding exactly where the port slot is. It is not rocket science to be able to connect a USB and the irreversibility problem is a minor issue that anyone who has any experience can overcome through experience.

Previously published in the Digital Journal