Tuesday, 31 August 2004
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶The Einstein Project
With the iMac announcement behind us, the next big Apple-related announcement comes this weekend at the World Wide Newton Conference, where Paul Guyot will reveal
The Einstein Project, the subject of much speculation and anticipation in Newt circles.
Unlike many Newton-future projects that were conceived and abandonned, the Einstein project is not a complete rewrite of NewtonOS to merge the Newton Intelligence with newer technologies. Instead, it is divided in several small steps, each of these forming a strong contribution to the Newton platform and the Newton community. I will present these various steps and argue why the project is possible including why NewtonOS could run on other hardware within few months.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶A Few Notes
First, I would note that, unlike the previous comment system, there's no length limit on this one, so you no longer have to break long comments up into separate posts (and not doing so keeps more of the recent comments in the sidebar). I tested it with my couple-thousand-word NE Skylab opus, and it showed the whole thing, so I doubt anyone's going to run into a problem.
More changes and comments:
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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Daily Hatbag
Now that the first season of Knight Rider is out on DVD, I bet
Hippie is out there watching them. And waiting for Darkwing Duck to be released on DVD also.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶The Real Deal?
After the
events of my 21st birthday, one should take announcements like this with a grain of salt, and, really, the announcement hasn't even been made yet, but--
astrobiologists believe they may have found evidence of extraterrestrial life in a meteorite that fell 140 years ago. The meteorite contains what appears to be bacteria fossils, which contain isotopes indicating they are not of terrestrial origin.
"I think this is the real deal," Klyce said.
A manuscript on the finding is being prepared for a peer-reviewed publication.
So... stay tuned.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶More Politics, Sorry
From the
Republican Party platform:
In addition, the Republican Party will remain committed to America’s leadership in space research and exploration. We will ensure that this Nation can expand our knowledge of the universe, and with the support of the American people, continue the exploration of Mars and the rest of the solar system. We consider space travel and space science a national priority with virtually unlimited benefits, in areas ranging from medicine to micro-machinery, for those on earth. Development of space will give us a growing economic resource and a source of new scientific discoveries. The potential benefits of new science and technology to the American people, indeed to all humanity, are incalculable and can only be hastened by the international free market in ideas that the Information Revolution has created.
To the best of my knowledge, there's been no equivalent statement from the Democrats.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Congratulations
Congratulations to the X-43A team for their
official Guinness World Record recognition for the Mach 6.83 air-breathing aircraft speed record earlier this year. The team plans to break their own record in October by taking the remaining X-43A up to Mach 10.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶iMac Unveiled
So
the new iMacs are out. And... eh. They're neat looking, and technically impressive, but, to me at least, lack the visual punch that the first and second gen iMacs had when I first saw them. Plus, other than the speed, I don't really see any new capabilities. So, yeah, it's nice, but I don't have to have one right away. Fortunately.
Monday, 30 August 2004
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Daily Hatbag
You know, being on Atkins,
I miss pizza buffets. I really do.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Shattered Windows
So it turns out
Longhorn won't be as good as Microsoft claimed. And it's still over a year away. Hrm.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Picture Of The Day
This is apparently an hPod with the "tattoo" Chris mentioned. Courtesy AP.
Addendum: More tattoos
+ 2 - 0 | § ¶Today In History
On this date in 1983, Guy Bluford became the first African-American astronaut to fly, on the first night launch of the Space Shuttle.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Worlds Of Excitement
Cosmic Log has posted feedback from readers guessing what
tomorrow's big extrasolar planet announcement will be, with most of the guesses centering around the discovery of an Earth-like world.
I'm guessing they're all hoping for too much. The discovery may be of an Earth-like world, but if so, I imagine it will only be in the roughest sense--rocky, no more than 14 Earth masses (the size of the recently discovered "Super-Earth"). One reader guesses that it may have to do with visual detection of a gas-giant planet, but then goes on to speculate that Earth-size moons may have been found orbiting it. There has been at least one image which is believed to be direct imaging of an extrasolar world, so it's possible that the announcement will be a confirmed direct imaging (which would tie in with the claim that the annoucnement "represents a significant and much-anticipated advance in the hunt for extrasolar planets."), but hoping for not only a direct imaging of a giant world, which is possible, but a bonus of Earth-like moons is I imagine a bit much to hope for me.
My personal speculation is that the new G5 iMacs will be the more exciting of the two announcements tomorrow (though I don't know that they'll be as cool as the first- and second-gen iMacs).
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Going Up
A new group, Elevator:2010, is hoping
an X Prize-type competition could speed development of a space elevator. The group would offer prizes in various competitions over the rest of the decade that would show the feasibility of various elevator-supporting technologies.
+ 1 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
The
STS-114 launch window has been shortened, which also pushes back the NET launch date. The new launch window begins on March 16 instead of March 6. (Sidebar update is being modified accordingly.)
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Near Vision
GovExec.com has an article about
near-term implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration, which notes that one major milestone will be reached in the next month or so, and that several others will occur in the next year.
And yet there are still idiots who believe "
It was as though sending men to Mars was a momentary brainstorm, one of those ideas that seems great at midnight and is quickly forgotten the next morning."
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶iWrite Or Wrong
Here's a bit of a follow-up on the Apple tablet/PDA rumors I posted recently. This one really falls more under the "nothing to see here, folks" category, but who cares?
Per The Mac Observer:
...it's fairly clear that iWrite is a name for a PDA that Apple was at least considering at one time; and examining the descriptions of goods that accompanies the application, it may have been a bag of all tricks.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Last Walk
The Expedition 9 crew will perform
its final space walk Friday starting at 11:50 CDT. More preparations will be made for the arrival of the first ESA ATV unmanned supply ship next year, and some basic Station maintenance will be performed.
Saturday, 28 August 2004
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Alpha And Omega Sci-Fi
I've been holding this for a while until Richie came back from the Olympics, but here it is. The "
100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have To Read." I would also note again that Joe's library is currently both seeking nominations for science fiction books he should add to the collection and accepting donations from anyone who wants to help fill its science fiction shelves. As usual, books I've read are in bold. (And, yeah, I've only read a mere quarter of them. I'm a bad person.)
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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Daily Hatbag
I have nothing to say about
today's strip. Sorry.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶All Bets Are On
Per New Scientist:
Betting on the greatest unsolved problems in the universe is no longer the preserve of academic superstars such as Stephen Hawking. From Thursday anyone will be able to place bets on whether the biggest physics experiments in the world will come good before 2010.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Still Clerkin'
Long after it was initially promised at the end of Dogma (I believe),
the Clerks sequel is coming, though the subtitle is now "The Passion Of The Clerks.
Friday, 27 August 2004
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Daily Hatbag
Warning: There's
adult language in today's Daily Hatbag.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Reparations
OK, was this necessary?
The AP has a story about three Ole Miss students who were killed in a fire this morning:
OXFORD, Mississippi (AP) -- A fire swept through a fraternity house at the University of Mississippi early Friday, killing three members, school officials said.
The blaze at the brick and wood-frame Alpha Tau Omega house broke out before dawn, and firefighters needed about two hours to bring it under control, chapter adviser Al Bell said. Hours later, smoke billowed out of where the roof had been.
The story is six paragraphs long. Those were the first two. The last two are:
In 2001, the university suspended the fraternity because two members appeared in an Internet-posted photograph showing a man dressed as a police officer holding a gun to a man in black face pretending to pick cotton.
Alpha Tau Omega expelled the two members and apologized, and the fraternity was reinstated in 2002.
I mean, was that necessary? Really?
Look, I have no love lost for the Ole Miss greek system. I don't. I was appalled by the 2001 incident when it happened. I remember that, and I remember being humiliated as an Ole Miss alum and as a Mississippian. I'm not trying to defend that at all.
But, I mean, let me point out that
three people just died. None of those three, as the story point out, were associated with that incident. Those people were expelled. Years ago.
Can we not just let it be that three people died, without having to smear their memory with something they didn't do?
Please. Just once.
Mississippi has a lot it can be criticized for. The state has a lot of blood on its hands, and a lot to feel guilty about. Mississippians have done a lot wrong. No doubt.
But why this need to tar and feather the state at every available opportunity?
Why can't three young men be laid to rest without being tried for sins of their predecessors?
Frankly, at times like this, I feel much worse having been associated with the media than I do having been associated with Ole Miss.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Star Wars--The Latest Version
Movie Blog has a feature on
the changes in the DVD versions of the original trilogy
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶I, Pod
So, it's
not just me. I was telling Nicole this past weekend, and almost wrote a blog entry this week, about the fact that
my iPod has a personality, or, at least, musical tastes. My iPod has well over 1,000 songs on it, all of which, theoretically, have an equal chance of being played. And, yet, there are some artists and songs my iPod plays way more than you would think it would randomly. For example, my iPod, for whatever reason, has loved Fisher since I first loaded that CD on there. I liked some of the songs enough to rip the album, but, to be honest, my iPod likes that CD
way more than I do, and I've gotten to where I usually fast-forward past them. My iPod has shown a growing affection for Garrison Starr, which is fine, 'cause I like G*, and my iPod's predeliction for some of her new stuff has caused me to grow to appreciate it more than I would have otherwise. My iPod loves the song "Out Is Through" from the new Alanis CD, which is great, 'cause that's my favorite song on the album also. There are times when it's kind of annoying, particularly when, for whatever reason, my iPod just plain refuses to rock. I'm driving down the interstate at a relatively high (but legal, of course) rate of speed and want my iPod to play something appropriate, and I have to fastforward through like 15 songs to find one that will work.
Anyway, point being, today I see an article in the NYT (reg.req.) about this very topic. So it turns out a personality is standard equipment on iPods.
Addendum:Like, maybe, two songs after I finished this post, my iPod played Fisher's Miseryland.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Strange New Worlds
NASA has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday to make a
major extrasolar planet discovery announcement. The announcement will reportedly address the "discovery of a new class of planets beyond our solar system" which "represents a significant and much-anticipated advance in the hunt for extra-solar planets."
I'm not certain how likely it is that there are a substantial number of extrasolar worlds that have been discovered but not announced, so how "new" the information will be to those who have been following the extrasolar world hunt I don't know.
Addendum: Cosmic Log has a bit more
context and speculation.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Depths Of Mars
Universe Today (which unfortunately doesn't have permalinks, so you may have to scroll to find the link) had a link yesterday to a new
3D Mars screensaver by the European Space Agency. Unfortunately, it looks like it may be PC only, though I'm not certain.
Also, a
direct link to the ESA site is here.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Do Scientists Dream Of Electric Plots?
Per Space.com:
A newspaper survey of top scientists has chosen "Blade Runner" as the world's best science fiction. ...
Stanley Kubrick's epic, "2001: A Space Odyssey," came in a close second, followed by the first two films of George Lucas' Star Wars trilogy: "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back." ...
The others chosen, in descending order, were "Alien," "Solaris (1972)," "Terminator," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "War of the Worlds," "The Matrix," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Here's the part I found interesting, though. The movies, by and large, are pretty conventional choices., but check out the top three sci-fi authors:
Asked to pick their favorite authors, the scientists chose: Isaac Asimov, "I, Robot"; John Wyndham, "Day of the Triffids and Chocky"; and Fred Hoyle, "The Black Cloud."
Asimov is, of course, a pretty obvious choice, but I can't say that I've read anything by Wyndham or Hoyle.
After those two, though, the list returns to being pretty conventional:
The other writers chosen, in descending order, were Philip K. Dick, H.G. Wells, Ursula Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert and Stanislaw Lem.
Immediately conspicuous by their absence, though, are Heinlein and Verne. And, of course, Peter David.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶HPod
The lastest member of the iPod family, the new
Hewlett-Packard-branded iPod will debut today. It apparently will have a different appearance from the Apple iPods and some new hardware features. More as it develops.
Also,
more info is here.
Addendum: OK, so maybe it's not so different.
Thursday, 26 August 2004
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Daily Hatbag
For those just joining us, here's
the Hatbag story so far, or some semblance thereof.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Summer In The SETI
SETI@home, the world-network task-distribution search for extraterrestrial life application, enters a new phase today with the when
a new program joins BOINC. Under the new program, you can dedicate your computer's processing power toward working on a variety of problems, from searching to alien life to predicting the weather to supporting Einstein to building a better particle accelerator.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Snikt!
Lain sent me a link to
this George Will column, which I liked the ending of:
Knowledge, tickled from the heavens, is the business of a small band of possible explainers — the people of JPL and NASA, government at its best.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Recommended Reading
The Planetary Society has put together a report on
implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration, written by a team of experts, co-led by Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.
The report has excellent insight on the challenges involved in carrying out human missions to the Moon and Mars, and features some innovative ideas on overcoming those challenges.
On a similar note, Frank Sietzen has an interesting article on the process of
choosing a launch vehicle for space exploration.
+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Who's Taking Genesis?
So it turns out that the upcoming Genesis sample return midair capture may be the most
highly planned helicopter flight in history.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶This Week At NE
This week at
NASAexplores, I've got an article based on a discussion by a panel of experts about what the world would be like if airplanes had never been invented. We've also got an article by Maggie about NASA's research in subvocal speech transmission, and a new type of feature, an Earth Explorer article.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶To Seek Out Old Life...
Space.com has articles today which address the possibility of extraterrestrial life on three worlds.
Venus:
For habitability, there are implications for Venus and there are implications for terrestrial planets in general. Venus almost certainly had liquid water when it was young. So the conditions for the origin of life, as conventionally defined, were satisfied there as much as on Earth and Mars.
Mars:
While the amount of methane seen by the PFS is very small – about 10 parts in a thousand million – the implications of the detection are large. Perhaps Mars isn’t a planet waiting to exhale, but one that is a thriving world of panting microbes?
Extrasolar:
In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the Sun.
While that last planet is, itself, an unlikely candidate for hosting life due to its proximity to its sun, it demonstrates that there are planets smaller than the ones we've been finding out there, and that we're getting closer to being able to find them. The same proximity to a star that made this a dead world is likely also a major factor in our ability to detect it--I'm guessing its closer proximity compensated for its smaller size in creating detectable stellar perturbations. The planet is now part of a known stellar system of three worlds.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶RTF Update
Radar tracking data gathered during the launch of the Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft earlier this month
successfully demonstrated imaging techniques that can be used to monitor Shuttle launches, bringing NASA a step closer to its goals for Return To Flight.
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶A Space Odyssey
As much as I've posted here about the two Mars rovers completing their missions and original lifetime and moving on into new missions long after they were expected to have failed, I thought it'd be only fair to note that the
Mars Odyssey orbiter went into overtime yesterday, having completed its original mission and been granted an extended mission until September 2006. One of the main focuses of the extended mission is to use the data gathered thus far as a baseline to monitor climate change on the Red Planet. Odyssey will also provide back-up support for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which launches next August for an MOI in March 2006.
Wednesday, 25 August 2004
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶The Adventure Continues
The rumors are going on 30 years old now, but they keep resurfacing: Supposedly,
Lucas is getting serious about a third trilogy. You know, there was a time not that many years ago when I would have thought that was
good news.
