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Saturday, 30 April 2005

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Greetings From Sunny Florida

Don't have time for a proper entry. Got to watch a rocket launch last night, which was incredibly cool -- the sound delay caught me off guard even though I knew it would happen.
Was in the same room with three Moonwalkers and Geordi LaForge today.
About to go watch Hitchhiker's Guide.
Life is good.

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Friday, 29 April 2005

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+ 2 - 0 | § ¶RTF Update

Return to Flight is now no earlier than July 13. The new launch window extends until the end of July.

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Thursday, 28 April 2005

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+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Auto-Motive

This week's new Hatbag strip is now online. Also, I've got a new version of the BuzzComix voting button working again, so please vote for us. We dropped like 30 spots during the time it wasn't working, and need to try to reclaim lost ground.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Today In History

On this date in 2001, Dennis Tito launched toward the International Space Station on a Soyuz spacecraft, becoming the world's first paying space tourist.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Die, Hubble, Die!

Since about every media outlet in the world has written editorials about how important it is that NASA save Hubble, I thought I'd post this alternative viewpoint arguing that it's time to let Hubble go.
It's almost certainly just coincidence, but it's interesting to note that the column comes from The Daily Reveille, the student newspaper at LSU, which, of course, recently hired as its chancellor former NASA head Sean O'Keefe.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶High Flight

Per MosNews.com:
Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, just back from space, said that alcohol should be allowed on the International Space Station as it helps to cope with stress and enhances performance...
I'm not sure when NASA formally implemented a policy against alcohol in space (the restriction became an issue on the STS-107, when Israeli astronaut requested permisson to perform while in orbit the Kiddush, a ritual blessing made over wine at the outset of the Sabbath, and was refused). Originally, the issue had nothing to do with concerns about alcohol affecting an astronaut's ability; there had been plans for wine to be carried on Skylab, but those were shot down due to moral outrage from a temperance group.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Virgin Waits Another Year

Virgin Galactic has recently delayed the launch of its commercial spaceline by about a year, due largely to government restrictions slowing development of the spacecraft service.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Tempel Of Space

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, just 69 days from its impact with Comet Tempel 1, took its first picture of the comet, at a distance of 39.7 million miles (which means that the two are nearing at a speed of over half a million miles a day). Impact is scheduled for July 4.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Captain's Blog

OK, so it's a little sad to see Star Trek stealing an idea from Battlestar Galactica, but it's cool to see the Enterprise team start doing podcast commentaries for episodes. Of course, it would be cooler if the series weren't about to end, but, hey...
Wonder if they'll include it on the DVD. I have yet to buy a full season Trek series DVD, but may do so for Season 4 of Enterprise.

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+ 0 - 2 | § ¶Catch A Tiger

Since previous ATW CompUSA Mac event blogging resulted in a reader scoring some free iTunes, I thought I'd mention that the retailer is having a Tiger World Premiere event tomorrow, at which an iPod shuffle will be given away.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Bat-Trailer

Latest Batman trailer is available in Quicktime. It really kind of looks like they may have gotten it right this time.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Editorial Note

Blogging will be light, at best, between today and Tuesday as I travel to Florida for the Astronaut Hall of Fame induction. Not sure that I'll have any internet access during that time.
Any ATW affiliate-blogging would be greatly appreciated during this time.

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Wednesday, 27 April 2005

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Shuttle Love

The picture at right is one of the train cars in which the Space Shuttle SRBs are transported to KSC. Based on a larger version of the image, it appears some people love the Shuttle too much.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶MacMyth

I just came across a blog that has an excellent piece on apples to Apples price comparisons between Apple computers and Dell machines.

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+ 1 - 1 | § ¶Wal Of Sound

So Wal-Mart is starting a new online service for ordering customized CDs. I was a bit worried at first, thinking it had the potential to out-cool iTunes: If I could buy songs online but get them on a CD instead of a file, it seems like that could be better; since you'd have a hard copy. It seemed like there would also be DRM advantages; that'd it be easier to do more things with a song on CD, and I was curious how they were going to get around that.
Unsurprisingly, the Wal-Mart offering, though, not that cool -- You end up paying almost seven bucks for a three song CD, and 88 cents for each song after that.
So here's my question: Would you use a service like this? How would you want it to work?

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Last And First

So there's a slight chance I may get to see a launch in person for the first time Friday -- the last launch of a Titan rocket from Cape Canaveral. It's also possible that I'll be just a short distance from the launch and miss it; it's scheduled to launch at a classified time during a window that begins during a dinner I'm attending near KSC that night.

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+ 1 - 1 | § ¶O, Voyager Update

Last month, this blog reported the news that the continuing mission of NASA Voyager probes was in doubt due to funding questions. Now, Space Politics reports that the spacecraft have received at least a temporary reprieve while the situation undergoes further review.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶RTF TG Update

The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group, which thus far has declined to sign off that NASA has fully implemented the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Inventigation Board, is scheduled to hold its final public meeting next Friday.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Smith On Sith

Kevin Smith got to attend a screening of Episode III yesterday for his anniversary, and found it rather agreeable.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Wired Apple

Apple claimed the top spot in Wired magazine's 2005 Wired 40 list of "masters of technology and innovation."

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Tuesday, 26 April 2005

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Blogpoint Opportunity

There was a Batman comic book a while back that was somehow music themed, and had something to do with Robin having an advantage because of his better grasp of pop-culture or something.
I don't believe I ever read the thing, but ever since have been amused by a conversation Lain and I had it, in which we imagined Batman's misunderstanding reaction to Robin telling him about a double-bill concert coming to town: "It's 10,000 Maniacs, Batman, and They Might Be Giants!"

I just happened to come to come up with a similiarly-themed McSweeney's list, and thought I'd try a Blogpoint contest to see who could come up with the most amusing combinations of band names.

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+ 1 - 0 | § ¶Sorry

Haven't had time to think about Blogpoints much this month. (And yeah, I remember I still need to award them for the last contest.)
Since I haven't announced it, Joe was the winner for March with 94 Blogpoints, followed by Lain with 58.
Since next month may not be a whole lot better, I'm going to do a joint contest for April and May.
While you're waiting for the next Blogpoint opportunity, you can still earn some through additions to The Leonardo Code.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Another Brix In The Wall

I had planned on blogging about the latest PodBrix figure today in case any of my readers wanted one, but it turns out they sold out in 12 minutes last night.
Not bad for a $17 Lego minifig painted white with two circles drawn on it.

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+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Songs Of The Simpsons

Here's a little something for the Simpsons fans out there.

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