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Thursday, 30 November 2006
Fighting The Power (Adapter)
Per Cult of Mac:iPod Chargers Outselling Zune on Amazon
No, that's not a typo. According to CBS MarketWatch, Zune is the 75th best-selling electronic product on Amazon, while the lowly Apple USB iPod Charger is a lofty no. 66. Yep, a power cord was beating down the latest iPod Killer.
But since that article has been written, a large group of people, likely represented by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, have begun to pump up Zune's Amazon sales, and the mighty iPod Power Cord Killer is now ahead of the power cord, sitting at 67 while its rival is down to 69. What a world.
uDon't iPod
So apparently Bush is considering putting an embargo on sales of iPods and some other stuff to personally annoy Kim Jong Il.My favorite part of the story, though, has nothing to do with the iPods, even though that's what made it ATWorthy. My favorite part is the following line: "[Kim Jong Il] also is said to own an extensive movie library of more than 10,000 titles and prefers films about James Bond and Godzilla..." No kidding! Where can I get those? I want movies about James Bond and Godzilla! Does James Bond fight Godzilla? Or, better yet, maybe it's like a buddy cop movie. "... The other is a hundred-foot-tall lizard who just can't follow the rules." Heck, they should do some of each. Each movie is a different genre. I'd even watch the BrokeBond 'Zilla movie about their forbidden love. Or the high school flick where Godzilla is an ugly misfit until Bond shows him how to reveal his inner beauty.
STS-116 Update
Per SpaceflightNow.com:NASA managers today wrapped up a two-day flight readiness review and officially set December 7 as the target launch date for the shuttle Discovery on an unprecedented mission to rewire the international space station.
If all goes well, Discovery's countdown will begin at 11 p.m. EST Monday, setting the stage for a launch attempt at 9:35:45 p.m. EST Thursday. This will be NASA's first night launch since 2002.
But space station engineers are working two issues that must be resolved for Discovery to get off the ground next week.
Sad Sack
It's Thursday, so there's a new strip over at the Hatbag site.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
Monday, 27 November 2006
Will To Fly
Per All Headline News:
Oddly enough, we may just have the "Fresh Prince Of Bel Air" leading us into the vast universal space sometime in the future.
Will Smith recently said he wants to boldly go where only a few people have gone before... space!
The handsome actor - who is a follower of Scientology, a sci-fi cult based on the belief that people descend from aliens - thinks it will be easy to fulfill his ambition of becoming a space shuttle pilot because somebody has already written down the instructions.
He said, "I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I know that I could learn how to fly a space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it and they put it in a book."
Will and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith were guests at TomKat's wedding in Italy over the weekend. Tom is also a devout Scientologist.
During the Scientology ceremony, the "Top Gun"actor promised his bride a comb and a cat, while the "Dawson's Creek" actress was told that "young men are free and may forget their promises."
Sunday, 26 November 2006
Back To The Futurama Update Again
I was reading an article last night about an interview with Al Gore, wherein he mentioned that he was following up his big Hollywood star-making Inconvenient Truth with a role in a Futurama movie, which inspired to me to try to figure out what's going on.First, there was word that there was going to be new straight-to-DVD Futurama movies.
Then, there was word that maybe the movies were dead, but there were going to be new TV episodes.
So, now, here's what it looks like the situation is -- the movies are being worked on like right now, with a target release date for the first of Christmas 2007.
The new TV episodes, which are supposed to come out in 2008, may not actually be new episodes, per se. First, it's sounding like there won't be a new season necessarily, even though they're making a new (short) season's worth of episodes. Instead, they'll just be added to the re-run rotation with the old episodes. Not sure about that, though.
The other thing I've read is that the episodes will actually be the movies, cut into the episode-length sections for TV-viewing.
So, the TV thing is a bit disappointing, but the movie thing is cool, so it all works out, I guess.
The Golden Egg
And congrats to Ed Orgeron, who managed to lead the Rebs to a 4-8 record in 2006 slightly better than Vanderbilt (more than State can say), and better than his 3-8 of last year. (And, hey, almost as good as the 4-7 season that got David Cutcliffe fired.) At the end of the year, even the one good thing he was supposed to have done failed. Despite the great recruiter's great recruit, Brent Schaeffer, the team was once more trying to figure out what exactly to do in the quarterback situation, the problem that has plagued it for three years now.
As Orgeron said after the LSU game (during which he pulled Schaeffer out of the came during the third quarter when Ole Miss was ahead), "I thought we'd go undefeated and he'd take us to the Sugar Bowl and be the hero. That's Ed Orgeron style-thinking." Or, as they prefer to call Ed-Orgeron-style-thinking in some circles, stupid.
Here's more Ed-Orgeron-style-thinking from yesterday: "It's definitely a big victory to win the Egg Bowl," Orgeron said. "But let me say this to you: A big victory to me is winning the Sugar Bowl, but we understand we have to beat Mississippi State first to get there."
Sure, you know, managing to avoid last place in the conference is a good start toward the Sugar Bowl. In fact, why stop there, Ed? Why not aim to take Ole Miss to the Super Bowl? The way your tenure has been going so far, that seems like an equally reasonable goal.
The biggest congratulations for yesterday, though, go to Pete Boone, since the consolation-prize Golden Egg will likely distract some from the Ed-Orgeron-style-thinking he engaged in two years ago that put the Rebs back on course to being the laughingstock of the SEC.
Saturday, 25 November 2006
Regular Richie Feature
Recent search strings on Alltheseworlds.net:Friday, 24 November 2006
Broken Triad Update
OK, I've made my latest addition. Didn't plan on getting this detailed and complicated this early, but Joe kinda threw down the gauntlet with his last post. He's suggested adding a list of characters again, like we did last time, and I may also put together a timeline.In the meantime, though, somebody else can take a shot at it.
ATW On D
Went and watched the Tenacious D movie yesterday.
To be honest, kinda disappointing. Enjoyable, just not all I was hoping for.
Thursday, 23 November 2006
cS ISS Tee
OK, collectSPACE has posted something on YouTube for the first time, so I'm embedding a YouTube video on my blog for the first time.
Used tags: collectspace, international_space_station, nasa, space, youtube
The Turkey's Last Flight
Yes, it's time once again for the annual Thanksgiving strip over at the Hatbag site.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Editorial Note
Been really busy lately. Thus light blogging.Going to be off the grid for Thanksgiving, so I'll disappear completely for a few days.
In the meantime, have a good holiday.
ISS Tee
Per Space.com:Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) today for a short round of orbital golf and laboratory maintenance.
ISS Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin are slated to spend six hours working outside the station in what will mark the first of four planned spacewalks during their six-month mission.
Among the highlights of today’s spacewalk—scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT)—will be Tyurin’s golf shot, a stunt spurred by a commercial agreement between Russia’s Federal Space Agency and the Canadian golf equipment firm Element 21.
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
iPhone Rumors: The Sequel
To make the iPhone rumors more interesting, MacNN had a link today to an article with rumors about the next iPhone Apple is working on.
Monday, 20 November 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Four
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.This is another fight from the losers' bracket, so the person who loses goes home -- if they live that long!
Dilbert was defeated by Bucky Katt in the first round of the ATW Comic War. Now he faces both Frank and Ernest, who together proved to be no match for Funky Winkerbean. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Dilbert (3 votes)
Frank and Ernest (4 votes)
Backward Rebels!
You know, I'm beginning to think that at halftime at Ole Miss games, Ed Orgeron pulls his team into the locker room and makes it clear that they are not playing like Ole Miss, and that they need to get back out there and find a way to blow it. We're not supposed to be winning, you know?
Sunday, 19 November 2006
Movie Nights
After a fairly long movie dry spell, Nicole and I went to see three movies in three nights -- Stranger Than Fiction, Happy Feet and Casino Royale.The middle we went to see only because one of my coworkers had been passionate for months about getting a group to go see it, and it was, well, OK. I coulda skipped it and not felt that my life was incomplete.
The former, we really enjoyed. Good stuff.
The latter -- well, the last Bond movie I watched in the theater was Goldeneye. And, when there's another new Bond, I'll probably go see that, as well. Point being, I really don't have much of a standard to judge it by. I'd really love to hear what some other, more Bond-savvy people thought of it.
That said, two thoughts:
- I'm sorry, I know the kids love it these days, and I don't mind playing it myself, but seeing James Bond play Texas Hold-Em would have been like watching the Brosnan Bond drink Zima. Just a bit much of the zeitgeist for my tastes.
- It seems like every time there's a new Bond movie lately, there's an interview talking about how all the Bond girls before were just eyecandy, and that this one will bring a more modern strong female presence. It's interesting just how that's executed, though.
ReAnimator
So on the eve of the DVD release of Star Trek: The Animated Series (well, the eve of the eve), George Takei said that he hopes the success of these DVDs will spur interest in new animated Trek.And, really, it's an idea I could get behind, particularly if it were approached with the increase in maturity from TAS that say, The Clone Wars showed from Ewoks and Droids. I wouldn't mind seeing a good new movie-era TOS adventure.
However, I don't know that I completely agree with the last part of this statement: "And, our voices more-or-less still resemble what we sounded like 40 years ago, so I think the original actors could be brought back for that. And then there are some amazing people who can do remarkable take-offs on Scotty's voice and on McCoy's voice."
Well, that's probably true, but I don't know that I like the idea of just replacing Doohan and Kelley.
I started this entry with the idea of ending it with a poll -- Would you rather see the roles re-cast or just have Scotty and McCoy left out -- two rather unappealing options. I think, though, there might be some potential in working old lines into context; letting them play (albeit minor) roles in the story, but with the original actors.
What say you? Would you want to see new animated TOS (or another Trek, for that matter), and, if so, how would you handle the missing men?
Open Apple
TUAW is speculating that, rather than being offered through a particular carrier, the iPhone will be sold -- unlocked -- directly by Apple. You buy one at the Apple store and take it to your cellular service provider to get the hook up. It makes sense -- it would give Apple more potential customers and greater control over marketing, which sounds like a reasonable Steve approach. I wonder, though, if the carriers would sell the phone themselves, if I could walk into my local Cingular store and get one. My curiosity stems from the question of whether this approach would keep it from the bread-and-butter of cell phone sales -- the contract discount. If it means that iPhone customers would have to pay the full price, versus getting a RAZR or something cheaper with a contract, that could create a competitive discount. Of course, people are already willing to pay hundreds of dollars for an iPod; Apple would just have to make the phone as good an investment.
Saturday, 18 November 2006
Hollywood Strong Arm Tactics
There's a discussion over at collectSPACE about who should play Neil Armstrong in the movie adaptation of First Man that Clint Eastwood has talked about making, so I thought I'd turn the question over to the ATW crowd to see what thoughts y'all had.
Used tags: apollo, collectspace, history, movies, space
Taking Stock
OK, if anyone is ever curious how seriously to take my Apple commentary and predictions, you should keep in mind that I sold my Apple stock not too long before it hit an all-time high.That's pretty darned stupid.
Krypton Go Boom!
Per Newsarama:Best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson just closed a major deal with DC Comics and HarperCollins Books to write “Last Days of Krypton,” an epic novel about the demise of Superman’s home planet. The novel, reminiscent of “The Last Days of Pompeii,” shows the pomp and grandeur of a doomed world, the politics and struggles, brave heroes and traitors, and finally the escape of one baby. The story features Jor-El and Lara (Superman's parents), as well as famous villains General Zod and Brainiac, and how a whole planet came to be destroyed. In almost 70 years of “Superman,” this complete story has never been told.
Anderson, who also won science-fiction’s highest paid advance for co-authoring a series of DUNE novels with Brian J. Herbert in 2004, is one of science fiction’s most successful authors, not to mention most prolific. Since 1993, 40 of his novels have appeared on national and international best seller lists, and he has over 20 million books in print worldwide, translated into 29 languages.
Fans of Superman legend and of Kevin J. Anderson can expect the new book to release in Fall 2007.
Thursday, 16 November 2006
Yay, Spam
I read the other day about a new kind of spam, where they send random passages from works of literature through e-mail, and was totally jealous I wasn't getting any of it.
Well, today was my lucky day!
Actually, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. What I read about sounded like messages consisting only of the passages, but my opened with a message telling me I needed to be on, uh, my peak performance Christmas night, and gave me a link where I shouldn't "loose this chance and try it".
Following that was a passage that a little Googling reveals is from "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, considered, per Wikipedia, "to be one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century, as well as one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a suffocatingly bureaucratic social order."
The portion I received was as follows:
came in and obviously mistaking him for someone else in the hellish lightThis section is from Chapter 4, The Pursuit.
she whispered gaily :
'Kiryushka! Do stop fooling! You must be crazy . . . Fyodor Ivanovich
will be back any minute now. Go on--out you go! ' And she waved her loofah
at Ivan.
The mistake was plain and it was, of course, Ivan Nikolayich's fault,
but rather than admit it he gave a shocked cry of ' Brazen hussy! ' and
suddenly found himself in the kitchen. It was empty. In the gloom a silent
row of ten or so Primuses stood on a marble slab. A single ray of moonlight,
struggling through a dirty window that had not been cleaned for years, cast
You can tell that this is a great work of literature, because Chapter 3 ends with the sort of conclusion that it would take some authors an entire book to build to:
Berlioz vanished from sight under the tramcar and a round, dark object
rolled across the cobbles, over the kerbstone and bounced along the
pavement.
It was a severed head.
Regular Richie Feature
Recent search strings on Alltheseworlds.net:- Touchdown in the land of the delta blues in the middle of the pouring rain lyrics
- "Songs of Science" torrent
- "Guy Bluford" editorial STS-115
- space
- In the Zone IPOD giveaway on October 13, 2006 Huntsville, texas
- "sts-124" crew rumors
- NASA`S space planes picthers
- all these
- "Laika" "Sputnik 2" "film footage"
- fake ipod ads
- thanksgiving playlist
- blogpoint metal
- what did valentine tereshkova do?
- lyrics "everything changes" kitt
- "David Hitt" artist
- torrent aliens versus predator spanish
- prize competition" "birdman"
- sts-124 ufo
- Guin Bluford - First Black Astronaut
- "Baptist hymnal" astronaut
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Three
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.This is another fight from the losers' bracket, so the person who loses goes home -- if they live that long!
Jason Fox comes to the losers' bracket after getting spanked by Calvin's dad in an early round. Now he faces Lucky Cow's Claire, who was slugged by Sluggo. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Jason Fox (2 votes)
Claire (1 votes)
Iffy Proposition
It's like old home week at Hatbag this week with the resurfacing of an old "friend."As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
...Then You've Never Seen It At All
Entertainment Weekly's column about guy watching Star Wars for the first time was mildly amusing and perhaps a little too clever for my tastes, but I was intrigued to read his answer to something I'd wondered about -- what would someone think about the series if they watched them in chronological, rather than production, order?
Path Of NEO
It's a long way from the moon to Mars.The moon, of course, is conveniently close to Earth when it comes to planning a human mission. A good bit farther than we've been for the last 30 years, but, as Apollo 13 proved, close enough that you can still get back if something goes wrong.
Mars, on the other hand, is, at best, about 200 times further away from the Earth.
Back before Mike Griffin was the head of NASA, he was part of a commission that put together a report for The Planetary Society with recommendations on implementing the Vision for Space Exploration. Among the ideas (along with such things as building an inline SRB-based launch vehicle and a shuttle-derived heavy lift vehicle) was including a mission to an asteroid in the whole moon, Mars and beyond outline.
It would provide a logical steppingstone, farther from Earth than the moon, but much closer to Mars. In fact, the TPS report argued that the mission could actually be carried out, based on the architecture of the time, before the moon landing, since it would require only the CEV spacecraft and not the to-be-developed-later lander.
Anyway, point being, NASA is now giving serious thought to planning such a mission at some point, perhaps even in the 2010s.
Wednesday, 15 November 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Two
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.This is another fight from the losers' bracket, so the person who loses goes home -- if they live that long!
Dagwood was sent to the losers' bracket when he was out-sandwiched by Garfield. Now he faces Cathy, who started off the ATW Comic War by being defeated by Hagar. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Dagwood (4 votes)
Cathy (2 votes)
Face From Space
Per SpaceDaily:KFC Corporation claims to have became the world's first brand visible from outer space by unveiling a record-breaking 87,500 square feet, updated Colonel Sanders logo in the Area 51 desert. The event marks the official debut of a massive global re-image campaign that will contemporize 14,000-plus KFC restaurants in over 80 countries over the next few years.
The "Face From Space" ties in with a contest on the official KFC Web site where you can win a free Snacker by finding a secret message hidden in image.
Trek XI Update
So Shatner says Abrams told him he and Nimoy will be in the new movie. No word on what role they will play.And Damon is out as Kirk.
FWIW.
On an unrelated note, did anyone see Shatner's gameshow last night? I'd forgotten about it.
Singing A Different Zune
Per AppleInsider:Apparently, Microsoft has been so focused on getting Zune out the door in time for the mad holiday rush that it hasn't gotten around to supporting the player under its next-generation operating system.
Though seemingly implausible, the screenshot below tells the story (while raising some questions at the same time).
"This operating system is currently not supported by Zune," reads an error message when trying to install Zune software on the latest versions of Microsoft's own Windows Vista operating system.
In an official Zune support document, Microsoft, which will begin selling Vista to business customers in two weeks, confirms that the system "is not supported at this time."
And you've got to follow the link and see the screenshot in question.
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Sounds Of Silence
Ten years after its launch, and more than eight years after its nominal mission end, the Mars Global Surveyor has fallen silent.Though there would be no shame in the spacecraft deciding it was time for retirement (the newest Mars orbiter began its primary mission tasks around the same time MGS fell silent), the mission team is still working to find out what happened, and whether anything can be done.
Toward that end, they're calling in the big guns. The new arrival, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, boasts the most powerful camera ever used at Mars, and the MRO team will be using that to try and image MGS to see what they can learn.
Regardless of what comes out of it, those should be some interesting pictures.
Stuck On Zune?
One of the coolest purely cultural elements, in my opinion, of the entire Apple mythos is the stickers. It's just really telling, to me, that you rarely see stickers on cars for any other computer platform or hardware, but you see Apple stickers on cars all over the place. A future archeologist discovering a preserved early-21st-century parking lot would assume that Apple was the dominant computer company (uh, assuming enough knowledge to know what that little Apple logo meant, which, of course, they will, since it will then be ubiquitous).To be fair, though, there are two reasons for this:
- A large number of Apple users are fanatical about their machines, and thus display their loyalty with great pride.
- Apple provides the stickers.
So maybe if someone else shipped stickers with their product, we'd start seeing those, too.
We're about to find out.
The great innovator, Microsoft, is including stickers with its Zune mp3 player.
My personal bet? Don't expect to start seeing them all over parking lots any time zune.
iFly
Very rarely do I make flights long enough to merit planes large enough to have the whole seatback-screen thing going on, but, for those rare occassions, I do think the idea of integrated iPod docks on aircraft that would let you charge your iPod and listen to and watch its content through the plane is rather cool.I don't even have a video iPod now, but, as I've said before, I really expect that 2007 is going to see some big changes in the way I watch a lot of stuff. Less than three months now until MWSF.
Thursday, 9 November 2006
Capitol Punishment
Hey, check it out -- we're all topical again with this week's new Hatbag.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
STS-116 Update
And Discovery is on the pad.
By the current schedule, it is now 28 days until launch.
Moore Similarities
So I had a thought this morning...You know how Battlestar Galactica ended the last season with the characters split up by an occupation? And then the next season started with several episodes alternating between the military commander back on the fleet preparing to go back and reclaim his people, and the characters who were left behind under the occupation mounting an insurgency against the occupying force? And they continued the arc for five or so episodes into the season before the fleet comes back, runs of the bad guys, and the status quo is restored?
Is it just me, or was Ron Moore not basically just doing a "cover" of, well, himself?
Dude, You're Getting A Pink Slip!
"I'm A PC. And ... No, That's It, Really."Apparently, Apple is continuing its "I'm A Mac" advertising campaign, but without the Mac. Or, at least, without Justin Long, who has thus far embodied the Mac platform.
The report speculates that perhaps Long was given the boot over the fact the general perception that the PC comes across as much more sympathetic and likable in many of the installments of the campaign.
Personally, I've kind of like that about the campaign; that Apple is so cool that their commercials can make the opposition look good and yet still be memorable and, arguably, effective.
Wednesday, 8 November 2006
Whose House?
I'm not even going to try to provide a summary here, but Space Politics lives up to its name today with some good looks at what last night means for space exploration.
STS-116 Update
The payload for the STS-116 mission is at the pad, awaiting the arrival of the shuttle stack. Roll-out is scheduled to begin no earlier than midnight tonight, last I heard. Launch is currently scheduled for the night of December 7, though there's talk that NASA is eyeing moving it up to the night before.
Flying 30 Percent Of The Geek Flag
Though I scored only 30.17751 percent on the Geek Test, so that's not too bad (not that much higher than Richie, for example). Of course, this one was even more arbitrary than the White & Nerdy one.
Tuesday, 7 November 2006
Civic Duty!
Let me add my voice to the blog entries I've already seen today with election day messages --
You know what, if something someone wrote on a blog today is going to influence whether or not you go vote, then feel free to just stay home, kick back, and relax. You deserve it. Leave the drudgery to those who actually care.
Thanks!
(But I will leave you with one more campaign ad.)
Delaying The Future For Hubble
Per Flight:NASA's overwhelmingly popular decision to mount a Space Shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope will affect the agency's plans for the Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV).
Expected in 2008, the SM-4 servicing mission by orbiter Discovery will require a second Shuttle to be ready to launch a rescue attempt. This will affect plans to hand over Pad 39B to the Constellation exploration programme for flight testing of the Ares I crew launch vehicle, says NASA administrator Michael Griffin.
The manned CEV, being designed by Lockheed Martin, will also have to be capable of reaching the Hubble in the 2020-25 timeframe to attach a solid rocket motor with which to de-orbit the massive telescope safely at the end of its life. Plans to attach a de-orbit stage during the SM-4 mission have been dropped. "We will build the CEV with the capability of going to Hubble, so we don't need to worry right now," says Griffin.
Monday, 6 November 2006
Moore Differences
Ways that Galactica is different from Trek, #486:
(more)
What Does God Need With A Second Chance?
This is not a new idea, but TrekWeb has a fresh article arguing that a George-Lucas-style special edition of Star Trek V (or, I guess a better analogy would be the ST:TMP remaster) would be a good idea.For myself, I find the movie more agreeable than most people give it credit for, but am certainly not so slavishly devoted to it that I would find a modified version blasphemous. On the flipside, the problems I do have with it are not going to be fixed with the addition of a bunch of CGI rock creatures.
What does anyone else think?
Friday, 3 November 2006
Ares Update
I went to a talk last night by Steve Cook, NASA's Director of Exploration Launch Projects (for the layman, the guy that's responsible for the Ares I and Ares V rockets). Here are a few notes that are things I either hadn't heard before or update things I had:- Cook did the presentation from a Mac laptop. Don't know if he always uses a Mac, but that was kinda cool.
- NASA is considering building a facility for Ares V processing that would serve as an alternative to the VAB.
- The crew module of the "lunar lander" will have roughly the pressurized area of an ISS lab module.
- NASA is expected to announce a Request For Proposals for production of the Ares I Upper Stage in February.
- Ares I and V can be used for missions beyond the moon. "You've got your Mars transportation system right here from a launch perspective."
- Marshall is currently the prime candidate for testing the Main Propulsion Test Article of the Ares I upper stage, which, on a personal note, would rock. Marshall will also host testing of full-scale test articles in the Dynamic Test Stand built for the Saturns.
- For lunar missions, plans are for both boosters to fly twice a year (i.e., two lunar landings), expandable to four. Plans are for the Ares I to fly to ISS twice a year, assuming aditional flights from a commercial transportation partner. In absence of a COTS option, it could make six ISS flights a year.
- From a structural dynamics standpoint, the long-and-thin Ares I is very similar to the Saturn V. While it's thinner relative to length than the SV, the lower stage is more rigid. Marshall sims are showing the Ares I well within flight tolerances.
- The J-2X engine is still the long pole in Ares I development, but is also still on schedule.
- Orion reusability is currently baselined at 10 flights per capsule.
Pale Blue Dot
There are two really neat things about this new picture taken by Cassini of Saturn eclipsing the sun. First of all, it's just a really cool picture, the way the rings are lit up and all. Second, though, is that you can actually see our home planet in it. It's hard to see in this version at this size, but if you follow the link, you'll see that there is, in fact, a small blue dot near the edge of the bright rings.
Mac Intel Cube
I can understand the appeal of putting a Mac mini in a G4 case. And I can understand why, if you were going through that much effort, you wouldn't want to stop there.So I have much respect for this person who attempted to recreate what the Mac Cube line would be like today if it hadn't been cancelled. I'm not sure if he's right, though the MacBook line does indicate there's at least a chance Apple might have produced a black desktop, but it is cool looking.
Thursday, 2 November 2006
And Justice For All
Eh. Yeah. So there's not a bunch of Easter Eggs, and it's not really topical, and all that. This week's new Hatbag is just a decent comic strip. Not even our best one lately. But go read it anyway. Like you have anything better to do. (Other than Richie, of course, who's busy.)As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
Spatula Forum
STS-116 Update
That's right folks, photos of hot mating action, right here on ATW.
Wednesday, 1 November 2006
The Broken Triad, Book V
Last year's effort, What You Need, was an attempt to make the project more accessible, based on comments people made about challenges related to the first effort. It failed miserably, so this year, we're going back to the basics. Take that, whiners!
This year's project will be a sequel, or companion, or something, to The Leonardo Code, the first ATW writing project.
The way it works is simple -- Anyone who wants to can add the next section to the book. That's it.
It's preferred, but not absolutely required, that new additions be at least 600 words.
A new rule since the first time is that there will be no using celebrities as major characters. I'd like this one to, theoretically, have a bit more mass appeal, though I realize that's self-delusion.
The new book has been added to the sidebar in the upper right-hand corner.
And that's it. Go to it.
STS-116 Update
Discovery left the Orbiter Processing Facility last night for roll over to the VAB, where she'll be mated to the ET/SRB stack in preparation for roll out to the pad NET Nov. 7, and launch a month later.
Following The Dead
Per Space.com:A super-powerful camera orbiting Mars may help discover the fate of long-lost spacecraft that never phoned home after reaching the red planet.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is now circling that puzzling world, equipped to assist in determining whether life ever arose on the red planet and characterize its climate and geology, as well as prepare for future expeditionary crews to land there.
But another sharp-shooting skill of MRO is catching sight of past probes—craft that ran into trouble and died in the line of Mars duty. That includes NASA’s gone but not forgotten Mars Polar Lander and the British-built Beagle 2.
iPods
Dave Apple-Love Quantifier No. 73:I just bought five iPods.
That is all.
Apple Office
Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal, which owns and produces The Office had this to say: "I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air." The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time."
The revolution may or may not be televised. But this much is certain -- it's just getting started.
The "television is dead" idea has been going on for years, and I've never bought into it. But, you know, maybe there's something to it. Not that I'll stop watching that big box in my living room (
Thursday, 30 November 2006
Fighting The Power (Adapter)
(Read Entry)
uDon't iPod
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Sad Sack
(Read Entry)Monday, 27 November 2006
Will To Fly
(Read Entry)Sunday, 26 November 2006
Back To The Futurama Update Again
(Read Entry)
The Golden Egg
(Read Entry)Saturday, 25 November 2006
Regular Richie Feature
(Read Entry)Friday, 24 November 2006
Broken Triad Update
(Read Entry)
ATW On D
(Read Entry)Thursday, 23 November 2006
cS ISS Tee
Hey, look, it's YouTube video! (Read Entry)
The Turkey's Last Flight
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Editorial Note
(Read Entry)
ISS Tee
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 21 November 2006
iPhone Rumors: The Sequel
(Read Entry)Monday, 20 November 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Four
(Read Entry)
Backward Rebels!
(Read Entry)Sunday, 19 November 2006
Movie Nights
(Read Entry)
ReAnimator
(Read Entry)
Open Apple
(Read Entry)Saturday, 18 November 2006
Hollywood Strong Arm Tactics
Who should play Armstrong in a movie? (Read Entry)
Taking Stock
(Read Entry)
Krypton Go Boom!
(Read Entry)Thursday, 16 November 2006
Yay, Spam
(Read Entry)
Regular Richie Feature
(Read Entry)
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Three
(Read Entry)
Iffy Proposition
(Read Entry)
...Then You've Never Seen It At All
(Read Entry)
Path Of NEO
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 15 November 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight Two
(Read Entry)
Face From Space
(Read Entry)
Trek XI Update
(Read Entry)
Singing A Different Zune
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 14 November 2006
Sounds Of Silence
(Read Entry)
Stuck On Zune?
(Read Entry)
iFly
(Read Entry)Thursday, 9 November 2006
Capitol Punishment
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Moore Similarities
(Read Entry)
Dude, You're Getting A Pink Slip!
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 8 November 2006
Whose House?
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Flying 30 Percent Of The Geek Flag
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 7 November 2006
Civic Duty!
(Read Entry)
Delaying The Future For Hubble
(Read Entry)Monday, 6 November 2006
Moore Differences
(Read Entry)
What Does God Need With A Second Chance?
(Read Entry)Friday, 3 November 2006
Ares Update
(Read Entry)
Pale Blue Dot
(Read Entry)
Mac Intel Cube
(Read Entry)Thursday, 2 November 2006
And Justice For All
(Read Entry)
Spatula Forum
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 1 November 2006
The Broken Triad, Book V
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Following The Dead
(Read Entry)
iPods
(Read Entry)