A Really Neat Video

I just saw this video and thought you might like to check it out. A production note says: "No Video cameras were used in the production of this music video. It was created entirely from 45,000 Photographs taken by a Nikon D200 DSLR."


Fat City Reprise - Long Gone from Cesar Kuriyama on Vimeo.

SpaceX: Flight 4 of Falcon 1 Launch Successful

"Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!!!!!!"

That was an amazing launch to see.

Congratulations SpaceX!

SpaceX: Flight 4 Launch Update

Elon Musk of SpaceX released a short update yesterday about the possible liftoff starting today. The target window opens up in about an hour and a half from now.

"Falcon 1 is currently cleared for liftoff sometime between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. (California time) tomorrow, Sunday September 28th. Of course, if we see anything that requires investigation, the launch will be postponed, but we’ll let you know as soon as we know. As with prior flights, you can access the webcast from the SpaceX site: www.spacex.com" -Elon

Photo caption: Falcon 1 Flight 4 vehicle on the launch pad at Omelek island, Kwajalein Atoll.

SpaceX: Flight 4 of Falcon 1 Update

SpaceX completed a static fire of the launch vehicle on Saturday, and has said no major issues came up. However, after looking over the data, they have decided to replace a component. The "launch window estimate is now Sept 28th through Oct 1st [CA time]."

Click here for the full details

SpaceX: Flight 4 of Falcon 1

An update posted September 19th on the SpaceX website says the team is on schedule for a late September launch. If all goes according to plan, they could "launch sometime between Tuesday and Thursday (California time)". That means that the launch could take place as early as tomorrow.

I am sitting here in anticipation of the event (which hopefully will be live webcasted like last time). If they are unable to launch in the 3 day window, the next available target is in late October.

-Click here for the full details-

(from the SpaceX website) SpaceX's Falcon 1 Flight 4 on the launch pad at Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands (19 Sep 2008).

Google Ordered To Give User Data To Viacom

In an unbelievable ruling, a judge ruled that Google must turn over all Youtube records of videos watched, including the users' names and ip addresses.

I think it's a terrible ruling that must be immediately reversed. It surely puts many people's identities and privacy at risk (just think back to the AOL Search Data Leak.

To give credit to Google, they put up a huge fight, and are undoubtedly still trying to have the ruling reversed. There's really too much info to get into, but these two articles manage it wonderfully:

Wired
Electronic Frontier Foundation


UPDATE: Here is an article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation with new statements from Viacom and Google regarding the privacy issue.

Phoenix Mars Lander Successfully Lands On Mars

The Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully touched down on the Martian surface. Quoted from the Phoenix Lander Blog, "Phoenix is now on the surface of Mars, much to the joy of everyone here in Mission Control. As icing on the cake, we've found that the lander is tilted only one quarter of a degree, which means we've landed nearly perfectly level."

The 'Seven Minutes of Terror' are over, so from here on out, it should be a lot easier and less stressful for the team at NASA. Hopefully there will be some awesome discoveries made.

Happy Birthday to the Laser

On May 16th, 1960, the first laser was demonstrated. Google has a neat little image today for the laser, so if you haven't seen that yet, check it out. Wired has a collection of cool pictures and information of some lasers and uses of them, and a little background on the laser as well.

Study Says Cell Phones A Radiation Risk

An award winning cancer expert has concluded that cell phones will be a larger threat than smoking for the world wide population in the future. Cell phone usage is said to be at 3 billion users world wide, three times as many as smoking. The study, by Dr. Vini Khurana, has concluded that radiation risks from cell phones are a major risk, and that the amount of people diagnosed with brain cancer will significantly increase if there are no changes. The reason many studies have said cell phones are not a risk, is because they haven't looked at long term usage, that of 10 years or more, at least not on a wide scale.

I think most of us can assume the risks that are involved with cell phones, but decide to turn the other way and try to believe otherwise. I like Germany and France's moves, advising people to minimize handset use, and or use headsets. I think this is a step in the right direction, not taking too drastic of measures to significantly harm the mobile industry in the chance that studies are wrong, but also to warn people that their cell phones may not be safe.

Article: Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'

Jules Verne ATV -- Europe's First Resupply Ship

Europe launched its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) resupply ship on March 12th, named Jules Verne after the author and dreamer. It will dock up with the International Space Station and resupply it, and then later on be burned up in the atmosphere upon re-entry. I'm not too enthusiastic about the last part, as it seems like a waste of a good ship, but I guess making a reusable one would have significantly impacted the complications encountered in developing it.

Check out this article from Science Daily for more information.

Turing Test Finally Going To Be Outdone?

The Turing test is a test that has been challenging artificial intelligence researchers for a very long time. The Turing test goes like this: A human judge engages in a conversation with another human, and a computer. If the judge cannot determine which conversation is from the computer, then it passes the test. Researchers are now saying that this new AI, "Rascals", could be the one to pass the test (a limited version). Passing the Turing test would be one step in the direction of real artificial intelligence, a truly epic goal.

Check it out here: Slashdot



(Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I'll try to make updates a little more often)

Here Comes Another Bubble

I saw this video back in December, and I still can't get it out of my head. It's a very amusing and catchy video:

Microsoft's Bid for Yahoo

I'm sure you've already heard the news of Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo for a staggering 44.6 billion dollars. It seemed to spread like wildfire across the media. Clearly, the internet business is booming. But like Microsoft in the software business, the only true internet giant is Google. They have far surpassed Yahoo! in their key market of advertising. And then there's Microsoft, late in the market, and trailing behind, struggling to keep up, using cash as leverage.

The internet business is changing the way the software industry works. After the core functionality is created in an internet company, significant upgrades no longer seem like a necessary task. Instead, small increments of change are put online, creating a steady stream of upgrades, fixes, features, and tweaks. This way, users notice changes quicker, and don't have to wait several years, and migrate to an alien product.

In the search based ad-market, Google has a 75% share of the market, while Microsoft and Yahoo combined, have only an 18% share.[1] Microsoft's investment into Yahoo could prove a wise investment, but only if the hard task of integrating the new company into their internet infrastructure is done properly -- a daunting task considering the size of Yahoo.

In the end, the revenue gained from advertisers comes down to the question, "Which services provide better payback in terms of money?" Right now, Google's simple ad-words advertising seems to be the best, with their easy and comprehensive data compilations of who viewed and clicked ads. Another important factor is that Google's ad program seems to be more diversified throughout the internet, with more websites choosing Google ad-words over other forms of advertising.

So in the end, is it a wise buy by Microsoft? I'm really not sure, but one thing is clear, if Microsoft plans to one day make a significant revenue from advertising, their current strategy isn't much better.

What is your opinion on Microsoft's bid for Yahoo?

Sources:
[1]Microsoft Bids for Yahoo: Do Two Losers Make a Winner?

An Education Aggregator

For all of you who have jumped in on the open education of large universities, there is a site out there to help you manage all of them. Called Lecturefox, it's what appears to be an education aggregator. Although it seems aimed towards computer science, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, it does have more topics. I think it should have some changes to allow easy searching of more specific topics, but all in all, it has a very simple interface and should cause little confusion. I recommend checking it out, and seeing if there's a topic that interests you.

Link: Lecturefox

Shuttle Announces $199 Linux Box, $99 Barebones Kit

Shuttle has announced that they are making an adventure into people's Linux lives with a $199 dollar Linux box and a $99 barebones kit. Launch dates have not been announced yet. As you can see, these sound like awesome deals, although the specs will make or break them I guess.

Link: Engadget

A .Com Service in 24 Hours

Here is an interesting article about how the website Wigitize.com was built in about 24 hours time. It really goes to show how we are in another garage technology age at the moment.

Link: Building a .Com in 24 Hours

Bill Gate's Retirement Plans (Last Day CES Clip)

FAA Says the Boeing's New 787 May Be Vulnerable to Hackers

The FAA has said that Boeing's new 787 may be vulnerable to hackers. The vulnerability is the result of the computer architecture being utilized in the plane, being that the computer network designed to give passengers internet access is connected to the planes control, navigation, and communication systems. I'm not really sure how Boeing made this mistake. Obviously, the safest method is one that is physically isolated from the planes vital network. I wouldn't even know where to begin to use this breech of security, but I'm positive someone else would. Suddenly, internet access is becoming a nightmare for a plane's security, you would have thought Boeing of all companies would have realized this vulnerability before any FAA inspections. Boeing has taken more than 800 advance orders for the plane. The plane is due out in November, 2008.
Link: Wired
Photo: Flickr

World's First Vertical Farm

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it doesn't sound far fetched. Apparently, the worlds first vertical farm is to be built in Las Vegas, costing 200 million dollars, and being able to feed 72,000 people per year. Annual revenue is estimated to be 40 million dollars. The farm would grow over 100 types of crops. According to the article, if all goes well, the doors could open in 2010.

Vertical farming is thought to be the next big, and logical step, in farming. The world's population is growing rapidly, and farm space is starting to become more scarce. Vertical farms have been dreamed of for a long time now, and recently have become of interest to many, including investors. Building up instead of across could solve many problems, and could be more environmentally friendly, using solar power to power the facilities, and of course, being engineered for efficiency.

Source: Next Energy News
More information on vertical farming: Wikipedia
Picture: Chris Jacob's Vertical Farm

GeForce 9800 GX2 Pics and Specs Leaked

Pictures and Specs have been released by HardOCP today for Nvidia's next video card. They appear to be 2 8800's that have been die shrunk to 65nm and SLI'd. This sounds a lot like ATI's (AMD now remember!) 3870 X2's. So, it looks like were going to have a competitive year in the video card industry, I just hope ATI hasn't given up on the high end market. With such little competition right now, it is thought that Nvidia will hold off its own next gen video cards until ATI comes out with something. The same is rumored to be happening with Intel and AMD, Intel rumored to have pushed back their second generation 45nm code named Nehalem to prolong sales of their current processors. Hopefully this year we'll see some revitalized attempts from AMD at competition so we can see some larger advancements in the consumer computer market.

Link: GeForce 9800 GX2 Exclusive Pics & Specs

Happy New Years

I would just like to wish everyone a happy New Years and hope that the year of 2008 brings more technological and scientific breakthroughs that push the boundaries of our society.