Category Archives: General

Given the media frenzy surrounding the recent shuttle mission and landing yesterday morning at Edwards Air Force Base in California, check out these cool NASA photos of the SCA (shuttle carrier aircraft) – i.e. an empty 747 with additional rear stabilizers to minimize turbulence caused by the brick shuttle on top.

Check out a decent Slate.com explainer on these flights. Some important details:

•Number of 747s NASA owns: 2
•Codenames: NASA 905, NASA 911
•How the shuttle-747 combination comes together: the shuttle mate-demate device, or MDD (sounds kinky)
•Cost of a cross-country trip: $230,000
•Distance the unwieldy contraption can fly without refueling: 1,000 nautical miles
•Number of previous trips: 51, including a trip to the Paris Air Show
•What they do most of the time: sit at Edwards, waiting for wayward shuttles

If you’re reading these words, this should come as no surprise to you.

On the heels of comScore’s recently-released Behaviors of the Blogosphere (PDF), which claims that nearly 50 million Americans spent some time on blogs during the first quarter of 2005, C|NET’s been hypothesizing about ways to study blogs. Interestingly (or perhaps not), comScore’s results coincide partly with Technorati’s, calculated by measuring links, but comScore obtained their data through some 1.5 million internet users who allowed the group to monitor their online behavior. According to Technorati engineer Kevin Marks, quoted by C|NET, the fact that two different methodologies resulting in very similar results is good news: links are mirroring readership, validating each approach. Welcome to the age of the blog.

One aspect of the Internet I’ve always found attractive is the chance for hobbyists to virtually leave their dens and garages and take their tinkering to the world.

For would-be writers, there’re blogs, fanfics and on-line ‘zines just like this one into which I’m typing.

Now a commercial venture, TotallyPhotos.com, offers pros, semi-pros and hobbyist photographers a potential new market for getting their pics seen and used.

As a “place for truly creative royalty-free photography,” the site will likely help the graphic hungry web provide more eye candy and be a resource for (as they say on the site) 100% royalty free, fresh new material from around the world.

(In the interest of full-disclosure, the thumbnail above is from my photo of the Grand Canyon. I truly think it’s a great Internet-based idea.)

On his .Mac homepage, Ian Meyer demonstrates an ingeniously simple way to use your iPod photo (and fourth generation ‘Pods) as a portable direction finder. Simply take screenshots of Google maps and download them to your iPod, and presto! Directions that doesn’t involve carrying a bulky atlas, crude drawings of the route (that’s me) or a long list of directions:

L on Downing
Go .75 miles, take the third left on Anderson
Go straight through the second major intersection after the Dairy Queen, but be sure to stay right…

What an elegant, simple, and new way to use the ever-so-ubiquitous iPod. Good job, Ian!

Props to The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Make: Blog for showing me the light.

Just saw this on BoingBoing:

A 28-year-old South Korean man died of heart failure after finishing a 50-hour first-person-shooter gaming session, according to Reuters. He was in an internet cafe, having apparently just completed his more than two day session (punctuated by breaks to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed). Upon failing to return home one day, his mother had asked the man’s former colleagues (he recently quit his job to devote more time to games) to find him. When they did, he told them he would finish the game and go home.

The cause of death was reported as heart failure.

I’m familiar with Boeing’s Connextion inflight internet connection service, but I hadn’t been following it closely enough to know about some of the details behind the lagging of U.S. airlines in bringing the technology stateside. According to Information Week, 12 overseas carriers offer the service on 70 aircraft, some of which hit 13 U.S. cities on one end of their route. But domestic carriers still aren’t biting. Carriers remain hesitant due to factors including the cost of retrofitting aircraft (purportedly $500,000 each) and an unknown level of interest in the service, and they do make a valid point about two U.S. airlines in bankruptcy, more flirting with it and the disappearance of free meals, pillows and other goodies. Ironically, American, Delta and United were all original investors in Connexion, but pulled out in the wake of 9/11. In June, United became the first U.S. carrier to get FAA approval for wireless networks on their planes – they plan to introduce service in 2006.

In related news, Qualcomm is teaming with Connexion to test and demonstrate the successful use of CDMA and GSM mobile phone technology over onboard networks.

Sadly, this might mean that before too long we’ll all be within earshot of idiots squawking on their cell phones. All I can say is that by that point I hope I have the ability to quietly get some surfing done on my laptop.

So the rumor mill is working once again, according to this Wired News article, published this morning, Via clues gleaned from job postings on the company’s job site, Amazon is apparently looking for engineers to work on an online DVD rental service.

Having entered both the UK and German online DVD rental markets already, it’s likely only a matter of time before Bezos & Co. start battling with Netflix, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster online.

Any guesses on when we’ll see those Amazon-themed mailers?

Ars Technica has an interesting article discussing the potential future of Wikipedia, timely due to the fact that Wikimania has been going since Thursday (it ends tomorrow). According to Yahoo! News, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales says the system needs to find a way to both protect information from abuse and allow open access.

Apparently one way to do this could be through “stable contents,” Wales says – pages that are frozen after their quality is deemed undisputed. Citing an example in which a Wikipedia user substituted a picture of Pope Benedict in April with one of Star Wars’ evil emperor Palpitine, Wales is obviously feeling pressure to increase Wikipedia’s credibility while simultaneously trying to give individual visitors the control that makes the system so powerful.

Having experimented with Wiki myself and even suggested it to prospective employers and friends as a way to facilitate communication between groups of different sizes, it will be interesting to see where this one goes.

According to this CNN article, it will be a good long while before the folks at Google will be talking to any reporters from CNET. Not until July 2006, to be exact. A CNET story, dated July 14, tried to make a point about the importance of privacy concerns by giving an example of the type of personal information easily available online. The sample victim? Google CEO Erick Schmidt. See for yourself. Writer Elinor Mills found Schmidt’s estimated net worth, where he lives (with his wife, Wendy), some of his hobbies and even political donations…all via Google searches.

The article goes on at length to address the larger issue of privacy and the type of personal information readily available via the internet, including through other search engines like Yahoo! and MSN. Citing Google’s motto of “doing no evil,” as well as the company’s reputation as a good corporate citizen, the piece also includes commentary from some individuals with less faith in Google’s ability to simultaneously meet the demands of shareholders, other economic incentives and safeguarding mammoth amounts of personal information.

It’s not news that we’ve grown accustomed to and greatly enjoy the benefits of the digital age. The lesson here? For now, it’s…don’t mess with CEOs.