tech R I V E T

Telescopes that can see Earth sized extra-solar planets coming next decade.

2008-05-12T09:32:45.0000000-07:00

SEE not infer.

The technology does not use glass lenses nor reflective mirrors but an advanced form of a pinhole camera, the "pinhole" technique is called Fresnel zone plates.

New Scientist article.

The technical hurdles would be tricky but nothing unbelievable.

Essentially we would need to launch two spacecraft.: one is the "lens" and one is the "receptor". The focal point using the Fresnel method is kilometers away from the lense, ergo the two spacecraft solution.

Go read the whole article, just fascinating.

Feeds right into this post: Planet Hunting, The Next Generation - The Lyot Project

Very cool: reverse Zip Code dynamic map

2008-05-09T18:35:54.0000000-07:00

Just type in a zip code number by number and watch it drive down to the specific location on the map. [linky]

Example: 90210

The Gegenschein

2008-05-09T16:41:35.0000000-07:00

That's German for "counter glow".

On the darkest nights, 180 degrees around from the sun there is a reflection of light from the sun called the Gegenschein. This is a reflection of light off of dust particles in the asteroid belt.

Check it out.

Stars like salt and pepper - The Pipe Nebula

2008-05-08T18:15:03.0000000-07:00

The black part in the middle of the picture is the Pipe Nebula. It is not a dark window into the background, but a foreground BLACK cloud of dust.

Info here: panther observatory

Superman goes to college.

2008-05-08T09:34:42.0723906-07:00

heh.

eh...not sure if this is off-topic or not. I guess I'll categorize it that way. Really funny.

Electron Microscope picture of the day.

2008-05-07T17:59:18.0000000-07:00

Homemade Multi-touch.

2008-05-06T10:47:05.2854766-07:00

Tour of the ISS

2008-05-02T17:34:46.0000000-07:00

Clay Shirky - Cognitive Surplus: This is a remarkable video. Watch the whole thing.

2008-05-02T10:35:46.7709560-07:00

At first you may think Clay Shirky is stretching the analogy between the industrial revolution and the interactive computer experience of the 21st century, commonly called Web 2.0. But as he continues and fleshes out his argument in the second half of the video, and especially the example of the 4 year old, I flipped my interpretation and thought the industrial revolution example may still be the wrong analogy, but because it is not STRONG enough.

if the video doesn't show, right click and click on play in the context menu.

A couple of key quotes:

On comparing WOW and Gilligan's Island:
"However lousy it is to sit in your basement and pretend to be an elf, I can tell you from personal experience it's worse to sit in your basement and try to figure out if Ginger or Mary Ann is cuter."

Television is the "heat-sink" of cognitive surplus:
"And this is the other thing about the size of the cognitive surplus we're talking about. It's so large that even a small change could have huge ramifications. Let's say that everything stays 99 percent the same, that people watch 99 percent as much television as they used to, but 1 percent of that is carved out for producing and for sharing. The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year. That's about five times the size of the annual U.S. consumption. One per cent of that is 100 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation."

Another quote:
"I was arguing that this isn't the sort of thing society grows out of. It's the sort of thing that society grows into."

You can read the whole text at his website: Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

ht: Clay Shirky on the cognitive surplus

Daily Shuttle fix!

2008-05-01T10:29:20.5536066-07:00

Phun: the 2d physics sandbox! - verdict? AWESOME.

2008-04-30T10:25:26.7853562-07:00

So I have kids and I am constantly looking for fun, educational, entertaining, games for them to play. I like discovering open source free applications that satisfy this most of all.

Some examples of great programs: tux paint and tux typing.

Phun is different. Where those two programs excel in teaching kids, Phun is just fun.

It's interactive in a way that not many programs are. It actually has the playability that feels much like an RTS. It does what you make it do now. You add something and the environment acts upon it.

Watch this video.

And it's a toy...except it isn't:

Radial engine:

Gears:

It's a remarkable achievement.

One big benefit I see in Phun over the other kid applications I've found is that Phun uses an almost standard application user interface. The user needs to navigate menus and toolbars and context menus. The other kid apps focus on learning something or doing something. Phun does that also, but because of its complexity the standard UI is leveraged as the simplest solution.

This is a great side benefit. Kids get exposure to the standard UI and how applications work. This has direct impact on any and all other applications they might encounter.

If you have kids go get this program now. Install it, run it and watch your kids be sucked in for hours. Heck go do it yourself. It's really addicting.

Kindle v2.0 concepts

2008-04-28T14:15:10.5391742-07:00

Some of these might make me a convert.

http://www.blogkindle.com/archives/2008/02/kindle-v20/

I think I like this one the best. Looks the right size, rotates view, can be opened, some interesting UI elements. When can I get one?