Let’s Play

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UPDATE:  SOLVED! at 1:29 CDT by Rob

Okay, I have to admit you guys are pretty quick on the uptake.  I’ve only really flustered you once, and that was with the Garnet Star.  Most of the riddles I put up get solved fairly quickly, but I wonder how you would do if I was a little tougher on you?

Still within the rules… something you know about… something with which you are familiar… do you think I can fluster you?

There’s a fine line between fun and impossible.  I can make it so obscure that nobody would guess, but that’s no fun.  I made this one a bit tougher, but if you think about it, you’ll see it.

Kepler Drawing of SN1604

This is a single object.

Although it is relatively close to us, it is not visible to the unaided eye.

This object is ancient.  (ancient by cosmic standards)

Usually very nice, it occasionally shows its temper.

It has been an object of controversy in modern times.

NASA/ESA, G.Bacon Drawing of CHRX733 and CHRX733b

If you have a telescope, you can see this just North of the equator… if you point it straight up.

This object is very well represented in modern science fiction.

Although old, this object is far from over.

It is traveling toward us.

There are several things this could be, but with all the clues together, it points to only one thing.  Do you know what it is?  I’m in the comments, good luck.

By the way… the images are “clickable” for an amazing enlargement, especially of CHRX733.  Thanks, Wayne!

Give space a chance | Bad Astronomy

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For criminy’s sake. What is it with people and all the rending of garments over the impending doom of NASA?

First:

1) The reports of Spirit’s death are greatly exaggerated.

spiritOK, yes, Spirit is now stuck. It looks like even if it survives the Martian winter it may no longer be able to traverse the Red Planet’s landscape. But that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Instead of a rover, it’s now a stationary platform capable of doing a lot of science on the cheap (since most of the cost was getting it there).

If you’d rather not have a lander sitting on the surface of Mars doing science that we simply cannot do from millions of kilometers away on Earth, then fine. But astronomers and scientists and science journalists should know better. Stop saying it’s dead.

[And I can picture Opportunity on the other side of Mars, waving its mast frantically, saying, Hey, remember me? Still moving, still doing cool stuff!]

Next, and more importantly:

2) The reports of the manned spaceflight’s death are greatly exaggerated.

OK, yes, it does look like (assuming the rumors are true) the Obama budget for NASA is cutting out the Constellation rocket program in general and Ares in particular. But that doesn’t mean manned spaceflight is dead.

SpaceX launch of the Falcon 1 with RazakSATAs I said in that above link, private space companies are still a ways off from putting people in orbit. However, I strongly suspect they’ll be doing it before Ares would’ve been ready to do it anyway. Private companies like Space X may be two years from that, while Ares wouldn’t have been ready for five, assuming NASA could even get Ares ready by the scheduled time and in the assigned budget (which I would give a chance of, oh, say, precisely 0). So it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that after the Shuttle retires later this year (or early next) companies like Space X will be able to reach the International Space Station with rockets before NASA could.

As far as going back to the Moon, we still don’t know exactly what the budget for NASA will be like, but it was made clear in the leaked reports (again, assuming they are true) that money will be spent to look for a better heavy lift vehicle than Ares. No specifics were given (though the Commercial Spaceflight Federation says it may be 6 billion bucks, a huge chunk of change), so let’s wait until we actually see the report, hmmm?

Also, a lot of folks thought Ares was a waste of time, money, and with little or no chance of working well. Heck, the Space Frontier Foundation praises the killing of Ares! So not only is it unfair to lament the death of manned spaceflight, some people think — with some evidence, mind you — this will spur it on even more.

Buzz Aldrin's footprint on the Moon, from Apollo 11That last sentiment rings true to me. NASA’s manned program has been endlessly circling the Earth for almost 40 years now, with no real end in sight. I don’t have a lot of faith, so to speak, that Ares can do the job in breaking this cycle. I suspect a lot of the same folks who are decrying this move by Obama are the same ones who would be first in line to say that NASA has had its wings cut for decades now, making one bad decision after another when it comes to space exploration. Maybe it’s time — maybe it’s long after time — that we let someone else have a stab at this.

When I look at the Moon, I see a place where people will one day work, live, breathe, play, and explore. I also see that future receding two years for every year NASA doesn’t have a rocket to go there, and I’ve been watching that movie play for many years now.

I’m tired of it. When I look out my window now I see a future I’ve been dreaming of my whole life, a future that seems just out of my reach. When my children, my grandchildren, look out their windows in that future, y’know what I want them to see?

The blue-green crescent Earth hanging in a pitch black sky over a cratered horizon.

Let’s give space a chance.


A marvelous night for a Moon (and Mars) dance | Bad Astronomy

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Were you out last night to see the Moon and Mars together? It was a lovely get-together! I took some pictures, and here’s the best one:

Mars is the reddish "star" to the left of the Moon. A couple of actual stars are visible as well, and the pink blob on the left is a reflection of the Moon inside the camera.

Funny, you can barely see Mars in the picture, but it was really obvious by eye. That’s because cameras see things linearly — an object twice as luminous as another will appear twice as bright in a picture — while our eyes see things logarithmically — a mathematical function that lets our eyes see a much larger range of brightness based on multiplication, not addition. It’s actually a bit more complicated than this, but the point is while to the camera the Moon was vastly brighter than Mars (about 30,000x as bright!), to my eye the difference wasn’t nearly as much (only about 10x as bright). This allows our eye to detect faint and bright objects at the same time, which a camera can’t do easily.

You may have read that the Moon looked so bright last night because it was at perigee, the point in its orbit when it’s closest to Earth. Honestly, that makes no difference to the casual observer. While it really was a bit bigger and brighter, the difference over a normal full Moon is pretty small, and you don’t have anything to compare it with. If you could have superimposed a normal full Moon next to the Moon last night you might have seen a difference, but with just the one Moon sitting there you’d never notice.

This reminds me of the time in 1999 when people said the perigee full Moon would be so bright you could drive at night without headlights! Yeah. Bad idea.

But I do hope that some of the hype got people outside and noticing the sky. It’s amazing what you can see, what lovely things await you, if you simply look up.


NASA Images iPhone App

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"Check out the free NASA Images iPhone App, a window to the content available on nasaimages.org.  With the app you can access the entire NASA Images library from your iPhone along with the metadata for each image, video, and animation."

Get the App

Archipod Is Pine Cone On the Outside, Apple Store On the Inside [HomeOffice]

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If you want your backyard home office orb to be minimalist and clean on the inside but woodsy and natural on the outside, the Archipod is the pod for you.

There's nothing wrong with wanting your sanctuary to take the form of a futuristic pod. But you have to be willing to find one that doesn't disrupt your backyard's harmony with nature. The Archipod, like a coconut, is brown and rugged on the outside but white and smooth when you open it up and look inside.

Created in the UK, the Archipod was conceived out of "frustration at the commuting lifestyle, with its attendant road congestion, air and noise pollution, road rage, running costs and time loss."

Indeed, if you're looking for a home office that will make you feel like you're several light-years away from modern society and its discontents, head over to Archipod's website and prepare to open the pod bay doors. [Archipod via Make]


Wi-Fi Detecting Bumper Sticker Helps Out the Wardriver Behind You [WiFi]

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Here's a neat Instructable for significantly increasing the geek factor in your car's rear windshield, showing how to modify a Wi-Fi-detecting t-shirt into a Wi-Fi-detecting window decal. At some point in some traffic jam, you'll make a fellow nerd's day.

Starting with a novelty t-shirt that displays the strength of Wi-Fi signals in the area, an Instructable user lived up to his matching user name and license plate of "MacGeek" by hacking together this Wi-Fi detecting window decal.

While it may not be entirely useful for finding access points, except maybe to a laptop-wielding driver behind you in a serious bumper to bumper, it will definitely be useful for announcing your geek pride to your fellow drivers. [Instructables]


Firefox Mobile 1.0 Burrows Onto Nokia N900s [Firefoxmobile]

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Firefox Mobile crawled into its first pockets last night, going live on Maemo5. The mobile version retains the full awesomeness of the Awesome Bar and includes WeaveSync for keeping tabs, passwords, and bookmarks straight across desktop and mobile versions.

The Nokia N900 sports a lot of impressive unofficial achievements on its resume, like dual-booting (sort of) and playing Starcraft and Duke Nukem 3D. Now it gets the benefit of Firefox's first o-fficial mobile version.

As mentioned above it comes with the Awesome Bar and synchronization capabilities as well as tabs, location-aware browsing and some add-ons. Flash support is experimental but can be turned on in the settings.

Firefox Mobile 1.0 is currently available for download. You can find out more at Mozilla's Firefox Mobile page. [Mozilla via ZDNet]


Gigantic Music Box Is Finally Finished With Nowhere To Go [Instruments]

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Henry Dagg spent four years building this gigantic pin barrel harp, commissioned for a London garden. It's finally finished but is too fragile for the outdoors. Listen to it play "A Long and Winding Road" and reflect on its fate.

Dagg, a former sound engineer for the BBC and self-styled sound sculptor, received a £56,000 grant in 2006 to build the solar powered instrument for the garden of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in London. After four years of "blood, sweat and tears," the instrument is complete, but Dagg is now seeking a permanent indoor home for the creation, which he calls the Sharpsichord.

The instrument is a steel monstrosity, with two huge gramophones and over 11,000 holes on a rotating cylinder for pegs that pluck the instrument's tuned strings. Songs are programmed peg by peg, note by note, this rendition of the Beatles' "Long and Winding Road" taking Dagg over a day to put together. In the video Dagg cranks the Sharpsichord to turn the cylinder but a solar powered motor is intended to power the finished device.

As you hear Dagg's collaborator Chris Wood sing the the melancholy lines "many times I've been alone, and many times I've cried," its hard not to think that they're describing the hulking, homeless instrument itself. I just hope there's a place for the Sharpsichord at the end of its long and winding road. [Telegraph via Neatorama]


How Regular Movies Are Converted To 3D [3D]

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Now that Avatar is officially the highest grossing movie of all time, it's inevitable that studios will continue to push 3D as the new frontier of cinema. But actually filming in 3D is prohibitively expensive. Here's how they fake it.

Not many directors share James Cameron's obsession with three dimensional authenticity, and not many films have the budgets to support the directors who do. Filming in 3D requires the use of two cameras, barely offset, capturing all the action in tandem. The technology involved, and the people who know how to use it, come with a high price tag (to the tune of seven figures). So most of the 3D movies that will be coming out of Hollywood in coming months, including the two new Harry Potter films as well as Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, create the effect in post-production.

Here's the gist of it: graphic artists separate shots out into layers of depth, which can number anywhere from two layers for shots with simple shots to eight for shots with more complex compositions. Then, the objects in each layer are carefully traced, creating a topographical map of the scene. Here, the computer steps in, simulating the second camera's perspective by generating another, slightly offset image. The images in the layers closest to the viewer are offset the most, creating the illusion of things popping off the screen, while the background is only offset slightly.

The more complicated the shot, the more work must be done by hand. With Tim Burton's detailed worlds, you can bet that a whole team of artists were doing a whole lot of tracing. To read about the process in more detail, head over to Slate. [Slate's Explainer]


The Slate Walloped the State in Social Media [Infographics]

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Two events dominated discussion last week: the unveiling of Apple's iPad and President Obama's State of the Union address. Leading up to last Wednesday, many wondered if Apple's event would overshadow Obama's. On social media, that was certainly the case.

Monitoring Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs and the rest, social media analysts at Viralheat found over half a million mentions of the two happenings. Those mentions were overwhelmingly related to Apple's new tablet computer.

As the infographic explains, however, even if Apple had the buzz, Obama brought the honey. Generally, 42% of Apple's mentions were positive and 46% were indifferent, whereas 65% of his mentions approved of Obama's address and only 19% were indifferent.

On one hand it's surprising that the iPad generated so much more discussion than the State of the Union address, but in a sense it wasn't a fair fight. Whereas Obama's address is a routine, annual affair, the hype leading up to Apple's event suggested it was going to be one of a kind. Perhaps that's why the internet reacted so overwhelmingly with ":|" when the familiar-looking device was unveiled. [Mashable]


The Apple-Amazon Ebook War Begins: Amazon Deletes Macmillan Books [Apple]

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Books published by Macmillan mysteriously poofed from Amazon yesterday. The reason, according to the NYT, is that Amazon is punishing the publisher for arguing that the price of Kindle books should go up to $15. This won't end well.

It feels like a repeat of the same shit Universal Music, and later, NBC Universal pulled with iTunes, trying to counter the leverage Apple had because of iTunes' insane marketshare. Same situation here, really: Content provider wants more money/control over their content, fights with the overwhelmingly dominant, embedded service that's selling the content. Last time, everybody compromised and walked away most happy: Universal and NBC got more flexible pricing, iTunes got DRM-free music and more TV shows for its catalog to sell.

The problem publishers have with Amazon is two-fold: Amazon's overwhelming marketshare in ebooks (because that leads to more control for Amazon, and less for them) and the establishment of $9.99 as the price of a book, which publishers feel cheapens the value of books. (Hardcover bestsellers go for up to $30, after all.)

The difference in this fight is that Macmillan is one of the publishers signed to deliver books for Apple's iBooks store. They have somewhere to run. And credibly. That wasn't really the case with record labels, who tried to fuel alternatives to dilute iTunes power, and failed. (Interestingly, this little episode seems to prove Brad Stone's earlier account in the Times that publishers were looking to Apple to save them from the tyranny of Amazon, since Apple allows publishers to set their own book prices.)

The $15 pricepoint Macmillan's pushing to Amazon is a little curious, though, given two things: Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg books in the iBooks store would cost the same as they do for Kindle, and the WSJ reported last week $15 was one of Apple's recommended pricepoints for books. Removing Kindle's price advantage would be a smooth way to launch iBooks, no? The publishers get more money, and iBooks in full, eye-straining color cost the same as Kindle books—everybody wins, except Amazon. (Update: It's known Amazon loses money offering some bestsellers at $9.99, so I wonder if selling at $15 would change that equation. Still, if its books cost the same as iBooks, and publishers start bailing, that's bad for them in a way making a few extra bucks per book doesn't make up for.)

This is just the beginning. [Bits]


Hand-Mounted Mouse or Goa’uld Weapon? [Mice]

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Maybe I've been watching too many Stargate reruns or maybe the AirMouse hand-mounted input device was really inspired by Goa'uld technology. Either way, I'm skeptical about its ability to prevent repetitive stress injuries.

The wireless device is made of a "lightweight durable fabric that seamlessly aligns itself with the ligaments of your hand and wrist" and will supposedly go for a full week without charging. If you want one though—be it for computing or for some evil deeds—you'll have to wait six to twelve months and spend about $130. [AirMouse via Gizmag via Make]


These Koosh Ball Bullets Make Getting Shot Look Friendly [Weapons]

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Look at these bullets. They're rubbery, less lethal,"almost incapable of penetrating the body," and happen to resemble Koosh balls—a popular toy. Getting shot with these must be fun.

I'm kidding. I don't really think getting shot by anything would be fun, but it's really difficult to believe that "[t]his may be the most intelligent way to defend your family against home intruders." Especially when the "WARNING: Keep out of reach of children" is distracting me.

Either way, rubber projectiles like these have been used by law enforcement agencies for ages, but now they're available to consumers. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. [Wired]


Best Buy’s "Optimization" Update: Technically Optional, Still Dickish [Customer Service]

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An email sent to Consumerist by a Best Buy employee lays out the changes Best Buy has made in pushing their optimization service. Basically, you can't be forced to pay for optimization—but the salesman won't tell you that.

What starts out promising soon turns shitty. Before, Best Buy would often advertise computers at a certain price, but only offer them "optimized," which adds $40 for a totally unnecessary process that nobody wants. Now, Best Buy changed their policy, saying that forcing someone to pay for optimization is now an offense warranting termination. Great!

But wait, don't get too excited—the idea is that the salesman will argue, forcefully pushing optimization on you even if you say you don't want it, because Best Buy judges the performance of its sales staff by how many of these ridiculous unnecessary add-ons they sell. So the salesman is going to do everything he can to get you to buy that optimization software. You have to know enough to keep arguing until the salesman gives up, at which point they'll erase the $40 charge and uninstall the software. Of course, that means your brand-new laptop isn't exactly brand-new anymore, since Best Buy has dicked around with the settings and software before you get your hands on it. The letter:

I work for Best Buy and thought you might want to know the Best Buy internal response to the recent article criticizing optimization. The items stated here were discussed on the employee Best Buy news.

To start of with, the policy [of] how many computers should undergo optimization was restated: 40% is the guideline. This should be altered as per demand. So stores offering customers only optimized models are not being properly managed. The article continued to say if demand for optimization is only 15%, then only 15% should be optimized. This is not in the store's interest, I should note. Best Buy does not make a significant profit on computer sales (less than $50 per unit, typically), instead relying on 'services' such as the optimization for a major source of profits. The more optimized computers sold, the more profits.

The article stated plainly, in large, bold letters, that a customer cannot be forced to pay for optimization if they do not want it and that is all that is available. Anyone who forces a customer to pay for it is subject to, and I quote, termination. I should say they did not state to make it easy to get out of paying for optimization, the article encourages salespersons to explain why it is worth the money before not charging it. Management can waive the fee if the customer declines. Optimization software, if any was installed, should then be removed before giving the computer to the customer. Anyone forced to pay should contact the store's management or someone higher up the ladder.

Best Buy considers optimization an important service, and believes it has great value to many customers. I, personally, believe most people can take care of such things on their own with minimal time and would never pay for it. Judging by comments posted below the article, many other employees believe so too, but just as many fervently believe that optimization is the best thing to ever happen since the wheel.

I feel I should stress that it is not a salespersons fault to push optimization and other services strongly on customers. Hours (and this pay, we are not commission) are often determined by the amount of sales made. Someone who isn't selling any optimization will see reduced hours as compared to someone who is. Especially given this economy, many just need a job and this is all they could find, myself included. So just be polite and remember you're giving people a job.

Optimization does just consist of booting up the computer and and putting in a disc that does some random stuff. Some GeekSquad agents may do more manually, some may not. I personally would suggest downloading free software to cleans up registry errors, broken and unused shortcuts, and defrags.

As one final note, the article initially refused to link to the Consumerists for fear of giving more hits. It was later added after complaints in the comments section stated they couldn't respond to customers citing the Consumerist without having read the article.

Way to keep on fighting the lousy fight, Best Buy. [Consumerist]


iPhone OS 3.2 Supports Video Calls, File Downloads, and Pseudo-Multitasking? [Apple]

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Based on an SDK which doesn't differentiate between the iPhone and iPad, folks at Engadget say they've confirmed that the iPhone OS 3.2 has "rudimentary" support for video calling and file downloading. Too soon for any excitement at all?

File downloading and local storage in the browser could be great. Just imagine finally being able to grab a song off the Internet and actually save it on your iPhone. The daydreamer in me wants to believe that files downloaded in such a manner would be accessible by all applications. I'd download a cheesy tune from an artist's website, attach it to an email to my lover, upload it for posting on Twitter, and force my musical preferences onto the whole world without ever needing to set down my iPhone.

The suggestion of multitasking comes from the fact that there appears to be a function to run video calls in "either full screen mode or in just a portion of the screen." Engadget is interpreting this as meaning that you'll be able to "chat and do other things at the same time." We suspect that it's more likely that this function is related to the manner in which a new call comes in. Just as a contact's picture can pop up with a call, a video chat could begin in partial-screen mode. Debate about the actual potential features aside, what's the point of video chat capabilities in devices without front-facing cameras anyway?

With all this way-too-early excitement, an important thing to keep in mind is that the SDK this information is being pulled from is the same for the iPhone as it is for the iPad. It's tough to tell which features would apply to which device. That and the fact we're talking about an SDK and potential options. There's no guarantee that we'll see any of this in the iPhone OS 4.0. Or ever. [Engadget]


Careful, Old People in Japan May Pee on Your iPad [Wrongmodo]

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As if there weren't enough iPad jokes already, it turns out that there's a Japanese product—a high-tech adult diaper—called the Aipad. You can guess the pronunciation by the fact that I'm even writing about this.

The Aipad has apparently been around for a while and has "2 lines of aluminium [which] can be connected by clip with a small sensor unit. When the diaper soaked, the sensor notifies it via radio waves." Basically it lets people or their caretakers know when it's time for a diaper change.

Oh, and according to Jason, "ai" means "love" in Japanese. I don't know if that's supposed to be some sort of comfort or not. [Aipad—Warning: PDF via Asiajin]


Adobe Busts Out Porn in iPad Flash Crusade [Flash]

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Adobe is not going to take Flash's exclusion from the iPad lying down. Their latest salvo: enlisting their friends at Bang Brothers to show just how badly you're going to miss Flash video on Apple's new device.

Lee Brimelow over at TheFlashBlog provides ten examples of pages that will be incapacitated on the iPad due to the lack of Flash, ranging from Disney to Google Finance to... well, to hard core pornography. In fact, it's near the top of the list, at the intersection of Hulu and CNN.

Low blow? Possibly. But the iPad is at heart a content delivery device, and last I heard pornography was pretty popular on these here internets. Then again, given the lack of built-in kickstand, trying to watch porn on the iPad might give a whole new meaning to tablet sutra. [The Flash Blog via Wired]