Google Open-sources Liquid Galaxies

The engineers at Google put together a great traveling road show that they dubbed Liquid Galaxies. It's a series of 8 55" LCDs that are synchronized to display a field of vision type immersible experience with Google Earth. The panels are arranged around the user to encircle them and cover their entire field of vision. A 3D joystick allows the user to navigate from outer space to under the oceans and through cities and countryside alike. Knowing that only a select few would be able to visit Liquid Galaxies at trade shows or in the Google complex, the company has "decided to put the features that make Liquid Galaxy possible into the latest release of Google Earth, and open-source all the supporting work, from our Ubuntu sysadmin scripts to the mechanical design of our custom frames."

It will still require some technical know how, but if you are so inclined (and have 8 55" lcd's kicking around) you too can bring Liquid Galaxies to life! I'm salivating just thinking of it... but then again that's just me. If only I had 7 more tv's...

Gliese 581g - There's Life Out There

An Earth sized planet circling a near by star is said to have the proper conditions for sustaining life, and according to at least one expert it's almost certain that it does. 

Gliese 581g is said to have a surface and has enough gravity to hold an atmosphere. "Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent,"  Prof Steven Vogt said during a press briefing. "I have almost no doubt about it." Vogt led the team of scientist who discovered the planet.

Gliese 581g is located 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra and is said to have an estimated average surface temperature of between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius). So, it's no vacation hot spot.

All of a sudden I'm not so skeptical about the UN's Alien Ambassador appointment :) 

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

On The Lighter Side - Total Distraction Video

I find this video simply mesmerizing and thought I'd share it out of pure enjoyment. Created by Mike Winkelmann, aka beeple, Instrument Video Nine is one of the finalists in the upcoming Vimeo Festival and Awards event. Scan it for total sweetness :)

Company Alleges CIA Knowingly Bought Flawed Software For Use In Drones

Two Massachusetts companies are at the center of a debate over whether or not the CIA willingly purchased flawed software to run in tandum with illegally re-engineered hardware for use in predator drones. The combination is said to impact the accuracy of missiles fired from the drones, by up to 39 feet. 

A lawsuit has been filed by Massachusetts-based Intelligent Integration Systems (IISI) and involves Netezza, a data warehousing company who's software is said to be incompatible with current versions of IISI's code. According to the allegations Netezza  "illegally and hastily reverse-engineered" IISI's code and the CIA knowingly purchased the offering.

"My reaction was one of stun, amazement that they want to kill people with my software that doesn't work," IISI Chief Technology Officer Richard Zimmerman is quoted as saying in a deposition.

In it's defense Netezza CEO Jim Baum is quoted as writing "We believe that the claims made against Netezza by IISI are without merit, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against those claims in court," a statement said. "We did not rely on IISI's trade secrets or confidential information in developing our own geospatial product."

The CIA obviously considers 39 feet an acceptable margin of error when it comes to lobbing explosives at important targets, that's about the distance between my house and my neighbours. Yikes!

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20017809-245.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20#ixzz10ojhSPwj

Personal Computers Of Iranian Nuclear Plant Employees Infected By Stuxnet Worm

"An electronic war has been launched against Iran", Mahmoud Liayi, head of the information technology council at the ministry of industries, told the state-run Iran Daily newspaper. This, in response to reports that a sophisticated computer worm had infected the personal computers of staff at the country's first nuclear power station, the Bushehr plant, due to come on line in the coming weeks. Officials claim that the operating system at the plant has been unaffected by the Stuxnet worm, so sophisticated that it is believed to be the work of "a nation state".

Stuxnet targets systems made by the German company Siemens, these systems are typically used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other utilities. The Iranians claim that computers operating on some 30,000 IP addresses within the country have been infected.

Western nations fears Iran's goal is to build nuclear weapons while Iranian officials says its programme is aimed solely at peaceful energy use.

Source: BBC

Da Vinci Inspired Flying Machine Sets Flight Record

University of Toronto  PhD candidate, Todd Reichert built a human powered flying machine inspired by sketches made by Leonardo da Vinci in 1485. Reichert then flew the machine on August 2nd at Tottenham, Ontario with an official from from the world-governing body for air sports and aeronautical world in attendance. The governing body is anticipated to confirm Reichert's world record some time in October. The machine, with a wing span of 32 metres, about the same length as that of a Boeing 737 sustained altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds. Check out the video, it truly is the most graceful flying machine that I've ever laid eyes on! Well done Todd! Kudos to Leonardo as well.

HPO Flight from U of T Engineering on Vimeo.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/22/human-powered-plane-toronto.html?ref=rss#ixzz10LPGnjNC

Welcome Back Banner Ads

Google wants the world to know that it's not only about search ads anymore. The company is in the midst of a campaign called "Watch This Space" to let advertisers and investors know that it is also in the display ad business, erecting an interactive digital billboard in the center of Manhattan to get the message out. Display ads take many forms online including ads of different sizes that combine images, text, audio, video and animation. (Google also includes text ads that appear on Web sites other than search results pages as display ads.)

With it's share value down a reported 17% this year, the company is trying to convince investors that the ever more competitive search ad market is not it's only revenue generator. “One of the ways we could express our confidence in the space is to run what is primarily a display advertising campaign around our investment in the business and what our potential is,” said Neal Mohan, the vice president of product management responsible for Google’s display advertising products.

Source: NY Times

Google To Institute Two-Factor Authentication

According to this article in TechCrunch, Google is planning on rolling out an optional two-factor authentication to it's Google Apps Premiere, Education, and Government edition customers and then to the rest of us in the coming months. Two-factor authentication requires not only a password but also a six digit verification code that you've created when turning the extended security feature on. Many large business already employ such measures, usually relying on hardware dongles to generate and display random temporary codes, Google's system won't require the additional hardware and will be particularly handy if you access the companies services (gmail, docs, etc.) from your mobile device.

TechCrunch also says "Google has built a ‘Google Authenticator’ application for Android, the iPhone, and Blackberry — fire up the application, and it will give you the six digit verification code that you enter back into your browser (the system can also send you a SMS message or give you the code via voice call)."

Makes sense that we would want such authentication now that we are moving more and more into the cloud, and accessing our account via multiple devices via hot spots and various other networks. I think I like it!

Arrrr... It Be Talk Like A Pirate Day

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! It's a little anti climactic this year as she falls on a Sunday and most of me time be spent at home were the family has little appreciation for the sea fairing kind. When I visited the official site I was a little disheartened to find that we in Canada just don't seem to embrace the event like our neighbors to the South. My count is 11 parties taking place and none in my current port of call, we'll have to do something about that next year! 

View International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2010 in a map

Cutting The Wire On Photo Uploads

After first writing about it in December of 2007, I finally got a hold of an Eye-Fi card, and now I'm not sure why I hadn't worked harder to get one of these little gems sooner. In my defense they are not readily available in Canada and I really dislike paying the duty that comes with purchasing such things online from outside of the country. I have however very recently obtained an Eye-Fi Connect X2, 4GB+Wi-Fi and there is no turning back... awesome is all I can say. It's very easy to use and the endless memory mode means you never have to worry about running out of memory on your card as it intelligently makes space once your content is safely delivered. The card can be configured to recognize up to 32 Wi-Fi networks and upload content  to 25 different photo and video sharing sites.

Not all went smoothly with the installation on my Windows 7 machine, and I understand that my friend and coworker encountered a similar issue on his Mac. The documentation that comes in the package is sparse, to say the least, but luckily the support forum was easy to navigate and assisted in getting me over the hurdles. It seems as though we both had issues with the "helper" application that analyzes your network and firewall settings. Once resolved the Eye-Fi has performed flawlessly and is my new favorite gadget.