Messenger Sends Back First Image of Mercury

NASA scientists have received their first images of the planet Mercury captured from the orbiting Messenger probe. Messenger is equipped with two cameras and other sensing equipment which is hoped to shed light on the planets make up and history. The first photo, number 1 of 7500 expected to be sent back to Earth over the coming year, makes Mercury appear as though it is our own moon; baron and pocked by many collisions.

The mission website provides a great deal of information regarding the mission, the scientific portion of which will begin on April 4th.

The Challenges Of Being Social In A Time Of Unrest

What is a website to do when it's become a platform for public outcry and organized opposition? When you are a social site that is being used by both government supporters and reform activists alike you have some tough decisions to make.

Flickr, it seems, has found itself at the center of an ethical quandary. The photo sharing giant owned by Yahoo has taken down photographs uploaded by an Egyptian blogger and human rights activist because the photos violated their terms of service. It seems that  Hossam el-Hamalawy posted the head shots of Egyptian State Police officers to Flickr in the hopes of making his countrymen aware of their identities and keeping them out of the new post revolution government. The problem is that el-Hamalawy did not take the photos himself but rather gained them through a raid on a State Police headquarters by revolutionaries.  Flickr removed the photos saying that el-Hamalawy did not take them himself and was therefore not the rightful owner, this is a violation of their terms.

While I sympathize with the plight of the Egyptian people and understand fully what Mr el-Hamalawy was attempting to do in identifying figures known to be associated with a corrupt regime, I don't think it is Flickr's place to act as middle man in a political debate. They did the only thing that they could do, stick to their terms of service. Perhaps Wikileaks would have been a more appropriate platform for Mr. el-Hamalawy's cause.

Thoughts?

Source: NYTimes.com

Listen To Biz Stone Explain How Twitter Was Named

Having an entrepreneurial side, I always love hearing how others founded their projects or the thinking behind their brands. While checking out a new service that I've discovered called Audioboo I came across this recording of Biz Stone talking about the naming of Twitter. Enjoy! 

More on audioboo later...

Don't Forget The Milk!

Here is a very cool web app that has a lot of potential in it's simplicity. Think about your "honey do" list or just simple notes that you no longer have to email to yourself from the office... I expect we'll see more features; perhaps secure logins?

Sock Puppet Theatre

The guardian.co.uk is reporting that the US military has contracted a Californian corporation to create software which would allow military personnel to create and maintain multiple online persona, up to 10 identities each, based all over the globe. In other words a single person would maintain, monitor, and distribute comments to and from 10 online personalities, sock puppets, in order to spread propaganda misinformation.

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US." Claiming that none of the interventions would be conducted in English as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" in such fashion. Interventions would be conducted in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

While it is very noble of them to strike English from their vocabulary, if you've followed any of the coverage coming out of the recent unrest abroad, you'll have undoubtedly noted that many if not all of the media outlets are heavily relying on Twitter and Facebook accounts of the situations on the ground to report the "news". What's to say that the news being reported to us is not coming from Centcom?

Interesting, scary, and not surprising all at the same time.  

Hacking Your Own Jumbotron

I'm thinking that I found myself a diy project! Junkyard Jumbotron is the brainchild of Rick Borovoy, Ph.D. and Brian Knep at MIT's Center for Future Civic Media. I do believe that I have all of the required parts and I'll post my own video if it all comes together. Check out the video below, all you need to know is there.

Junkyard Jumbotron from chris csik on Vimeo.

Warner Brothers Testing Movie Rental Market Via Facebook and App Store

Warner Brothers said on Tuesday that it would be making Heath Ledger's final film appearance, "The Dark Knight", available for rental via Facebook using Facebook Credits as the payment mechanism.

“This is definitely a test,” said Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Brothers Digital Distribution, in a telephone interview. 


Warner is also testing “App Editions” for “The Dark Knight” and “Inception.” Rather than gaining access through iTunes, consumers download a free app, which then allows them to buy the movies for unlimited streaming.  “This platform allows us to experiment with an early version of what you might call a ‘connected movie’ — the ability for us to offer new extras over time as updates,” Mr. Gewecke said. “We think that is a great way to add more value to the digital ownership experience,” he added.


Of note is the fact that 23 countries do not have access to the iTunes video store, so the App Editions provides Warner with a mechanism to sell it's films in those markets which include China and Russia.


Source: NYTimes

Gmail Bug A Good Lesson In Preparedness

Expect the unexpected... even if you are Google. Sometimes as software developers, regardless of how much you've done to mitigate risk, code goes out the door that has unexpected results. 

Over the weekend Google's Gmail team "...released a storage software update that introduced the unexpected bug, which caused 0.02% of Gmail users to temporarily lose access to their email." The trouble is that even with all of the redundancy built into their data centers, the bug deleted all online copies of the affected users data, which meant that the team was forced to restore from backup tapes. This is a time consuming process, especially when dealing with 0.02% of mail held by Gmail.

While those of us who have had to deal with these hair pulling ordeals can understand and sympathize with the development team, most users will not. Rest assured that the backup and recovery strategy has accomplished what it was intended to do. If anything, this is a valuable lesson in backing up data. What's your strategy? If your laptop took a tumble would you be able to recover?  

Canadian Cabinet Ministers Can Expense iPads

Even though Canadian Members of Parliament have taken a stance against the purchase of iPads, Treasury Board President Stockwell Day has allowed cabinet ministers and senior public servants to expense the cost of the devices. 

Day, an avid user of the iPad, says that a pilot project in his department has proven their cost effectiveness. “I just think they’re wrong on this one,” Mr. Day said in an interview. “MPs will account for the equipment that they buy.… They need to look at it again from the point of view of efficiency and cost saving.”

According to the Globe and Mail, Mr. Day's pilot project came at a cost of $20,530.69. 

NDP MP Pat Martin is quoted as: “Why are we forced to use a horse and buggy when everybody else has got state-of-the-art equipment?” he asked. “I kind of resent that. If it’s good enough for cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats, it’s good enough for MPs.”   

BTW: According to the article, Stockwell Day has admitted to playing the odd game of Angry Birds on his iPad. I wonder if the tax payers covered the download costs? Then again, I can't disagree with his logic as I have all but abandoned paper in favor of my iPad as well.

Demo Slam Finalists

Last fall Google asked it's users to use Google products in creative ways and to submit there projects in video format for a contest known as Demo Slam. Today Google has launched demoslam.com to allow you to view and vote on entries by comparing 2 at a time in pools of 16. It's a single elimination type event and there are some very creative people out there who have gone to great lengths to prove they're the best. How do you get Maria Sharapova to make an appearance in your slam anyway?