SpaceX Test Launch
The second test launch of Falcon 1 took place today at 6:10 pm California time. The launch was not perfect, but certainly pretty good. Given that the primary objectives were demonstrating responsive launch and gathering test data in advance of our first operational satellite launch later this year, the outcome was great. Operationally responsive (i.e. fast) launch has become an increasingly important national security objective, so demonstrating rapid loading of propellants and launch in less than an hour, as well as a rapid recycle following the first engine ignition are major accomplishments.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - Updates
It's cool to see that when they scrubbed Monday's test launch that the problem was small scale. (Darn hardware!) Yesterday's test launch seemed fairly successful - they didn't achieve orbit but it came pretty close and it sounds like only minor changes are needed to hit that goal next time.
I've been doing some research on near-term spaceflight and I have to say it's good to see commercial companies stepping up to the plate. I can't fathom NASA's plan currently. (In all fairness - they are making the best of a bad situation. It may be the best plan possible. It's still sucky.) The shuttles are increasingly fragile and clearly a dead end technology. They are supposed to be retired in 2010, but the plan says the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) won't be ready until 2014. That's the plan mind you, assuming nothing runs late. And when they finally get the ARES/Orion stuff working it's fair to say that it's really just Apollo tech written larger. I'll be excited to see it fly, but it's a little disappointing to realize that I was less than a year old for the last Apollo Mission (Apollo 17) and I'll be 40 before we manage to get back to the moon, and the entire Shuttle program will utlimately be seen as a historical misstep.
Come 2010 we'll be happy to have SpaceX and Scaled Composites putting somebody in space.
technorati tags:SpaceTravel, NASA, SpaceX, Falcon
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The second test launch of Falcon 1 took place today at 6:10 pm California time. The launch was not perfect, but certainly pretty good. Given that the primary objectives were demonstrating responsive launch and gathering test data in advance of our first operational satellite launch later this year, the outcome was great. Operationally responsive (i.e. fast) launch has become an increasingly important national security objective, so demonstrating rapid loading of propellants and launch in less than an hour, as well as a rapid recycle following the first engine ignition are major accomplishments.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - Updates
It's cool to see that when they scrubbed Monday's test launch that the problem was small scale. (Darn hardware!) Yesterday's test launch seemed fairly successful - they didn't achieve orbit but it came pretty close and it sounds like only minor changes are needed to hit that goal next time.
I've been doing some research on near-term spaceflight and I have to say it's good to see commercial companies stepping up to the plate. I can't fathom NASA's plan currently. (In all fairness - they are making the best of a bad situation. It may be the best plan possible. It's still sucky.) The shuttles are increasingly fragile and clearly a dead end technology. They are supposed to be retired in 2010, but the plan says the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) won't be ready until 2014. That's the plan mind you, assuming nothing runs late. And when they finally get the ARES/Orion stuff working it's fair to say that it's really just Apollo tech written larger. I'll be excited to see it fly, but it's a little disappointing to realize that I was less than a year old for the last Apollo Mission (Apollo 17) and I'll be 40 before we manage to get back to the moon, and the entire Shuttle program will utlimately be seen as a historical misstep.
Come 2010 we'll be happy to have SpaceX and Scaled Composites putting somebody in space.
technorati tags:SpaceTravel, NASA, SpaceX, Falcon
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Glasshouse
I received a copy of Glasshouse by Charles Stross for my birthday (thanks David & Jennifer!) and started reading it over the weekend. I finished it yesterday due to a CalTrain ride and I thought I'd talk about it a little. It's fairly common to see claims on the internet that Glasshouse is a sequel to Accelerando but I don't really see it. It's possible they are set in the same timeline but I don't see any particular reason to assume that and I can't easily find any quotes from Mr. Stross that state it's a sequel. The back jacket copy is "Praise for Accelerando", but that doesn't make the two books linked. I was sort of waiting throughout the book for a shoe of Accelerando-relation to drop and it never does.
I've read two Stross books on airplanes - Singularity Sky and The Merchant Trade and both times I wish I had brought something else. Not that they aren't good books but they are too dense to read for hours on end. I read the Accelerando ebook on my Palm in small doses and I think I would have totally lost it if I to spend several hours straight reading Accelerando. So I would not have normally considered taking Glasshouse with me on the train except I was already into it enough to realize it wasn't "normal" for Stross.
Accelerando is a hell of a good read, but it doesn't have that much story. Accelerando is a setting, it's a mood. The whole book is about what it would be like to live through a Vingean Singularity - with humans becoming something that can only be described as "post-human". It's taking VR to the logical conclusion. But the story is just a vehicle for touring the universe. Glasshouse inverts that. It has a lot of the same underlying assumptions as Accelerando but it's a gripping story first, and a tour of a future world second.
I'm not going to delve into spoiler territory, there's plenty of spoiler info available on the web (see the Amazon reviews) if you want that sort of thing. I will say that Glasshouse isn't for the faint of heart or the SF newbie. The strongest link I see to Accelerando is that it almost takes the end of Accelerando as assumed backstory. This is a strong statement but I mean it. If you're not prepared to assume that practical interstellar teleportation means "backing up" people, and from there it's a small jump to editing people - both in terms of memories and then in terms in their physical body, then Glasshouse is probably not for you. In the opening portions of the book there is a character who flips between a four-armed and two-armed form pretty much at a whim. There's a solid theoretical underpinning for this, but I'm not sure it would make sense to somebody who didn't immediately jump from teleportation "gates" to backups and multiple copies of the same person. If you're current on your science fiction reading this should be straightforward - but if your thinking about teleportation stops at the Star Trek transporter then you might get left behind by the whirlwind introduction.
John Scalzi talks about how Accelerando just isn't that accessible for the non-initiate - here's the best link I can find right now (although I think there's a better essay about it I'm too lazy to go grab my copy of Coffee Shop and I'm failing to pull it up on the Whatever's search page). I think Glasshouse is probably even worse about assuming the background knowledge.
So that's my capsule review: better story than Accelerando, but even more of a "Here we go, try to see if you can keep up" exercise in concepts. I liked it a lot - but I've read Accelerando twice so I was able to take the technology in stride.
technorati tags:Glasshouse, CharlieStross, ScienceFiction
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I received a copy of Glasshouse by Charles Stross for my birthday (thanks David & Jennifer!) and started reading it over the weekend. I finished it yesterday due to a CalTrain ride and I thought I'd talk about it a little. It's fairly common to see claims on the internet that Glasshouse is a sequel to Accelerando but I don't really see it. It's possible they are set in the same timeline but I don't see any particular reason to assume that and I can't easily find any quotes from Mr. Stross that state it's a sequel. The back jacket copy is "Praise for Accelerando", but that doesn't make the two books linked. I was sort of waiting throughout the book for a shoe of Accelerando-relation to drop and it never does.
I've read two Stross books on airplanes - Singularity Sky and The Merchant Trade and both times I wish I had brought something else. Not that they aren't good books but they are too dense to read for hours on end. I read the Accelerando ebook on my Palm in small doses and I think I would have totally lost it if I to spend several hours straight reading Accelerando. So I would not have normally considered taking Glasshouse with me on the train except I was already into it enough to realize it wasn't "normal" for Stross.
Accelerando is a hell of a good read, but it doesn't have that much story. Accelerando is a setting, it's a mood. The whole book is about what it would be like to live through a Vingean Singularity - with humans becoming something that can only be described as "post-human". It's taking VR to the logical conclusion. But the story is just a vehicle for touring the universe. Glasshouse inverts that. It has a lot of the same underlying assumptions as Accelerando but it's a gripping story first, and a tour of a future world second.
I'm not going to delve into spoiler territory, there's plenty of spoiler info available on the web (see the Amazon reviews) if you want that sort of thing. I will say that Glasshouse isn't for the faint of heart or the SF newbie. The strongest link I see to Accelerando is that it almost takes the end of Accelerando as assumed backstory. This is a strong statement but I mean it. If you're not prepared to assume that practical interstellar teleportation means "backing up" people, and from there it's a small jump to editing people - both in terms of memories and then in terms in their physical body, then Glasshouse is probably not for you. In the opening portions of the book there is a character who flips between a four-armed and two-armed form pretty much at a whim. There's a solid theoretical underpinning for this, but I'm not sure it would make sense to somebody who didn't immediately jump from teleportation "gates" to backups and multiple copies of the same person. If you're current on your science fiction reading this should be straightforward - but if your thinking about teleportation stops at the Star Trek transporter then you might get left behind by the whirlwind introduction.
John Scalzi talks about how Accelerando just isn't that accessible for the non-initiate - here's the best link I can find right now (although I think there's a better essay about it I'm too lazy to go grab my copy of Coffee Shop and I'm failing to pull it up on the Whatever's search page). I think Glasshouse is probably even worse about assuming the background knowledge.
So that's my capsule review: better story than Accelerando, but even more of a "Here we go, try to see if you can keep up" exercise in concepts. I liked it a lot - but I've read Accelerando twice so I was able to take the technology in stride.
technorati tags:Glasshouse, CharlieStross, ScienceFiction
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Pet Food Recall
I would highly advise following this link, and determing whether any of the wet cat or dog food that you feed your pet is involved. My mom sent it to me, I checked it, and discovered that four of the wet Iams cans we have for Zoe are involved. I know we had at bought at least one more of them, which she's apparently eaten by this point, and thankfully hasn't died.We only feed our cats dry food, so it doesn't look like this affects us, but it seems to affect several different brands of food - both cat and dog. If you feed your pet wet food you should definitely check this out.
technorati tags:PetFoodRecall
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I would highly advise following this link, and determing whether any of the wet cat or dog food that you feed your pet is involved. My mom sent it to me, I checked it, and discovered that four of the wet Iams cans we have for Zoe are involved. I know we had at bought at least one more of them, which she's apparently eaten by this point, and thankfully hasn't died.
We only feed our cats dry food, so it doesn't look like this affects us, but it seems to affect several different brands of food - both cat and dog. If you feed your pet wet food you should definitely check this out.
technorati tags:PetFoodRecall
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Very small pirates!
Capcom today announces a brand new game coming this fall to the Nintendo Wii, and by gum it's chock full of pirates!
Capcom Pirates Set Sail For Wii - Kotaku
OK, maybe I'll have to buy a Wii this fall. We'll see, but puzzles and mini-games with pirates? That would be cool.
It would also be cool if they got the game out before National Talk Like A Pirate Day. But "Fall" probably means October/November.
Yarrrr!
technorati tags:Wii, Pirates, Capcom, gaming
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Capcom today announces a brand new game coming this fall to the Nintendo Wii, and by gum it's chock full of pirates!
Capcom Pirates Set Sail For Wii - Kotaku
OK, maybe I'll have to buy a Wii this fall. We'll see, but puzzles and mini-games with pirates? That would be cool.
It would also be cool if they got the game out before National Talk Like A Pirate Day. But "Fall" probably means October/November.
Yarrrr!
technorati tags:Wii, Pirates, Capcom, gaming
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Potter Mania!
Are you ready for some Potter mania? Scholastic just announced an astounding, astonishing, astronomical, and every other “ast” word you can think of, 12 MILLION COPY FIRST PRINTING for the new Harry Potter book. With a cover price of $34.99, this means that the first printing alone is greater than the GDP of 13 countries (yes, I did the math). Hey Tonga, better get cracking on that YA novel you’ve been putting off writing.
Nathan Bransford: This Week in Publishing
I have nothing to add - I just felt the "Hey Tonga" line was too funny to not share.technorati tags:NathanBransford, HarryPotter, publishing
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Are you ready for some Potter mania? Scholastic just announced an astounding, astonishing, astronomical, and every other “ast” word you can think of, 12 MILLION COPY FIRST PRINTING for the new Harry Potter book. With a cover price of $34.99, this means that the first printing alone is greater than the GDP of 13 countries (yes, I did the math). Hey Tonga, better get cracking on that YA novel you’ve been putting off writing.
Nathan Bransford: This Week in Publishing
I have nothing to add - I just felt the "Hey Tonga" line was too funny to not share.
technorati tags:NathanBransford, HarryPotter, publishing
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