Zemoxian Dispatch

Do you know where to vote?

2008-10-24T14:20:00.003-04:00

If you aren't sure where to vote, try this Google Gadget out. It's still new, so you may want to verify the results before you show up at the polls, but, this will probably get you to the right place--and give you directions on how to get there.

Just enter your home address below and you are on your way to picking the next President. You DO know who to vote for RIGHT?

A True Image from False Kiva

2008-09-29T11:53:00.003-04:00

Today's picture is why you should never miss APOD!

2008-09-12T13:33:00.001-04:00

I always feel bad at how bad the science is in science fiction. Should I feel bad if I like Fringe? It's all bad science, right?

2008-09-12T13:01:00.001-04:00

Memory lane and the internet is a pretty cool team. Just found out that Minuet from STTNG is Olivia on Law&Order. Back2Work...

2008-09-11T10:50:00.001-04:00

Recently joined Profilactic.com and just added Ping.fm. Now, may my online worlds MERGE!

Savenetradio.org

2007-04-25T14:51:00.000-04:00

Savenetradio.org

This is just plain upsetting. After the many hours I've spent tinkering with Pandora.com and all the money that I've spent on Yahoo! Music, I don't want all that taken away!

I still remember the early days on the Web when things were free and every site boldly displayed their "under construction" signs and icons. Yahoo was this neat new little upstart you'd just stumble upon and garish backgrounds with matching graphic balls and rules was the latest in web design. No one even knew how to make money online. Back then many seemed to believe that the web would promote democracy, knowledge, and freedom everywhere it went.

Well, times have changed. Since the Dot Bomb shakeup, people now make money online. Yahoo's megalopolis is now overshadowed by Google's. Any site with under construction graphics with bars and balls could use some cuneiform to look more up to date. Despite all of these changes, it's still pretty wild online. Despite the largely corporate landscape, independent web developers, bloggers, and wiki writers still hold a lot of sway. Small independent ISPs gave way to Yahoo! GeoCities and Blogger.com. There is still reason for some optimism.

The fact is, we still don't have it all figured out. Business models and venture capitalists come and go. Web 2.0 is feeling its way, though no two experts seem to agree what it really is. And net radio is finally finding its footing. Some stations are even making profitability. Public and commercial radio stations are broadening their reach.

Then comes one of those net shaking court decisions that seems to come out of the blue. A few years ago, while the first pioneers were figuring out how to deliver netradio, they were hit by fees to the RIAA for royalties to labels and musicians. There was some reason for concern since everyone was new to the game and they haven't even figured out how to make a reliable buck. These were fees that apparently AM/FM stations didn't have to pay. On the other hand, Napster and other mp3 trading sites made music piracy very easy.

But they persevered. Some companies folded, others started after that crash. Now we have net radio stations like Yahoo! and Pandora that allows you to create tailored radio stations that play only music you want to hear or that it suggests based on our tastes. This is something that traditional radio couldn't hope to offer. Also, can you get access to a lot of less obvious musicians that won't get air time on radio. Along with playing the tune, you get a link to buy the song or album right there.

So now we seem to have a netradio system that supports all the users. Listeners get the music the want. The RIAA gets fees that are proporionately higher than commercial or satellite radio. Musicians and labels get air time PLUS song and album sales. And entrepreneurs get to start businesses and develop innovative technologies. And, all of that could end on May 15th.

When the fee structure was established, it had a deadline for replacement by the end of 2005. So, as of January 1, 2006, netradio companies have been shelling out payments at the old rate. In the meantime, a replacement deal hadn't been agreed on. So, it seems, it all came down to the judges of the CRB. They decided, dispite objections of many voices of the broadcasting and music industry, that the right thing to do is give everyone a flat rate regardless of revenues, resulting in a 300 to 1200 percent increase! And, this is to be paid retroactively from January 1st, 2006.

The rates are so high that nearly ALL small broadcasters will be bankrupted in the process. Many of them are just making ends meet or see profitability in the near future. This ruling most likely makes profitability under current models impossible. Pandora.com stated that with its venture capital backing, it might be able to handle the fees. Yahoo! Music may be forced to pay around 50% of it's revenues in royalties. I'm thinking that free music on the internet is nearing its end. Also, to get into the black, netradio would probably have to turn to top 40 hits and other radio favorites to make things profitable again.

It's just one more blow to the hopes and dreams of a free and democratic internet.

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC has more than tripled the royalty rates for webcasters and left unchanged they will kill Internet radio. These exorbitant rates go into effect on May 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). Without Congressional action the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. We need your help. Please take a moment to send a letter to your member of Congress to keep Net radio from being silenced.

Zemoxia Cafe

2007-03-20T08:15:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Zemoxia Cafe!

I've just started a new experimental site using a Ning.com social network. Feel free to take a look and sign up for membership. As a bonus, you can see William Shatner serenade George Lucas with the dancing Storm Troopers.

I'm going to have to work out a list of the complete Zemoxian Constellation on the web.

Cocktail Party Physics: to mars!

2006-11-27T14:59:00.000-05:00

to mars!: "Say this to a physicist, you'll get one of two reactions: 'Yeah, go for it!' or 'Utter waste of perfectly good research funds.'"

Why hand wringing won't get us into space and inspiration is the best reason to go...

Living Universe Foundation WebRing

2006-05-10T18:01:00.000-04:00

"The Living Universe Foundation is a grass roots movement for the development of ecologically sound technologies for healing the Earth and colonizing the oceans and space. This ring is open to all members of the foundation, or any website dedicated to science, technologies, projects, or societies interested in ocean and space colonization."

I started the LUF (Back then, the FMF) Ring around 1997. It's still live and kicking. You can use it to explore other sites (next | prev | random | hub) or add your site and join in!

Living Universe Foundation WebRing
[ Join Now \| Ring Hub \| Random \| << Prev \| Next >> ]

On Debugging

2006-03-30T17:21:00.000-05:00

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan

I just liked this quote enough that I had to post it.

Species loss worst since the dinosaurs

2006-03-20T16:36:00.000-05:00

CNN.com - Report: Species loss worst since the dinosaurs - Mar 20, 2006: "OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday."

I find it hard to believe that we are living in a period of a mass extinction event. I wonder how the science is behind this determination works. This is something to take very seriously. I also wonder about the living web of life. As we cut threads here and there, the web will eventually unravel. How long could this continue and remain unnoticable to the public at large? How long would the world remain sustainable for us?

Who's Afraid of a Solar Flare?

2006-03-20T10:27:00.000-05:00

NASA - Who's Afraid of a Solar Flare?: "During the storms, something strange happened onboard the International Space Station (ISS): radiation levels dropped."

I found this interesting. During solar storms, the sun sends out corona mass ejections (CME). These produce deadly levels of radiation. However, they also deflect galactic cosmic radiation. Since we can shield against CMEs and not cosmic rays, it may actually be safer to travel during solar storms. Good times to visit the Moon and Mars may be around 2011 and 2022.

As an interesting aside, the solar storms of the coming solar maximum (2010-2012) may be the largest we've seen since 1958. During that maximum, people spotted the northern lights as far south as Mexico!.

About Big Numbers

2006-03-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

About Big Numbers:
"Explore the world of big numbers.
Discover how big and how small our world is.
How big is a zillion?
How small is a quadrillion?
Numbers and science.
From the atom to the universe.
Sun and sand and water and air.
And more."

This is a neat little site describing "big numbers." It traces powers of a thousand from ONE (10⁰ = 1000⁰) to a NOVEMVIGINTILLION (10⁹⁰ or 1000³⁰) and finally it skips to a GOOGOL (10¹⁰⁰).

Since it focuses on material numbers (like atoms in a cup of water or the volume of the galaxy in cubic inches) it kind of loses steam near the end. It doesn't go into numbers that can only be approached mathmatically like the GOOGLE PLEX (10^10¹⁰⁰) or even larger numbers that can't be written in scientific notation. I suppose that would be another story.

Greetings, Earthlings! -- from Google Mars

2006-03-15T17:45:00.000-05:00

CNN.com - Greetings, Earthlings! -- from Google Mars - Mar 14, 2006

"First there was Google Earth, then Google Moon. On Monday, Google Inc. expanded its galactic reach by launching Google Mars."

I'll have to get me one of those!

Kill Bill T-shirt

2006-03-14T10:44:00.000-05:00

Split Reason | T-shirts, hats and other apparel for the Internet Generation.

For no particular reason, I've decided to share this site. You can get this Kill Bill Linux T-shirt. I think it's hilarious.

SAIL Automatic Mode

2006-03-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

SAIL Automatic Mode

After some (near) random searching, I came across this page. This is a robot I worked on for my Masters project. It's hard to see in the picture, but next to the orange robotic arm is a black turntable with two pen sized cameras on pan-tilt controllers. I was responsible for developing a programming API and a GUI interface for that component. I see that Dr. Weng has bee quite busy the past few years.

A Few Things Ill Considered

2006-03-13T18:05:00.000-05:00

A Few Things Ill Considered

I found this site while reading an article from Real Climate. It summarizes the arguments commonly found in disputes between global warming skeptics and climate scientists.

NASA - Mars Odyssey Imagery

2006-03-13T15:37:00.000-05:00

NASA - Mars Odyssey Imagery: "A 'Grand Canyon of Mars' slices across the Red Planet near its equator. This canyon -- Valles Marineris, or the Mariner Valley -- is 10 times longer and deeper than Arizona's Grand Canyon, and 20 times wider. As the picture shows, you could drop the whole Los Angeles basin into a small part of Valles Marineris and leave plenty of room to spare. In length, the canyon extends far enough that it could reach across the United States from East Coast to West Coast, while its rim stands more than 25,000 feet high, nearly as tall as Earth's Mount Everest."

Several years worth of imagery and altimeter measurements have been combined into a 3D representation of Valles Marineris. This has produced the latest flythrough of the canyon.

CNN.com - Casual games -- good, clean, cheap fun online - Feb 28, 2006

2006-03-01T17:40:00.000-05:00

CNN.com - Casual games -- good, clean, cheap fun online - Feb 28, 2006: "Casual games, those five-minute diversions you play for a quick break but somehow end up clicking away on for two hours, have become one of the fastest-growing categories of computer gaming."

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin!

2006-03-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

RealClimate >> Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin!: "Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. The events commemorating Darwin's birthday anniversary last Sunday, together with the recent conclusion of an important court case concerning the teaching of Intelligent Design (ID) in public schools prompts me to some musing concerning the relation of the Evolution/ID dialog to similar issues arising in connection with anthropogenic global warming. The age of the two theories is similar as well: Darwin introduced his theory in 1859, whereas Fourier initiated the study of the effect of atmospheres on climate with his 1821 treatise, stimulating the chain of developments leading to Arrhenius' enunciation in 1896 of the theory that human influences on the atmosphere's CO2 content could change the climate."

Private Rocket Set for Late March

2006-03-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

SPACE.com -- Flight of the Falcon: Private Rocket Set for Late March: "Another spot on the calendar has been targeted for the maiden takeoff of the privately built Falcon 1 launch vehicle, designed and constructed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California.
“Looks like we are on for a March 20-25 launch window,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX chairman and chief executive officer. “We are also going to do another static fire to check out the system about four days before launch,” he told SPACE.com.
Next month’s projected liftoff will take place from an equatorial launch site built by SpaceX at Kwajalein Atoll on the Pacific Ocean."

Remembering Challenger 20 years later

2006-02-06T11:03:00.000-05:00

Space History - MSNBC.com: "Remembering Challenger 20 years later
Twenty years ago, space shuttle Challenger blew apart into jets of fire and plumes of smoke, a terrifying sight witnessed by the families of the seven astronauts and onlookers who came to watch the historic launch of the first teacher in space."

I remember being told in high school by our home room teacher about the accident. I remember little else from home room, but I do remember that.

Houses Woven Out of Trees Proposed

2006-01-23T10:34:00.000-05:00

Discovery Channel :: News :: Houses Woven Out of Trees Proposed: "Growing a home from living trees instead of building a home from felled timber is the goal of an architect from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mitchell Joachim, part of the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden and architect Javier Arbona, propose a home that is actually an ecosystem.
The Fab Tree Hab goes beyond sustainable housing and so-called green design — building with materials that have a low impact on the environment and human health."

This could be more than the ultimate tree house experience. I could see this used in a science fiction context where a group of people and/or aliens use nature to fabricate their village. Architecture and family planning go hand in hand. If children are coming, plant trees for the extension. By the time they need their own rooms, the walls have been woven into place.

This could be used as a naturalistic interior of a space settlement. The hollow interior of the sphere, torus, or cylinder can be terraformed as a natural environment. Any structures needed can then be woven in place from trees and bushes. If the settlements have a relatively small population, they could live above ground in these houses. Otherwise they can live "below" in the shell, close to nature. Beyond the residential shell, are the hidden industrial and protective shells.

These ideas apply to terraformed domes, asteroids,and planets as well.

Space Settlement - Colonizing the Cosmos!

2005-12-20T20:11:00.000-05:00

Space Settlement - Colonizing the Cosmos!: "Today space is mostly rock and radiation. We can change that. In the 1970's Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill showed that we can build giant orbiting spaceships and live in them. These orbital space colonies could be wonderful places to live; about the size of a California beach town and endowed with weightless recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow-room in spades, and great wealth. In time, we may see hundreds of thousands of orbital space colonies in our solar system alone. Unlike earlier colonization events, no people need be oppressed and no ecosystems destroyed for the simple reason that there aren't any out there. If we do it, space colonization will be so important that only the origins of life itself is comparable. Even ocean-based Life's colonization of land half a billion years ago pales by comparison."

Press Release: Partial Ingredients for DNA and Protein Found Around Star

2005-12-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

Press Release: Partial Ingredients for DNA and Protein Found Around Star: "NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered some of life's most basic ingredients in the dust swirling around a young star. The ingredients -- gaseous precursors to DNA and protein -- were detected in the star's terrestrial planet zone, a region where rocky planets such as Earth are thought to be born.
The findings represent the first time that these gases, called acetylene and hydrogen cyanide, have been found in a terrestrial planet zone outside of our own."

Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech