The embargo is over and I can finally announce that I have not had an iPad to play with or review for the past week (not like that Andy Ihnatko fellow). Yes, I signed an embargo to not say that I didn’t have an iPad before the release. I’m terrible about contracts (I have 8 time shares, 4 adopted children, 2 wives, and an endorsement deal from Rita’s Water Ice). Now that I can finally talk about the fact that I have nothing to talk about, I thought I’d share my (completely made up) review of Apple’s new iPad.
A moving light in the sky is guaranteed to catch my attention. If it is slow moving and flashing then I know that it is likely to be an aircraft. If it shoots across the sky in an instant then I know it to be a meteor or shooting star. If it is fixed then I conclude that it is a star or a planet. But what if it is none of these? What if it is bright orange and moves across the sky slowly over a period of thirty seconds or so?
I asked myself that very question recently as I watched in amazement as an object that looked to me like a distant ball of fire passed silently and slowly from north-west to south-east across the clear evening sky. My initial thoughts were that I had just seen my first fireball but I knew that to be very unlikely and, besides, I was sure that fireballs were associated with freak weather conditions and on this night everything was still.
The object, whatever it was, appeared to be some distance off and moved across the sky with a speed that I readily associated with that of orbiting satellites which I had seen many times before. But these had always been white in colour and this one was a distant flaming red.
I wondered if it would be easy to check whether any satellites had passed overhead and so turned to the Internet for a solution. I came across a number of great resources which provided more than enough information to solve the mystery.
The first was a free piece of software by Sebastian Stoff called the Orbitron Satellite Tracking System which gives graphical and tabular information about the position of satellites and their visibility at a given time and place. The Orbitron software suggested that what I may have seen was a satellite which goes by the name of Iridium 43, one of a family of about seventy such satellites that provide communication services and orbit the earth from pole to pole at a height of about 500 miles and at a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour.
The Iridium satellites made the news back in February of this year when one of them, Iridium 33, collided with a retired Russian satellite and with a combined impact speed of 26,000 miles per hours both were destroyed leaving thousands of pieces of space debris to fall back to earth over the following days. The Russian satellite had been uncontrolled since, at least, 1995 but the authorities had predicted that the two satellites should have missed each other by about half a kilometre – they were clearly wrong.
Iridium satellites are known to give rise to an interesting phenomenon – the Iridium Flare. The satellites are equipped with three highly reflective door sized antenna made of silver-coated Teflon on polished aluminium and occasionally one of these will pick up light from the sun and reflect it down onto the earth’s surface generating an illuminated spot on the earth about 6 miles across. To an observer on the surface of the earth the satellite appears as if from nowhere as a faint object that slowly increases in brightness to a maximum and then just as quickly dims until it is no longer visible, with the whole show lasting no longer than, perhaps, thirty seconds. A simulation is shown here. The satellite that I saw appeared a rich flaming red in colour but I put that down to atmospheric conditions and its effect on the light as it was reflected from the satellite down to earth.
A really excellent web site that makes it easy to determine when and where to look out for satellites that are likely to be visible to the naked eye is Heavens Above. Start by declaring your location and follow links from the main page to get predictions for when Iridium flares, the International Space Station or other such objects will be visible in your area. The site also displays charts showing you where in the sky these objects will appear.
If you like to see a more earth-based and dynamic view of how any given satellite is orbiting then this real time satellite tracking web site has a mashup showing the live movement of selected satellites superimposed over the familiar Google Maps background. You can combine this view with an Iridium flare prediction from the Heavens Above web site to get a Google Maps view of the expected track of a visible satellite too.
It is all a little geeky, but I find it reassuring to be able to get an explanation for such phenomena.
Updated from previous posting!
Garmin Forerunner 405
UPDATE: thanks to the efforts of lots of people in the community we are now able to download tracks from the Garmin Forerunner 405 Linux. See comment 3432 for a summary of how to do it.
I’d really like to get a Garmin Forerunner. It’s a GPS device with a heart rate monitor which you use for training, I’d use it for my running.
I don’t mind which model I get I don’t suppose – I’d like to get the 405 as it’s the latest and greatest and looks swish, but should be happy with the 305. Which I get depends on the money I can raise.
My immediate concern is that I use Ubuntu Linux, not Microsoft Windows, as my primary operating system. This, as any Apple Mac user will attest, means that typically manufacturers forget about us significant minority and so we can’t use their tools. In the case of Garmin their “Training Center” [sic, USA spelling] software is fairly critical to the whole experience as it analyses all the GPS data etc and gives you graphs/targets yada yada.
So I decided to get in touch with Garmin to ask whether Linux support was on its way, or whether they perhaps had a web-based version.
Off I trotted, onto the Garmin website. First of all I went to the UK site but the contact form was broken, it gave a 404 Not Found or something similar when I submitted my email. Thankfully the ‘back button’ saved me and I managed to retrieve the long text I had typed in.
I then tracked down an email address for the webmaster so emailed them about the contact form problem, but not had a reply.
At the same time I found a form on the USA version of the site and sent my enquiry to their.
I’m pleased to say that I did get a reply. Sadly they don’t have plans to support Linux, but Garmin Connect does look like it may be what I’m looking for as a web interface. So fingers crossed.
Conclusion? Their website let me down, but when the website worked the people manning the support email were helpful. I shall let you know if I manage to save up enough to get one!
I mentioned before that I was excitedly awaiting the release of the HTC Magic. Well, it’s out! Reviews that aren’t just marketing hype are hard to come by but the Telegraph have a nice video review of the phone.
They don’t give it the top marks I’d hoped for – so I’m back to Plan A of waiting and seeing. Next up seems to be the Samsung I7500 next month. If it’s a good showing I don’t think I will be able to be patient much longer … but then again.
Awesome 3D Aerial Virtual Tour of New York, view here >
“Pixelcase is a small, innovative digital imaging company, specialising in world-class fullscreen virtual tour presentations. With over a decade of professional virtual tour creation expertise and utilising the very latest VR equipment and software, we ensure that your website visitors will have a rich and unique experience whilst viewing your facilities or displays in the best possible way.”
The 2nd Google Android handset, the HTC Magic, is out on 5th May exclusive to Vodafone so say the Telegraph.
I was in a store at the weekend and they said 16th May, but either way it’s coming soon.
A couple of guys at work have the G1. I have been tempted but decided that I would wait for its successor to see what creases they had ironed out, seems like I may not have to wait much longer.
Bethemiddleman.com is a project we’re currently working on to provide the housing market a FREE option when selling and buying. Read more about it here.
Currently the project is in full flow and it looking fantastic. Whilst we wait patiently for it’s arrival, we have launched a new holding page to enable users to pre-register and get FREE access to the site and all it’s features.
The new page gives an immediate look and feel as to how bethemiddleman.com will look like. Features on the page include:
Member signup
I simple signup form that will alert users once the site goes live.
Beta users signup
To enable a bug free, feature rich website we want beta users to signup and help us make bethemiddleman.com to best it can be.
Press signup
We are encouraging any press interest to contact us directly about the project with this signup.
Information
Simple targeted ‘thickbox style’ popups details what the service offers to the different user groups.
Twitter feed
Bethemiddleman.com is twittering updates on the project and related news with the latest twitter featured on the page.
Simple targeted ‘thickbox style’ popups details what the service offers to the different user groups.
Commission saving calculator
A simple calculator that shows you roughly how much commission you’ll save with bethemiddleman.com by not paying estate agent fees.
Screenshot
Boston.com, the online newspaper of the Boston Globe, has a special advent calendar on their website on the moment, counting down the days till Christmas 2008. Every day they upload a picture of Space, taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. Now if you know me you’ll have noted at some point my passion for Astronomy, Space and Beyond (well had to finish the sentence off somehow).
First day of Advent 2008
In January 2002, a dull star in an obscure constellation suddenly became 600,000 times more luminous than our Sun, temporarily making it the brightest star in our galaxy. The star, called V838 Monocerotis, has long since faded back to obscurity, but observations of a phenomenon called a “light echo” around the star have uncovered remarkable new features over the following years (this animation covers two years’ time). The light echo is light from the earlier explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star. Light from the outburst traveled to the dust and then was reflected to Earth. Because of this indirect path, the light arrived at Earth months after light from the star that traveled directly from the star. (NASA, ESA) More (see this on Google Sky)
“On the second day of Christmas”
In early January of 2000, Hubble took this image of Galaxy Cluster Abell 2218, and its massive amount of “gravitational lensing”. Abell 2218 lies some 2 billion light-years away in the Draco constellation and is so massive that its enormous gravitational field deflects light rays passing through it, much as an optical lens bends light to form an image. These magnifying powers provides a powerful “zoom lens” for viewing distant galaxies that could not normally be observed with the largest telescopes. The visible “arcs” are the distorted images of very distant galaxies, which lie 5 to 10 times farther away than the lensing cluster itself. (NASA, Andrew Fruchter and the ERO Team, STScI) More (see this on Google Sky)
Read More >
All images copyright Boston.com
Here are 20 must own gifts and gadgets for all geeks to wish for this Christmas. I’ve got the Ariel Atom on my list as it’s friggin awesome, maybe asking for too much though!
Following on from the 9xb digital staff portraits, new starter Gyles Seward has had his very own created. After suffering hours of digital torcher in Frog’s special Frankenstein-esk Lab this hideous creation appeared.
See this in action on the 9xb site.
