Posted on by — Leave a comment

NASA Forgets How To Talk To ICE/ISEE-3 Spacecraft

Reading this makes me sad. It is terribly indicative of the problems surrounding my industry that I discuss almost daily…documentation, knowledge management, dependencies upon legacy systems.

Here we have history passing us by. Good scientific equipment that could be repurposed and all we can do is wave.

“Can we tell the spacecraft to turn back on its thrusters and science instruments after decades of silence and perform the intricate ballet needed to send it back to where it can again monitor the Sun? Unfortunately the answer to that question appears to be no. ‘The transmitters of the Deep Space Network, the hardware to send signals out to the fleet of NASA spacecraft in deep space, no longer includes the equipment needed to talk to ISEE-3. These old-fashioned transmitters were removed in 1999.’ ”

http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/03/04/024207/nasa-forgets-how-to-talk-to-iceisee-3-spacecraft

Posted on by — Leave a comment

What’s the big deal with Netflix and Comcast?

Let’s use the Interstates as an analogy. Those Interstates are the backbones of our country. Metropolitan areas (say Memphis, Dallas, Atlanta, Knoxville, DC) are datacenters. The states are the ISPs since they provide the connections (the on ramps) to the backbones (the Interstates). We’ve all had relatively free access to those roads. Yes, there are so toll roads but let’s talk about those later to help facilitate the analogy (because the toll road fits the current Internet analog…the tolls are NOT the Netflix deal). The vehicles on the road are packets of information.

So, monitoring traffic, we noticed that UPS has increased its traffic from Dallas routing along I-40 in Tennessee to make deliveries to Atlanta. Now, we know that UPS has other alternatives. There are highways and more minor roads through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that will lead to Atlanta but UPS likes the speed of using our larger Interstate. So, should Tennessee start charging UPS a surcharge to use our Interstate? If UPS pays enough, can they monopolize that Interstate with so many trucks that there is no room for my car? And if so, will the state tell me that I don’t have access to the Interstate anymore because I can use Hwy 70 and Hwy 11 unless I want to pay the same price that UPS is paying?

That’s the problem. The small guy, the innovator, is going to lose access to the Interstate.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Apple Becomes Patent Troll

This kickstarter, that I would have loved to back but cannot because of my self-imposed kickerstater timeout, has reached 770% of it’s goal. They wanted $260,000 and have received $2,003,170.

Aannnnd Apple patents the idea. http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/apple-patents-headphones-with-integrated-activity-health-and-fitness-tracking/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellobragi/the-dash-wireless-smart-in-ear-headphones

Posted on by — Leave a comment

R.I.P. Qik

Qik is being shuttered on April 30, 2014. Qik was undoubtedly one of my favorite video sharing sites. None of its competitors made is as easy to take a video and upload it from your phone. Qik encouraged vidcasting. Bamuser and ustream have never had the same feel for me.

Crunchbase shows Qik’s competitors as Kyte, Flixwagon, Livecast, Next2Friends, Bambuser, Ustream, Justin.TV, and Streamup.

So, what happened to Qik? Skype bought them in 2011. We saw Qik Premium and Qik Desktop with great promise. There was growth. And then silence. The last Twitter post was January 2012. In May of 2011, Microsoft bought Skype. Qik had ben borg’d.

From the Qik service retiring FAQ:

Why are you retiring Qik?
We are retiring Qik as the Qik video messaging technology has now been incorporated into Skype. Users can now enjoy a great experience on Skype with features such as audio and video calling, instant messaging and video messaging with contacts in their Skype and Microsoft networks.

[Source, Qik.com, Qik service retiring in April 2014 – IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ]