As I said, I love lots of NASA projects, like the current Mars Rover mission.

For any other space junkies out there, you can process the same Mars information the mission specialists are using. Just download the Maestro software and then add the rover data files. There are clients for Windoze, Mac and Linux and its all free! (Note that the files are pretty big, so you’d be wise to use BitTorrent if you can).

There is a community of Maestro users on the irc.freenode.net IRC network. Join the #maestro channel to find them.

On a related note, you can get a free pair of 3D glasses to see the 3D images for yourself. Just send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Rainbow Symphony. Let them images come to life!
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A Roku HD1000 hackable Linux media server. Woot!

So our Fearless Leader is set to announce plans today to return to the moon as well as send a manned mission to Mars. What he probably won’t say is how he expect to pay for all this.

The two of you who know me know I am a space junkie. I grew up watching space launches. Even wanted to be an astronaut at one point. But though I still thrill when those giant rockets are fired up, even I can’t justify sending folks above low-earth orbit.

Computer and robotic advances have made sending humans into space entirely redundant. Sure, there is SOME science being conducted on the International Space Station, but its mostly space PR. There is nothing going on on the ISS that can’t be done remotely, for far less money and risk.

We dismantled our huge Saturn V rockets nearly thirty years ago, turning our spacefaring experience largely into museum pieces or scrap steel for razor blades. What passes for manned space today is essentially space public relations, usually fronting for one of the biggest money-sucking government agencies around: NASA.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of what NASA does. The Apollo manned moon missons were amazingly inspring. At a fragile time of world relations, they provided all mankind something to celebrate. But even with all the capabilities we had to get us there, all that infrastructure and brainpower, there was no denying we’d never be more than space tourists. We didn’t have the tools for anything more then, and we certainly don’t have them now.

The unmanned, inexpensive missions are now where its at. Putting people in places where robots can do the work for a fraction of the cost is bad policy. There is no compelling need to revive the enormous resources required for manned flight when the science supposedly driving it can be done with robots.

The glory days of manned space exploration are behind us and far ahead of us, too. We have proven it CAN be done, now we must now prove WHY it is done.

“Going where man has gone before” makes a lousy battle cry.

I spent the afternoon waiting for my driver license. From there, it was off to a doctor’s appointment at what should have been 1:30. I waited for two hours before being seen. Then it was back home where I played with the Kid, gave her a bath, and tucked her into bed.

It was a long day, even more so considering I didn’t eat breakfast until 4:30 PM. I think I’ll hit the sack now and try to recharge myself for tomorrow.

I’m online from the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles (man, I love SprintPCS sometimes), getting ready to get my license renewed. Things went much quicker once the examiners came back from lunch.

It’s the curse of a January birthday: loads of people need new drivers licenses at the beginning of the new year. There are at least fifty people here.

My number is due up in about 15 minutes or less. Not bad. I’ve only been waiting for an hour.

Cory Doctorow, the Boing Boing blogger and EFF spokesmodel, will be in town February 5th at UNC. His talk is at 3:30, which suXORz for us working folk, but rumor has it he’ll be doing a book signing later that evening. Stay tuned for the details.
==============
What: A Public Talk on the Electronic Frountier Foundation and Copyright
When: Thursday February 5 at 3:30
Where: Wilson Library’s Pleasants Family Room

Cory Doctorow is Outreach Coordinator for EFF. He’s one of EFF’s
spokespeople, works on policy research and participates in standards
bodies, and works to enlist the support of other organizations in EFF’s
issues. In a previous life, he was a software entrepreneur, co-founding a
company called OpenCola. At the 2000 Hugo Awards, Cory Doctorow won the
John W. Campbell Award for best new science fiction writer. His first
novel, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” was recently published by Tor
Books. His second novel, “Eastern Standard Tribe,” is due out March 1,
2004. He is co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing and is a frequent
contributor to Wired Magazine and the O’Reilly Network. He enjoys googling
for interesting facts about long walks on the beach.

This just in: Cory Doctorow’s short story “0wnz0red” is a finalist for the
Nebula Award in Science Fiction.

Cory’s books include:

Doctorow, Cory. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Tor Books. December
2003. Also online at http://craphound.com/down/
Doctorow, Cory. Eastern Standard Tribe. Tor Books. March, 2004.
Doctorow, Cory and Schroeder, Karl. Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing
Science Fiction. Alpha Books. 2000.
Doctorow, Cory. A Place So Foreign and Eight More. Four Walls Eight
Windows. October 2003. Also online at http://craphound.com/place/
Powers, Shelley (editor) with Doctorow, Cory et al. Essential Blogging.
O’Reilly and Associates. September 2002.

I just realized I’m scheduled for a doctor’s appointment at 1:30 that requires me to fast until then. D’oh! Fasting is Big Sux. I always try to get an 8:30 appointment if I’ve got to do it, but in the holiday rush, I missed the set up for this one. To add insult to injury, I was hoping to get my driver’s license renewed this morning.

I can just see myself in the new picture I’ll have to cart around for the next five years. There I am, gaunt and surly, looking like I want to take the photographer’s head off. Maybe I’ll even be drooling, or foaming at the mouth.

I bet I become part of the lineup for a dozen petty crimes because of this mugshot. Heh.

For those of you missing my daily (and sometimes hourly) rant, I’ve been incredibly busy with work the past few days. I’m beginning to wonder if this is a taste of how the whole year might become, though I’d always rather have things to do than be bored.

I spent a spontaneous Saturday having a blast with Kelly and Hallie. We drove downtown to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where we spent a memorable few hours watching Hallie gleefully explore. She LOVED it, and we did, too! I think it’s the most fun she’s ever had indoors.

And what a place for her to play! So much to learn, so many people to see. And it’s all free! Kelly wisely proclaimed the Museum will become a weekly routine for her and Hallie.

Saturday night we were pressed for dinner options, so I suggested we head downtown to the New Oakwood Cafe for something different. The Oakwood Cafe is in a dive building downtown, bordering New Bern Avenue near the Governor’s Mansion. It’s family-run Argentinian restaurant with some great food at good prices. Twenty seconds after sitting down, Kelly and I both agreed we were glad we were there. The service leaves something to be desired (the owner’s daughters aren’t the most motivated servers we’ve ever seen), but the food is great. We had our dinner and had Hallie back at home to make her usual bedtime. No fuss, no muss.

Sunday I spent the whole day locked in a hotel conference room for a sales seminar. Woo woo. It was interesting and engaging, but I would have greatly appreciated more breaks. I get antsy after being around the same crowd of people for too long and need to disappear every now and then (God, how did I ever survive three naval deployments?). If I was a smoker, the nicotine withdrawl would’ve had me ready to throttle someone, I’m sure.

The seminar continued today, when I got to play the role of an IT manager in a scenario. It’s a in Uncategorized | 341 Words | Comment

After seeing Steve Wills talking about LocalFeeds, I made the appropriate changes to my GeoURL tags to allow my weblog to show up in the Raleigh area listings.

If you’re not using GeoURL, or LocalFeeds, you should consider it. It provides an easy way to find your blogging neighbors, and even read what they’re writing. It’s Kewl With A “K.”

To the folks visiting from the LocalFeeds site, I say “howdy, neighbor!”