May 17th, 2012
We don’t see a lot of pictures of Russia’s space launch centre, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, despite the fact that it’s now the world’s primary manned spaceflight centre. The Atlantic’s Big Picture blog has a great series of photos from Baikonur and the cosmonaut training centre, Star City, featuring preparation for and launches to the International Space Station.
Earlier today, a Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying an International Space Station (ISS) crew into orbit. Baikonur, Russia’s primary space launch facility since the 1950s, is the largest in the world, and supports multiple launches of both manned and unmanned rockets every year. With the U.S. manned space program currently on hold, Baikonur is now the sole launching point for trips to the ISS. Gathered here is a look at the facility, some of the cosmonaut training programs in Star City outside of Moscow, and a few recent launches and landings — plus a bonus: 3 spectacular long-exposure images of Earth from the ISS.
It’s amazing to see these photos considering how secretive the early days of the Soviet space program were.
Posted in history, photography, space | No Comments »
May 15th, 2012
Byron Sonne, who spent two years fighting trumped up terrorism-related charges after he was arrested before Toronto’s G20 summit, has been found not guilty of all charges. It’s a small breath of sanity in an otherwise insane judicial process. BoingBoing has a good series of posts that cover the story going back to his arrest.
Also worth checking out are Jesse Brown’s Search Engine podcasts on the subject.
Posted in politics, security | No Comments »
May 9th, 2012
I’ve been feeling particularly unmotivated recently when it comes to blogging. I’m not sure why, but I think I’m going to take a break. Posts will resume when I find something interesting to blog about and feel like writing, probably in a week or two.
Posted in Core Dump | 1 Comment »
May 8th, 2012
A while back, Scott Abel announced the launch of the Dynamic Publisher site. If you’re interested in content managment, XML publishing, or DITA, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on this one. There isn’t a huge amount of content on it right now, but what’s there is pretty good.
Just a quick note to say that in addition to my many other roles, I’m also now the editor of TheDynamicPublisher.com. Formerly a web property used by Quark to publicize its dynamic publishing products, TheDynamicPublisher.com is now a vendor neutral home for all things related to dynamic content. You’ll find interesting articles about XML, content management, eBooks, semantic web, content conversion, content quality, as well as information about events, training, and industry news.
But, alas, I can’t do it myself. That’s where you come in. Stop by the blog and take a look around. Read some articles. Leave some comments, if you like (and I hope you do). Make some suggestions, should you feel inclined.
Posted in DITA, technical communication | No Comments »
May 7th, 2012
Teleread has an article that points out some problems with ebooks and how they present reference material. The article uses examples from several fantasy novels, where the ebook presentation of maps is markedly inferior to the maps in the printed edition. (I’ve noticed this myself in some books, particularly the figures in James Gleick’s The Information. From what I understand of ebook formats and ebook production, I’m not sure what the solution is – current devices and formats have a lot of limitations. However, if you’re reading an ebook on a tablet with a high-res display like the current iPad and you’re finding problems with graphics, then I’d complain to the publisher.
So what’s my point? It seems to me that publishers ought to be doing a much better job with the publication of ebooks, and how they represent and provide access to reference material. Keep in mind that, until I started writing this article, I never realized Mistborn had maps of any sort, because rather then starting me at the cover, ebooks start me at the first page of actual text—a nice feature, but it’s only really highlighting the problem with the serial presentation of information, a style of presentation that, it seems, does not need to exist in ebooks.
Posted in eBooks | No Comments »
May 7th, 2012
We went to see The Avengers last night and I’m wondering what all the fuss was about. Given the hype this movie has engendered, you’d think it was the second coming of Citizen Kane. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it – it’s probably about as good a Saturday night popcorn flick as you’ll find and it is visually spectacular. But it’s not very deep, despite having Joss Whedon as screenwriter and director. It lacks the characterization of The Watchmen (the book, not the movie) or the moral complexity of Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight series.
If I was rating it on IMDB I’d give it about 7.5 or maybe 8.0, just because the special effects are so good. If you go, do stay until the very end of the credits. There’s a final Easter egg to reward you. And you’ll also understand how a movie can have a budget of $200 million.
Posted in SF, movies and television | No Comments »