My usual breakfast. Fruit and cottage cheese. But today, an added twist: Sriracha!
Neal Stephenson: Let’s Build a 20-km Tower to Launch Rockets
Neal Stephenson is best known as the author of science fiction novels such as SnowCrash and Anathem. But he does other things as well. Among them: He’s assembled a team of scientists and engineers to figure out how to build a 20-kilometer-tall tower to use as a platform for launching rockets into space.
Speaking at the Starship Century symposium in San Diego on Tuesday, Stephenson said he was inspired by several research papers by NASA researcher Geoffrey Landis proposing construction of a tower 15 to 20 kilometers tall out of “mundane materials” such as steel. Launching rockets from that altitude — giving them a headstart, so to speak — would result in significant savings for spaceflight. And the audacity of the project could attract support, Stephenson said.
“I spent a lot of time looking at alternative space launch technologies, and they’re pretty far out. They require exotic materials and technologies,” Stephenson said. “Another way of saying that is they’re hard to explain to Senators, whereas people get a 20 kilometer tower. It’s inspiring.”
- Me on +Internet Evolution
Find out more:
Image source: http://j.mp/18idsCs
Interstellar Travel ‘Almost Inevitable’
Me on +Internet Evolution:
While interstellar travel presents huge challenges, it’s “almost inevitable,” according to a speaker at the Starship Century symposium here in San Diego.
The two-day Starship Century symposium brings scientists and science fiction writers together to examine a bold project — to build a working starship in this century.
“History is with the optimists,” said Peter Schwartz, senior vice president for global government relations and strategic planning for Salesforce.com, speaking at the conference. Over the course of history, humanity has avoided catastrophe and reinvented itself many times. In the 1980s, predictions were that the United States was through, and the world would be owned by the Japanese. The reality proved very different.
“I was born in a refugee camp for concentration camp survivors,” Schwartz said. His parents had been slave laborers. “When you come from that kind of background, to not be an optimist is churlish.”
Find out more:
Image source: http://j.mp/10PJWSp
#space #starship #science
I’m glad to hear it. But it says here that Hangouts can already receive Google Voice calls. But I can’t get that to work. When I get an incoming call. Hangouts rings and flashes an indicator, but I can’t hear the other person when I pick up. And I have no indication they can hear me either.
#Google #Hangouts #Voice
Yeah, I’m shopping around for to-do software again. That seems to be my permanent state off existence.
This looks promising. I tried 2Do before. I liked it a lot. Mostly. But the sync method they used previously with Android had a lot of problems. So I dumped 2do. With a new sync method, I’ll give it another try.
If I find the perfect tasks app, my life will be perfect. Isn’t that how it works?
The little girl in the fourth panel is thinking holy crap you have BLOWN MY MIND!!
“Tumblr has desperately needed better management for some time. True, over the past several years, its use has grown and grown and grown. However, its monetization has stayed at bake-sale proportions.”
- +Joe Stanganelli on +Internet Evolution
#Yahoo #Tumblr #Yumblr #Yahumblr
I like +Mike Elgan ‘s Google+ wishlist. I have a few more ideas.
I’d still love to see an API that allows third-party apps to write to Google+. I’m not expecting Google to do it. It seems antithetical to their philosophy with Google+. I understand and respect their reasons — but that doesn’t mean I agree with them.
Similarly, I’d like to be able to schedule posts without relying on +Do Share . And I’d like to be able to queue posts at intervals, similar to what you can do with Tumblr and the +Buffer app for Twitter, Facebook, and +LinkedIn .
In the past, I hankered for the ability to format text in posts — nothing fancy, just true hyperlinking, along with multiple embedded images and videos. I’m over that. It would be nice to have but I don’t feel strongly about it.
I got some of this the other day. I’m putting it on everything.
Well, nearly everything. I probably shouldn’t brush my teeth with it.
My latest on +Internet Evolution :
“For Tumblr users, the news is good but not great. Acquisitions are never great news for customers and users of the company being acquired. The best they can hope for is that things stay the same. Frequently, the new boss messes things up. But, still, Tumblr was a big platform with very little revenue. They were inevitably going to be acquired, and Yahoo isn’t a bad suitor.
“Matt Mullenweg, founder of rival blogging service Wordpress.com, said imports of Tumblr posts to Wordpress “spiked” to 72,000 in a single hour, from the normal 400–600 per hour. But he adds: “I don’t think there will be an exodus from Tumblr.” Nor do I — not now at least. People are complaining — they always complain in a situation like this — but they’ll hang tight until things shake out. And if they do go, it won’t be a mass exodus; it’ll be a slow but steady stream.”
#Tumblr #Yahoo #Yumblr
Hangouts is 'the future of Google Voice,' and full calling functionality will return to desktop soon
Google is planning on marrying Hangouts and Voice.
Via +Alan Reiter , +Mike Elgan , +Nathan Lunsford , and others.
Supposedly, you can take Voice calls in Hangouts now, but I haven’t been able to get it to work. It rings but I can’t hear the other person talking.
And the fact that Voice was an afterthought suggests that it’s, well, an afterthought.
