Month: November 2004

Space Imaging

One of the sites I love passing by every once in a while is Space Imaging.

Their gallery section is just awesome, the satellite images they’ve got in there are so beautiful.
They give you a perfect bird’s eye view of the places and so much detail to enjoy.

It’s truly amazing what kind of high quality photos they can shoot from outer space and how much they can zoom in on a place.

I mean, here I am looking at a photo of Dubai and I can see the “Burj Al Arab” hotel, houses, highways, small streets, cars and more.
Or this other picture of Zimbabwe’s Victoria falls and the region around it. I can even see the Victoria Falls hotel that we used to stay at and the swimming pool I used to swim in.

It always makes me wonder that if these photos they just put up for free on their site are that good and give so much detail, then what they actually sell commercially or what the military has access to is certainly of higher and better resolution, giving way to even more detail.

Now that thought reminds me of the movie Enemy Of The State. I wonder if they’ve gotten that far though, technologically speaking.
But it’s pretty scary even if they haven’t reached that level of real-time satellite surveillance.

Anyway, next time you look up to the sky you might as well smile. You don’t want to look bad on your satellite photo 😛

On a slightly different note. With this kind of technology, how the hell couldn’t they find Osama Bin Laden and his people for such a long time?!

New Enhanced Feed

To the nerds within you who read this blog through an aggregator or feed reader, I’ve added a new enhanced feed that contains posts from this blog spliced with photos I’ve posted on flickr spliced with interesting stuff I’ve posted on my linklog.

So, it’s sort of an all-in-one feed, and you can find it here.

Enjoy 😉

Weblog Ethics

Here are some of the basic weblog ethics:

1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.
5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
6. Note questionable and biased sources.

I totally agree that all bloggers should try to stick to these ethics when blogging.

[More Detail: Rebecca’s Pocket]

Conservative Liberal

Yesterday, I was chatting to Jordan on chatango (in my blog’s right column), and as one subject led to another, I joked about how I was somewhat of a conservative liberal.

Now, it may seem funny, weird and contradictory as the way those two words are defined politically makes them opposites.

Some of the definitions of Liberal are:

1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. One who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters; an opponent of the established systems; a reformer.

And some of the definitions of Conservative are:

1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
2. One who desires to maintain existing institutions and customs; also, one who holds moderate opinions in politics; — opposed to revolutionary or radical.
3. Resistant to change, opposed to liberal reforms.

So, they are pretty much very opposite to each other.

But, when I try to classify myself, I can only say that I’m a liberal with a moderately conservative edge.

Continue reading Conservative Liberal

JFK Reloaded

On the 41st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Glasgow video game company Traffic has released JFK Reloaded. A reconstruction of the scene and events around the Texas School Book Depository that tragic day, the game puts Oswald’s rifle in the hands of players.

From a Boston Herald article and Traffic‘s press release:
“We’ve created the game with the belief that Oswald was the only person that fired the shots on that day, although this recreation proves how immensely difficult his task was,” (Traffic’s Kirk) Ewing said.

This is so insensitive and disrespectful!
I can’t believe some people have gone this far and this low.

[Via: Boing Boing]

R.I.P VHS

In a move that marks the beginning of the end for a hugely successful chapter in technology history, Britain’s biggest high street electronics retailer Dixons has announced that it’s taking VCRs off its shelves for good.

All over the world, the revolutionary VHS (video home system)–which let people record and watch television programs when they wanted rather than at the whim of broadcasters–is in headlong retreat as the DVD (digital versatile disc) takes over.

To add insult to injury, police grudgingly admit that in Britain at least, home burglars don’t even bother to take VHS players because new ones now cost so little that no one wants a second-hand model.

Rest in peace VHS.
You were a wonderful chapter in the history of technology and behind so many fun and beautiful moments.
In your support, I’ll try to always keep a place for a VHS in my home 🙂
Until I migrate my wedding video to DVD that is 😛

Maroon 5: Songs About Jane

One of the albums I’ve been pretty much addicted to recently is Songs About Jane by Maroon 5. It’s a great and fun album from the opening note to the very end.

It’s hard to choose any song or two as the highlights of the album because each song is beautiful in it’s own right from “This Love” to “She Will Be Loved” to “Sunday Morning” to “Sweetest Goodbye”, this album simply rocks!

Maroon 5 are certainly the best pop/rock band out there in the music scene today and their debut album is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.

I also watched them perform Live on MTV at the European Music Awards, and they were great, they rocked the place with a cool rendition of “This Love”.

I’m quite sure that if they go on like this and stick to the great music-making talent they’ve displayed on this album, they’ll become a really big international act soon enough.

My advice, get the album Songs About Jane right now. You won’t regret it, I’m sure.

Body Advertising

So, what do you know. After infesting our tvs, radios, magazines, streets, websites, pringles chips, skies and even space, advertisers might start advertising on the human body too.

For example, for only $20 anyone can rent Chris Pirillo’s chest for their brand or blog advertising.

Or you could be paid a lot of money for getting a tatoo of some company’s logo on your body through TatAD.

I can’t believe advertising has actually gone this far.
You can’t help but ask, what next? or to be more precise, where next?

[Via: Loic Le Meur]