October 13, 1997: Ten years ago today, less than three weeks after topping 700 MPH in the jet-powered Thrust SuperSonic vehicle, British fighter pilot Andy Green smashed the sound barrier along a one-mile course in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Under the guidance of former land-speed record-holder and Thrust team leader Richard Noble, Green hit 764.168 MPH, or 1.007 percent above the speed of the sound.
Sixty-one minutes later, Green swept across Black Rock at a speed 1.003 percent faster than sound.
Unfortunately, however, because the second run came one minute late, the Thrust team wouldn’t own the official record until two days later.
On October 15, 1997, the Thrust hit 759.333 MPH on its first run and a stunning 766.109 MPH on its second pass, about thirty minutes later.
It’s worth nothing that October 14 is the date in 1947 when Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, in the rocket-powered Bell X-1 aircraft.
Posted in Geekipedia + Technology + Trivia | 
Google pays tribute to Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007), Cavaliere di Gran Croce was a celebrated Italian tenor in operatic music, who successfully crossed into popular music becoming one of the most beloved vocal performers.
While undertaking an international “farewell tour,” Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006.
The tenor fought back against the implications of this diagnosis, undergoing major abdominal surgery and making plans for the resumption and conclusion of his singing commitments.
On September 6 2007, however, in an e-mail statement, his manager, Terri Robson, wrote: “The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.”
Posted in Geekipedia + Google + Search + Technology |
Google announced today that locations on Google Earth will now link to YouTube videos about those locations.
The videos can be viewed in Flash without leaving Google Earth or by opening an external link to the YouTube site.
A quick scan of randomly-chosen Bangkok showed a healthy number of videos already locationally linked, including a videos from tourists on a boat cruising down the Chao Phraya river and cruising the city by Tuk-tuk.
This joins other Google Earth’s other location-specific features such as locationally-linked photos, 3D buildings, and content from Discovery Networks, National Geographic, and the UN, among others.
On Tuesday, Google Earth announced that Street View maps of Chicago, Portland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tucson and Philadelphia are now available.
Go forth and procrastinate.
Posted in Google + Search + Technology + Videos |
Giving the mobile Web browser competition a shot in the arm, Mozilla’s Mike Schroepfer said in a blog post that Mozilla has big plans for the mobile Web.
Yes, a mobile version of Firefox is in the works, and should be ready next year.
The post showed up in Schroepfer’s blog yesterday and outlined all of Mozilla’s mobile plans, including updates on its technology, hiring, products, and partners.
According to Schroepfer, there’s a lot in store.
From his blog post:
Up until very recently device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up. Being able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices is the right approach. There is far from a dominant player in this marketplace and even the best mobile browsers today have compromises in user experience, performance, and compatibility. There is still *plenty* of room for innovation.
I agree, there is still lots of room for improvement.
Just yesterday Opera, Freescale and NEC announced their own plans to improve the mobile browsing and mobile video experience.
Mozilla is promising a better experience, too. It has hired two new developers to head its mobile services operations and plans to offer a mobile version of Firefox that is as close to the desktop version as possible.
Schroepfer said mobile Firefox will be able to run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow others to build rich applications via XUL.
Part of the reason Mozilla held off on entering the market was that mobile devices didn’t have the right memory or CPU specs to make Mozilla happy.
Now that many phones — and smartphones in particular — are shipping with more memory and faster processors, Mozilla thinks now is the time.
The iPhone’s Safari browser really raised the bar when it comes to the mobile browsing experience.
The Nokia browser, which is based on Safari also performs well. Google is working on a mobile browser. Microsoft already has a mobile version of Internet Explorer. Opera is stepping up the competition.
Mozilla will be a little late to the game, but late is better than never.
Posted in Google + Software + Technology + Web + Wireless |
After pushing back the release date six months, Apple has officially closed development of Leopard (OS X 10.5), according to AppleInsider, and is also putting the finishing touches on OS X 10.4.11 — what looks to be the final release of Tiger.
Manufactures are expected the receive the “Gold Master” version of the OS this week and Apple has also reportedly been seeding its support staff with initial training materials for the new OS in the form of “self-paced training modules.”
The materials cover some of the operating system’s most popular features and components, such as installation methods, Mail and BootCamp, according to AppleInsider sources.
As far as OS X 10.4.11, a MacNN report says the updates focus primarily on Dashboard, including a fix the the software’s underlying Webkit foundation and two existing issues with number-oriented widgets.
While Apple has yet to announce an official release date for Leopard, all signs have pointed to a public launch sometime during the last full business week of October, with some betting on October 26.
Posted in Apple + Software + Technology |
Want to beta test a new iPhone and Apple iPod jailbreak?
You’d have to be crazy or rich to risk sacrificing your iPhone to this cause, but if you’re up for it, you can get in on the deal at channel #betatest on irc.toc2rta.com.
If those directions need further explanation, it’s a fair indication this is an experiment you should skip.
Engadget’s Ryan Block used the proposed mechanism in the wee hours of this morning and reports success.
The upgraded iPhone’s file system was unmasked last week, giving users read-write access to handsets running 1.1.1, but little in the way of usable beef.
The hack under testing, however, combines this with a second exploit based on a well-understood vulnerability in TIFF files, a popular graphics format.
It’ll be easy for Apple to crush this one in a future update, but it’s progress.
Posted in Apple + Geekery + Technology + Wireless |
