Shallow Nation » Technology

Shuttle Launch Video, Photo: Endeavour Lifts Off, Final Space Shuttle Night Launch 2-8-10

Shallow Nation — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:57:33 +0000

Here is the Endeavour space shuttle launch video and photo from Feb. 8, 2010. The pre-dawn 4:14 am ET lift-off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL to the International Space Station (ISS) marked the final night launch of a NASA space shuttle before the fleet is retired.

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The five-person crew embarks on a 13-day mission at the ISS. Crew members include: Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and mission specialists Kay Hire, Steve Robinson, and Nicholas Patrick.

In a statement, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Operations said: “What a beautiful launch we had this morning, the orbiter performed extremely well. his is a great start to a very complicated mission.”

For more on the launch, personnel and mission, see the official NASA space shuttle Web site. Photo Credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

YouTube Link

Shuttle Launch Video, Photo: Endeavour Lifts Off, Final Space Shuttle Night Launch 2-8-10

National Geographic: World’s Toughest Fixes Satellite Launch (Video, Photos)

Shallow Nation — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:45:58 +0000

Here are National Geographic: World’s Toughest Fixes Satellite Launch video and photos. The highly anticipated series returned with a season premiere that airs on June 4, 2009 at 9 p.m. PT/ET on National Geographic channel.

The premiere episode of World’s Toughest Fixes is Satellite Launch. Handily abbreviated, WTF, World’s Toughest Fixes follows the adventures of the program’s host, professional rigger Sean Riley as he works on various assignments with top mechanics and engineers all over the world in a variety of tasks.

Each time, he proves to the crew that he is equal to the task. In no time, he is able to persuade them with his engineering skills and set to work helping them solve complex and daunting projects. Riley is noted for his wit and down to earth approach to complex problems which has made the series entertaining and popular among viewers.

In an interview, Riley explains the concept: “You have to be incredibly aware of where you are,” says Riley, “so you know from where the next heavy object is gonna come flying.”

For more background on the series see: Sean Riley’s Amazing New Show

Sean Riley, known as Riley, is the founder and principal rigging designer for the San Francisco based company Gravity Design Inc., providing innovative rigging and force management solutions worldwide, with a roster of large-scale industry clients, from circus acts to industrial installations that may involve wind turbines, underwater welding or commercial solar energy fields.

(photo credit © Molly Tait/National Geographic Television)

The season premiere of World’s Toughest, Fixes Satellite Launch is, as the title implies the launch of a satellite. Satellites are a part of our everyday life, providing the signals for our mobile phones and Internet. Yet someone has to put them into orbit. How does it happen? Riley tales pm tje task which leads him and a team of engineers and rocket scientists who travel to a jungle region where they launch a new million dollar two-ton satellite into orbit. The team is under pressure to launch within the launch window time frame.

Top Photo: KOUROU, FRENCH GUIANA: Aerial view of the engineers installing the A/C unit onto the rocket to keep the satellites at a cool temperature. (photo credit © Molly Tait/National Geographic Television)

Check out some National Geographic: World’s Toughest Fixes Satellite Launch videos below.

Video “Satellite Repair” – Some things aren’t rocket science. This is. Video Link

Photos and video courtesy of National Geographic Channel

National Geographic: Disaster Lab: Into the Tornado (Video, Photos)

National Geographic: World’s Toughest Fixes Satellite Launch (Video, Photos)

Obama BlackBerry: Sectera Edge (Photos, Video)

Shallow Nation — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:14:52 +0000

President Barack Obama has won the battle to keep his BlackBerry. See photos and video of the Sectera Edge which will be his new official phone which has been dubbed the BarackBerry. In a recent interview, he famously said, “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.” Fortunately, that will not be the case. According to the agreement, Obama is allowed to keep his BlackBerry 8830 for “personal use.” However, he must use the Sectera Edge, made by General Dynamics, which has been equipped with special encryption, for official business.

With few exceptions, government Blackberries aren’t designed for encryption that protects messages above the “SECRET” status, so it’s not clear whether Obama is getting something new and special. The exception: the Sectera Edge from General Dynamics, which allows for TOP SECRET voice conversations.

Source: Marc Ambinder: Obama Will Get His Blackberry

Here is a photo of the Sectera Edge. Source: Boy Genius Report

In a story earlier this month CNET’s Declan McCullagh speculated that this phone might be selected.

General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, a combination phone-PDA that’s been certified by the National Security Agency as being acceptable for Top Secret voice communications and Secret e-mail and Web sites. Through three separate interchangeable modules, it works with Wi-Fi, GSM, or CDMA networks, and is dust-proof, waterproof, and rugged enough to survive repeated 4-foot drops onto concrete. Physically, it’s a chunkier second cousin to the Palm Treo 750, though with an additional LCD display below the keyboard.

The price is $3,350 with a two-year warranty, a princely sum that’s reflected in the Pentagon-worthy price tags for accessories: a simple adapter for a lighter plug costs $100. (Never again should you complain about how much your civilian analogue costs.)

Source and photo source: CNET Obama’s new BlackBerry: The NSA’s secure PDA?

Barack Obama with his BlackBerry during the Presidential campaign

Additional photo source: Mail Online

While that battle is won, Obama and his White House staff are still facing the challenge of antiquated technology, outdated computer software as well as restrictions, previously reported; no use of instant messaging or outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking. “It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

Source: Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages

Here is Sectera Edge video and a compilation video of many Obama Blackberry photos. More Obama BlackBerry pictures below.

YouTube Link

Barack Obama with body man Reggie Love, during the Presidential campaign

Barack Obama dropping his BlackBerry and Secret Service retrieving it, January 16, 2009

Obama BlackBerry: Sectera Edge (Photos, Video)

Video: Bill Gates Keynote Speech at CES 2008

Shallow Nation — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:32:16 +0000

As Forbes reports,

Some 4,000 people gathered on Sunday evening at the Venetian Hotel’s Palazzo Ballroom in Las Vegas to hear Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates give his final speech to the high-tech world’s mega-conference. Gates has traditionally used the speech as a pulpit for predicting the techno-future or for unveiling an ambitious new product line from Microsoft. This year, he clearly had more on his mind than just the next gadget.

“Do You Believe in Magic?” sang the sound track, as a video warm up flashed through images of people having fun with digital gear, from Xbox games to music-playing Zunes and PCs. A battalion of Microsoft’s industry partners, including Randy Fry, chairman of Fry’s Electronics, filed into front-row seats at the last minute from side doors.

At 6:40 p.m., Gates stepped onto the stage, clad in a lavender sweater and check shirt and black slacks to a very warm, but not excessively long round of applause. He went straight to talk of his legacy.

“My first keynote was in 1994,” Gates began, “and within a few years of that we entered the first digital decade.” He ticked off the ways the industry has changed: PCs are everywhere. Broadband Internet access went from zero to practically ubiquitous. Now there are just as many music CDs sold (618 million) as digital song downloads (614 million). Mobile devices are practically as smart now as PCs were back then. Microsoft’s Sync technology in Ford (nyse: F – news – people ) vehicles is winning raves, as was promised in the same speech last year. Gates also talked in years past of the television merging with the Internet, a vision that has become reality in an interactive TV service called Microsoft Mediaroom, in use by one million customers of British Telecom (nyse: BT – news – people ), AT&T (nyse: T – news – people ) and Deutsche Telekom (nyse: DT – news – people ).

“This is just a beginning,” Gates said. “Nothing is holding us back from going much faster and further in the second digital decade.”

Even so, Gates conceded that he won’t have as much of a hand in the next phase of the Internet.

“This is my last keynote,” said Gates, who turned 52 in October. “This will be the first time since I was 17 that I won’t have my first full time job at Microsoft.

“I’m still not sure how I’m going to feel when that day comes,” he conceded.

Here is the Bill Gates CES 2008 video.