Here's where you can follow Space Shuttle Atlantis' last mission online

Because I am such a fan and this final adventure for Atlantis closes 25 years of historical space exploration, I have taken the liberty of copying Tim Conneally's complete article posting from betanews.com with all pertinent links below. Follow the Atlantis over the next 11 days. 

http://www.betanews.com/article/Heres-where-you-can-follow-Space-Shuttle-Atlantis-last-mission-online/1273851175? 

"Here's where you can follow Space Shuttle Atlantis' last mission online

By Tim Conneally | Published May 14, 2010, 11:32 AM

NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled end its 25-year career with one final trip into space today. The shuttle will be manned by six astronauts and is expected to be in flight for twelve days. The STS-132 mission is to deliver equipment to the International Space Station which includes a Russian Mini-Research Module, a set of batteries for the station's truss and dish antenna, and other replacement parts.

However, the launch takes place today at 2:20pm EST, a time when most of the United States is at work.

Fortunately, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is making it very easy to follow the action online. NASA isbroadcasting the event live on its website, and is running a launch blog which provides frequent updates on the status of the launch.

Additionally, some excellent information can be found on both NASA and the Kennedy Space Center's Twitter feeds at @NASA, @NASAKennedy(the above picture was a TwitPic from Kennedy.)

Other useful twitter profiles to follow today are@NASA_Astronauts, and @nasatweetup."

Again, the above article was written and published by Tim Conneally for www.betanews.com

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

Four Nerds & a Cry Against Facebook

From The New York Times:

"Four N.Y.U. students have decided people should be able to communicate online without surrendering their privacy to a big business."

"Diaspora* group was inspired after hearing a talk by Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University, who described centralized social networks as 'spying for free'."

Read their story and how they raised money to set up Diaspora. Great OpenSource initiative.  http://nyti.ms/d01noz

Their Twitter = joindiaspora

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

Preparing your website development for the near future now - Choosing for hosting, servers, cloud computing & integration

For Kids2020Foundation.com, we have been getting informed by the experts about how to make choices for hosting and servers. Cost, security, scaleability and processes. The words of wisdom have been "cloud computing" -using services like Amazon's or Google's. 

Ran across this article from ZDNet, which explains the key integration issues and benefits.

"Cloud-based integration platforms allow you to design, build, monitor, and manage integrations centrally (from the cloud) - yet deploy just the runtime to where the integration needs to occur – either in the cloud or on premise."

Separating the runtime, while unifying the administrative and management functions, eliminates unneeded complexity and dramatically increases the quality of:

1. Collaboration
2. Component Re-use
3. Data visibility and control
4. Policy standardization and enforcement
5. Configuration management
6. Monitoring
7. Auditing/validation
8. Reporting

They deliver the same benefits as SaaS applications themselves including:

1. Significantly reduced cost structure
2. No integration products to install and maintain
3. Automatic upgrades – no “rev lock” issues
4. Usage based pricing – can start small and expand over time
5. Global connectivity and access

Added benefit - positioned for the future - With a cloud integration platform, applications and data sources outside your firewalls can easily be added to your portfolio using the same distributed runtime, centralized management framework."

Read more here: http://bit.ly/axKfuj

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

What happens when there are no more IP addresses to give out?

"The speed with which the remaining pool of net addresses are being used up seems to be accelerating."

Go to BBC to read the original article.

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

Panel of experts discuss implications of Facebook as parallel social universe

The Allure of the Hive: Social Networking and Social Change

Roundtable

Participants: Nicole Ellison, David Kirkpatrick, Dhiraj Murthy, Sean Parker, Andrew Rasiej (other panelists TBA)

Video

"Facebook is more than a "social network." It is a parallel universe of relationships and social life, which for many of its 500 million users has become a field of action nearly as significant as their real-world interactions. The average American user spends more than six hours per month on Facebook, and increasingly uses it as a primary tool for communication. Facebook and other Internet social media occupy a larger and larger portion of the time people spend online, becoming massively potent forces of change whose impact we are only beginning to comprehend. 

How does the new world of digital "friendship" affect our social life in the real world? How are we ourselves changing as we increasingly inhabit yet another virtual universe? What does the growing penetration of Facebook and social media portend for the way life will be lived, and how will it affect how we organize ourselves, from family life to politics? 

One of the primary architects of Facebook joins experts on individual empowerment and Internet media to elucidate the impact of this looming presence in modern life."

http://philoctetes.org/Calendar/The_Allure_of_the_Hive_Social_Networking_and_Social_Change/

Also read the supporting blog from Huffington Post explaining more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-luce/allure-of-the-hive-expert_b_569444.html 

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

FEAR.LESS MAGAZINE HAS LAUNCHED. – fear.less - stories of overcoming fear

fear.less first online magazine dedicated to stories of overcoming fear.

"Are you ready for your fears to 

tremble in their boots? Are you ready to learn from the inspiring stories of those who have come before you? Are you ready to pay absolutely nothing for it?"

In light of a world framed by news that continually provokes our fears, this new approach for sharing and crowdsourcing our fears is refreshing.  

http://fearlessstories.com/uncategorized/fear-less-magazine-has-launched/

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

Dan Yoder's blog on "10 Reasons to Delete your Facebook Account" targets issues

What do you think about your user contract with Facebook?

The comments to Dan Yoder's blogpost are as interesting as this post. They spotlight the value-based issues with social media and reflect people's desires to roam free of restrictions or exploitation. Gives us greater insight into perspectives coming from the fringe in the wider digital arena.

You can read more on his actual blog http://rocket.ly

Business Insider posted a copy of Dan's blog - and has the list of comments referred to above.
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-reasons-to-delete-your-facebook-account-2010-5

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

Growing digital literacy through the Digital Media and Learning Lab

"Digital Media and Learning Research Hub is located at the systemwide University of California Humanities Research Institute and hosted at the UC Irvine campus. We think digital media practices are fundamentally reshaping society in far-reaching ways, especially in how people all around the world are learning and connecting with one another."

Check out the bibliography for papers on digital literacy.  

http://dmlcentral.net/

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous

It’s Complicated: Making Sense of Complexity

From The New York Times:

"Complexity used to be so simple. It meant progress. We liked it. Now the most intractable issues of our age, from war to finance, are tangled in ways that inspire headaches, not awe."

http://s.nyt.com/u/XvG_

Posted via email from colby pre-posterous