Space & Tech newsdump

Busy with uni work and yes, projects! =P
[need to finish an Android app in two 1-week sprints that allows year 10 students to learn functional programming by doing it!]
So as pointed out already, I'll abandon the idea of posting news items as blog articles regularly. This doesn't mean I'll stop posting all news type articles though!

Because I don't want to spend the time regurgitating news articles in nice English, here's a link dump of noteworthy articles in the past few weeks: (it also serves as a personal favourite/bookmarker =P) =D

http://www.sciencealert.com/australian-researchers-have-converted-sunlight-into-electricity-with-more-than-40-efficiency

http://garethhayes.net/hackrf-blue/

http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2014/11/22/private-cubesat-start-ups-join-the-space-race/14165748001263

www.space.com/27588-nasa-asteroid-capture-mission-mars.html

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/factory-upgrade

Why CSIRO is important:
http://csironewsblog.com/2014/11/20/megans-seven-reasons/

gmailblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/going-under-hood-of-inbox.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/01/penniless_and_desperate_wikipedia_sits_on_60m_cash/

http://lunar.xprize.org/news/blog/lunar-mission-one-takes-crowd-funded-route-moon

www.space.com/27936-nasa-orion-spaceship-survives-test-flight.html

http://www.space.com/27833-nasa-orion-capsule-first-test-flight-infographic.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/wiki/faq

www.space.com/27944-nasa-orion-spaceship-textbook-spaceflight.html

http://www.csoonline.com/article/2853027/malware-cybercrime/report-hacker-group-fin4-stealing-insider-info-to-exploit-significant-changes-in-stock-prices.html

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/09/when-adding-bike-lanes-actually-reduces-traffic-delays/379623/

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/12/08/jaxa-testing-deep-space-microsat-with-asteroid-flyby/

http://www.livescience.com/49028-farthest-quantum-teleportation.html

www.space.com/27955-spacex-rocket-ocean-landing-platform.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-plugs-into-australia-20141209-story.html
Tesla finally updates their website to show superchargers on the Hume Hwy in 2015! YESS!! Can't wait to drive a Tesla from MEL-CBR! =)

Space and Tech update - This week in Space! & Tech!

Had the webpages going for a blog post, decided now that I'm on holiday (for a week) I've gotta work on actual stuff including projects instead of blogging news. So here's a list of somewhat outdated links/quick rundown.

www.space.com/27741-google-leases-nasa-moffett-field.html
- yay for Google acquisitions and diversifying into hardware tech =) I might actually want to work for google's hardware subsidiaries if I could =D

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30026398
- we landed on a comet
www.space.com/27756-comet-landing-google-doodle.html
- technically a robot did but whatever, also got great pics
http://xkcd1446.org/
- and xkcd did live updates on it

www.space.com/27684-orion-space-capsule-test-flight.html
 - wow, I thought we were behind on this project, oh wait, that was the horribly executed SLS. How did they manage to screw up everything in both the analysis and design phases? I mean they wrote the book on Systems Eng and SDLC.

www.space.com/27669-orbital-sciences-rocket-explosion-soviet-engines.html
 - they're not gonna use the 40 year old (built) engines anymore. yay.


EDIT: Forgot Virgin Galactic news
http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20141106/US-Space-Tourism-Virgin-Galactic/ - looks to resume tests in 2015
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-ntsb-will-have-no-quick-answers-after-virgin-galactic-405675/
www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/06/us-space-crash-virgin-new-idUSKBN0IQ02920141106
http://www.betawired.com/ntsb-theorizes-miscommunication-may-have-led-to-virgin-galactic-crash/1415503/
- Feathering system deployed early 
http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2014/141112.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOSNVJzZn90
- NTSB last daily briefing

TECH:

http://news.microsoft.com/2014/11/12/microsoft-takes-net-open-source-and-cross-platform-adds-new-development-capabilities-with-visual-studio-2015-net-2015-and-visual-studio-online/
- Interesting ... open source big leagues now?
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-open-source-more-of-net-and-bring-it-to-linux-mac-os-x-7000035716/
- Still wouldn't trust them with my dev environment though. Even after all those great trust building things they've done in the past. /sarcasm

Making fuel from seawater, FOSS, USPTO and copyright

The US navy is researching methods to make fuel from seawater and have a working prototype!
This has been a many-year effort.
Basically CO2 is extracted from sea-water by acidifying seawater with HCl and using electrolysis to extract CO2 and H2.
Then, using a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst and high temperatures (190C) long-chain hydrocarbons can be formed. 

Both main reactions/processes are obviously endothermic and require energy, so you wouldn't expect a ship to make their own hydrocarbon fuel and run on it, so ships can't be self-sufficient and not need to dock for fuel. However, it also means a whole new supply chain can be opened up which don't require traditional shipping/supply of oil from oil rigs and mines around the world.

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Yay for Linux on military drones courtesy of Raytheon! It might be a smart move to do stuff like open API for cost redundancy reduction and inefficiency reduction. Security through obscurity is not real security, so it's arguable no less safe than a proprietary *nix system like Oracle.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/05/us-military-drones-are-going-to-start-running-on-linux/

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Speaking of open APIs, wtf is this:
Oracle granted API copyright, wins vs Google.
I mean, we've been down this road before with software patents and all their predicted detriments, and now you can copyright an API. Not sure how closely your API can resemble another's but this is treading deep into the patenting an idea. Maybe in 10 years time I can patent the idea of mining asteroids, even though Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries would have been going at it for 10+years. Then I'll just receive royalties from any enterprising new-space company or project and live in luxury while drowning my guilt and shame and morality in loads of ice-cream. Also, everyone will have to hire more lawyers and the ratio of lawyers to engineers, scientists and other staff would be 50-50 in any technology company. And all the lawyers will be busy doing nothing but harming everyone.

And speaking of horrible copyright and patent rulings, if you know me you should know how much I look down on the USPTO - I have no hope in it. I mean, they just let Amazon patent taking photos against a white background! Watch out, passport photo takers! - That Star Trek double face-palm image is quite apt, so is "credibility reaching zero".

GLXP (Google Lunar X Prize) $420 million?!

So as far X Prizes (suborbital plane, tricorder, lunar, etc.) go, I'm pretty sure I've already intimated they were all cool.

I have been following GLXP - my favourite - for a while now and talked/planned how to participate with Lunar Numbat as part of White Label Space (now "Hakuto") team.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to point out and critique shoddy reporting which doesn't verify its sources as two outlets say Google is offering $420 million in prizes. Since the first prize is $20 million, I'm assuming someone accidentally pressed another '4' after pressing 'shift-4' which is '$' on US keyboards. Then it got thru QA and was published as $420 million instead of $20. Well there is a total of $40 million in prizes, but not even NASA is spending that kind of money in 'prizes' unless you go through all milestones of a CCDev1&2.

Uchuu Kyoudai dubbing from space =P

Haha, just watched the episode that aired today from Uchuu Kyoudai aka Space Brothers!
The dubbing part (aka 1st voice acting in space) was funny although he was a bit monotone ><
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com.au/news/2012-10-08/astronaut-successfully-dubs-space-brothers-anime-from-space
よく頑張ったな！
coughgetyourepisodesfromcyber12orwatchliveatkeyholetvmaybeandbuythestuffwhenitbecomeavailableinyourregion=Dcough

Watch him speak IRL in a google hangout with some funs =P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36zs0w1fEZA&feature=share&list=UUfMIdADo6FQayQCOkLYGhrQ
OMG at 1:25:35 you see the author of the Uchuu Kyoudai manga appear =O =D

For my Australian friends, the movie's screening in Sydney and Melbourne:
http://www.japanesefilmfestival.net/film-spacebrothers.html
Too bad I'm in neither city at the time it's being aired =(
Will have to wait for DVD to come out or go to Japan and watch it =P


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Again, ETA of Ubunchu -  out this week =)