How Big is the Universe and what does it look like?

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There are loads of ways of visualising the universe – through radiation, dark matter, gravitational fields, distribution of visible light etc. And then there are the times as which the universe is visualised – at the beginning, as it grows, now and projected into the future. String theory makes for even more different ways of looking at it as multiple concurrent universes can be visualised and there are loads of thing you can (thoeretically) do with the fabric of space to visualise it differently yet again. The images obtained are very compelling and diverse indeed.

NASAs WMAP program uses microwave images

and has made a time line of the universe and it’s expansion

They have many more images on their site.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Simply put, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is the most ambitious astronomical survey ever undertaken. When completed, it will provide detailed optical images covering more than a quarter of the sky, and a 3-dimensional map of about a million galaxies and quasars. As the survey progresses, the data are released to the scientific community and the general public in annual increments.

They have a lot of datapoints on their sites and quite a few images.

But Spaceref had the only picture I could find with everything they’d mapped on it in one go.


The San Diego Supercomputer Centre goes about running huge complex models of the evolution of the universe

The Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik has some lovely movies and pictures of large-scale structure simulations. They ran the Millenium Simulation, the largest and most realistic simulation ever developed.

More of their images are to be found here

Big national databases

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The UK is on guard after a huge database containing loads of trivial details of everyone under 18 and accessible to around 400,00 people is called ‘unsafe’ – duh.

At the same time the US is parading it’s huge counter terrorism database – which no one will ever hack. Really.

You’d have thought they’d have learnt what having these large databases can do after the Germans marched into the Netherlands and used the most comprehensive people registrar in the world (at the time) to round up all the Jews. Guess not.

Digital Tablet

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I bought a Logitech digital pen once, and it turned out to be a total white elephant – you could only use it on special (and expensive) paper that seems to reflect the optical laser to itself. So you were stuck carrying around the pen, the noteblock and post-its because you couldn’t use it on anything else.

Aiptek has a digital tablet that can do the same thing, but at EUR. 113, it’s cheaper than the pen, and looks as though you can use any pen on. So no worries about renewables. Looks good to me!

Nimbuzz

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Nimbuzz is the new Skype for mobile phones – free phonecalls and text messages to other mobile phones connected to the Nimbuzz network (over GSM, not GPRS/UMTS/etc). It seems to be out for a lot of brands, including a version for the Palm Tungsten C as well as the usual crop of Nokias etc. It also comes for Windows PCs. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it for my Treo, so can’t tell you much more about it, but this looks worth following, as Skype isn’t looking at Palm at all yet.
It’s all still in alpha / beta and you download it using your phone’s browser.

Ethical Stem Cells

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Currently stem cell useage requires the embryo be destroyed, which is why it is termed unethical in the puritan United States.

Professor Robert Lanza, medical director of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Massachusetts, US, and lead author on the paper, said: “We have shown for the first time you can create human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo and thus without destroying its potential for life.”

This is done by removing single cells from the embryo.

There’s some controversy about how Professor Lanza conducted his research to find this out and he claims the baby is undamaged, but I have no idea how redundant cells are in the emryonic stage.
At least something is being done to allow cancer sufferers the hope of research in this line of medical science from US clinics.

Flying Cubes

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Note: I got this email in from Moondust, but thought it was well worth posting here.

This compares interfaces from Ubuntu, Mac and Windows – it’s great how far Linux has come: it looks way better than Mac and Windoze…

So, check out these videos and tell me which interface you’d rather use.

1. Windows with a little more polish (still fugly)
2. A shiny but tame UI for hardware you don’t have, or
3. The Cube From Beyond (mine has 5 sides)

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2915/linux_xglcompiz_graphics

No really, check out these videos.

[salesmode]

And in case you were wondering, linux has *excellent* support for Wacom
kit. (Using a Graphire4 here).

Photoshop-wise there’s GIMPShop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMPshop

Vector-wise there’s Inkscape
http://www.inkscape.org/screenshots/index.php

You can even run IE6 natively for testing webapps,
http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/

That funky live-desktop-search stuff?
http://beagle-project.org/Main_Page

Need WoW?
http://wiki.kaspersandberg.com/doku.php?id=howtos:wine:worldofwarcraft

Skype, Google Earth, Adobe, etc all have native Linux builds.
It’s gotta tell you something when these guys consider linux a market.

You want chat?
http://gaim.sf.net/
It’s nicer and multi-protocol! I log into two work accounts, icq and
gtalk (and sometimes msn) all the time!

Manage your photos?
http://f-spot.org/Main_Page

Do some DTP?
http://scribus.sourceforge.net/gallery/

But, but – it’s linux, so all this is hard to install? Hell no, get up
and running with a single cd in under an hour!

But, but, linux doesn’t support most hardware! The hell it does, if it’s
been on the market for over 6 months I don’t even bother to check the
compatibility lists for most things!

Developing Java? Ha! Eclipse, JBuilder, NetBeans and friends are all
linux native! Developing PHP? apt-get install and let every developer
run their own database and webserver with mod_php for testing!

Need media? Your camera, ipod, scanner, usb drives, etc all work out of
the box! Need to burn stuff? Why bother with the linux native version of
Nero when you have gnomebaker and k3b?

Need playback, media centers and whatnot? We have it all!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythTV
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
http://xinehq.de/index.php/releases
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

Audio playback?
http://www.gnome.org/projects/rhythmbox/screenshots.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarok_(audio)
http://www.lynucs.org/?xmms

Sync your phone?
http://www.multisync.org/

Browsers? You use t3h web and still run IE? Pfah! Take your pick from
Firefox, Flock, Opera or Konqueror! Or do you think that IE7 will fix
everything for you? (If you do, I have some profitable swampland in
Florida for sale.. it’s a bargain!)

Email?
http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/
Oh, you really like Outlook? (Why?)
http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/

Collaboration and calendaring?
http://www.hula-project.org/Hula_Project

Come on, who are you kidding? Install Ubuntu today, it’s not like I’m
asking you to touch the command line..

And the coolest part? You won’t have to go through the hassle of
installing Vista for your own personal use sometime next decade.

[/salesmode]

-Michiel.

PS – What virus scanner, product code, online registration, malware
shields, etc? None of the above! And the Cube has an “inside” toggle, so
when you flip it you are no longer outside the Cube, intstead it rotates
around you. Muchos cool.

—
Move ‘zig’ for Great Justice.

The Ultimate Briefcase

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I’ve been looking around for a laptop case that can hold all my other stuff, as well as looking stylish and have a shoulder strap. The first thing I looked for were pilot cases, but these rarely come with a strap and for us non-pilots, have impractical innards.
The ultimate for us business types seems to be Tumi, a brand name recognised everywhere. One massive disadvantage: cost.
The model I chose (there are loads of different models) is the leather (don’t like nylon) Generation 4.4 Briefs Safecase Expandable Organizer Computer Brief, style: 96160 (use the style number to search for it on internet).
The price structure is rigid, which means in the stores in NL you can find it for EUR. 675,- and not much differences at all and on internet $ 575,- (but you can get some deals with shipping). Apparently the Ebay ones you can find for around $ 480,- are real, but contain manufacturing flaws.