Apparently HTTPS is going to be standard for all Facebook users:
As announced last year, we are moving to HTTPS for all users. This week, we’re starting to roll out HTTPS for all North America users and will be soon rolling out to the rest of the world.
Great move, I’m glad they are finally getting to that point. Performance should improve over time as it appears they are on board with SPDY. I think that this will benefit them in the long run. Users win the day it rolls out.
The Verge has an interesting article, video and photo essay on the repair efforts at Verizon’s Broad Street facility after Hurricane Sandy. It’s amazing to see the mess of copper. Sadly, even before Hurricane Sandy this was hardly awesome infrastructure, it’s generations old copper. The upside is it’s now being modernized, the downside is that this is a real drag for anyone who relies on that facility.
The Big Bang Theory did a surprise flash mob. Some more video, apparently taken by someone in the audience can be found here. The real gem of the whole thing is in the background: Sheldon never breaks out of character. Dr. Sheldon Cooper FTW indeed.
Disclosure: I’m a CBS employee. This blog however is not affiliated in any way.
Reading about this theft of iPads from a cargo hanger at JFK. Just like everyone else my mind went immediately to the iconic movie Goodfellas.
Who knew this sort of thing would still be an issue in 2012 at JFK?
This is a really cool performance, and uses a Tesla Coil. It’s a great performance to put on at night.
I was reading Austin Mayer’s blog post on shuttle orbiter re-entry when this piece struck me:
After de-orbit burn, the shuttle heads for the atmosphere at 400,000 feet, 17,000 miles per hour, and 5,300 miles away from Edwards. (Yes, you are landing in the Mojave desert and you are starting your landing approach West of Hawaii). Not a bad pattern entry, huh? In reality, the autopilot flies the the entire 30-minute re-entry, and the astronauts do not take over the controls of the shuttle until the final 2 minutes of the glide. The astronauts COULD fly the entire re-entry by hand, but it is officially discouraged by NASA. The reason is obvious… these speeds and altitudes are way outside of normal human conception, so our ability to “hand-fly” these approaches is next to nil.
In the history of Shuttle missions (the 100th mission has just come to a close as I write this), the real space shuttle has been hand-flown for the entire re-entry only ONCE, by an ex-marine pilot, as I understand it, who was ready for the ultimate risk and challenge.
A few minutes of research suggests this was Joe Engle a retired U.S. Air Force Major General and a former NASA astronaut. The Wikipedia entry credits him as “the only astronaut to have manually flown the shuttle through reentry and landing”. It should be noted however that he flew Shuttle Enterprise, and from 25,000 feet to landing. He didn’t re-enter the atmosphere from space. That however doesn’t diminish the task. He flew what was likely the worlds heaviest and untested glider successfully by hand. An absolutely insane task, and succeeded!
From Mozilla Research:
Shumway is an experimental web-native runtime implementation of the SWF file format. It is developed as a free and open source project sponsored by Mozilla Research…
I’m pretty amazed by this one. In 2009 JS was emulating the NES. In 2012 it’s running SWF. That’s really impressive if you think about it. JavaScript is slowly taking over the world.
From BBC:
By putting 3D printers behind the front line it hopes to be able to produce spares more cheaply and quickly than it can get them from manufacturers.
The army embarked on the project to produce its own printer as commercial devices were too expensive.
Early versions of the printer cost $695 (£436) compared to $3,000 (£1,880) for a commercial model.
It makes total sense if you think about it. One of the biggest weaknesses in Iraq for a long time were supply convoys. They were constantly being attacked and subjected to IED’s. Keeping the front lines supplied is critical to any battle. If they could refabricate just a few critical things it would reduce the impacts of this vulnerability.
Of course one also wonders why the military, especially after Iraq doesn’t stress alternative full supplies more than they do. One in eight casualties was due to fuel supply convoys. It’s apparently something they are working hard on. It would be a major strategic victory if they had such technology they could rely on. Perhaps in the future, our military on the front lines will actually be self sufficient and not relying on convoys to bring supplies. It would save many lives.
Not to mention, applying these things to other non-military uses would be a major win too. Imagine being able to deploy such capabilities to a natural disaster. First responders would be much more productive than they are capable of being today.
Logistics is expensive, and time-consuming at best. Reducing logistics makes dangerous situations better. These technologies can and likely will eventually change the world and how our military and first responders will respond to a crisis. It’s pretty impressive to see where things are headed.
Washington Post has an interesting piece on DuckDuckGo. It’s a pretty interesting approach to taking on a giant. In many ways it reminds me of how Mozilla took on Microsoft in the browser wars.
For those who haven’t upgraded to the iPhone 5, allow me to illustrate why apps on the iPhone 5 that haven’t been updated are frustrating.