On this site I write about my various projects and share my thoughts on areas that interest me including, but not limited to, vertical search engines, cloud computing, social networking, Twitter, space exploration and the semantic web.
Vint Cerf, co-creator of the TCP/IP protocols that just happen to be part of the core internet and SpaceRef adviser recently spoke about the future of the internet.
Working the weekend turned out to be quite productive with Keith and I coming up with new ideas for On Orbit as well me solving the programming puzzle of getting our content management system (CMS) Intercat working our new social news service Mercury. Now whenever one of our editors adds a story using our CMS it automatically gets categorized and added to Mercury. Along with our news stories being added to Mercury any member will be able to add stories and have users comment and vote on them.
One of the smaller services I’m trying to get ready for the launch is what I’ve called dTwitter. Basically this is Drupal module that allows users to view their Tweets on On Orbit as well as updating their Tweets.
Keith and I made the decision to move back the launch of On Orbit to September 12th. Since I’m on travel between the 5th and 11th it made no sense to launch on the 4th when I won’t be around to closely monitor things.
Of note to those of you interested in NASA, the young crowd at Ames has started a new blog called Open NASA. It’s an offsite blog geared towards “open content transparency and participatory engagement at NASA”. It’s worth keeping track of. They get it.
The countdown clock is reset, we are now at T-minus 16 days before On Orbit launch to our alpha users.
After a couple of frustrating days of programming I’m finally making some headway with the integration of the various platforms that make up On Orbit. Our own content management system will shortly be able to post stories to our new social news service Mercury. What’s cool about Mercury is that anyone who has an account can upload a story. As well anyone can upload to our new video service. The news and video will be brought to you courtesy our staff and you the public.
I don’t know how realistic it is that we’ll launch on September 4th. I think we could do it, but it really will be “Alpha”. As I have to travel on the 5th to Montreal for a meeting with the Canadian Space Agency for a couple of days I’m nervous about the timing. I’m inclined to wait until the 12th when I get back from my trip. That way I can focus on the meetings and not deal with the inevitable “Alpha” bugs.
Lior Ron, Product Manager for Google Earth announced today on the Google LatLong blog the new release today of the Sky in Google Earth. In a break from programming I gave it a try. At first glance it works well.
“Today, I’m excited to announce we are launching Sky in Google Earth. You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it’s like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command — your own personal planetarium!”
On Orbit video section coming along nicely and will be ready for the launch. Started integration on home page of social news service called ‘Mercury’. There’s still some integration issues with Intercat to overcome. Style sheet for the site is also taking shape. It’s very different than what we have with SpaceRef now and has a bit of an Apple look to it. The site is designed so that we can have optional layouts in the future that can be changed at a moments notice. Of course they have to be programmed ahead of time.
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