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Author Archives: Alexander Szewczak
The hidden personal cost of your computer ecosystem
Is quite high, and not so hidden, actually. Almost every day something major needs to be updated, whether it’s a smart phone, tablet or laptop computer. Many of us end up running our own personal IT department at home.
Posted in Information Technology
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Live Blogging the 2015 Lunar Eclipse
Updated whenever I remembered to step away from the Broncos game.
Anyone else find it curious that Burning Man has a rigid, logical city plan that is strictly enforced?
Burning Man, the annual free and open creative festival in the desert — where no one is allowed to use money, and anything goes — has a very logically organized and strictly enforced city plan (see above). With a population of over 60,000, “Black … Continue reading
Rosetta’s Day in the Sun
The other big space exploration story this year is the ongoing Rosetta mission at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, including the reawakening of the Philae probe on the comet surface after 211 days of hibernation. Above are recent images of the comet at its closest approach to … Continue reading
The Vistas of Pluto
New high resolution data inbound from New Horizons contains some amazing views of Pluto. The image above reveals thin upper layers of atmosphere and mountains illuminated at a shallow angle through a surface level haze. Other views have features that resemble parts of an Earth-like … Continue reading
Robotic bricklayer lays bricks three times faster than a human
… but does still leave the complicated work to humans. Construction workers on some sites are getting new, non-union help. SAM – short for semi-automated mason – is a robotic bricklayer being used to increase productivity as it works with human … Continue reading
What’s happening to iPads?
Sales of Apple’s iPads have begun to decline, with double digit drops in unit sales year over year. Interest in the devices as judged by Google searches has noticeably dropped (red line). If the historical record for the iPod (blue line) is any guide, iPads may be about to enter … Continue reading
The cold, thin atmosphere of Pluto
Pluto’s thin atmosphere is mainly nitrogen, and leaking away from the planet at a significant rate. Scientists speculate that cryovolcanic activity is continually releasing enough new nitrogen vapor to keep the atmosphere from completely dissappearing. Cryovolcanic. That’s a term you … Continue reading
Tonight’s Perseid meteor shower
No moon, and — for the moment — clear skies are making for some excellent viewing conditions here in Eastern Massachusetts. If you’re still awake, go outside, look up, and wait a bit. I saw two really nice shooting stars … Continue reading
The Icy Mountains of Pluto
Some compressed images are starting to arrive from Pluto. This photo shows an area of mountains, probably composed of water ice. Surprisingly unmarked by impact craters, the features must be fairly young, possibly less than 100 million years old. They may … Continue reading
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