Putting rest to fears that the Phoenix Lander might be DOA, the lander wagged its robotic arm on Thursday. NASA was worried that a stuck piece of plastic casing could prohibit the 7.7 ft titanium appendage from extending, making it impossible for the Phoenix to carry out crucial drilling experiments.
The primary goal of the mission is to drill a few inches into Martian soil, where scientists think they might find red “water-ice,” known on earth as strawberry Slushee, which could provide compelling evidence that life once did (or one day could) exist there. Digging is expected to begin soon, but for now there’s plenty of terrain porn at the Phoenix official website [Phoenix via NY Times] -by John Herrman
Via [Gizmodo]
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The European Union’s Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment (SAFEE) is testing some kind of nebulous facial detection system that’ll suss out whether your expression is one of a terrorist planning on commandeering the ride or just diarrhea face.
This software will look for nervous face touching, profuse sweating and various other ticks that passengers do all the time. A guy from UCSD built a similar system, but states it only identifies people correctly 70% of the time and only under optimal conditions, which don’t exist in airplanes. Sounds foolproof! [Newscientist via Boing Boing]
Via [Gizmodo]
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While someone interested in finger-flicking Sprint’s Instinct iPhone-foe when it launches June 20 would probably want a hearty data plan to get the most out of it, Sprint’s going a step further and making you get one: Its lowest-end Simply Everything plan at $69.99 a month, which comes with unlimited web, email, GPS and other stuff (sans tethering), and 450 minutes talk time. (Though you can get unlimited chatting too for $99.99 total in what’s probably the ideal of the four carriers’ unlimited plans.) BTW, while CW says no set price, we were told $299 last month—hopefully this means it’ll be even cheaper. Update: Yup, we added in some mo’ details. [Computerworld via Unwired View]
Via [Gizmodo]
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Space beer. It’s right up there with space wrestling as something that’s long overdue, but the wait will soon be over. Sapporo will launch a beer in November that’s brewed from International Space Station-grown barley. Initially, only 100 bottles of the space brew will be made, and none of them released commercially, and it’s unlikely […]
Space beer. It’s right up there with space wrestling as something that’s long overdue, but the wait will soon be over. Sapporo will launch a beer in November that’s brewed from International Space Station-grown barley. Initially, only 100 bottles of the space brew will be made, and none of them released commercially, and it’s unlikely that the beer will taste any different. But that’s irrelevant. Sapporo could slap a “SPACE BEER” label on a bottle and it’ll sell out everywhere.
There’s a scientific reason for the beer, and it’s to determine the effects of space on growing edible plants. Not that you care.
via Popular Science
Via [crunchgear]
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In the next update to Valve’s Steam client, which distributes and manages Computer games, and is probably the ideal digital distribution setup around (other software companies wish they’d a setup half as good), Valve will be throwing cloud computing into the mix. Called Steam Cloud, the update will let you store profiles, keybindings and all of your save games online, in addition to social networking features like calendars and stuff. The cloud storage is free. Why is this a large deal?
A game company is taking the lead with two very hyped developments in how we consume software—digital distribution and cloud computing. Steam was already groundbreaking in the way it eliminated physical media from the large software equation on a mass level, and and Steam Cloud does something similar, bringing cloud computing to the masses. (It’s been so successful Steam sales are about to overtake box sales for Valve.)
Google does this to an extent with Google Docs but by integrating it with the Steam client, Valve takes it a little further—it doesn’t matter whose Personal computer you’re on, all of your stuff is there, waiting. Ironically, as much as Microsoft’s trying to fend off the cloud, Xbox Live presents a pretty awesome chance to dive into it and do something similar—they already do with respect to software distribution. [Maximum Computer]
Via [Gizmodo]
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