Science Friction

Old friends and new faces at the Digital Media Awards

As I've already mentioned I attended the O2 Digital Media Awards on Thursday nigh. Before anyone starts, I should point out that I considered it work. Albeit work where I was fed a very nice meal and was served as much rock shandy as I could drink.

The surprise of the night was running into an old friend from college I hadn't seen in about 20 years. Brendan 'Speedy' Smith was Vice President of the Students Union when I started first year at UCG. He is now involved with the Galway Education Centre which provided equipment to two of the primary schools whose projects had been nominated.

One interesting piece of news he gave me was that the Students' Union in NUI Galway had closed down the travel office. This was one of the most important functions of the Union when I was studying there as it gave students access to cheapish travel. Nothing, I think, exemplifies the changes society has undergone over the last 20 years more than this. Everybody now has access to cheap airline travel and bookings can be done over the Internet.

I also ran into Liam Donohoe and Eanna O'Bradaigh from Apple Computer; Brendan O'Connor, Liam's predecessor at Apple Ireland and formerly head honcho at Apple UK but now back in Dublin working with Electric Paper.

The awards ceremony was a bit rushed. David McWilliams couldn't seem to keep up with the display and very often the winner's name in each category was flashed up on screen before the presenter had even opened the envelope let alone read out the name.

Still, it was a most enjoyable evening and maybe if I'm good they'll invite me again next year.

Nasa to rethink Hubble decision

This is good news.

[BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Fly My Stuff to the Moon

With all of the attention focused on President Bush's new space vision and the success of Opportunity and Spirit on Mars, little attention has been given to this story about a private mission to the moon due to finally launch this year. [SPACE.com]

Novel written in French SMS slang

I ran into Dick O'Brien from Backseat Drivers and Eamon McGrane from Irish Computer at the O2 Digital Media Awards. We spoke of many things including the use of slang in SMS text messages. That is probably why this post at Boing Boing caught my eye

A French publisher has released a novel written entirely in Franco-SMS-slang, in a move calculated to piss off the French language academics who keep tight reins on the introduction of neologisms into French parlance.

Thus an example passage in the book has a Dtektive (detective) asking the villain: "6 j t'aspRge d'O 2 kologne histoar 2 partaG le odeurs ke tu me fe subir?"

Which, once expanded and translated, would come across as "What if I spray you with cologne so you can share the smells you make me suffer?"

Other sentences showcase the French equivalents of terms along the same lines as English Internet equivalents that have given rise to "LOL" (for Laugh Out Loud), D8 (for date), OMG (for Oh My God) and OvR8d (for overrated).

[Boing Boing Blog]

Travel times

File this one under incredible but true. This story in the Telegraph reveals that travelling to Glasgow from London via Frankfurt (Hahn) with Ryanair is not only cheaper but is faster than the train. The article carries plenty of other examples including a trip from Aberdeen to Glasgow via Dublin, which is cheaper but slower than the train. It also recounts the story of a Liverpool fan who travelled from Stansted to see Liverpool beat Aston Villa 1-0. "It was the first time I needed a passport to see Liverpool play at Anfield," he said. He needed the passport because his flight went via Brussels.

Eurocon plans advance, slowly

Those of you who know me, know that I have launched a tentative bid to host the 2007 European Science Fiction Convention in Ireland. With the emphasis on tentative. As of yet I have no venue, guest of honour or date but I do have a receipt book. However, yesterday I started taking positive steps to advance the situation. The Holiday eXperience is in Dublin this weekend so yesterday I popped along to the RDS, flashed my press card to get in for free and spent several hours visiting stands getting information on conference facilities. (And before you condemn me for abusing my press pass, I did in fact identify one or two potential stories which I now have to run past various editors)

Realistically, Dublin is front runner for venue but I am determined to give serious consideration to other cities both North and South of the border. I was particularly impressed with Belfast. The representative from the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau was particularly helpful and I got the impression he was keen to land the business.

Interestingly, I picked up a brochure for the Belfast Europa Hotel. The first sentence describes the hotel as 'one of the most famous in the world' however the authors wisely decided not to elaborate on why it is famous.

I plan to go to Belfast in March for MeCon so I may go up early and pay a visit to some hotels.

Galway also has some nice venues. I'm particularly interested in the Galway Bay Hotel and perhaps one of the Great Southerns. Again, I'll be in Galway in May so I can check them out then.

Further afield, there are interesting venues in Derry, Enniskillen, Tullamore and Athlone and while they may be further down the list, they cannot be discounted.

Second US probe lands on Mars

While NASA boffins try to reestablish control over Spirit, the second rover, Opportunity, has successfully landed on the other side of Mars and sent back images of the Mare Planum. Unlike Gusev Crater, where Spirit touched down, Mare Planum has no strewn boulders but does have what looks to be a rock formation which scientists believe could be exposedbedrock.

Meanwhile, scientists at JPL believe they have isolated the problem with Spirit and hope to solve it, however, it may take up to three weeks to resolve the problem. [Martian Soil]

Woman arrested at Newcastle Airport

A woman trying to check in to an Easyjet flight to Paris after check in had closed threatened staff by saying she had a bomb in her luggage. She has been arrested and hopefully will have the book thrown at her.[BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Vaporware: Nuke 'Em if Ya Got 'Em

Forget the Oscars. Forget the Golden Globes. In the IT industry there is no more prestigious even than the Wired News Annual Vaporware Awards, celebrating all those eagerly anticipated gadgets that never quite materialized.

OK, maybe I'm gilding the lily a bit but Wired News has once again put together its list of gadgets and software that were promised but never arrived during 2003. Once again, Duke Nuken 4ever topped the poll but rather than give it the top award for the third time in a row, the judges decided to give it a Special Lifetime Achievement Award.

The top vaporware product was Half Life 2 which was promised for September last year but, following an alleged cyber burglary in which the source code was stolen and posted on the Web, the launch date has now been set for mid-2004. I use the word alleged because there have been accusations that Valve Software used the break in as an excuse to let the ship date slip.

Otherwise games dominated the top half of the list with Team Fortress 2 (also from Valve) and Fallout 3 occupying 4th and 2nd places respectively.

Other products on the list include RealPC – an x86 emulator for the Mac from FWB which was supposed to be available in beta release in July. However after a management shakeout the new management admitted not a single line of code had been written and that the project was now dead - and a Wi-Fi SD from San Disk card for use with Palm handhelds. The latter is a product I am eagerly awaiting.

[Wired News]

Comet mission in rocket concern

Technical issues with its rocket launcher may delay Europe's flagship Rosetta probe yet again. Rosetta is the ESA's land-and-return mission to a comet. It was originally supposed to land on Comet Wirtanen but when an Ariane 5 rocket blew up last year four minutes after launch the ESA suspended all launches while it investigated so the mission scientists had to pick another target. All being well, Rosetta will be launched on 26 February on an Ariane 5 G+ and will land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Garasimenko in 2014.

The ESA is saying the problems with the current launcher are not major and should be repaired in time for launch. However if the launch window is missed, it will be difficult to find a new target for Rosetta. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]