Chad Dotson

A small town Computer Scientist / Software Engineer. Chad enjoys writing Python and JavaScript as well as tinkering with his Raspberry Pi and Arduino. When not programming, he enjoys Photography (especially lightning) and Sci-Fi.

Feb

2009

Comet Lulin

Don’t forget, Comet Lulin is supposedly visible to the naked eye tonight (Monday). Check the link below at Sky and Telescope for a map of the comet for the whole month. If in need, download Stellarium to findout exactly where to look.

On Monday night February 23, in a moonless sky and near its peak brightness, Comet Lulin passes 2° south-southwest of Saturn.

Lulin’s closest approach to Earth, 0.41 a.u. (61 million km), occurs on Tuesday February 24th, when the comet may be at a peak of magnitude 5.0. By now it’s high up by late evening.

via SkyandTelescope.com – Observing Highlights – Catch Comet Lulin at Its Best!.

Feb

2009

Malware Redirecting Users To Fake Review Sites

Here is yet another story of maliciousness in cyberspace today. Turns out there is a bit of malware out there that will detect if you are trying to go to any review sites in a list, it redirects you to a site under the control of the botnet controllers. See the Ars article below for more details.

“Once redirected, users are served up with what appears to be an actual, legitimate review of Anti-Virus-1 from a reputable source. These reviews appear to be thinly-veiled rips of what has been written about actual anti-virus scanners—in BleepingComputer’s example image, you can see where the words “Norton Antivirus 2009” were presumably removed, with “AntiVirus2010″ substituted. This leads to some odd-looking ad copy—”Win Your Own AntiVirus2010TM2008″—but the swap doesn’t stand out nearly as much as we might like.”

via New malware attempts legitimacy by spreading phony reviews – Ars Technica.

Feb

2009

The Replacement For The Hubble Space Telescope

The replacement for the Hubble is scheduled to launch in 2013. The James Webb Space Telescope will have the ability to see further than Hubble and feature mirrors over 20 feet in diameter. Its sunshield alone is bigger than a tennis court. This new telescope will be situated about a million miles from Earth, putting it beyond our current ability to service it. However, scientists have taken the problems with Hubble into account and have made the appropriated modifications to allow the telescope to self-correct.

NASA: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

CNN Video: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/tech/2009/02/11/eoj.hubble.replacement.cnn.html

Feb

2009

Interesting Twitter Feeds

Here are some Twitter Feeds of note in case any Twitter users reading this haven’t found them yet.Google Reader Team: http://twitter.com/googlereader

UStream: http://twitter.com/UstreamTV

Alaska Mt Redoubt Feed: http://twitter.com/alaska_avo

Wil Wheaton: http://twitter.com/wilw

Brent Spiner: http://twitter.com/BrentSpiner

Cobra Commander: http://twitter.com/CobraCommander

Mars Rovers: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers

LeVar Burton: http://twitter.com/levarburton

Patrick Norton: http://twitter.com/patricknorton

Leo Laporte: http://twitter.com/LeoLaporte

Alex Albrecht: http://twitter.com/alexalbrecht

Kevin Rose: http://twitter.com/kevinrose

Feb

2009

Sewanee Photos From 02.08.2009

I took these photos with my Canon A720 IS last night up in Sewanee. I also broke out an old Canon AE-1 SLR and took some pics with it before and after dark. Its my first time using it so we’ll have to see how they turn out. Of course, they won’t be back from developing until Saturday afternoon.

Continue reading →

Feb

2009

DTV Transition

Well, the Congress has now delayed the DTV transition from February 17 to June 12. Let me ask you… What will be different then? The answer may surprise you. NOTHING. That is if you don’t count the amount of tax dollars going into it. If you ask me this has been the most botched operation in history. Heck, if it can confuse the tech savvy (and I know it has) it sure confuses the heck out of the general population. Who do I blame for all the confusion? Its simple, number one I blame the government. All these ads they’ve aired are completely worthless and have done nothing but add to the confusion. The next entity I blame is the very media that is being transitioned. I’ve listened to months of “In x days TV will change as you know it.” Ummm how helpful is that? Of course, the media thrives on ratings reaped from fear mongering these days. Quite frankly I’m sick and tired of hearing about it. I mean if people don’t have enough sense to have already prepared, postponing the date a few months isn’t going to change anything.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/04/digital.tv.delay.vote/index.html

Feb

2009

Google Earth 5 and Related Items

Google Earth 5 is now in the wild. My first impression after maybe 30-40 minutes of tinkering is thumbs up. Overall it is now alot faster and feels as though the gui has been tweaked for speed. Occasionally there is some slowness but I’m guessing that is a side effect of some of the optimization stuff they’ve done. Google Earth remains one great free resource everyone should download.Some KML Files you might want to add:

Satellite Tracking KML (Near Real time): http://adn.agi.com/SatelliteDatabase/
Ship Tracking KML (Near Real time): http://marinetraffic.com/ais/ge.aspx
Flight Tracking KML (Hourly snapshot): http://fboweb.com/flighttracking/

Feb

2009

HMS Victory Found During Filming of Discovery Channel’s “Treasure Quest”

During last week’s episode of Treasure Quest on Discovery, Odyssey Explorer found a wreck that they would only refer to as “The Legend.” Several details were given about the ship that could lead anyone with historical knowledge to a good conclusion.Facts Given:

It was believed to be a ship of the line (only a handful existed in the mid 1700’s).
It carried over 100 guns.
Carried almost 1000 people.

It was all confirmed via Fox News this morning to be the wreckage of the HMS Victory that sunk in the English Channel after getting seperated from her fleet. Research indicates she was carrying 4 tons of gold when she went down. To clear up the ambiguity, this HMS Victory is the inspiration for the HMS Victory used by Horatio Nelson.

According to AIS, at this moment Odyssey Explorer is moored near London.

Sources:

Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486387,00.html
Treasure Quest @ Discovery: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/treasure-quest/treasure-quest.html

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