Cybersurf: Sedna and the Near Earth Object Program
22 March 04
Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf – a weekly window on the world wide web – I am your Cyberhost Steven Lang. In today’s program, there are quite a few web addresses that you might miss, so I am going to post this script onto my personal blog at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com.
In the last week astronomers have made two very exciting announcements about two unique bodies in our solar system.
The first one concerned a planetoid orbiting our sun in the far reaches of the Kuiper belt. There has been some debate about whether it is a very tiny planet or a rather large asteroid – the interim compromise is to describe it as a planetoid. This recent discovery – known as Sedna – is thought to be about three quarters the size of Pluto – and is the largest body discovered in our solar system since Pluto itself was found.
To find out more about Sedna, you can go to www.jpl.nasa.gov and click on the “releases” section, - the JPL site has some very good pictures and an interesting graphic showing the relative sizes of Sedna, Pluto and earth.
You would also do well to look at the Spitzer telescope site which can be found at www.spitzer.caltech.edu – let me spell spitzer – S.P.I.T.Z.E.R dot Caltech dot edu – The spitzer site is fantastic and if you go to the official press release and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there is a link which will take you to Mike Brown’s Sedna page.
You will find out that Sedna, an Inuit goddess of the oceans was known for her saucy background with a some kinky sexual encounters - so I wouldn’t be surprised if the powers that be of astronomy actually change the name of the planetoid.
Still in space . . . . but this time with a piece of flying rock much closer to home – in fact far too close for comfort if you ask me. If Sedna is the furthest piece of the solar system we have found, then asteroid 2004 FH was certainly the closest.
The thirty metre wide asteroid passed a mere forty three thousand kilometres above the Atlantic ocean on the night of March 18. It was so close that it was visible with a good pair of binoculars.
To find out more about 2004 FH and other asteroids that could hit our planet, you should visit the Near Earth Object Program web site at the following address: neo.jpl.nasa.gov – that is neo.jpl.nasa.gov – the neo of course stands for near earth object.
It is a very informative site giving you facts and figures about efforts to track asteroids and meteors that could hit our planet.
There is an interesting little animated graphic showing a series of pictures taken of the 2004 fh moving through the sky. Because the asteroid is kept at the centre of the frame – it looks like a static, tiny fleck of dust in the middle of an array of other moving flecks of dust. Well worth the visit.
Remember if you have missed anyf of the web site addresses I have read out in today’s program – you will find the full script, together with the addresses at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – here it goes one more time: www.stevenlang.blogspot.com – and that wraps up the space discoveries edition of Cybersurf – thanks for listening and don’t forget to tune in again next week for more on the best of the web.
21 March 2004
22 February 2004
9 February 2004
Cybersurf 9 February – Open Source vs. Proprietary
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly update on what's new on the Internet. I am your cyberhost Steven Lang.
Some time last week I was listening to AM Live, of course, and I heard my colleague John Perlman interviewing Alistair Otter of the tectonic.co.za site and it made me realise that it is time once again for Cybersurf to look at the running conflict between open source and proprietary software.
The need for this discussion became more urgent because this conflict was, to a degree, responsible for the recent tsunami of MyDoom viruses that flooded mail boxes the world over.
A slight digression – a colleague of my has pointed out that MyDoom is in fact a worm and not a virus – but I think that we'll leave technicalities aside and go with the generic virus.
It is believed that the author of MyDoom was specifically targetting a company called SCO – that is S.C.O because that company claims ownership of eight hundred thousand lines of coding that is currently used by the Linux system. SCO is also threatening to sue anyone who uses the Linux operating system – including computer giant IBM.
Many people in the open source fraternity believe that SCO's claim runs counter to the spirit and aims of the opne source movement – so certain open militants wrote the MyDoom virus to swamp the SCO web site. They were succesful in that I have not been able to access the SCO web site found at www.sco.com for more than a week. Just for good measure – a variant of the virus has also targetted Microsoft – the old enemy of Open Source. I don't know for sure how badly afected the Microsoft sites were – but I have had no trouble accessing them.
The open source versus proprietary software war has become ugly – and it is almost impossible to find an expert who is completely objective about the dispute. Microsoft commissioned a series of “independent” reports to compare its products with welll known open source software. The comparison criteria was the overall cost of operating the respective systems over the long term.
Guess what – surprise, surprise – the independent reports – commissioned by Microsoft – showed that it is cheaper to run Microsoft applications than open source software. Truly amazing!
If you would like to look at a site advocating open source software – then you will do well to look at the site I mentioned at the beinning of this program. Alistair Otter runs the tectonic.co.za site and it is very good if you want to keep up with th latest open source news in South Africa.
The CSIR open source centre at meraka.org.za that is m.e.r.a.k.a dot org dot za has loads of information about open source conferences and gives you a fair idea of government thinking on the issue.
Obsidian systems, which can be found at obsidian.co.za, has a very interesting site in that it is clearly aimed at turning a profit out of its distribution and implementation of Linux, but it also has a section advising you when it is not a good idea to use Linux.
If you are really interested in getting an excellent overview of the dispute, I advise you to go to the bridges.org site – that's it – bridges.org – there is no za in it even though it is being run from Cape Town. - Why I strongly recommend bridges dot org is because it has a complete section dedicated to the dispute. This section which contains mainly links to other sites, is divided into three groups – firstly The Background – then the arguments for open source software and the third group has a collection of links arguing in favour of propriatary software.
And before we wrap up today's edition of Cybersurf – let me state for the record that the script for this program was written in an openOffice document running off a Windows 95 platform – and since I have been told that anyone can now run a Linux operating system on their PC – let me tell you that my next project is to install Linuxon my home computer just to find out how easy, or how difficult it is.
Thanks for listening and remember to keep on surfing.
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly update on what's new on the Internet. I am your cyberhost Steven Lang.
Some time last week I was listening to AM Live, of course, and I heard my colleague John Perlman interviewing Alistair Otter of the tectonic.co.za site and it made me realise that it is time once again for Cybersurf to look at the running conflict between open source and proprietary software.
The need for this discussion became more urgent because this conflict was, to a degree, responsible for the recent tsunami of MyDoom viruses that flooded mail boxes the world over.
A slight digression – a colleague of my has pointed out that MyDoom is in fact a worm and not a virus – but I think that we'll leave technicalities aside and go with the generic virus.
It is believed that the author of MyDoom was specifically targetting a company called SCO – that is S.C.O because that company claims ownership of eight hundred thousand lines of coding that is currently used by the Linux system. SCO is also threatening to sue anyone who uses the Linux operating system – including computer giant IBM.
Many people in the open source fraternity believe that SCO's claim runs counter to the spirit and aims of the opne source movement – so certain open militants wrote the MyDoom virus to swamp the SCO web site. They were succesful in that I have not been able to access the SCO web site found at www.sco.com for more than a week. Just for good measure – a variant of the virus has also targetted Microsoft – the old enemy of Open Source. I don't know for sure how badly afected the Microsoft sites were – but I have had no trouble accessing them.
The open source versus proprietary software war has become ugly – and it is almost impossible to find an expert who is completely objective about the dispute. Microsoft commissioned a series of “independent” reports to compare its products with welll known open source software. The comparison criteria was the overall cost of operating the respective systems over the long term.
Guess what – surprise, surprise – the independent reports – commissioned by Microsoft – showed that it is cheaper to run Microsoft applications than open source software. Truly amazing!
If you would like to look at a site advocating open source software – then you will do well to look at the site I mentioned at the beinning of this program. Alistair Otter runs the tectonic.co.za site and it is very good if you want to keep up with th latest open source news in South Africa.
The CSIR open source centre at meraka.org.za that is m.e.r.a.k.a dot org dot za has loads of information about open source conferences and gives you a fair idea of government thinking on the issue.
Obsidian systems, which can be found at obsidian.co.za, has a very interesting site in that it is clearly aimed at turning a profit out of its distribution and implementation of Linux, but it also has a section advising you when it is not a good idea to use Linux.
If you are really interested in getting an excellent overview of the dispute, I advise you to go to the bridges.org site – that's it – bridges.org – there is no za in it even though it is being run from Cape Town. - Why I strongly recommend bridges dot org is because it has a complete section dedicated to the dispute. This section which contains mainly links to other sites, is divided into three groups – firstly The Background – then the arguments for open source software and the third group has a collection of links arguing in favour of propriatary software.
And before we wrap up today's edition of Cybersurf – let me state for the record that the script for this program was written in an openOffice document running off a Windows 95 platform – and since I have been told that anyone can now run a Linux operating system on their PC – let me tell you that my next project is to install Linuxon my home computer just to find out how easy, or how difficult it is.
Thanks for listening and remember to keep on surfing.
25 January 2004
Elections.org – Cybersurf
26 January 2004
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly review of what’s hot on the Internet. I am Steven Lang.
This weekend, eligible South African voters were invited to check the voters rolls, and make sure they were registered ahead of this year’s national elections. Polling stations were opened for the convenience of our citizens and the Independent Electoral Commission – or IEC - had a massive publicity campaign trying to get the millions, yes, literally millions, of still unregistered voters to participate in our democracy.
The easiest way to check if you are properly registered is online at the www.elections.org.za web site. I am pleased to say that the site fully lives up to expectations in terms of functionality, lay-out and useful content.
I decided to check my own registration yesterday morning, and believe me it was very easy – all I had to do was type in my ID number and within seconds – on screen, it confirmed my name and address as well as my ward number and the full address of the school where I am supposed to vote.
The verification process is clean and easy – unfortunately you cannot register online, nor will you be able to vote online – yet!
The site also has a very useful FAQ section, explaining many of the obscure electoral rules – such as: will you able to vote if you turn 18 on the day of the actual election?
However, one part of the FAQ contradicts the front page of the site which tells us that this past weekend was the last chance to register. The FAQ says that you can still register, or update your details at the Municipal Electoral Offices during office hours – and, I believe that you can register to vote until the voting rolls are closed. So, when is it really your absolute, final, last chance to update the voters roll? Well, the elections.org.za site says that the voters’ roll closes officially at five pm on the day that the President proclaims the election.
Even if you are sure about your registration, the elections.org.za site is well worth the visit if you have any interest in the upcoming elections. It has the list of registered parties, the complete results of the most recent elections; information on how you could go about registering your own party; all the legislation surrounding the election process and a vacancies section if you happen to be looking for a job at the IEC.
That wraps up our broadly positive review of the IEC site at elections.org.za – hope you are registered, but if you’re not, then rush along to your nearest municipal electoral office – the president is sure to announce an official election date soon.
With that public service message, I will take leave of you for this week – be sure to join me again next Monday for more Cybersurf.
26 January 2004
Hello, good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, a weekly review of what’s hot on the Internet. I am Steven Lang.
This weekend, eligible South African voters were invited to check the voters rolls, and make sure they were registered ahead of this year’s national elections. Polling stations were opened for the convenience of our citizens and the Independent Electoral Commission – or IEC - had a massive publicity campaign trying to get the millions, yes, literally millions, of still unregistered voters to participate in our democracy.
The easiest way to check if you are properly registered is online at the www.elections.org.za web site. I am pleased to say that the site fully lives up to expectations in terms of functionality, lay-out and useful content.
I decided to check my own registration yesterday morning, and believe me it was very easy – all I had to do was type in my ID number and within seconds – on screen, it confirmed my name and address as well as my ward number and the full address of the school where I am supposed to vote.
The verification process is clean and easy – unfortunately you cannot register online, nor will you be able to vote online – yet!
The site also has a very useful FAQ section, explaining many of the obscure electoral rules – such as: will you able to vote if you turn 18 on the day of the actual election?
However, one part of the FAQ contradicts the front page of the site which tells us that this past weekend was the last chance to register. The FAQ says that you can still register, or update your details at the Municipal Electoral Offices during office hours – and, I believe that you can register to vote until the voting rolls are closed. So, when is it really your absolute, final, last chance to update the voters roll? Well, the elections.org.za site says that the voters’ roll closes officially at five pm on the day that the President proclaims the election.
Even if you are sure about your registration, the elections.org.za site is well worth the visit if you have any interest in the upcoming elections. It has the list of registered parties, the complete results of the most recent elections; information on how you could go about registering your own party; all the legislation surrounding the election process and a vacancies section if you happen to be looking for a job at the IEC.
That wraps up our broadly positive review of the IEC site at elections.org.za – hope you are registered, but if you’re not, then rush along to your nearest municipal electoral office – the president is sure to announce an official election date soon.
With that public service message, I will take leave of you for this week – be sure to join me again next Monday for more Cybersurf.
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