Voyager 1 and 2 Trek On

While reading "Voyager: Seeking New Worlds in the Third Age of Discovery" by Stephen J. Pyne which obviously covers the great history and ongoing missions of the Voyager 1 & 2 Spacecrafts. I cannot help but think of the great Carl Sagan who was such a big part of these awesome missions. Here is Carl Sagan talking a little bit about Voyager's accomplishments from 1990.

The Voyager program is a series of U.S. unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s. Although they were officially designated to study just Jupiter and Saturn, the two probes were able to continue their mission into the outer solar system. They are currently on course to eventually exit the solar system. These probes were built at JPL and were funded by NASA. Voyager 1 is currently the farthest human-made object from Earth.



Carl Sagan passed away on December 20, 1996 and he is missed by anyone who has a love of science and a desire to learn about the cosmos in which we are a ever so small part of.

Barnes & Noble’s New Color Nook

I’m a sucker for a good book and because I simply love gadgets & Barnes & Noble this was sure to be a winner for me so keep that in mind as you read on. Also know that although I had purchased the earlier E-Ink version I just had to have this one. Don’t worry because I was lucky enough to receive enough gift cards this Christmas in order to purchase this one.

Only one year after the release of the original Nook,  Barnes and Noble introduced the Nook Color, an e-reader designed for reading newspapers, magazines, children's books, cookbooks, and other color content in addition to e-books.

The first thing you will notice, especially if you have had experience with the earlier E-Ink version is that the Nook Color is heavier then it’s sister version. But that’s OK. Just think of it as one of those 1000 hardback page turners! 

The Nook Color also doubles as a portable multimedia device capable of browsing the web, playing video, music, games, and a lot more. This should be enhanced once Barnes and Noble launches the new Nook App Store in early 2011.

The Nook Screen
The Nook Color definitely lives up to its name with its 7-inch VividView touchscreen from LG that can display more than 16 million colors. Images are exceptionally bright and detailed, especially with magazines that use high-quality photographs like National Geographic.

The Nook uses a capacitive touchscreen so you barely have to touch the display for it to react. Scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, highlighting, tapping letters on the keyboard, and navigating through menus all work very easily.

The interface is impressive as well. Navigating is faster and more intuitive with a touchscreen. The on-screen functions, being able to tap words to look up in the dictionary, adding highlights and notes, are all much more functional than the original Nook.

However, like any LCD e-reader, the main drawbacks of the screen are that it is reflective, drains battery power, and fingerprints build up. Outside in direct sunlight the screen is highly reflective and fingerprints are much more apparent, but both are much less noticeable indoors with the brightness turned up. If you like reading on the beach, with the sun directly above this may be a show stopper for you.

Limited Nook Power
As for battery life, it is rated at about 8 hours for reading, which seems to be pretty accurate with the brightness turned down some. My original Nook could sit on my night stand for days, not plugged in without needing a charge, after nightly reading. This is not the case with the Nook Color. Get used to keeping it plugged in when not in use.

Plenty of Memory and Built In Games
The Nook Color comes with 8GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for cards up to 32GB, built-in WiFi and a web browser, chess, crosswords, Sodoku, Pandora Internet Radio.

Facebook, Twitter and Sharing Books!

Like the older E-Ink Nook, this new Nook can lend ebooks for a period of 14 days. Impressively, the Nook Color has social networking incorporated into it’s interface! Another new feature from B&N is called NOOKfriends, where you can share passages with friends and family through email and social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter. I have not tried this one yet but I am sure my friends on Facebook and Twitter will appreciate it once I start exploring this feature more. This is big for me because my friends on Twitter and Facebook love to keep up with what I am reading!

Nook Functionality

The home menu of the Nook Color is reached by pushing the "n" button below the display. This is the only hardware button with the exception of the volume and power keys. The homescreen background image can be changed and you can drag your books around to arrange them however you want.

There are several other ways to organize content too. In the library there are options for different bookshelf layouts, including custom shelves. There are sections for magazines, newspapers, and your side-loaded content, which includes EPUB and PDF ebooks, Microsoft Office files, music, images, and videos.

As you might guess with a full color touchscreen, Barnes and Noble is doing a lot of promoting for newspapers and magazine subscriptions with the Nook Color, as well as the newly-launched Nook Kid's portion of B&N's books. In fact, there's a feature called AliveTouch where kids can interact with word and pictures, and even have books read aloud to them as they follow along. Sadly my boys are 19 and 23 so I really have no one to try this out with, but I am sure it is a fun feature for kids.

Reading Features on the Nook

For reading features, the Nook comes with several customizing options. There are 6 text sizes, font types, and color themes to choose from. There are 3 levels of adjustment for margins and line height. There's a brightness adjuster. And an option to turn on and off publisher defaults.

Other reading features include jumping between chapters and pages using the table of contents and slider bar, searching for words or phrases, and adding bookmarks. There's a pop-up for writing reviews and recommending books that also lists other books written by the author and similar books other customers bought.

For newspaper reading, everything is laid out into sections, which can be navigated by using the table of contents. Each section shows a heading and excerpt. Tapping the heading goes to the full article. Be aware I did try out the US Today on this and was very disapointed with it's particular functionaility. Newspaper viewing quality differs from paper to paper. I was also disapointed that the Philadelphia Inquirer was not available at this time, but one can hope.

Magazines are a little different. Some operate the same way as newspapers but most are set up like their print counterparts. With these you can zoom in on the images and articles, or choose to read in "Article View", which pops-up a box with nicely formatted text.

Purchasing Content

It is very easy to browse the Barnes & Noble store on the nook and the interface is fun. You can also shop for content on your computer and your purchased content will be available on your Nook almost immediately.

Final Nook Thoughts

Barnes and Noble has done a great job with the new Nook Color. It is well made with a metal frame and although it's heavier then the previous E-Ink version it is not uncomfortably heavy. The user interface is smooth and intuitive. The color screen is gorgeous. Right now third party Android apps are not available on the Color Nook but I am hoping that they will be available soon, which would truly enhance this device in the every expanding tablet market.

If you are looking for a great e-book reader then this is a device you should seriously consider. However if you want a device to handle email, true internet browsing, gaming in addition to e-books check out the Samsung Galaxy tablet and yes, even Apple’s I-PAD. As I mentioned earlier, if and when third party Android apps are available, the Nook Color could play a part in seriously competing in the tablet market.

Whatever Happened to My Old Nook Anyway?
Oh and if were wondering what ever happened to my one year old E-Ink Nook. Well, my 19 year-old son was more then happy to take it off my hands!

Nook Color Specs

• 7-inch LCD capacitive touchscreen, 1024 x 600 at 169 PPI
  
• Android 2.1 operating system (Upgrading to 2.2 next year)
  
• ARM Cortex A8 processor
  
• 8GB internal memory; microSD card slot for cards up to 32GB
  
• WiFi (802.11 b/g/n)
  
• Web browser
  
• Pandora internet radio
  
• Lend ebooks with B&N's LendMe feature
  
• Audio: AAC and MP3 formats; 3.5mm headphone jack; built-in speaker
  
• Video Player: MP4 format
  
• Image Viewer: JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF
  
• Supports ePub and PDF formats, both non and Adobe DRM
  
• Quickoffice Software for viewing Microsoft Office files: .xls, .doc, .ppt, .pps, .txt, .docm, .xlsm, .ppsx, .ppsm, .docx, .xlx, .pptx
  
• Games: Crossword Puzzles, Sudoku, Chess, etc
  
• Weight: 15.8 ounces (449 grams)
  
• Dimensions: 8.1 inches x 5 inches x 0.48 inches
  
• Battery: up to 8+ hours

Training Update & Thank You

First, I would like to thank everyone who particapted in our first information technology training session on December 21, 2010. 30 students particpated and I hope that the topic of "Computer Security" was helpful.

I am working on our next class which should be in March 2011 which will include two topics. The first topic will include "Email Etiquette and Management" and the second topic is still being planned. If anyone has any ideas about March's agenda or any other possible future topics please contact me.

Creating Forms in Microsoft Word

Many people use Word to create "traditional forms." Traditional forms are
typically printed and reproduced to be filled-in by someone using a pen, pencil, or typewriter. They may include checkboxes, but often simply include response lines.

When putting together a form, many people type some text, and then follow that by a line for the form user to fill in. When creating the line, you have many different techniques you can use. The simplest is to use the underscore character (a shifted dash) to create the line. If you have multiple lines in the form you are creating, you won't get a professional look by using the underscore. This is due to the variable nature of proportional space fonts. When you use the underscore with other text on the same line, the right edges of your lines almost never line up.

To get around this problem, you can use tabs with leader characters to get a professional look. Simply type your text, followed by a space, then hit the Tab key. Format the line so that it has a right-aligned tab at the place you want the line to stop. Also make sure that the tab uses the underscore character for a leader. This approach looks much more professional than if you use underscores.

You can also use tables to put together your forms. For instance, you could use a two-column table. In the left column you would place your prompting text, and in the right put your underline characters. This is an easy approach, but it often places your fill-in-the-blank area (the underline) quite a distance from the prompting text. If you are creating simple forms, this may be more than acceptable, however.

Finally, you can use the drawing toolbar in Word to create your underlines. If you do this, you can place your underlines anywhere you want and make them any thickness you want. You display the drawing toolbar by selecting Toolbars from the View menu, and then making sure Drawing is selected.

If you want to frame your form, meaning to put a border around the whole thing, there are four ways you can do so. The first is by using a standard Word text box. If you do, however, make sure you create the text box before starting to design your form. If you don't, the text box displaces the text in your form and you need to move it all within the text box later. You can, of course, select the text that makes up your form, and then choose to insert a text box. In this case, the selected text (which is your form) is placed inside the text box. You may then have some reformatting to do to ensure your form appears as you expect.

Another way to put a border around your form is to use the rectangle tool from the drawing toolbar. Simply draw a rectangle around your form. If you use this method of bordering, some of the elements of your form (particularly if you are drawing lines) may disappear, depending on your drawing settings. You can get around this by selecting the rectangle and using the positioning tools on the drawing toolbar. The idea is to send the rectangle completely to the back of your form by selecting the Send to Back tool or the Send Behind Text tool.

A third way to create the border is to simply select all the paragraphs in your form and then choose Borders and Shading from the Format menu. You can select the type of border to create, and then choose a line effect for the border. There is one instance when this type of border will not work as expected: if you use different margin formatting on the paragraphs in your form. For instance, you may have a couple of paragraphs with a half-inch left and right indent, which makes the margins different than the other paragraphs in the form. In this case, this type of border will not look good.

If your form takes up an entire sheet of paper, you can add a border to the page itself. You do this by choosing Borders and Shading from the Format menu and then working with the Page Borders tab. The controls on this tab are very similar to those on the Borders tab, with the exception that they apply to the page as a whole.

A final word on putting your forms together: If you want to create check boxes, you can do so by using symbols. Choose Symbol from the Insert menu, and then make sure the Wingdings font is selected. Near the right side of the third row of symbols are a couple of boxes. These provide different effects, but work great for check boxes. Experiment a bit and select the box that is right for you.

Last Hurrah?

Dysfunctional Texas Railroad Commission Faces Its Last Desperate GASp

Sunset Review Announcement

January 12, 2011

Austin, Texas

[...]

The report recommends an agency overhaul and the abolishment of the three commissioners, to be replaced by a five member appointed board.

One of the key criticisms is that the commissioners "rely on campaign contributions from the regulated industry." [emphasis added.]

[...]

Fingers Crossed

Josh Fox Gives A Good Speech

"Civil Disobedience is the Opposite of Terrorism."

~ Josh Fox, Director of "Gasland" 

(Pennysylvania Speech in early November, 2010)

Half Way To Pluto

Daily life is stressful enough and one of the things that keep me keep me grounded is keeping pace with science and technology. Exploring our universe should be much more important then it seems to be. Anyway did you know that in we have a spacecraft half way to ex-planet Pluto? I personally can not wait to see what we find when we finally get there in 2015. Here is some very cool information to get you up to date on NASA’s current mission to explore Pluto.  

After an intense political battle, a revised mission to Pluto, dubbed New Horizons, was granted funding from the US government in 2003.^[New Horizons was launched successfully on January 19, 2006. The mission leader, S. Alan Stern, confirmed that some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who died in 1997, had been placed aboard the spacecraft.

In early 2007 the craft made use of a gravity assist from Jupiter. Its closest approach to Pluto will be on July 14, 2015; scientific observations of Pluto will begin 5 months before closest approach and will continue for at least a month after the encounter. New Horizons captured its first (distant) images of Pluto in late September 2006, during a test of the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).^[The images, taken from a distance of approximately 4.2 billion kilometres, confirm the spacecraft's ability to track distant targets, critical for maneuvering toward Pluto and other Kuiper Belt objects.

New Horizons will use a remote sensing package that includes imaging instruments and a radio science investigation tool, as well as spectroscopic and other experiments, to characterise the global geology and morphology of Pluto and its moon Charon, map their surface composition and analyse Pluto's neutral atmosphere and its escape rate. New Horizons will also photograph the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.

 

Discovery of moons Nix and Hydra may present unforeseen challenges for the probe. Debris from collisions between Kuiper belt objects and the smaller moons, with their relatively low escape velocities, may produce a tenuous dusty ring. Were New Horizons to fly through such a ring system, there would be an increased potential for micrometeoroid damage that could disable the probe.