Tag: images

FCC Censorship

With not much original reporting, I discovered that the latest big fine by the FCC against a TV network — a record $1.2m against Fox for its “sexually suggestive” Married by America — was brought about by a mere 3 people who actually composed letters of complaint. Yes, just 3 people. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see all of the 159 complaints the FCC cited in its complaint against Fox. I just received the FCC’s reply with a copy of all the complaints — and a letter explaining that, well, there weren’t 159 after all. Because the complaints were sent to multiple individuals at the FCC, it turns out there actually were only 90 complaints. It gets better: The FCC confesses that they come from only 23 individuals. It is shocking enough that what 10s of millions of us are permitted to see by our government can be determined by 159 … or 90 … or 23.

abolish the FCC already.

The folks over at governmentattic.org FOIAed portions of the FCC’s television complaints database! Browse their site to find citizen complaints about your favorite TV show

Secondary Search

Google started offering secondary search boxes for major sites. Sites were growing accustomed to the idea that users often did not find their company’s content through the site’s own search box or its front page. More often than not, users would find links to specific articles or products on blogs, search engines or other sites, and navigate to that page. “So publishers are building their sites to make sure the experience is the same, whether users are coming in through the front door or the side.”

if their own search didn’t suck so much the argument would make a lot more sense

Apollo 11

Those guys didn’t move around very much at all

2009-07-14: Remembering Apollo 11

40 years ago, 3 human beings – with the help of many 1000s of others – left our planet on a successful journey to our Moon, setting foot on another world for the first time. Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard. The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than 1 day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2.5 hours – but they were surely historic hours. Scientific experiments were deployed (at least 1 still in use today), samples were collected, and photographs were taken to document the entire journey. Collected here are 40 images from that journey 40 years ago, when, in the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: “In this 1 moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind”.


2009-07-24: Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages

May the high courage and the technical genius which made this achievement possible be so used in the future that mankind will live in a universe in which peace, self expression, and the chance of a dangerous adventure are available to all.

2019-06-14: The Biggest Nonmilitary Effort in History

The Apollo computers had a total of 73kb of memory. If you get an email with the morning headlines from your local newspaper, it takes up more space than 73kb. … They hired seamstresses. … Every wire had to be right. Because if you got it wrong, the computer program didn’t work. Even on John Glenn’s famous orbital flight — the first US orbital flight — the computers in mission control stopped working for 3 minutes out of 4 hours. Well, that’s only 3 minutes out of 4 hours, but that was the most important computer in the world during that 4 hours and they couldn’t keep it going during the entire orbital mission of John Glenn.

2019-07-19: Margaret Hamilton tribute

With the anniversary of that moon landing approaching, Google set out to shine a light on Margaret’s influence on Apollo, and on the field of software engineering itself. The tribute was created by positioning over 107K mirrors at the Ivanpah Solar Facility in the Mojave Desert to reflect the light of the moon, instead of the sun, like the mirrors normally do. The result is a 3.6-km2 portrait of Margaret, bigger than New York’s Central Park.