News and related stories
I’m getting behind these days because of chasing too many rabbits. One of those rabbits is hunting online lectures useful for everyone. Prof. Feynman’s lectures have great reputations but they have been hard to come by. I once listened to a pirate version of his lecture tape with horrible sound quality. Thanks to Bill Gates and Microsoft Research, although it is a belated news, I’m very delighted to say “Feynman lectures are online.”
I once described how iconic Prof. Richard Feynman is (see Feynman and Statistics). At last, these lectures are publicly viewable through Project Tuva. Not knowing what this Project Tuva is, naturally I checked wikipedia, from which I found it’s related WorldWide Telescope which runs on Silverlight by Microsoft Research. Virtual Observatory is one of the most sought projects in astronomy. Several postings related to Google Sky are available here but not much about WorldWide Telescope. I attribute its lack of discussion in the slog to its late debut. Also, the fact that renown astronomers are working on site for the WorldWide Telescope has pressured me. Please, visit worldwidetelescope.org.
vlk:
Actually, I attribute the lack of discussion on the WWT here to the fact that it only runs on windows. How many astronomers do you see who run windows?
It, along with Google Sky, etc., are nice toys, but I think it highly unlikely that their workflows will be adopted en masse by professional astronomers.
Wolfram|Alpha, on the other hand, is a game changer. I have been using it regularly, and while it still has hiccups, it has been extremely useful, from calculating determinants on the fly to finding star charts for observation planning.
08-01-2009, 9:24 pm