Free telescope by Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a new software that is expected to create waves in the world of astronomy and Internet, WorldWideTelescope. However this is more of a surprise to most of us because you can download this free. Yeah you read it right.. It is absolutely free. It has been launched on May 13 2008 (Got the date from a news web site). The link was forwarded to me by a friend. I was curious to explore and started accessing the link.

Here are some of my observations with the telescope software:

• The website UI looks sophisticated and matured with the night sky in the background.

• The installation procedure is pretty easy but takes long time. The installation file(setupwwt.exe) is of size 20.8 MB. Download it from the website and run it. The installation file will in turn start downloading necessary files (Microsoft .Net 2.0 and others).

• The application has a very good, mature UI. Something I liked (I want to learn how you do such a good UI design :) ). But it was slow, memory problem I guess. However the screen too many options and you have get used to it before gaining some comfort level in navigating across the screen.

• Lots of images, I read that the application has access to around 12 tera bytes of data.

I heard about a similar venture from Google few months ago. Sometime back Google had launched a software Google sky which provides easy way to access to images of astronomical bodies. It is available as a plug in to Google earth or as a link through which you can start using the facility directly without downloading.

However I found that,

• You can easily access the facility. No need of any installation procedure. :)

• The UI is pretty simple. No unnecessary options. It is fast. :)
  

The images are good in both the applications.

At the end of the day, I would prefer:

For UI and looks: WorldWideTelescope.

For the ease of use: Google Sky.

Microsoft might have launched WorldWideTelescope as a response to Google Sky. However it has dedicated this application to Jim Gray, the brain behind the entire application. Jim Gray is missing since Jan 28 after he went on a solo boating trip.

That’s all for now. Happy exploring !!!

Links :

WorldWideTelescope

Google sky

Jim Gray

Tagged...

I am unofficially tagged by sady... so here it goes..

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER

Aramane, a kannada movie. You could rate it as an average..

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?

Windmills of the Gods by Sidney Sheldon


3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

none.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

Reader's Digest, India Today


5. FAVORITE SMELLS?

Smell of wet soil, petrol, nail enamel

6. FAVORITE SOUND?

Rain droplets falling on leaves and trees. You can experience this in places where the vegetation is dense.

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

Betrayals and breaching of trust.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?

Morning already? wanna sleep for some more time :)


9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?

Fast food? hmmm... nothing specific. Any place where they serve good fast food.

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?

haha.. not yet decided. But i like the names, Parikshith, Kshitij, Menita, Vaidehi.

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...?

First pay income tax, then buy few good modern gadgets and gifts for near and dear ones. Would invest rest of the amount in the fields which would provide good returns.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?

No.


13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

No.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?

Cool :)

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

Yet to buy one.

16. FAVORITE DRINK?

Chilled mint and lemon juice, rose milk shake, strawberry milk shake.

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD .....

Sleep and read a lot.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Broccoli

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Burgandy.

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.

Bangalore, Kinnigoli, Mulki, Mangalore, Hubli and Mysore.

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Gymnastics.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.

Always speaks her mind :) .

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?

Shoes, sandals and two buckets.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?

Yup.

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?

For 5 days a week, I am a morning person. For the remaining 2 days, I am a night owl.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?

Sunny side up.


27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?

Bed.

28. FAVORITE PIE?

hmmm.. none.


29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?

Black current.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

hmmm.... Sady is always the first to respond. But as she was the one who tagged me I need to wait and watch who among others will respond first.

New Look...

I just changed the look and feel of my blog :) .Looks great right? The page looks elegant and feminine now. One of my team mate forwarded the link to Pratima Jayaram's blog. The blogger uses a template powered by Final Sense. Navigating to the website, I found out that it is dedicated to provide variety of services. One of them is the free blogger templates. Clear steps are mentioned for using the template in blog. However the steps given are for blogs supported by Blogger.com. I don't know if they support LiveJournal or Wordpress. You can check it out. There are various categories in the templates like 3-Column, Animal, Architecture etc. I browsed through some of them and found this one to be good. This one is from the 'Women' category.

Note: Better save your current template before you migrate. The custom titles which you might have added will not be migrated to the new template. I underwent this and found that the blog roll list which was maintained is lost with the previous template. I have to add it once again :(.

That's one part of the change. Apart from this I have changed the url of the blog too.
The new blog url is http://mortalzlife.blogspot.com/. The previous url http://poornimaprabhu.blogspot.com is no longer valid.
The reason for this change?. Well, I really don't know. Just felt like changing and going underground for next couple of days. Moreover anonymity brings certain privileges you see :).

The blog renovation does not end here. I would like to plugin some more features site hit counter, feeds, messenger, shout box etc. Let me see how it goes. Thats all for now.
Btw.. I would like to thank Suresh, my team mate who forwarded the link to Pratima's blog and my supervisors for not assigning me any task for day. Without them I would not have been able to renovate my blog. ;) See you soon. Till then, take care.