Steven Leckart

Buzz Aldrin: Engineer, Rapper, Heart-Breaking Realist

"That's not going to happen."

In just five words, Buzz Aldrin casually broke my heart. Which is to say, the former astronaut-turned-rapper reminded me that despite the haze of nostalgia surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, Aldrin is still very much an engineer, a logician who deals in pragmatic extremes. Not some romantic willing to dive into hyperbole or seemingly-pointless hypotheticals.

The question prompting the above response seemed simple enough at the time: "If you could go back for another Moon walk or orbit Mars tomorrow, which would you choose?"

A total softball question, I admit, but I'd just spent the last half hour listening to Aldrin mostly ramble and rehash much of what he's already said about NASA's failures, China, why we should focus on Mars, and more. Not all that surprising, considering Xeni found Aldrin relatively incoherent when she interviewed him a year ago.

However, I had figured a simple question like this might ground us, get the 79-year-old legend reflective &mdash possibly even a little misty-eyed &mdash or at least waxing semi-poetic. After all, Aldrin took part in one of the most glorious spectacles ever captured on film, an event which garnered what was, at the time, the most-watched live TV broadcast ever (some 600 million viewers). Getting to the Moon is still the gold standard to which invention and engineering can frequently be compared &mdash i.e. "We've gone to the Moon, but I still can't get cell phone reception in my home?"

All I wanted was for Aldrin to utter something like: "Well, my boy, I'd orbit Mars, because it's somewhere we've never been. And we should never stop pushing the limits of what's possible." etc. etc.

Find out what he actually said, after the jump, along with more reflections with/of/from the man Snoop Dogg now calls "Doc Ron," a shortened version of Aldrin's nickname "Dr. Rendezvous."

photo by NASA via Boston Globe via Todd Lappin

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Joel Johnson

Senators wonder aloud if only AT&T should be able to sell the iPhone

Four senators have sent a letter to Michael Copps asking the FCC Commissioner to decide if wireless carriers having exclusive partnerships with phone companies is fair to the consumer, in anticipation of a Commerce Committee meeting this week.

Translation: Should AT&T be the only carrier that gets to sell the iPhone?

The notion is actually the byproduct of a petition from the Rural Cellular Association, a group of small carriers that service the parts of the country the Big Four wireless companies do not. By not being able to offer customers the phones of their choice, they argue, it makes it difficult for them to compete with larger carriers when their markets overlap.

It's certainly fair to consumers to have the most choice, especially when carriers have created a false economy to force customers into long-term contracts through the sale of "subsidized" phones. But it might be a sticky for the manufacturers of the phones—would Apple, for instance, be forced to make different models of iPhone that worked with other wireless standards like Verizon's CDMA?

There's much going on here, and I've been trying to research a similar vein ever since the iPhone 3G S was announced last week. (I even have been in touch with the office of Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the signers of this letter to the FCC, but getting an answer back from an official's office when you write for "Boing Boing" is sometimes tricky.)

Not sure this was prompted by the announcement of the new iPhone on AT&T? Check out this section of the letter:

Whether exclusivity agreements place limitations on a consumer's ability to take full advantage of handset technologies, such as the ability to send multimedia messages or the ability to "tether" a device to a computer for internet use;

Joel Johnson

Visualization: "Obama | One People - The City" maps phone calls on inauguration day

The City illustrates the emotional flow of the Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C. Through an analysis of the number of mobile phone calls made in Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day and the home state or country of phone origin, it is possible to see peaks of call activity as the crowd anticipates President Obama's oath, a drop in call activity as the crowd listens to his inaugural address, and peaks again as the crowd celebrates the inauguration of the new President. Through their cell phones, those present at the historic event share their impressions with friends and family in vast numbers: on the morning of January 20th, call activity is two to three times stronger than usual, and it rises to five times the normal levels after 2 pm as President Obama takes his oath and people begin to celebrate.

Joel Johnson

Pinch Media's Greg Yardley responds to our comments about iPhone stats tracking

I really enjoyed the response Greg Yardly, Co-Founder of iPhone stats tracking package developer Pinch Media, gave in response to my link to a story about what sort of data Pinch Media collects from iPhone users for its clients. (Reproduced in part here, but you should really read the whole thing):

I didn't consent to any of the tracking Boing Boing does - there's no terms of service or privacy policy that pops up on first entry. Even if there *was*, by the time I got here, it'd be too late. If we went by the first commenter's standards, Boing Boing's running eleven different pieces of spyware.

Every single person who installs an iPhone application consents to data collection in advance - it's right there in the default EULA Apple's provided so developers don't have to hire lawyers before publishing something. So unlike Boing Boing, the developer actually has gotten your consent beforehand.

...

Analytics provide a useful function - they help keep costs low by allowing developers and content providers to optimize. Boing Boing's use of eleven different trackers - while a little on the high side - are no different from a developer's use of Pinch Media. Without them, Boing Boing would make a lot less money and have a lot less resources devoted to spreading hypocritical, misleading FUD.

...

Oh, and for the commenter that suggested a lawsuit could produce detailed information on a user's movements - you can't subpoena what we don't store, so the best you're going to get is nearest city. Try the carriers, they're much more likely to share.

Greg Yardley
Co-Founder, Pinch Media

And as far as Boing Boing's tracking and analytics goes, I can't really argue against his general point. It's useful for me as a writer and small businessman to have some basic stats (tracking pageviews to understand what sort of articles readers find compelling, for instance), and I think most people understand that a baseline of metrics is par for the course on commercial sites, but I hate the amount of tracking the comes out of the ad networks, too, and it only seems to be getting worse. There's rarely more perfidious Javascript than that coded by an ad network programmer.

But there's one difference between web-based tracking and the sort of analytics that Pinch Media gathers on the iPhone: it's pretty simple to figure out what stats tracking occurs between a web site and a browser on a computer, as Yardley shows; it's much more difficult to discern—or even be aware of—tracking that occurs in a closed system like the iPhone. And it's not FUD to point it out so users can make their own decision.

Joel Johnson

Obama administration takes over Whitehouse.gov

Of note to our readers, the "Technology Agenda" page.

An excerpt:

• Protect the Openness of the Internet: Support the principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet.

• Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership: Encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum.

• Protect Our Children While Preserving the First Amendment: Give parents the tools and information they need to control what their children see on television and the Internet in ways fully consistent with the First Amendment. Support tough penalties, increase enforcement resources and forensic tools for law enforcement, and encourage collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector to identify and prosecute people who try to exploit children online.

• Safeguard our Right to Privacy: Strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.

Also, as @anildash noted, Whitehouse.gov has a blog!

Before and after screenshots by Brian Warren

Joel Johnson

Video: Obama + Daft Punk + Adam Freeland + Kubrick + GOLD + Speak & Spell == "Aer Obama"

Daft Punk's "Aerodynamic" is remixed by Adam Freeland as "Aer Obama", a celebration of our 44th president's entry into the halls of glory, people by toys and figurines (including a Speak & Spell!) and flashy, Infomercian graphics from GOLD.

Warm it up, Kris. (Thanks, Brandon "nn" Boyer!)

Joel Johnson

Video: Obama inaugurated at LEGOland