Interesting talk by Mikel Maron at Where2.0. Maron discusses the potential for social networking technologies, such as Twitter, to be used productively in disaster situations. Although these technologies have been used in an ad-hoc fashion in past disasters and emergencies, Maron explains the problems that have emerged, and identifies the ingredients that are required for a successful implementation ‘pattern’.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its HiRISE camera to take this incredible photograph of Phoenix during its descent toward Mars. You can see Phoenix at the bottom, the parachute canopy at the top, and even the chords attaching the backshell to the parachute. MRO was 760km above the surface of Mars at the time.

With the successful landing of Phoenix, mankind has now brought the success rate of Mars landings up to 50%.

UPDATE: And see this picture in its full context.

Great news!

… Steven Moffat will succeed Russell T Davies as Lead Writer and Executive Producer of the fifth series of Doctor Who, which will broadcast on BBC One in 2010.

Moffat has penned some of the series’ most unforgettable and acclaimed episodes - including Blink with its terrifying Weeping Angels, for which he was awarded the Bafta Writer Award 2008 on Sunday 11th May. His previous work on Doctor Who includes The Girl in the Fireplace for Series Two, which earned him his second Hugo Award.

It looks like Doctor Who is in safe hands after the pseudo-hiatus of 2009.

This is one of the most useful Greasemonkey scripts I have ever installed.

Amazon ISBN links to US

From the description:

Often Amazon’s non-US sites have less detail for books than Amazon.com does. Also, Amazon.com seems to have more books that you can look inside before buying, and the book viewer is better than on (some) international sites. This script turns the ISBN-10 and -13 numbers into a links that search the US site for that ISBN number, which will usually take you to the page for the book on the US site (though note that not all books in all countries will be sold on Amazon.com, or not with the same ISBN, but many will). This means that you can quickly click through to the US site to check out a book in more detail, before deciding to buy it (click back to the non-US website first, obviously).

I find it particularly useful because amazon.com tends to have many more reviews for each book than amazon.co.uk (unless the book is British).

Jeff Atwood has hit the nail firmly on the flat bit with his post XML: The Angle Bracket Tax.

I spend a disproportionate amount of my time wading through an endless sea of angle brackets and verbose tags desperately searching for the vaguest hint of actual information. It feels wrong.

Indeed. I have recently been wading through configuration files which use XML as their format of choice. This is “a bad thing”, especially when XML is being kludged into pseudo-programming language behavior. There is simply no way that XML can be sensibly made to handle if-then-else constructs.

UPDATE: I had a genuine LOL at this comment by ‘Mo’:

XML is like violence: if it doesn’t solve your problem, you’re not using enough of it.

Between 14:00 and 16:00UTC today (2008-05-07), I received over 600 “undeliverable email” response messages.

Looks like there’s a new spammer on the block!

We should have more books like this for kids.

Who could resist a book with this description?

For students, DIY hobbyists, and science buffs, who can no longer get real chemistry sets, this one-of-a-kind guide explains how to set up and use a home chemistry lab, with step-by-step instructions for conducting experiments in basic chemistry — not just to make pretty colors and stinky smells, but to learn how to do real lab work:

• Purify alcohol by distillation
• Produce hydrogen and oxygen gas by electrolysis
• Smelt metallic copper from copper ore you make yourself
• Analyze the makeup of seawater, bone, and other common substances
• Synthesize oil of wintergreen from aspirin and rayon fiber from paper
• Perform forensics tests for fingerprints, blood, drugs, and poisons
• and much more