Cosmic Internet

Have you been worrying about what kind of WiFi connection you would get if you were in space? Well, NASA is about to make it a little easier to post your space photos to Instagram.

They are working to make interplanetary internet a thing. Are you surprised to know that there have been previous efforts to bring WiFi throughout the solar system?

This new attempt will use Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) and I love this idea of cosmic WiFI.

Is there any practical application for this research? Well, yes. Communicating from Earth to any spacecraft is really complex. The Moon is about 250,000 miles away. Mars is 140 million miles away. NASA has three communication networks: the Deep Space Network (DSN), the Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Space Network (SN).

That Space Network made me think of President Trump who said in early June that he has  ordered the Pentagon to create a “space force” as the Defense Department’s sixth military service branch, “separate but equal” to the Air Force.

“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” siad Trump during a White House meeting with members of the National Space Council.

If a Space Force sounds weird, so must Cosmic WiFi.  It is fertile ground for comedy and parody. I saw a tweet from a parody Trump Twitter account that said that not only willwe build a base on mars, but the Martians will pay for it.

Well, if Trump ever gets into space, at least he can still tweet.

In looking online, I also discovered a book, The Cosmic Internet, about the author’s direct conversations with the nonphysical aspects of the universe.

What?

The author contends that after our physical lives are concluded, will we continue to exist in some way.

The author, Frank DeMarco, writes that he can channel, connect, and communicate with guides or spiritual teachers and address questions that humans have been asking for thousands of years.

This "internet" is metaphysical, not a physical, network.

The Internet in Real Time

Click image to open interactive version (via Penny Stocks Lab).

I've seen a few graphics showing what happens in 60 seconds on the Internet, but they are out of date as soon as they are created.
This version is in real time, so very click of a second produces a new number for all these web services.

The numbers are so big, they almost mean nothing to us. It's like looking at the National Debt at $17.5 trillion dollars and not being able to really grasp what that means.

Does the Web Mean the End of Forgetting? And Is That Good or Bad?

I wrote a post once about the virtual life that is likely to follow you after your death.  I joke to friends that because of my queue of posts to various sites that I have, I will probably be posting new things for awhile after I pass from this world.

And I know I have forgotten more than I remember.   Can the Web help me with that?

This 2010 article from The New York Times suggested that "The Web Means the End of Forgetting."

Is that a good thing?  Could this also create an existential crisis? Does what the Internet offers make it impossible to erase your posted past and move on?

...a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever...

Our character, ultimately, can’t be judged by strangers on the basis of our Facebook or Google profiles; it can be judged by only those who know us and have time to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, face to face and in context, with insight and understanding. In the meantime, as all of us stumble over the challenges of living in a world without forgetting, we need to learn new forms of empathy, new ways of defining ourselves without reference to what others say about us and new ways of forgiving one another for the digital trails that will follow us forever.

Advanced Search

I'm always a bit surprised when I see someone do a search online and be disappointed to get either too few results or, more likely, too many irrelevant results. Most search sites have an "advanced search" feature which often solves those issues and others.

On my Serendipity35 tech learning blog, I wrote about using Google for better search. That's useful for yourself and is also something anyone who teaches should make sure their students know and use.

I want to note here an example of a vendor search. Most of us use Amazon to find books and media, but far fewer people use their advanced search feature.

Start by going to the Advanced Search on Amazon. From there I could set up a search for books on "HTML5" published after "2011", and available for the Kindle and get only those results.

After doing my advanced search, I can even limit the search further from the list provided in the left column on the results page. If I wanted the really new publications, I could choose to see only the titles published in the last 30 days.

Amazon's advanced search also works for music, TV, movies, magazines and toys and games.

Virtual Life After Actual Death

A piece on NPR reminded me to post about something that I have thought about more than a few time. The piece is called "After Death, Protecting Your 'Digital Afterlife'"

Chances are good that you have hundreds, maybe thousands of e-mails stored on remote servers or in your computer. You might have a Facebook page, or a Tumblr or Twitter account. And you might have countless photos in a Flickr album. All that information amounts to a digital profile of sorts, which raises an interesting question: What happens to that online material when we die?

I have a half dozen websites and as many blogs, plus digital droppings on Facebook, Twitter, photos on Flickr and other sites, way too many emails on about a dozen accounts and lots of things that I have forgotten.

In a way, I kind of feel some comfort that I'm leaving something behind.

But the radio story talks with John Romano and Evan Carroll, who edit The Digital Beyond, a website that helps users plan what happens to their online content after their death.

They point to a blogger, Leslie Harpold, who left behind a robust online presence after her death in 2006. When her family decided that her blogs should be permanently removed from the Internet, her readers and fellow bloggers wanted her work to remain archived online.

In their new book, Your Digital Afterlife: When Facebook, Flickr and Twitter Are Your Estate, What's Your Legacy?, Romano and Carroll outline ways to protect your online legacy - including naming a digital executor to handle all of your digital belongings with access to passwords and usernames.

I was thinking more about the creative side of stuff left behind, but I guess I need to give the other accounts some thought too.

That depends on how you prepare beforehand, says John Romano. Romano and a colleague, Evan Carroll, edit The Digital Beyond, a website that helps users plan what happens to their online content after their death. Romano and Carroll both join Dave Davies for a discussion about online digital legacies.

Romano and Carroll point to blogger Leslie Harpold, who died in 2006, memorably leaving behind a robust online presence. After her death, Harpold's family decided that her blogs should be permanently removed from the Internet. But Harpold had built up a large community of readers and fellow bloggers online, many of whom wanted her work to remain online.

Brian Brushwood started a side project called Afterlyfe.me that even he can't decide if it's "funny, morbid, thought-provoking or just plain weird."

I'm currently in the process of giving the website all of my credentials and passwords for my social media websites (currently twitter and facebook, though we'll see what new startups make the cut in the future). And starting on my upcoming birthday (January 17th), we're going to activate a dead-man's switch on the site.

From that point on, every birthday for the rest of my life, I'll need to check in to let Afterlyfe know that I'm still alive and kicking (if I'm smart, I'll also make sure the site hits me up with email reminders every year as well). Once I stop checking in, Afterlyfe will assume I've kicked the bucket, and go into action, taking control of my facebook and twitter pages.

From that point on, Afterlyfe will use all my previous tweets and facebook updates to recreate a digital simulacrum of my life. The goal is to make me the world's first virtual ghost.

Your Digital Tattoos

You've heard the term "digital footprint?" A digital footprint is the data trace or trail left by someone's activity in a digital environment.

You interact with your mobile phone, the Internet, mobile web and other digital devices and sensors and you leave invisible footprints behind - data on what you have done, where you have been, how long you stayed, maybe even where you are physically located and what your friends think about your travels.

Now, I have heard a new term: "digital tattoo." Maybe it's another footprint, maybe it's something new. But, like getting inked, it's worth giving some thought before proceeding.

You leave a permanent mark in cyberspace whenever you post, publish, or comment. It's like a tattoo because it is difficult to remove (maybe impossible) it's going to be there long after that impulse that made you do it.

Please Rob Me

If you use Twitter you know that people post messages telling you where they are at the moment. Are those dangerous posts?

Location-aware applications are big. Your cell phone knows where you are - that means that someone who can access that information knows where you are - and where you're not, like at home.

Services like Foursquare allow you note where you are and claim the place as your own.

The crew at Forthehack created a site called PleaseRobMe.com which has gotten a lot of attention by pulling data from Twitter about people who are not at home.

Is it a warning about the lack of Internet privacy, a tool for thieves, or a reminder about how much private information people are now GIVING AWAY online?

The creators say that now they want to "offer this website to a professional foundation, agency or company that focuses on raising awareness, helping people understand and provide answers to online privacy related issues."

Forthehack describes itself as a "concept and idea factory" (Just for the HACK of it!). Of course, these are the folks who came up with an app last year that answered the question that so many of you have clamored to know: How big is your e-Penis?

11 Paths Down the Rabbit Hole

You're online. It's like TV with a billion channels - and you still don't know what to watch.
Give each of these a few minutes. Something will catch you.

1. http://whereiwrite.org/  I like snooping into writers' spaces
   
2. http://jacksonpollock.org/   yes, you can drip paint on a canvas
   
3. http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/   music + images and you adjust the mood settings
4. http://flixxy.com/   morphing presidents and other things you don't need to see
5. http://kukuklok.com/  set the alarm clock for that hour in another tab
6. http://live.twit.tv/  Leo or someone is almost always broadcasting
7. http://www.woot.com/  always something on sale
8. http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bullshit/  check a website URL for bs  (This site only had 6 terms.)
9. http://noosphere.princeton.edu/   The Global Consciousness Project is meaningful correlation of random data. Hey, it's at Princeton!  Then again, that's still New Jersey...
10. http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends   What's everyone else searching for?
11. http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bullshit/  naked from the neck up and into la petite mort

Will You Pay For The News?

Recently, the New York Times e-mailed a survey to its print subscribers to ask how they felt about paying for online content. For access to its website, nytimes.com, they are considering charging a monthly fee of $5.00 to view articles, blogs and multimedia.

Right now it is all free. That's a hard model to back away from and expect users to stpay. Will there be added value?

While all print media is having problems, some are moving to the web with some success. It can't all be free - that's no "business" model.

The Rocky Mountain News shut down. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer became a web-only publication. The business model has been to run online advertising, but that probably can't fund full news services. Subscriptions - sort of a cable TV versus free broadcast TV model - is hardly a new idea.

I don't have the answer for them, but I don't think this recycled ideas are it.