The future is now part: 999

Robotson Crusoe: "I just popping down the Crater do you need anything.."
Sorry to bang on about the future already being here and that but here it is again on a Micro and Macro level.

Micro Machines: On the home front I got a little usb plug in freeview card for my lap top meaning 25 years after having to plug the computer into the TV I can now plug a TV into the computer and record TV etc and it worked out the box and is just sort of normal and yet incredible at the same time.

Macro Machines: On a larger grander level I was just reading about the Nasa Mars Landers that have been slowly and doggedly exploring mars remotely all those miles away. They have been doing it for 20 times longer than expected and have further deepened out knowledge and helped confirm the theory that water once flowed on mars. This is incredible that someone could build a machine that works so far from our reach to quote Douglas Adams if you think it's a long way to the shops well Mars is...
Further proof that sometimes we need to go and find out first hand is offered by the fact that one of the reasons the robots have lasted so long is that their solar cells have not got covered in dust because the winds on mars are stronger than expected and blow the dirt away. We probably wouldn't know this without going there. It's not a mars shattering fact but few pieces of information are it's when they are all put to that interesting things are revealed.
Of course there are other ways of getting to Mars. Over to you Francis Albert

Live version of Fly me to the moon By Frank Sinatra

So bright I gotta wear shades

The future's already here:

I got a email this morning from amazon advertising a 10 mega pixel camera for only £80.

Which is great, 5 years ago we bought a 1.8 mega pixel Olympus and it cost £700 quid (the power adapter cost £50 and it took 2 hours to download the pictures using a serial cable)

10 mega pixels is better than the Hubble space telescope!

Having said that I've never taken a picture as nice as the one above.

Whilst looking up Hubble's resolution I found the answer to a jolly question.

Why not disprove all the doubters that the moon landings did happen by taking a picture on the remains of the Luna landers using Hubble or similar?

Sadly I think we'll need the £80 quid telescopes that comes along in 10 years time!

Futurology

Sunday night stuff:

The future is already here:
There’s a regular piece of media shtick where they show a clip of tomorrows world etc from the 60’s where James Burke or Raymond Baxter are enthusing about some potential innovation and predicting how we will use them in the future (i.e. today). They then cut back to the present and the two presenters (neither of whom can rewire a plug or attach a file to an email) make jokes: cue talk of hover cars and pills instead of meals etc

Well as far I can see we just didn’t deserve hover cars, tinfoil clothes well that’s down to Topshop and as for pills for meals well apart from the meat and two veg pill, we gobble plenty of omega 3 etc now don’t we. Of course the future wasn’t the Jetsons but it isn’t that bad. No one jokes about wrist watch TV anymore, now we have I phones and we have other minor miracles too.

Take the thumb drive, USB memory stick, doggle call it what you will, they are science fiction. My first computer was a Dragon 32 i.e. it had 32 kilobytes of memory (that wiped it self when you turned it off) I now have 2 USB sticks that hold 4 Giga bytes of memory, in my pocket that is almost 500 3 min pop songs, they are truly amazing and they cost less than tenner from Argos. The memory card in my phone is even tinier (about 4-5mm square). It’s predicted that very soon your entire hard drive will fit on USB stick and you can carry it around plug it in where ever you go, that's a laptop in your jeans!

Of course back in the studio Kirsty and Dermot will joke about not being able to understand the instruction book and then cut to Darfur and talk to Kate Addie over a satellite video phone, we some times forget how far we’ve come.

Friday night is comedy night:
Speaking of innovation, do yourself a favour and download the podcast of the Newsquiz the first 5 mins of this edition is worth it alone. Andy Hamliton makes an excellent gag about a proposed British Motto being “ I keep thinking it’s Tuesday” which is so accurately sublime and even Mark steel is funny, check it out.