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Microsoft Launches WorldWide Telescope
esocid writes "WorldWide Telescope, developed by Microsoft's research arm, knits together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and others. Windows users (only) can browse through the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of different outer-space destinations developed by astronomers and academics. The application allows viewing from different wavelengths such as X-ray, visible light, and hydrogen-alpha radiation. Business Week has a review and some background on the project, which has been in development for years. Google Sky beat them to the punch but Business Week opines that WWT's interface is superior."
But can it see why kids love cinnamon toast crunch?
It claims to be professional astronomer like tool. It is such an over reaching attitude that all involve in the project should be embarrassed. This is a web 2.0 application but it only runs under Windows!!
MS is a joke and continue to show that not only are they incapable of coming up with something truly innovative, they always somehow manage to make products that look great on paper but are close to useless in real life.Sigh.
The description says it's a "Web 2.0 visualization software environment". Shouldn't that be running in a web browser then? What's with having to download and install the application itself? Being on my Mac, I can't (probably wouldn't anyway) try it out to see what happens, but that description seems a bit misleading.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Ok this is weird, if I run the self extracting installer it starts to install some Xerox printer drivers instead of the WWT. I think it gets its temp files mixed with the drivers that I installed a while ago, it appears to install fine if i manually extract somewhere else and run the setup.exe...
FTA: "Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe like never before."
MS's may be better but it required me to download and install their app where as Google Sky is just like Google Maps and runs in my web browser. I don't know if I'd actually compare these two products considering it's web app verse a 20mg install.
That said I personally lost interest with both about 5 minutes after playing with them. I'm not really a solar-system-space nut, but I'm sure those that are will love either.
Ave Molech Setting
(not having read the article)
"WWT's interface is better"... but only on windows... So for the schools, third-world countries, etc. we've read about who are adopting Linux... Microsoft assumes they don't exist?
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
The sky is blue. However, this might have something to do with the OS running this system.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
The Microsoft way...
...
For Linux
* HA! Did you think we'd ever support your sorry-ass dirty GNU/hippy operating system! Stupid fsckers!
My blog
They quote Bill Gates who said he was hoping the project would - "inspire young people to explore astronomy and science"
Presumably also requiring Windows is a mere co-incidence!
At least the Beeb article has the decency to mention the Open Source project Stellarium http://sourceforge.net/projects/stellarium/
Awful UID - but I have been here ages...
I never would have expected it, especially in a MS product, but the folks who put the WWT app together also blessed it with ASCOM capabilities, so one may use the WWT app to drive a computerized telescope mount (aka, a "goto mount").
While there are other ASCOM-enabled apps that astronomers have been using for years to point their optics (and manage dome robotics, and focusers, and cameras), I have to say that the basic mount control in WWT is a pretty cool tip of the hat towards to astronomy community in practical terms.
Meh, I found the Outside "user experience" to be far too buggy, and if you're really fully engaged in just the looking upward part, you run the risk of wandering into an unsupported pile of sh|t -- not to mention dramatically increasing the likelihood of a fatal crash.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
I, for one, welcome our new telescoping clusterlords.
You must be more advanced than the rest of the human race, because as far as I know, 100% of the population can't see x-rays, hydrogen-alpha radiation, or microwaves. Ooooorrr at magnification from satellites that could set you on fire in under 0.25 seconds.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
I found the Outside "user experience" to be far too buggy.
Works fine here. I just think it's overrated.
Not sure whether it's safe, though.
There is a problem with the installer. When I run it, the installer starts up the installer for my Dual Core Optimizer, and asks me to remove it.
Since this product isn't available for my operating system, I can't check it our for myself, but I do hope it encourages interest in astronomy. There are valid reasons to bash Microsoft (the OOXML debacle, for example). Putting out a free-as-in-beer science project for their customers only isn't one of them. If some of Microsoft's customers get to learn more about the sky, that's a good thing. I hope they enjoy it.
KTHXBYE
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/224
It's a .net 2 application, so might even work in Mono.
Anyone tried?
It looks really cool in Windows, for the record.
throw new NoSignatureException();
You sure burned those guys.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Uh-oh. Does this mean we can expect to see the following error message?
Your universe has stopped working and now must shut down. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I want to see all this space imagery available in a 3D interface that's zoomable (and rotatable and translatable) so we can fly around these bodies in 3D. Jumping to addresses. And even a 4D interface, which lets us trace a path through spacetime, with dT 0, or just staying put as the objects travel around our viewpoint.
Celestia is approximately what I'm talking about, but it seems really unfit for actually visiting a planet's surface - the skins are relatively lo-rez 2D textures, and the UI is inadequate for "beaming down". And that whole UI should be navigable in realtime with not just a simple keyboard interface, but also PS3 joystick or even a Wii.
And an archive of "famous" trajectories, like all the known spacecraft missions, orbits of various bodies like comets and galactic collisions, Star Trek missions, and custom "tours" especially from astronomy schools and clubs.
Yes, I want the worlds and I want them now. But Google and MS seem bent on giving them to me, so I'm telling them just how I want it.
--
make install -not war
Take your "EVERY OS SHOULD BE FREE" tangent elsewhere.
You obviously don't do astronomy. I have single EP's that cost me $500. The worm gear in my mount costs more then XP. A simple piece of machined aluminum tubing that does nothing but serve as an adapter for me costs almsot as much as XP does. Hell, Starry Night that this will most likely replace for me costs more then XP does. Astronomy aint cheep. In software, sure there are some freebies. I've used Cartes du Ciel for a while but it is no where near as good as Starry Nights.
If this were MAC software would you be on some tangent about the cost of the OS and the hardware? I doubt it. You're just a confused fool on some tangent how they missed the target market when you're clearly not the target market.
I'm looking at this as potentially (will have to see) replacing a very expensive piece of software for me. Your complaints just aint valid.
First off, the American taxpayer has paid for all of the data that is being used by this program. The systems that obtained it, the systems that store it, the systems that retrieve it, everything.
Second, Microsoft is 'giving away' this software for free, but it requires one to purchase their commercial product to use it to access the public's data.
Finally, this is the end result of NASA decision making from the late 1990's that resulted in NASA dumping virtually all other computing platforms in favor of Microsoft products.
If NASA wants support from the American public, then it's high time they stopped making deals like this.
Sig this!
If Google gains any more market share we'll be able to see office chairs orbiting the Earth with it.
Why not try using the program before posting your "review."
Trust me. If Apple developed it there would be about as many posts about how it requires a Mac OS X hardware dongle, how evil Apple is only to support Apple hardware, that only computer illiterates use Macs, and everyone that owns anything Apple is a rabid fanboy...
Welcome to slashdot. Please check your objectivity, rationality and civility at the door.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
It's the cinnamon swirls in every bite!
Twinstiq, game news
man I don't know if anyone saw that intro video on the "experience it" page but god damn that was a waste of production time. i was hoping to see some cool interaction and screenshots but instead it was a bunch of Getty Image Worthy kids mouthing the words "wow" quite frequently.. that alone doesn't make me want to download this crap and whore'up my computer.
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
</sarcasm>
I am sick of this bullshit.
Where is the source for enemy territory? Where is the source for Quake 4 or Doom3? Fuck, where is the source for google earth?
None of the programs require me to compile them for them to work.
Ummm.... I take it that you didn't bother to actually try out Worldwide Telecope. Because if you did, you wouldn't even begin to compare it to Stellarium. Stellarium is sort of neat but offers about 1/100000000th of what WWT has. It's not even fair to compare them. But at least look at WWT before you post this kind of nonsense. Others, you can download Stellarium from here: http://www.stellarium.org/. It's kinda neat but...
Stellarium : WWTelescope :: lynx : firefox
Yes they both technically do the same "thing". But unlike firefox vs IE (where you can argue that not only is the open source solution "as good," but that it's actually BETTER) stellarium is not in the same realm as WWTelescope.
Just downloaded setupwwt.exe from http://www.worldwidetelescope.org./
Launching setupwwt.exe brings up the Cygwin Net Release Setup Program on my system!
I don't see the astronomy link in Cygwin... but I've just had a little play with Cygwin and I am amazed but what I have been missing.
If Linux is just a tiny bit like Cygwin then here I come!
Thanks again Microsoft.
AHHAAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAH...
You might want to see someone about those hallucinations you're having. Thanks for the laugh though.
Um, yes it is. In that case the computer is not free.
Um, yes it is, in that case the internet service is not free.
Um, yes it is, in that case the food is not free.
I can see why you call yourself an idiot though.
I'm sorry, but I just tried both WWT and Google Sky out. I am not sure how Google Sky even compares. It doesn't do any of the nice zoom and pan effects that WWT does. There's also no way to change the imagery source, take tours, etc. There are so many more features (useful ones) in WWT. Can someone explain how the comparison is even valid between the two?
Interesting... They are using Flash on the project that is built from the ground up?!