The down and dirty deets are as follows: 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down speeds via a KU-band satellite. According to our late-night, Twitter-powered research, this beats more than a few Earthlings' connection speeds. To learn more about the hardware, servers, and how often the crew gets told to "just turn everything off then on again," read on.

Moving on to hardware, the space station houses 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p laptops, one of which is a server. Between cabled routers and WiFi hotspots, our brethren in space have a few ways to connect to the Internet via their local network. Their connection also allows for limited video calls. But there are no iPods for astronauts - or relatively few, at least. The team reported that the crew don't usually request to bring netbooks, gaming devices, or MP3 players aboard the ISS.

The ISS crew is connected to the Internet indirectly. Data is run through the ISS server and through NASA. Email for the crew is updated three times a day.

So, what happens when the system fails? Although the ISS crew is trained to respond to and repair common problems, the Houston ground crew maintains an exact duplicate of the space station's network for extraordinary circumstances. When viruses infiltrate ISS machines, as they have in the past, the infected machines are quarantined; and from the notes we've read, hackers have not yet been able to affect ISS's systems. Also, the ISS's IT folks told CNET, "One thing that really impacts the crew's day-to-day operations is if the file server itself fails. This forces them to reload the hard drive and re-establish all the network drives and all the apps. They actually have to get out the media and load the image to the hard drive... Over the last nine years, this has only happened twice."

We hope to bring you more news on the Internet as it applies to space, but we have reason to believe these updates may be sporadic. Stay tuned, live long, and prosper.

The NASA Endeavour was set to launch to the International Space Station today at 7:13PM EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida after a 24 hour lightning-induced delay. The mission was delayed several times and while Commander Mark Polansky's Twitter account and NASA's official account announced that the launch was likely to happen, online viewers watched via NASA TV as the mission was scrubbed with only minutes to spare. The launch has been rescheduled for 6:51PM EDT tomorrow.

The live broadcast as well as additional resources are available on NASA's Multimedia Page. Below are some additional space-related resources you might want to check out before tomorrow's scheduled launch:

NASA Collaborate:Those interested in joining NASA's online groups can connect via Facebook, Ustream, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace. Rather than waiting for press releases, fans can get their updates straight from astronauts, scientists and NASA executives.

Google Sky and Hubble's KML plug-in files: Google Sky allows users to view high resolution images of the night-sky. Hubble image plug-ins make for an extremely crisp intergalactic travel experience. You can search for planets, galaxies, nebulae and stars and zoom into them with great precision.

NASA Satellite Tracking & Heavens Above NASA Satellite Tracking offers users a number of options to track more than 2,500 satellites, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. Meanwhile, Heavens Above offers satellite predictions, sky charts and info on a number of comets.

Note: See update at the bottom of this post.

What that means, is that users are given the option to earn stuff in return for completing offers -- like applying for credit cards, getting information about vacation rentals, receiving free trials of magazines, or finding out their credit score. The offers subsidize the reward (like, say, an iPod Touch or an XBox 360) and the developer gets a cut.

If this sounds familiar to you, it's because the company behind SocialCash is Gratis Internet, who is also the company behind the famed FreeIpods.com. Gratis has been in business since 2000, and has given away $20 million in products over the past 8 years (their first site was actually FreeCondoms.com, which did $20.5 million in revenue in its first 4 years by handing out condoms to college kids in exchange for personal information that it sold as leads to other companies).

The Gratis concept works for two reasons: 1. people love free stuff, and 2. in order to get the stuff, users must invite a certain number of users who also complete the program (the number varies based on the value of the reward). So the customer pool grows virally and exponentially. Once users feel confident enough that the site isn't a scam (and seeing the in business for 8 years notice -- which is an eternity on the Internet -- goes a long way toward making people comfortable), then the concept is a winner. But will it work on social networks, where advertising methods that have worked elsewhere have thus far not worked?

That's a tough call. We can look at FreeCondoms.com as an example, though. FreeCondoms.com made its return to the web in September of last year as a Facebook application built around the same concept -- complete offers, get free condoms. Sounds like a winning idea for college kids. But as the graph below shows, though Facebook users initially loved the idea, the novelty quickly wore off and the app is down from highs of about 54,000 active users last fall to just over 1,000 today. Clearly, the viral spread didn't work as it has for Gratis' other sites.

Right now, monetization of social networking traffic is in the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" mode. Gratis is trying something new with SocialCash, at least. Whether it sticks remains to be seen. In addition to their BannerCash and PointCash programs, SocialCash also promises a third program that's "so awesome, we can't even tell you about it yet..." Hmm.

Update: Via a comment from Gordon Peters of Social Cash, it turns out that I was mistaken -- the company is actually not attempting to bring the FreeIpods.com concept to Facebook. The relevant parts of his comment:

(1) SocialCash does not give away free products to Facebook users. Instead, SocialCash is a suite of tools that enables awesome app developers to monetize their traffic.

(2) BannerCash is an ad network for social networks that is built upon Gratis' strong CPA relationships across the globe (and these advertisers happen to have unlimited advertising budgets... which leads to 100% fill rate for our inventory).

(3) PointCash is a monetization solution targeted to application developers who have an existing virtual currency system. For example, a gaming developer may give its users 5 blackjack credits per day automatically... however, if that user wants to play more than 5 times per day, the user would need more blackjack credits. [Enter PointCash stage left]. PointCash provides a fully-managed set of advertising offers to the developer who offers their users an opportunity to earn more blackjack credits by participating in the ads (typically surveys, free trials or online purchases). The advertisers pay a bounty for every user that signs up and SocialCash passes on the majority to the developer. This easy-to-integrate advertising solution is a great way for developers to augment any existing revenue streams while simultaneously increasing user engagement with their application. Everyone wins.

So it would appear that Social Cash is a CPA banner ad network and a points management system. To be honest, we're somewhat disappointed. While the FreeIpods.com model may not have worked, at least it was something novel for Facebook. CPA banners are nothing new and points management/advertising tie-in management, while somewhat more intriguing, is of limited or no use to most social app developers.

• Yes, it supports 3G and faster data networks.
• Yes, it supports GPS.
• Yes, it has a few cosmetic changes and is thinner.
• Yes, it carries a (dramatically) lower price: $199 for the 8 GB iPhone, $299 for the 16 GB model.
• No, it's not immediately available, but you can get it in 22 countries starting July 11.
• Microsoft Exchange and full enterprise support is enabled out of the box.
• "Exchange for the rest of us" will be available through MobileMe and Me.com, the re-branding of .Mac.
• Third-party applications and the App Store will be available in early July.
• No, there does not appear to be an improved camera or video recording (including video chat) of any kind. There's no Flash support. Or external storage slots. And still no cut and paste!

To which I'd add, longer lasting battery! Very big feature IMHO.

And now for the contrary, non-geeks view, courtesy of our commenter Raph:

"Even though this blog has been particularily quiet around Apple's WWDC08 and the new iPhone announcement, I'd like to voice an opinion that is likely to make me look like I'm an old dinosaur that is just bitterly jealous over Apple's success.

Well in fact, I'm not. But I am still looking for words to describe how pathetic Bubbleland looks like from a higher perspective, buzzing crazily around Apple, their conference, and the new iPhone.

Just look at that : an army of bloggers "liveblogging" what ? An event primarily addressed to people who write programs working on products of a (still) relatively small company that until now addresses only the 10% of the richer people in the world with their fancy gadgets.

And writing about what ? A BIG event : the second release of a phone that until now lacked what 80% of the phones sold in Europe and Japan have had for the last 2-3 years - 3G connectivity. And guess what : it also does portable music playing and GPS. Woaaah ! Excellent ! Nobody else does that on the market, do they ?

Now, don't tell me guys that the iPhone was a revolutionnary phone : it wasn't, except maybe for its stylish look. And this release is anything but exceptionnal. It basically is a "survival release". Adjust the competition or die. And also adjust the competition's pricing or die.

People are talking about this as the latest genius move from Apple's Steve Jobs. It's not a genius move. It's the only strategy to avoid the short-term failure of the product. Except to Apple groupies (which are numerous in Bubbleland's crowd), this phone had been bought until now for its stylish look. And that wouldn't have gone much further than it was."

Raph, you are a brave man. So folks, what do you think?

Photo credits: Engadget

"Our goal is to facilitate the world's online, real-time conversations anytime and anywhere," said David Liu, Senior Vice President, AOL People Networks in a press release. "To that end, we're not only giving developers more opportunities and incentives to create meaningful instant messaging-based applications for our millions of users, but we're also bringing more requested features and innovation to the AIM platform to satisfy user needs."

Participating in AOL Money is free, and developers are required to include a display ad widget that runs alongside their web or software based AIM mashup. Payments are made monthly via PayPal. Ads are handled by AOL's "Platform A."

In addition to the wide release of AOL Money, the company is announcing a new version of the AIM software and a corresponding new release of the Open AIM API that takes advantage of the latest features of the client software. Perhaps the most compelling new feature for developers is the addition of "mini applications." Mini apps are widgets that run inside of the AIM client software and can be accessed by users from a bar at the base of their buddy list.

Before looking at the speed bumps, here are three reasons why New York should be the center of tech/media startup scene:

1. New York is cool.
2. New York has the clients.
3. New York has the money.

Lets look at why these three things matter, and in particular, why they matter to the next phase of web technology.

New York Advantage #1 - cool. Do I need to be so uncool as to list all the reasons why New York is cool? It is cool in a way that Los Angeles, with its movies and music scene misses. It's the edgy edge. London has it as well. Berlin has it. It's a city thing. Sorry, San Jose and Palo Alto, suburbs are not cool. Provincial cities like Austin and Boston are also not cool. Why does this matter to web technology? Web 2.0 is a consumer wave. The web really is replacing, surrounding, augmenting and extending all traditional forms of entertainment. And to make it in entertainment, you have to be cool, or hot, or whatever is the cool or hot word. Cool is a sustainable competitive advantage. No person can be cool for very long, but a city can be cool for a long time. New York is as cool today as it was when Frank Sinatra was doing his thing or when the New York Dolls were inventing punk music. New York has that unique mix of media, fashion, and money that enables cool to thrive.

To see the difference, look at two contenders in what is possibly the hottest consumer web technology wave right now - live online video - Ustream.TV from the Valley and Mogulus.com from New York.

Ustream.TV seems to have the edge if you look at the numbers. But, it just looks so corporate. It lists all these stars that have channels and you cannot even click on them. The traditional big money institutional VCs are pitching at the already established online stars, such as Chris Pirillo. Yes I know it sounds absurd, outside of The Kingdom of Geek, to talk of Chris Pirillo as an established star. But in this very, very early phase of live video online, his niche audience of early adopters does matter. But, as Hollywood knows, stars are fickle, they move to whatever channel, studio, network or whatever that gives them the best deal, as they should.

The "network" matters. It has to have an identity. People have to make a decision about which URL to visit. Live video is a totally different medium from archive video, where YouTube reigns supreme. You "tune in" to a network that suits your style. Just like you hang out in MySpace or Facebook or Bebo or whatever depending on what suits your style. This is about making a fashion statement.

You can see the difference when you look at Mogulus.com, New York's entry in the live video space. It has that rough, street feel - and all cool fashion comes from the street. But don't confuse that with lack of design. This is a very carefully thought out, well executed design. They don't say anything about their funding other than that it comes from "private investors." I mean, who cares? It also has a sense of humor and personality.

So cool does matter and New York has it.

But somebody has to pay for cool and that brings us to New York Advantage #2 - clients. Specifically the big consumer advertising budgets, which in America means Finance, Fashion, and Pharma and all three are found in New York. OK, Pharma is across the tunnel into decidedly uncool New Jersey, but that's a short hop for an entrepreneur and the Pharma guys want to make the trip to Manhattan (to catch a show and try the latest restaurant). Madison Avenue, in all its old and new guises, serves these big consumer advertising clients and Madison Avenue is in New York - but then you knew that right?

And finally - New York Advantage #3 - money. Or as the Grateful Dead put it - "New York has the ways and means." Yes, startups flock to Sand Hill Road when they want the money. But guess where the Sand Hill Road crowd comes when they want money? Yes, New York, that's right. This is the big money place. This is where you go through the likes of Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley to tap the biggest, deepest, most liquid equity markets in the world. This is where you find the guys who look after pension funds, who put the money into those Sand Hill Road funds. This - or maybe Greenwich, an hour away from Manhattan - is where the Hedge Funds trade the world.

The odd thing here, is that big money currently makes a bi-coastal round trip. It starts in New York, gets sent to Sand Hill Road, where the top tier VC funds distribute it to a few startups who, when they make it big, make the pilgrimage back to New York to meet with Goldman Sachs/Morgan Stanley who will give them their golden ticket, otherwise known as the IPO. Yes, I know that last part of the circuit has been unwired recently, but that will change. Wall Street just needs some Web 2.0 ventures that are pulling in profits.

This bi-coastal round trip may be about to change. The reason is that this wave is more about media and less about tech. We tend to bang those two words together now as tech is going consumer and is funded by advertising - which sounds like media. In the tech venture world, the Valley reigned supreme because the ecosystem was there. You built a chip that went into a computer that made it big because of the operating system and all the people who mattered in that ecosystem hung around in the same zip code.

In a more open standards, API-driven world, that physical proximity matters less. In a media world, where "let's do lunch" is the social lubricant, proximity does still matter and New York (and Los Angeles) has that ecosystem - Ad Agencies, Fashion, Consumer Advertisers, Media.

So you get it? I love New York. So, just what's the problem?

1. Tech Talent. Wall Street sucks it in. The big Wall Street firms just pay too much. A nice Wall Street crash with lots of layoffs would solve that problem (unfortunately that may coincide with a Main Street recession, which stops the party for everybody for a while).
2. Patient Capital. New York is a "hot money" town. New York investors just love liquidity. They worship it. "What's your exit route?" means, "could I sell today?" So angel and VC options are weak compared to the Valley and even compared to say Boston or Austin. There are great and honorable exceptions. The New York VC with the most brand recognition and track record in web technology is almost certainly Union Square Ventures and they are New Yorkers through and through. But they are far from the only game in town. It is now possible to build a reasonable short-list of early stage VC firms in New York or very close by. But, this is still far from the Valley funding ecosystem. It's not even close.

I believe that the New York venture capital situation is improving for the next wave of technology-driven media companies, though. You can see that when you look at Mogulus. They have raised $1.2m from angels. They don't say who the angels are (New Yorkers like a bit of privacy) but I suspect that they are comfortable with a media venture in a way that they would not be with a tech venture. "TV?" "Yep, I get that." Media of all types has always been funded out of New York. Now that the web is officially media, the web will get funded out of New York.

And on the talent front, Mogulus has an interesting one-liner at the bottom of their Corporate Facts:

Corporate Facts

• Mogulus LLC is Based in New York
• Founder and CEO - Max Haot
• Funded by Private Angel Investors
• Development Office Out of Bangalore, India

This is not about India, it is about the ability to build software using virtual teams. If that hot developer rejects your offer to join for $100k base because Morgan Stanley offered $140k plus cash bonuses, find the guy/gal in Boise, Idaho who thinks $100k is more than enough for a nice outdoorsy lifestyle, and your stock options give a shot at real money down the line. Yes, you may need a core team that's local, but you need less people.

Of course, if you want to know "The Secret to Hiring Great Developers," go to a Mogulus channel called "What's Up Silicon Alley." (Embedded below.)

What would really change the game would be if the NASDAQ IPO market opened up again for tech/media startups. It has been closed since Google came out. If ventures can get funded in New York all the way to profitability, the investment bankers can take over the next step, without any hand-over to the Valley. This is when the New York Hedge Funds and Private Equity players come in to fund from the venture phase through expansion to the stage where public market investors get interested. Then the Valley VC funds will set up offices in New York, just like they are doing in Israel, India, and China.

In addition to being broadcast to over 100 museum events across the US, NASA is broadcasting the the Phoenix landing on NASA TV and live blogging from mission control. The official mission page has a lot of great information and multimedia about the Phoenix mission, which is expected to touch down on Mars at 19:53:33 ET (just before 8 PM).

Give it a look and let us know what you thought of NASA's web coverage of the latest mission to Mars.

Google's pranks each year are probably the most anticipated on the web. Last year, they hit users with two: Sewage-based home WiFi, and printed Gmail. Other classics from the Google prank archive include: the Google Mentalplex, Google Gulp, Google's jobs on the moon, Google PigeonRank, and Google Romance.

Being the tricksters they are, Google also sometimes makes some extaordinary real announcements on April 1, like in 2004 when it used a rather tongue-in-cheek press release to announce Gmail. Google also inspires others to create Google-centric pranks, such as Google Maps Rooms from Google Blogoscoped in 2006.

2. Ebay

Auction site eBay is another great place to trawl for April Fools jokes. Some intrepid auctioneer usually tries to pull a prank each year, perhaps most famously that distinction fell to prop-maker Dan Baines. In 2006 he caused quite a stir when he put up for sale what was purported to be the body of a dead "fairy" on the site. It took him days to respond to all the email he got as a result. ""I've had all sorts of comments including people who say they've seen exactly the same things and one person who told me to return the remains to the grave site as soon as possible or face the consequences," he told the BBC.

Sometimes people play off of other pranks on eBay as well. In 2005, one could find invites to Google's fictitious "Gulp" program being auctioned off on the site.

3. ThinkGeek

Geek-friendly shopping site ThinkGeek sometimes gets in on the Apirl Fools Day act by putting up all sorts of fanciful objects for sale. Last year, for example, they offered the Wii Helmet and inhalable caffeine sticks.

4. Wikipedia

While the validity of Wikipedia for serious research is in doubt already, don't be surprised if everyone's favorite crowd-sourced encyclopedia site gets just a tad be more unreliable tomorrow. In 2005, for example, the site announced that it had been taken over by Encyclopedia Britannica. The article, now labeled a hoax, claimed that the new encyclopedia would cost £99.97/page to edit.

5. NASA

The American space organization has been pulling a prank on its "Astronomy Picture of the Day site on April 1 for many years. Some of the best include last year's space Quidditch match, 2003's Ollie the Owl constellation, and 1998's lunar field goal. Our favorite, though, is 2005's hilarious Water on Mars -- pictured below.

6. Facebook

Though a newcomer to the fraternity of April Fools prankers, Valley-darling Facebook got in on the act last year with some interesting stuff delivered to users via the News Feed. They announced their new "LivePoke!" feature, in which users could pay to have their friends literally poked by a real person. They sent out humorous relationship updates, such as, "Harry and Voldemort have set their relationship status to 'Mortal Enemies.'" And existential status updates like, "You are on Facebook, reading your News Feed." They even announced, much to the chagrin of sports fans everywhere, that Ohio State and Florida -- who were set to meet in the 2007 NCAA championship basketball game -- had mututally agreed upon a tie.

7. Blizzard

Blizzard entertainment, makers of the ultra-popular "World of Warcraft" games, likes to have a little fun with its fans on April Fools Day. In 2006, for example, they announced the creation of BurgerCraft, a chain of theme restaurants based on their games. "At BurgerCraft, players will have a chance to truly taste the flavor of Blizzard's games and savor traditional dishes from all the company’s popular game universes," the company wrote in a bogus press release that included the names of some of the dishes that would be served at the restaurants, such as, Red Dragon Wings, Zealot Fries, and the Frost Shock Smoothie.

Last year, Blizzard got in on the act again by announcing the World of Warcraft tinfoil hat which was of course the "logical result of [a] profound insight, combining tinfoil's powerful mental shielding properties with the excellent counter-hexing effect of troll tears and the outstanding mind-focus powers of one of Azeroth's most precious gems."

8. HowStuffWorks

Beginning in 2006 HowStuffWorks has begun to put up a fake article on the first of April each year. So far, they've been must-reads. In 2006 it was animated tattoos, and last year they brought us cell phoe implants.

9. Craigslist

Though not a guaranteed place to seek out an official prank every year, the one that Craigslist pulled in 2002 was just too good not to mention. Known for its simple, and ad-free design, Craigslist has grown to be the largest classifieds sites in the US serving 27 million unique users monthly. In 2002, those users got quite a shock when founder Craig Newmark announced to its visitors that the site would start running banner ads.

"Craigslist represents virgin territory for banner ad placement," the site said on a page that even included a form for purchasing ads. However, even without the guarantee of an official prank, like eBay, expect Craigslist to be flooded with prank adverts tomorrow.

10. Newspapers

Newspaper, especially those in Britain, love to publish fake stories on April 1. Ever since the 1977 seven-page supplement published in the Guardian detailing life on the fictional island of San Serriffe, newspapers and magazines have been bonkers for April Fools Day hoaxes.

Just last year there was CNet's April 1 homepage, which sported some fanciful stories including the Dalai Lama being exiled to Second Life and a preview of a new Wii knitting game. There was the grow-your-own Viagra craze in the Independent, Tony Blair heading to the stage via the Observer, and the Register's fake story on Google and Apple joining forces to make a phone.

Conclusion

Of course, the web isn't the web isn't the only place you might be fooled. Companies have a long history of spending real money to put out fake news on April 1st. In 1998, for example, Burger King took out a a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the "left handed Whopper" -- a new version of their famous burger specifically made for lefties. In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it had purchased the famed US historical landmark, "The Liberty Bell," and was renaming it -- you guessed it -- "The Taco Liberty Bell." So keep your eyes peeled, and remember to take everything you read tomorrow with a large helping of salt.

Even we're not immune. Late last year we reported that CoRank and Menéame had merged before realizing a tad too late that it was actually a prank for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which is sort of a Latin American and Spanish equivalent of April Fools Day.

Be sure to check out April Fool's Day on the Web which has been attempting to catalog every web-based April Fool's Day gag since 2004. ]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_places_to_get_fooled_on_april_1.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_places_to_get_fooled_on_april_1.php Trends Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:34:35 -0800 Josh Catone