[geeks] World Wide Telescope

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Mark wrote:
> I had to pinch myself twice when I realised it was from Microsoft and it 
> was free product, but it look drop-dead amazing.
> 
> I've long been a keen amateur astronomer (I look up at the sky and 
> squint, I don't have a telescope or anything fancy), and I'm fascinated 
> by the vastness of space and what it contains. This sort of program 
> inspires and excites me, not only form my own POV, but because I can see 
> it being genuinely inspiring to everyone who uses it, imagine what a 
> curious 12 year old kid will make of it?
> 
> Once in a while something pops up that makes everything else look like 
> pith, I mean when you can make stuff like this who the hell wants to 
> spend time trying to zombify their friends on Facebook or making crappy 
> half-rate homepages on MySpace? I don't care about anything else that's 
> happened in the world of computers this month, hell even this year. This 
> is why I maintain a glimmer of hope in the world of technology, because 
> occasionally people do something *truly* amazing with it. They aren't 
> interested in money or advertising potential, they just want to share 
> something incredible.
> 
> Anyway, here's a demo of the thing in action (props to Robert Scoble - 
> http://www.scobleizer.com):
> 
> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224
> 
> It's been slated as for 'Spring 2008' so I'm expecting a Beta in late 
> April/May time. I am not holding my usual wand of cutting cynicism out 
> for this Microsoft product, as I think they'll ship it whatever, and 
> it'll be great even with bugs.

But what is it exactly?  Your subject doesn't say much and I can't look 
it up right now.

Peace...  Sridhar