I use blogines.com to read rss feeds. I periodically look around to see if there is something better, but I have yet to find one. That doesn't mean that there aren't some things I would like to see in a reader. Just recently, I was wishing there were keyboard shortcuts to navigate my many folders of feeds. And, alas, this morning I noticed this at the bottom of the list of articles:

Hotkeys: j - next article k - previous article s - next sub f - next folder A - read all r - refresh left pane

It's not huge news, but It makes my life a touch easier, and will help the batteries in my cordless optical mouse last longer :)

I was up (way too) late last night. Shortly after midnight, I stepped outside to let Ella in. It was a really beautiful and cool night, and the sky was very clear. So, I went inside, turned off all the lights (to let my eyes adjust), and fired up stellerium to see what interesting stuff I should look for.

Mars was high in the East and very vibrant. Right next to Mars was the The Pleiades that I've always thought were stunning. Both of these are in Taurus, which I've never really noticed because it's not one of the easier ones to pick out. So I decided to find it. Upon doing so I noticed that on one side of his head, there are two stars (turned out to be 77 and 78 Tau) that are so close that I could barely tell it was two with my naked eye.

The summer triangle was just about to disappear below the western horizon, and Orion, the most famous winter constellation, had just risen in the East, and I think I could make out part of Gemini (but they had Vaught-Hemingway's lights on, so that part of the sky was flooded with light pollution) coming up. Cassiopeia was almost directly overhead.

It's been a while since I've taken my telescope out, and this is the perfect time of year to hang out outside for long periods of time at night. I'm planning to do that tonight. If your skies are clear and unpolluted, step outside tonight and stand in awe of the universe

NASA just unveiled its plan to return to the moon by 2020. It involves vehicles and systems that look and act a lot like those used in the Apollo missions. Michael Griffin referred to it as "Apollo on Steroids." But much of the technology is the same as that of the current space shuttle. Both the SRBs and SSMEs will be used on both vehicles.

The new plan involves two seperate vehicles - one for cargo and one for crew. The advantages of this are that the crew vehicle can be smaller, cheaper, and safer and the cargo vehicle can have a much higher capacity (over four times higher).

They expect to be using the new vehicles to go to ISS as soon as 2010, which is good, because that's when the shuttle is scheduled to retire.

So, this is great, right? Some new vehicles, some new goals. My only question is how come we did it in 8 years in the 60s, but now it's gonna take 13? I mean, I respect the fact that good engineering takes time, but it seems like the length would decrease over time? Will NASA be beat to the punch by another space agency? Someone else?

I play the violin. I have for about 15 years now and play for a couple of area orchestras and weddings and such. Every once in a while, I'll mention to someone that I am a violinist as part of a conversation. As soon as it leaves my mouth, I cringe, knowing what is to come next. "Now, do you play violin? or do you play fiddle?" or something to that effect. Of course, the dreaded comment is accompanied with a huge, satisfied grin.

Let me just settle it once and for all. There's no difference in the instrument itself. You could say that a real fiddle needs to be old looking and dusty and a violin is clean and shiny. But really... same instrument.

So really, it's style. It's not unlike the difference between baroque violin music and romantic violin music. It's a style, a genre even.

I grew up taking "classical" voilin lessons, and playing in orchestras and string ensembles. I can play my share of "fiddle" music and have even had a gig or two playing in an impromptu bluegrass band.

Therefore, the answer to your question is yes. I do play violin or fiddle. Now, stop asking. But if you must ask, don't think you're clever or original for doing so.

Wired news has a story about Phil Zimmermann's plans to develop a program for encrypting Voip calls. I definitely agree that there is a need for encrypted voip, but this is not so revolutionary. All of Skype's calls are already encrypted and apparently Gizmo now has the capability built into the software. I am not sure whether there is much consumer voip hardware that supports encrypted SIP, but it can't be far off. Is there still a need for Zimmerman to write (and sell) such a technology?