The firms not mentioned here are just as important as the ones that are, as the privatization of space has just inched closer to reality. Rather than NASA handling ISS resupply chores itself or farming the job out to mega-corps such as Lockheed Martin or Boeing, the agency has instead awarded one contract each to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences (valued at around $1.9 billion) and California’s own SpaceX ($1.6 billion). The two will be responsible for 20 service flights between 2009 and 2016, with each trip requiring delivery of “a minimum of 20 metric tons of upmass cargo to the space station.” The agreements also call for “delivery of non-standard services in support of the cargo resupply, including analysis and special tasks as the government determines are necessary.” So yeah, if FedEx / UPS have been balking at your request to ship to a Martian eBay winner, you now know who to call

Go here to see the original: 
NASA taps Orbital Sciences, SpaceX for ISS resupply missions

Tim O’Reilly / O’Reilly Radar:

Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com: The Power of the Real Time Enterprise  —  What do Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com have in common, besides their extraordinary success?  They are organizations that are infused with IT in such a way that it leads to a qualitative change in their entire business.

See the original post here:
Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com: The Power of the Real Time Enterprise (Tim O’Reilly/O’Reilly Radar)

Wow. Loic Le Meur asks for a simple feature on Twitter search – the ability to filter results by the number of followers that a user has to make sense of thousands of messages – and the blogosphere calls for his head.

For the record, I agree with Loic. Being able to filter search results, if you choose, by the number of followers a user has makes sense. Without it, you have no way of knowing which voices are louder and making a bigger impact. It’s a way to make sense of a query when thousands or tens of thousands of results are returned.

Of course, I’m pretty sure I can live without this feature, too. I’m failing to get too worked up over it. But the outpouring of emotion from bloggers is surprising me, and I thought I’d seen just about everything when it comes to blogging.

Robert Scoble: “Here’s why it’s a stupid idea: everyone is gaming the number of followers. And, even if everyone weren’t, popularity on Twitter isn’t a good way to measure whether a Tweet is any good or not.” [Ok, but it is a good way of determining how loud that message was]

Dave Winer: “I think it’s a bad idea.”

Sarah Lacy: “No one could be this nakedly egotistical and self-serving.” [this one was my personal favorite. Sarah is clearly worked up over this idea.]

Steven Hodson: “some-one like me with next to no followers wouldn’t even rate showing up in search results even if I started to topic being searched for” [no, only if someone turned that filter on in the search]

Sam Harrelson: “I think this is a terrible idea.”

MG Siegler: “this absolutely would ruin one of the most compelling things about Twitter: That it’s completely democratic.”

Etc.

All this vitriol and angst over a simple feature request – a button to filter search results by number of followers on Twitter search. If people don’t like it, they can not go into advanced search and hit the button. No one is being disenfranchised, the wonderful faux democracy of Twitter won’t be imperiled. And for those of you who just hate the idea, maybe you can have an option to only show messages in search results that are from users with few or no followers.

Get it together people.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

See the original post: 
Bloggers Lose The Plot Over Twitter Search

I just checked BFF to see what shenanigans you kids have been up to. What do I find?

Doucheball Lawnscapes was formed in Jacksonville Florida in 1990. We are a Mom and Pop company. Not to big and not to small, just the right size so we can give you that personal touch that you are looking for.

Not what we’re looking for here, folks. BFF is a place for you to post your own content for eventual trickle up to CG proper. Just because it’s an open Wordpress installation doesn’t mean you can foul it up with detritus. Please!

Here is the original post:
CrunchGear BFF: You’re doing it wrong

I love my parents. My dad is tech savvy, my mom isn’t, but both are equally bedazzled by technology and their reaction to certain gadgets is funny. Some parents, however, are not so impressed. Like Giz reader Brian, who had this sweet post-xmas story to tell us about his dad: I went back to MI to my parent’s place this year for Christmas.

Continued here: 
Dad, Where’s the Digital Photo Frame? [Xmas Stories]

The Windows 7 Beta 1 that was public-bound in mid-January has been leaked now, and you can get a copy on BitTorrent. The beta expires July 1, 2009, and from what we read, it’s a bit more stable than the versions people have been playing with for a few months

Here is the original post:
Windows 7 Beta 1 (Build 7000) Leaked On BitTorrent [Windows 7]

Before you get all “Oh, that comment was so heartless” on us, we will say that the spectacles you’re peeping above are still a concept for now, though we wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear that Kanye himself eventually funds their commercialization. At any rate, designers Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong should be mighty proud of their concoction, which integrates dye solar cells into fashion-forward sunglasses in order to power your pocketable gadgets. Put simply, the SIG (Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses) convert the sunlight that they’ll obviously see into usable energy, though it should be understood that these could give the impression that you’re rockin’ a head-mounted display. And we wouldn’t want that , now would we?

Originally posted here: 
Solar panel-packin’ sunglasses power your gizmos, make Kanye inordinately envious

This could quite possibly be the first leaked picture of Sony’s Netbook, the VAIO P. Just to recap, it includes an “8-inch, 1600 x 786 LED display, a 1.33GHz Intel CPU, a hard drive up to 60GB (or a 128GB SSD), and will run Vista Home Premium or Home Basic.” There’s not much else in the way of info, save for the fact that the laptop will be available in three colors (Crimson Red, Champagne Gold, and Black Silk). [via Engadget ]

Excerpt from: 
Leaked Picture of Sony VAIO P

Wal-Mart announces the availability of the iPhone 3G. Starting today, stores “will sell the iPhone for only $2 less than the regular price with a two-year contract: $197 for the 8 GB model, or $297 for the 16GB model.” The news confirms multiple reports about the impending sale. The report also confirms that rumors of a $99 Wal-Mart iPhone were incorrect. [via Macrumors ]

Here is the original post:
iPhone 3G Hits Wal-Mart Today

One way to pass an icey cold weekend is by using Minesweeper to create a stop-motion Mario clip, complete with a soundtrack. Video after the break. Someone with a lot of free time has made the Animated Mario Minesweeper. Tiny Tim’s voice makes it even more better. [via Newlaunches ]

Read the original here: 
Mario Enters Minesweeper