space

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Facebook is working to make its rabidly popular social-networking site available in languages other than English. It's been known for quite some time that translation has been on the company's radar as it expands beyond its U.S. roots--executives have mentioned it amorphously in speeches and panels--so there is very little "real news" here other than the fact that the Financial Times story indicates that there may be evidence that this translation project is a major priority.

Nevertheless, Facebook has been unclear about timing, and has not released any … Read more

MySpace users can now e-mail, add friends, and edit profile information for free from their mobile phone.

MySpace Mobile Web beta became available this week, featuring a WAP browsing experience that's lighter, sparser, and more cost-effective than the downloadable version users purchase from their phone carriers for about $3 per month.

The free WAP version has a much more austere interface, which helps support compatibility across carriers and manufactures. I was able to check and write e-mail, search for contacts, edit my profile, and update my blog quickly and without incident on a Verizon LG flip phone.… Read more

Richard Garriott, a game developer known for creating the multiplayer online game Ultima, will be the sixth private citizen to take a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station in October 2008. And in a way, he will follow in his father's footsteps, but without the NASA credentials. Garriott's dad is former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew to the first U.S. space station Skylab in the '70s.

Garriott will fly with Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures, a space tourism company that offers flights to ISS for between $25 million and $30 million. … Read more

The first of the Webcast presidential dialogues put together by MySpace and MTV will debut on Thursday, September 27, with an appearance by former Democratic Sen. John Edwards as he meets with students at the University of New Hampshire.

The dialogue takes place at noon Eastern time.

Those in attendance at the event in Durham, New Hampshire, will be able to ask questions in person, but online observers will be able to submit questions through the MySpaceIM instant-messaging client as well as through MTV.com and e-mail. Viewer reactions will be tracked by a Flektor widget--Flektor, as you may remember, … Read more

As NASA explores the possibility of sending astronauts to an asteroid, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a tethering system that could help explorers with the prospect of walking on a surface without much sticking power.

Gravity is almost nonexistent on an asteroid, which can be as small as a speck of dust or as big as tens of miles in diameter. Two MIT researchers have proposed the idea of a lightweight rope that could be tied around a small asteroid--one that's larger than a few kilometers--deployed most likely with the use of a remote-controlled … Read more

Fox Interactive Media is aiming to be the quick brown fox that jumped over the lazy dog.

Fox, owned by media powerhouse News Corp., announced on Monday plans to launch new ad-supported mobile versions of social-networking site MySpace, as well as its FoxSports.com, lifestyle site AskMen.com, gaming site IGN.com and movie site RottenTomatoes.com. So for users, that translates into free access and functionality on those sites.

Fox's move comes as advertisers are increasingly seeking ways to hitch a ride on the surging growth in cell phone use for accessing the Internet to texting messages. The … Read more

It's not the most innovative name but the concept may be revolutionary. Metaplace, a virtual community that is currently being tested for launch in spring 2008, was one of the most talked about start-ups at the TechCrunch40 Conference. The new platform allows anyone to build a virtual world from scratch -- for the web or even mobile applications -- without any programming knowledge. Like other virtual communities such as Second Life, There, Entropia Universe, or World of Warcraft, the Metaplace worlds can be used for gaming, socializing, and e-commerce. And they come with the usual community features: forums, user … Read more

Microsoft and Philips Electronics are pushing the Federal Communications Commission to retest devices that detect broadcast TV signals.

On Friday, the companies filed results of their most recent test results that showed their devices effectively detected broadcast signals. In an ex parte document filed with the FCC, the companies said they had conducted over 1,000 measurements in New York and California and they determined that the prototype devices were able to detect over-the-air TV signals at very low power levels with 100 percent accuracy.

"What the results of these tests mean is that with we can determine with … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--When PayPal founder Elon Musk entered the commercial space business in 2002, he was apparently not welcomed with open arms by the old guard.

But here at the 50 Years in Space conference Friday, Musk was in a much different position with his Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which is developing a series of rocket launchers and has a space-transportation contract with NASA.

"Thanks for being in the business, you give us fresh life. We need it," Robert Dickman, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said following Musk's morning speech at CalTech.… Read more