What made me cry: Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope
Lots of people are asking me questions about what made me cry at Microsoft a few weeks ago.
If I told you “a telescope” you’d make fun of me, right? Tell me I’m lame and that I don’t deserve to be a geek and that I should run away and join the circus, right?
Well, that’s what I saw.
Or, more accurately, the WorldWide Telescope.
UPDATE: the official site is now up.
Like I said, sounds lame. How could that possibly be the most fabulous thing I’ve seen Microsoft do in years? And that’s not just me talking. My friends who’ve seen it say that I actually underhyped it. That’s the first time anyone has said I underhyped something when I was trying to be so over-the-top with hype.
Like I said, it isn’t the product that’s impressive. You’ve gotta see this thing to really understand. My video will be up on Monday.
But, I’ll try to give you an idea of what made me so impressed.
Think of Google Maps or Microsoft’s Live Maps. How dragging a map around lets you see the world in a new way. Zoom in. Zoom out. You have the whole world in a window on your screen.
Now, think of the sky.
When Brian Cox, physicist at CERN, spoke at LIFT last year he told us to hold our hands out, put our thumb up and realize there are hundreds of thousands of stars in just that small patch of sky.
Now you’ve probably looked at imagery from the Hubble Telescope. So you know there are entire galaxies out there. But what are you missing?
Context.
In other words, you have no idea where in the sky those things you see in Sky and Telescope magazine are. You’re missing context.
So, back to the World Wide Telescope. You drag around the sky. There’s Mars. There’s the big dipper. There’s Betelguese. Etc. It’s just like the star party you probably attended in college.
But it has one difference between any telescope you’ve ever looked at.
You can zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.
We picked a point of light inside the big dipper. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Holy shit, it’s two galaxies colliding. It looked like a star. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.
Now the magic happened.
Curtis Wong said: “let’s switch to a different telescope and see what these two galaxies colliding are spitting out.”
He clicked a button and we saw a completely different view of the same colliding galaxies. This time we weren’t looking at visible light, but at something else. I think it might have been infrared, or maybe a look at other kinds of radiation being kicked out. He had about 10 of the world’s telescopes to look at. I forget all the names, but that detail is in the video coming on Monday.
Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Zoom out. Pan over to Mars. What a glorious view. You’ve never seen Mars like that through your $2,000 Celestron Telescope.
Oh, you have one of those nice Celestron telescopes with the motorized base? Click a button and your telescope points to what you’re looking at in this piece of software.
And there’s a ton more, the demo just goes on and on and on.
Some other things.
1. It’s dedicated to Jim Gray, the Microsoft Researcher who sailed out of San Francisco Bay about a year ago never to be heard from again. He started this project with a paper back in 2002.
2. It runs only on Windows. It’s coded in C#/.NET, you’ll meet the developer in our video and you’ll hear more about that then.
3. It’s free, but only in a private alpha right now. I’m not sure when it’ll be released to the public. I bet that we’ll find that out at Microsoft’s Tech Fest next week (TechCrunch and other bloggers are going to that, so Im sure we’ll hear lots more details on the other cool stuff Microsoft Research is doing).
4. There are terabytes of data, all seamlessly integrated for the first time here.
5. There are narrations and tours. I believe you can even add your own, so you can leave a little tour for your kids to see the sky in a new way.
6. Mike Arrington and Dan Farber figured it out first.
So, why cry over a telescope?
Because I just saw the world I live in, er, excuse me, the universe I live in in a new way that I never had imagined before.
I cried because I imagined all the kids, like my sons, who will be inspired by what they see. It took me back to the days when John Kennedy wanted us to go to the moon. Hint: there’s a lot more out there to explore.
I cried because I realized just how much work, money, and all that went into making these images. I never had access to them before. Certainly not in this way so I could compare them by clicking a button. As a taxpayer who’s helped pay for some of these telescopes it’s the first time I’ve seen the results of my and your, investments in our scientific research.
It’s human to look out at the sky and wonder what’s going on out there. This takes us a LOT further into our understanding of just what is.
And,, yes, that’s worth crying some inspirational tears. Thank you to Microsoft Research for inspiring me in a way that Microsoft hasn’t inspired me in years.
And, also, sorry to the teams that I caused some PR troubles for. I hope you’ll forgive me for getting a little excited. I couldn’t contain myself. It isn’t everyday that you get to see such an inspiring piece of software.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Awesome, I can’t wait! I was into astronomy years ago, but have fallen out of it. Perhaps it’s time to sell my old telescope and get a new fancy one to hook up to this software.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:34 am
When looking at my little boys and their sense of wonder, this would make me cry too. Go explore kids.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Seeing how much fun and excitement I already had with Google maps satellite view, I can only wonder how it will be zooming around in the universe. :)
February 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am
This sounds fantastic! What I need now, is a giant screen stuck on my ceiling, so I can lie on my back and zoom in and out of the stars I’m staring at.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:49 am
The one thing I always found with owning a telescope was however much I spent I was never satisfied with the results, this sounds like every astronomers dream come true.
sent from: fav.or.it [FID7844]
February 27th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hey, tell us something new! We all knew it was the World Wide Telescope a week ago! See http://www.davidarno.org/ for example.
It’ll be interesting to see if it’s better than Google’s already-available and works-on-all-machines telescope app.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Not to put a damper on your excitement, which I’m sure is genuine, but how does this significantly differ from the Sky View in Google Earth?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:55 am
It sounds great. Can’t wait to see it.
But Robert, how does what you saw compare to Celestia?
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
I think it’s a different proposition, but I think it’s pretty inspirational too.
Thanks.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Wanderley: it’s different than Celestia, but I agree with you that Celestia is pretty cool too.
Ron: Far better integration than Google’s Sky View. A lot more telescopes. More inspiring. Hard to explain until I get to show you the video. Google’s Sky View is pretty cool, too, though. The Microsoft Researchers found a better way to stitch together all the databases and display them than Google’s team has.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Perhaps I’m parochial, but what excites me about Google Maps and Google Earth is the personal connection that I have, or want to have, with the places I’m viewing. When I look at a Google Earth view of Mikkeli, Finland, I get excited because our Finnish exchange student is studying there. When I look at a Google Earth view of Itajai, Brazil, I get excited because I spent a wonderful weekend in a nature preserve in the area several years ago.
When TechCrunch spilled the beans on WorldWide Telescope on February 18, my first thought was a “so what”? Again, this view is probably parochial, but I probably won’t be leaving this galaxy in my lifetime, so I don’t see how I can form a personal connection with a zoomed view of another galaxy.
Then again, I have not seen WorldWide Telescope yet. It may be possible that when I see it, I (like others that you have mentioned) will be transported to another dimension, musing on the vastness of the universe and (if I may say this) on the truly awesome nature of God’s creation.
We’ll see.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
A desktop planetarium. It’s nice to look up occasionally.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Ontario: you’re right. I find that usage to be similar to mine, too. But humans look at the sky and wonder “what is out there?” This gives us a new way to see that and it does inspire by the vastness of the universe and its awesome nature. I’ll leave whether a God created that or not to the religious folks, but it is inspiring, no matter what your beliefs are.
And, who knows, in a few years it might just be possible to go out into space as a tourist, or take a the last years of your life to go work on Mars (they won’t send young people there due to the radiation dangers you’ll face).
February 27th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Neal: it’s far cooler than any planetarium I’ve ever been in. Planetariums don’t let you zoom or pan you way across the sky. And they don’t let you switch views instantly between lots of different telescopes.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ah so thats what it was - I guess you needed to be there ;0)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Andy: if you read my original post, I told you exactly that. On Monday you WILL be there! :-)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I hope I never look into a telescope and see Beetlejuice. Now if I saw Betelguese, that would be okay, but I really don’t want to see Michael Keaton. :)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Larry: good catch. You can tell I’m not an astronomer.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
sounds awesome! now, to go look up companies that make telescopes like the one you described that can work with the software…. remember the telescope buying craze that ensued during the last pass of Haley’s comet? Do you think this will inspire such a frenzy if marketed properly? I mean people DO spend $2,000 on a lot of far less cool shit.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Will NASA be recognized as a partner in this project?
For an agency in need of a PR lift, this could certainly help generate some buzz - if they were to use this platform properly.
On that note, will Microsoft be enabling third party mash-ups within the platform? Will historians be able to insert historical information around wars fought based on information they read of the stars? Will users to be able to visit stars who’s names they have purchased? Will brands be able to create mini-games, ARG campaigns and scavenger hunts by having users surf the skies for clues?
Or will this be relegated to a first time WOW factor we experienced with Google Earth only to see usage drop to a core enthusiast audience thereafter?
February 27th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Thanks, Robert. I’m moved by the possibilities. Growing up I learned that the future of humanity is to explore galaxies. This kind of technology will facilitate the ambitions and actions of future generations.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Yeah, sorry, but right now I agree with davidarno: sounds like Google Earth in sky view. Last week I saw Google’s Chief Technology Advocate Michael Jones demonstrate it live, and he was practically dancing all over the universe, switching back and forth from Hubble images and observatories in Hawaii that Google has made deals with. It WAS very cool, but I’m curious to see if it’s better. As I understand it, all the Hubble pix are already on Google Earth.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Correct me if I am wrong - can you get addicted to such a thing? I mean like how often you post videos to qik kinda thing? Its still a hobby kinda thing 0 lives for a few days n then dies down because someone does something better. Google obviously won’t sit quiet after this I am sure.
Well, I agree - it could still have been the most amazing thing at Microsoft you ever saw - they do nice thing very very rarely ;-)
February 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Umm wrong on #6. Didyah catch my “sky” reference before? “Pulling a talk-about-it, while-not-talking-about-it” Scobleism. ;) No great secret, least to the usual Press guns, but I gave my word. But these things that pass for “journalists” need serious help.
But I told yah it wouldn’t live up to the hype, you gotta stop being a blubbery emotional-roller-coaster. It’s just a gee-whiz consumer tool, closed beta at that, not exactly on the level of finding a Dark Matter particle, there.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Its odd that people have to see something in order to be awed by it. If your imagination is so limited by what you can see you have a larger problems then not having this software.
It oddly reminds me of the torture chamber in “Life the Universe and Everything”. (Or was it “So long and Thanks for the Fish” ?
February 27th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Christopher: the folks who’ve seen it say it DOES live up to the hype.
Mike: Google’s Sky isn’t nearly as well integrated and doesn’t have as many telescopes.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Mr. Happy, if I told you about this cool movie called Star Wars, would my text have been able to do it justice before you saw it? No.
Some things you need to see and experience to get.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Christopher, for instance, read what Rahul Dave wrote about it: http://scobleizer.com/2008/02/14/microsoft-researchers-make-me-cry/#comment-1973155
Rahul is a lot more credible than you are.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
warren: heh, I remember Halley’s Comet very well. I sold 60 Celestron $2,000 telescopes in a year that year. I sold two the next. Keep in mind that such a telescope was totally inappropriate for looking at the comet. Every one of my customers knew that, they just used it as an excuse to buy the telescope they were dreaming about for years.
I would expect this will get people more interested in astronomy and will lead some to spend big bucks on a motorized telescope, but most people live where they can’t see the sky so such a purchase wouldn’t make much sense.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Completely inappropriate, juvenile image coughed up from my inner depths:
Remember those old gag shop telescopes where the ring around eye piece was coated in black makeup… and you’d trick your friends to look into them and they’d come away looking like they had a black eye?
How about a telescope where the eye piece is coated in onion juice? You could trick your friends to look into them and they’d com away crying like an A-lister.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
As the guy who suggested to Robert that he check out what Curtis was doing, I am not sure that I have a vocabulary to describe the brilliance of the product. My humble take is that it is going to change forever how people think about the sky/astronomy, etc.
It is dazzling…find a way to see it, check it out and, and just marvel.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Buzz: I agree and anyone who’s cynical should really be quiet until they’ve had a look.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
“As a taxpayer who’s helped pay for some of these telescopes it’s the first time I’ve seen the results of my and your, investments in our scientific research”
the land we are standing is burning, shaking, melting, oceans are getting angry and so on. So many things have higher priority………..but we are trying to catch stars. Priorities are disordered?
to microsoft, i want to check my emails in 5 seconds…..vista is loading loading and loadinggggg….fix this first then you show the heaven…anyways its an one time excitement.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
fear: if we don’t continue to strive to understand our universe why does fixing all those other problems matter?
February 27th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
beta? demo?
its possible or this in future?
February 27th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I’m Running out to Buy my SEGWAY Scooter Now!!
SNORES*
Ironically I went into the origi Post + even tho apparently it’s not PhotoSynth it sounds Identical with Zooming + Panning + Multiple Cams*
Yeah it’s c0ol + so are Colourized Hubble Images*
What a Supreme Disappointment*
Crying in my BEER!!
;PPP
February 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Billy: like I said, you’ve gotta see it. Then you’ll believe. It’s pretty clear you haven’t seen it yet. Why do I put up with people like you here? I expect this kind of comment on Digg, not here.
Dovella: it’s working. Not sure when it’ll be released, though. I imagine that they need to get the servers ready for a pretty sizeable number of people who’ll all want to try it out at once. Not an easy scalability problem to solve.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Might be nifty and better than Google Earth but I can get that on my Mac so Google Earth wins hands down.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
PXLated: now you know why I wanted VMWare on my Mac. :-)
February 27th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I think its very impressive as a well executed idea. Kudos to Jum Gray for his vision and MSR for building a “WOW thats cool” product.
I can see why it has to be Windows only (lock-in) or Windows Vista only (Ultimate Extras perhaps) but… (insert imaginary rant of your choice) :-)
If it encourages kids to learn more about Physics and Astronomy or actually helps real researchers discover new things, or creates a massive enthusiast community dedicated to studying the night sky the way people go over google maps, or find us some UFOS ;-), now that would really be amazing.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
[...] Scoble has admitted that a demo of Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope a few weeks ago made him [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Robert, We have “well known” local problems. Just see the death records all over the world year over year, the rate is doubling.
Yes I understand the relationship with universe(We should explore(slowly) the footprints of bigbang), I read lot of astronomy books and exited lot. But you know at the end of the day, to proof small small things, we need huge investment. In my opinion, we should slow down. speed up the research and solve the well known local problems…somepart of the world doesn’t have food, water…that’s an another story.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
still don’t see what makes this special. it’s what every free little astonomy program does, with the added benefit of having lots of data that comes with ms-funds.
(yes, this point has probably come up dozends of times in commentary, but i couldn’t care less to read all those)
February 27th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
sdf: if you think this is what every free little astronomy program does then you are particularly clueless. Sorry, but nothing out there does what World Wide Telescope does.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Robert, how does it compare to WikiSky? ( http://www.wikisky.org ) Sounds very similar, but again, I haven’t seen it in action.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I had the same reaction as many of the others that this is just another planetarium until you started talking about viewing things in different wave lengths. I am guessing since it is free that means that the data requires a internet connection. This tends to be a problem if you want to take it with you to a dark site. Beyond that I think I will alway prefer to go out to one of our club sites, enjoy the universe with friends and make my own images. They may not be of the same quality, but this type of program will only wow me for a couple of day. The real thing is much more enjoyable.
My astrophotography album:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/168994856LXByfn?vhost=outdoors
February 27th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
So this is the BIIIGGG thing everyone has been so secretive about?
I am not a big Astronomy kind a guy… I always like the Google Earth style application because I am into ocean sports and it allowed me to have a bit of a poke around to find new surf breaks without actually driving around in a car.
… as I said I am not big on Astronomy and while this is sounds interesting I don’t think it will change my world. I guess I’ll have a look and form my own judgement.
Although, remind me again where there is a business model in this?
February 27th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] the wwtelescope.com is on-line. I guessed right. See my previous post and today’s post by Robert Scoble on the [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] Mehr dazu unter: http://scobleizer.com/2008/02/27/what-made-me-cry-microsofts-world-wide-telescope/ [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
[...] Scoble finally told us what made him cry. It’s a Microsoft Research project called the WWTelescope. I haven’t seen the demo for this, but it looks like its software that allows you to explore the universe, flying around wherever you want to go! Scoble also mentions that this uses the Photosynth technology, something I have personally used and seen the demo of and combining satellite imagery with Photosynth would be nothing short of Awesome! What photosynth allows you to do is take totally random images of any place say the big ben at different angles. It then takes these random images and intelligently creates a virtual tour patching these pictures together in a 3 dimensional space! I so want to get my hands on the WWTelescope now! Technorati Tags: wwtelescope,microsoft research [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
thomas: please go back and read my original post. I told you that there was no business model here. Why does something need a business model to be inspiring?
February 27th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
You are becoming an old man, my grandfather also cries easily. ;-)
February 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
To echo what Robert just said, I asked the same question, e.g. how are going to charge for the WWT, and the answer was that Microsoft was giving it to the world, so that people could build upon it. For those of you above who have indicated even a drop of cynicism or skepticism about the WWT, wait until you see it, there is nothing out there that I have seen that even comes close. It is an order of magnitude better, and simply dazzling…and really so much fun to experience. When I saw it, the people in the room were blown away.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
The WOW! starts now?
February 27th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
OK, so the client is in C#/.NET? Then why not make it the Silverlight Killer App and make it available as a Windows Live service? Anyway, I hope the project makes it out of research.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
“if you think this is what every free little astronomy program does then you are particularly clueless”
Aw, don’t be so mean. It’s always hard to describe how cool something is without even a picture, and from your description, it *does* sound like one of the good free astronomy programs but with more graphics.
P.S., I love how you sneak in pejorative words like “little” to describe mature, portable 100,000-line programs. But I won’t call you “lame”, even though you specifically asked for it. :-)
February 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Enough crying already and let’s see it. I’ll be honest, whenever I see video of ‘peoples reactions’, I think of 2 girls and 1 cup!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Spring 2008, it says? This may well save me my subscription to Starry Night. :)
I’ll just sit back and speculate about the tech they’re using underneath, or just ask them next week…
February 27th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Microsoft introduced the World Wide Telescope in TechFest 2007!
A year ago nobody didn’t care about this telescope, so Microsoft paid you to blog about this, right?
February 27th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Great, another product that won’t run outside of Internet Explorer. I wonder what other Microsoft product will be required in order to run it.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Please, please. Someone do this the opposite way. Down.
I want the same thing for a microscope. Zooming around in a cell, molecular perspectives, etc.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
“He clicked a button and we saw a completely different view of the same colliding galaxies.”
Although I haven’t seen what Microsoft did, I can understand his reaction. I reacted in a similar way when I’ve been at Futuroscope (it’s in France).(http://www.futuroscope.com/eng/attraction-cosmos.php)
The screen is a huge shpere taking you through a journey in cosmos. It’s really really breathtaking.
Imagine experiencing what Microsoft did with a set of VR glasses and especially if what they did was in true 3D.
Watch the video, maybe it could set you in the mood to understand
http://www.futuroscope.com/eng/video.php?video=destination_cosmos
February 27th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
[...] you want to know more about the World Wide Telescope, check Scoble’s post about it and how he was very influenced by what he [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
@robert:
I find it a little odd that you have been dangling the “it made me cry!” mystery product/experience in front of people for some weeks, finally let everyone in on the “secret”, and then criticise those who find it less than overwhelming, and tell you as much.
To say, “you don’t know what you’re talking about - you’ve got to wait and experience it” is a bizarre response; either don’t write the “cry!” post in the first place and just show us the video when ready, or expect caustic comments on the way you overhype products. You cannot have your galaxy and eat it.
All that said, it looks nifty.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
And the WorldWide Telescope isn’t using SILVERLIGHT??!!??
What a missed opportunity for Microsoft to show off their other great new technology.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I wonder if WWT will render the sky as nice as desktop apps such as Starry Night, TheSky6, etc. Those (especially Starry Night) are really really nice too.
BTW Robert, in my spare time (huh, what’s that?) I’m an amateur astrophotographer, and you’re welcome to join us in one of our Star Parties :-) Not quite a photowalk because well, rather than walking you’ve got to stay put :-) but might be a fun experiece for you as well :-) Just drop me a line if interested!
February 27th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Robert,
Of course it doesn’t need a business model… however, they way you talked it up here in your blog and over on your QIK videos I expected something as big as the web itself.
Yeah I know it will look great but unless you are really into astronomy this will be no more than a brief “yeah nice” for most people. So unless there is no other application for the technology I don’t know what the big fuzz is about.
Remember, it’s about the content not the technology. There aren’t a lot of people reading your blog because they like the blogging technology.
BTW, personally I thought QIK and the way you use it to deliver raw interviews is much more revolutionary than gazing at the stars Microsoft style…
QIK to me is like a News Reality TV style… sometimes it seems to be better to see the whole raw story rather then the sanitised version Fox News wants you to see… actually, you probably should watch Fox News in first place.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
meant to say SHOULDN’T WATCH FOX NEWS
February 27th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Robert,
Thank you for letting everyone know about this.
This is the kind of technology that can change our future by educating our children.
It takes a visionary to recognize this and be moved by it.
Thanks for being one.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Well, I’ll admit full on that I suspect that burst of rage I felt when I saw the description and then got to the “Windows Only” part, is probably the same one that Windows users must feel when Apple rolls something incredibly cool out with “Mac Only” attached to it. That means that this _does_ sound incredible.
Not surprised by the “Windows only” option, because the cynicism centers in my brain had been whispering “MS=Win Only” at me from about 10 seconds in.
It does sound _Very_ impressive. Or at least all those kids looked pretty impressed. But, admittedly, all I can think is: “Microsoft-Wide Telescope” Rather than “World Wide Telescope”.
And Fear: Sure, this isn’t addressing earthquakes, drinking, dogs and cats living, Climactic change, or gingivitis, but it’s a possible tool or inspiration for the next generation of people who will. And I would suggest to you that the people who are going to work on such things, already are, or are trying to, and those that aren’t are not going to start because MS releases “Microsoft’s World Wide Litter/Carbon Emissions/Drunk Driver Detector”.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
[...] software will be available later this spring as the software is currently in private alpha. Robert Scoble will likely be posting a video on his blog in the next few hours or [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
[...] Etukäteishypetys vähän ärsyttää, toivottavasti luvassa on jotain oikeasti noin mullistavaa. Tämä jamppa on ainakin syvästi [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
[...] others were speculating on what it was. The speculators were right. Today, Scoble revealed what made him cry. It’s a giant telescope. And it sounds like it’s going to rock! I’m usually on [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Go and watch the videos for other people’s opinions: http://wwtelescope.com/
February 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Finnish: I was at the TechFest last year. It wasn’t even close to what they showed me this year. I not only wasn’t paid by Microsoft but Fast Company paid all my expenses to the trip up to Microsoft.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
[...] It’s unclear whether the demo of the astronomy technology made anyone in the audience cry like former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble, but the images (shown above) were certainly [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
“I think it might have been infrared, or maybe a look at radiation being kicked out.”
Ouch! As if anyone needed another example of the failure of basic science education in this country…
February 27th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Ethan Zuckerberg, who saw the demo at TED today, said “amazing.” http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2008/02/27/pat-burchart-explained-the-96-of-the-universe-we-cant-see/
February 27th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
This certainly is a giant step towards virtualization and augmented reality. What we are seeing right now is how data gets structured within its context. 5 years from now and you’ll have a kind of sixth sense. No keyword entering on your cell phone, but point and click. Whatever you are pointing at, whatever properties, whatever context you are looking for, or even weren’t aware of: whatever is known, thought, said, recorded or imagined about the subject or its certain part/property will be available in the appropriate way.
These are exciting times. Virtual reality and reality are merging.
By the way, there are virtual microscopes available.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Tom: sorry, that stuff went by so fast I don’t remember it all. I’d like you to watch something for an hour and then try to recall everything you saw.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
[...] dettaglio ce lo forniscono lo stesso Scoble e le FAQ presenti sul sito [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
More reports from TED: http://www.lunchoverip.com/2008/02/ted2008-what-is.html
February 27th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
WHAT???!
Ever heard of Stellarium? Free and open source, detailed view of sky with full context and everything. Easy navigation, zoom, view from anywhere on earth or other planets, at any time… man… How could that make you cry? wuss
February 27th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
expect caustic comments on the way you overhype products.
Glad to be of service. ;)
The BEST way to hype up something, is to let the product hype itself, as the “I am important, and you aren’t” closed beta’s won’t do that, just creates resentment, and people will dismiss on emotional grounds themselves. Plus, this “demo” isn’t even a real product. And, if it were a real product, for all but a small niche, it’s just a nice gee-whiz thing with no applicational use whatsoever. Plus, it’s from Microsoft, which as we all know, won’t go anywhere, be that as it may be, cool as all out.
1. It made me cry.
2. You must agree with me, even though you haven’t seen it. You must trust me.
3. If you don’t agree, you aren’t credible, nor human, and barely fit to live. Plus you haven’t seen it.
4. These people (important as they are) all agree. So obviously you are defective.
5. You can agree, without having seen. But if you disagree, not having seen is bad. Your faith can only go in one direction.
Man, with that one-sided temper-tantrum pouting argumentative style I woulda been kicked out Jr. High Debate. ;)
February 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Christopher: you misrepresent my words. I’d call you an idiot, but that’s going to be apparent to anyone who sees this software.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Wow. You’ve really outdone yourself this time, scoble. It’s total vaporware.
The “official site” is nothing but a 30-second commercial.
You know what’s so amazing about Google maps? I can actually use it.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Well when you see this when it comes out for once Google will be outdone, they have nothing that will ever come close to this
February 27th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
“I think it might have been infrared, or maybe a look at radiation being kicked out.”
Ouch! As if anyone needed another example of the failure of basic science education in this country…
“Tom: sorry, that stuff went by so fast I don’t remember it all. I’d like you to watch something for an hour and then try to recall everything you saw.”
Well, I do recall from primary school that “infrared” IS radiation. The line I quoted is an example of either abysmal comprehension of science, or abysmal grammar. Which of those do you wish to claim, mister “geek”?
February 27th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
anon (85): you have a point. But it’ll be out soon enough. Did you watch all the astronomers fawning over it in the video on the official site? Think that’s really just vaporware? Got it.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Tom: OK, OK, I get your point. Yeah, I guess light is radiation, but it’s not the kind of radiation I was thinking of (like gamma rays or X rays). Infrared’s entry on Wikipedia says it’s electromagnetic radiation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared
Sorry for not being clearer.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Nice. Fantastic concept - I think.
Robert, care to link to something that *directly* deals with this? Both of your links end up at what I guess MS thinks should be the “main” site….
Which yields:
(1) A very nice description of whatever this is.
(2) A real nice
H2sorry, TD element with the text “Reactions to Worldwide Telescope”.So far? Not much help. No clarity. And yes, certainly - nothing remotely close to tearjerking.
(3) A lovely flash player… or is that SVG or Quicktime? Whatever. Yet something else I have to click on - and patiently watch and listen to - about the “kid reaction”.
This would be about the time I’m no longer looking for something cool (much less tearjerking) but am wondering if they realize how little the “get it”.
Let’s
go below the folddig a little deeper….Ah shit - coming in Spring 2008. Sigh. Face it Robert, you blew it with your usual hyperbole - AGAIN.
Want to make a fool out of me? Post a link to the cool stuff… to something that delivers on the concept you so easily had tears over.
And do it without a defensive post like this. Oh yeah, and without a 1000 word hyperbolic post like that other one.
Just simple DO it. No hype. No filler. Simply DO IT.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I can understand why people are skeptical, particularly since MS is involved. If MS managed to eradicate world hunger, there are some people would still find reason to be cynical about it.
I’ve messed around with a few planetarium-type apps, and I’ll be much pleased if MS can improve upon what’s already out there. I’ve been interested in astronomy since I was a little girl, and this kind of thing would have really thrilled me when I was a kid.
The official website is currently lacking in content somewhat, but that’s no big deal to me. They just announced it. It’s too early to call it vaporware! The release date is fairly vague and hasn’t even come and gone yet anyhow.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Place your bets.
5 to 1 - Robert never installs it.
2 to 1 - Patrick would rather play WoW
even money - Robert will tire of it by the time its publicly released, just like Kyte, WetPaint, Bug Labs…
February 27th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
[...] has its own pages up now, it´s in early alpha, hear sam geeky freeky ’specs’. This was written by admin. Posted on Thursday, February [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
simon: Bug Labs? Hardly tired of that. Wetpaint? You’ll see me use it again and again. I haven’t given up on that. Kyte? Well, Qik is live streaming. When Kyte gets live streaming maybe I’ll be back.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
underivy: the official announcement of the WorldWide Telescope was supposed to be March 4th. That’s when you’ll have a lot more details.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Dave: you’ll have what you want next Monday.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
[...] this is what made Robert Scoble cry when visiting Microsoft a few weeks back: Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope. It has [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
[...] looking forward to it. And yes this is what made Scoble cry and he explains the reasons for it on his blog now, and I seem to agree with [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
[...] Robert Scoble has a really good post up about the WorldWide Telescope, a project just announced out of Microsoft Research. Why am I blogging about a Microsoft Research Project? Because it sounds like an awesome experience. And frankly, when we think of experience, all the things that are important are drawn out in Robert’s post: seeing the world in a new way (dragging and dropping), context, manipulating your environment. It’s all there with this application. It’s kind of a killer app for the sky as far as I can tell and it’s the perfect example of how taking quality data and putting a new experience around it can result in some very, very powerful emotions. [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Google Search — Live Search
Google Earth — after a few years.. Microsoft Virtual Earth
Google Maps - Live Maps (a few years later)
iPod — Zune (released many years later after the iPod, in direct competition)
And that’s just the yesteryears (Let’s not talk about Netscape or MacOS or Excel)
Seriously, your tears, a video of some children’s awestruck faces and some ecstatic blog posts aren’t selling me anything at all.
Even if the Telescope were worth every bit you say, I’d always have a funny nebulous thought in the back of my mind about Google Sky and a company that built its entire product line based on their adversaries’ popular products.
So much for innovation.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
[...] Wide Telescope « Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger February 28, 2008 — Bryan Woods What made me cry: Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope « Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger Posted in [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
@Tim Lee : Live Hotmail - Gmail
Microsoft Office - Google Docs
Windows Media Center - Apple TV
Live Maps Traffic Feature - Google Maps Traffic Feature
Live Messenger - Google Talk
IE - Safari
Keyhole - Google Earth
Where2 - Google Maps
So much for innovation there.
But seriously, this will be great. Some of the WinLive stuff Microsoft has is actually better than Google, and I can’t wait to see this WWT.
Oh, and the Zune for the most part beats the iPod Classics and all the other iPods below the Classic level.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Can’t wait to see it. I’m wondering about 3D capabilities, that is z-axis movement. Is the viewer pinned down to a single location when zooming? Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see :)
February 27th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
[...] It’s unclear whether the demo of the astronomy technology made anyone in the audience cry like former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble, but the images (shown above) were certainly [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Wow! It’s a great news. I am highly impressed with the innovation shown by Microsoft.
Also, because of this software, common people would get access to mysterious universe.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
“The official site is up”? All I see is a “coming soon” site. Nice link bait, though.
Wait! Sorry, coming in Spring 2008. You say “wait until March 4th”. For what? More hype? Or is MS declaring March 4th the beginning of Spring?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
“Why does something need a business model to be inspiring?”
A question Ballmer seems to asking MS investors to swallow every day. Don’t know how much money was invested in this project, but I would venture a guess that some MS investors would be questioning the value of it relative to the bottom line.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I expected to see you at the end of their promotional video crying your eyes out :)
February 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
scoble (re: 88): fair enough, I’ll judge it when it gets released. I think you’ve already done a disservice to Microsoft by overhyping it. NOTHING they do is really any good. I’ll make a prediction: it’s a graphics demo to numb weak minds and on closer inspection the inaccuracy of the mapping will be the talk of REAL astronomers.
I notice you linked to MSN Maps but not to Google Maps. Any reason for that? Personally, I think Yahoo! maps are the best - especially their traffic and accident overlays. But technologically, Google’s maps are still the most exciting because they use regular image files and AJAX. The engineering behind that is awesome, even the javascript dragging. They were cutting edge, even as we’re seeing stuff like that appearing on shopping sites like bluefly (much smaller scaling problems, though - Google was simultaneously low-tech and brilliant).
Yahoo! and Microsoft’s maps, by comparison, are boring because they use Adobe flash as the middleware provider for the interface.
I’m sure you’ve seen this, but here’s a really informative site:
http://www.google.com/moon/
I always lose hours going over this.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Can you take the telescope and look not at the sky, but into my window from your house?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
[...] the biggest telescopes on the Earth and in space to create an expansive visual map of the Universe. According to Scoble the software is currently in the private alpha stage, it’s set to launch in Spring [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
#104: I can’t ever seem to get useful information out of Yahoo! maps, but they are most definitely “regular image files and AJAX”. It’s really just like Google Maps but not as polished. Oh, and obtrusive ads: “30 days of freshness or my money back” — woohoo!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:19 am
[...] se rencontrent ;). Concrètement, je n’ai vu pour le moment que des images du logiciel, mais Robert Scoble, qui figure parmi les rares chanceux à avoir testé la bête, nous donne les principales features [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 1:30 am
The TED video is already up: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/224
February 28th, 2008 at 1:53 am
[...] http://scobleizer.com/2008/02/27/what-made-me-cry-microsofts-world-wide-telescope/ [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 2:12 am
[...] WorldWide Telescope 已经上线了，可以通过 http://wwtelescope.com/ 访问。以下是 Robert 的介绍: "So, back to the World Wide Telescope. You drag around the sky. There’s Mars. [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Gushy piece, how could the writer possibly have
missed Google Sky View. As usual little or no
innovation from MS…just tired borrowings.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:15 am
[...] sur Vista était assez limite, autant il s’inscrit parfaitement pour cet outil. Robert Scoble en a même pleurer, c’est pour dire ! Vous pourrez zoomer, dézoomer à volonté. La vidéo [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 3:28 am
TomC: I did NOT “miss” Google Sky View. Where did you get that idea? It is lame compared to the WorldWide Telescope.
I really hate people like you who just come here to troll with absolutely no facts behind them. Geeesshh, go back to Digg.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:37 am
A telescope???? Amazing - if it falls over I’ll cry.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:47 am
This appears real cool…”Google Skyview” didnt impressed me as “Google Maps” or “Microsoft Live MAps” ..”Worldwide Telescope” may..I was always interested in the universe of which we are a minuscule part of…
February 28th, 2008 at 4:03 am
[...] er Microsoft gået ud offentligt med lidt information om sit World Wide Telescope. Læs Scobles beretning om, hvorfor han græd - her er blot et pluk: I cried because I imagined all the kids, like my sons, [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 4:13 am
[...] treats us to some of his enthusiasm about Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope. You drag around the sky. There’s Mars. There’s the big dipper. There’s Betelguese.But it has [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 4:21 am
[...] Robert Scoble: What made me cry: Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 4:49 am
[...] | TED | Scoble’s Review | Thanks [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 4:52 am
[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!It made Scoble cry, and soon it can make you cry too. The website for the latest Microsoft Research project, WorldWide Telescope, is now up at http://wwtelescope.com/. Here’s how Robert describes it: [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Robert(@96),
If I can have it Monday, why *this* post? To generate hype? Again, just simply DO it. Its one thing to tease the world with a preview that brings a tear to an A-lister’s eye, it another thing to either put up a stupid tease of a site or post about the afore-mentioned tease.
This post could have waited until Monday. The site could have waited until Monday.
That said, I’m looking forward to checking it out.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:48 am
“Yeah, I guess light is radiation, but it’s not the kind of radiation I was thinking of (like gamma rays or X rays). Infrared’s entry on Wikipedia says it’s electromagnetic radiation:”
Ouch redux! Visible light, infrared, gamma rays, x-rays, radio waves, etc., etc. are ALL electromagnetic radiation, varying only in wavelength.
When I was growing up (in the 50s and 60s), this was primary school stuff. Now, apparently, even college graduates don’t understand it, hence my caustic remark about the state of American education. How are we going to compete with the Chinese in the marketplace if our self-styled “geeks” can’t even understand, let alone articulate, the differences between, say, an IR and an RF remote control?
February 28th, 2008 at 6:04 am
[...] World Wide Telescope Robert Scoble moest er onlangs om huilen, zonder dat hij kon zeggen waar het om ging. Vandaag kwam eindelijk de aap uit zijn mouw. Het gaat [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 6:13 am
ok… so I watched the TED presentation… yeah nice… already lost interest by the end of the video.
I guess I’ll have a play around with it when it comes out.
I am just wondering if perhaps the whole star gazing thing is a North American geeks wet dream. It sure didn’t make me cry.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] looks pretty amazing. With stuff this good on the web, who needs crap British TV? More from Scoble here (he cried when he saw this). Just one of the TED talks available now [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 7:26 am
[...] #3: Robert Scoble has a lengthy article on his blog about WWT and why it made him cry. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 7:36 am
[...] Microsoft Research… WorldWide Telescope Comment RSS Feed Email a friend [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
[...] like it has tremendous potential. Now, I haven’t actually used it, but the intertubes are buzzing with talk of Microsoft’s World Wide [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 10:12 am
[...] the Worldwide Telescope and it’s getting quite a reaction around the world. Read a post with a good overview from a popular blogger, Robert Scoble and check out the WWTelescope promotion sight. There is not [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 10:22 am
All the (over)hype for something Google already released in august of last year? Have you ever even heard of Google Sky?
I am curious though: what will be the same and what will be different in WWT?
February 28th, 2008 at 10:23 am
ok… so I watched the TED presentation… yeah nice… already lost interest by the end of the video.
Yeah, TED presentations always have that elitist self-evident swarmy tact, never doing much in way of rigid persuasion or data-analysis. They just assume that if you remain emotionally distant (to their pet topics of the moment) that you aren’t of the “cult”, i.e. people that “get it”. It’s not exactly peer review, but then none of the celebrity-styled Davosish conferences ever are. Watched a slew of TEDs for an editing project, and was half dead at the end.
But something I noticed…
You gotta wonder about the kooks at some of those conferences, San Franish liberal-hippie weenies that end up supporting what they hate, as the other side adopts a few of their pet projects. Facist dictatorships murdering half their population, are A-OK, if said dictatorship is helping global warming or ‘bridging the digital divide’ by handing out few wind-up laptops.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:52 am
It sounds like a cool project. Unfortunately the official site is just what MS does best, which is to make self-aggrandizing videos set to trashy dance music talking about how great something is instead of showing it. This isn’t to detract from your experience, Robert, but I just get so sick of MS marketing icing being 90% of the cake.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:53 am
> Yeah, TED presentations always have that elitist self-evident swarmy tact
Kind of like your comment. WTF, switch to decaf.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:24 am
This is that new technology that will change our lives. This is that all elusive software that makes us think and see. This is that next big thing! The English language does not have the words to describe what this technology means to me and what I believe it will mean to our tiny grain of sand that we live on. It is such a shame that Carl Sagan didn’t get to see this.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
[...] הנה קישור ישיר לסרט) מה כל כך מיוחד בזה? הסבר מפורט כאן. Posted: Feb 28 2008, 06:42 PM by ליאור צורף | with no comments Filed under: [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
[...] thing was coming from Microsoft, we now know that the WorldWide Telescope is “it.” Robert Scoble confirmed this yesterday and reiterated that people who have not seen the demo will think that a telescope is lame. He says, [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
[...] the fact that Microsoft unveiled, what is essentially “Google Maps Space Edition”, to a crying Robert Scoble, the conference seems to be creating a few enemies this year (I wonder why?). Most notably, a few [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
[...] takana ja nyt huomasinkin, että Microsoftin “salaisuus” on paljastunut eli tuo aiemmin mainittu julkistus on teleskooppi eli ohjelma, jolla voi yhdistellä kaukoputkien [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Ithink it sounds pretty cool.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
http://everythingimnot.wordpress.com
February 28th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
This whole “it made me cry” business is pure hype. Yes, the WWT is a really neat idea, but everything that it claims to do has been done on a smaller scale in other astronomy software…. just not on the web. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to seeing this… just stop it with the crying business. We all know it didn’t. You’re just attracting attention and hype.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Did the kid’s reactions remind anyone else of 2 girls 1 cup?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guZq3cWGRcE
February 28th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
“It is such a shame that Carl Sagan didn’t get to see this.”
But he saw billions & billions of other things. :-)
February 28th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
[...] from MS, the WW telescope. From what I hear it sounds truly revolutionary. I love Scoble’s quote: I cried because I realized just how [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
[...] What made me cry: Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope « Scobleizer — Tech geek blogger (tags: microsoft telescope astronomy) Posted by kaigani Filed in Uncategorized [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Come on man, these galaxies are millions of light years away.. this information is very outdated.
P.S. You are the Joan Rivers of the Internet!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
[...] Scoble tears. This is one hell of a technology from Microsoft Research that I think will have a huge impact on [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
[...] next Million Dollar Homepage - The Big Word Project, and G-d knows what Scoble is doing today… crying… laughing… doing laundry. I never even checked… and did Matt Cutts say something [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
[...] Science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong give a preview of WordWide Telescope at TED Talks. A fascinating project out of Microsoft Research, which will put the universe at your fingertips. It’s coming this spring, and it’s the kind of stuff that makes geeks cry! [...]