Posts from — May 2009

Launch: May 11,2009 2:01PM EST (18:01 UTC)
Landing: May 22,2009 11:41AM EST (15:41 UTC)

STS-125 is the fifth and final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This mission is one of the more risky missions ever taken on using a Space Shuttle. The main reason why this is risky is because the shuttle will be unable to dock with the International space station in the event that something does happen. Because of this, it will be required that a backup shuttle be placed on launch pad 39B. In this mission astronauts will:

• Replace the fine guidence sensor
• Replace six gyroscopes
• Change Batteries
• Install new thermal blanket
• Install soft-capture mechanism (for deorbiting)
• Repair Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
• Replacement of the Data Handling Units (which failed in Sept.)
• Installation of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
• Installation of Wide Field Camera 3

Crew:
Scott Altman – Commander
Gregory Johnson – Pilot
Michael Good – Mission Specialist 1
K. Megan McArthur – Mission Specialist 2
John Grunsfeld – Mission Specialist 3
Micael Massimino – Mission Specialist 4
Andrew Feustel – Mission Specialist 5

To View Live Coverage of STS-125 Visit SpaceVidCast

Mozilla prism is a program that can take your everyday web applications straight to the desktop. Prism is already in use by Yahoo! for their Zimbra suite and is now open to end users to use for their favorite web applications.

When I first used Prism, I first thought it was pointless since it seemed like a simple web browser that opens a URL shortcut on your desktop. But Mozilla does make a great point on the Prism website:

“Unstable applications can slow down or crash your entire browser.”

How many times have we all been writing a paper, either for work or school, using Google Docs or Zoho Writer and listening to Pandora at the same time when Flash decides to stop working? This usually requires a restart of Firefox and the retyping of several lines. With Prism, it allows all those apps to work separately from the browser thus taking a few weights off your browser’s back. If Flash decides to take a dump, only Prism will be effected. Unfortunately for you, you will have no excuse to stop working. I hope you enjoy my little demo below (it was on an older slow computer)!

Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Mozilla Prism can be downloaded at prism.mozilla.com

The Mozilla Prism logo is © Mozilla, Inc. and  is being used for news reporting under fair use.