As far as modern computer usage goes, I’ve always been a Windows guy. Granted, I’ve spent quite a bit of time messing with Linux, and have had dedicated Linux machines from time to time (as secondary machines, anyway) but not since high school have I actually really spent any time with Apple Macintosh machines. Through […]
Okay, so it’s not really an Echidna and it’s not really in space, but this was something that was worth covering. What’s actually going on is Horus 49 – the launch of a high altitude balloon by the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group Inc. (AREG) for some radio experimentation. Pretty straightforward stuff, but this flight carried […]
On July 18th 2018 aerospace company Blue Origin conducted the 9th test flight of their New Shepard launch vehicle. New Shepard is a booster intended for commercial suborbital missions for both scientific research and space tourism, and holds the much-ignored distinction of being the first booster to reach space and safely land vertically, predating a […]
The Russian cargo vehicle Progress MS-09 launched on July 9th 2018 carrying approximately 2400 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station. A pretty typical resupply mission save for two interesting facts: 1: This mission was launched at such a time that it could dock faster than any previous mission to the ISS, spending a […]
Today marks 49 years since the first crewed landing on the Moon – the mission of Apollo 11. For fans of space stuff, today is kind of the top day in the history of things, much like October 4th and April 12th. These are days we celebrate for their importance to humanity – the days […]
Here we have a slightly different episode of The Computer Chronicles. While normally the show takes a look at the more personal end of the computer revolution – how individuals and small businesses use various machines, sometimes breaking into big business where it seems relevant, the show tends to not focus on the upper end […]
At the beginning of 2018, I set up a second blog here on Xadara, as a direct side effect to me feeling conflicted, shall we say, about discussing my more serious and critical opinions on certain current aspects of space and rocketry. That was, at least, the idea, and I quickly decided I didn’t need […]
It happened again. Much like I discussed back in December and January, I had another situation where the urge to write about something current actually inhibited my ability to work on this site. However, this time, I was able to think through the situation more clearly and came up with the most obvious of things […]
I’m only a month behind on covering this one, but I thought it might be nice with the recent sharing of the rollout of Progress MS-09 to share the launch and docking of Soyuz MS-09, since I missed covering it on time last month. Soyuz MS-09 launched on June 6th, 2018, carrying Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander […]
I absolutely love the look of R-7 derived rockets – Soyuz, Molinya, Vostok, Voskhod, all of them look amazing to me. To think this is one of the oldest designs still in use – over 60 years old – and the core design is, quite literally, a converted nuclear missile, is something else. It’s a […]
The 1980’s was an amazing time for computer technology – this was the time frame the concept of the microcomputer came into its own, bringing the ability to own a fully functional computer system into the average home. Computers however are strange machines, compared to what we normally have around our houses. Everything else we […]
Dragons Lair was an amazing game for its day. At least, an impressive one, anyway, for appearances, if not for gameplay. It used a LaserDisc system to play video clips that the player would react to, making decisions to progress in the game. Think “Quick Time Events” in games like God of War, Shenmue, and […]
When you get to the basics of it, a blog is basically a public journal – depending on the subject matter and the author, it can be literally as mundane as a persons day to day life, to something as deep and serious as ones physical and mental health, to anything (and I mean anything) […]
June went by quicker than I thought it would. I also didn’t get as much gaming content out as I expected – I kind of touched on what I wanted to about E3 and then went on about my days. A part of me thinks I should avoid E3 all together next year but at […]
Well, it was a good couple of months, but it looks like Microsoft has gotten back to a less-than-stellar lineup of games for Games with Gold the past few months, and July looks to be no exception – or so it would seem at a glance, at least. Let’s take a look. Starting off on […]