History of Astronomy, history of the science that studies all the celestial bodies in the universe. Astronomy includes the study of planets and their satellites; comets, asteroids, and meteors; stars and interstellar matter; star systems known as galaxies; and clusters of galaxies. The field of astronomy has developed from simple observations about the movement of the Sun and Moon into sophisticated theories about the nature of the universe.

II OVERVIEW

Advances in astronomy over the centuries have depended to a great extent on developments in technology. Initially, ancient peoples could only view the sky with their eyes. With careful attention to the changing positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, they were able to develop calendars and ultimately predictions of rare events, including eclipses. Instruments that allowed the measurement of the precise positions of celestial objects were the first major technological development, and those measurements formed the basis of models of the solar system.

The invention of the telescope in the early 1600s completely changed scientists’ ideas about the structure of the solar system and led to the discovery of new planets around our own sun. The telescope was also key to the measurement of distances to nearby stars and thereby provided the first clues to just how vast the universe is. The invention of the spectroscope combined with photography led to the discovery that the stars are made of the same elements found here on Earth.

Astronomy is different from most other sciences in that, apart from the planets we have visited by spacecraft, along with meteorites and samples of materials returned from bodies in space, researchers cannot do experiments in the laboratory with the objects that they want to study. Instead, astronomers must learn about these distant objects by relying entirely on the visible light and other forms of energy—electromagnetic radiation—that are given off by them. The great breakthroughs of the 20th century were the development of spacecraft that allowed scientists to observe the universe from outside the distorting effects of Earth’s atmosphere, and the development of new sensors sensitive to forms of energy our eyes cannot detect. Examples are X rays, gamma rays, infrared or heat energy, and radio waves. These new windows on the universe have greatly expanded astronomical knowledge.

III ANCIENT ORIGINS

Ancient astronomers had only their eyes with which to view the sky, but they had a very practical reason for studying the skies. Thousands of years ago, changes in the heavens were the only available clocks and calendars. The stars could also be used for navigation.

Ancient Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian astronomers all knew the approximate length of the year. The Egyptians of 3,000 years ago adopted a calendar with a year that was 365 days long, very near the modern value of 365.242 days. The Egyptians also used the rising of the star Sirius in the pre-dawn sky to mark the time when the Nile River could be expected to flood. The Chinese determined the approximate length of the year at about the same time as the Egyptians. The Maya of Central America kept a continuous record of days from day zero, which occurred on our equivalent of August 13, 3114 bc. They also kept track of years, eclipses, and the motions of the visible planets. Their year consisted of 18 months, each 20 days long, plus one 5-day month to total 365 days. Occasional adjustments were made to allow for the extra quarter of a day.

The adjustments required in the Maya calendar illustrate a common problem faced by ancient astronomers. Neither an entire month nor an entire year contains an exact whole number of days; to keep calendar years in step with the seasons, which were important for planting crops, the calendar makers assigned different numbers of days to successive months or years. Even though individual months or years were not the same length, they averaged out to approximately the true value.

In the British Isles, ancient people used stone circles to keep track of the motions of the Sun and Moon. The best-known example is Stonehenge, a complex array of massive stones, ditches, and holes laid out in concentric circles. Stonehenge was built over an extended period of time lasting from about 2800 to 1500 bc. Some of the stones are aligned with the directions in which the Sun rises and sets at critical times of the year, such as when it reaches its most northerly and southerly points in the sky (the summer and winter solstices).

Ancient astronomers also observed five bright planets (the ones we call Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). These bodies, together with the Sun and Moon, move relative to the stars within a narrow band called the zodiac. The Moon moves around the zodiac quickly, overtaking the Sun about once every 29.5 days. The Sun and Moon always move along the zodiac from west to east. The five bright planets—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—also have a generally eastward motion against the background of the stars. However, ancient astronomers in many different places around the globe noted that Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn sometimes move westward, in a backwards or retrograde direction. These planets, therefore, appear to have an erratic eastward course, with periodic loops in their paths.

In ancient times, people imagined that celestial events, especially the planetary motions, were connected with their own fortunes. This belief, called astrology, encouraged the development of mathematical schemes for predicting the planetary motions and thus furthered the early progress of astronomy. However, none of the systems of astrology has been shown to be at all effective in making verifiable predictions.

Stars provide the background against which the motions of the planets are measured. Ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, and others gave names to patterns of stars. We call these patterns constellations. Some are very familiar, such as the Big Dipper, the Pleiades, and Orion. Few constellations look like their namesakes. Rather, ancient astronomers probably simply named areas of the sky with prominent groupings of stars after important characters in their mythology.

IV GREEK ASTRONOMY

Modern astronomy can trace its heritage directly back to the ancient Greeks, who began to develop explanations for their observations of the sky. The writings of Aristotle summarize the knowledge of that era. He attributed the phases of the Moon—that is, the changes in its apparent shape—to the fact that we see different portions of its sunlit surface during the month. He also knew that the Sun is farther away from the Earth than the Moon because the Moon occasionally passes between the Sun and Earth and blocks the Sun’s light (a solar eclipse).

Aristotle cited two observations to show that Earth is a sphere. The first is that the shadow of Earth, which is seen during an eclipse of the Moon (when Earth is directly between the Sun and Moon), is always round. Only a sphere always has a round shadow no matter how it is viewed. If the Earth were a disk, we would sometimes see the shadow edge-on, and it would look like a straight line. The second observation was that travelers who journeyed a long distance south reported seeing stars not visible from Greece. If Earth were flat, all travelers anywhere would see the same stars. On a spherical Earth, travelers at different latitudes (different distances north or south) view the sky from different angles and see different constellations.

The Greek astronomer and mathematician Eratosthenes measured the size of the spherical Earth in about 200 bc. He noticed that on the first day of summer in Syene, Egypt, the Sun was directly overhead at noon. On the same date and time in Alexandria, Egypt, the Sun was about 7 degrees south of zenith. With simple geometry and knowledge of the distance between the two cities, he estimated the circumference of the Earth to be 250,000 stadia. (The stadium was a unit of length, derived from the length of the racetrack in an ancient Greek stadium. We have an approximate idea of how big an ancient Greek stadium was, and based on that approximation Eratosthenes was within 20 percent, and possibly within 1 percent, of the correct answer.)

Probably the most original ancient observer of the heavens was Aristarchus of Sámos, a Greek. He believed that motions in the sky could be explained by the hypothesis that Earth turns around on its axis once every 24 hours and, along with the other planets, revolves around the Sun. This theory, however, makes an important prediction that ancient Greeks could not verify. If Earth moves in an orbit around the Sun, then we look at the stars from different directions at different times of the year. As Earth moves along, nearby stars should shift their positions in the sky relative to more distant ones. The Greeks tried to measure this effect for the stars but were unsuccessful. It was only in 1838 that astronomers’ equipment could make measurements with the accuracy required to measure the very small shift of the stars, which turn out to be much, much farther away than the Greeks could imagine.

Perhaps the greatest of the ancient astronomers was Hipparchus, who lived around 150 bc and did most of his work at an observatory he built in Rhodes. There he recorded accurate positions of about 850 bright stars and classified them according to their brightness or magnitude. The brightest stars he said were of the first magnitude, a term astronomers still use today. Because our planet is not an exact sphere, but bulges at the equator, the gravitational pulls of the Sun and Moon cause it to wobble like a top. It takes about 26,000 years for Earth’s axis to complete one full circle. Hipparchus estimated that the Earth’s axis shifts its position relative to the stars by 46 seconds of arc per year, which is very close to the modern value of 50.26 seconds of arc per year. This is known as the precession of the Earth.

The last of the great ancient astronomers was Ptolemy, who worked in Alexandria in about the year ad 140. Ptolemy’s greatest contribution was a geometrical model of the solar system that made it possible to predict the positions of the planets at any date and time. His model was used for about 1,400 years, until the time of Copernicus. Ptolemy’s challenge was to explain the complex motions of the planets, including the fact that they sometimes appear to move westward or backward in their orbits. In order to explain the observation, he assumed that each planet revolved in a small orbit called an epicycle. The center of the epicycle then revolved about the Earth on a much larger circle. At the time, circles were thought to be the perfect shape. It was assumed that the heavenly bodies would follow the most perfect shape.

Astronomers now know that the planets do not follow circular orbits but rather elliptical ones, and they orbit around the Sun, not Earth. The backward or westward motion is explained by the fact that Earth moves more rapidly in its orbit than do Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. When the Earth overtakes them during its yearly circuit around the Sun, these planets appear to move backwards relative to the stars. For an analogy, think of passing a slowly moving car on the freeway. As you overtake it, the car appears to be moving backward relative to the scenery beyond the side of the road.

V COPERNICUS AND GALILEO

Astronomy took a dramatic turn in the 16th century as a result of the contributions of the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Educated in Italy and made a canon (member of the clergy) of the Roman Catholic Church, Copernicus spent most of his life pursuing astronomy. His greatest contribution is entitled On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies (1543), in which he analyzed critically the Ptolemaic theory of an Earth-centered universe and showed that the planetary motions can be explained much more simply by assuming that all the planets, including Earth, orbit the Sun. His ideas were not widely accepted until more than 100 years later.

The Italian astronomer Galileo ushered in a new era of science, one in which observations and experiments play the key role in testing models and hypotheses. Most historians believe that Dutch spectacle-maker Hans Lippershey invented the first telescope in the year 1608, but Galileo built one of his own in 1609, shortly after news of this invention reached him. Others had used telescopes to observe objects on Earth, but Galileo was the first to report astronomical observations, and his observations confirmed that Copernicus was right and that Ptolemy’s model of the planetary motions was wrong. Copernicus had predicted that if Venus orbits the Sun rather than Earth, Venus should go through phases just as the Moon does. Galileo discovered the phases of Venus. He also detected four moons orbiting Jupiter, which showed that not everything orbits Earth. One argument against the idea that Earth orbits the Sun was that the Moon would be left behind. Galileo’s observations clearly disproved that argument. After all, Jupiter’s moons were able to keep up with Jupiter.

Convinced that at least some planets did not circle Earth, Galileo began to speak and write in favor of the Copernican system. His attempts to publicize the Copernican system caused him to be tried by the Inquisition for heresy, and he was condemned to house arrest. Although he was forced to repudiate his beliefs and writings, Galileo and other Renaissance scientists showed that nature can be studied and understood through experiments and observations.

VI KEPLER AND NEWTON

From the scientific viewpoint, the Copernican theory was only a rearrangement of the planetary orbits. The ancient Greek theory that planets move in perfect circles at fixed speeds was retained in the Copernican system. Precise new observations, however, showed that this could not be the case. From 1580 to 1597 Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe observed the Sun, Moon, and planets from his island observatory near Copenhagen, Denmark, and later in Germany. Based on the data compiled by Brahe, his German assistant, Johannes Kepler, showed that the planets revolve around the Sun, not in circular orbits with uniform motion, but in elliptical orbits at varying speeds. He also discovered that their relative distances from the Sun can be calculated from the observed periods of revolution.

The English physicist Sir Isaac Newton was the genius who developed the mathematical equations that describe the motions of the planets. He had to invent new forms of mathematics, including calculus, to help him solve this problem. What Newton showed was that the most natural state of motion is a straight line. Since planets move along curved (elliptical) paths, some force must be acting on them. Newton called this force gravity. He showed that the force of gravity between two objects must be directly proportional to their mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Newton was able to prove mathematically that if gravity behaved in this way, then the only orbits permitted were exactly those described by Kepler. In Newton’s day, gravity had been associated with the Earth alone; if you drop something, it falls to the ground. Newton’s great insight showed that this force is universal. It acts everywhere, including on the planets.

VII TOWARD MODERN ASTRONOMY

The telescopes used by Galileo were made with lenses that typically were only about 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter. Over the next 400 years, developments in technology made it possible to build ever larger telescopes with greater light-gathering power to detect ever fainter objects. Mirrors replaced lenses as the main optical elements in telescopes. The largest single telescopes in the world today, the twin Keck telescopes at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, are each 10 m (400 in) in diameter, and astronomers are developing plans to build telescopes that are 3 to 5 times larger still.

Discoveries with telescopes from the 1600s through the 1800s laid the basis for modern astronomy. Many new members of the solar system were identified, including the planet Uranus in 1781 by the British astronomer Sir William Herschel and the planet Neptune in 1846, which was discovered independently by the British astronomer John Couch Adams and the French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier. Using telescopes astronomers also discovered the first asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Newton’s colleague Edmond Halley used the new theory of gravity to calculate the orbits of comets. Based on his calculations, he noted that bright comets observed in 1531, 1607, and 1682 might well be the same comet, reaching the point in its orbit closest to the Sun every 76 years. He predicted that this comet would return in about 1758. Although Halley had died by 1758, when the comet did indeed appear as he had predicted it was given the name Halley’s Comet.

Telescopic studies of double stars, also known as binary star systems, provided evidence that gravity applies outside the solar system. The two members of a double star system follow elliptical orbits around their common center of gravity, just as the planets orbit the Sun. This proof that the law of gravity is truly universal meant that the same physical processes that we can study here on Earth can be applied to studies of distant objects, including stars.

The distances to stars were first measured in 1838. In this year, three astronomers reported distances for three different stars—61 Cygni, Alpha Centauri, and Vega. The distances were calculated from measurements of the very slight shift in position of these nearby stars relative to much more distant background stars when viewed from opposite sides of Earth’s orbit. This is the calculation that the Greeks tried to perform in order to test whether the Earth orbits the Sun. The Greeks failed because the shift in position, which is called parallax, is only about 1.5 seconds of arc for even the nearest bright star. This degree of separation is about equal to the apparent size of a quarter when viewed from a distance of 2.3 km (1.4 mi). It was much too small to be measured with the techniques available to the Greeks.

The nearest of the first three stars measured, Alpha Centauri, is at a distance of about 42 trillion km (26 trillion mi). Obviously astronomers needed a new unit to measure such large distances, and one that eventually became widely used is the light-year. One light-year is equal to the distance that light travels in one year at the speed of light, which is about 300,000 km/sec (186,000 mi/sec). So one light-year equals 9.5 trillion km (5.9 trillion mi). The distance to Alpha Centauri from Earth is about 4.4 light-years.

In the mid-1800s astronomers also obtained information about what stars are made of. They used a technique called spectroscopy. When the light from a star is spread out into its rainbow of colors and passed through an instrument known as a spectroscope, some of the colors are found to be missing. These missing colors are referred to as dark lines. Laboratory experiments showed that the pattern of dark lines can be used to identify what hot gases—hydrogen, helium, even iron—are present in the star. Each element produces its own unique pattern.

In 1864 British astronomer Sir William Huggins was the first to show that the pattern of dark lines in the spectrum of a star matched the patterns produced by elements known here on Earth. Huggins’s discovery was another important example showing that the physical processes that we study here on Earth can be used to study the whole universe. Spectroscopy also provides information about the temperatures of stars, their masses, and their motions in space.

VIII THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
A Einstein and Relativity

As the 20th century began, the German-born physicist Albert Einstein advanced his general theory of relativity, which fundamentally changed our understanding of gravity. Einstein described gravitation as the curvature of space and time. His theory explained certain things that Newton’s theory of gravity could not. For example, certain peculiarities in Mercury’s orbit of the Sun could not be adequately described by Newton’s theory. In 1919 a team of astronomers led by British astronomer Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington used the occasion of a solar eclipse to measure the deflection of starlight as it passed by the Sun and arrived at numbers that agreed with Einstein’s predictions.

B Edwin Hubble and the Scale of the Universe

The 1920s proved to be a breakthrough decade for astronomers who were attempting to learn more about the size, or scale, of the universe. In 1920 two American astronomers—Heber D. Curtis of the Lick Observatory and Harlow Shapley of the Mount Wilson Observatory—debated whether so-called spiral nebulae were part of the Milky Way Galaxy or were themselves distant galaxies. Curtis argued that they were “inconceivably distant galaxies of stars,” while Shapley placed them near the Sun.

In 1923 American astronomer Edwin Hubble, using the largest telescope in existence at the time—the 2.5-m (100-in) Hooker telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory—discovered two Cepheid variable stars in a spiral nebula known as Andromeda. The intrinsic or true brightness of these stars was already known as a result of earlier work by American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. The distance to Andromeda could then be calculated by a comparison of the apparent brightness of the Cepheids with their intrinsic brightness. Over the next six years, Hubble found a total of 40 Cepheids in Andromeda, and in 1929 he published a paper in which he calculated that the Andromeda nebula was about 900,000 light-years from Earth (current estimates of this distance are about 2.2 million light-years). Hubble’s observations therefore proved that Andromeda was a vast distance from the Milky Way Galaxy, which had a diameter of 100,000 light-years, and so must be a separate galaxy.

In 1929 Hubble published another and even more astounding discovery. His studies of distant galaxies revealed that the universe was not static, as had been previously believed, but was expanding in size. In 1927, the Belgian scientist Georges Lemaître had proposed a new model for the universe based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In this model, Lemaître assumed that the universe is expanding, a result that is consistent with the equations of general relativity. Hubble’s measurements of the red-shifts of distant galaxies, however, were the first to demonstrate that Lemaître’s assumption was indeed correct. This finding paved the way for the big bang theory of the origin of the universe.

C Hans Bethe and Solar Energy

By the mid-1900s, astronomers had finally worked out the source of the energy radiated by the Sun and stars. The Sun produces 3.86 × 1026 watts of power each second, a very large number indeed. Geological evidence shows that simple forms of life have existed on Earth for nearly 4 billion years, indicating that solar energy must have been expended at about its present rate for that length of time.

In 1939 American physicist Hans Bethe advanced the theory that solar energy is produced by the fusion of four hydrogen atoms to form helium. In that process, some mass is converted to energy according to the famous equation E = mc2 formulated by Einstein. In this equation, E stands for energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light. Since the speed of light is a very large number, very little mass is required to keep the Sun shining for billions of years. Building on the work of Bethe, the American astronomer William Fowler, along with British astronomers Sir Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, showed in 1957 that the heavy chemical elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, are made in stars as a result of nuclear fusion processes (see Nucleosynthesis). Astronomers thus discovered that all the heavy elements in the universe originated in stars.

Understanding nuclear fusion within stars also enabled astronomers to obtain a better grasp of a star’s evolution. Knowing the mass of a star, astronomers could calculate its stellar lifetime. The Indian American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculated the amount of mass, known as the Chandrasekhar limit, that would determine a star’s fate. Stars with masses less than 1.4 times the mass of the Sun when fusion ended could complete their evolution as white dwarf stars. More massive stars would implode and end their lives as either neutron stars or black holes. Rapidly spinning neutron stars were later detected by British radio astronomers Jocelyn Bell, who was then a graduate student, and her adviser, Antony Hewish.

IX THE GOLDEN AGE OF ASTRONOMY

The second half of the 20th century was truly a golden age for astronomy. Rapid advances in technology made it possible to build very large optical telescopes on the ground. By the early 21st century astronomers were using telescopes with mirrors larger than 8 m (300 in) in diameter. Because it is much cheaper to build telescopes on the ground than in space, large ground-based telescopes with their ability to gather large amounts of light (think of a telescope as a bucket for collecting light; the bigger the bucket, the more light collected) are particularly valuable for studying the faintest objects. The most distant objects tend to be very faint, but they are very important for understanding the evolution of the universe. Since light takes a long time to reach us, the universe gives us a kind of time machine so that we can see what it was like when it was much younger than it is now. For the most distant objects observed so far, it took nearly 13 billion years for their light to reach Earth, so we are seeing them as they existed 13 billion years ago.

Radio astronomy is also best done from the ground. All forms of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths longer than infrared wavelengths are called radio waves. Radio waves are not sound waves like the ones you hear when you listen to your MP3 player. In fact, we cannot detect them with our senses but must use electronic equipment. In a radio telescope, radio waves are reflected by a metallic surface and brought to a focus. They are then sent to an electronic receiver, where they can be recorded and analyzed. Radio astronomy is especially useful for studying spectral lines produced by cold gas atoms and molecules and also for studying high-energy particles moving rapidly in strong magnetic fields.

A Radio Astronomy and the Big Bang

Radio astronomy proved to be instrumental in verifying the big bang theory of the origin of the universe. In the 1940s the Russian American theoretical physicist George Gamow proposed that the universe originated in a hot, dense state from which it exploded, setting off the observed expansion of the universe. British astronomer Fred Hoyle dismissed the theory derisively as a “big bang” in contrast to his own theory of a steady-state universe, which assumed that the universe was eternal and unchanging with time. Two of Gamow’s students—Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman—predicted that a relic of this explosive event would take the form of radiation emanating at a uniform temperature from all directions in the sky. In 1965, using a radio telescope, American astrophysicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected and identified this cosmic background radiation, providing the first observational evidence for the big bang theory.

B New Windows on the Universe and New Mysteries

The ability to launch spacecraft opened up new windows on the universe. Astronomical objects not only give off radio waves and light of the kind that our eyes are sensitive to. They also emit other forms of energy—electromagnetic radiation—ranging from high-energy gamma rays and X rays, to infrared or heat radiation. Much of this electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and does not reach the ground. However, technology again came to the rescue by making it possible to launch telescopes above Earth’s atmosphere to observe these different types of electromagnetic radiation.

During the last quarter of the 20th century, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) launched many spacecraft designed to exploit the advantages of being outside Earth’s atmosphere. Particularly powerful were three great observatories: the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere blurs astronomical images. Because the Hubble Space Telescope is unaffected by this blurring, it can take superbly sharp images and has given astronomers both scientifically important and stunningly beautiful images of planets, star clusters, and galaxies.

The pace of discovery enabled by these new facilities, both in space and on the ground, has been truly remarkable. Astronomers not only know that the expansion of the universe began about 13.7 billion years ago, but they have also learned that the expansion is not occurring at a steady pace but is accelerating (increasing its speed) as the universe ages. Some form of energy is powering this acceleration. Since no physical theory predicted the existence of this form of energy, scientists call it dark energy. There is also dark matter in the universe—dark in the sense that it gives off no electromagnetic radiation but does exert a gravitational force. One of the challenges for astronomers in the 21st century will be to try to determine the properties of both dark matter and dark energy.

Astronomers know that stars are found in giant systems called galaxies, which are held together by gravity. Stars in each galaxy orbit around the center of the galaxy, obeying Newton’s law of gravity. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our own sun and solar system. Our sun is, however, only one rather ordinary star among the 100 billion or so stars that make up the Milky Way. And our galaxy is only one of billions of galaxies in the universe.

Astronomers have also verified that black holes exist in large numbers. Predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a black hole is a region in space where matter is very highly concentrated and the force of gravity is so great that nothing—neither matter nor light—that ventures too close can escape from its gravitational pull. The existence of black holes can be detected by measuring the motions of objects orbiting nearby but just out of reach. Black holes are commonly found at the centers of galaxies and provide the explanation for another curious class of objects discovered in the 1960s—the quasars. Quasars are at the distances of galaxies and produce more energy than typical galaxies in a volume of space no bigger than our own solar system. Astronomers have shown that the engine that powers the quasar is a black hole surrounded by swirling gas heated to a very high temperature as it spirals toward the black hole. Eventually this gas will be swallowed up by the black hole and disappear from view.

We know that the first stars began to form about 13.4 billion years ago and that star formation continues to the present day. Stars form from dense clouds of dust and gas. A region of slightly higher density within a large cloud can begin to attract dust and gas from nearby and eventually collapse to form a star. The nearest stellar nursery is in the direction of the constellation Orion, where there are hundreds of stars (so faint they can be seen only with a telescope) that are no more than a few hundred thousand years old.

Closer to home, NASA has now sent spacecraft to orbit or fly by all of the major planets. The dwarf planet known as Pluto, which was formerly classified as a planet, has not yet been visited by a spacecraft. Pluto was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. A spacecraft launched in 2006 is expected to rendezvous with Pluto in 2015.

Perhaps most exciting of all, we have discovered that our own solar system is not the only one. Astronomers have found more than 300 planets orbiting other stars. About 10 percent of the nearby stars with compositions like that of our own Sun have at least one planet. The first techniques used to detect such planets meant that massive planets the size of Jupiter or larger were much easier to find than relatively low-mass rocky planets more like Earth in size. Space telescopes such as COROT and Kepler have been specially designed to look for such low-mass planets. Over the next few decades, we should have new technologies that will allow us to learn whether planets suitable for life are common or rare.

在 Microsoft 出 MyPhone 之前，Windows Mobile 上已经有不少把手机上的数据同步到 cloud 端的软件和服务了。Dashwire 就是之一，也是我那时候的选择。

Dashwire 同步的项目很经典，我认为也是比较完备的，超过了现时的不少服务 —- 包括 通话记录（查看时可以按 拨入，拨出，未接 分类，很方便）；铃声；快捷拨号设置；照片和视频；短消息（可以方便地搜索）；浏览器收藏夹；联系人。都可以通过浏览器查看，界面组织得不错，有点早期的 Netvibes 的风格。
除了同步数据，Dashwire 还有些增值功能，比如当 Dashwire 客户端在连接状态的时候，可以通过浏览器做前端来收发短信，当然这只是提供个界面方便，收发仍然走手机，不过对在家或者坐在办公室的时候来讲是很方便的（其实和 Joyo Extender 一样）。此外还有方便的照片/视频分享功能（email，facebook，twitter，friendfeed 等都支持）；按 slideshow 观赏手机里的照片，还可以按文件名或者tag 搜索照片；短消息组织成对话方式查看等等。

他们后来已经支持 Windows Mobile，BlackBerry， S60 和 Android 全系列平台了 —- Apple 有 MobileMe，就不用想了。

Dashwire 在 2007 年 10 月的 CTIA 上亮相（private beta），2008 的 CTIA 上 public beta，总得来说，我觉得他们做得不错。他们的 blog 从 2008 年 4 月到现在一共有…3 页呵呵，今天翻翻看，觉得挺有感触的。他们记录着开始，记录 HTC Touch Diamond 的火爆，被 VentureBeat 选为 MobileBeat Top 30 ，3 个月内用户上传第 100万 张照片等等等等。

俱往矣啊……我罗罗嗦嗦地列了一堆 feature，回顾了一段历史，只是因为 Dashwire 同志已经转型，现有的 Dashwire 网站和服务亦然，不会再有新用户注册以及客户端下载，曾经的数据在年底前还可以下载备份，后面会消失。今年 10 月他们引入了 Trilogy Equity Partners 和 BestBuy Capital，可能这为后面的什么事情铺平了道路。马上，他们推出了 Dashworks Platform，其实就是 Dashwire 现有技术的授权，包括前后端所有东西。
2007 年的时候，Dashwire 的目标还是独立的服务提供商，后来越来越多的人踏进了他们的办公室看看能不能合作点什么，同时，connected 服务正越来越被大公司重视 —- 有 Apple 这样的标杆（其实 Google Android 也算啦）出现 —- Dashwire 面临压力，恐怕转型成技术授权公司是创业者生存发展下去的合理选择。

第一个购买 Dashworks 授权的就是 Best Buy Mobile （现在几千家 BestBuy 店里已经有 BestBuy Mobile 专区了，有些地方后者也有专门的门店）。BestBuy Mobile 在 Dashworks 基础上推出了自有品牌的类似服务 mIQ ，支持 BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 和 S60。

试了一下，mIQ 和 Dashwire 功能差不多，不够界面设计确实要好得多，色彩生动，布局也比 Dashwire 那几个 block 组成的要更有“一体”的感觉（当然也保留了不少方便 shopping 的链接，不过不 annoying）。

前面提到 MyPhone，想说几句，我老觉得这像是 Microsoft 为了表示自己听得见抱怨而给出的象征性答案，“别闹了，我从了好吧！”，然后就有了 MyPhone，然后好让大家闭嘴。如果 Microsoft 憋屈着为了应付而做一件事，他常常会做得寡淡无味，因为那不是他的 idea，更不是他的 passion，更别提看不看得到回报了。这样结果常常是个不 cool，不 cute 的鸡肋。我仿佛看见西雅图连绵阴雨后的窗户那一边，一堆工程师愤愤地为应付老板愚蠢的指示而忙着 coding，然后完成基本功能后走人了事。MyPhone 不光是网站面目可憎，提供的功能更是简陋，守着数据的金矿不知道怎么混饭吃。你们的聪明人都哪去了？

本来是要为 Dashwire 唏嘘几句，后来想想能专心于核心竞争力也不是坏事，可能最初的要一手包办一切的想法不一定正确。就像因为现在有无数的 fabless 设计公司，才会有这么多价格和功能都极具竞争力的方案。祝 Dashwire 后面的路走得好，希望能看到更多免费又有创意的 connected 服务。

这个截图是 Chuck Anderson 的网站。Chunk，谁？地球上这么多设计者里又一个在网上闲逛过程中被我无意发现的“嗯…还不错”的设计师？

Chunk 是 Windows 7 那个轻松可人的蔚蓝桌面的作者（包括墙纸和登录界面），一个获得将其作品轻松送抵数亿受众之机会的幸运艺术家（我知道你又开始想重定义“幸运”这个词儿，行，我同意……）。

这是早几个星期在 Gizmodo 看到的访问，Ask the Artist: How Windows 7′s Iconic Home Screen Evolved ，挺有意思。很多人还在纠结 Windows XP 的那片葡萄园，还有些人知道那片很无奈地被人忽视的 Vista 的 Oregon 海滨 —- 其实 Vista 的桌面照片也很不错，也有背后摄影师的小八卦故事。不过，现在是 Windows 7 的时代啦。

图片较多，请转文章页面阅读全文 。

Gizmodo 这篇文章简单回顾了 Chunk 的历程，道出了 Windows 7 login 和 墙纸的设计变化过程。DeviantArt 上有无数像 Chunk 这样的艺术家（Chunk 是他们的梦想的化身） —- 或者艺术爱好者 —- Chunk 从高中后就开始做 网印 screenprinting，Chunk 白天的工作是给 T-Shirt 制造商 Threadless 做设计，晚上则在网上活动建立自己的王国。网名 NoPattern —- 也就是顶上截图的网站。他年纪不大就获得了难以置信的成功：他的作品已经出现在 Pepsi，Urban Outfitters 和 Reebok 等等公司的项目里。

Lupe Fiasco 的首张专辑 Food & Liquor 的封面也是 Chunk 的作品：

不知道 Windows 7 的预览和 RC 版本里的墙纸 是哪位设计的，我也挺喜欢。

Chunk 今年只有 24 岁，看来他的成功要因为 Windows 7 而被推上一个新高度了，我们常用“成千上万”这个词来做修辞，不过他的作品可是要实打实地被成亿的人享用了。这个活儿是 Microsoft 找到他的，从结果上看，我觉得他们选对人了。历史上 Windows 桌面（或者整个风格）不能说低俗，只能说可能是某个程序员作为艺术爱好者兼职打理了本该设计者做的活儿嘿嘿。Vista 相比之下是个大的改观，Windows 7 则算步入正轨了。

下面这些是 Chunk 的其他作品，和 Windows 7 无关，可以看看他的风格（第二个是涂鸦风格的 Zune 设计）

Gizmodo 问了 Chunk 作为一个独立设计师 —- 咱都知道搞艺术的不光独立，还独行 —- 和 Microsoft 合作有没有什么麻烦。Chunk 说与他合作的 Microsoft 的设计团队实际上很精简 quite small 并且对他的 idea 出人意料地 open。MS 给 Chunk 看的第一样东西就是 2008 年 12 月的那份极具冲击力的 Dr.-Seuss-as-read-by-Hunter-S.-Thompson 墙纸（也就是上面 预览/RC 版的截图）。从这儿开始 Chunk 很快就明了了 Microsoft 这次的风格和行事方法。

Chunk 花了 4 个月干活。从铅笔和纸张开始，然后转入 Photoshop，在保留素描感觉的基础上着上 Windows 7 的光泽设计。登陆界面的那些纹理，全是 Chunk 在 Wacom 手写板上手绘的。

这是 login 界面的设计演进过程，英文文字是 Chunk 的原话
第一张

Chuck says: “The point of the login screen is to provide a nice, simple, elegant environment that the login buttons and information can sit on top of. The aesthetic of Windows 7 is all about light, energy, transparency, and quickness. All things that, to me, implied combining natural elements with futuristic/digital style.

“[This is] the first iteration I did. Unexpected colors, simplicity, and fluidity…but not quite on brand and, as with any first round, in need of further exploration.”

第二张

“Sort of a horizon, astronaut’s eye-view…but considering Mac OS X’s astral aesthetic, it was pretty quickly realized that anything ‘space’ wasn’t really the way to go. Still though, experimenting with lines, form, and surprising colors.”

从感觉上讲，头两张还是比较类似的，没有特别大的变化，第二张还要考虑是不是会被认为在偷师 Mac 而注定必须改改。

第三张

“In my opinion, this version was the breakthrough in the aesthetic that shaped everything moving forward. Simple, thin lines, a lot of atmosphere and light, and the cool blue/green/white color scheme. I think the problem here was that it was feeling underwater, which didn’t make a lot of sense with the bird, but the idea was there.”

看得出来，从这张开始变化就大了，特别是色调 —- 要不 Chunk 自己都说是 breakthrough 呢 —- 不过同时，光晕啊线条啊看得出还是 Chunk 的风格。基本的 idea 应该就是从这个设计开始确定的。但就这一版设计来说，有种 underwater 的感觉，（确实，看上去好像上面的光亮射进水里，观察者在水下呆着呢），所以还得进一步改动。

第四张

“I flipped the composition and started trying out different amounts of lines, line weights, playing around with a few more colors, different densities in the atmospheric haze, more detail, less detail, etc. The consensus among everybody was that simpler was better, which ultimately led to the final design.”

挺省事，这张图是 Chunk 把第三张图样旋转下来得到的。这一张 Chunk 调整了很多细节，包括线条数量，粗细，更多色彩，淡淡阴霾的浓重程度等等。设计团队里的一致意见是“越简洁越好”—-这就是决定最终设计的核心思想。

第五张

“For whatever reason, I horizontally flipped the composition to present an identical but mirrored version of the last one and everybody was into the way the design originated from the bottom right versus the bottom left. Can’t really put my finger on why, it just felt right, as cliche as that might sound. Everything was fine-tuned and after several back-and-forths, this was finally given the thumbs up.”

嘻嘻，又调整光源了？不光是光源哟，仔细观察，这一张其实是第四张左右翻转后再设计得来的。没多少道理可讲， it just felt right。在这张的前身上做了不少微调后，就成了登陆界面的最终设计。

算作一个复活节菜单式的设计是：7 这个数字在 login 界面出现很多次哟。Chunk 和 Microsoft 偶然发现自己的图样里左下方正好有 7 条白光，他们就决定把 7 多引进点儿：最后就是 7 片叶子，7 个分叉，Windows logo 上的 7 个花瓣等等。

Windows 7 的桌面墙纸也经历了类似的变化过程：

第一张

Chuck says: “The desktop was obviously heavily influenced by the look of the login screen. Microsoft had made the decision to make the Windows logo the centerpiece of the default desktop. But you always worry about the classic complaint you hear from designers about clients: ‘Make the logo bigger!’ In response to this first desktop experiment, Microsoft told me straight up, ‘That’s too big. Tone it down.’ Awesome. I agreed. The colors were also feeling a bit washed out here and there were too many places for your eyes to wander.”

桌面受 login 界面设计的影响是毋庸置疑的。Microsoft 要求把 Windows logo 放在设计中央。一般来说，设计师的用户都会贪婪地要求“把 logo 搞大点！”，而 Microsoft 对 Chunk 的第一版试验设计的反馈是，很直接地，“太大了！小些吧” 。棒极了！此外，Chunk 还觉得色彩数量和兴趣点需要改进。

第二张

“This was a total experiment of making the logo incredibly subtle by making it feel more transparent and like glass. But it had problems: If you’re Microsoft and you decide to put the logo in the middle of your default desktop for your new OS, you’ve gotta do it shamelessly and confidently. This wasn’t feeling either. It was feeling like a way to ‘sneak’ the logo in there and that was simply not the point.”

感觉有简化，不过貌似变化不剧烈。logo 变得更温和，通过透明设计变得不那么扎眼和夺目。问题是如果你是 Microsoft，而且决定把个 logo 放到全新 OS 的缺省桌面的中间，你就该把这事儿办得绝对厚颜无耻且无比坚定。可是这个 logo 看上去有点让人觉得是谁偷偷摸摸地放了个 logo 在那—-这不行。

第三张

“There was a lot of enthusiasm for this idea initially, but when you saw it smaller or on a screen farther away, the logo started to disappear.”

这张变化很大，大家投入了很多设计激情，不过结果是，logo 看上去更小，而且正在远离我们亟待消失似的。

第四张

“Even smaller logo in this one! About these elements going on in the Microsoft window logo: There was no specific, set-in-stone instruction from Microsoft on what they wanted in those quadrants. I played around with lots of different ideas. We brainstormed in the very first meeting about all sorts of objects and things that could be within and emanating from the window. In the end, the objects absolutely had to be simple and they had to be universally recognizable. Elements from nature, basic shapes, and hints of digital iconography were the best fits. I really tried to push through the idea of using a few flaming skulls and some of the demons from the cover of Slayer’s South of Heaven but for whatever reason nobody was into it. Whatever.”

我觉得这张有点像第一张的“坚定版”，外加改进。logo 确实小了。Microsoft 没有对 Windows logo 那个旗帜里的内容有什么做硬性要求，所以 Chunk 试验了很多想法。他们最终的想法是要放些简单的容易辨别的对象。大自然的元素啊，基本图形啊等入围。Chunk 甚至还尝试想放个火骷髅和 Slayer 的 South of Heaven 专辑封面里的恶魔图样进去 —- 什么样的？下面就是。你觉得老板会答应吗？哈哈

第五张

“The logo finally arrives at its proper (and smallest yet) size. This felt right, we just had to go through a lot of options to realize it. But there are still a few too many loose strands, no balance on the top right, and the colors in the window are a bit harsh.”

Windows logo 终于确定了合适的大小。确定这么一个设计花费了不少功夫，尝试了很多选择。光缕的数量还是多了点，看上去有点左重右轻，不平衡。颜色有点刺眼。

第六张

And the final result: “Some slight balance added to the top right of the composition—appropriately enough there were now just seven total light strands (and, for what it’s worth, seven green leaves on the little branch), and everything was in the right place. This made the rounds and had to get OK’d by approximately 8 bazillion people and was finally approved. I was ecstatic—Microsoft was really into it and so was I.”

终于… 这一张可以和第五张一块拿来做找不同的游戏了嘛呵呵。右上加入了一些用以增加平衡感的元素。好，现在正好有 7 束光缕（小叉上也有 7 朵绿叶）。全都妥当！这个设计必须 ok ，它可是要面对天文数字版的观众数量的。

Gizmodo 形容 Microsoft 这次找到了一个年轻的新锐，一个独立的 mixed media digital 艺术家。他们的选择迥异于保守的从传统渠道寻找设计师的方法，结果：很成功。对我来说，艺术设计是个有点拿不准的，没有确定性的东西和过程，最“神秘”当然也好玩的地方是：完全不知道从哪里来。现在我至少管中窥豹看到一点，繁复迭代，不断求精的过程，这和技术开发时一样的。

这里是其他一些据说没有被加入 Windows 7 最后 release 的墙纸，看上去也不错，就是分辨率不是太高。

1995 年他出了合集 History，回头看来那时候已不是他的巅峰时刻，可这有什么关系，我有一盘记不得哪里来的盗版磁带，在本意是用来学英语的卡带单放里听。95 年还是高二的样子，从来没放肆过的我被这个放肆的声音给呆呆地震住了，并且显然无条件地给深深地迷住。
大二的时候，有个同班同学买了套两碟装的 History MTV 版，我就和他坐下来看看什么内容，然后那个只听过他磁带里声音的小子就在电脑面前呆呆地看了两个小时，从那座塑像到他全部淋漓尽致的舞姿，我知道什么叫人声合一，人神也合一了。

只有他的曲目和舞姿结合在一块时才能这么天衣无缝地演绎出什么叫激情，多年过去，看看 MTV 片子或者演唱会实况，很多其他歌手的老作品都难免觉得老土和幼稚，只有 Michael Jackson 的例外，当他的音乐响起，身体扭动起来时，地球都要可着劲地转得更快。那时候，Michael Jackson 就是我心里的 Hero。

我最喜欢的曲目不是销量最大的 Thriller，可能是因为 Thriller 畅销的时代真的是太早过我的年纪吧，口味和趋势确实早该变了。我自己的最爱是 Black Or White，当然，有点怀疑这是受那支设计巧妙，制作精良的 MTV 的影响。初次之外，那盘现在应该不知所踪的磁带里的所有曲目 Stranger From Moscow， Heal The World， Beat It，You Are Not Alone，甚至过场声音中的一句 I have a dream 等等等等，我都记得，我都还能吹口哨演绎出来。

他后面一部分的人生充满争议，我很同情地怀着 每个人都有按自己的方式生活的权利只要没有侵害别人 的想法理解他。所以整容当然是他的事，又当然如果真的有猥亵孩子的行为就不可接受了。他的悲情成分因为自己的伟大成就而被放大，他没有童年，Jackson 5 都没有童年，他也在恰当的关口没有了晚年，如果人生全部浓缩为一个精华的青春岁月，他会觉得不枉此生吗？我常常隐约觉得，他的突然死去，和林肯，肯尼迪，列侬类似，这份不在当事人以及公众计划之中的死亡让他们没有机会再犯错，让他们不再被自己和旁人羞辱，让人们更多记住他们的努力与成就而不是他们的愚蠢失误乃至失败，让他们从寻常的伟大人物升华成为无法企及的神。

今天早上上班时，出租车收音机的音量不大，听到半份新闻，“。。。。。。他的专辑销量超过 7 亿张。已经计划今年开始全球巡演。。。。。。”心想，这人莫不是 Michael Jackson？不会没事介绍生平吧。。。。。。

Hero 走了，希望你知道，Michael Jackson 的专辑销量，应该是 7 亿 + 2。

HTC 工资单上的每个人都配得上为自己新近产品所命的这个名， Hero。

这支新 Android 手机，看得出 HTC 已经成型的产品设计概念，通过软件创新，带来不一般的体验。和其他几只 Android 比，只有 HTC Hero 看得出有 HTC 的心血和理解，没有拿 Google 的 Android 参考实现来偷懒，参见 两款 HTC 新机 里我的意见。

虽然有时感叹为什么 HTC 那么钟情高通，没像三星那样考虑过 XScale —- i780是我用过的最快的Windows Mobile，名不虚传—-不过话说回来，让消费电子设备的消费者还要像 DIY 电脑似的考虑每个组件的配置，实在是件悲哀的事情，很不幸，这个坏趋势一直存在。HTC 应该已经明白这种情形应当适时了结。

不管 Windows Mobile 还是 Android，HTC 总有自己的想法，Microsoft 和 Google 的 reference design 和 reference code 已经不是不想偷懒的 HTC 的选择。要说 HTC 又能傲视同侪的法宝，恐怕只有勤奋和自立，我猜他们要成功也一定会因为坚持软件上的创新而不是拼 spec 或者 low cost 而成功。从尽心尽责不断改进用户体验上看，HTC 这方面倒很有 Apple 的精神。

换个讨论对象，Google 在 Android 业务上和 Microsoft 的 Windows Mobile 已经具有相当可比性，两家都坚持只提供软件平台，自己不涉足 ODM 和 OEM 领域，这交给合作伙伴搞定—-能力和眼光可能高也可能低的合作伙伴。Google 应该很快也会领略到 Microsoft 同样的无奈和痛苦，千篇一律的 Android， 特别是 vanilla Android，如果没有 HTC （已经可能的三星），市场上会再次充斥只能比拼硬件配置和价格，软件体验几无差别的产品。

Clearwire 的套餐有低到 20 美元每月的 home Internet，提供下载速度 4 ~ 6 Mbps 不等，mobile Internet 服务要从 40 美刀起跳。抹开一张美国地图，WiMax 的服务现状是， 巴尔第莫 Baltimore, 波特兰 Portland， 亚特兰大 Atlanta，下一步是 芝加哥 Chicago, 夏洛特 Charlotte, 檀香山 Honolulu, 费城 Philadelphia 和 西雅图 Seattle 等等。新鲜设备略有出头，比方 松下 著名的夸张的 ToughBook 笔记本，要出集成 WiMax 支持的版本，还有就是 三星 的 Mondi，移动 WiMax 手持设备，用 Windows Mobile 6.1，看上去像个 stripped down 的 MID 或者 暴涨过的 PDA。为了在起步阶段吸引客户，Clearwire 还提供 3G/4G 双模 modem，用户凭此可以访问 Sprint 的 3G 网络，其实 Sprint 自家原本的 XOHM WiMax 服务就是和 Clearwire 共建的嘛。

ATT 和 Verizon 的 LTE 部署像是环绕在 Clearwire 脖子上的绳子，Clearwire 尚能呼吸，不过看上去绳子正越收越紧。Nokia 说 WiMax 就是 Wireless Betamax，讽刺 WiMax 不会成功—-so，那么 N 家的 N7X 当年是跟 Intel 虚与委蛇 咯？……

普遍的看法是在移动通信技术选择上，WiMax 和 LTE 实在不太能轻松获胜，不过如果不钻这个牛角尖，WiMax 自有合适用场，和移动运营商的目标 full mobility 比，WiMax 可以提供的是 nomadicity，在特定区域内的小范围移动，比如城市内。这也好比在家用 笔记本 的人也越来越多了，即便他们几乎不把 笔记本 从家带到外面，可是在自家范围内随心所欲也是不错的。当然，不知道这样的 model 算不算 niche，是不是够大够养活一种技术和几家公司。我个人倒是认为有场合的，在一座城市内的移动数据连接，移动运营商的数据卡和套餐太贵，而 WiFi 不是随处可见，可靠性相比之下也不佳。

在 巴尔第摩 Baltimore，WiMax USB modem 只要 59.99 美刀，不需要签任何套餐，而 Verizon 的 LTE 4G modem，不签套餐，要 239.99 美刀。从这个角度看，WiMax 的策略倒是看上去想增强版的 WiFi，配置 WiMax 的笔记本和移动设备先行，继而是其他 CE 设备，依仗 便宜，随处可用，不一定最好但足够好的速度，不一定最强但足够强的移动性，就这 4 样。

这之后。。。这之后情景大大变化，大家也都知道了，Safari 把几乎完整的桌面浏览器 experience 带到了手机上，自身做得很好，消费者也相当买账，全无当年自以为是的制造商们臆想中消费者们应有的“不适应”—-这记耳光闪得好。Opera Mobile 再不用孤身奋战，奋力宣传 full html 是多么必要而优秀。

除了 Safari 和 Opera Mobile 外，另外两个新手也开始很快蹿升。一个是 SkyFire， 另一个就是 Iris 了。我在 Touch
HD 上把两个都试验了一下，结论明确：SkyFire 让人失望，Iris 表现抢眼。

Touch HD 上缺省是 Opera Mobile，变现不错，很让人满意，解析能力，缩放，特别是根据屏幕宽度和缩放比进行中文截行做得最好，阅读中文网站相当实用，支持加速度传感器，横置手机时，内容也自动调整 90 度横置，可以宽屏观看。

SkyFire 几乎不想浪费时间说了，字体渲染不好—-至少是在 800×480 的屏幕下，简直让人匪夷所思；另外速度慢，据说它的另一亮点是和 Opera Mini 类似的服务器预取—-对不起，我并不需要。

Iris 这两天刚刚发布了 1.1.0 ，我试的就是这个版本。看来稳定性和功能都比较齐备，而且，也支持加速度传感器，可以自动横屏显示。当然，和 Opera 一样，目前都不支持 Flash Lite —- 据说在计划中。在 Opera 中，点击链接，TouchHD 的特性是震动，表示确认点击。Iris 有点不一样，通常的单击（时间较短）的接触只会高亮选中部分，没有 hyperlink 跳转，要用类似长按（长也就是2秒吧）才会跳转，链接部分会有透镜效果变化来确认点击。Iris 的边角（左上或右下，视具体情况定）显示缩略图，提示当前屏幕显示内容在整个页面中的位置。

至于截行，是个让人感觉复杂的特性，Opera Mobile 可以根据缩放比来，即无论放大多少倍，均自动换行，无需用户左右拖屏幕，Iris 则自动让内容适应屏幕，打个比方，某个 DIV 宽度无论是 200 还是 1024，Iris 总是试图让这 200 或 1024 的内容正好适应屏幕，显然，这样的话，200 的情况下字体就要比 1024 大了，当然，可以继续放大，可是内容不会自动换行，就得左右拖屏幕了。

主要特性差不多就这样，用兴趣的大家自己试试吧。

各大网站关于这个的专题都挺多了，我的兴趣是在 HTC 的两款新机器：Diamond 和 Pro 的升级版 Touch Diamond 2 和 Touch Pro 2。1代是两者就是带不带侧推键盘的版本派生，2代相同，Diamond 在 ATT 下名曰 Fuze，也是热机一台。

我看了硬件 spec，和 TouchHD 比，差别不是太大，滑动缩放当然是新配置，不过，说老实话，硬件上惊天动地的变化没有—-至少没有 TouchHD 出来时时那么惊为天人—-这是不是说，我心里不会有个魔鬼一点点吞噬自己说：来吧，买吧……

我看了介绍动画，印象最深的—-也是最让人欣慰的—-自然不是外形变得多么（更加）俏丽，硬件豪华了多少—-而是，哈，HTC 没有迟疑或者放弃，而是继续在软件上下功夫了。

Windows Mobile 的痕迹—-或者准确地说，Windows Mobile Shell，即与最终用户打交道部分的痕迹—-正在继续被优雅地抹掉。HTC 做好了 ODM 本来就该做好的事情：整合，polish。换个角度看， Microsoft 缺省的 Windows Mobile code 可能更应该看做 reference code，或者 参考实现，或者 sample code，随便怎么说，反正本不该被拿去做最终产品，可是懒惰无眼光又急功近利的 design house，ODM 等管不了这么多，所以那些吓人的产品就出现在了市场上—-我的第一个 Windows Mobile 手机，Atom Exec，悍然装备了 XScale PXA 27x 520M CPU，仍然会在被叫时让主叫方听到 6 声回铃后自己才亮起屏幕发出第一波来电声音。

回过头来，这就是我喜欢 HTC 的原因：它已经开始恰当地认识到，并开始实践利用软件作为 value add 和 差异化的手段，它应该是真诚地相信软件能赋予硬件力量，软件才是硬件存在和不断进步与演化的原因 这么一种信念—-听起来似乎没什么高深的是吧，对一个从 OEM，ODM 起家的厂商来说，这一点应该是很不简单的，特别是在 Windows Mobile 市场带有如此多 PC 市场痕迹的情况下，尤其难得。这样的希望我曾经寄托在 Palm 上，不过……

诚然，Windows Mobile 的市场还是动物凶猛的地方，不过 HTC 已经—-已经完成了“有益的尝试”那一步—-已经开始拿出让不思进取的竞争者猛抬头后吃惊地发现自己原来已经落后这么多的产品了，而且，现在看来他们有清晰的目标，正在以稳健的步伐实践之，这就是对消费者来说最大的好事，对竞争者来说最可怕的坏事。Windows Mobile 手机是早该一脚踹开列一堆硬件 spec 就敢开卖的时代了。

哦，对了，最后，Mayer 小姐真人应该出名了，咬定 HTC，起飞！

不，不是 WallE，是 SRV-1。

SRV-1 是 Surveyor 颇受欢迎的机器人产品。我是今年 5 月份买的—-我可是掐着点赶在今天结束前写这篇东西，要不就成“去年 5 月”买的了，那多嫌老啊。

寻思着要不要详细介绍一下 SRV-1，觉得还是稍微说明一下好了，因为有感觉有兴趣的人要么早就知道，要么会自己 dig 进去。

SRV-1 是 Surveyor 主打产品，系统软件 Open Source，还有 Python，Java 等 SDK，扩展性很好，这个履带式产品可以通过 WiFi 进行连接并控制，Host 可以是 Windows，Mac 或者 Linux，host 端的控制台有机器人摄像头的实时显示，可以控制启停，前进后退，转向等，前方两个激光发射器也可从控制台遥控开关。摄像头数据通过 WiFi 传回。有相当易用的 API 来采用其传回的图片或者，你愿意的话—- Live Video 哟！自带的控制台已经可以实现定时录像等功能，不废话了。

目前支持的第三方开发环境有 RoboRealm，Microsoft 的 Robotics Studio 和 Cyberbotic 的 Webots等。多个 SRV-1 可以协同工作哟—-你得编程哈

作为 Geek 玩意儿之一，Surveyor 官方站点上有相关消息，另外还可以找一下 CNBC 报道的 Google Lunar X 计划中 SRV1 的视频等。

特性：
- GPL license 的全套软件，全部。甚至包括 schematics ，看好了如果再买得到材料的话，自己划板子焊器件都可以的，如果不怕麻烦的话
- 可对 SRV-1 编程使其自主操作运行，程序可 download 之，不需要外部遥控

其他 spec 方面东西，大家可以到 Surveyor 看—-哦，说明哈，我 5 月份买的，和官网现在介绍这个新的还是稍有不同，不过硬件上差别不大，除了造型，没看出有什么惊天动地的升级。我是如上图所示的。他们也是小批量生产，基本上都不会有以前型号的存货。

当时 DHL 运费 50 刀，关税正好 444 元。这两天自己搜了一下才发现，这年头，有些人也太黑了，敢卖这么贵，这里也有代理。

除了通常意义的“好玩”外，对我（以及，我想，潜在的买家来说），最有价值最重要的部分是 SRV-1 支持再开发，Geek 精神就是敢想，敢动手，探索，试验和尝新。有 Java，Python 的 SDK，还有系统 source code，总有一款适合您吧。现在淘宝上 Wall E 玩具一大堆，买个大号那种，底板打开，把 SRV-1 塞进去。。。。。。

现在想卖掉手上这个，倒不是腻味或者不好了—-因为我想要不要换个双摄像头，立体摄影版的~~~ 留着现在这个不用有点暴殄天物，而且我也缺钱呢~~ 有意者请在下面留言联络。

PS. 我无法 3 位数人民币的价格就出掉，请理解。Surveyor 发票，DHL 运单和关税收据我都留着，会一并交给买家；Surveyor 的包装也很朴素（做东西的公司好像都这样），没有精美的打印材料和光盘，所有东西都从其官网上 download。总之，美国寄过来的东西我一定全都交付给买家—-除了包裹里的美国 air 外。谢谢。

Is it a clue that Sidebar won’t be there in Windows 7 final release? I believe it can only be answered by Microsoft engineering managers.

I tried looking for Sidebar control in systray and searching ‘sidebar’ in Start menu search box but found nothing meaningful.

In my understanding sidebar demises due to that Desktop can be used as a Widget container. If you can place and arrange Widgets anywhere on Desktop why keep a separated Sidebar for Widgets? Well the reason can also be as simple as it’s too hurry to integrate Sidebar in this round of M3 release, it may re-appear in the M4 (will there be an M4?) or something like public Beta.

Sticky Notes.

Lightweight WMP. Clicking a video file will not fire up the full Windows Media Player. Light WMP takes no time to startup, it’s not simply hiding the menus, toolbar and side panel of a full WMP.

New calculator, I really like it very much.