NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.

The LRO Camera was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks. The returned high resolution pictures show the remainings of the lunar modules, and on some you even can see scientific instruments and the 40 year old footpaths of the astronauts. Impressive !

Just as with the New Horizons mission to Pluto, NASA is giving you again the opportunity to add the submission of your name & country which will be put onto a microchip & put on the Mars Science Laboratory rover. This mission is scheduled for 2011, so you still have some time to fill in your name. Might there be intelligent life on Mars after all, and if they find the rover, you'll be among the first ones to welcome our Martian overlords (and their probing chambers).

Please note that Robert'); DROP TABLE 'names'; (aka little Bobby Tables) has been added already...

2009 is indeed without a doubt the year of the smartphone. From that viewpoint, I'm really an early adopter since I have a smartphone since 2007. In retrospect, my current Nokia N80 has been the most fun mobile device ever. It has consolidated my MP3 player, my GPS, my internet communications device, my PDA and of course my mobile. But technology moves forward. Initially, smartphones were designed with the business user in mind. But then came the iPhone; and changed all that. Big touchscreens for everyone (thank you Apple). My initial idea was to acquire a second-hand N96 device, and wait a year for Android to mature. But an idiot changed my plans, and I decided to wait for the next Nokia device, the N97.

The N97 is important : Nokia produces mobile phones for everyone, and controls 40% of the market. The N97 is their top line model, and therefore a direct competitor for the iPhone. Nokia has released the 5800 Expressmusic as their first touchscreen mobile, and it has been a smashing success. The N97 is Nokia's aim at a new N95 success story and their new flagship device. Nokia decided to continue with Symbian as the operating system for their smartphone line, with some additions for touchscreen support. They probably did this to provide a solid base and a broad range of applications for the N97. However, the result is S60v5, and has some strange and sometimes confusing behavior, like single/double tap in lists. I applaud the stability of the operating system, but I'm quite sure that the N97 will be my last Symbian powered mobile.

If you take a look at the competition, the Nokia N97 has some serious opponents. The iPhone off course, with its glorious eye candy, and many available applications. Whether you like it or not, the iPhone has become the mass standard for smartphones. Unfortunately, as with many Apple products, the hardware is pretty impressive, but the resulting functionalities are pretty limited. My new mobile must support a GPS (and I'm talking about voice guided satnav, Apple, not about a map software which pulls data from the internet), and that pretty much ruled out the iPhone.

Android is the new kid on the block, and a very interesting one. Crafted in the dungeons of Google, this open and attractive operating system is the new standard for HTC mobiles. Unfortunately, Android software still is limited (but growing with a fast pace), and it fell out the list of candidates for the same reason as Apple, because of the absence of GPS software.
The Palm Pre came late to my attention : it looks like Palm really took the good things from the iPhone and even went a step beyond that. This resulted in a gorgeous looking interface, which got quickly copied by HTC in their Sense UI interface for the Android.

In a next blog post, I'll explain my experiences of one week of playtime with the N97.

Deze grote buizerd hing al een tijdje boven ons huis te cirkelen. Prachtige foto van de buizerd in de vlucht, herkenbaar aan zijn bruine vogelkleed, en zijn korte ronde staart. De buizerd is één van de meest voorkomende roofvogels in de Benelux. Het liefst zitten ze in een gevarieerde omgeving, meestal aan bosranden. Ze broeden en overnachten in bosrijke gebieden en jagen in open gebieden, zoals weilanden en akkers. Als je over de snelweg rijdt, zie je vaak buizerds zitten op een paaltje of een hek. Dit zijn goede uitkijkposten voor ze om voorbijwandelende muizen, kikkers of konijntjes te kunnen zien. Maar het is ook mogelijk dat ze wachten op een door een auto aangereden hapje. De buizerd is beschermd in België, waar er nog zo'n 700 broedparen bestaan.

The Dalwhinnie distillery lies on an altitude of 600 meter in the heart of the Scottisch Highlands. The location in a stunning and 'dram'atic environment made journalist Andrew Jefford exclaim that the only pollution risc at Dalwhinnie was the one by heath pollen. The name itself also implies a history of whisky trading as Dailchuinnidh (roughly pronounced 'Dalwhinnie') means 'the plain of meetings'; the area was the junction of three cattle droving roads.

The smell : Aromatic, spicy and sweet
The taste : oily, going with your fingers in a jar of honey, and licking them off. Sweet vanilla, sucking a caramel bar. Fruity and honey again all over the place. Some pepper in the aftertaste.

Very sweet, and quite straightforward for a Highlander. Gentle and easy to drink. Too much like candy though for my taste.