Astroengine Social Media: Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect, a new era for social media...
Facebook Connect, a new era for social media...

Facebook recently officially announced the release of Facebook Connect. At first, I was a little dubious as to what it would do; after all who needs to sign in to their Facebook account when surfing other websites, right?

Actually, Facebook Connect is a little deeper than that. Until now, Facebook has remained on Facebook.com, there was no way to transplant any of the social media applications to your own website (apart from a few developers). Applications for Facebook have been around since the dawn of the site, allowing users to develop and launch their own “useful” tools to connect, play, message and inform friends. Some have argued that the site was becoming cumbersome, with a vast number of user applications ballooning the platform out of all proportions. Many userpages were cluttered and overcrowded (including mine). So only a few weeks ago, Facebook underwent a huge face-lift, appearing to cut most of the chaff from userpages.

So far, so good.

But then the growing company announces it was developing its flexible platform to branch out. It would appear Facebook.com was just the beginning, over the coming months we’ll see Facebook applications appearing on other websites, expanding the scope of this social networking tool across the Internet…
Continue reading “Astroengine Social Media: Facebook Connect”

Added Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect

In an effort to boost the community “feel” of Astroengine.com, I’ve added the Google Friend Connect widget to the panel to the right. It seems like a great way to communicate the site’s articles and a useful tool for visitors to meet like-minded individuals. I’ll be assessing its effectiveness over the coming days, plus you might see some more tools appear. These moves are all intended to improve Astroengine.com content and boost the number of ways visitors can share information.

Simply click on the “Join Site” button and enjoy…

Thank you Avi for pointing out this nifty little gadget, let’s see what it can do!

Cheers, Ian

Introducing the Exomoon, and Detecting them via Exoplanet Wobble

Can astronomers really detect exomoons?
Can astronomers really detect exomoons?

Exomoon: The natural satellite of an exoplanet.

Before today, I hadn’t heard anything about the possibility of looking for moons orbiting planets in other star systems. Sorry, exomoons orbiting exoplanets in other star systems. But a British astronomer has calculated that it is possible to not only detect exomoons, but it is possible to deduce their distance from the parent exoplanet and their mass.

All this is done by measuring the exoplanet’s “wobble”; a practice more commonly used in the pursuit of the exoplanets themselves. By detecting the wobble of distant stars, the gravitational pull of the exoplanet becomes obvious. The same can be done with exoplanets, possibly revealing the presence of Earth-like exomoons.

Of the 300+ exoplanets discovered, 30 are within the habitable zones of their stars. If these large gas giant exoplanets (usually several times the mass of Jupiter) have an exoplanet system of their own, these exomoons also fall within the habitable zone…

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

For the full article, check out Astronomers Now Looking For Exomoons Around Exoplanets on the Universe Today…

Astroengine.com Joins a New Era for Blogging: WordPress 2.7 Locked and Loaded

Wordpress 2.7
Wordpress 2.7

Christmas has come early for WordPress bloggers… WordPress 2.7 has arrived.

Whilst readers will not notice any change in blogging service after the Astroengine upgrade, the changes behind the scenes could not be any more astonishing. The user interface is, quite simply, beautiful. The design, feel and speed are all working in tandem to deliver the best looking blogging experience I have ever seen. Often WordPress has been criticised as lacking in design when compared with other third party platforms, but critics will be silenced once they have a look under the hood of a WordPress 2.7-powered website.

This upgrade is called “Coltrane” after the legendary American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, and 2.7 was built by 150 programmers and designers, who responded to the needs of thousands of WordPress users via numerous polls and surveys. If you want to see open source at its best, read more about “Coltrane” and why the face of blogging has changed forever…

Astroengine.com Nominated for Best Space Blog!

Wow. That was unexpected! Astroengine has been nominated under the category of “Best Space Blog” on the award site Blognet!

Awesome. Well, I’m not sure what to say about that apart from “thank you” to the wonderfully cool person who anonymously left an awesome review of my site, and then a really nice follow-up review from one of Blognet’s admin staff. Thank you!

I’m not entirely sure how the award-choosing will unfold, but more blogs will be nominated in time (for now, it’s just Astroengine, enjoying the limelight, by itself), but keep an eye open and vote when/if you can. I wont be exchanging votes for money, but I’ll try to boost the content of Astroengine so it is a contender for the prize 🙂

Thank you to the anonymous lady who nominated me! You’re a star (and not just any normal star, my favourite, the Wolf-Rayet star!).

Follow Astroengine on Twitter!

Astroengine on Twitter...
Astroengine on Twitter...

As if I’m not spending enough time in front of my computer already, it appears there’s another social web application I’ve been neglecting! I actually signed up to Twitter in August, but forgot about my Twitter account’s existence until now. After an explore, I realised it’s actually a very powerful tool, providing up-to-the second updates (in under 140 characters) about, well, anything.

First things first, I’m going to use it for personal stuff (although, “I’m doing my teeth,” or “I’m hungry” probably won’t feature) plus Astroengine article updates. I’ve now seen, that if I get enough followers, it might also be a good way to notify everyone about forthcoming Astroengine Live shows (next one is on Wednesday at 4pm PST – don’t forget! I’ll post another reminder later if you fancy tuning into my banter on the airwaves…). There will also be various updates for articles I post on the Universe Today.

So, if you are currently Twittering, follow me on the Astroengine Twitter feed, otherwise, sign up for a free account and start making sweet Twitterings…

See you there!

Cheers, Ian

Astroengine LIVE Touches Down on WPRT Radio!

Astroengine.com is about to branch out into the world of radio…

Starting on Wednesday 19th November at 7pm EST (4pm PST, or midnight GMT), I’ll be hosting my own weekly talk show called Astroengine Live! The show will air for two hours where I will discuss all the best space news, including views, opinions, phone-ins and special guests. If you want to find out everything from the next NASA mission, the status of the International Space Station, progress with the Large Hadron Collider to breaking news from small research institutions around the globe, then Astroengine Live is for you.

Ultimately I want Astroengine Live to work in harmony with Astroengine.com, expanding the reach of the radio world into the vast resources available online. Because of this, all schedules, episode content and additional on-air information will be available through AstroengineLive.com, directing you to the category “Astroengine Live” on this website.

I will announce show specifics closer to Wednesday’s debut, but in the meantime, you can check out the new home of Astroengine Live at WPRT Radio, also the home of Paranormal Radio with Captain Jack!

Cheers, Ian

PS. I’m also getting my own theme tune… now that is the icing on the cake!

Astroengine.com Selected for “Top 10 Space Blogs”

Astroengine in the Top 10!
W00t!

A huge thank you goes to Dave Mosher at the excellent blog Space Disco for adding Astroengine.com to the Blogs.com “Top 10 Space Blogs”! Not only did my site make it into the top 10, by sheer alphabetical luck, Astroengine is also right at the top. Awesome! I’ll wear my badge with pride.

Dave, I owe you a pint some time!

Cheers, Ian

The Universe Today is Unbanned from Digg.com!

Does Digg love the Universe Today again?
Does Digg love the Universe Today again?

Great news! It would appear that after only day one of the campaign to have the Universe Today un-banned from Digg.com, somebody in the admin staff was obviously paying attention (unless they are an avid reader of the Universe Today website too), and realised their mistake. Digg.com is now allowing articles from the Universe Today to be re-listed and dugg!.

I’d like to think that this was all down to blogging power — after all, this little space blogger was blamed for the whole NASA-Phoenix-Perchlorate saga! — but I’m just really happy that the guys at Digg have redeemed themselves a little.

This whole episode does however highlight an ongoing problem with banned sites, I hope it will help to refine Digg’s policy in the future.

Have a look at the first article to be Dugg after a long absence: “More Ares I Development Problems: Is it Really That Bad?” (one of mine!)