Exclusive First Look: WorldWide Telescope

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

This is the most innovative thing I've seen Microsoft do in years. It had a huge emotional impact on me, as I realized the way my son will see the Universe will forever change, thanks to the work of two guys in Microsoft Research (Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay). We meet both of them and get a look at why the WorldWide Telescope created a stir at last week's TED Conference. Coming soon, you'll get another look inside Microsoft Research as we get a tour of the new building that the researchers themselves help design. Tons of innovative ideas there that you'll appreciate learning from.

Tags: astronomyCurtis WongDataHubbleJonathan FayMicrosoftMicrosoft ResearchTelescopeUniverseWorldWide Telescope

 

36 Comments

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Hey, why not record your own video response on Youtube - and insert the url here.

If you subscribe to the RSS feed here in your favorite aggregator (I use iTunes) it will download an MP4 version to your hard drive (which is different than the Flash version that tries to play on the Web page here).

i gave up trying to see the damned video which won't show in firefox or opera or ie 6 and yes, i have flash plugin 9 loaded. is there a download video link??

this is so amazing. can you guys believe that we are looking at this stuf! how is this possible! i want one :) ... i am so digging this. lol

Hey that Yosemite image looks familiar http://www.xrez.com/gallery/yosemite/xRez_yose.html

That is the most brilliant visually stunning thing I have seen. Toggling between the different wavelengths and zooming to that resolution... A Google Earth for the Universe. Very very cool. Nice work on the Scobleizer.tv programs. I look forward to seeing more!

Here's a tip Rocky, get a shure mixer: pan one mic to the L, other one to the R, then get a test level and set it slightly lower so when they get excited or laugh you won't peg your meter or go into distortion since you won't "ride levels" while shooting, then mix your audio when you do your final edit and cover the places where you had to zoom in and regain your focus, you need post-production time to make it watchable.... Don't take our criticisms too hard, you're doing some great work, best of luck to you all.

Anonymous: Agreed - however, I'm a one-man crew so manning a mixer is not possible during the interview. Admittedly, this was possibly my worst job shooting. - and it's particularly bad because the subject matter was so damn cool. I'll apologize again to everyone. Since then I have acquired lavs and better gear- they help a ton. Thanks for the feedback.

you need to cover all the talking with "b roll" like pics of what you are talking about, use clip on mics and a mixer, because Larry Bud Mellman could teach you how to use the handheld mic better. good luck though. Production values help your audience enjoy the content instead of being distracted by your poor tv skills.

Works good on my Linux box. I agree with the comment about microphones. Since you are going for quality "production values" etc. a clip-on for both you and guest would be less disruptive.

wow Robert,

I see why you were crying few weeks back. This *is* truly amazing!

Thanks for giving us a preview of this (and thanks to Curtis and MSFT too)

Konstantin: I feel ya- Not my best performance on that one. Sorry about that- Check out the other vids- They're much better!

David: I'm getting in now, if you are seeing a black box you might not have the latest Flash Player loaded. Try updating to the latest Flash player and see if it works now. Sorry about that. You can get that here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

Hi Robert - A real shame, I've tried to view this a few times (more than five over yesterday and today) but it doesn't work.

Did Fast Company not anticipate the traffic?

Maybe temporarily use YouTube or something, better than the black block I see now?

Take me on Gliese 581! OK.. in the future. Awesome technology!

Link to a video comment: 

Great interview, Scoble!
Only one thing... could you please tell your camera man he should just hold still its camera! Sometimes it's just impossible to look on the screen. Please...

Everything is fine.. why don't you allow videos to be downloaded.
Many of your fans like me cannot stream the videos.

@Dick Cavett - didn't quite have all my gear when we shot this interview. Now we are lav'd and wireless. Not to say a handheld mic won't show up again, should the situation require it. As for LONG, when we get through launch and more content is online, our method will provide a short form and the longer form of the videos available. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for watching.

Good interview...but rather long for my taste. Also the single microphone being flopped back and forth reminds of Bob Barker or Monty Hall and other game show hosts in the 70's. Surely Fast Company has enough money to afford remote mics.

Ok... so now I have looked at it again after seeing the Ted video. For some reason I am still not crying.

Technology wise this doesn't seem that innovative. In essence this seems like an inverted Google Earth. Yeah doing the tours is interesting but it to me it seems like a necessary feature. Unless you are really into astronomy you don't know what you are looking at most of the time. At least that's how I felt.

In know I am trivializing the issue and I am sure astronomy buffs will salivate over this... I still don't get the hype... or is it that every US tech head is also an astronomy geek?