Another historical landmark has been reached with Challenger's last launch today. As the ship took off, even the birds scattered to avoid its power. American innovation has always been a cornerstone of our greatness. Now we are struggling with our infrastructure because we were first and much of the world has caught up and lapped us with the latest of versions of our own inventions.

Even in challenging times like these, it is my hope that we will find a way to continue our work keeping our eyes on the stars and beyond. Bon Voyage!

Just when we think we’ve surrendered to the relentless pace of our high tech environment, inevitably human error interferes and high tech often doesn’t change the outcome. Hawkeye/Shot Spot is a computer simulator that determines the ball’s position with laser precision and processes it into flawless animation. This mostly avoids John McEnroesque conniptions as the crowd claps along to an irreversible an accurate decision in 3 of 4 Tennis Majors. 

Tech made a minor difference in today’s Wimbledon Women’s Final. Maria Sharapova uncharacteristically made several crucial challenges using the technology and won the points. It wasn’t enough to overcome 6^th seeded Petra Kvitova’s magnificent relentless siege that surprised tennis fans and experts alike in her clean defeat of Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4. All hail Kvitova, a new unpretentious Queen of Tennis for winning her first major and Wimbledon no less. 

"The bottom line is that blogging is like sex. You can't fake it. You can't fake passion. You can't fake wanting to engage with the public. If you do, it will ultimately be an unsatisfying experience for both the blogger and their readers."  - Kevin Andersen, Freelance Journalist and Former Blogs Editor for the Guardian

"Social media has quickly replaced porn & become the #1 activity on the web.  Facebook, Twitter, You-Tube, Linkedin and Blogger have allowed friends as well as strangers to connect, share, interact and discuss virtually anything…from recipes and Rock-stars…to grandchildren and gaming." - Anne Therault, Blogger 

Mobile Media has complications. Among them is a lot of the best web content is in Flash that doesn't help you with your page ranking. To make it more complicated and expensive you have to build a different version for iPhone/iPad/Android to support it without being able to master Ajax. Jobs and Gates why can't we all get along. Well happy days for the less technically adept.

A free download for a product called EasyRotator ™ has made it possible that we can easily and quickly build good looking slideshows; jQuery sliders/rotators for web pages. It's available as a Dreamwear Extension and a standalone application. Go to http://www.dwuser.com/easyrotator/  (Thanks to the American Bar Endowment website where I found this at http://www.abendowment.org/ )

I’ve gotten a recent reeducation in the mass media experience.  Sometimes conventional media is the right choice as opposed to defaulting to the net…for now.  This morning I made a point of watching the lift off of the Shuttle Endeavor on TV and the web simultaneously.  The Internet was literally a full second behind of the TV broadcast and the picture quality on line still had a lot to be desired.  When full convergence becomes real with full HD quality non-stuttering pictures, a conscious choice will no longer be necessary.

Scheduled events like the Super Bowl and the Royal Wedding still do best on conventional television. As one of those fools who got up in the middle of the night to watch the Wedding it’s not because of being a monarchist, it’s the love of public spectacle.  Kate and Wills are keeping the monarchy alive by redefining it and hanging on to some treasured traditions in the process.  Sort of a look over the shoulder as we move forward. 

As conflicted as I feel about assassination, I get why the US knocked off Osama. The irony of the famous/infamous photo of the President and the National Security Team has not eluded me either; the watchers were being watched as they watched Osama get his. This high profile spying clearly illustrates the privacy versus transparency trick bag we're all facing behind the scenes. Ever gotten a ticket from a "security" camera?

We're all being tracked by our technology even if we have nothing to hide. Instead there are legitimate concerns that our privacy is being violated for the sake of targeted advertising. Just ask Google, Apple, every cell carrier and dumb criminal who ended up in the slammer because they didn't ditch their cell phone. Corporations assure us that we're safe and our information is blind despite the distinct IP numbers for each computer. As long as we keep giving up little pieces of personal information, the freemiums will keep the net free until there's a more profitable web business model. It's already too late for us to take the information back.