Comments on: Worldwide Telescope launches half-baked!

By: LJ

LJ — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:58:42 +0000

Ahh 2.2ghz that explains it. My 2ghz iMac running VMware Fusion 2 crashes every time I run the blasted WWT. Not only does it crash Windows XP Pro, but it crashes OS X.

I doubt the speed of the processor is the real cause of it not working right on a virtual machine. It’s what you call Garbage In, Garbage Out. Bloated code written poorly by teams of dysfunctional imps.

Not bad for a beta huh?

By: Thomas Read

Thomas Read — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:00:45 +0000

What’s up with the world wide telescope? I’m tryng to download it, but not having any luck. Can you help?

Thanks,

TOM

By: Gabriel Couto

Gabriel Couto — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:01:00 +0000

That drivers crash was because of NVIDIA. NVIDIA has a problem with some new video cards and vista, their driver commonly restarts.

By: steve clayton

steve clayton — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:13:22 +0000

just for the record it runs on my Vaio TZ which though it does have 2GB of RAM also has a measly 1.2ghz ULV processor. I think the specs aim for a “good experience” rather than any hard coded limitations.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:40:32 +0000

The program ran for me, but used a lot of system resources up understandably. Win XP Home, 2GB DDR, 2.2 Ghz Athlon.

Overall the tool is a great resource for anyone interesting in astrology, I found myself using it for hours.

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:27:34 +0000

Ok Paschal,

maybe I should have said resource hungry instead of bloated. If it can’t run on a 2.16GHz machine with 2gb of ram it is poorly written and useless for the vast majority of computer owners.

By: Paschal

Paschal — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:42:03 +0000

Come on give me a break, it’s not a bloated application! come on we are talking about the universe here!
I have a Meade sky application to control my telescope and the software is bigger than the WWT project.
Sorry but I find this project a very good educational tool, and has a lot of potential for amateurs and professionals.
the sky map is great, you can quickly jump to any object and it has been a great tool for me to learn more about stars and constellations I can’t even dream to see with my ‘little’ 8″ telescope. Yes it surely can include Ireland, but to be accurate you need to enter latitude and longitude to work seriously and this is what yuo can do precisely with WWT.
I like also the user interface simple and efficent, no fuss straight to an object and some cool zoom effects.
One thing I regret is that they used flash instead of silverlight, but maybe they thnk it was not ready yet for the masses.
Anyway make my day and give the tool some credits
Don’t forget it’s a free tool so if you know how to do it better I am all listening.

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:33:22 +0000

Paschal,

thanks for your comments.

Brian, all software coming from Microsoft recently seems to be Beta. Vista was the world’s most expensive beta ever launched.

I am not “always hitting on Microsoft” – see any of my posts on their better products (i.e. I have written positively on IE8 and SilverLight – even doing a podcast with Brad Abrams Project Manager of the SilverLight dev team).

I know you didn’t try the Mac version. You couldn’t have. There is none. If you have a Mac, Microsoft expects you to install Windows on your computer to run WWt.

Yes though, you do need to be above the minimum requirements. One if my issues with the app is that my Mac, which is a 2.16ghz Intel dual core with 2gb of ram is below the minimum requirement.

Very few people (and even fewer schools) will have access to computers capable of running this bloated app.

It is a shame as it has lots of potential.

By: Paschal

Paschal — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:19:07 +0000

Ooops I meant Brian of course (sorry for the typo!)

By: Paschal

Paschal — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:18:21 +0000

Tom you should be more moderate on this one. I second Birna (Hi by the way) on this it’s a beta for god sake and it’s coming from MS Research which means it’s not going to compete Google tomorrow morning.
I am an aamateur in astronomy but i can tell you I installed the tool without a glitch, everything works fine.
It’s a pity that even if your posts are interesting, you are always hitting on Microsoft whatever they can do to please you
Now WWt is a huge application and so far they cover very well all the aspects of astronomy including some really cool panoramas of the planets in our solar systems.
@Now honestly I didn’t try the Mac version, but I am sure that like the Windows version you need to be above the minimum requirements.

By: RUG

RUG — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:29:18 +0000

Why does this happen?

By: Javi

Javi — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:56:13 +0000

Too bad it didn’t work out for you. I think the imagery with the World Telescope is just awesome. It actually made me consider trying out Google Earth Sky and Stellarium just to see how this stacks up against the two.

By: Brian M

Brian M — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:39:08 +0000

Weird – the mere mention of MS in a forum and it goes nuts.

Should anyone really be surprised?

By: 127.0.0.1

127.0.0.1 — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:58:25 +0000

Bleating about betas. Move along please, submit feedback via usual channels. Beta releases now seem to increasingly be a link/advertising-bait opportunity for self-appointed bloggers as opposed to an in-development product testing milestone.

Dell D6-x or other. Vista SP1. Installed fine. Ran fine. Never noticed there was a “set your location” option – didn’t see it being relevant when I was browsing Uranus.

By: steve clayton

steve clayton — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:37:00 +0000

wow, it’s welcoming me back as Scoble. Bizarro

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:14:53 +0000

Excellent Russell, thanks for the speedy response.

By: Russell

Russell — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:07:10 +0000

I’m being welcomed as Russell now (which is my name) so that seems to have fixed it.

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:00:12 +0000

I have updated the theme, is the comment field weirdness still happening?

By: Tom Raftery

Tom Raftery — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:54:21 +0000

Guys,

really strange behaviour on the comment fields being pre-populated with previous comment info. Not sure if it is related to the theme (K2) which I am updating now or the caching plugin.

Hasn’t happened before and I haven’t made any changes to the blog (no time to!) so perplexed!

Thanks for making me aware of it.

By: des

des — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:18:57 +0000

..I could also see Brian’s comments awaiting moderation…pity they weren’t juicy