Gates Foundation’s New Campus

In June 2011, the foundation will consolidate its operations on a new campus at 500 Fifth Avenue North, across from the Seattle Center, in the heart of the city.

We want the campus to be a place that inspires and creates optimism and hope, and a hub for innovation and gatherings of experts from many fields, perspectives, and countries who are dedicated to improving lives here and around the world.

“Our campus will be built to reflect our values and mission- to reduce iniquity, to promote health and opportunity and to ensure that every person, regardless of his or her life circumstances, can live up to his or her true potential. This work may span the globe, but it will always remain rooted in our home of Seattle and the valleys of the Pacific Northwest ”

William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

Read more about Gates Foundation’s guiding principles here.

Melinda Gates, Bill Gates and Bill Gates Sr.

 

“The headquarters will reflect our values and beliefs”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

 

This video spotlights our new campus near the Seattle Center, where we will move in the spring of 2011. Sustainable design elements, including water- and energy-saving features and over half an acre of green roofs, will help reduce our energy consumption while making the campus a beautiful and welcome addition to the community. The campus will also have a visitor center housing interactive exhibits that showcase the work of our grantees and partners.

“…it will be built sustainably with water and energy saving features throughout”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

 

 

 

“This work may span the globe, but it will always remain rooted in our home of Seattle and the valleys of the Pacific Northwest ”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

 

ciao

mags

NASA unveils new (Mars) rocket plans

[Sharing the same, for the record, as it is a true milestone in space travel & exploration]

Article by Brendan Sasso

NASA unveiled on Wednesday the designs for its latest rocket, the successor to the retired space shuttle.

The rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will rely on a liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel system, and NASA hopes it will one day take astronauts to Mars.

Its first flight is planned for 2017.

Future Exploration Destinations: An artist’s concept shows the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle and future destinations for human exploration beyond Earth orbit: the moon, an asteroid and Mars.

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that’s exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars."

Artist Concept of SLS launching

Lawmakers praised the announcement, but criticized the administration for taking so long to move forward with its space exploration plans.

“This decision to proceed with development of the Space Launch System is long overdue," said Reps. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), Chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee and Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Chairman of the Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies in a joint statement.

"This Administration’s lack of commitment for human space exploration has frustrated and angered many of us in Congress who are committed to American leadership in space.  The Administration’s obstructionism has already resulted in the unnecessary loss of thousands of American jobs, and served to diminish our Nation’s leadership and stature among space-faring nations."

ciao

mags

Evolution of Windows Explorer

The “Windows 8” team made an awesome blog post that gives us an early glimpse at the new Explorer in “Windows 8”; what was also great to see was a look back at Windows Explorer over the years, all the way back from Windows 1.0, when it was called “MS-DOS Executive” :)

Excerpts from the blog:

It’s exciting to have this opportunity to share the improvements we’re making to the file management capabilities of Windows Explorer. Explorer is one of the most venerable parts of Windows with a heritage you can trace back to the “MS-DOS Executive” in Windows 1.0!

MS-DOS Executive in Windows 1.0

Over the years, Explorer and its forerunners have gone through several major iterations:

File Manager in Windows 3.1

Explorer in Windows XP

Explorer in Windows 7

 

And now- a glimpse at the new Explorer (with the familiar “ribbon” interface):

Explorer in "Windows 8"

 

And a video preview of the new Explorer:

 

ciao

mags

Official Building “Windows 8” Blog

Today Steven Sinofsky, President and head of Windows team, launched the official Windows 8 blog (engineering) blog- “Building Windows 8” or B8. The purpose of the blog, according to Steven, is- “to begin an open dialog with those of you who will be trying out the pre-release version over the coming months. We intend to post regularly throughout the development of Windows 8, and to focus on the engineering of the product. Welcome to “Building Windows 8,” or as we call it, “B8.”

If you’re looking for notifications of posts, then be sure to follow the B8 team on Twitter @BuildWindows8.

PS. Also, please note that the “Build” event is completely sold out. Build is the new Microsoft event for modern hardware and software developers, which is to be held during September 13-16, 2011 in Anaheim, CA.

ciao

mags

“Early Warning” Film- Official Site

The Earthquake “Early Warning” independent documentary, which I developed & produced, now has an official home at eew.crosscity.com, thanks to my brother (Nagi), who is hosting the site on his crosscity.com hosting services.  The site will also serve as an unofficial journal of activities surrounding the progress of the Early Warning System in the US West Coast!

About the Documentary

The recent Magnitude 9 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan reminded us of the sudden destructive power of earthquakes- but, this earthquake was different in that a warning flashed, on televisions, computer screens and cell phones across the country, seconds before the devastating earthquake hit. The warning, which ranged from 10-30 seconds, allowed people to duck and cover, and industry to halt sensitivity machinery and isolate hazardous chemicals; the multitude of small actions taken reduced the overall impact of the event. Japan and few other countries are equipped with such an EEW system, with Japan’s EEW system being the most advanced. But the United States is far behind other countries in a deployed EEW system; California is one of the most earthquake prone places on earth, due to San Andreas fault, yet it lacks even an early warning system; same is the case for Washington and Oregon states, though both states are under earthquake prone Cascadia subduction zone, and can expect an earthquake as devastating as the one experienced recently in Japan!

Watch the "Early Warning" documentary:

The “Early Warning” Documentary describes the earthquake early warning system and then brings to light the reasons why such an early warning system is not in place in the US West Coast and if and when such a system is expected to be in place in the US West Coast.

“Early Warning” documentary was filmed by Ty Kelly & Mahesh Punyamurthula, recent graduates from the Independent Filmmaking Diploma course from the University of Washington, Seattle; the documentary was produced by jsmags productions.

Time-lapse animation of March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan:

Early Warning System

Apart from providing details about the documentary, this web site will also be used as the unofficial venue to report progress of the development of the earthquake early warning systems in the US West Coast. The development of the early warning system is a massive undertaking that involves multiple teams at Federal and State level & industries, at several millions of dollars of budget and that which requires several years of detailed work and effort; so, there will be a lot to share and talk about- please stay tuned!

ciao

mags

iJit

Steve Jobs’ new Apple campus proposal

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs presents his proposal for a new Apple Campus to the Cupertino City Council. This presentation was recorded Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at the Cupertino Community Hall. One building with a 12,000+ capacity!

“We do have the shot of building the best office building in the world”

-Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs presents his proposal for a new Apple campus to the Cupertino City Council

 

Proposed architecture of the new campus- “mother ship”:

11:20: “We are the largest tax payer in Cupertino, so we’d like to continue to stay here and pay taxes- that’s number 1”

By the numbers:

 

“…we want to break ground next year and we want to move in 2015.”

ciao

mags

History of Interactive devices; Kinect SDK Launch

 

“Look at the collection and then try and convince me that our slow rate of progress is due to a lack of technology rather than a lack of imagination.”

—Bill Buxton

Fascinating opportunity to explore veteran designer, researcher and writer, Bill Buxton’s collection of input & interactive devices from over 30 years.

 

On a related note, today Microsoft officially launched Kinect Software Development Kit (SDK) through Channel 9 Live site. You can learn more about Kinect SDK here.

ciao

mags

First look at Windows 8!

Microsoft on Wednesday previewed and demonstrated the next generation of Windows—code-named "Windows 8"—at the All Things Digital Conference (D9).

 

"’Windows 8′ is a reimagining of Windows from the user experience to the application platform," said Julie Larson-Green, corporate vice president for Windows Program Management. "A ‘Windows 8′ PC scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse."

"We have so much more on the way," Larson-Green said. "So please stay tuned."

Watch Jensen Harris demonstrate some of the new features in "Windows 8":

 

First look at Windows 8!

 

ciao

mags

Microsoft Next

Learn more about Microsoft Next and, also how Microsoft Research (MSR) and Microsoft Product teams collaborate- through an infographic and blog. Learn more about how such amazing technologies as Kinect, Surface, Worldwide Telescope, TellMe and others came about, thanks to the collaboration between Microsoft Research & Product Teams. More at Microsoft Next.

ciao

mags

Japan

Our thoughts and prayers are with the amazing people of Japan!

 

-mags