• Phoenix Mars Lander delivers soil sample to microscope [NASA]
• Yahoo! succumbs to the power of Google [Observer]
• I’m searching for Google alternatives [Guardian]
• Semantic web – why bother? [Tom Scott]
• How to publish linked data on the web [Freie Universität Berlin]
• BECTU’s response to PSB review [BECTU]

The Replicating Rapid-prototyper (RepRap) has built a copy of itself.

The Bath University 3D printer has built another version of itself.

Amazing!

Find out more at the RepRap site.

A picture by the Robotic Arm Camera of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander reveals smooth surfaces cleared by the rocket exhaust during landing.

Is this ice?

These are impressive.

GNU/Linux distro timeline, covering 1992 to the present, and Unix history, which includes a Unix timeline spanning 1969 to now.

The explosion of Linux distributions over the past eight years or so is particularly eye opening.

Following intrepid research by Birmingham-based WordCamp UK mailing list members a venue for the event has been secured.

WordCamp UK will be held at Aston University Lakeside Centre, Birmingham, Saturday and Sunday 19-20 July 2008.

Many thanks to Ian Covey for organising the venue.

For full details go to the WordCamp UK wiki.

Excellent news that Phoenix has successfully landed on Mars.

Landing further north than any previous mission, it’s going to dig into expected water-ice beneath the surface and look for evidence of the building blocks of life.

If it leads to the discovery of life previously on Mars it would be fantastic.

If it leads to the discovery of life now on Mars now it would be brilliant.

I’ll be following the mission with interest.

Specification for a modern, modular, portable DAB receiver:

• Open standardised hardware API
• Integrate expectations of website and interactive product users into the design
• Add-on modules which should work with any radio implementing the hardware API
• Optional social module which includes wifi networking

Blimey!

BBC Audio & Music Interactive have already done it.

Can you get your work done in four days a week?

37signals have posted an update on their four day week experiment.

I’m still working my way through the copious comments to the post!