Gizmodo: washington dc

See the New Orion Spacecraft Up Close and Personal

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

NASA is now showing Orion—the spacecraft that will take humans to the Moon and Mars—at the National Mall in Washington. It's not the real thing, but it looks great (needs more pretty decals).

[NASA's Orion at Gizmodo]

Contribute to CNN's PhotoSynth 3D Collage of the Inauguration

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST

CNN is asking anyone at the Inauguration this Tuesday to take digital photos, send them in, and let CNN use PhotoSynth to create a massive 3D experience.

All you have to do is take a picture (under 10 MB), send it into themoment@cnn.com, and then wait for Microsoft's 2D to 3D software to compile the whole thing. It's gimmicky, sure, but not in the same way as the "holographic" nonsense on Election Night. This could turn out legitimately cool; PhotoSynth is a very capable piece of software and with the volume of photos that CNN could gather, a 3D compilation would be a real looker. So if you're planning to be in D.C. on Tuesday, show those stodgy CNN people how we take a photo here at Gizmodo. [CNN, photo by AFP/Getty]

DC Lawmaker Wants Cop Guns to Have Mini FPS Cameras

matt buchanan — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:10:00 EDT

A lawmaker in Washington DC has intro'd a bill to the city council that would require all police service pistols to have mini cameras attached to the barrel, which would start rolling as soon as the gun is pulled out of the holster. The tech is already being tested in Orange County, NY. Ostensibly, it's to prevent bad shootings and prove officers acted in good faith, but really I can only think of how awesome an FPS cam would make Cops, like that one scene in the Doom movie, except with intoxicated perps instead of demons from Hell. If it works in DC, I could see this spreading to other police departments pretty quickly as a way to quell lawsuits and such. [NBC4 via The Register via CG]

Washington, D.C., Wall St. Brought to Their Knees by CrackBerry Outage

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:50:14 EDT

While we reported on the BlackBerry service outage (and subsequent magical restoration) earlier, what we didn't note was that it apparently threw Washington, D.C. into sheer chaos. Reuters was on the ground: "I felt like my left arm had been amputated," said Joe Shoemaker, communications director for Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois. It was, in a word, "crippling."

New York suffered similar end-of-the-world-like disbelief, as "one Wall Street analyst said she kept hitting her BlackBerry's version of a 'refresh' button, not believing that the system could fail." Also in New York, Charles Ross, a criminal defense lawyer, was left feeling "vulnerable and uncomfortable."

Yes, that's how we're strangely feeling right now: vulnerable and uncomfortable. – Matt Buchanan

BlackBerry e-mail outage upsets White House, Wall St [Reuters/Yahoo!]