When I was six years old, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. I don’t remember much about it; this period of my childhood was suffused with the great memes of the space age, and memories of black-and-white images of Neil Armstrong on the moon blur with furtive late-night (for a six-year-old) viewings of “Star Track,” picture books about brave test pilots who became pioneers of the Gemini program, and card games like “Space Race,” with their way-cool period graphics. Being an astronaut seemed like the coolest job in the world, and I really believed—along with a whole generation—that it was only a short matter of time before we’d all be blasting off to the final frontier.

With NASA’s 50th anniversary today, I’m reminded of those heady days, and I can’t help but feel at least a little bit melancholy. The space shuttle program is about to come to a close, and seems destined to be remembered more for its tragedies than its triumphs. Space exploration for the accumulation of knowledge (and the excitement of beating the Russkies) has been replaced by space tourism for those who have accumulated wealth (and who are willing to write big checks to the Russkies). And NASA’s budget seems forever on the chopping block. Yes, recent years have brought us some notable successes, including missions to Mars that have come close to proving the likelihood of extraterrestrial life. But it’s hard not to think that the space program’s glory days are long behind it. Do today’s kids dream of being astronauts, of blasting off to the moon, and exploring the far reaches of the solar system? Or have they come to think of space travel as a distant fantasy, something that reached its zenith a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away?

Back in early 2005, I was working as a blogger for Engadget, and, in a brainstorming discussion with some of the other bloggers, I raised the idea of a software blog. We’d cover new releases, betas, warez, the whole scene. The idea was quickly shot down; there wasn’t a big enough audience, and besides, Beta News, Tucows and Download.com already covered that market. A few months later, however, I learned that geek minds think alike, when I got an IM from Weblogs Inc. honcho Jason Calacanis letting me know he was launching Download Squad—a software blog—and he wanted me to help run it. I jumped at the chance, and began posting for DLS in June 2005. For the next eight months, I had a blast writing about everything from DOS nostalgia to Google Goo, and especially about non-downloadable, cloud-based apps, which—despite the site’s name—Jason felt were the most vital segment of the software market (gee, looks like he was onto something, there). After eight months, with DLS up and running smoothly with a talented team of software-obsessed bloggers, I went back to working at Engadget full-time, but I continued to keep a watchful eye on DLS, and saw it grow to become a successful blog in its own right. Later, some of WIN’s other platform-specific blogs were rolled into DLS, giving it a larger audience—and a new pool of talented bloggers. The site grew in popularity, and even gained the grudging respect of bigger competitors such as Lifehacker . Last year, PC Mag listed it as one of the " Top 100 Undiscovered Web sites." It looked like the naysayers were wrong after all.

Until this morning. That’s when word leaked out that AOL, as part of an effort to "trim up for a sale," would be pruning its blogroll. One blog, DIYlife, would get the axe immediately. DLS (and The Unofficial Apple Weblog, another WIN property) would be going on a one-week hiatus. "DLS bloggers should immediately press pause on new content," wrote an AOL programming manager in an internal memo. According to the memo, the site will "emerge stronger" on August 1st, but it’s hard to see how that will happen—or how a one-week break, apparently instituted to help balance the July books, really accomplishes anything. During that week, RSS feeds will go dead, writers will turn to other sources of income, and advertisers will lose faith. How will that help a potential acquirer? Despite the negative prognosis, I’ll be rooting for DLS. I need my Time Wasters, freeware fixes, and web service updates, and I believe AOL does too.

Like many people, I’ve shifted more and more of my computing activities to "the cloud," using services like Flickr, Zoho Writer and Gmail as regular tools, not merely adjuncts to desktop applications. And I’m not alone; entire businesses are being built on the idea that desktop apps are dinosaurs, and the future of computing rests with thin client appliances connected to massive servers and databases. However, this weekend’s outage of Amazon’s S3 data storage service may have some people rethinking their commitment to the cloud. It’s unclear how many services were offline as a result of the outage, but one that particularly irked me was Amazon’s own Kindle network. As a recent convert to Kindledom, I’ve gotten used to using the device as a thin client appliance, downloading RSS feeds, checking my email and sometimes even buying books. Yesterday, however, I was offline all day, and nothing on Amazon’s Kindle support site made note of the issue. I was left to wonder whether, despite having three bars most of the day, I had somehow wandered out of range. The event left me frustrated, and served as a reminder of how fragile cloud computing really is. As Om Malik points out, "the cloud has many points of failure – routers crashing, cable getting accidentally cut, load balancers getting misconfigured, or simply bad code." I’m not ready to give up on the cloud (or the Kindle) just yet, but I am going to continue to back up my data locally—and make more use of applications like Evernote that have both desktop and online versions, so that I can work efficiently regardless of connectivity, and be sure that my work is accessible wherever and whenever I need it.

When NPR recently announced it was dropping The Bryant Park Project after less than a year on the air, it marked the second time in recent months that a youth-targeted public radio program was cancelled. Fair Game, a PRI evening show, was shelved at the end of May, also after just a few months. The two cancellations would seem to indicate the public radio, long seen as a medium for middle-aged liberal commuters to listen to while driving their Priuses to work, has thrown in the towel when it comes to attracting younger listeners. However, I think it may actually indicate that NPR and PRI, rather than giving up on the next generation, has merely given up on pandering to it. After all, by at least one major indication—iTunes podcast downloads—public radio already has a solid following among young listeners. The iTunes list of top podcasts routinely contains several public radio programs, including "This American Life," "Fresh Air" and "Car Talk." At this moment, in fact, seven of the top 10 (and all of the top four) audio podcasts on iTunes come from the world of public radio. And, according to eMarketer, 70% of iTunes podcast downloaders are under 44; 29% are under 24. So, it looks like NPR and PRI have discovered belatedly that, instead of creating shows specifically for young listeners, they should stick to their core business of producing intelligent, thoughtful, well-produced programming, and audiences looking for such media—young and old—will find it. That said, I must admit that I enjoyed both "the BPP" and Fair Game. I found their mix of news, talk and Daily Show-style humor a refreshing alternative to Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Of course, I’m not in either show’s target demo, and the iTunes numbers show that those who are seem to be content with public radio’s standard offerings. For the rest of us middle-aged commuters, there’s always The Sound of Young America.

One of the first things I did with my iPod touch when I got it last year was jailbreak it. And from that point on, I avoided upgrading the firmware, so that I could keep my precious illicit applications intact. Until now. Last Friday, I upgraded to 2.0, and I haven’t looked back since. While the App Store isn’t perfect, the range of applications available, from games to ebook readers, is stunningly robust. And despite the fact that Apple has vetoed certain functionality (background processes, VoIP over 3G), the App Store includes some programs that I was sure it wouldn’t, including Pandora, AOL Radio and a number of other streaming music applications. One can only wonder how AT&T will react when users start taking advantage of those “unlimited” data plans to stream Internet radio all day; drivers with long commutes and good 3G coverage could turn their iPhones into ersatz Sirius radios, minus the monthly fees. For me, the new apps make my touch a worthy replacement for my Chumby and Nokia 770, both of which I’ve put on eBay. Of course, there are some jailbreak apps that I miss, most notably Mobilecast, which allowed over-the-air downloads of podcasts. But word is the developer will have an App Store version soon enough, and my touch will then be complete.
Standard disclaimer: My opinions are mine alone and not those of my employer or anyone affiliated with my employer.

I know we’ll never review this one in Consumer Reports, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

I hosted a small conference (more of a conclave, actually, since it was a fairly small, invitation-only group) for bloggers at Consumer Reports HQ a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been too modest to post about it here (message to self: modesty and blogging are not a good combination!). Fortunately, one of the attendees, Erin Doland of Unclutterer, has a very good and flattering write-up out, in which she comments:

I’m a big fan of Consumer Reports and check it and other review sites before making most of my purchases. Being a smart consumer can take effort, but when you own few possessions, it’s important to focus on quality. Overall, I was glad to spend the day learning from others who share a similar philosophy on educated consumerism.

Her whole post is worth reading (if I do say so myself) if you want to get a better idea of what we did at the meeting (other attendees included Cap from Stop Buying Crap, Zac from WalletPop, and the inimitable Edward Dworsky, aka Mr. Consumer). We’re hoping to do more of these, so if you’re a consumer affairs blogger and want to be invited, please drop me a line.