Backyard Astronauts

We said farewell to the ISS last night … for a while. It won’t be passing us for several days but it will be back.

I’m talking about the International Space Station. I get notifications on Twitter, thanks to Twisst ISS Alerts, telling me when the ISS will be orbiting across our skies and what direction to look to see it. The last few nights there’ve been some quite bright passes.

I was checking out some details of the space station last night. There are six crew members on board at the moment and the crew will change over next month. The entire structure is about the size of an American football field. No wonder we can still see it without a telescope from three hundred and fifty kilometres below.

I’m not sure that I’d like to be in space, orbiting the earth for weeks on end. I think I’m a lot happier standing in my backyard with the famiy watching the ISS passing by.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Backyard Astronauts? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.

Facebook Makes Changes to ‘Pages’

Great to see that Facebook has made some changes to their ‘pages’.

They regularly upgrade the standard profiles, causing cheering from some and jeering from others, but they’ve now added some extra functions to what they call ‘fan pages’. (I still have issues about calling them fan pages but more of that in a moment.)

What have they added?

Notifications when other Facebook users interact with your page or posts.
A place to showcase photos along the top of your page.
A news feed for your page.
The ability to Like and post on other pages as your page.

Great news for those of us who have such pages as it allows us to interact more naturally with those who’ve ‘liked’ our pages.

I still feel a little odd having something titled as a ‘fan page’. When you set up your own Facebook ‘fan page’ it does seem somewhat cheesey and self serving. I get that, but that’s not what it’s about. I’m not looking for fans. I’m simply wanting to stay connected with a wider group of friends.

So why would an ordinary bloke ask people to click the link that says they ‘like’ him? Overinflated ego? Umm … no. A deep cry for acceptance? No again.

The truth is that I jumped on board with Facebook some time ago and have built up quite a number of Facebook friends. Some are family, some are close friends, some acquaintances, some are old school friends, while others are those I’ve ‘met’ online.

I’ve been torn between wanting to accept every friend request I receive and keeping Facebook for those I know personally. Having a wider group of friends means I sometimes can’t share as much as I like, while keeping a very closed Facebook page means I can’t share stuff with as many people as I’d like.

While it’s not a perfect solution I decided to set up a new Facebook page that’s completely open to everyone. You don’t even have to make a friendship request, just click the button and add yourself as a friend.

If you’re already a Facebook friend and you feel you’d fit better with the new page, feel free to ‘unfriend’ me and join the new page. You’re also welcome to stay connected through both pages.

I post a lot of the same content on both pages but the ability to share things a little differently allows me to protect my privacy and especially my family’s privacy a little better.

I hope to see you at my new Facebook page soon.



Do you think some of your friends would enjoy reading Facebook Makes Changes to ‘Pages’? Please use the buttons below to share the post. Thanks.