Starship Asterisk*

Am I missing a joke somewhere? The explanation on my screen is one about the MESSENGER spacecraft, but the picture that APOD downloaded for my wallpaper is of a large mining dump truck crushing a much smaller truck. Nothing to do with astronomy that I can see.

bugwriter wrote:Am I missing a joke somewhere? The explanation on my screen is one about the MESSENGER spacecraft, but the picture that APOD downloaded for my wallpaper is of a large mining dump truck crushing a much smaller truck. Nothing to do with astronomy that I can see.

The problem must be with your download program, because the APOD image has nothing to do with dump trucks.

bystander wrote:

bugwriter wrote:Am I missing a joke somewhere? The explanation on my screen is one about the MESSENGER spacecraft, but the picture that APOD downloaded for my wallpaper is of a large mining dump truck crushing a much smaller truck. Nothing to do with astronomy that I can see.

The problem must be with your download program, because the APOD image has nothing to do with dump trucks.

I had the same thing. Using the software I got from here: http://nightskylive.net/software/apod/

It seems to be picking up a link from the APOD text, 'horizontally compressed image'.

Ouch, I just hate it when that happens.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn't that more like vertically compressed? Well, maybe not to someone 6 time zones distant...

-Noel

no_need wrote:

bystander wrote:

bugwriter wrote:Am I missing a joke somewhere? The explanation on my screen is one about the MESSENGER spacecraft, but the picture that APOD downloaded for my wallpaper is of a large mining dump truck crushing a much smaller truck. Nothing to do with astronomy that I can see.

The problem must be with your download program, because the APOD image has nothing to do with dump trucks.

I had the same thing. Using the software I got from here: http://nightskylive.net/software/apod/

Mine is the same, but downloaded software straight from APOD

"

no_need wrote:

bystander wrote:

bugwriter wrote:Am I missing a joke somewhere? The explanation on my screen is one about the MESSENGER spacecraft, but the picture that APOD downloaded for my wallpaper is of a large mining dump truck crushing a much smaller truck. Nothing to do with astronomy that I can see.

The problem must be with your download program, because the APOD image has nothing to do with dump trucks.

I had the same thing. Using the software I got from here: http://nightskylive.net/software/apod/

Mine is the same, but downloaded software straight from APOD"

Ditto on the dump truck problem. I think APOD has been hacked.

Same same. Different computer. Nice truck, but hopefully someone will explain why we missed the Messenger photo today.

People using the APOD downloader from Asterisk or APOD seem to be experiencing strange behaviour. The image downloaded is a link from within the APOD text, 'horizontally compressed image'.

APOD has not been hacked. This is a problem with the image download. The image being displayed on APOD is the correct 'horizontally compressed image'.
This problem was also reported on FB APOD. The person reporting the problem there also had a problem with yesterday's APOD. The downloader program was downlowding the 3D glasses audience image from the link 'APOD readers'.

This has happened before. I don't know the reason for, nor can I investigate (the download program doesn't work in Win 7). Is there anybody using this APOD download program who is not experiencing this problem?

Is anyone else experiencing a problem with the picture that is downloaded to their desktop? For today, February 23, what has shown up on my desktop is a picture of a horrible accident that happened at one of the mines close to here in Tucson. It is a picture of a huge earth-mover that has crushed a pickup truck The picture doesn't show it but one or two people were crushed when the earth-mover rolled over the pick-up. The description of the picture is the for what the picture should have been. Has someone hacked into the APOD site? Yesterday I a picture of a bunch of people wearing 3-D glasses watching a movie. The description is, again, of something else. Are the managers of the APOD site aware of this??

Today I recieved a picture of an off road oversized strip mining dump truck crushing a pick upp truck.
What should I do?

There is a bug in the download program which caused it to grab the wrong image. Once the program has been fixed, a notice will be posted so that those who want the latest version can download it.

Ross M Langill wrote:Today I recieved a picture of an off road oversized strip mining dump truck crushing a pick upp truck.
What should I do?

Don't drive it until you get those tires fixed.

Rob

Is the APOD site being hacked? Today I got a picture of a fist with a pacman ring on it - no sign of Cassini

telecosmo1 wrote:Is the APOD site being hacked? Today I got a picture of a fist with a pacman ring on it - no sign of Cassini

Today's APOD was a video. Are you using that automatic APOD desktop image program? It grabs the first image it finds which is the Pacman near the end of the description.

The movie (and music) are fantastic. I wish I knew why the desktop app seems to select the joke pictures (thin rings= pac man). Seems to happen more often with movies. Twice recently I've had images of audiences with 3-D glasses on. APOD, and their desktop, are very cool. I just wish I could always see the astronomy related images. Any suggestions?

Thanks gedzilla, that seems to be it

electronfairy wrote:The movie (and music) are fantastic. I wish I knew why the desktop app seems to select the joke pictures (thin rings= pac man). Seems to happen more often with movies. Twice recently I've had images of audiences with 3-D glasses on. APOD, and their desktop, are very cool. I just wish I could always see the astronomy related images. Any suggestions?

The desktop app can't grab video, so grabs the first picture (.jpg) it can find.

I'm glad to know that the strange desktop images are not a hack.
But ... can't APOD please make sure that the first .JPG file is a still from the video? or at least something more relevant than, well, I've now seen a pacman ring, a crushed truck, and moviegoers with 3-D glasses. Not quite what I signed up for!

billsav wrote:I'm glad to know that the strange desktop images are not a hack.
But ... can't APOD please make sure that the first .JPG file is a still from the video? or at least something more relevant than, well, I've now seen a pacman ring, a crushed truck, and moviegoers with 3-D glasses. Not quite what I signed up for!

I think the best fix would be to never have the actual APOD be anything but an image- no videos. Where there is an interest in showcasing a video, the APOD image could link to it. This would solve all the problems associated with image proxy tools, wallpaper loaders, and browsers without the proper plugins loaded.

owlice wrote: The desktop app can't grab video, so grabs the first picture (.jpg) it can find.

So. . . could the APOD folks put in the posting a .jpg of one of the frames, so po' folks like me don't have to look at the pac man "thin rings" as my desktop?

I found it so objectionable I changed the desktop to another APOD image of Saturn. The APOD desktop app then changed it back! This seems like a simple, reasonable request. Either that or don't include unrelated images at all.

electronfairy wrote:

owlice wrote: The desktop app can't grab video, so grabs the first picture (.jpg) it can find.

So. . . could the APOD folks put in the posting a .jpg of one of the frames, so po' folks like me don't have to look at the pac man "thin rings" as my desktop?

I found it so objectionable I changed the desktop to another APOD image of Saturn. The APOD desktop app then changed it back! This seems like a simple, reasonable request. Either that or don't include unrelated images at all.

Do you really want APOD to accommodate all the different things that volunteers put together and share? Is that really the best use of their time, to track these things, the occasional bugs in them, and fit APOD to the bugs?

That seems short-sighted to me.

Yep. . . I would like them to leave the unrelated images off the site. It would take less of their time and it would keep the topic, astronomy, as the focus. And I would argue astronomy is not short-sighted but quite the opposite.

I don't think astronomy is short-sighted, but rather your notion that the APOD editors should continuously seek out bugs in applications that others write that use APOD so that APOD could accommodate them. That seems a dreadful waste of their time, efforts, and talents.

For the record, I like that APOD includes amusing links and am very glad the editors include them. You apparently don't like these. To each his/her own.

owlice wrote:I don't think astronomy is short-sighted, but rather your notion that the APOD editors should continuously seek out bugs in applications that others write that use APOD so that APOD could accommodate them. That seems a dreadful waste of their time, efforts, and talents.

For the record, I like that APOD includes amusing links and am very glad the editors include them. You apparently don't like these. To each his/her own.

Yeah, they're GREAT! Especially the one that showed the new crew member with the WILD hair!!

Owlice, i noticed the 'problem' part of the thread got moved, so I'm responding to the video not working right for me, HERE.

I tried clicking on the little picture a couple more times and got a double flash of Saturn the first time and then a single flash of Saturn the second time.
But i did watch the video before by clicking on "above inspiring video" that is in the explanation. There it is started manually. I have no idea at all why it doesn't work for me in the "automatic start" version.