The SLS will initially use the RS-25D, also known as the SSME – or Space Shuttle Main Engine. NASA has a stockpile of these from the shuttle program. Later this will change to a cheaper RS-25E, or expendable, version. Whereas the RS-25D was reused on multiple shuttle flights, engines used on the SLS will be discarded. So there is no need to build the engines to higher standards for reusability. NASA is only using the RS-25D initially since they already have a stockpile of them and with the retirement of the shuttle they have nothing else useful to do with them. The RS-68B the Ares V was to use would’ve been a version of the RS-68/68A already in use on the Delta IV launcher, designed to be expendable.

Most of the increased lift from the evolved version of the SLS will come from new rocket boosters. NASA is expected to compete the design of the new boosters, which could be liquid or solid fueled. But that is still a ‘when and if’ question, since they need to get the initial design off the ground first.

I’m disappointed because I grew up with one program after another promising great leaps. The X-30 National Aerospace Plane – cancelled. The DC-X Delta Clipper – cancelled. (Though Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin New Shepard program looks to be the spiritual successor.) The X-33 VentureStar – cancelled. The X-34 – cancelled. The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle – cancelled. And, of course, the Constellation Program was cancelled.

At least the Air Force picked up the X-37 after NASA dumped it.

With each cancellation the programs have seemed to get less ambitious. No more space planes, reusable launch vehicles, etc. We’re back to the gumdrop on a stick capsules. Much of the technology in the SLS can trace its development right back to the Apollo program, and the rest is a pretty direct link to the shuttle. There’s not much that can be considered new. That’s safe and (relatively) cheap, but not all that inspiring, at least to me. The first generation SLS reminds me very strongly of the aborted Ares IV concept, which would’ve been kind of a combination of the lower stages of the Ares V and the upper stages of the Ares I.

Frankly I’m a lot more inspired these days by what’s going on in the commercial sector. And I don’t me the traditional giants like Boeing, Lockheed, Ariane, the Russians, etc. But the space start ups that are doing new things. Blue Origin and their New Shepard, as well as their other projects. Sierra Nevada and their Dream Chaser space plane (based on concepts from the cancelled NASA HL-20). But most especially Elon Musk’s SpaceX and their Falcon launchers and Dragon capsule.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is being designed to lift 53 metric tons to LEO. With concepts for the Falcon X Heavy and Falcon XX lifting 125 and 140 metric tons, respectively. While those are still concepts the Falcon 9 has already flown, and the Falcon Heavy is a direct evolution of the Falcon 9 (it was formerly known as the Falcon 9 Heavy) and it is in active development. While it won’t lift even as much as the first generation SLS, I find it more inspirational because it is a small private company developing everything from scratch. There is no legacy technology in the Falcon program, they’ve been inventing a new generation of rocket technology. And so far they’ve been very successful.

While the SLS will surely be a very impressive vehicle if it ever flies, don’t get me wrong, right now that is a very big if given NASA’s track record with programs. I’m not sure we wouldn’t be better off giving the money to companies like SpaceX to accelerate development of vehicles like the Falcon XX. Given their track record on the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon to date we might get more for less.

Via CNET Crave.

He followed up in July, and by then the bloom was already off the rose. His patience was low with the performance issues by then and he was experiencing frozen screens and missed recordings. He was already considering returning to the standard Comcast DVR.

Things apparently improved for a while starting last month. The number of glitches dropped and the performance seemed to improve. But then, last week, he was locked out of On Demand and lost the ability to record anything – and that was the last straw. As he sums it up:

My two biggest gripes with the Comcast + TiVo service were its speed and reliability. Setting a recording took anywhere from 20 seconds to over a minute. With Comcast DVR, a recording is set almost instantaneously. Service reliability was the bigger issue; TiVo would regularly freeze up and required to be reset–a process that required me to pull the cable box out, unplug it, plug it back in, and wait 10 to 15 minutes for the service to return–and then re-enter the 30-second skip code for the remote. Other than encouraging me to read more, the only advantages I found with TiVo were its suggested recordings, its ad-free channel guide, and a better organized list of recorded shows, which grouped multiple recordings of a show and all HD recordings into folders.

I’d really like to see TiVo succeed in bringing their software to cable DVRs, but the road so far has been long and rocky. At this point it seems that there is still a lot of work to be done, and some of the troubles may be due to the lack of power in the fielded hardware. The TiVo software is running on top of a middleware layer (currently a precursor to tru2way, and it should be tru2way in time) which runs on top of a base OS, and that means it will be hard to match the performance of a native OS. A solution for this could be newer generations of cable DVR hardware which are bring designed from the start to support tru2way applications, instead of existing hardware that has been updated with software.

There are so many variables involved it is hard to say if the troubles are with TiVo’s software, the middleware layers, the base OS, the hardware, the head-end servers, or something else. So the issues may be out of TiVo’s hands. But in the end it doesn’t matter to the end user, they just want the software to work and don’t care who’s problem it is. So I hope that TiVo and their partners can sort things out and make it ‘just work’, or it will continue to struggle to gain traction.

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Disclaimer: I’m a beta manager for Sling Media.

The day begins with a morning meeting where material harvested from 15 TiVos and even more newspapers, magazines and Web sites is reviewed.

That sparked discussion and speculation that Jon was using ‘TiVo’ as a generic reference to some other DVR setup, but no, a former researcher on the show posted a comment and confirmed their setup.

Nope, it’s literally 15 rack-mounted TiVos of various models, many from the pre-Series 2 era. Some Philips boxes, some Sonys. And because there’s a limited number of remote codes, when a staffer operates one, he has to hold the remote directly against that box’s IR receiver so that the beam doesn’t hit any of the other boxes (i.e., so he’s not inadvertently controlling multiple boxes at once). No joke! It’s pretty primitive.

There’s a lot more in the comment, an interesting look behind the scenes of The Daily Show. Since they’re using old Series1 units, how do they get the clips on air?

When TiVo footage is needed for TDS that day (i.e., every day), the clips are dubbed off to Beta tape and brought to an editing bay. Yup, sneakernet. Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. I wouldn’t be surprised if the show upgrades to a networked PVR system — especially with an imminent move to HD — but I don’t know what their plans are.

So the rack of TiVos may not be in place for long. It sounds like an opportunity for TiVo to supply them with a new HD-capable setup, based on the TiVo HD. I wonder if there is enough business to make it worthwhile for them to develop a customized version of the software with features designed to make it easier for commercial users.

The Daily Show isn’t the only major program using TiVo. An intern for Late Night with Conan O’Brien posted a comment at Boing Boing stating that they use three TiVos content.

I intern at Late Night with Conan O’Brien and am privileged enough to realize how a set-up like The Daily Shows is so mind-boggling. At Late Night we have three TiVo’s that are set-up to record every other late night talk show, several morning to afternoon shows and a few special events that happen now and again. Every morning we burn DVD copies of the previous day’s shows, a process that takes less then 2 hours, depending on the temperament of the recorders.

I picked that one up from CNET’s Crave.

And I’m sure there others that I haven’t spotted.

Dave Zatz posted this video to YouTube:

Note that this is a proof of concept, a technology demonstrator, and not the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that will eventually be released. This was an engineering project written for jail-broken iPhones to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that Sling could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. This allowed Sling to gain experience with the platform while waiting for the SDK to be released. The official SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will be written using the SDK and sold through the iTunes App store like other official iPhone/iPod Touch applications. At least that is currently the intent.

If you’re attending the Apple WWDC this week you can get a look at the proof of concept application first hand. Sling Media Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media.