As Seen On TV!

Yes, it's true, xv has been spotted on Television, so you know it's gotta be good!

The most recent sightings involve the Mars Pathfinder Mission. Many people have responded pointing out that they've seen live shots (on CNN and NASA-TV) of xv in use at JPL, displaying various forms of Martian imagery.

Keen! This should silence those critics who've claimed that xv is only good for viewing images of terrestrial lifeforms, sans clothing.

However, there's no getting by our ever-vigilant xv users. Here's a message from one such person:

Mr. Bradley,

Good news:

XV is being used for image viewing and manipulation on the
Pathfinder mission at JPL.

Bad news:

At least one copy they are using isn't registered.

This is intended to be an anectodal report, not a bulletin
from a license vigilante. Heck, I would be thrilled if something
I wrote were used in such a context.

Here's the story. I'm sitting here watching NASA-TV, and there's a
downlink from Pathfinder in progress (well there was a few minutes
ago). Some kinda dark pictures come through and a minute later
they're shooting over the shoulder of someone sitting at a workstation
doing gamma correction and such with the dark images, and whaddya know,
they're using XV! I look a little closer and notice it says
"unregistered" in the title bar of the window. Just kinda funny,
I guess. Pathfinder really _is_ a minimum budget mission, I guess.

I guess now I'd better register _my_ copy of XV.

Thanks for a great program and congratulations on getting a chance
to contribute to the space program!

Sincerely,

<name removed to protect the author from Jack-Booted Government Thugs>
P.S. If you don't have NASA-TV, I can send you a dub of some of the
coverage I have taped, most particularly the shots that show your
program in use during an exciting and critical phase of the mission.

(Note: since the above was written, the good folks at JPL have registered several copies. Allow me to state that, given my liberal licensing terms, I've never had a problem with JPL's earlier, unlicensed use of the program. Apparently it *was* just some guy using xv for his own personal amusement, but some pesky TV cameras were in the room at the time. In any event, I'm merely passing this story along because it amuses me to have seen xv used on TV - not to promote any sort of ill-will towards the JPL guys! --jhb, 3/98)


Last Modified: May 07, 2006