February 2009 Archives

I just picked-up a copy of one of the later versions (2005) of the Multi-Year Interactive Computer Almanac (MICA). It's a product of the U. S. Naval Observatory (USNO) published by Willmann-Bell and it provides high- (and low-) precision astronomical data for many celestial objects. I have always been intrigued by this rather pricey product and wondered about its capabilities, and I thought it would be a valuable addition to my computer-based astronomy repertoire. Unfortunately, I'm somewhat disappointed by what I've seen so far. I don't want to rehash the MICA features/capabilities in this post, so please visit the USNO site to review them.

I use a Mac and so my complaints about the MICA begin there:

1. The Mac version is built/compiled exclusively for the PowerPC (PPC) architecture. This means that, on an Intel-based Mac, it must use the Rosetta PPC emulation mode when executed.  Apple wisely included Rosetta functionality in the newer Intel Macs to ensure that users weren't stuck with useless and possibly (likely) very expensive software.  The drawback is that it doesn't run at the highest possible speed because of the emulation layer.  The Intel Macs have now been out for several years and it's trivial to compile a universal binary that will run natively (and much more quickly and efficiently) on either platform.
2. The entire application requires the use of the mouse. I am a keyboard person; I always have been and I always will be. The mouse is nothing more than a necessary evil when in a GUI-based environment. I'd much prefer the slightly steeper learning curve of a command line interface to obtain the information.  I suspect their choice has more to do with maximizing their profit by ensuring that savvy users are not able to make the data available outside of the clumsy interface.
   
3. Finally, since it runs only in the GUI, accessing the data remotely requires the overhead of a network-based remote desktop utility such as Apple Remote Desktop, VNC, or Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection.

Overall, it's an adequate application for its intended purpose. The data may be very accurate, but it isn't as easy to get to it as it should be.  There are several excellent resources on the web that provide the same quality data, require a GUI and mouse, and cost nothing to use.