Google recently put together a short (2 min, 19 sec) video explaining how email gets from the sender’s computer to the recipient as the message is passed from one server to the next. The demonstration focuses on Google’s GMail system, but it applies equally well to all other email systems.
(Seriously, Google really did put this together.)
Many thanks to The Cowgirl Coder who reminded me that Thursday marked the eighth anniversary of the day The Moon was blasted out of its orbit.
The breakaway happened on September 13, 1999. That was a Sunday. The day before, I held a going away party for the moon. We watched “Breakaway,” the pilot episode of Space: 1999, and when the show got to the part where the explosions started, everyone spontaneously started waving goodbye. 🙂
I’ve been watching the show on DVD thanks to Netflix. The first season was pretty bad. (Koenig’s solution to everything was to either yell at it, or shoot it and then insist that humans weren’t barbarians.) The second season was better, but that’s not saying much. I hadn’t realized it, but Maya was saving the moon long before Wesley got started saving the Enterprise.
And so many questions remain. What happened to Paul and Victor? What ever happened to all of Main Mission? When did Computer become a proper noun? (It was never “the computer” it was always referred to as “Computer.”) Where did they get the new clothes for Season 2? And just how many times did Eagle 1 get blown up anyhow?
Production values, OK. Writing and continuity, ugh.
Good Grief! It turns out that Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt are in cahoots with Steve Jobs in the plot to destroy the Earth!
After reading today’s UF, I did some quick searching and soon found out about the Flight Simulator embedded in Google Earth. That sounded like a pretty cool little easter egg, so I decided to check it out. It turns out that this particular egg requires you to have the most recent version of Google Earth. No worries, I’ve used Google Earth before and think it’s kind of cool.
At the start of the installation process the first thing you have to do (of course) is agree to a software license. Most of it’s the usual stuff about there being no warranty, respecting intellectual property rights, and so on. And then about three-quarters of the way through, right after the bit about the program being export-controlled, I ran across some rather chillingly familiar (and unnecessarily capitalized) text…
NONE OF THE SOFTWARE IS INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS, EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, OR ANY OTHER SUCH ACTIVITIES IN WHICH CASE THE FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.
OK, I sort of understand why they don’t want you using it in emergency communications (picture an ambulance crew trying to find their way to a heart attack victim using this stuff and not being able to get the imagery fast enough). I haven’t figured out yet how someone’s going to use a map to control a nuclear reactor, but it can’t be much harder than controlling a reactor via the iTunes software.
Much like the iTunes license, this one is also made hard to read. The bit where you agree not to use Google Earth to control a nuclear reactor is on the 20th screen out of 29. By hiding it this way, Google is assuring that you won’t read that bit and therefore won’t know that you’re not supposed to use the software in that manner. They’re awfully clever like that.
There is one ray of hope though. Google may have outsmarted themselves. In the same paragraph where you agree that you won’t use Google Earth to control a nuclear reactor, you also agree that you won’t use it for “Aircraft Navigation or Communications systems.” And like I said at the beginning, Google Earth includes a flight simulator.
Listening to Tom Smith’s “Alternate Universe Lost and Found” just now, it occurred to me that the idea of a Lost and Found like that ought to be a rich source of short story ideas. (As the song points out, it’s more than just socks that slip away between dimensions.) So always looking for something new to read, I went onto Google and typed in, “alternate universe lost and found”.
At first glance, the first search result seemed a bit surreal. But then again, when compared to the idea of an interdimensional lost and found, this “found” ad seems downright normal…
LOOSE PONY FOUND IN MARSDEN PARK AREA
How do you lose a pony?!
I found out about three weeks ago that Michaele and Jeremy were expecting a second child about now. It’s been a while since I last saw Michaele, so this definitely took me by surprise. (After all, if you go around randomly asking people, “Oh, by the way, is your wife pregnant?” the best you can hope for is some very strange looks.)
Not having heard any updates, last night I dropped a line to a mutual friend asking if she’d heard any news. Lynn wrote back this morning with a birth announcement. The baby was born about eight hours after I asked if there was any news.
Clearly I need to ask my boss if there’s any news about me getting a raise!
Congratulations!
You’ve just done the karmic equivalent of winning the lottery! Because you’ve found this page, you are now free from forwarding chain emails ever again! Want to rekindle a lost love? Just contact your old flame and if it was meant to be, it will be! Fame and fortune? If it was meant to be yours, it will be!
And all of this good fortune will occur without you ever again suffering the humiliation of friends or family members asking you to “Please stop forwarding me this crap!”
How does it work? It’s simple, any time you get an email urging you to “Forward this to everyone you know!” instead of sending it along, just click the “delete” button instead. You’ll instantly receive all the good luck you would have received anyhow! It’s that simple!
Of course, there’s a catch to this. Now that you’ve read this page, you must never, ever forward another chain letter. If you forward a chain letter after reading this page, you may very well find that your friends and family members think you foolish. And all the bad luck threatened by every chain letter you’ve ever forwarded may come back to you tenfold!
Sure, it’s quite possible that this is complete hogwash. But do you really want to risk it?
(Permission is hereby granted for you to copy this post to any blog you maintain. Please consider including a link to this page at:Â http://dactylmanor.org/blair/zero/2007/09/04/the-curse-stops-here/.)