Google Maps meets satellite photography

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The ever-excellent Rich Boakes pointed me at his weblog story about the (almost) killer app from Google, where their existing Google Maps tech meets satellite photography from their purchase of Keyhole.

Here is a stunning example, a zoomed in image of Chicago Airport. Another is the fact that you can routeplan, although it’s interesting to note that they’ve decided to make certain government buildings stand out by censoring them from the imagery. You could probably find the interesting ones by scanning the imagery looking for the distinctive grey fill in. 🙂

Now what we want is imagery for the rest of the world!

Linux Beat Project Monterey to IA-64 by 8 months

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One of the things that SCO keeps bringing up is how IBM did nasty things to them on Project Monterey. Thing is that Linux actually ran on one of the target architectures of Project Monterey, Intel’s Itanium (aka Merced, IA-64), 8 months prior to Monterey and the people who did this were not IBM, but HP!

When Monterey first booted on IA-64 in September 1999 HP
had already
had the
Linux kernel running in native 64-bit mode on the platform
according to this
technical report from HP, (direct link to PDF here).

There is also a paper
(PDF here)
& slides
(PDF here)
that David Mosberger from HP presented at Linux Expo ’99
documenting their work that includes a
very
interesting timeline that shows that they first got the
kernel to successfully boot and run Hello World on the 20th
January 1999, and they had that with CERNs glibc for IA64
running by the 9th April 1999.

So, if Linux was running on IA-64 8 months *before*
Monterey, could
we claim that they copied from Linux using SCO’s bent
logic ? 😉

New Google Drink

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Google Gulp:

Think a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second, fine-tuning your individual hormonal cocktail in real time using our patented Auto-Drink™ technology, and slamming a truckload of electrolytic neurotransmitter smart-drug stimulants past the blood-brain barrier to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex. Plus, it’s low in carbs!

🙂

Detention For Life With No Trial – In Australia

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You’ve heard about the film “The Terminal” where Tom Hanks character gets stranded in an airport terminal because he suddenly finds himself stateless. Well there is a real life version of this that has been going on for almost 7 years now in Australia and, unfortunately for the person, he’s not trapped in an airport lounge but in various Government detention centres with razor wire and guards.

Peter Qasim is caught in a situation where he arrived as an asylum seeker from Kashmir, was denied asylum by Australia, but India refuses to believe he is their citizen and will not accept him. He is trapped inside the system, unable to return to Kashmir and not permitted to leave the detention centers.

He has been locked up for almost 7 years now, and faces no escape and (in his dark times) believes he will die there, never being allowed to live the life of a free man. The ABC has a background report on his plight and there is more here, here and here.

In other news, Australian officials deported a man travelling on a false French passport despite being told he was a convicted criminal by the French authorities.


The French Embassy believed without his French passport the man with the fake identity could not leave the country, but they had not reckoned on what the Australian authorities might do.


Sources close to the French Embassy say they are most concerned that their warnings about the man posing as Kingue were seemingly ignored and a convicted criminal using a stolen identity and therefore a fake passport was able to travel out of this country with the help of the Australian Government.

Patenting Medical Facts – A Diagnosis for B12 Deficiency

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Argh – I don’t believe how silly US patents are getting these days! Found through this Groklaw story.

The Public Patent Foundation has a statement condemning the issuing of a patent diagnosing B12 deficiency by looking for elevated homocysteine levels, a medical fact, and asking for it to be revoked.


“This result is not only perverse public policy – placing the rights of patent holders above the rights of doctors to perform medical diagnosis and discuss a natural biological relationship – but it also violates patent law, which mandates that only processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter are eligible for patent protection,” states PUBPAT’s position statement titled, Supreme Court Should Protect Medical Facts and the Right of Doctors to Use and Discuss Them From Patents. “The public, including specifically those wishing to use and learn from laws of biology, is significantly harmed by a failure to maintain the limits on patent eligibility because patents can – and often do – prevent important medical treatment and scientific research.”

Multiple Aftershocks Hit Indonesia

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A quick look at my email shows that the USGS Earthquake has reported 5 sizeable aftershocks around Indonesia, 3 in Simeulue and 2 in Nias (where up to 2,000 are reported to have died). 



 N  3 Please_Do_Not_Reply_   “2005/03/28 18:48 M 5.5 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA Z= 30km  2.73N  95.96E”

 N  4 Please_Do_Not_Reply_   “2005/03/28 19:02 M 5.8 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA Z= 30km  1.01N  97.82E”

 N  5 Please_Do_Not_Reply_   “2005/03/28 23:13 M 5.7 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA Z= 30km  0.19N  97.02E”

 N  6 Please_Do_Not_Reply_   “2005/03/28 23:37 M 5.7 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA Z= 30km  2.89N  96.33E”

 N  7 Please_Do_Not_Reply_   “2005/03/28 23:39 M 5.5 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA Z= 30km  2.92N  96.34E”

Two Big Earthquakes, 8.7 and 6.7, Hit Indonesia

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Two big earthquakes have hit Indonesia, one was Magnitude 8.7 and hit Northern Sumatra at a depth of 30km, the second was Magnitude 6.7 and hit the Nias region of Indonesia.

This ABC report is predicting a Tsunami and evacuation orders have been issued for various parts of that region. They are also reporting dozens dead on Nias.

This appears to be the predicted aftershocks and follow on quakes from the new stresses put on the plates in that region after the massive December 26th earthquake.

More reports on Google News.

Nobody Nowhere – Film News

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Interesting times at the moment!

Donna has some good news about the film rights for her best-selling autobiography Nobody Nowhere.


I encountered a wonderful, funny, fountain named Beverly Nero, and our email conversation turned to film writes and the fact that Nobody Nowhere was once again up for option. Bev picked up the option, and supported my belief I might actually be able to write this. Just as Nobody Nowhere was written in 4 weeks, so was my first draft of the screenplay. The book went on to become an international best seller.


The film is now in development, with a target date of May 2006 to begin filming. The movie will be filmed in the UK, throughout England and Wales, over to greater Europe and tell the Australian side of the story from Donna’s perspective.

Believe me, those 4 weeks were hectic and she’s done the first edit on the script too now!