You are currently browsing the daily archive for August 31st, 2007.
TechCrunch just posted a story about a hidden feature of Google Earth: a flight simulator. To get there on a PC, just hit Ctrl-Alt-A and on a Mac, it’s Command-Option-A (capital A). You can choose between flying an F16 or an SR22 prop plane. The F16 is fast but the controls are a little pickier, while the SR22 is slow and more stable.
Some key commands to get you going (if you’re impatient, like me):
- left/right-arrow — ailerons left and right (this makes you roll if you’re unfamiliar with aircraft terms)
- up/down arrow — elevator up/down (this makes you go up or down)
- shift + left/right arrow — rudder left or right (this turns you right/left)
- page up/page down — increase or reduce thrust
Game play is a bit sucky, but as TechCrunch points out, the nifty feature here is the fact that you are flying over real images. The downside, of course, is that those images aren’t 3-D. In the screenshot below, I am flying up Broadway in Manhattan approaching Central Park.
Whenever we make up our bed and put all the decorative pillows on it, Willow loves it. After a night of visitors, we came into our bedroom to find Willow passed out beneath a minor avalanche.
This picture was taken with my new cell phone on the highest quality level (1600×1200). The image was too large to send to myself via email so I bought a 1 GB micro SD card off of newegg for about $12. It’s a great way to get around spending extra on picture/video messaging. It won’t be saving me anything, though, since my phone plan includes more free messages than I’m likely to ever use.
Clive Thompson has an interesting article in Wired a short while back that explains why we can all rest easy: there are geeks like Bill Gates in the world who can have compassion on more than eight people at once.
Phew. I can finally get some sleep. I was seriously worrying what’s going to happen when oil supplies start to run out given that the entire world economy depends on it. No more. Oh and global warming? Fahgetaboutit! A geek will save the day because he can think in terms of mega, giga, tera, peta, exa, zetta, yotta — because .. wait for it .. his job demands it. Just to reassure us that he hasn’t just emerged from Gates’ backside, Clive does throw in an occasional aside as to how Gates is a drooling social bafoon — but don’t be fooled. This piece is little more than worshipping at the Gates throne.
