Thursday, May 28, 2009

Interesting Article

Here's an interesting article on something happening in CA:

http://www.10news.com/news/19585458/detail.html

Friday, May 15, 2009

Googly Eyes Watching You

We talked about this Wednesday night: Google Maps has continued to refine their map-making skills... and get even MORE up close and personal. I'm not sure how many people are aware of this.

For example, recently in The Daily Tarheel, there was was an article about a new experiment (perhaps ill-conceived) in pedestrian crossings on the edge of UNC campus near the physics building. There's a neat-o 360-degree image of the intersection in question, which you can navigate right on the page. But that technology isn't confined to intersections like this.

Suppose we take the apartment complex where I used to live a few years ago:

View Larger Map
(This isn't a photo pasted from Google Maps; it's a live embedding of the map on the blog page.) You can click the '+'/'-' buttons to zoom in and out, and you can click-and-drag or use the directional arrows to move the view. Click the 'X' to make the address box go away.

However, did you know that you can also now do this?

View Larger Map
The directional arrows or click-and-drag now allow you to look up and around as if you are standing on the street. If you mouse-over the image so that the white arrows appear, clicking on the white arrows takes you in increments up and down the street.

Or, if you type "Open Eye Cafe, Carrboro, NC" into Google Maps, you will get this:

View Larger Map
and if you then click on the "street view":

View Larger Map

Monday, May 4, 2009

wed night

Several things are of note:
Who will lead chap 10?
Discuss Christy's bridal shower 16 May sat morning 11am - ladies only- men can make comments but we know there will be nothing of substance for them to add.
Also 3 June going away for Peter and Ramonna. What would Peter and Ramonna like as the theme? I'm thinking covered dish but you guys decide. I'd like to invite other friends from Hillsong and family members.

Friday, May 1, 2009

No Time to Pray? A Technological Solution!

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird column:
The Web site InformationAgePrayer.com offers, for people too busy to speak to God themselves, a daily service of invocations (using voice-synthesizing software) for Catholics, Protestants, Jews, or Muslims. Starting each day "reciting" the Lord's Prayer (or the Islamic Fajr) is $3.95 a month. Hail Marys are 70 cents a day for 10. A Complete Rosary Package is $49.95 a month. Each prayer is voiced individually, according to a March report on LiveScience.com, with the subscriber's name on the screen, and for Muslim prayers, the computer's speakers point toward Mecca.