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Google to the Moon

If you haven’t had the pleasure of browsing through Google’s fascinating satellite maps, I suggest you drop everything and visit http://maps.google.com .

If you haven’t had the pleasure of browsing through Google’s fascinating satellite maps, I suggest you drop everything and visit http://maps.google.com .

The Map feature works kind of like a conventional atlas, zooming into incredible detail in the U.S. and Canada – try zooming in on Whistler, and you’ll be amazed to find your street clearly marked in up to 50 metres of scale. This feature also works with Google Local, helping you find addresses and attractions.

Outside the U.S., the Atlas portion of the map is still pretty rudimentary, but it is, according to Google, a work in progress – realistically, every street in the world could be mapped within the next decade.

The Satellite feature is even cooler when applied to Whistler, although the extent of that particular satellite imagery stops at a scale of about 500 metres. Still, the golf courses, lakes and ski runs are clearly visible.

Using Whistler as a starting point, you can take a trip up Highway 99 to Duffey Lake Road, check out the Pemberton Ice Cap, or peer into the valleys beyond the Overlord Glacier in the Spearhead Traverse.

Or take a trip around the world – check out the dunes of the Sahara Desert, the Great Pyramids of Gaza, the Great Wall of China, Ularu and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Amazon River, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Everest, the Eiffel Tower, London Bridge, the Colosseum of Rome – it’s all there to see at varying scales. And while you’re browsing around, look for shaded areas – these are usually urban areas or other sites of interest, and means you can zoom in even closer.

Take the tour offered by Google to get a better idea how to use the maps, either to find street addresses, locate businesses or get directions from A to B. Several other websites are cropping up around the world that use Google maps for games, studies, and educational purposes. One popular game involves taking a shot of a map, and posting it for everyone to see. The first person to find that place on the Google Map, using the clues provided, wins.

You can visit almost anywhere in the world using Google Maps, but last week, on the 36 th anniversary of the moon landing, Google added a navigable Lunar map as well.

Compiled using photographs from NASA, you can check the maps out at http://moon.google.com . From there you can link to Google’s strange Corpernicus initiative, a semi-scientific project to set up a Google headquarters on the moon.

Good news for music industry

A growing number of Internet users are downloading music legally these days, according to the latest report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

In the first half of 2005, users of services like iTunes Music Store ( www.itunes.com ) and the relaunched Napster (www.napster.ca), downloaded approximately 180 million songs – more than triple the same period as last year. Comparatively, in all of 2004 just 157 million songs were downloaded through legal channels.

One of the main reasons for the jump is the emergence of subscription-based download services, like Napster, where users have access to an unlimited number of songs providing they continue to pay the monthly fee – once their subscription lapses, the songs will no longer play. Approximately 2.2 million people are using subscription services.

Meanwhile Apple’s iTunes, which is considering a shift into subscriptions, announced last week that they have passed the 500 million song mark after just two years in operation. The store sold just 50 million songs in the first 11 months, but afterwards sales have grown exponentially.

Another reason for the growing numbers of legal download services (more than 300 sites worldwide) is the ongoing crackdown on illegal P2P sites, their users, and the Internet Service Providers who are caught in the middle. Going back to September of 2003, more than 14,000 lawsuits have been initiated against downloads in several countries, with average fines of US$3,508. According to one study about one in three illegal downloaders have gone legit.

Longhorn becomes Vista

The next version of Windows XP, formerly known as Longhorn (after Whistler’s Longhorn Saloon, a favourite hangout of Microsoft employees) has a new identity. As of last week the update of Windows XP was officially named "Vista" and the first beta should be available for Aug. 3 to developers and testers. The first public release is expected in early 2006.

The name change is not a slight on Whistler – software frequently changes names between concept and launch, and Longhorn was never intended to be more than a working title. According to Microsoft, Vista better captures the scope of this new release.

Renaming the software also gets away from any negative associations that users might have with Longhorn – like negative publicity over the late release date, fewer features than promised, concerns over licensing and security, and so on.

NHL back! But how does it work?

After missing an entire season due to a contract dispute, the players and owners made nice last week by signing an agreement to guarantee hockey for the next five years.

The players probably wish they’d settled last season for what would have been a better overall package, but it’s better than nothing – after watching how the owners settled this lockout I have no doubts that they would have hired scab players for next season if it came down to the wire.

The regular season will get underway on Oct. 5, but while the NHL is back, it won’t be the same game at all. There are a variety of new rule changes for 2005-06 designed to make the game faster with more goal scoring. Personally I think the game was fine the way it was, but I’ll give the new system a chance.

To find out about the contract settlement, the new rules, and keep up with what is sure to be a flurry of trading and player negotiations under the salary cap, visit www.nhl.com.