3-D Imagery For Free!

Investors may be worried about the bubble of Google's stock price, but I think the rest of us are satisfied with just playing around with their products. I was pretty excited to learn today that Google Earth will now be free for everyone to use! I installed it and I have to say that it's totally and completely badass. This is one of those programs I always wanted but never bought (Microsoft had a similar program, but without all the 3-D stuff) since I can get maps for free online anyway. Instead of firing up your web browser you can just enter in a location (coordinates or address or city) in this program and see a satellite picture of the area from the Google Earth server. Of course your computer has to be pretty good to handle all this, but it's really useful if you can use it. Like if you're in a new place and you want to check out the night life, just check the "Bars/Clubs" box and all such places in the area will exist. It has that for hotels, restaurants, schools, and much more. You can also do directions and such just like you would in Google Maps, except it is a little slower given that it has to stream all the data directly to your computer. You should really go download this program right now, or you can dawdle with some more impressions of it. I should mention that the 3-D building stuff is only for select cities, and New York is one of them:



Nerds have more yet to talk about at the watercooler tomorrow. Google did have some bad press today coming from people disgruntled by all the spam blogs on Blogspot, which is a valid concern since it's hurting the speed and integrity of Blogger. The poster makes a good point in that they should definitely purge their server of such blogs and then they'd solve so many issues. Blogs are becoming a bigger deal after all with Technorati monitoring over 10 million of them. Sun struck it big today with a deal that packages Java with Blu-ray disc players, which means that actual Java bytecode will be on the discs. This will be a true testimony to the cross-platform abilities of the language. Another testimony today was to P2P with the rescue of a failed tv pilot for a show called Global Frequency. Of course no one involved in the show can endorse the illegal distribution of the show, but it did, in fact, save their butts since the WB is now reconsidering. Lastly, Apple fans will want to get the new version of iTunes with built-in support for podcasts.

Today's movie news is pretty good but not plentiful. All you action junkies will be happy to know that Tony Gilroy is currently working on a script for The Bourne Ultimatem and I hope that he's able to trump the fun-filled second film in the trilogy. Meanwhile, we have to settle for Fantastic Four, which is still getting some mediocre reviews and is only looking ok. At least King Kong is on the way and while some onlookers were disappointed with yesterday's teaser you can see how believeable the cg is in high-resolution. It's certainly no X3, which has now lost Lost's Maggie Grace, who was set to play Shadowcat (ability: can walk through walls). It's no surprise that we don't know why she left, but Fox has already started looking for someone else so we can expect to find out more about that very soon. Acclaimed director Brian De Palma may be taking the helm of a remake of The Untouchables, the story of gangster Al Capone, and I can't imagine how cool that movie would be if it gets made. I assume that it'll look better since he'll likely have a stronger financial backing and a better style for creating it given all his experience since then. Lastly, there's a new one-sheet for V for Vendetta for those of you who are interested.

Time for some Ten on Tuesday action:

8 Truths and 2 Lies About You (let your readers guess which are the lies)

10. I get a good alcohol buzz at most family gatherings.
9. I gave up all sodas (i.e. plain soda sans alcohol) a few years ago.
8. I've never been in the UT Law School building.
7. My favorite movie is Kill Bill.
6. I had a serious girlfriend in high school.
5. I'm moving to an apartment in Far West for the upcoming school year.
4. My middle name is Victor.
3. I was born in Houston, TX.
2. I spent the past winter break taking a History class.
1. I play classical guitar.

If people comment their guesses as to which are the two lies I'll reveal the answer tomorrow.