.earth and .moon?

Have you ever wondered which top-level domain another planet would have if it were to be collonised?  Or, for that matter, does the International Space Station have one?

Would all domain names get longer, to become eg. www.cymeradwyo.net.earth?

To be honest, that probably not the World’s biggest problem at the moment, but if it was there would be one problem that would have to be solved first.  How do you get the internet protocols to work over large distances?

With large, I mean L A R G E – light years, for example.

At the moment, if you send an e-mail around the globe, say from the UK to Australia, then it is broken up into small chunks called “packets” and routed between various internet nodes to get there.  Not all of the message necessary goes the same way, the packets are put back together in the right order when they arrive.

Of course, this all happens very fast and you probably don’t even notice it.  But with larger distances you might still be waiting for one part to arrive.

This problem has, apparently, now been solved – as the BBC News website reported.  It all sounds very simple, storing the data until the next node can be contacted.  But it does present us with two rather important questions:

– how much data is a node likely to have to store?

– if that is the future, what do internet nodes do at the moment if they cannot relay the data?  Do they just throw it away?

How I use Google Maps

It was this article in the Telegraph that got me thinking about the way in which I use Google Maps.
The article itself is actually about Google Earth – a programme that can be installed on a computer to view Google’s aerial photos of the World.  I first came into contact with it a few years ago on a customer’s computer, but I have, as yet, never installed it on a computer of my own.  Instead, I use Google Maps.
Now, I am aware that Google Earth offers more features, such as being able to tilt the map and get a sort of 3D representation of the area that I am viewing, but for my daily purposes the Maps version is sufficient.
So how do I use it?  Well, the most obvious way is to look up addresses on the maps.  Whenever I have a new address to go to (usually to visit a new customer) then I look it up on Google Maps.  Knowing the area so well, that is usually sufficient for me to know where a particular street is.  Otherwise, I can print off the map of the area around the street that I have to go to, and that will normally be enough.
But if I don’t know the area that I am going to at all, such as some areas of Frankfurt, then will often take a look at the aerial view to see what the roads there are like.  For example, are there parking spaces near where I going to?  It can also be helpful to zoom in the road markings to see if there are any “no left turn” type of junctions on my route.
However, there are many more features to Google Maps that I occasionally use.  There is the ability to view photos that have been taken by other people at specific locations on the maps, so it is interesting to see pictures of places that I have visited, sometimes many years ago.  Of course, I can also look at places that I hear or read about, but will probably never get the chance to visit, such as Tristan da Cuhna in the South Atlantic.
Recently Google have been adding their “Street View” feature to a number of places that I have been to, most recently I was able to look at areas of Madrid that I visited in April.
Finally, there is a more serious side to how I use Google Maps.  Not only can I embed maps in blog posts to show where a particular place is that I have written about, but I can also place advertising on the map for the customers who’s websites I either create or optimise.
All in all, I may not be addicted to Google Maps as the Telegraph article suggested, but I certainly make good use of it.

Der Computer – ein Freund und Helfer – wenn er funktioniert

Ein Computer ist schon eine feine Sache, aber wehe wenn etwas nicht so läuft wie es soll. Manche kleinen Problemchen kann man selbst lösen, aber wenn es heikel wird, braucht man doch Hilfe von einem Computius der etwas davon versteht.

Eigentlich, geht es mir jetzt aber eher darum, was tun wenn der PC eben nicht zur Verfügung steht. Brauchen wir ihn so dringend? Oder ist es einfach nur blöd , wenn die Technik versagt? Ist er nur ein Luxusartikel oder Spielgerät im Wohnzimmer? Oder verdiene ich mein Geld mit dieser Kiste?

Ich denke bei letzterem kann es schon brenzlig werden. Sei es, dass man nicht an den Kalender kommt und dann nicht weiß, was als nächstes ansteht. Oder man kann nicht einfach mal so eine Mail schicken. Wichtige Briefe müssen warten, und so weiter und so fort. Viele Berufsgruppen können ohne ihn überhaupt nicht mehr arbeiten. Viele wichtige Daten und Informationen stehen nur noch in digitaler Form zur Verfügung, deshalb ist es wichtig die Daten extern zu sichern, dass man notfalls von wo anders aus darauf zugreifen kann.

Papier ist eben immer noch am geduldigsten, aber eben nicht mehr zeitgemäß, nicht mehr schnell genug.

Der Block und Kalender für unterwegs heißt Palm oder Handy. Die Zeit bleibt nicht stehen und reißt uns mit in die nächste Generation von Computern, Handy’s, PDA’s, Digitale Kameras und so weiter.  Eine Reparatur, falls eine notwendig werden sollte, lohnt sich oft auch nicht mehr, weil es meist einfach zu teuer wäre und man für dieses Geld schon fast ein neues Gerät kaufen kann. Der Trend der Industrie geht eben zum Neukaufen, weil es immer mehr neuere und bessere Geräte gibt.

Also, ganz ehrlich, man ist schon aufgeschmissen, wenn das ganze seinen Geist aufgibt und man nicht mehr an seine Daten kommt. Es ist auch ganz schön bequem geworden, man muss sich keine Telefonnummern mehr merken, keine Termine, Adressen, Geburtstage… Naja, hauptsache man vergisst nichts.

Bis zum nächsten Beitrag, so mein PC will 🙂

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