Sunday, August 28, 2005

Modern Technology

I haven't blogged in a long time... I've had stuff to blog and no time
to blog it. There has been something that I've recently found that is
definitely blog-worthy. Have you seen Google Earth yet? Download it.
Run it. It will change how you view the world, literally! It's
basically a souped-up virtual globe... using satellite pictures of the
places all around the world. We downloaded it in the teachers' room
and now instead of us coming in to check e-mail, we come in to look at
google earth. We've all put little push pins in our houses. I found
both houses where I grew up in Bermuda, the house I stayed at in
Spain, my flat in Istanbul.... It's so cool! Unfortunately Barbados is
at a very low resolution so I can't find my parents. Yesterday I took
a look at the pyramids and the sphynx. We checked out some rooftops in
Tokyo... Oh it's crazy!!!! I got a new flatmate. So that she knows
where she is and can find places, I'm printing a google earth map for
her showing the area where we live, the school where we work, etc.
It's so much better than a regular map because each building is there,
everything is so perfect!!!

The other thing that is pretty blog-worthy, but it's been around much
longer, is Wikipedia. It's so cool! As Josh put it, "I go online and
spend like AN HOUR just reading the ENCYCLOPEDIA! And when there's not
much information on something, it makes me want to go and find out
more so I can post it! I'm READING an ENCYCLOPEDIA!"
I think that's pretty cool, moern technology that makes people want to
read the encyclopedia, and not feel like a freak for doing so.

www.wikipedia.org
http://earth.google.com

I used to have a map of the world shower curtain. I used to read the
encyclopedia. If I had grown up 25 years later, this stuff would have
been cool!