Xyre » google

Walk to Alcatraz

Sam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:24:52 +0000

More weirdness with Google Maps. Check out what happens if you attempt to take public transportation from downtown San Francisco to Alcatraz—which, significantly, is an island:

What this is actually telling you to do is to walk to the pier where you can pick up the passenger ferry to Alcatraz Island, naturally. The best part? If you click the little “plus” to expand the walking directions, you get this:

“Use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.” Like the ocean floor in the San Francisco Bay??

Also, it’s obvious that there’s a ferry ride in there—the total time you’re told to walk is 38 minutes, but the distance adds up to a scant half mile. Of course, even though I knew perfectly well what was really going on, this didn’t stop me from having the reaction, “Oh wow, if it’s that easy to get to/from Alcatraz, what was really keeping all those people from escaping?”

Google stands up to Lieberman

Sam — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:30:57 +0000

Google has said on its blog that it will not remove certain videos from YouTube at the request of U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who had demanded their removal on the grounds that they were “produced by terrorist organizations” and/or showed depictions of “gratuitous violence” or hate. And Google did remove some of these videos, “primarily because they depicted gratuitous violence, advocated violence, or used hate speech.” However, they stood up to him and did not delete most of the videos his staff flagged:

Senator Lieberman stated his belief, in a letter sent today, that all videos mentioning or featuring these groups should be removed from YouTube — even legal nonviolent or non-hate speech videos. While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view. We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds. Of course, users are always free to express their disagreement with a particular video on the site, by leaving comments or their own response video. That debate is healthy.

Good on Google for not letting themselves get bullied by Joe Lieberman, and for striking a blow for free speech and open debate. How did Lieberman turn into a despicable douchebag?

Hat-tip: Think Progress

Alternate route: just walk there

Sam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:31:22 +0000

If you ask Google Maps to calculate directions between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario—the only point where you go due south to enter Canada from the United States—and then ask for directions via public transportation, here’s what you get:

And here’s what you get if you reverse those directions:

There are, of course bus services operated by both cities’ transportation systems, naturally. I am uncertain as to whether you can walk through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, though.

Weirdness with Google Calculator

Sam — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:10:38 +0000

Google Calculator is pretty nifty, and able to handle some rather complex high-level (i.e. English-like) syntax. For example, it handles 1.190 CAD per litre in USD per gallon quite nicely, to let you figure out just how much that tank of gas you bought this afternoon cost (the answer, if you can’t be arsed to click on the link, is about USD$4.55—that’s what you get for having high oil prices combined with the recent woes of Alberta oil companies), compared with what they’re paying in the States (more than a dollar less, on average, per gallon). And Google Calculator is pretty awesome for this sort of thing.

But try stringing together several conversions, and even though it gets the parentheses right, it still utterly fails. The calculation 1.19 CAD per litre per 16 litres should parse as 1.19 $/L x 16 L, which reduces to $(1.19 x 16), but the calculator fails utterly on the calculation. Just look at the ridiculous answer: 75,111.0894 USD/metres to the sixth power! U.S. dollars weren’t even mentioned, and metres to the sixth power?? Now I truly understand what they mean by ‘a higher plane of existence’.

Stir-fried wikipedia

Sam — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:27:02 +0000

Language Log has a highly amusing post about some new examples of strange English translations on Chinese restaurant menus. This is, of course, not new (as has, of course, been widely documented), but this particular instance is quite amusing because of the way the word wikipedia shows up in there. Unfortunately I cannot read Chinese, so I’ll have to wait for LL’s official explanation—they’ve already got a pretty good hypothesis in a primitive form on the first linked post. But when you take into account the P.R.C.’s on-again off-again blocking of Wikipedia using the Great Firewall, I’m somewhat surprised that the word even occurred to someone (or some computer) as an acceptable translation at all. I would understand if it were Google, given the censorship issues that surrounded its creation and continued existence, but the ultimate permission being granted to remain after Google hopped in bed with the P.R.C. government. But Wikipedia?? That’s just weird.

Another thing that’s just weird: my spelling checker, which I never modify or anything because I can’t see the purpose or the relevance of trying to do so, recognises the words ‘Wikipedia’ and ‘Google’ without a second hesitation; even the word ‘wikipedia’ as in ‘barbecued congo eel with wikipedia and Fermented bean curd’ is recognised. But ‘href’ isn’t. Go figure.