Kyle Mulka's Blog

Try typing in these queries into Google Maps in order. You’ll get a kick out of the results, as long as they haven’t changed anything by the time you read this.

seattle to redmond

seattle to redmond, wa

seattle to redmondmond

UPDATE: I guess they fixed it. The first query used to be translated into “seattle to red st” or something like that with no “did you mean” option. The second would turn “redmond, wa” into “redwa”. The third option would be translated into “seattle to redmond” and give you the correct directions.

So, my roommate Kevin was working on some Java code for this project we are working on. He’s using the NetBeans editor and I just got a kick out of what he said. Apparently, the version of NetBeans he is using simply does not have a ‘Save As’ feature.

I did a little Googling, and found this NetBeans tips and tricks page which suggests a 7 step work around for ‘Save As’. Awsome.

While reading Don’s blog (from the last post) I saw that SmugMug was having a contest this month for who could build the coolest application using the SmugMug API. The winner gets a free iPhone. So, I think I’m going to enter and make something cool. Wish me luck. As a side benefit to using their API, I get a free lifetime Pro account, so I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos I had sitting on my computer. You can view them here.

I just watched a really good presentation called Set Amazon’s Servers on Fire by Don MacAskill, CEO and Chief Geek at SmugMug. It’s an interesting look into one of probably the largest users of Amazon’s S3. He talks about how they are using S3, and are going to use Amazon’s EC2 soon as well. He’s candid about what Amazon Web Services doesn’t currently provide that is needed for a company like his.

[via AWS Blog]

Note: I would put a link here to the AWS Blog article that had a bunch of presentations, but I don’t want other people to suffer the CPU stranglization (?) while loading all the SlideShare presentations.

Wow… this is big. Nokia, a cell phone manufacturer buys Navteq, a map data provider for more than $8 billion in cash. Nokia has just made a huge leap off a cliff hoping that halfway down their homemade paraglider that they are going to pull out of their backpocket lifts them up to new heights.

I guess they think that this will allow them to take over the budding location based services market. Buying Navteq may allow them to take competitors out of the market by simply not providing data to them, or charging them a heafty sum of money for it.

I expected this kind of thing from Google, but not a cell phone company. I guess even Google doesn’t have $8 billion just lying around. Then again, I don’t think Google really wants to be a data company. They want to be a technology company that builds software around the data that other companies and individuals provide.

So, what happens when some other big phone manufacturer decides to buy the other major map data provider Teleatlas and both decide to no longer license data to Google? Oh… I guess no more Google Maps… even on the Apple’s iPhone…

[via All Things Digital]