Mars back on the Google homepage
Paul D. Fernhout
http://earth.google.com/mars/giovanni.html
"In 1890, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli drew this map of Mars.
Today, on his 174th birthday, we are excited to include his work with many
other new features for Mars in Google Earth. We salute Schiaparelli's
pioneering spirit, his drive to explore, and his desire to understand the
universe. His observations impacted the way humans viewed Mars for nearly a
century and started a revolution in Astronomy. Come join the Martian
Revolution. "
Still, watch out for this:
"Google Earth 5.0 Silently Changes Update Policy "
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/06/1510228&from=rss
"Recently announced Google Earth version 5.0 adds interesting new features
like images of ocean floors and some detailed images of Mars. But it also
brings another unwelcome change for Mac OS X users. Google Software update
daemon is installed when the application is launched for the first time. The
user is greeted with an uninformative message that does not really explain
what is about to happen. After the user accepts, Google Update Agent is
downloaded and installed. It updates all Google applications and not just
Google Earth. Also, it runs on an unchangeable schedule of its own (instead
of, say, only when one of Google's apps is launched), consuming system
resources. Worst of all it can not be simply removed, since it is downloaded
and installed again once Google Earth is launched. Users really have only
two choices: live with it, or uninstall all Google apps. There's a
discussion about the updater in this Google Group, including details of a
way to disable it (not for the faint of heart). So fellow Slashdotters, has
Google crossed the line?"
More Mars-related exploitation? :-(
That said, I love Google Earth 4.2 (and bought at 3D connexion device just
for me and my family to use with it). It's hard to be a big commercial
enterprise in this world and try to live by "don't be evil".
--Paul Fernhout