This past winter, I found myself at the intersection of Green Street and High Street in Charlestown, Massachusetts, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but one of Google‘s Street View cars.
“Here comes my 15 minutes of fame,” I thought to myself. “I shall be forever immortalized in the Street View imagery of this intersection.” Forever, as in until the next time a Google Street View car swings through here and takes new photos.
Well, Google still hasn’t updated the Street View imagery with whichever images have me in them, but the thrill of seeing a Street View car so close that I could touch it brought with it a rush of adrenaline so overpowering it was as though I stared down an entire pride of lions, looked the leader in its eyes and whispered, “Catch me if you can,” before taking off like a two-legged antelope.
Maybe it wasn’t quite that exciting. But you’re here to read about blimps anyway.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting, in several words, that Google wants to bring Internet access to parts of the world where there is no Internet access or where there’s only spotty, slow Internet access. That much should not be a surprise. How Google would go about bringing Internet access to these areas is slightly more interesting.
via Time/Techland
May 28, 2013