Use Google Earth To Track Santa

Kickboy12 writes "Google Earth can be used to track Santa Claus, beginning at 2pm GMT December 24th. From the article: 'While we didn't work a deal for Naughty or Nice data layers, we did negotiate the rights to track this user on his big trip. If you've already got Google Earth, you can too.' So, if you have Google Earth, track Santa!"

Comments

wish I could..

[Eternal_Flame]

However, due to the lack of an OS X and/or linux version, of Google Earth, I can't.
Yes, I have heard of the OS X beta, but if I cant access it, it doesnt do me any good. Google's always been in favor of alternate OSs, yet here they only support MS. I hope this changes soon;
I don't wanna miss santa's route next year too..

Kickboy12 == Dan Quayle?

[ackthpt]

It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!

"I say potato you say potatoe", said Dan Quayle.

How about tracking Syrianta ?

Putting the Mona Lisa Smile technology to use.

Yes, but does it run[.....]

[Meltir]

This is all nice, but unfortunatly the linux users out there are left out of the fun.
No such thing as google earth for linux :(
Its just strange to me that a company that bases most of its products on oss (servers and what not) doesnt have a version of an application that works on the second (maybe third if you count the mac's) most used desktop os on the planet.
I seem to remember that one of google's assets is that its products work on most operating systems (just the task of making ajax applications such as gmail is a lot of work).
Does anyone here know of a replacement, maybe something that uses some hidden google api - that would allow me to play around with this toy ?

How will i ever know if santa is close ? ;)

Re:Yes, but does it run[.....]

[miyako]

Agreed. Actually, what I find most annoying is that there seems to be some sort of lockout that actively prevents google earth running on Wine. I've tried installing it with plain ol' wine, crossover office and Cedega and each time the installer pops-up and complains that I'm not running on a Windows OS and promptly closes.
You'd think a company that sponsors things like the Summer of Code would at least let people TRY to get their product running under something like Wine. (Incidentally, how do they even tell the difference between Wine and the actual Windows API? Is there some sort of isWine() function in the Wine APIs that identify it?).

Re:The Church put the Santa in Santa Claus

[jacksonj04]

Interestingly enough, St. Nicholas is the patron saint against imprisonment, robberies and robbers.

Also the patron saint of (deep breath) apothecaries; Apulia, Italy; bakers; Bari, Italy; barrel makers; boatmen; boot blacks; boys; brewers; brides; captives; children; coopers; dock workers; druggists; Duronia, Italy; fishermen; Fossalto, Italy; Greece; Greek Catholic Church in America; Greek Catholic Unionl grooms; judges; lawsuits lost unjustly; Limerick, Ireland; longshoremen; Lorraine; maidens; mariners; merchants; murderers; Naples, Italy; newlyweds; old maids; parish clerks; paupers; pawnbrokers; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists; pilgrims; poor people; Portsmouth, England; prisoners; Russia; sailors; Sassari, Italy; scholars; schoolchildren; shoe shiners; Sicily; spinsters; students; thieves; travellers; University of Paris; unmarried girls; watermen.

Points of interest are thives, murderers, children and maidens. Surely not a good combination.

Source: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintn01.htm

You insensitive Google-clods!

[TERdON]

beginning at 2pm GMT December 24th

In Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas day. Even though normally santa won't come until the afternoon or evening (and visit the children in person so they can get really scared so they, hopefully, behave the next year), there still probably are plenty of families who Santa already left earlier than five hours ago from now...

Re:NORAD tracks santa too..

[Animaether]

In fact, NORAD has been tracking Santa for ages.

This makes me wonder - is the Google Santa positioning the same as NORAD's ? And if not - why not ?
Yes, I know.. it's Santa... he can be in two places at one time. Still, it would be nice if they could keep these consistent :)