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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!"
It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!
To all of you!
I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home
there's no mention of this in the bible, google earth is just a theory of atheist scientists
the Norad Santa site is http://www.noradsanta.org/
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It's Santa Claus ffs! There is no "e" on the end of it!
Perhaps they're referring to DVD shipments of that Tim Allen movie?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Any mention of the 6 to 8 black men that accompany him? And does he really go back to Spain when the whole thing is through?
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
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..
~You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because I'm insane~
The Canadian gov't is doing something simillar with norad, you can find it here
Fools! You've led us right to him!
Go get him, boys. The War on Christmas ends tonight.
-Kefka, Supreme Commander Anti-Christmas Forces, Europe.
Santa himself is an atheist invention
Santa is only called Santa because the Christian Church has recognized Nicholas of Myra, the first Santa Claus, as a saint. (The current Santa is allegedly Tim Allen.)
Been hearing alot 'bout it on TV lately...
When I tried using a 5-char username (to match my /. username) for a Gmail account, I got this message:
Sorry, your username must be between 6 and 30 characters long.
Why do they let this "S. Claus <claus@gmail.com>" dude have it?
I just saw Santa crash! Presents went everywhere and I think Rudolf has a broken leg. Someone was talking about putting him down.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
... Deliverd dowry money not toys.
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.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
to track Santa Clause
My life insurance policy has a Santa clause, something to do with being trampled by reindeer...
(ok, that's bad)
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 ?
Santa's legal team is said to be working on getting an anti-stalking injunction against Google Inc. "They may not be evil, but they sure are naughty! No toys for them!" said chief lawyer Binky.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Thanks Google, Merry Christmas!
-Styopa
20 minutes into the future, he'll be replaced by Sanity Claus. He breaks into your house in the middle of the night and tests your children for nonconformist thought. Any deviation from the norm results in abduction for "re-education".
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Well I estimate it wouldn't take Google much longer than about 3 month to rip off their picture visualizing engine and integrate it into my cross-platform Earth mockup (see http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=ear th.html). Before you ask, no, I can't build this engine myself.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
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...
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
Ah but there HAS to be an Intelligent Toy Dispenser (ITD) due to the irreducible complexity of me having received the things i asked for in my letters year after year. Surely this can not be explained by some secular 'random chance' thing. Buncha /. heathens.
Microsoft has announced a competitive service : X-Claus.net. This service will be integrated into "Vista", the next generation Windows operating system, which is due for release "real soon now" according to a representative for the Redmond company. There are no plans to release an XP version of the X-Claus.net service. MS also plans an online, multiplayer game "Naughty/Nice Xtreme" for the XBox-360. This game will allow the combatant to play as Santa, one of his elves, or the evil Dr. Evil, intent on kidnapping Santa and turning Christmas into a mostly commercial occasion. Playing as Santa, you will have your choice of weapons, including gingerbread particle weapons, fruitcake bazooka, raindeer dropping carpet bombing, and hyper-velocity elf snot.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I can't wait to show my kids this when I get home from work this evening. We watch the Norad tracking every year and have a fun time grouped areound the monitor, in true geeky fashion. Merry Christmas all and merry holiday(s) you may practice as well.
Beware the fury of a patient man
- John Dryden
In what meaningful sense, is Christmas actually a religious festival in these times?
As an atheist, I fully support any excuse for a bloody good party.
fortune -o
What exactly are they showing?Is it live?
Why does yahoo do this
Norad is based on Microsoft virtual earth, so I would think the two would not give you the same postion. To think, there is a google santa and a microsoft santa. :)
can be found here
See? Seasonal work isn't all that terrible...
In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble.
-- Yun-Men
I hear that hell does not celebrate Christmas....Merry Christmas
I think you seriously just need to get the stick out of your ass and relax a little bit. So what if people are celebrating religious holidays? How is this seriously hurting you? If you're angry that you can't go to work because you were given a day off, then you have bigger issues.
People like you are why a lot of stuff is going to shit. People have to now watch what they're saying because they need to be politically correct. You can't say Merry Christmas, you must say Happy Holidays. You have to tiptoe around what you really want to say, because heaven forbid you offend someone.
Honestly, just shut up and relax. I don't believe in any religion, but I dont mind at all in letting people celebrate what they believe. Christmas, as much as it doesn't seem so, is still a time for families to come together. Ya people are taking the whole gift thing way out of line, but in the end families are still coming together and having a good time. That right there is more than enough reason to make this a national holiday, which I support.
Now stop your bitching, get off your computer and go visit your goddamn family.
The greatest experience we can have is the mysterious.
- Albert Einstein
How is it justified to have any religious holidays be official national holidays when it means that most religions don't get an official national day like that?
Fight the battles you can win, Christmas is too deeply enmeshed in the cultural psyche of Western countries. That aside, while it may not be fair that other religions don't recieve similar public holidays for their religious observances, does anyone have a day off for Christmas in countries where Christians aren't the majority?
I'd also dispute the fact that modern Christmas is, in fact, a religious holiday. It seems to be more of a marketing exercise and chance for families to spend time together (in .au as most other places, this involves drinking heavily until harsh words are exchanged).
As another poster stated, I'm an atheist but I don't choose to take umbrage at other people's holidays. Frankly, anything that gets me a day off work is a good thing.
Merry Christmas
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
How can there be a Santa when the North Pole is gone? Look at the Arctic in Google. It's Melted away. Santa and the elves all drowned. Blame the U.S. for global warming. They killed Santa! No Christmas for you. BTW: What the hell does santa have to do with the birth of Christ anyway?
Christmas did not start as a religious holiday. Christ was probably born sometime in the spring, but the official holiday was moved to the winter solstice (approximately) to overshadow the various pagan solstice/new year holidays, much like the Romans gave their boring agricultural deities the more exciting personalities of the Greek gods, and the Greeks stole theirs from the Babylonians.
Christmas, despite keeping the name, is hardly a religious holiday today. Do you see huge effigies of Christ at the mall? Do kids (and adults, for that matter) see gift giving as an inconvenient duty that gets in the way of holiday church services?
Christmas is the world's biggest commercial holiday. Its religious significance today is about as great as it was two thousand years ago, before the politically powerful Catholic church started using it as an evangelical tool.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
And how is this different from the modern practice of giving cash or checks or gift cards instead of toys?
People like me? What do you know about me to make these strange generalizations? I personally don't care if you tell me merry christmas or whatever, I do find it strange that xmass is the only religious holiday allowed on a national level (I live in Canada, it's the same here,) as an atheist I think it is also very strange that a religious holiday is a national day off in countries that have church/state separation. Again, I don't care about political correctness, I am in fact anti-political correctness, so you made an accusation towards me that has no merit. By the way you didn't answer any of my questions, so you are off topic in this thread.
You can't handle the truth.
I hear that hell does not celebrate Christmas....Merry Christmas so what the hell is that supposed to mean? Are you supposed to be funny? Anyway, you are way offtopic in this thread.
You can't handle the truth.
By designating Christmas as a National Holiday, Congress was not establishing a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. No constitutional authority was broken. Merry Christmas.
By designating Christmas as a National Holiday, Congress was not establishing a religion
Can you back up this assertion with citations?
It is truly religious - a great celebration for (The One and Only True God (TM) Greenback.
We regret to inform you, but the ability to track Santa Claus has been deemed an unacceptable security risk and will not be allowed.*
No constitutional amendments were harmed (or consulted) in the making of this decision.
See it on Worth1000. Wow! [grin] :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
and don't forget the reason for the season
Some germanic tribes celebrating the days getting longer again?
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
You can see a quaint movie of Santa over India and the Tag Mahal. And if you look REALLY closely you'll see over 800 Million people looking up wondering what the hell a Christian symbol is doing flying overhead. Because afterall, its not like 98% of the population is Non-Christian or anything.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
19 of what?
People can just make stuff up!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I am not fighting any battles, I am asking a question. I've lived in Canada for too long not to understand that xmass is a marketing ploy, but it still gets to me that I have to take time off at time when I exactly don't want to take time off - in the middle of a bloody winter.
You can't handle the truth.
Today they track Santa, tommorow it'll be Easter Bunny!
Wake up people, fight for your rights!
Well, given that the attitude of the US in Britain is "all your intelligence are belong to us", I wager that the poor bastard will be totaled by an F-16 at around 3 a.m.
Want to sell me services? How about supporting Mac or Linux. Meantime the kids will be monitoring Norad tonight. http://www.santanorad.com/
Enjoy.
It's just the normal noises in here.
The Majority of the Population is Christian in both Nations-For example, on Long Island, where I live, Yom Kipper is a holiday due to the large Jewish population-we also get Passover off. It also has huge cultural weight-Christmas is doubtlessly a part of American Culture.
Current State: Pirates > Cowboys + Ninjas + Robots Yarrrr
I've already subscribed to the googleblog rss feed. /. doesn't need to act like one rss reader for google blog.
Stockings hung by the tree, a fire in the fireplace, Christmas carols in the air, and Santa Claus misspelled on Slashdot.
Just to point out, for those who don't seem to know, using Xmas as opposed to Christmas was never an attempt to desecularize the holiday- and has (likely) been in use for a very long time. It originates with the greek letter Chi (Which looks like an english X) and is the first letter of the word christ in greek. Later Constantine added Rho to create the Labarum (chi-rho) symbol which looks like an X and P superimposed.
In other words, X has always been a traditional symbol for Christ, and a such is NOT a means to desecularlize the holiday or "Remove Christ From Christmas".
\not christian
\\wishes christians would stfu about the xmas vs christmas debate
\\\Won't point out that christmas was originally a pagan holiday, because everyone knows that by now.
\\\\hope that clears things up.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
One to bring people good things, one to bring 'em coal. ;-)
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Santa Claus: An Engineer's Perspective
.001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 G's. A 250 pound Santa (which seem ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pound of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.
I. There are approximately 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Jehovah's Witnesses, or Buddist religions, this reduces the workload on Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.
II. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with at least one good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, jump out, go down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump in the sleigh, and move on to the next house. (That's why it's really pointless to stay up and wait for him....)
Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom breaks. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For the purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 75.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.
III. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child has nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull nothing more than 300 pounds. Even granted that "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or nine of them; Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the sleigh itself, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizibeth (the ship, not the monarch).
IV. 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance; this would heat up the reindeer in the same fasion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and causing deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.2 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reaches the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in
V. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore."
Why can't people celebrate a holiday even if it has some religious basis. Nobody is making you. I'm sorry you don't approve of cheer, decorations, family, and love. You'll definately be getting hot coals in your stockings this year.
www.sushibarnetwork.com
Do you really think he'll make it past the Department of Homeland Security?
He'll be blasted out of the sky before he hits Alaska.
So you have to go ahead and be such a big scrooge at this time of year..! Well for the love of God and everything divine, don't ever question Christmas(tm) again lest you face His divine wrath in the form of revoked mail-in rebates and parking tickets, punk!
Fools! You've led us right to him!
Go get him, boys. The War on Christmas ends tonight.
-Sephiroth, Supreme Commander Anti-Christmas Forces, Europe.
*Those damn interns keep misspelling his name.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Yes, to indulge in pagaen ritual required at this time of Yule to encourage the sun to return and shorten the length of the night and make the days longer once again.
Haven't we already established that santa claus moves really, really quickly?m l/
If Keyhole can track this... hats off to the people at Google.
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/93q4/issanta.ht
This is the most stupid thing ever. I'll definitely use it all day!!!!!
So you're saying XP is related to the Church? Interesting.....
\christian
\\also wishes christians would stfu about the xmas vs christmas debate
\\\wonders if people who don't believe in xmas think that the chi-rho is a version of Windows
Because by this time of year most of us need a break. Just like it helps to have a couple of days off every week. I personally don't really care if it's Saturday and Sunday, or Tueseday and Wednesday. The more you get upset by it, the more the break will do you good.
"The Linux stockings get a lump of Google Coal(tm)?" You forgot: (Beta)
By reading this, you have given me brief control of your mind.
Now stop your bitching, get off your computer and go visit your goddamn family.
He's probably in their basement and they have locked the door.
I love how that comment was taken as flamebait. I'm just stating the obvious, from a genuinely concerned point of view. Why not get children interested in the Holidays for what it really is (depending on what religion you are and what holiday you celebrate within this time-frame). From how I see it, "Santa Claus" is just an excuse for people to go on irresponsible shopping-sprees and to make kids greedy and forget everything about why these holidays came about and what they stand for, for the sake of a new XBOX360.
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
Yes! Let us once again bow our heads and ponder the deep significance that is our little habital sphere nearing the point in its orbit where its tilt with respect to the ecliptic plane is aligned in just such a way that one hemisphere gets the maximum majority of the primary star's output while the other hemisphere receives the minimum periodic level.
Tis the season to be jolly,
(yes, I know it already passed)
OB Spirit of Christmas quote:
Stan: Yeah. And you know? I think I learned something today, it doesn't matter if you're Christian or Jewish or Atheist or Hindu. Christmas still is about one very important thing:
Cartman: Yeah, ham.
Stan: No not ham, you fat fuck!
Cartman: Fuck you!
Stan: Christmas is about something much more important.
Kyle: What?
Stan: Presents.
Kyle: Ah.
Stan: Don't you see, Kyle? Presents.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
Possibly but in the US of A there are some Caucasian (and some Latino as well) tribes that constitute the majority of the population who celebrate Christmas because it is a religious holiday and not just a reason to buy presents for loved ones. Just like we celebrate our independence from England, the new year, the big meal involving Indians and the Europeans in ~1620, as well as those who fought in wars, and some US Presidents too. The interesting thing is that Christmas is one of the few, if not the only, holiday that is an international holiday and yet there are still some individuals and corporations in the US who want to demean it and/or who are afraid to show that they celebrate it.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Because it'd be pretty funny to see a parent trying to explain to their kids why CNN says Santa is in Philly while Google Earth says he's over Tokyo. "Well, you see dear... Santa. He's like... God. You know... like, they're tight. Like... You know when, two people are friends. And they're all... 'Can I borrow some powers, and... um.. be all at once at the same time?'. You know... like, all over? And... be able to... give presents, and.. cookies? Yes. Cookies."
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
What! Damnit! You're saying we only get Beta Coal and not even real coal! Damn.
-- Prepared at the direction of, or to be sent to Legal Counsel, in anticipation of litigation. Attorney Client Pri
As an anonymous coward christian, let me correct that a bit; the Catholics recognize saints, not the Christians.
Until Martin Luther started the Reformation with his 95 Theses, Roman Catholicism was the organized body of Christ in Europe. The Greeks venerate Nicholas as well.
miyako wrote: (chi-rho) symbol which looks like an X and P
Quixote wrote: So you're saying [Microsoft Windows] XP is related to the Church?
Well at least the effort to build a next-generation version of Windows was called Cairo. It resulted in Windows XP, which implements almost all of the Cairo spec.
I think you seriously just need to get the stick out of your ass and relax a little bit. So what if people are celebrating religious holidays? How is this seriously hurting you? If you're angry that you can't go to work because you were given a day off, then you have bigger issues.
I'm not him, but I'm also a contractor, and they gave me 7 working days off, not one. That's a couple thousand dollars. (And no, they didn't tell me what holidays they took when they gave me the contract. I had no idea they'd take 7 days off.)
People like you are why a lot of stuff is going to shit. People have to now watch what they're saying because they need to be politically correct. You can't say Merry Christmas, you must say Happy Holidays. You have to tiptoe around what you really want to say, because heaven forbid you offend someone.
What are you talking about? He never said anything about being upset that people said "Merry Christmas". He was only upset about being forced to take time off.
Honestly, just shut up and relax. I don't believe in any religion, but I dont mind at all in letting people celebrate what they believe. Christmas, as much as it doesn't seem so, is still a time for families to come together. Ya people are taking the whole gift thing way out of line, but in the end families are still coming together and having a good time. That right there is more than enough reason to make this a national holiday, which I support. Now stop your bitching, get off your computer and go visit your goddamn family.
I don't think he ever said he was against "letting people celebrate what they believe". In fact, he seemed in favor of the separation of church and state, which means he's all for it.
He also never said anything against visiting his family. Maybe (as I do) he lives close to his family, so he can go visit any weekend he wants. Maybe he lives far enough away that the time off they give him isn't enough time to get there and back comfortably -- which is why he wants the flexibility to take time off when he chooses, not when The Company dictates, so he *can* go visit his goddamn family.
It's people like *you* who are ruining Christmas. Every time anybody says anything that can be remotely considered against any aspect of the Christmas Status Quo, you jump down their throats about how "people like you are why a lot of stuff is going to shit". Thou Shalt Celebrate The Coca-Cola Christmas Or Shut Up, Relax, And Get The Stick Out Of Your Ass. Yeah, that's the spirit.
Whoa. Why is everybody buying this business about "People aren't *allowed* to say Merry Christmas"? Did Bill O'Reilly get a hypnotoad for Christmas?
Any private citizen is allowed to say Merry Christmas. It's simply a matter of courtesy. If I'm talking to Chaim the Wonder-Jew, of course it would be rude for me to say "Merry Christmas". The motherfucker assassinated Jesus with nails, he doesn't want to celebrate a pagan ritual that has mysteriously been tied to Jesus' birthday, he celebrates a lamp and oil and burning and something. So I could say "Happy Chanukah" or I could just say "Happy Holidays".
When a company enacts a policy that its workers should say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", it's not some sort of anti-Jesus propaganda to keep the white Christian majority down - it's a policy to ensure that employees of the company are polite in their well-wishing and don't affend Chaim the Wonder-Jew or Akmed the Terrorist or Mumbutu the Kwanzaa-ite.
No, I'm not really a racist, I'm a brown man and I look like a terrorist. It's funny. It's a joke!
To put it another way - what some poor beaten Mexican Wal-mart employee went around saying "Happy Chanukah" all the time? And he said it to a nice evangelical Christian family and they got all offended because Jews killed their savior? Well, you'd say "Hey, Poncho, stop saying Happy Chanukah, just say Happy Holidays so that you don't offend people." Likewise, what if Poncho decided he'd try to cater his wishing depending on the person? What if he ran into someone with a big nose and wished them a Happy Chanukah only to discover that the person was actually a Jew for Jesus and hated Chanukah? Or an atheist, and hated all religious holidays?
Then you just say "Happy Holidays", and your intent is clear - you hope that they have happiness and joy during the holiday season regardless of what they celebrate.
It's a matter of politeness. I don't give a shit if you come up to me and say "Merry Christmas", but if I'm feeling bitter toward the holidays at the time I might retort "Yeah, happy fuckin' Jesus day" because, well, you don't know if I'm an atheist, Jew, Hindu, or a Druid. If you give a shit about not offending the people you care about, then you either know their religion and wish them accordingly or you shut the fuck up and send them a nice generic "holiday" greeting. Unless you're a dick who thinks that everyone should celebrate Jesus just like you.
...everyone knows that Santa comes from Greenland, not Lapland!
Between that, the food, and all of the outsourcing, I think I may need to move to India! ;)
Won't point out that christmas was originally a pagan holiday
WTF!?
More interesting to me personally is how a religious holiday became an official national holiday with the separation of church and state?
The sheer number of people who ask for time off (For the reasons above) is astounding. Rather than force a small fraction of your workforce to come in, it is far more effective to give them off.
How is it justified to have any religious holidays be official national holidays when it means that most religions don't get an official national day like that?
See above.
I don't celebrate any religious holidays and as a contractor I am forced to take time off work that could be better spent by me making some money now, so that later, when the contract is over I could afford more time off at once.
You accepted the cost when you accepted the contract. If you don't like this, then possibly look for another line of work. Most salaried employees receive these days as paid vacation. Hell, I've been paid Christmas bonuses at minimum wage jobs.
Anyway, does anyone have answers to any of these questions?
Yes. And as one of the previous posters stated, you should consider not being such a humbug.
...Santa is magic, you insensitive clod. Normal rules of spacetime don't apply to him. Off with you and your lump of coal, Scrooge...
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
that's a nice troll. I am not questioning christmas as your holiday, I don't care if you celebrate it. I am questioning the reasonning behind making this time of the year an official national holiday which forces me to stay home instead of working, which reduces my ability to stay home at time when I actually want to do so.
Oh, and you wouldn't find me in parking lots at this time of the year, since I don't subscribe to your 'must buy some crap from huge corporations to be like everyone other idiot who does that at the same time with everyone else,' punk.
You can't handle the truth.
Why can't people celebrate a holiday even if it has some religious basis. Nobody is making you. I'm sorry you don't approve of cheer, decorations, family, and love. You'll definately be getting hot coals in your stockings this year. - wrong. If noone was 'making me', I wouldn't stay home on Monday and Tuesday, but would go to work. So there, I don't care if you like to celebrate some holiday, but you in fact ARE making me do the same. And no, this holiday means nothing me and never meant anything to me, so bring on your coals, they will burn well in my fireplace.
You can't handle the truth.
Because by this time of year most of us need a break. Just like it helps to have a couple of days off every week. I personally don't really care if it's Saturday and Sunday, or Tueseday and Wednesday. The more you get upset by it, the more the break will do you good. I prefer to make my own breaks when I want them. This summer I took 2 months off and I can do that only because I work the way I work - on contracts. To me any official holiday, which forces me to not work is bad news, because it takes away from my ability to put together nice long breaks when I want them.
You can't handle the truth.
Yeah, right, Bell Canada's ExpressVu department is closed for the holiday on Monday and Tuesday. Noone gets in. Now tell me HOW am I supposed to come to work if I can't get in?
You can't handle the truth.
For the record, Santa Claus is currently delivering gifts in India (as of 2:40 AM IST)
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
You do have it all figured out, all the questions I mean, don't you? I am asking legitimate questions, but it's not like I can do anything to change the fact - I have to stay home on Monday and Tuesday because some people believe that some jewish guy 2000 years ago was a son of god. I don't mind that you have these believes, they are none of my business, but it is my business if I want to work on xmass. On the other hand I can open a firm and only hire people who are willing to work through xmass, I worked in a place like that - every single one was a contractor. Noone wanted to take holiday off in the winter, people understood the value of being able to take 2 months off in the summer in one chunk.
Oh, and about the [humbug] - I don't see how this can apply to an atheist in principle.
Cheers.
You can't handle the truth.
Christmas is the world's biggest commercial holiday. that's wonderful, I am really happy that while I am forced to sit at home, someone is raking in all the dough. I wonder how it happened that I never bought into this xmass thing? Must be my background - a soviet one.
You can't handle the truth.
you are right, I don't care for any holidays. But consider that xmass is a national holiday, which basically forces most of people to sit at home. Sure there are exceptions. I worked for a firm that consisted of contractors 100% (even the receptionist.) People just didn't take any holidays off at all. Many would work through weekends (obviously paid by the hour.) But then they would take like a month off at a time. I took 2 months off this summer. To me any government prescribed holiday, which forces me into some weird pattern of behaviour that the government wants to setup for me is a hinderence.
You can't handle the truth.
The fact of the matter is, that in order to acheive the stupdendous feats that Santa pulls off every year, he has to have technology so advanced that it .
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
The fact of the matter is, that in order to acheive the stupdendous feats that Santa pulls off every year, he has to have technology so advanced that it makes the US military look *really* bad.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
It is interesting though, that christmas is now celebrated, or at least very well-known all around the world, as a result of it being an amalgam of several different traditions that have slowly merged together into one mysterious mess.
Like the question: "Where does Santa come from?". Depends on which tradition you use as a base...
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Check out http://mapki.com/santa2005/ for a Google Maps API version, too.
"Santa" is jumping all over these maps. Seems to me that he'd go in order of closest house to farthest. Not left, right, up, left, down, right, up again, up, way down, diagonal, etc.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
So who's forcing you to sit at home? Who is preventing you from doing something to take advantage of the commercial opportunities of the season? Go on eBay and sell a picture of an X-Box or something.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
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You are right of-course, there are money to be made. But I am not interested in any of these ways, I am talking about my actual job as a software developer, and I can't go to work on Monday/Tuesday because it will be shut down and I can't charge for these days even if I did work at home because of the stupid policy.
Anywho, I end up doing something I like anyway, but this is for free. Fixing something in my ff extensions.
You can't handle the truth.
And oh, we have roughly two holidays per major religion out here, and my (new) contract allows for 11 or so public holidays, so no complaints for me.
More than mere navel gazing.
your contract will pay you when you take time off up to 11 times a year? THAT I have never heard of before. All my contracts are per hour (just the way I like it,) but noone will pay me during any holidays if I am not actually working.
You can't handle the truth.
I've read your posts throughout the thread, what I think you need to understand is that the world does not evolve around you.
...but it is my business if I want to work on xmass ... people understood the value of being able to take 2 months off in the summer in one chunk
./ers that you are a conceited fellow who obviously realizes the idea of Christmas. Except you respond by flaming at those who attempt to answer your questions while for some reason, telling them you are atheist, so their reasons can go to hell (oops).
After reading your posts (and others), I don't see the reason why you are posting at all; complete flame bait. From my point of view you are stating to
On a side note, I think you didn't spend enough time thinking about the idea of Christmas before you posted.
What the hell is Christmas in North America anyway? Okay, lets attempt to think about it from a non-religious perspective.
-Snow (wee)
-Joyous songs
-Families come together (think of the children also)
-Think about it with your own brain
Anyway, I think the point you're trying to make is that there are some people who like to work during the holidays. Simple as that.
A Teacher was very curious about how each of her students celebrated Christmas. First, she called on young Patrick Murphy.
"Tell me, Patrick, what do you do at Christmas time?" she asked. Patrick addressed the class, "Well Ms. Pelzner, me and my twelve brothers and sisters go to the midnight Mass and we sing hymns, then we come home very late and we put mince pies by the back door and hang up our stockings.
Then all excited we go to bed and wait for Father Christmas to come with all our toys."
"Very nice Patrick," she said. "Now, Jimmy Brown, what do you do at Christmas?"
"Well, M'am, me and my sister also go to Church with Mom and Dad, and we sing carols and we get home ever so late. We put cookies and milk by the chimney and we hang up our stockings. We hardly sleep, waiting for Santa Claus to bring our presents. " Realizing there was a Jewish boy in the class and not wanting to leave him out of the discussion, she asked, "Now, Isaac, what do you do at Christmas?"
"Well, it's the same thing every year," said the young man. "Dad comes home from the office. We all pile into the Rolls Royce, then we drive to his toy factory. When we get inside, we look at all the empty shelves and begin to sing 'What a friend we have in Jesus.' Then we all go to the Bahamas."
You can't handle the truth.
I thought of something interesting as I read your point #3 regarding how much a reindeer can pull. Isn't that number really dependent on the static and kinetic friction of the sleigh and the floor? In the case of snow, where the static friction is close to 0, shouldn't reindeers be able to pull a lot more? I'm not saying flying through air would be the same as dragging it along the snow, but it does bring up an interesting point if indeed flyling reindeers exist.
HD Trailers
Using Occam's Razor, which states that the simplest solution is probably right, it seems simpler to say that Santa just uses distributed labor.
Now, if only our government could tap into Santa's intelligence gathering network.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
International holiday? What does that mean? I would venture (without any numbers to support it, but nonetheless) that Christmas is not celebrated by the majority of people in the world, nor is it an official holiday in the majority of nations in the world.
The only international holiday is probably New Year's Day. And May Day (International Workers' Day) is also specifically intended to be international and not specific to any culture.
Fixing your Firefox extensions isn't necessarily work without reward. Being known for a good extension to an open source program is good PR, and good PR can translate to more business. It's not direct income, but it's valuable nonetheless.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
Oh get over yourself already, asshole.
Merry Christmas!
that's funny, if that attitude is the spirit for this xmass thing, then I am right about it even more.
You can't handle the truth.
Go back to Fark.
Damn slashy-post-ender. Guy.
As an atheist, I fully support any excuse for a bloody good party.
As an alcoholic I share the same sentiment!
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
I always thought slashdot should have some slashies.
Isn't the web big enough for more than one site with slashies?
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
The teacher then asked the construction worker, "What about you, roman_mir?"
"Well, I spend each holiday that I'm off on slashdot.org posting about how much I wish I was working. I wait 'til the day I will get my Rolls Royce."
The teacher grinned at the construction worker.
Well when using Windows XP I often pray that things will work...
Now thanks to a greeting card guru and a soft drink company we add a fat bearded white man to the mix.
Throw in a bit of Polar Bear and Penguin meat, add a tiny pinch of Kosher salt, some Old Bay® Blackened Seasoning and and you've got a meal.
Now I don't know where you get your holidays, but where I get mine they need a little bit of spice, so I'm gonna throw a couple of lawyers into the mix and *BAM*
"Fear is the rootkit of democracy.." Blarkon
I like the Norad tracks Santa page best for Santa Tracking. I had to work tonight and missed being able to show the kids Santa's progress around the world.
The Earth's axial tilt is the reason for the season. Humans celebrated the winter solstice for thousands of years before Christ was born.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
what, you don't like construction workers?
You can't handle the truth.
11 public holidays + (1 off-day + 1 day medical leave ) every month. Frankly, I'm not happy; will re-negotiate at the first possible oppurtunity.
More than mere navel gazing.
imagine a beowulf cluster of santa claus'!
Yeah but there is none of that pagan stuff left
Oh yeah!? Lets examine some of the more common customs that much of the world practices today.:
Lets start with the good old clean fun of x-mas trees. Yeah well if you thought worshiping some guy was bad, how about worshiping a tree. Just as early x-tians recruited Roman pagans by associating x-mas with the Saturnalia, so too worshipers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning "x-mas Trees". Pagans had long worshiped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a x-tian veneer by the Church.
"OK, well what about a sweet kiss under the mistletoe?! What is wrong with that." Oh come on, this one is just so weird it had to come from Pagans. Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim. The x-tian custom of kissing under the mistletoe is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult. And I'm not even going to get into the issue of kissing compleete strangers... Cootie-city.
"Please tell me there is nothing wrong with the free stuff." Well if your already comfortable with being a freeloader, think about where the custom started. In Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). So if your a giver your playing the part of despised citizen and if your a receiver your the Roman Dictator.
And this brings us to the Coke Spokes model ( wait, you'll see ).The Catholic Church gave this custom a x-tian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas. Nick was born in Turkey around 4030 (270 CE), he became a bishop , and died. He wasn't saint until around 5560 (1900 CE). He came up with the novel idea that Jews are "the children of the devil" and they sentenced Yeshkah to death (Johny Boy 8:44). (Next time you see him in the mall try to refrain from giving him a kick in the teeth)
In 4848 (1087 C.E.) some sailors Idolized Nicholas and moved his bones from Turkey to Italy. In Italy Nick replaced the deity known as "The Grandmother" (I'll bake you a lasagna that you can't refuse). She used to fill the children's stockings with gifts. She was kicked out of her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant (like the M.Gibson movie?) they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas' death, December 6.
The cult-of-Nick spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshiped a pantheon led by their chief god who had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with the Chief, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, donned heavy winter clothing, and rescheduled his flight for December in the evenings (becoming nick-at-night).
In an attempt to convert the members of the cult-of-nick-at-night the Catholic church gave Nick a flight delay from the 6th to the 25th of December, and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts.
In 5570 (1809 C.E.), the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. Later a poem by Dr. Clement Moore, changed the horse to 8 reindeer, And turned nick into a chimney cleaner.
The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Nick. Based on Moore's poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Nick for Harper's Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bis
International holiday? What does that mean? I would venture (without any numbers to support it, but nonetheless) that Christmas is not celebrated by the majority of people in the world, nor is it an official holiday in the majority of nations in the world.
Yeah, it's only really celebrated in the whole of the Americas, Europe, Oceania and large parts of Africa. Practically a global non-event.
Unfortunately (At least in Philly), all we got was a bit of fog and rain. Nevertheless, it was an awesome Christmas. :)
Actually, I am agnostic. I consider Christmas to be mostly a fun time.
As far as "your business" is concerned: It is yours, but not only yours. The people who decided to declare Christmas (and/or the preceding/following time) a holiday did so not only to be good people, but also for economic benefit. When a large fraction of your workforce will not be showing up, it saves more money to give the day off. They don't have to pay for auxiliary staff, management, utilities, and other necessary infrastructure. In essence, it cuts down on their expenses--it minimizes the overhead incurred over that day.
And either way, it was still your decision to take the job. Sure, you had your reasons, and there may have been mitigating circumstances to your decision. However, you shouldn't gripe about it, as that's an opportunity cost of your job. You should have known about it when you took the job. Even if you didn't, you still have the choice to find a new one.
I apologize. I used the word incorrectly. I meant Scrooge:
An "X" was also used by the pious illiterates who could not write their names.
I was being sarcastic and I agree with you...guess I didn't make it clear enough ;)