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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!"

45 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Aaargh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    1. Re:Aaargh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Damn those uber-queer Disney-spawn Tim Allen movies!!

    2. Re:Aaargh by kae_verens · · Score: 5, Funny

      While we're on the subject of pedanticism, I'd like to point out that there is no Santa, superfluous 'e' or not.

      Oh - and there should have been a comma before 'ffs' in the parent's post.

    3. Re:Aaargh by Rich+Klein · · Score: 2, Funny

      For crying out loud, the original article spells "Claus" correctly. Where'd the extraneous "e" come from? :P

      --
      -Rich
    4. Re:Aaargh by Yahweh+Doesn't+Exist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      While we're on the subject of being pedantic, I'd like to point out that there is no 'pedanticism', whether you're GWB or not.

    5. Re:Aaargh by kae_verens · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thank you! :-) And for the other replyer; I'll have you know that pedanticism is a perfectly cromulant word: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/di fficultwords/data/d0009747.html

    6. Re:Aaargh by FooAtWFU · · Score: 2, Informative

      On the contrary, there is a very real Santa, it's just that he's widely acknowledged as being dead. His feast day is actually December 6, so it's not quite Christmas, but...

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  2. Merry X-mas! by tomas.bjornerback · · Score: 4, Funny

    To all of you!

    --

    I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home

  3. I don't believe in google earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    there's no mention of this in the bible, google earth is just a theory of atheist scientists

    1. Re:I don't believe in google earth by User+956 · · Score: 3, Funny

      there's no mention of this in the bible, google earth is just a theory of atheist scientists

      Santa himself is an atheist invention-- real Christians refer to the phenomenon as "intelligent burglary".

      --
      The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  4. NORAD tracks santa too.. by User+956 · · Score: 5, Informative

    the Norad Santa site is http://www.noradsanta.org/

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
    1. Re:NORAD tracks santa too.. by Animaether · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 :)

  5. sedaris by BushCheney08 · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.
  6. wish I could.. by Eternal_Flame · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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~
    1. Re:wish I could.. by suwain_2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      due to the lack of an OS X and/or linux version, of Google Earth

      I used it last night. I'm not sure where you get it, but I was playing Apple's 30" Cinema display in a store, and found that the box it was on (obviously a Mac) had Google Earth installed. It's amazing on that screen. I can't find a link, but it's apparently "floating around" the web.

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
    2. Re:wish I could.. by Jim+Buzbee · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google for "googleearth.app.sit"

  7. Mwahaha. by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Mwahaha. by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

      It was already easy to track him with all those RFID tags on the stuff in his bag.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  8. The Church put the Santa in Santa Claus by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.)

    1. Re:The Church put the Santa in Santa Claus by jacksonj04 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  9. What's a Santa Clause? by Venik · · Score: 4, Funny

    Been hearing alot 'bout it on TV lately...

  10. Re:Norad Santa by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Check again. The 2nd in command is always a Canadian. And they've tracked Santa since 1955.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  11. That's not fair! by noamt · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

    1. Re:That's not fair! by the+real+darkskye · · Score: 4, Funny

      He's obviously gStaff. Didn't you know Santa works for google, thats why they have such a comprehensive list of all the naughty girls and their stockings!

      --
      Music is everybody's possession.
      It's only publishers who think that people own it.
      Fuck Beta
      ~John Lenno
  12. Kickboy12 == Dan Quayle? by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  13. Darn things by Joe+U · · Score: 3, Funny

    to track Santa Clause

    My life insurance policy has a Santa clause, something to do with being trampled by reindeer...

    (ok, that's bad)

  14. Yes, but does it run[.....] by Meltir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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 ? ;)

    1. Re:Yes, but does it run[.....] by miyako · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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?).

      --
      Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
    2. Re:Yes, but does it run[.....] by meowsqueak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Google didn't write Google Earth, they acquired it. Give them time and there will be a Linux version (according to a statement they made some months back).

  15. Santa Strikes Back! by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  16. You insensitive Google-clods! by TERdON · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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...
  17. Re:Guys... by Winlin · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  18. Microsoft announces competitive service by mnemotronic · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  19. Re:NORAD tracks santa too.. (nope, that one is MS) by lashi · · Score: 2, Funny

    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. :)

  20. Re:weird holiday by dangerz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  21. Santa tracking disabled by Homeland Security by twigles · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  22. Re:I'm Spartacus too by pe1rxq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and don't forget the reason for the season

    Some germanic tribes celebrating the days getting longer again?

    --
    Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
  23. You can't trust the Internet for anything! by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2, Funny
    Now I am starting to wonder about other information I find on the Internet.

    People can just make stuff up!

    ;-)

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  24. Danger for our privacy by Stan+Vassilev · · Score: 2, Funny

    Today they track Santa, tommorow it'll be Easter Bunny!

    Wake up people, fight for your rights!

  25. Re:I'm Spartacus too by miyako · · Score: 5, Informative

    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"
  26. credit to who ever did this first by rev_g33k_101 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Santa Claus: An Engineer's Perspective

    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 .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.

    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."
    1. Re:credit to who ever did this first by mencik · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think that engineer is getting coal in his stocking!

    2. Re:credit to who ever did this first by westyvw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Man your physics is so 70's.

              * Since Santa's momentum vector is known, then his location cannot be precisely known, according to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Santa and his sleigh are actually "smeared out" over the earth, in a similar way to an electron "smeared out" around the nucleus of an atom. He can actually be everywhere at once.

              * Also, the extremely high velocities the reindeer can reach make relativistic effects possible. Santa could even arrive at some places shortly before leaving the North Pole. Santa could take on the attributes of the (admittedly theoretical) tachyon.

  27. This is.. by rasty · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is the most stupid thing ever. I'll definitely use it all day!!!!!

  28. Re:weird holiday by JesusPancakes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.