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Does Santa Hate Linux?
beernutmark writes "Well, it looks like Santa or at least Norad/Google hates Linux. This year, for the first time since its inception, Norad is not making a simple .kml file available for download to track Santa. You must connect to their website with a Windows/Mac browser and use the browser plugin. No full-screen Google Earth to look at the beautiful areas around Santa's path. (Anyone have any open source source kml files for tracking Santa or any idea how we can go about making one for 2010?)"
Actually, Linux would be related closer to "pagan" or polytheistic religions. We believe in multiple gods (software authors), although there is a high deity (Linus) who created the universe (Linux) where the rest reside. Some of the other deities work not only in his universe, but in others as well (other *nix's, and even Windows).
The gods are kind and benevolent. Not only do they bestow their gifts upon us (software), but they show us the way (source) so we can ascend to their level.
Not only do they welcome ascension, but the know that no being, god or mortal, is without flaw. They listen when we say there is a problem (bug report) and accept our suggestions (patches) to make the universe better.
Praise be to the gods and goddesses.
And to you, on the cusp of the celebration of the Winter Solstice, I wish you and yours the best. May we help educate the nonbelievers (monotheistic computer followers) into seeing the light (the world which is *nix).
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Norad Tracks Santa uses 1,200 volunteers and money from several corporate sponsors. Only 1 person is assigned from Norad to manage it year-round, and it's not his/her full time job.
None of your precious tax money is being used for this. Santa is also not a Christian symbol at all anymore, but is really the symbol of the secular Christmas. Most people in the West who are not Jewish celebrate Christmas, with or without the religious part. Hell, Santa is huge in Japan, and they have very few Christians there. There was a story on CNN earlier today about how Santa is used there as a symbol to celebrate the New Year, and they're primarily Muslims.
I'm sorry you had a bunch of crappy Christmases as a child, but there's no need to take it out on everyone else.
From Wikipedia:
In 1956, a Colorado Springs-based Sears store ran an advertisement encouraging people to call Santa Claus on a special kind of telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the phone number that was printed was the hotline that was actually for Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). Then-Colonel Harry Shoup received the first call on Christmas Eve of 1955, from a six-year old boy who began reciting his Christmas list. Shoup then didn't find the call funny, but after asking the mother of the second caller what was happening, then realizing the mistake that had occurred, he told his staff to give Santa's position to any child who called in. Three years on, the government of the United States and Canada combined their respective national domestic air defenses into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), but the tradition continued. Now major media outlets as well as children call in to inquire on Santa's location. NORAD relies on volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Many employees at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base spend part of their Christmas Eve with their families and friends at NORAD's Santa Tracking Operations Center, in order to answer phones and provide Santa updates to thousands of callers. In 1997, Canadian Major Jamie Robertson took over the program and expanded it to the Web, where corporation-donated services have given the tradition global accessibility.
I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.