Google Maps Grand Detour

Software glitch sends intra-Island drivers
'round the bend to upstate Schenectady

By MAURA YATES
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you're planning a drive from Port Richmond to Great Kills and you're relying on Google Maps as your guide, better pack some trail mix and an iPod and plot out some rest stops. It's going to be a long ride.

Ask the all-knowing search engine how to get between the Island ZIP codes of 10302 and 10308, about a 20-minute drive apart, and the map and directions it will spit out involve hopping on the New Jersey Turnpike and the New York State Thruway to Schenectady!

A software error is blamed for the incongruity, which estimates the 176-mile drive as taking three hours and six minutes. The route plotted by the computer includes a scenic road trip including the Catskill Mountains, the town of Woodstock and SUNY Albany.

The mistake was first reported on the Search Engine Roundtable blog at www.seroundtable.com.

Meanwhile, MapQuest, another mapping site, correctly plots the trip between ZIP codes 10302 and 10308 at 7.81 miles, with an estimated travel time of 19 minutes.

Google gurus addressed the issue in an online support forum, writing that the bug is a known problem the company is working to resolve.

In the meantime, Google Maps warns drivers that the maps and directions available on the site are for "planning purposes only," and that "construction projects, traffic, weather, or other events may cause conditions to differ from the map results," and advises motorists to "plan your route accordingly."

Maura Yates covers transportation news for the Advance. She may be reached at myates@siadvance.com.

Flight 1549 Ditching

Download the file Flight1549.pps and open in powerpoint or apple keynote.

Obama Wrong on Presidential Count

Following is the transcript of President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:

... Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath....

Wrong, 43 Americans have now taken the presidential oath. Grover Cleveland, our only non-sequential two-term president, was number 22 and 24.

Furl It

The wonderful TimesFile feature of nytimes.com was pulled last month, and it was revealed that, under the hood, the actual engine was a service called furl.net, Furl being an acronym for file uniform resource locators.






So what is it? With a mouseclick, furl allows you to tag and archive anything of interest you come across on the web. To get started, set up an account at http://www.furl.net and then follow the instructions on how to place the Furl It! javascript bookmarklet button in your firefox toolbar. You might want to rename it something shorter, eg F.

Windows 7 Public Beta

The successor to widely-panned Vista, Windows 7 is well-reviewed by David Pogue and, until saturday, is available as a public beta download from the folks in redmond -- or at least to the first 2.5 million requesters.

Read Pogue's opinion here: http://bit.ly/windoze_7 Pogue says Windows 7, surprisingly, runs fastest on an intel Mac.

The download is a 2.44 GB ISO file you use to create the install DVD. A product key is included. You need to already have -- or now create -- a "windows live ID" account, which could be an existing MS passport or hotmail account. Here's where you start: http://bit.ly/windoze_7_start

Read and understand all the cautionary stuff. Backup before proceeding, on a Mac use Winclone.

Obama to Keep His BlackBerry

President Obama won the first fight of his presidency: He can keep his BlackBerry.

A ruling has been reached among the president’s advisers – and the Secret Service – that will allow him to keep his e-mailing device. The decision is set to be explained this afternoon at the first White House briefing of the new administration.

For two months now, Mr Obama has been waging a vigorous public relations campaign among his aides and his minders to keep his BlackBerry, which he has relied upon for years. He insisted, officials said, that they find a way to allow him to step into the modern age and stay in touch with a small circle of associates.

He wouldn’t take no for an answer, even though he was dubious only a few weeks ago when he spoke about the topic in an interview with CNBC and The New York Times.

“They’re going to pry it out of my hands,” Mr Obama said.

Throughout the transition, several of his aides talked openly about Mr Obama’s obsession with keeping his Blackberry. And some of them, when speaking privately, said they were eager to have his device taken away so the case could be closed.

But Mr Obama won and is likely to become the first e-mailing president.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, is preparing to explain how at a news briefing that is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. The first word of this decision was reported on Wednesday on the Web site of The Atlantic.

In addition to concerns about e-mail security, Mr Obama is subject to the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. None of his e-mails could be released until after his presidency.

The president did give up one thing: his old address, the one he’s been using for years. His new address? That’s classified.

Inauguration Mosaic

Pan and zoom at: http://specials.washingtonpost.com/inauguration/mosaic/

Obama Sworn In (Again)

By Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear

President Obama took the oath of office -- again -- on Wednesday, out of what a White House lawyer described as "an abundance of caution."

"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time," said White House Counsel Greg Craig in a statement issued early Wednesday night.

Obama and Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had both seemingly stumbled over the 35-word oath during Obama's swearing-in as president on Tuesday, leading some to question whether he had properly committed the Constitutionally-mandated speech act that made him president of the United States.

A president is required by the Constitution to say: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." At the inaugural, Roberts had mixed up the words, saying instead: "...that I will execute the office to President of the United States faithfully..." And so, at 7:35 p.m. today, according to the White House pool report, Roberts re-administered the oath in the Map Room of the White House.

"We decided it was so much fun -- " the first time, Obama joked while sitting on a couch. Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with a reporter as Roberts donned his black robe. "Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked. "I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," Obama replied.

Obama raised his right hand, leaving his left at his side. The private swearing-in ceremony, sans Bible, took 25 seconds. After a flawless recitation, Roberts smiled and said, "Congratulations, again." "Thank you, sir," Obama replied, to a smattering of applause.

Inaugural Mall Crowd Count

The crowd wasn't 4 million. It wasn't 3 million or even 2 million. But at an estimated turnout of 1 million on the mall (plus 800,000 on the parade route and elsewhere), this was the biggest U.S. crowd ever, exceeding LBJ's 1965 inaugural.

This image, taken by the GeoEye-1 satellite from 423 miles up at 11:19 am, is the basis of the crowd estimate. Resolution is 1.65 meters. Aside from the ticket-holding crowd, people are clustered in front of the numerous jumbotron monitors. Why, they look just like ants!

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You can view an 1896x306 pixel cropped image HERE or the full resolution 8218x2700 pixel magnifiable image HERE.