Posted on 07/26/2005 5:53:44 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
As software rivals, Microsoft wants to wipe Apple Computer off the map. With Microsoft's new Web service for satellite photographs, did the world's largest software company find a way to do exactly that?
Internet sleuths discovered that anyone using Microsoft's new "Virtual Earth" Web site for a bird's-eye view of Apple's corporate headquarters saw only a grainy overhead photograph of what appears to be a single, nondescript warehouse and a deserted parking lot - not Apple's sprawling campus, with 11 modern buildings surrounding a plush courtyard.
Microsoft blames an outdated photograph. But Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley shows up more appropriately for anyone viewing the same location using Google's mapping Web site, which also combines many of the same government-funded satellite and aerial overhead photographs.
Is Microsoft's version of the landscape a fantasy for Bill Gates?
Microsoft said its new mapping service, made available free during the weekend, was still in its testing phase and includes some older, black-and-white photographs from October 1991 for the neighborhood around Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. The only dates displayed on the images are copyright notices from 2004 and 2005.
"This is about mapping for consumers," spokesman Adam Sohn said. "We pull the right addresses, it just seems the images are perhaps older." Sohn said Microsoft is buying newer photographs for parts of the country, and many areas already include the most recent images available.
Google's mapping site includes color aerial photographs from October 2002 with more detail for Apple's neighborhood, provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
One satellite expert said companies should provide more details, such as the date for each photograph, to help Internet users make sense of these images.
"It's a problem, one of the real challenges. There's a reason why most pictures in magazines and newspapers have captions," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. "What's missing from this imagery is, there are no captions to tell you when the image was acquired or what you're seeing or why you should care."
The World Trade Center is also still standing in Microsoft's photos. The conclusion is simply that Microsoft is using much older satellite pictures than Google is. There's nothing more sinister here than simply old data.
Of course, you can draw your own conclusions as to how accurate or useful pictures that old will be to you.
Last week we saw evidence that Valerie Plame and her running dog lackeys had been the ones responsible for the mistaken bombing of the brand new Chinese embassy in Belgrade ~ now, we see more clearly about who may have been at fault.
Google Earth is a great thing. Takes you everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except Mac. For some reason it doesn't run on Macs. On their site, it said not available for Macs but they are working on that. One of the few things that shows Macs shortcomings. I say that because I have a home Mac. If anyone that owns a Mac and have gotten Google Earth to work on it, please post a work around preceedure.
Borrow somebody's PC.
Looks like I'm going to have to "lower" myself to do that.
interesting!
Of course that's all it is. One of the places I used to live showed a field -- maybe because it was new?
Microsoft shows its standard method of "innovation" again: inferior copies.
I'm certainly not a big google fan either
Microsoft could have wiped Apple off the map several times. Bill propped up his competition on several occasions with grants and compatable software.
My conclusion is that it is about as timely as their security updates.
Apple isn't exactly new. I wonder is Microsoft shows up in its pictures. They're kind of new, too.
True -- Microsoft was under great legal pressure because of their near monopoly and predatory tactics, and supported Apple (by producing excellent versions of Office for Mac, as well as direct investment in Apple).
But what really saved Apple was Steven Jobs' return to Apple. Apple had forced Jobs out years before, and lackluster management had slowly run Apple into the ground. Jobs started NeXT and Pixar before regaining control of Apple. NeXT technology is the basis of Apple's superior operating system OS X, and Pixar provided needed cash. Jobs was behind the iPod and now OS X 4 has features Microsoft is promising for Windows Vista (Longhorn) for 2006. Apple's market share is small but growing.
My in-laws' new house is so new (in a new housing development) that when I run a search on their address in Google Earth, it comes up at the MORTGAGE COMPANY'S OFFICE.
True story.
If Microsoft really wanted to destroy Apple, all they'd have to do is stop developing MS Office for Mac.
I've often wondered how Apple would compensate without Microsoft software
While that used to be true, I doubt it is any longer. MS is widely considered to be the leading Office suite, but OOo has come miles farther than it used to, and is now considered (by those who know) to be 99% compatible with MS Office. The only things you'd lose in a switch would be macros. Even Access DBs can be ported, I believe. If not ported, then accessed.
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