MSNBC.com reports today that Asteroid Douglasadams was among the 71 newly named celestial objects announced Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Adams is one of my favorite writers as I blogged about his long-awaited movie recently. Just before Adam’s death in 2001, one of the HHGTTG characters – Arthur Dent – became the name of another asteroid. Following the Columbia tradgedy, seven asteroids were named after the fallen astronauts. MSNBC.com solicited readers for future asteroid names. One reader suggested Adams, and upon further research, an asteroid known as 2001 DA42 was identified. How fitting – Douglas died in 2001, it already bore his initials, and the number 42 is, as all Guide fans are aware, the answer to live, the universe and everything.
Google Browser Rumors
In more Google news today, Reuters reports that Google has hired the lead engineer for Firefox. This comes on the heels of their registration of the Gbrowser.com domain and hiring of several Internet Explorer engineers last year.
Googling Television
Google and Yahoo are expanding their search products to television. Google Labs released their beta of ‘Google Video’ today. This system allows a user to search closed captioning and see still frame grabs of the relevant video. Some PVRs and TV tuner cards for PCs have done this in the past – tuning to or alerting when certain keywords were matched. But these projects are on a much broader scale.
In a New York Times story this morning (free registration required), Google’s vp for product management says “The long-term business model is complicated and will evolve over time.” I’ll say – the rights to aggregating video from hundreds of local television broadcasts, not to mention networks like CNN, ABC, etc., are going to be complex. But given Google’s audience, it wil be interesting to see if broadcasters see value in placement here. The Times story digs briefly into the touchy issues of rights and network deals related to these types of technologies. A worthwhile read.
My Aching Teeth…
At my 6-month teeth cleaning earlier this week, the dentist found a hairline crack in both of my lower back molars. Ouch. One was worse than the other, so I went under the drill Thursday to get a crown. I *hate* the dentist, especially when the drill, novocaine, or impressions are involved. Wearing my iPod and listening to Chris O’Reilly helped, but only marginally. I’m still sore, close to 24 hours later. Time heals all, right? Can’t wait for the visit in two weeks for the final porcelain. That’s also going to hurt, I’m sure. Then we get to do another one in a few months. Yay.