Easter eggs

Technocrat

Easter eggs

Michael Smith

Thu Jun 26 01:43:00 -0700 2008

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This appears to be a easter egg in google maps. If you ask for directions from an address in Australia to an address in the USA the ever helpful Get directions tool tells you exactly how to get there.

I think it is great that google allow their people to put fun things into production code. I am sure that it could only happen with former programmers in management.

Anybody know where I can park a seven metre plastic sea kayak in Seattle for a couple of months?

Easter eggs

Richard Young

Thu Jun 26 17:40:06 -0700 2008
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Love it!

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deek

Thu Jun 26 20:44:12 -0700 2008
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That is brilliant! Thanks for the post, and thanks to the Google engineer for having some fun with their project.

Easter eggs

John Dalton

Thu Jun 26 22:39:01 -0700 2008
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In at least one case Google advises swimming rather than kayaking (can't remember which one). In light of recent events I asked for directions from Hobart to New Zealand but Google didn't want to go there!

Easter eggs

Kagenin

Fri Jun 27 16:14:40 -0700 2008
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There used to be an easter egg when you searched for directions from New York to Paris, but they told you to swim instead of kayak. I don't think it exists anymore...

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angeles13

Fri Jun 27 16:50:47 -0700 2008
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I'll have to show that to some of the PMs at the Port -- a few that I know would get a big laugh out of that

sharyn

Easter eggs

Michael Smith

Fri Jun 27 20:58:24 -0700 2008
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I reckon I could build a simple vehicle to do this. Imagine a plastic sea kayak, but built a little more like a submarine so you can seal yourself in. Design the hull to be as transparent to light as possible and mount photovoltaic cells on the inside. Attach two or more electrically powered propellers under the hull. Alternatively you could build a ducted fan system with integrated ducts running through the hull.

Steering is by varying the thrust from the motors. The guidance system is, of course, trivial in this day and age.

Then there is Ed Gillet who paddled from Monterey, California, to Maui, Hawaii in 1987.

Easter eggs

japester

Fri Jun 27 19:41:08 -0700 2008
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That one's been around for a while now. :)

The 'swim the atlantic', was, IIRC, somewhere in England to the US (continental)

Easter eggs

Michael Smith

Fri Jun 27 20:30:06 -0700 2008
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That one's been around for a while now. :)

I am sure you are right. A guy at work posted it on our internal forum with different addresses. His went to our employer's US address in Shawnee, Kansas. I played around with it for a bit and posted a version which goes from my home to a made up address in NYC.