Microsoft Office Live

Microsoft sent me a link to a free Microsoft Office Live Basic something something.
Link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX102436781033.aspx?xid=53F1E29E-6B3C-473E-8938-A2E45DF39F19&ofcresset=1
It’s like a web small business hosting, one free domain (!), and email-thing. Their web site hosting thing has Just like Google Apps for Small Business (Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Page Creator, and Gmail with a special domain).
Roadblocks (for me):
1. Microsoft requires the use of IE. I don’t know what’s up with that.
2. A credit card is required, but is not used; uh-oh. I don’t have a credit card.
3. Address, phone number, birth year, and name are required. The instructions didn’t say that I have to write real information (My sense of ethics allows me to decide when to use my sense of ethics). Phone number: digits of pi.
4. I didn’t get past credit card information, but it says that organization information is needed and a disclosure agreement is at the end. Maybe it will be risky for me to set up a blog or personal website there.

Microsoft Office Live also has this web app for normal users that lets you edit Office (or is it just Word?) documents on the web. Just like Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
Did I mention Microsoft Live Maps (with a Streetview-type navigator),
Oh Microsoft, you are so subtle.

In other Google-related factoids, I realized that if you look down in Google Maps Streetview, you can see the top of the Google van that takes the camera around.

Google Flight Simulator

Google Flight Simulator.

Obviously stepping on Microsoft’s Flight Simulator’s doorstep.

So, what is this thing?

Google flight simulator is an “easter egg” (not really; google’s help site gives controls on how to use it) in Google Earth.

First, you need to download the latest version of Google Earth.

Click on the Earth. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+A.

This will bring up a dialog box. Choose the plane (currently there are two) you want and choose the runway you want to start on.

The basics:

PgUp is speed up

PgDn is slow down (equivalent to letting the gas pedal in a car come back a little).

The up arrow key is to aim down.

The down arrow key is to aim up.

Left and right keys are really hard to use; they tilt the plane left and right, and it’s impossible to “renormalize”.

I just use Shift+left and Shift+right. They don’t work as well, but they turn the plane.

For explanation of these key shortcuts, go to the Google Earth controls help page (my second link).

What if you found the perfect place to fly (such as Chicago with 3D buildings enabled), but it’s far away from the nearest supported runway?

In the dialog box, you can select “Current position” to fly at that spot. Note that if you’re facing down, the airplane will start out going down.