Skip to main content

Google has escaped!

Amongst all the blogs that I follow is the official Google Blog. Well, not much more than a week ago they unveiled a new (free, of course) service, and I have been surprised to compare it's usefulness with the actual lack of word-of-mouth about it. So, though I usually don't take it upon myself to use this blog to merely pass along news, I feel that many of you will love me more for this. :)

Google SMS! Here's the wrap: Google has escaped the confines of a web browser and an internet connection. You now have the power of Google available from the keypad of your cellphone. What you do...

1. Send a text message to GOOGL (46645)
2. Put something in the message and send it, and you get useful information back:
Send: 47978Receive: Collegeville IN (city of any zip code you specify)
Send: 60611 pastaReceive: pasta restaurant listings in that zip code, with name, address, and phone #
Send: define existentialismReceive: need I elaborate...? :)
Send: 1280 seconds in minutesReceive: Calculator by Google: 1280 seconds = 21.3333333 minutes
Send: 26.2 miles in kilometersReceive: Calculator by Google: 26.2 miles = 42.1648128 kilometers
Send: g population muncieReceive: - the corresponding "snippet" that you see for each search result, usually includes useful information
Send: 7652841250Receive: Residential Whitepages: Peter J Walters 1904 Brentwood Ln Muncie, IN 47304 765-284-1250

Holy cow! You now have Google at your side wherever you are. It already came in handy for me last weekend in the middle of downtown Chicago looking for a restaurant with pasta for before our marathon...

Popular posts from this blog

Today's Gospel - the sanctity of marriage

Matthew 19:3-12 : Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." "Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery." The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husba...
Read more

Encountering Embodied Humans

A couple nights ago I went to Theology on Tap to hear John O'Callaghan speak about "The Church & Science and Technology - Are Science and Technology the Enemy?" He didn't refer directly to the Catholic Church at all throughout it, but referred more implicitly to the body of Christ which the Church consists of. I'd like to summarize my experience of it rather than a comprehensive overview of all of it. Regarding the ethical dilemma of creating technologies that may be used for evil, there are two things to consider: We need to remain concerned about the big picture and not just the work on our desk. I work in a small division currently which forces me to be aware of the business opportunities and risks rather than just the programming that has been assigned to me. This needs to be equally true of our moral ethics. The relationships we experience in our work are quite possibly more important than our work may be. We struggle with whether the variety of e...
Read more

our Ford Explorer saga

Two weeks ago, Cathy & I drove up Greenlawn Ave heading toward my house, and when we took the left turn onto Cedar, I accelerated out of the turn in hope of fishtailing a little bit on the snow before straightening out, which I enjoy and feel like a race car driver when I do it. This time, instead of straightening out, my Explorer continued to rotate and turn on the ice, eventually sliding perpendicular to path of the road. We were slowing down, but not enough to avoid hopping the curb and giving a tree a little tap. It didn't sound too bad, but when I got out and looked, I saw a bumper bent in, headlights on one side cracked open, and the impact bending a side fender, contorting the wheel well. My heart dropped a little bit, I grimaced, and asked myself and Cathy why I had decided to do that. Approaching the holidays and the wedding, we did not need any new complications. We had a full day planned, so I put it out of my mind and decided I would get a quote on the repairs ...
Read more