Nosce te ipsum

Funny little observation about Microsoft's product names. They've always caught hell for their utterly uncreative product names. Apple has the iPod and iTunes and Microsoft has the Windows Media Player - yea baby! So here's the quote:

Internet Explorer - Microsoft leaves no doubt what their products are. If they made toilet paper it would be called Butt Wiper. Internet Explorer isn't a bad name, but it's not spectacular.

Firefox - On the other end of the spectrum, the name Firefox gives no clue to what it is. Could be a car? 80s video game? Lame comic book superhero? Flaming dish at a wild game restaurant? A browser would probably be your last guess. No matter, it is a much cooler name than the utilitarian Internet Explorer.

I just got a chance to play with MacKiev's 3D Weather Globe and Atlas for the first time. This thing is amazing. The visuals are incredible and zooming and panning are instantenous offering a really good user experience. I immediately thought about how useful this tool would be in learning geography for a kid. It's one thing to understand the capitals of the states in your country but this application really shows you the bigger picture of how you relate the rest of the world. Like a lot of use raised in the USA, we mainly focued on our own country but these days, the world is suddenly a lot smaller with many of the daily news events taking place on the other side of the world. I can't wait to play with this thing on my 30" Cinema display. Kudos to MacKiev for a great application.