Early last year, after experiencing a particularly interesting and informative TED Talk, I became briefly obsessed with the Cassini probe and spent several weeks following, tracking and gathering any and all information I could about it. As with many of my obsessions, it simply faded and I have not returned back to the stars for adoration until now.

Reading this article, about the oldest known event EVAR, made me become entirely re-devoted to being intrigued, impressed and astounded by The Universe. Having the worlds most limited knowledge of astronomy (so adept am I that I almost typed astrology there), I certainly can’t grasp the finer points of the physics and scientific importance of this event, but one thing I can do is say; Holy Cow.

Holy Moly Cow – 13 Billion years ago is a really very long time ago, and it seriously makes me think of how out of sync we are with the rest of the universe, given how large it is. I’m not going to get into theological or religious debate here – I’m just going to sit back, be impressed and consider the vastness of the universe as perceived by me. Most people take events like this, or general news of the Giant Expanding Universe in general as a sort of defeat, making them feel small and insignificant. Not Me.

I find this sort of thing exhilirating, and inspiring. Knowing that our tiny blue  marble is just that, tiny, is liberating and celebratory to me. I’m stopping myself from going on a pages-long rant here about how Wonderful and Magical it all is, but rest assured, I’m in a happy place because of this news.  I’m happy I found a new interstellar interest, and that we’re now one step closer to finding the End of the Universe (because I’d really like to dine there).

(OH BTW. This week I launched iPhoneAppGirl.com, check it out! Also, please sign up for my RSS Feed too! Kthxbye!)

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From the “Stuff You Already Know About” Department comes my run down on the best, and most awesome Google Search Features, as voted on by Me.

I’m not lying when I say that I use at least one Google Search Feature every single day of my life. I’ll also admit that a large portion of the time it’s at my job. (My real-life non-internet job). This list is by no means an accurate representation of all of the wonderful things that Google Search does besides actual Search, but these are the ones that I find most helpful, most often.

1. Define

You can actually use this feature in two ways either by typing “Define WORD” or “Define: WORD”, I usually use the latter as it provides definitions from various sources. I know it’s going to make me sound less intelligent to say this, but this is the feature I use most often.

Since it’s automatically tied directly into the Spell Checker feature, I’ll include that as one of the most often used tools, too. Everyone is familiar with the Did You Mean:, but it’s extra helpful when you’re trying to define something that you’ve misspelled.

That really does make me sound like a Winner.  OK .. moving on..

2. Time Zone

Completely invaluable for my job. I know all North American and most European time zones by heart, but if someone were to ask me what time it was in Kuala Lumpur I’d be stumped and immediately Google “Time in Kuala Lumpur” and ta-da it tells you. No fuss, No muss. Also very convenient for settling Time Zone Arguments – trust me, these exist.

3. Currency and Unit Conversion

Probably not something you should base your portfolio on, or anything, it’s quicker than going to XE.com even.

Also very useful for settling currency related arguments (which also tend to happen to me fairly often, Madbard).

As demonstrated in my 2006 Cooking with Chantelle featurette, the Unit Conversion can be quite helpful too. Like, when you’re trying to eat Local and don’t know if you should stick to 100 miles or 160 km.

So that’s my roundup of the Search Features that I use most often, a few others you might be surprised to hear about are Real Estate & Housing, Fill In The Blank and Package Tracking.
See all of the Search Bar Magic Features here.

Which is your favorite?

Since this site is still fresh, I hope you’d considering signing up for my RSS Feed. Please?

I read an article yesterday over at AppleInsider about iTunes scammers trying to hook in App Developers to profit from fake iTunes Gift Card Codes. Basically, since Apple offers 70% profit to App Developers the scammers offer to buy the App a bunch of times, and they’ll split the profit.

I found this very anger-making. Not only because they’re obviously not being up-front about the Gift Card Codes being totally fake, but also because no matter if they get caught our not, someone is the victim, and it’s not the scammer. If Apple finds that the (what I can only assume are fake) iTunes accounts used to make the purchases they’ll likely pull back the payment from the App Developer, and if they can’t do that they are out hundreds (or probably more like thousands) of dollars.

My first anti-reaction was basically “Oh, Chantelle, who are you to judge, you’ve been known to Bittorrent a few movies, and watch TV shows on Megavideo, isn’t that stealing too?”. Short answer, Yes.  Long answer is as follows;

Since the dawn of Internet Piracy, there has been, undeniably, a code of Conduct. An honour among thieves, if you will. For a tongue-in-cheek (but accurate) example see this Gizmodo Article. The above scam breaks this code, and hurts hard working iPhone Developers in the process. Please don’t think that I’m outraged because of some sort of misplaced loyalty to Apple… I understand that the overwhelming devotion that Apple users have for that company is an unrequited love.

Fake iTunes Gift Card codes are wrong to begin with, but trying to drag a hard-working App Developer into it with you is just evil. The simple fact of the matter is that they’re exploiting the open-development-revenue-sharing model that Apple built for the App store is the part that pisses me off the most.

So maybe I’m being a hypocrite for feeling OK if someone downloads Season 2 of Hell’s Kitchen instead of going out and buying the DVDs, but still being outraged at the mere idea of stealing money via the App Store. But as far as I am concerned, it’s Apples and Oranges. (Pun Intended).

Your Opinion?