Have A Merry High-Tech Christmas
What good is your HotHardware if you don't use it for nifty stuff? Bah spreadsheets! Hooray for Santa! And other than frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads, nothing is more high-tech than NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. You can track Santa's progress on NORAD radar right on your computer.
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born.
They've got a countdown clock for Santa's departure running right now.
Merry Christmas everybody!
