In what is widely interpreted as a publicity stunt to prove Windows NT’s critics wrong, Microsoft is set to announce that a terabyte database of satellite images is now available over the world wide web. Built in conjunction with Compaq/Digital, the US Geological Survey and Aerial Images Inc, the punningly named TerraServer (http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/) lets users zoom into satellite pictures of the world’s populated areas. The photographs resolve to as little as one meter, which is fine enough for viewers to make out individual houses. The images are sourced from US Geological Survey and from Aerial Images’ Russian partner, Sovinformsputnik, which gathers data from ex-military spy satellites. Some of the pictures were taken over ten years ago. Microsoft promises newer images and finer resolution soon. Browsing is free but users can also order prints through Kodak from around $14. Microsoft claims TerraServer is the biggest database ever built. The 40-foot long, 8-ton AlphaServer 8400 runs on eight 440MHz Alpha processors and is loaded with NT, Microsoft’s Internet Information Server, SQL Server 7.0, Site Server Commerce Edition and StorageWorks Enterprise Storage Array 10000. Charged with proving NT’s mettle, developers originally planned to put every transaction in the history of the New York Stock Exchange online, but since that only amounted to half a terabyte of data the project was shelved.
