Note: Be sure to read my Update to this post

When trying to update my shiny new iPod via iTunes on Windows XP, I kept getting the following error:
Delayed Write Failed
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file x. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

The iPod would lockup and I’d have to reset it to get it to work again. After some research I found the cause: Write Caching was disabled on my hard disks. Because iTunes tries to push as much data as possible as quickly as possible, Windows was unable to keep up, resulting in the error.

To enable Write Caching on your hard disks:

Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Disk Drives > Properties > Policies > Enable Disk Caching

Note that this option was unavailable to me (grayed out), and after some research I realized it was because I had the Intel Application Accelerator installed, which turns OFF write caching and prevents you from enabling it. So after a quick uninstall of Intel Application Accelerator and a quick reboot, I was able to enable Write Caching on my hard disks, and now the error is gone and my iPod is updating as expected.

So I was messing around with the amazingly new Google Maps and it’s satellite imagery tool today when I discovered something quite interesting. I was checking out various local spots I’ve been to and/or frequent, and as I made my way over to Coronado Island to check out the Hotel Del Coronado, something caught my eye. In the beach just to the north of the hotel there appeared to be a large-scale grafiti project in the sand.

Now, beach grafiti is nothing new, but this was a little different. I asked myself, “What are the chances of someone’s beach grafiti being present at the very moment that this satellite image was snapped?” I continued, “Damn, that’s some BIG fucking sand grafiti!” Then it dawned on me. This is not some random act of violence against our beloved San Diego beach sand… this was a master-planned “HELLO WORLD” from the people of Coronado! Though it’s upside down in the satellite photo, the text in the sand reads “CORONADO.”

Check it out for youself: Google Map of Coronado’s Sand Grafiti

I’ve always thought the sand dunes there were neat, but assumed they were a natural feature of the beach. There’s no possible way to know they actually make up letters when you’re on the ground, because they are HUGE. Bigger than the Hotel Del itself, which is a beast of a hotel. And as a San Diego native with a pretty good knowledge of local trivia, I had never heard of this before.

Most impressive, Google… most impressive.