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> sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly g
by chimeracoder 13y ago
> sheepishly claim is inspired by The Lord of the Rings
And, for those who missed the reference, the Palantir is the "all-seeing" device used by the formerly good wizard who defects to the dark side partway through the series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
- derefr 13y agoAh. It does look like a crystal ball on a stand, once you know what you're looking at.
- Anderkent 13y agoWhich the founders surely know. Unless you believe they model themselves after the evil wizards (and barely anyone ever thinks of themselves as evil), it's more of an acknowledgement of the risk.
- pjmorris 13y agoI've wondered whether the name is intentionally a kind of warning. I'm assuming that the company founders knew LoTR well enough to understand what connotations 'Palantir' brings, and while I expect not every customer would, enough might that it might give pause.