The Naming of OnRelay
OnRelay gives special thanks to the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for permission to use its spectacular photographs of the planet Saturn on its website. The planet graphics you see on this website are the company’s rendition of “Planet Relay”, which are altered NASA photographs of the planet Saturn.
A brief story is in order as to why we are thanking NASA for our ability to create Planet Relay.
What is Planet Relay?
Planet Relay is the intergalactic hub of communications in Hugo award winning author, Dr Vernor Vinge’s Fire Upon the Deep. The novel itself is set in a future universe, where the further you move out from the galactic core, the greater the intelligence e.g., smarter people, smarter machines, faster than light travel, etc…. (A software system parallel to the superiority of intelligent software end-points?)
Also interestingly, this mathematics professor from San Diego State University, Dr Vinge, credits Norway as an influence to the writing of his book. As the entire original (and existing) core of the company’s development team is from Norway – that intergalactic leader in mobile technology – it seemed a fitting name when the company’s accountant rang up and said “we need a name for your company NOW in order to incorporate today.” This inspiration, and the fact that the company founder who answered the call that day happened to be currently reading Fire Upon the Deep, lead to the naming of the company.
Why ‘On’ Relay?
The prosaic answer could be that we at the company consider ourselves on top of the universal node of advanced communications – ‘On’ top of Planet Relay.
Of course there is always the fact that a French retail outlet, Relay, secured the URL for www.relay.com a mere five days before the incorporation of the company.
