Google Earth
A friend of mine told me to look up Google Earth. She'd been faffing around with it at work and said that apart from being mesmerisingly addictive, it could also come in handy for "planning your trip".
So I looked it up this morning and it turns out to be a very nifty little program you can download for free to your PC, which allows you to zoom in on any spot on the Earth to get a closer look. It seems to be based mainly on satellite pictures and GIS, which for some places, displace such high resolution that you can actually zoom in on individual houses.
Much to my astonishment, it allowed me to zoom in on the actual house I lived in in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. By placing the hand on the globe you can turn it around until you've found the continent of your choice. And by simply double-klicking the area you want to go to, you are taken floating closer and closer to the spot of your choice. Not only can you see the actual streets and houses, but I managed to go for a stroll in the neighbourhood I used to live in. How bizarre is that?!?
Unfortunately it doesn't have as high a resolution for every area on the Earth. When I looked up Bridge of Allan, I managed to zoom in on Dumyat, but only got vague images of the streets and houses. Either way... I am very impressed. If you're looking for a fun faff... defo worth downloading it, as it's only a 10Mb file :-) Enjoy your flight!
posted by Dr.Pew @ 11:50 pm
3 comments
3 Comments:
Google Earth sucks!!!
How can 25 years of eduction end up in a daughter advertising a gimmick that only works for PC's?
I am utterly disappointed and feel neglected by my offspring for not taking into account my absolute hate and disdain towards anything which even smells like .exe files.
I would have expected more consideration and sympathy for a 51 year old nice guy who imported his first Apple from a computer fair in Disneyland, running on 110 Volts - to be adapted to the European 220 - and a serial number under #1000.
The mere fact that this little program also exists on mobile phones now, being advertised as the ideal way to spy on your friends' homes makes it all even worse and sickening.
Oh well... education maybe sucks too?
Vengeance for years of *.sit files you sent me dad ;-)
And as for the spying... Surely you've noticed on the Google Earth homepage that the free downloadable version of Google Earth is actually composed of still-images, NOT real time footage. So unless one intends to spy on the type of begonias the neighbours planted a good two years ago, it's a perfectly harmless gimmick in it's own right *smug nod*
Now off you go dad... Back to your Apple! Shoooo!
I had a looksie a few weeks ago. Went looking for Rosyth and Faslane (the place where they service the 'nasty' subs). Ultra-high-res, to the point where you can see where individual subs are parked behind the big harbour walls. Compare that to say, the White House, where it's all blacked out.... What were the security services thinking, allowing such things to be available to Joe Bloggs?
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