Slashdot Mirror

Who said anything about Beverly Hills?

Well, it does seem there are, in fact, hills in Beverly...

Now, if we can just confirm the existence of hillbillies, then maybe Jethro will finally get to become a goddamn rock star!

...or a lake in the mountains of Virginia. I've visited this station - it's very cool. The generators are the pumps - power in, water up. Water in, power out.

Some links about the site...

• Topographic Mapping at the SETI Radio Telescope Observatory (UC Berkeley)
• Topographic map of site (Topozone.com)
• "The big idea in SETI: Think small" (MSNBC, Feb 8, 2004)

I took two days off work this week to travel from 37.6284 -92.3288 to 37.7503 -923973, spending the night at 37.6950 -92.3067. It was great!

I wonder if the USGS maps at topozone.com are the starting point you're looking for. take a look: here.

You're right in this case...you can use the Terraserver data...read their FAQ.

But I think another poster is correct in saying that some copyright their presentation of the data. See TopoZone for example.

• Tiger official street maps.(Your US Tax Dollars At Work) Mouse clicks recenter with D.dd lat-lon readout.
• Topo maps (topos free, now with aerial photo quads for fee). Cursor readout in DMS, D.dd, DM.mm, UTM. My favorite for Topos, but I also use
• TopoMaps and more; click Online Maps menu then MapServer sub-menu. Usually has Nautical and Air Navigation and Aerial Nav photo as well, all for free. (Popups ads in browser to sell their other services.) Cursor readout in DMS

You can get just about any USGS quadrangle map at Topozone. If you're willing to take screen captures and piece it together, you can put together a great map for hiking with all the elevation details you could ever need. And yes, all that stuff about county lines and public/private land should be there for all the lower 48. Sorry canada.

Check TopoZone.com and University of Texas at Austin online library for USGS and topos. I just found those two links earlier today while looking for quality maps.
You can buy that great water-proof, tear-resistant material that National Geographic prints their "Trails Illustrated" topos on for use in ink-jet printers as well. A quick googling shows at least one link for that stuff.

They have shaded relief topographic maps, aerial photos and detailed street maps. I've used the topo maps to plan hiking/geo-caching trips and evaluating raw land to buy. (Haven't bought any. Still looking.)

You can find a place by name, street address or coordinates. The scales go from 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000. You get a choice of display sizes; small, medium and large. It looks like they have the whole library of USGS maps online.

Check it out. It's worth your time.

Just discovered a fantastic one this morning: TopoZone. In an age where everybody everywhere is trying to make a buck on information, it's refreshing to find an government/academic grade information store accessible (digitally at least) for free.

Eat Food - Well, you can't download a hot dog, but you can find things to make eating more pleasant or order food online.

Breathe Air - You could suck down the power supply exhaust, but that doesn't really count. You can however check to see if you can breathe when you go outside.

Sex - Technology has not advanced that far yet, but I've had good luck meeting new people online, then meeting up with them in person.

Ride a bicycle - Buy parts, plan routes, get maps, etc..

Walk through the woods - here you go - it's a QTVR I made a couple of years ago of a walk along a creek to the river it joins up with. All kidding aside, this one probably can have the most computer involvement. After all, you want to get topographic maps somewhere, and maybe check out an overhead view of the area you plan on walking through, not to mention sharing details of where you went with friends.

TerraServer explicitly allows access to their USGS map database from programs like ExpertGPS. They even have a webpage with step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

ExpertGPS could just as easily grab its maps from sites like TopoZone and deprive them of ad revenue. Other programs have actually done that, and caused the nice guys at TopoZone a lot of hassle and lost revenue. The guys at Geocaching.com spend lots of time dealing with database scrapers who mine the site continually, chewing up bandwidth.

The moral of the story - play nicely. If a website like TerraServer is generous enough to offer you a way to scrape their data, say thank you. If a website asks that you refrain from using automated scripts, either work out a licensing agreement with them, or start your own website and learn how it feels to be on the other end of the scraper.

26 miles?? This is pretty impressive. Have any ISP's in any city considered doing this as an option of giving broadband internet access?

This one is going about 10 miles as the crow flies, although they are just a local outfit, but you can see from this map how far they are going with 802.11b equipment, most likely amplified.

Johnson Space Center is just south of Clear Lake City, between the city of Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. The land it is on is already sinking. Every year, local roads disappear for days at a time under high water after heavy rains.

Houston locals, including the people at NASA-JSC, entertain themselves by betting on where the hurricanes are going to hit. Locals track them on maps--and everybody has maps with latitude and longitude, because they are distributed by local businesses printed on placemats, grocery bags, and such.

Clear Lake has a straight section running directly from the Gulf of Mexico to the south side of Johnson Space Center. Topo map A big hurricane, hitting at the right point in the tidal cycle, could create a storm surge that would flood everything at JSC up to, maybe including, the second floor.

When I worked there (a long time ago) high-water preparedness consisted of putting the equipment up on tables and desks.

It seems to me that a place which could be sloshing with seawater is not the best location for this lab.

I live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; just a few blocks from both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The lower Manhattan skyline is visible from the end of my block and most of the route to Manhattan.

This morning a little after 9 am I heard a bang. I later learned that this was the second plane hitting the South tower.

I got a call from my mother in Chicago who wanted to warn me that 'the World Trade Center is under attack by planes.' I turned on the radio as President Bush acknowledged an 'apparent terrorist attack.' Immediately, I got off the line, grabbed my camera and my girlfriend's Walkman, and hopped on my bicycle.

The plume of smoke, an immense black ribbon stretching toward Manhattan, was visible the entire route down Flatbush Avenue, which terminates at the Manhattan Bridge. This same roadway then becomes Canal Street after reaching Manhattan.

I tried to take the pedestrian walkway over the Manhattan Bridge, but it seemed at the time that the police weren't going to allow me to pass. So I went to the next best vantage point.

So I rode into DUMBO; Down Underneath the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, to the park in between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Buildings obstructed the World Trade Center itself until I reached that point.

Link to map of my vantage point (my spot between the bridges marked with a red +):
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=40.7042&lon=-7 3.9943&size=m&s=25

As I came out from under the Manhattan Bridge, I was moved to revulsion at the sight of the gutted twin behemoths. Several floors of the buildings seemed to have been reduced to black girders, consumed by flame as gouts of black smoke spouted from their interiors. Still too large to fall, or so I thought.

There were fewer than 50 people watching with me, similarly aghast. They opened their car doors and played their radios as loud as they could.

I watched and shot video from this vantage point as the reports came in: Another plane hit the Pentagon. A plane was missing in Pennsylvania. Another DC Police plane was unaccounted for. I watched reviling at the horror as objects fell from the cracked and fuming edifice.

The city seemed uncharacteristically quiet. Sirens could be heard over the East River in Manhattan, and occasionally an escorted emergency vehicle or two would cross the Bridges toward Manhattan.

And then the South tower collapsed.

It started at the break about 3/4 of the way up the building, the black smoke overcome by white, milky dust. I thought merely the top of the building would fall off, but the entire length of the building splintered open, shattering and unfolding like an explosion at a crystal chandelier factory.

A solid, white pea-soup fog enveloped downtown. I could only see the very tip of the North Tower's antenna.

Incredulously, I tried to imagine New York with only one World Trade Tower. Skylines would have to be revised. The remaining tower would be an icon of American resolve and determination over adversity. Musing this kept me from considering the real losses.

And then the North tower vaporized, unfolding in a shattering parasol of black, then white dust.

I felt growing dread about my proximity to a remaining landmark, the Brooklyn Bridge, so I unlocked my bike and started home. Nothing more to see.

It was then I noticed the refugees- throngs of people pouring over the walkways of the bridges above me. Streams of pedestrians walking FDR Drive, the highway running along Manhattan's East side. I even spot a few police trucks headed North on FDR, trailing eddies of debris and dust behind them.

F-16 fighter jets prowl the sky on high, while Police helicopters and boats trawl the lower strata. All powerless; unable to change the condition of the city; only manage the aftermath.

I deftly ride my bicycle home, streets gridlocked in car traffic. The police on the streets in Brooklyn are evidently reserves; I spot several uniformed *school* policewomen standing on corners, directing traffic.

The city is closed south of Canal street. The bridges and tunnels are closed. The subways are closed. Every payphone I can see is in use. Storefronts are shuttering. Now I am safe at home, but I fear for my girlfriend.

She works in Times Square in a relatively high-profile building. I had several messages from her on my return. Amazingly, I am able to get through to her in the office and she informs me that her office has closed. She is walking to a coworker's apartment 29 blocks away. I don't know when we can... er, UPDATE: She's made it to her coworker's apartment without incident. No word yet on when she can cross over the East River to our home in Brooklyn, but she's safe for now. So friends and family- we're OK!

I still don't know what to make of all this- it seems like a movie.