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Google Keyhole, Google Scholar
baegucb_18706 writes "The front page of Google has a link to Keyhole where you can download a free trial of satellite imagery. Is it worth the cost for a subscription, and is it the start of the real commercialism for Google? And a challenge to MS's imagery?" D H NG writes "According to CNET, Google introduced a new service for academics called Google Scholar on Wednesday. This service searches scholarly literature such as technical reports, theses and abstracts. This service will not carry ads." And finally, reader ian@FalsePositives.com links to some speculation about how a sufficiently competent search engine could write the news itself.
Google isn't linking to Keyhole here. Maybe is it to random users, or selected geographical areas.
So I go to Download Free Registration, and it says compatible with Windows for PC's. So I guess I won't be able to use it :(
To E-mail me, replace the first period in my domain with an @
ummm.... worldwind from NASA is free and seems to be the same thing...
The price is free when you have an Nvidia GPU, which I'm sure a lot of you do.
Click here to get an Nvidia only free(beer) version. Their site seems to be down at the moment, which is odd for such a large company, but when it comes back up, you can get it from there. There are many other cool programs you can get for free if you have an Nvidia card while you are there.
http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind/
.NET, so /.ers with their high morals will not get to enjoy this.
runs on PC, uses
nothing cooler than a USGS 1M in 3D.
Use the author: prefix
Considering that the subscription price was 2 to 3 times what it is now and that previous owners were still proftiable, I'd be willing to bet that yes there are people willing to use it.
Regards,
Steve
Unlike most online newspapers and magazines, almost all the scientific journals I know of require a paid subscription to access. The exception are the couple of new bioscience journals in the Public Library of Science and the physics pre-print server (not peer-reviewed). But even that the author must pay $1500 for the cost of review and webification.
I find this a bit ironic. Science is an epistomological enterprise of creating knowledge by the open publication of results. However, the greedy for-profit academic publishers and professional societies know this wall. They have the academic community by the b*lls with their high subscription and publication page charges.
Even the index services like Scientific Citations, GeoRef, Lexus-Nexus, etc. charge high fees. Hopefully Google Scholar will do an end-run around these and provide a more accessable search service.
What I believe will be killed here is the commercial scientific indexing system ISI Web of Knowledge. Their interface is a real pain, and while they probably contain more data than Google Scholar at the moment, they are up for some really tough competition!
It is about time.
Reality or nothing.
I also noticed that Google Scholar lists how many times a paper is cited by other works. This seems like an excellent use of PageRank technology.
It is also helpful for academics who need to show that their published papers are being cited. Helps with grant applications and tenure review, I would assume.
Its not that they can't see the areas effected, its that the resolution and refresh rate is too slow to pick up small scale movements.
The military have access to much more data than this, and they still run into the same problems, when you see the movies zooming in and watching the henchman lighting a cigarette or blowing up a compound, you are seeing creative expression.
Since Google obviously arent the government, they wont have access to the rawest, newest images.
Infact, most of the sat images used are from relatively old passes, their site makes this clear:
Keyhole continuously updates its database with the average age of imagery ranging from 18 to 24 months. Imagery can vary in age from as new as 2-3 months to as old as 2-3 years. Keyhole is increasingly taking advantage of satellite imagery to update the Keyhole database more aggressively.
There is imagery for practically everywhere, but the resolution is only very high for certain areas (possibly augmented by none satellite, aerial photos?)
There are numerous base maps taken from in and around iraq, for instance:
Abu Ghurayb Nov 2002 0.7 Meter
Baghdad (Entire city) 2002 2 Foot
Najaf June 17, 2004 2 Foot
Note however, that none of these are in the highest, perfect clarity, see the reflection from your headgear resolution.
Infact, we will know when sats have reached this high res capability as a norm when Soldiers have their ID number painted on their helmets (Like buses and lorries do for helicopter identification)
liqbase
The Government (actually the USGS) provides the aerial photography for places like http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
---Unlike most online newspapers and magazines, almost all the scientific journals I know of require a paid subscription to access.---
Actually, many journals these days allow open access for all articles after a certain amount of time, 12 months in some cases, 6 months in others.
---The exception are the couple of new bioscience journals in the Public Library of Science and the physics pre-print server (not peer-reviewed). But even that the author must pay $1500 for the cost of review and webification. ---
Note that the PLOS journals are all being financed by heavy endowments, and the author pays method of publishing a journal has so far not been proven to be economically viable.
---However, the greedy for-profit academic publishers and professional societies know this wall. They have the academic community by the b*lls with their high subscription and publication page charges----
Do you really think that most scientific societies are out to make a profit? Most that I've been involved with do a great deal for their communities. Most are almost entirely funded through proceeds from the journals they publish. Take these away, and you lose all of the good deeds that societies do for scientists. Remove their ability to publish, and societies vanish, and then all of the journals are in the hands of the greedy for-profit publishers. Is this what you want?
---Hopefully Google Scholar will do an end-run around these and provide a more accessable search service.---
Nope. You can search all you like on Google, but unless you subscribe to the journal, or the paper is open access, you can't read the full text.
This all may change with the proposed new NIH guidelines.