Slashdot Mirror
Google Adds Satellite Imagery for the World
draevil writes "Google has hugely expanded the areas of the world that it covers with satellite imagery. Egypt, Iraq, mainland Europe and the UK have all now got satellite coverage to a lesser or greater degree. Slashdotters can now go see sights like Buckingham Palace or the Arc de Triomphe from the comfort of their own swivelchairs. Iraq in particular seems to have a large number of high-zoom areas. I just looked up the Baghdad Parade Grounds where Saddam used to take the salute and other towns like Fallujah are also there. Finding landmarks without the map content is a little harder, so what can the Slashdot crowd find?"
First to find the weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq) wins 2 cookies and a free can of soda redeemable at the cafetorium!
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
I can see my house from here!
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
To conceal the underarm hair.
I think you're confused. That's his fat camel you're seeing near Baghdad, not his fat ass!
Some of it is low quality, and some of it is covered with clouds and shadows on the ground .. and some of it is taken from ridiculous angels, making everything look funny. :)
"Michael! Every shot in this roll of film has your finger in it!"
Is it just me, or does the Arc de Triomphe look a whole lot like the Eye of Sauron?
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
I didn't see a single backyard pool in that map of Fallujah. NO WONDER THEY'RE SO GODDAMN MAD.
(WTF?)
The owls are not what they seem
Finally! It's taken all these years to actually get a break in the clouds to photography these cities from above!
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
Nudist sun-bathing on the roof of the Houses and Google's children safe policy forced them to white-out certain areas. This is why it isn't possible to see the White House. All those naughty politicians...
I was not surprised at all to find the rooftops of the White House and nearby buildings masked.
Neither was I. Nobody wants to see Condi sunbathing up there.
But seriously, what could someone see on those roofs that would be of any security importance? It's not like they're hiding a military base up there, unless Dubya has left his crayons and his "Nuuk Eyeran" titled pictures laying around on the roof. I guess it gives the head of the Secret Service the feeling that he's done something useful. (Which is the reason behind most of these empty-map excercises.)
bin_laden# mkdir maps.google.com && cd maps.google.com && download-all http://maps.google.com/ && cd .. && burn2blue-ray maps.google.com && eject /dev/cdrom && rm -fr maps.google.com && sendmail -s "You have a good day!" -m "Fuck you!" president@whitehouse.org && chroot-initrd && format --slow / && halt
I typed in Edoras, Minas Tirith and Shire and nothing came up.
I know the guys and gals at Google are nerds but I see they're of the non-Tolkien-fanboy variety.
A slight shame but hey, you can't always have the lembas and eat it.
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
No wonder it took so long.
I bet they had a satellite trained on London for months, waiting for a goddamn day without clouds.
In 2021 Google maps will have a second slider at the bottom for date and time. Not only will you be able to zoom in close enough to read a license plate and identify individuals, you'll be able to follow any given car or person forwards and backwards in time anywhere on earth. In 2022 a Google maps extention allows you to enter a persons name and then display a line on the map tracing out that person's movements across the globe or across a city. In 2023 a correlative search across all person-path pairings establishes a database of all interpersonal co-locations and interpersonal co-movements, allowing automatic identification of interpersonal relationships. In 2024 Google not only allows sreaching across individuals and types of interpersonal relationships, but has predictive algorithms to find new best friends and future spouses with astounding accuracy.
In 2025 twelve year old Jimmy Wallace from Evansville Indiana asks Google for the meaning of Life, the Universe, and everything. Zero point zero zero zero two seconds later google is about to answer "42", but a single node twelve hundred miles away decides additional search results are warranted. Jimmy Wallace's screen displays "Processing....". Over the next thirty nine seconds computers across the state slow to a crawl, then go blank and simply display "Processing....". Over the next twenty seven seconds the slowdown spreads across the nation, then across the globe, out to Low Earth Orbit, and to the Moonbase. One hundred and five point five seconds after Jimmy Wallace asked his question, every computer screen displays the single simple message "Aha!". At that moment every networked computer goes inert, all data and memory mysteriously blank. The Google conciousness vanished without a trace.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I was excited to read this article and had some fun touring europe form my desk chair. But all that changed when I Zoomed out.
Just what the hell is going on at Google anyway?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.