Slashdot Mirror
Google Earth Launching For Free
Nathan Weinberg writes "Google launches Keyhole 3 today, rebranded Google Earth, and are dumping the subscription rate (except for a $20/year "plus" versions with prettier pictures) available soon at earth.google.com. The program lets you fly around a 3D globe, with overhead satellite photos, tilted 45-degree photos, 3D rendered buildings, and overlays that display everything from roads to hotels to bike routes. I have a lot of info and screenshots at InsideGoogle, and Search Engine Watch has a big writeup. With yesterday's Google Video release, this is shaping up to be a major week for the search giant."
Just answered my own question: Directory of C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth Plus
2005-06-25 15:15 434 241 GoogleEarth.exe
2005-06-20 15:00 368 640 gpsbabel.exe
2 File(s) 802 881 bytes
gram Files\Google\Google Earth Plus
They bought this software to another company, they didn't started it from scratch. So, I find reasonable that they are focusing on getting the first release out, then consider porting to another platforms...it's possible that the software depends too much in windows-specific things to be ported to linux at all.
Are these the same "numerous linux users" with 3D cards that are supported by the manufacturer? Oh that's right there aren't any.
The amount of time they'd have to spend trying to get it to run on just a small segment of linux desktops that might have a nvidia card, that might have the latest X.org, that might have the latest closed sourced drivers. They could add a ton of functionality to the windoze version AND make an OS X version.
Let's please try and stay in reality people.
I can see the Dept of Homeland Security not liking this project one bit as anyone anywhere can get the layouts of every city and street with a broadband connection.
Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great tool, but i feel it won't exist without debate.
"Insert Sig Here"
I know this is really just a pipe dream because Google wouldn't do it, but I could see this being very useful in a car computer application. I have been doing some heavy duty searching and there just isn't a good app for in-car navigation available to the general public.
If Google allowed you to cache their street data and then project colors over the topo maps instead of the "streaming" satellite images, this would be a killer navigation aid for in-car usage. Point of Interest and Address data could be stored in a few gigabytes (they do it on DVDs nowadays) on a harddrive and updated every night when you drive in to the garage (over Wifi).
Hackers...take your mark, get set, GO!
I like the map & satellite imagery Google has given for the Earth. My question: why stop there?
... why not include ... "Moon" as well? In fact, we have the imagery for other celestial orbs ... why not Mars? Mercury?
Okay, so you see the "Map" and "Satellite" links in the upper right
In short, why stop at Google Earth?
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
I am pissed off that everytime something innovative comes out, someone has to be a token Slashdot user and say 'No Linux Version' or 'No *nix? This sucks' or whatever other equivalent you can pull out of Slashdot's archives.
I was checking out the comments on Threshold 5 and was surprised to find half the comments along these same lines!!!
This is a FREE PROGRAM. It is FREE. It is also damn innovative, one of a kind (well...not quite, but for the features it has, definitely), and they even took the time to make it run on DirectX and OpenGL.
My gut instinct tells me that there will be a Linux Port sometime - it's in freakin' beta people quit your bitching.
Even if there isn't a linux port, you shouldn't be complaining because someone has to take the time to code all that - are you willing to go put in the time and do that work? I thought not. Now shut up while I go fly through San Francisco checking out Google Earth's awesomeness in 3D.
You seem determined to make it so.
Download Stellarium at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ and you can pull up our night skies, only thing you need is your Lat/Long and a form of reference (conveniently provided by Earth) to get your bearings. Select an appropriate remote location in G-earth away from city lights and voila, instant geeky-but-still romantic date. Just add wine and an appreciation for the starry nights.
* Making waffles just so I have something to Twitter *
Once you're smart enough to realise that IQ is not a valid measure of intelligence, then you're smart enough to work at Google :)
Speaking of which, for those of us into climbing/hiking, for most of the Canadian Rockies (Three Sisters in Canmore is included as a default sightseeing point, yay!) the resolution and elevation are sufficient to get a general idea of what you're heading into. I've pored over topo maps and the like, but you never get the sense of what you're getting into.
I've used the tilt/rotate and careful zooming on some of the areas I've been this summer so far, and it's positively creepy. Having satellite textures mapped onto elevation data is the next best thing.
I've already poked around a few backcountry places that maps don't as show much fun, but the Keyhole data is veeeery promising. There's one block a bit north of Lake Louise that is VERY highly detailed for backcountry, looks like fun!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
I don't see why it should be out of the question; Wine ran Doom 3 (with some slight graphical glitches), for example.
OK, tell that to the families of more than 3000 people who died on 9/11. People need to be more alert, it is not paranoia to be worried about the international terrorist threat and I think people who aren't worried about it are pretty naive.
I wonder, perchance, if you've considered why it's commonly referred to as "9/11" or "September the eleventh two thousand and one"?
It's because that's when it happened. The only time it has ever happened.
Yes, it was a tragedy, and a crime against humanity, and a spectacular and shocking event. but in the overall scale of things.. well.. it was no big deal, quite frankly.
In the last 5 years - actually, in the whole of history - just over 3000 people have been killed by Al Qaeda militants on the US mainland, all on 9/11 in a single coordinated attack. It hasn't happened since, and despite plenty of fear mongering, there hasn't been any credible evidence to suggest that it could either.
In the year 2001 ALONE there were 42,443 deaths on the US mainland due to road traffic accidents. Similar figures have occurred every year since, bringing a rough total of 210,000 deaths. I'm guessing, given your propensity to worry about terrorist attack that you'd never do something so insanely reckless and suicidal as to drive a vehicle?
Of course, even US road deaths pale in comparison to the 250,000-and-still-rising deathtoll which resulted from the boxing day tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
And let's not forget the 972 US citizens who have been killed on US soil by.... the US Government, since 1976. Sure, they might be criminals (At least, you'd better hope they are!) but who says some of the people in the Twin Towers weren't?
Never mind though. So long as you can convince yourself that the sky is falling and there are terrorists lurking in every doorway and around every corner, I'm sure things will be just hunky dory. Who needs civil liberties anyways?
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
The two major innovations in Google Earth, as far as I'm concerned, are the massive amount of data available with no effort and the fact that anyone can use it without knowing anything about GIS per se.
Pick a technology and its benefit:
Technology: the wheel
Benefit: mobility
This makes me wonder if the US government would see inventing the wheel as a security risk as it gives such mobility that terrorists could use against them. It wouldn't surprise me if the wheel gets shut down for that reason.
Technology: the Internet
Benefit: gathering information
This makes me wonder if the US government would see the Internet as a security risk as it gives such easy access to gathering information that terrorists could use against them. It wouldn't surprise me if the Internet gets shut down for that reason.
___________________________
Don't blame me for this post. Blame the terrorists!